Jacob and Joseph—divided family members reunite

By Patricia del Castillo

Do you have a brother or sister? Do you ever compete over who is better, smarter, faster? Maybe you think your mom or dad sometimes favors one of you over the other? Something like this happened to Jacob and later to his son Joseph. There was a lot of rivalry between the brothers in their families. Eventually, however, they were reconciled, or became friends again. You can read all about Jacob and Joseph in the Bible in Genesis chapters 25 to 50.

Jacob had a twin brother named Esau. Because Esau was born first, he was to get a special blessing from his father Isaac. But Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother, felt that Jacob should be the one to get the blessing. Rebekah helped him trick his father, who was almost blind, into believing Jacob was Esau. So Isaac blessed Jacob instead of Esau. When Esau found out what had happened, he was very angry at Jacob and said he would kill him. Jacob ran far away to Haran, where his uncle Laban lived.

On his way there, Jacob had a dream one night. He saw a ladder that reached to the sky. Angels were climbing up and down the ladder. And a voice said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." The voice also said, "Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest" (Gen. 28:13, 15). Do these words sound familiar to you? Jacob's grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac had also received God's promises telling them that He would give them a land to live in and that He was always with them. That's why Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are later called the three great fathers of the Hebrew people.

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