PARALLELS BETWEEN JACOB AND SATAN

At a recent sermon I heard, the pastor noted in passing that there were several parallels between the patriarch Jacob and Satan. I decided to ferret out some of these, with the following results:

Genesis 3:1a

We first run into Satan in Genesis 3, where he is described as being “more subtle than any other creature.” Other translations call him “more crafty.” We could also call him “devious.” And this is really the hallmark of Jacob throughout his life in his dealings with Esau, his father, and Laban. Interestingly, Foulkes uses the same adjective above to characterize Jacob: “weak, crafty, scheming.”

Genesis 3:1b-7

This is perhaps the closest parallel to the life of Jacob. Satan, in the form of the serpent, lies and tells half-truths to Adam and Eve in order to tempt them to eat of the Tree the Knowledge of Good and Evil against God's express command. In a similar manner, Jacob tempts Esau to trade his birthright for a bowl of red lentil stew (Genesis 25:29-34). And if ancient traditions which state that the fruit in the garden was a pomegranate are correct, then there is even a similarity in the reddish-brown color of both foods.

In addition, the major sin of both Satan and Jacob here is to disrupt or co-opt God's preordained plan by taking things into their own hands instead of recognizing His omniscience and omnipotence and relying on Him.

And a third similarity is the fact that in each story it is a woman who helps to orchestrate the scheming.

Genesis 3:15

As part of the curse on the serpent (i.e. Satan) in this verse, God uses the key word “heel.” It is in the context of Satan bruising the heel of the seed of the woman (primarily referring to Jesus). That rare Hebrew word (aqeb) only appears seven times in the Old Testament, one of which incidentally also appears in the birth story of Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:26) in which Jacob attempts to supplant his brother by grasping at his heel to try to prevent him from being born first. So both Satan and Jacob will attempt to attack a heel but be wounded in the effort.

The other part of the curse involves God putting enmity between Satan and “the woman.” In its context that refers to Eve and her female descendants, but it also applies in another sense to Jacob's dishonest actions driving a wedge between himself and his beloved mother Rebekah so that he will be forced to flee from his home and not see her alive again.

Genesis 3:21

Before God casts Adam and Eve from the Garden, He demonstrates His grace by dressing both of them in animal skins. In a perversion of that action, you may recall that Jacob tricked his blind father into giving him the preferred blessing by putting animal skins on his arms so that he would feel like his hairier brother (Genesis 27:15-17).

Job 1-2

In this prelude to the book, we see Satan up to his usual tricks thinking that he can disgrace God's model human being, Job, and God Himself in the process. God allows him to try to get Job to curse God by visiting one catastrophe after another on him. But amazingly, Satan's ploy backfires and Job's faith brings him through the crisis. In the same manner, Jacob schemes his way through life feeling that only by his own actions can he get what he wants. But in the final analysis, it is Jacob's own actions which get him into much more trouble than if he had merely trusted in God's promise in the begnning.

I Chronicles 21:1

Satan incites, or tempts, David into conducting a census of all the people of Israel. That plays into David's lust for more earthly power just as Jacob's actions were driven by his visions of future greatness. In both cases, nothing good came from giving in to such desires since neither seemed to take God's own will into consideration.

Zechariah 3:1-2

This strange story takes place in heaven where Satan acts as a prosecuting attorney hoping to get the high priest Joshua excluded from heaven. Instead, Satan is rebuked for his actions, and God trades in Joshua's soiled clothing for a brand new outfit. We see again Satan's hatred for the human race, especially for those chosen by God. In addition, the important theme of changing garments earlier seen in Adam and Eve's fall as well as Jacob's deceit of Jacob recurs here also.

Matthew 4:10

This is practically a replay of Jacob's temptation of Esau with food when the latter comes in from hunting and announces that he is famished. The same is said of Jesus after he had been fasting in the wilderness. In both cases, the tempter (Jacob and Satan) invites the other party to partake of food. Only whereas Esau gives in, the same cannot be said of Jesus.

Luke 10:18

When the apostles come back from a missionary journey, they note that they did not run into any major opposition. Jesus explains to them that he had seen Satan fall from heaven. If you recall, up to this point in history Satan is pictured as having free access to God's presence. In a similar manner, Jacob fell from his former position in the bosom of his family to the point where he was forced to a situation of servitude under Laban. We could even see here a parallel between Jesus “seeing” the angel Satan fall from heaven and Jacob “seeing” angels descending a ladder that reached from heaven to earth.

II Corinthians 11:14

Paul describes Satan as one who disguises himself as an angel of light. But the word “disguise” should also remind us powerfully of another personage in the Bible who disguised himself in order to deceive – Jacob with his faked hairy skin.

I John 3:8

In this verse, John characterizes Satan as a sinner from the beginning, which is ceratainly true in his first appearance on the scene in the Garden. But the same could be equally said of Jacob, who began his checkered career of grasping and deceit while still in the womb.

Revelation 20:1-3

Toward the end of time, Satan will be cast into a pit where he will be kept until he is later released for a short time. This did not happen to Jacob himself, but to his beloved son Joseph instead as a sort of proxy for Jacob (Genesis 37:24).

And continuing the pattern of deceit in that family, Jacob is himself fooled as to the circumstances of Joseph's absence by the use of clothing. This may be another echo of Genesis 3 in which clothing first makes its appearance on the scene. These verses also contain the last mention of Satan's “deceit” of mankind.

Conclusion

I don't know if others find interesting these sort of thematic threads running throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, but I certainly do. Besides being a curiosity, they help establish the unity of the whole Bible and show the hidden hand of God behind everything that happens on earth.