Over the past few days, I’ve been reading and reading the story of Jacob (later known as Israel) found in the Old Testament book of Genesis. As I’ve unpacked the story, one simple phrase keeps running through my mind “what a car crash of a life”. Again and again you are forced to groan as you see the messed up, deceptive, destructive, corrosive behaviour of Jacob (and his family) . If Jacob, was to come to me for pastoral counselling, I would be asking myself “where do we start!”

Yet, in the midst of the mess, brokenness and deception, we see the wonder and beauty of sovereign grace. As Bono so elegantly put it “grace finds beauty in ugly things” and Jacob’s life was filled with ‘bucket loads’ of ugliness (just like mine) !

So why did God choose to use a man like Jacob? Answer, the lavish, extravagant, soul satisfying and some might even suggest wasteful sovereign grace of God.