Many references to Jacob are found in the Psalms of David.
David's references to Jacob are highly significant. It's likely that David related his own life to the life of Jacob, somehow, and that the story of Jacob contributed to David's personal theology. It always seems that David makes reference to Jacob as a way of suggesting some sort of transformational action to be performed for David by the same God who overshadowed the life of Jacob.
It could be that David saw the saga of Jacob in the sense of the grand theological themes of Identification and Substitution.
Jacob's very name means "supplanter", or "exchanger". Jacob was the "con man" sort, as we know them nowadays - the sort of man who deceives others under false pretenses, and elaborate pretexts - and the one most often victimized by his conniving was his brother, Esau.
Jacob first scammed his brother's birthright, and later, the blessing of his father. It was in stealing his father's blessing that Jacob worked the crowning scam, though as it happened, it must have been the will of God, for the Scriptures testify, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated...".
Jacob ripped off Esau's blessing the same way the born-again believer rips off the blessing of Jesus:
"Father, I come to you in the name...of Esau".
Clothed in the garment of his elder brother, in the same manner as the believer is clothed in the righteousness of Jesus...
Covered by the hairy pelt of a sacrificial lamb...
offering the lamb's body as a covenant meal...
The father draws close for a smell of a cherished, favorite son:
"Ah, the smell of my son is as a field that the Lord has blessed..."
And the father pronounces his blessing, upon the younger brother.
So it is in every blessing received in Christ, by the born-again believer, younger brother (or sibling) to Jesus, who is "...the first-born among many brethren".
The exchange becomes entire and complete, when the Father curses Esau, with the curse intended for Jacob, just as "he was made to be a curse for us, who knew no sin... that we might be made the righteousness of God through him...".
So, Jesus received the curse of our sins, and we receive his blessings...
"... to the praise of the glory of the grace of (God)...through Christ..."
psalms
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