Against Heresies: Book IV

BUT OUR FAITH WAS ALSO PREFIGURED IN ABRAHAM: and he was the patriarch of our faith and, in a way, its prophet, as the apostle clearly taught when he says in the Epistle to the Galatians: “So, the one who gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know therefore, that those who are of faith are the children of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, announced beforehand to Abraham that in him all nations would be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” For these reasons, the apostle declared that this man was not only the prophet of faith but also the father of those who believe in Jesus Christ among the Gentiles, because his faith and ours are the same: he believed in future things as if they were already accomplished, because of the promise of God; and similarly, we also, because of the promise of God, see through faith that inheritance stored up for us in the future kingdom.

THE STORY OF ISAAC ALSO HAS A SYMBOLIC NATURE: As mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle states: “When Rebecca conceived by one man, our father Isaac,” she received a message from the Word, “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not based on works, but on Him who calls. It was told to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, and two types of people will emerge from you; one group will overcome the other, and the older will serve the younger.'” This indicates that not only were there prophecies regarding the patriarchs, but also that the children born to Rebecca foreshadowed the two nations. One was destined to be greater and the other lesser; one would be in servitude, while the other would be free, yet both came from the same father. Our God, who knows hidden things and foresees all events, is also their God; and for this reason, He has said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

If anyone examines Jacob's actions, they will find them meaningful and rich in significance regarding the divine plans. Firstly, at his birth, he grabbed his brother's heel and was named Jacob, meaning "the supplanter"—one who holds but is not held; binding the feet without being bound; striving and conquering; holding in his hand the heel of his adversary, symbolizing victory. For this purpose, the Lord was born, foreshadowed by Jacob's birth, of whom John also speaks in the Revelation: "He went forth conquering, so that He might conquer." Next, Jacob received the rights of the firstborn when his brother scorned them, just as the younger nation accepted Christ, the firstborn, while the elder nation rejected Him, saying, "We have no king but Caesar." In Christ, every blessing is summed up, and so the latter people have taken the blessings of the former from the Father, just as Jacob took Esau's blessing.

FOR THIS REASON: his brother plotted and persecuted him, just as the Church suffers similarly from the Jews. The twelve tribes, the race of Israel, were born in a foreign land, just as Christ was to generate the twelve-pillared foundation of the Church in a foreign land. Jacob was given sheep of various colors as his wages, and Christ's wages are people from various and diverse nations coming together into one community of faith, as the Father promised Him, saying, "Ask Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance, the ends of the earth as Your possession." Just as the prophets of the Lord arose from the multitude of Jacob's sons, Jacob's children came from two sisters, paralleling how Christ brought forth children of God from the two laws of the same Father, and also from the handmaids, indicating that Christ would raise children of God from both free and enslaved people, bestowing upon all the gift of the Spirit, who gives us life.

Jacob did everything for the sake of the younger sister with lovely eyes, Rachel, who foreshadowed the Church, for which Christ endured patiently. Back then, through His patriarchs and prophets, He prefigured and declared future events, playing His role in anticipation of God's plans, and preparing His people to obey God and journey through the world as pilgrims, following His word and foretelling things to come. With God, nothing is without purpose or meaning.