Covenant & Conversation

Prayer makes a difference to the world – but how it does so is mysterious.

What did Jacob add to the Jewish experience?

We are defined for all time as the descendants of Jacob, the children of Israel. Hence the force of the question: Why Jacob?

Laban begins by seeming like a friend. He offers Jacob refuge when he is in flight from Esau, who has vowed to kill him. Yet it turns out that his behaviour is less generous than self-interested and calculating.

There is an element of the religious life that is beyond conscious control. It comes out of nowhere, when we are least expecting it.

What is it that made Jacob—not Abraham or Isaac or Moses—the true father of the Jewish people?