Over the past two years I’ve been preaching a sermon series through the book of Genesis. The story of the Patriarchs is riveting – triumphs and failures, faith and blunders, covenants and cowards. There is so much to glean from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

Limping with God is essentially a study of the life of Jacob. Chad Bird walks through his birth, his conniving, his exile, his home life, his wrestling match with the Lord, and his faith in the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac (cf. Gen 31:42).

We can learn a lot about “limping with God” by studying Jacob. This is a great book, especially if you’re reading it along with the story in Genesis. One caveat, I think Bird is a little too hard on Jacob at times. Bird sees Jacob acting deceitfully later in his life when the text doesn’t really say this. For example, after Jacob and Esau are reconciled, Esau returns to Seir, and Jacob tells him that he will follow, but instead travels to Succoth (cf. Gen 33:16-17). While Bird interprets this is another scheme of Jacob, I think there’s more to the story, as do other commentators. Regardless, despite a few points of minor disagreement, I think Limping with God is great companion study.