Why does God call Jacob a worm in Isaiah 41:14?

We have now a prophecy of a wholly different character; it is a natural corollary of what we have had before us. Israel are now the people of God. But "was not Esau Jacob's brother?" It is God's own challenge to Israel in Malachi: "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord. Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel" (Mal. 1:2-5). This is the question which comes up here, Esau was Jacob's brother. Were they so unlike each other after all? Was he not Jacob "the supplanter?" — the man with the hand upon the heel of his brother; the man always intent upon his own gain and little careful as to his means of acquirement; the man who believed in himself and who, if he cannot fully trust God, must act for himself? whose motto, "God helps those who help themselves" has had wide circulation. It is but the picture of a fallen being, and Jacob was such, we know. Are any of us different? We may take comfort then that God can yet say: "I loved Jacob!" Nay, that He can call Himself "The God of Jacob," which is but another way of saying, The God of grace. Jacob has another name, as we know, but that is what he is by the work of God, by that only. This "worm" Jacob can only by divine fashioning become a threshing instrument which shall "thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff ". (Isa. 41:15). Upon these two names, Jacob and Israel, God dwells in contrast all through their history. It is the history essentially of every soul that has learnt what divine grace is; as Esau's, on the other hand, is the history of a soul that has never learnt grace, and whose misery is this, not only that he has never learnt it, but resists it.

(Vv. 11–13). Moreover, we are definitely told that all the nations that oppose Israel will ultimately be ashamed, confounded, and perish. Those that war against Israel will come to “nothing.” Not indeed that Israel has any strength, but because the LORD, Israel’s God, will “hold,” and “help” Israel.

(Vv. 14–16). Left to himself Jacob is but a worm and Israel only a “few men” (see margin), but Jehovah is the Redeemer and Helper of Israel. Thus, not only will Israel be preserved during the judgment of the nations, but, will become in the hands of the LORD an instrument to carry out His judgment on the nations that have opposed Israel, and to “scatter” those by whom the nation has been scattered. Thus we are carried on to the days when Israel, redeemed from all her enemies will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

This coming redemption by power is a great theme of Old Testament prophecy. It is particularly prominent in the latter part of Isaiah. Israel needed redemption for he was being trodden down by the Gentiles and hence is addressed as "thou worm Jacob;" and Jehovah announces Himself as, "thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel" (Isa. 41:14). Having introduced Himself in this light, He continues to speak of Himself as Redeemer until Isaiah 63 is reached, where the prophet sees Him in vision, coming forth from Edom and Bozrah, because at last, as He says "The day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come." The redemption of the true Israel of God means vengeance upon all their foes.

The worm is used symbolically to show the extreme feebleness of man. Job 17:14; Job 25:6. In blessing Israel Jehovah said, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob," Isa. 41:14; and the Lord, to indicate the low estate in which He was, said, "I am a worm and no man." Ps. 22:6. In the grave man's body becomes the companion of worms, if they do not actually feed upon it. Job 21:26; Job 24:20; Isa. 14:11. Of the eternal punishment of the wicked it is recorded "their worm dieth not." Mark 9:44, 46, 48; cf. Isa. 66:24. Herod Agrippa, being smitten by an angel, was literally 'eaten of worms.' Acts 12:23. In Job 25:6 man is compared to a worm — literally 'a maggot' — an apt figure of moral corruption.

Although Jehovah judged His people, He would yet repent Himself concerning His servants (verse 14) (cp. Deut, 32:36). His election of Jacob had been at the good pleasure of His own goodness, and not for any righteousness or strength in the poor vessel of His choice. It was a worm on which He might have just trampled in the loathings of His holiness that God was pleased to beautify with salvation, and to exalt to princely place as the chief bearer of His praise among the nations of the earth (Isa. 41:14-16). And now the light which, while yet invisible, had cheered the hearts of those who, in the midst of national darkness, still hoped in God, had broken from its cloudy mantle, and was risen, ever more to set, upon the city and the people of His name.

In these two names of his — Jacob and Israel — the key to all his history is found. The long years of discipline through which he passes are necessitated by his being Jacob: they are the necessary result of righteous government, but which in the hands of a God infinitely gracious issue in blessing the most signal to the chastened soul; the worm Jacob becomes, in the consciousness of his weakness, Israel, — has power with God and with man and prevails. The fruitfulness of God's holy discipline is surely the moral of his life.

Here then the voice of Christ breaks out into distincter utterance. He must not leave it for a moment doubtful with what the joy of His soul links itself. If the shepherd's rod has beaten down the enemy, there are sheep of His in whose behalf He has acted, and a people with whom that God whom He represents has linked His Name: "But I will declare forever," He says; "I will psalm unto the God of Jacob." Here is a people whose God He is not ashamed to declare Himself. Who, then, is this Jacob? and what is he, that such a portion should be his? Nay, his name speaks of nothing but what is poor and lowly; it speaks not of strength but of weakness. More than this, it speaks of sinfulness; not merely of the weakness of the creature, but of a fallen creature. It speaks of one with whom God had had to strive and to cripple him, and put him into the place of weakness, that, no longer striving but clinging, he might have "power over the angel and prevail," and acquire that new name "Israel" in which his new link with God could be expressed.

For there is a strange power with God in human weakness, and He who is the Creator has a marvelous respect unto His creature, just in that place of creature. Nor does sin itself affect this, when only the arms of conscious need are flung upwards towards God. Notice again that this is just what the numerical structure once more emphasizes here, the creature weakness which, even in his craft, makes itself felt in him. And this name he must own, to get the blessing: "and he said, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel." He must acknowledge the name first, that he may lose it. And yet God delights to recall it still, and link Himself with it, and as here, be called the "God of Jacob." And this is the Name that Messiah now declares, and which He celebrates in psalm — that is, making all nature sympathize with Him. And this as the King in glory.

The truth is out: man has come short of God's glory, and when all is done, Jacob alone is left. He is true to his name, Jacob, a supplanter, whether it be of his brother's birthright, or of Jehovah's glory. There is this truth at least — he does not deny himself, he owns his name, and on this peg of truth the Lord, who cannot deny Himself, can hang the blessing. As yet he owns not Jehovah's name, but this truth he has — he owns his own. "If any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit." "Every one whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." So here, at the very darkest moment, when all by man is lost, and, as far as he is concerned, the result is irretrievable ruin, a glint of light from God shines athwart the scene, even as says the prophet: "Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them; he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. Thus saith the Lord … therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision, and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine, and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them … But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin." Just, therefore, as it shall be in the coming time, when, as heretofore, it shall be said, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help." So, in the narrative before us, when God's loved one (Jacob) has brought himself into the extremity of ruin, having ploughed wickedness, and reaped iniquity, eaten the fruit of lies, because he trusted in his way, and in the greatness of his strength; when it might be said, "Lo-ruhamah," and "Lo-Ammi," then the valley of Achor becomes a door of hope, for thus He said: "Thy name shall be no more called Jacob, but Israel." For in the new-coming man (God's Israel) the mighty one has helped the helpless by the Spirit of the Lord; by the strength of his arm scattering haughty ones, putting down rulers, and exalting the lowly; so that the beggar is raised from the dunghill to the throne of glory, and Jehovah is blessed and tabernacles in the earth. Israel, the chosen servant, the seed of Abraham, shall help the worm Jacob, and glorify Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, the King of Israel.

Yet it was no longer Jacob entreating God for His blessing: God of His own accord appeared and blessed him, returned as he was out of the land of the stranger, and taught many a lesson about himself "in the way" as well as out of it. But the blessing however gracious is in a lower key and of a more general character as befitted the name Elohim rather than Jehovah. Still Jacob has Him, truly and unasked, revealed to him, as to Abraham and Isaac, by the proper patriarchal title of El-Shaddai, God Almighty. Nor did any one of the fathers need that assurance of protective might so much as that "worm" Jacob.

But Israel are addressed in terms most assuring as God's servant; they were not to fear: He would uphold them, and confound all inflamed against them. Their weakness is most pointedly owned (14); yet in virtue of their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, they should thresh mountains and hills, which when scattered like chaff should leave Israel to joy in Jehovah, Who would interpose for the needy in the wilderness, even more gloriously than of old, that they might be satisfied it was His doing and even creating. And in the renewed challenge, which repeats the reference to the as yet unnamed Cyrus, the test of predicting is made most definite. "Bring forward your arguments, saith the king of Jacob." What a witness to the Israel of that future day, that He is not ashamed to acknowledge them! "Let them bring forth and declare to us what shall happen: show the former things what they are, that we may apply our heart and know their issues or make us know things to come. Declare the things to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods. Yea, do good or evil, that we may be astonished (or examine) and behold it together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you." Then the veil is removed from the conqueror, whom God alone revealed, i.e. Who first before any other to Zion (said), Behold, behold them!