Jacob

After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

Abraham dies. Isaac and Rebekah have twins who struggle before they're even born. The younger will carry the promise — and buy it for a bowl of stew.

Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of…

Jacob, running from everything he's done, falls asleep on a stone. He dreams of a stairway to heaven — and wakes up in a place he didn't know was holy.

During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions. So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is…

Alone at night, Jacob wrestles a stranger until dawn. He walks away with a limp and a new name — Israel.

And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.

God calls Jacob back to where it all started. Rachel dies on the road. The promises continue through grief.