Limping with God: Jacob & the Old Testament Guide to Messy Discipleship

by Chad Bird

When we look to the Bible for role models in our daily discipleship, we tend to think of Noah’s obedience and David’s bravery. Limping With Jacob and the Old Testament Guide to Messy Discipleship posits that we can also look to Jacob.Jacob seems to be anything but a model disciple, though we can learn a lot from his journey.He's a trickster, liar, and selfishly ambitious man who fathers children with four women and leads a dysfunctional family rife with jealousy and backstabbing.But Jacob is also Israel, the namesake of the Old Testament community of God, chosen and blessed. As such, this sinner-saint, who limps along with the Lord, burdened by weakness and beset by problems, is the mirror image of all of us who follow Jesus.In Jacob’s life we see our lives, our struggles, our failures, and most especially the God who loves us and chooses us as his own. As we explore his bio, from his wrangling in the womb with Esau to his death as an old man in Egypt, we will learn more about ourselves and the God who is with us and for us in Jesus the Messiah.From the “I have entitled this book Limping With God instead of Walking With God or Running With God, not because there would be anything wrong with those metaphors, but because, as Jacob limped away from his famous wrestling match with God, so we all get by on bum hips and bad knees. Following Jesus, we gimp our way down the dark and slippery paths of life. As we do, we discover, ironically, that the longer we follow him, the weaker we become, and the more we lean on our Lord. Finally, at our most mature, our eyes are opened to realize that we’ve never run or walked or even limped a single day of our lives.“We’ve been on Christ’s shoulders the entire time.”

Genres: Christian, Theology, Nonfiction, Christian Living, Discipleship, Christianity, Religion

333 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2022

About the author

Chad Bird is a Scholar in Residence at 1517. He has served as a pastor, professor, and guest lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew. He holds master’s degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College. He has contributed articles to Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Modern Reformation, The Federalist, Lutheran Forum, and other journals and websites. He is also the author of several books, including Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul, Your God Is Too Glorious: Finding God in the Most Unexpected Places, Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life, and Unveiling Mercy: 365 Daily Devotions Based on Insights from Old Testament Hebrew. He cohosts two popular podcasts: “40 Minutes in the OT” and “Hidden Streams.” Chad and his wife Stacy have four children and three grandchildren. They enjoy life together in the Texas Hill Country.

Reviews

[Jennifer Squire]

So thankful to have the up close view of a messy, mistake filled life with God in Jacob’s story. I particularly liked some of the reflections on the end of Jacob’s life which perfectly intersected with the Easter season.

[Teri Reck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable study of one of the patriarchs of the faith, Jacob, who wrestled with God and was given the name, Israel. It is a perfect study on how God can use the flawed and imperfect and the deliberately sinful to effect His will on earth--if you think about it, He has no choice because that is all the material He has to work with! But God's love is such that He himself provides the righteousness so that He not only welcomes all of us prodigals, but He throws us a party. This study is full of parallels between the Old and New Testaments, for we know that the Old points to and prepares for the New. This is a book that every Christian should read. Excellent!!

[Natalie Herr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful companion to the back half of Genesis. Very accessible and engaging to read. It reads like a commentary but leans a bit devotional as well. I really appreciated the emphasis on our relatability to Jacob. His life was a messy one, just like ours - and God chose this man to be a patriarch for his chosen people! I was especially encouraged by Bird’s interpretation of the passage on Dinah. He does a great job of capturing the humanity of some of the “big names” of the Old Testament. You can tell the writer cherishes the gospel and really believes it to be good news!

[Jose Ovalle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been my devotional read for like the last 6 months so I’m kinda bummed to be finishing it. Chad Bird is one of my favorite Christian people. So thankful for this guy and his ministry.

To follow Jacob’s life from a bold and deceptive young man to an old person who had suffered much but became a disciple of the Lord alongside an OT scholar who really loves Jesus has been a delight. Discipleship with Christ is learning how to walk with a limp. I’m thankful that there are people like Chad Bird who emphasize how beautiful that is.

In this book you’ll find a careful reading of the Bible that leads to doxology. This is one of my favorite examples, I’ll never be able to read Jacob’s life the same now that I’ve read stuff like this, “Having said these words, Jacob “drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people” (49:33). The Hebrew phrase, “drew up his feet” is unusual. The impression is that Jacob, on his bed, assumes a kind of fetal position. He whom we met at the beginning of this book, while still in utero, at the start of his life, now finishes his life in much the same way. Then, he was already wrestling with his twin brother; now, his fights are over, his race is run, and he is “gathered to his people” (cf. Gen. 25:8, 17, 35:29). He is dead but not dead, for, as Jesus says, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is “not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:32). Jacob, while dead, lives on in the God of life, together with the believers who have preceded him in death”

[Claire Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this study of the life of Jacob. It’s easy to forget that the people we see in the OT were actually real people and not just characters, so this study really helped put flesh and bone and emotion and suffering on Jacob. It could definitely be read as more of a devotional.. short chapters and different teaching, gospel connection, etc every chapter.

[Bob O'Bannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1517 organization was unknown to me until coming upon this commentary by Chad Bird. The group (not to be confused with ELCA's 1517 Media, but definitely to be commended for its great graphics) seems to be a collection of reformed minded scholars and teachers mostly from a conservative Lutheran (LCMS) background. It's refreshing to see how denominational differences need not interfere with the production of a Biblically based, Christ-centered treatment of the life of Jacob from the book of Genesis, which is what this book is. Bird is a vivid and sometimes poetic writer who speaks candidly from his own broken experience to point us to the God of grace who meets is in the person of Jesus. As a Presbyterian, I can tell that Chad and I wouldn't agree on the significance of baptism, but that's a small quibble. Any evangelical minded Christian should benefit greatly from this book.

[Salvador Blanco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rich extended meditation on the life of Jacob with great Hebrew pointers and rich gospel reminders. Bird is concise and earthy in his writing. I give it 4 stars because of the typos throughout the book.

Follow him on Instagram! He's gotta be the best Christian social media presence around.

[Michael Heidle · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's so exciting about the patriarch Jacob? How interesting could an extended Bible study about Jacob really be?!? Well... a whole lot more interesting, inspirational, relevant, and even fascinating than I ever imagined!!! This book "Limping with God: Jacob & the Old Testament to Messy Discipleship" is now officially my FAVORITE Chad Bird book; and more, it is in my TOP 10 Theological/Inspirational books ever!!!
The short chapters at first seemed too short and choppy to me; but having the discussion questions for each chapter right at the end of the chapter rather than jammed in a end-of-book section made the questions so much more important and easy to use and in fact helped me to see how utterly relevant each little chapter was and pregnant with ponderable thoughts and insights!! I now love each of these little chapters and think that all of my future hearing/reading about Jacob will bring one or more of these chapters and insights to mind!!
I never would have imagined that such little chapters would facilitate such a deep dive into the life of a Biblical character such as Jacob!! But this is in fact a deep dive with deep insights and practical application to our lives today and yet is absolutely accessible to the non-clergy/non seminary-trained lay person who can read and understand this great book!! Yet I imagine that most pastors and biblical scholars will also learn quite a bit by this book if they will!!
I also seemed to have forgotten how very much of Jacob's life is told in so much of the book of Genesis; and I certainly had overlooked some very significant verses with huge implications in what is recorded about Jacob in Genesis!! Chad Bird did a masterful job not only indicating and explaining the context of all these verses and chapters but was totally outstanding at connecting the dots of Jacob's life/significance to our life and faith today -- certainly a parallel "messy discipleship" indeed!! In fact, I would say this books deserves a place in the seminary curriculum as a model for future pastors to connect God's Word to the lives of God's people. And in that light I certainly hope Chad Bird will write a whole series of books with similar scope on other OT lives, like Moses, Isaiah, Esther, etc.

[Alli Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to this on audio and will definitely be purchasing and re-reading the physical copy, and recommending to friends. Was so sad when I finished this. Chad offers wisdom that feels so timely and fitting to real life. Thankful that the God of the Bible enters into relationship with cheaters and liars and manipulators. If he didn’t, where would we all be?

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very practical book for discipleship that amplifies how the Christian life is a journey with many ups and downs. By following Jacob’s life, Byrd invites readers to rest in God’s faithfulness despite the recklessness of many decisions humans make in life. A good read with helpful discussion questions that further the application of resting in God.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus through the Life of Jacob

Immense comfort and hope. That’s what I received from this book in generous portions. Chad Bird walks us through the life of the patriarch Jacob, pointing out along the way how the Lord was at work in and through the life of this messy, limping disciple. This book is refreshment for all such disciples as we are carried through this life by Jesus. As many times as I’ve been through the Jacob narrative in Genesis, I was blown away by this exposition that is deeply relatable. The book is broken up into easily digestible and accessible chapters that are chock full of insights and connections to other parts of Scripture. Every section ultimately points us to the Gospel of Christ. Discussion questions after each section make this an ideal book for use in a book club or study group. Highly recommended.

[Christopher Pokorny · Rating 3 out of 5]

“If you become a Christian your whole life will be perfect.”
Chad Bird speaks directly to this errant slogan of modern Christianity. This is simply not the case when we read the Bible honestly. Many people experience more adversity. The author presents the great biblical story of Jacob as an anchoring point to counter the narrative, wielding his theological training and personal reflections of adversity. He takes the idea of a “perfect life” and brings the reader along on a strong Bible study rooted in reality and the scriptures.

This is a great book for folks who have experienced challenges in their life, and are looking for hope grounded in biblical stories that you may not be familiar with.

[Lynette Him · Rating 4 out of 5]

Limping With God is a refreshing, beautiful and honest look at Christian discipleship. The bible presents with story after story of messy discipleship - broken, sinful men and women who follow God in faith. So often we have sanitized Christianity to a degree that it's impossible for any of us to be the kind of perfect disciples that we think we need to be. This book does NOT do that! It gives hope to those who have failed, or who are frail. It gives hope to those of us who are not perfect (and that's ALL of us), and teaches us how to be faithful disciples despite being a real mess.

Some of the language is crass, to reflect the messiness of our discipleship. So please beware! However, Chad Bird presses into the story of Jacob more honestly than most preachers I've ever heard. He's helped me appreciate Jacob, and learn what to do with my own tendencies towards being like Jacob. God chose Jacob, and named His precious nation after Jacob: Israel. God chose me. This alone gives me tremendous hope so that I stay the course and keep my eyes on Christ. Chad Bird also helps me to honestly assess myself, and helps me to not try to shy away from the ugliness of my sin, but confess that sin to God. God is for me, not against me. This helps me to pursue holiness, as I pursue the God who chooses to love me, in all my nasty sinfulness.

[Jon Stallings · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great detail of the life of Jacob, the unlikely Patriarch of Israel. The author dives deep showing how flawed he was yet always covered by God's faithfulness.

Even as we limp thru life God is always there.

Each chapter is short and each ends with several discussion questions making it a good fit for group study.

This is the 2nd book I have read by Chad Bird and I am sure I will read more. You can find his videos on Facebook and YouTube

[Adam Kohl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very gospel saturated in each chapter. The chapters are short and digestible that focus on a few verses that are more of a commentary on the messiness of Jacob’s life and how that is reflected for Christians today. I would consider taking off a half star because of some of the philosophical language used but I didn’t mind it that much.

[Michelle Ule · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listen to Chad's short audio podcast every day on X-Twitter, and really appreciate his sound Biblical insight and his explanation of the Hebrew words.

Jacob's story is one of my husband's favorites, so we listened to this book on audio. Chad had interesting insights into the story, a few overly-jocular comments, but all-in-all, an interesting perspective on the story.

[Sam Retherford · Rating 5 out of 5]

“To be a disciple of Jesus is to live completely and perfectly covered by divine love, even as, in ourselves, we incompletely and imperfectly follow Him. We limp, stumble, fall, and we confess, repent, and pray.

As we do, the Lords hand is never withdrawn from our own, nor his heart ever, ever for a moment, turned from us”

wow.

[Tiffani Hoops · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED LOVED LOVED this book!!! Loved walking through Jacob’s life in the OT and how we can relate to him more than we think, a disciple limping with God! What made it even better was getting to see Chad Bird in person discussing this book in a 4-part seminar!

[Brittany Cassel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Christian books I’ve read in years. For real life people with real flaws and questions. He ties in the Gospel to every chapter of this OT story and leaves out the Sunday School moralism.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unexpected delight. I’ll be reading more Chad Bird.

[Denty One · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not; that I do.' As an impressively flawed child of God and someone who spends more time recovering than being healthy, I needed this.

[Derek Daluga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished!! Finally.

It was an interesting book, but I put it down for too long. It was a story I didn’t know much about, so I really enjoyed making all the connections, but there was, in my opinion, too much author input. Too many of his own stories, especially at the end.

[Matthew Glaze · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully moving devotional study of the life of Jacob. The author captures the emotion of the story well, proves an astute understanding of the Hebrew nuances time and time again throughout the work. He’s incredibly vulnerable in a refreshingly honest way about his past struggles. He is a pastor who walks with scars, and those scars have made him a better shepherd and teacher for it.

[Andy Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chad Bird has a remarkable gift of drawing profound and nuanced concepts out of Scripture. His breadth of knowledge in the Hebrew language, in particular, is used to draw attention to overlooked subtleties that would otherwise be lost on those of us who don't know Hebrew ourselves.

Despite my lifelong familiarity with the story of Jacob, Bird was repeatedly exposing things I would have never discovered on my own and had me consistently thinking of the third Patriarch in ways I never had before. As with many of his other works, Bird's humble and pastoral heart really comes through. Even when he speaks of his own life, it is done in a manner that draws no attention to himself, but rather, is used as a forceful pass-through, directing the reader to the Lord and His kindness. He speaks like someone who truly believes what he's saying and isn't just trying to sell you something.

Of this book, I have only two minor critiques. The first is editorial: there is no consistently clear indication of what passages of scripture each chapter covers until you get to the questions at the end. It would have been helpful to list them in the title section of each chapter to provide the reader with more context. My second critique is only a matter of preference: I found the tone of his writing here as almost too conversational for my taste. For some people, I can easily see this as being a great strength of the book, but for me, it had a tendency to feel unnecessarily sentimental. Many anecdotes and analogies just didn't look as good in text as they sound when spoken aloud in conversation. That said, I don't think this adversely affect the content.

[Jeremiah Gumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent Christ-centered, Gospel-saturated book that tells the sinner-saint story of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob--and teaches us what it means to "limp with God." While I might push back on some interpretations, none of them take away from the excellence of this book. Certainly worth the read.

[Joshua Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read!

Really enjoyed it. It is insightful and pleasurable to read. Definitely recommend it. I love OT characters and learning about them.

[Beth Foreman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Limping with God is part personal devotional reading, part memoir, part Bible study, and part theology class (a really good theology class). I tell you this because I don’t want you to read the title and think, “Oh not another . . .” Fill in the blank. Devotional. Memoir. Bible study.

I tell you this because I really want you to read this book. It’s that good.

Every chapter made me tear up, sniffle, pause and begin again. Chad Bird has a way of peeling back the truth with Scripture and helping me see things in a slightly different light.

He gets right to the heart of our hearts and reminds us that Christ is loving and gracious. “Being a disciple of Jesus means a life where we will have our exiles. But take heart: the Lord we follow has already gone into exile himself and come back again. Getting out of the grave, and getting us out of the grave, healed and alive and back home, is precisely what he lives for.”

Bird writes in a comfortable and easy-to-read style that’s not scholarly, even when he is teaching about Hebrew words and complex doctrines. His chapter titles give you another peek into this: “Jacob and Clint Eastwood.” “Dear Lord, Go Away and Leave Me Alone.” “With Brothers Like That, Who Needs Enemies?” “Turning the Page and Looking Fear in the Face.”

Ultimately, it’s a great in-depth look at Jacob’s life, yes. But more importantly, it’s a tool that helped me understand myself a little better and confirmed what I’ve always known– that God loves me and redeems me in Christ – but it’s good to hear it over and over.

[Thelma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had a longing to understand the culture and language of Biblical times better. I've been convinced that if we would understand the origin better, some of the difficult passages of Scripture would make sense to us.

Chad Bird has been that light for me. I found his reels on Facebook and have so very much enjoyed his short, masterful explanations of passages of Scripture that I find difficult to understand, using his knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and understanding of Jewish culture.

Limping With God is the first of his books I have read, but it will not be the last. This can be used as a personal or group Bible study with Scripture well documented throughout and a section of questions for discussion/thought at the end of each chapter. I did not do it as a Bible study, I just read it as a stand alone book. Thus the Scripture references within the text were a little bit distracting to me. But well documented it is.

This study of the patriarch, Jacob is woven skillfully and reminds us that God can use even the imperfect and the messy. And the story is filled with glimpses of Jesus that I never saw.

It is unusual, in my experience, to find a knowledgeable Bible scholar who is also practical. Chad is very honest and down to earth, building daily applications to our lives out of his understanding of the depths of Scripture. I find his writing, for the most part, engaging, and sprinkled with humor.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this on audiobook and the author did a great job narrating. It felt almost like listening to a parent tell a story to a not so young child.

Pros: This book definitely challenged my pride. I had to check myself a lot. It also helped me to learn deeply about Jacob's life and God's mercy.

Cons: The theology is a little off at times (from what I can gather, I think the author is Lutheran?) The cover art has a 2CV, which my blind and tired self realized far too late.

Pro and con: The author gives small glimpses into his testimony. He is twice divorced and cheated on at least one of his wives, resulting in getting kicked out of a certain theological program. While it is good that he confronts his own sin and is open about it, it definitely made me question many times if he was qualified to be a teacher - but then I also had to wrestle with God using Jacob! Still, his personal story is told very out of order at times and hard to follow. He also seems a little bit dismissive at times at about the seriousness of both his and Jacob's sin...but other times he does seem to grasp it well! I think the order of events in his life very much matter and I wish he would have put them on a timeline better so I could better understand his repentance.

[Christopher Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you can't run, you walk. And if you can't walk, you crawl. And if you can't do that, well, you find someone to carry you." This is a quote which always stuck with me from the TV show Firefly. While it talks about life in general, I think it applies to the Christian life particularly well. Often, the Christian life is sold as one which will make "everything turn out just fine." But it isn't. There are trials and struggles and joys and hardships and songs and laughter and tears and mourning. It's life. People are always talking about their "walk with Jesus", but let's be honest, it's more like a limp, and as Chad says elsewhere in this book, often we aren't even limping. We're beat up, like the traveler on the side of the road, and need someone to carry us. Even when we don't have the strength to "find someone", it's Jesus who finds us and carries us. He carries Jacob through his 137 years. It's not all perfect. In fact, it's truly broken.

I needed this book at this specific part of my life, and I'm very grateful for it. It also has discussions questions at the end of each chapter. I'm sure it could work well as a Bible Study or small group study.