Grandson as Father

Suddenly he saw God standing over him. (God) said, 'I am God, Lord of Abraham your father, and Lord of Isaac. I will give to you and your descendants the land upon which you are lying.                             Genesis 28:13

                A number of classical commentators question the verse’s reference to Abraham, rather than Isaac, as Jacob’s father.

                In presenting his explanation, Alshikh quotes our Sages’ comment [Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 31a]:

“for in Isaac shall thy seed be called” [Genesis 21:12]: 'In Isaac',  but not all (the descendants of) Isaac (i.e. Jacob, to the exclusion of Esau).

                Since it is Jacob, not Esau, who is the spiritual heir of Abraham, the verse refers to him as Abraham’s son.

Alshikh quotes an additional Midrash:

Rabbi Berechya and Rabbi Levi say, quoting Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman, Abraham was saved from the fiery furnace (into which Nimrod had him thrown) only in the merit of Jacob. The Rabbis say: Abraham was created only in the merit of Jacob.                                                   vaYikra Rabba 36:4

                The second Midrash implies that, in a sense, it is Jacob who is Abraham’s son!

                Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch writes:

It does not seem to occur anywhere else that the grandfather is called the father and the father is mentioned the same time just as if he was no relation (the verse refers simply to “Isaac”). But by this mode of address, Jacob was told everything. Jacob was the son, the successor of Abraham, Isaac only the intermediate member. Spiritually, Abraham was Jacob’s father. Also, with Jacob, the first to build a complete Jewish household, the Abrahamitic future had the first beginning of realization.