Jacob’s Hope
Genesis 30:25 – 31:55
November 23, 2014
I realize this is a really long section of Scripture to cover in one sermon, and I promise I won’t walk you through every specific detail of the chapter.
But as I studied it, it became more important to me
That you see the overall theme, than to try and make some “sermonized” point based on a few verses.
What is happening here is the completion of Jacob’s time in Haran,
And it is important that you see what Jacob learned.
You will remember that God sent Jacob into Haran with a promise:
Genesis 28:13-15 “And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
And as we said back in the study of that text,
That was such an important word for Jacob to receive,
Because we knew what lay ahead of Jacob.
Jacob was about to endure “Laban’s University”
20 years of deception, manipulation, strife, corruption, and struggle
And Jacob needed to know ahead of time that God wouldn’t leave him.
Well, the first 7 years weren’t too bad.
Genesis 29:20 “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.”
But at the end of that 7 years things took a drastic turn for Jacob.
Laban deceived him with Leah and squeezed another 7 years out of Jacob for Rachel.
Anyone else think the second 7 years was a little longer than the first?
GOD FIRST CRUSHED JACOB’S SELF-RELIANCE
Following that we had the incident of the feud between sisters each trying to bear Jacob’s sons.
The real telling moment of the entire incident came
When Rachel through a fit that she had no children.
Genesis 30:2 “Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
There Jacob learned another important lesson:
He is not God.
And you must admit that in 14 years those are two very basic lessons.
You can’t – only God can.
And those are basic lessons,
But they are essential truths that you have to learn.
And let me go one step further and remind you that it is one thing to know them in your head, and another to believe them in your heart.
There a scores of people who know the right answer.
They will tell you that they can’t and God can,
But their actions continually prove that they don’t really believe it.
Their lives are still filled with all the strivings and works and struggles
Of trying to earn and secure what only God can give.
It took Jacob 14 years to finally learn that lesson,
Sadly it takes some even longer.
What we see this morning is Jacob finally taking that next step.
He’s about to give God a try.
(He isn’t at full saving faith yet, as you will see,
But he is going to give God a chance to prove Himself.)
Again, I realize it is a large chunk of text,
But I think it is important that you see it all together.
There are two main points:
#1 JACOB’S HOPE
Genesis 30:25 – 31:21
The main thing I want you to recognize here is
What a different person Jacob has become in the last 14 years.
We all remember him coming out of Canaan.
• Deceptive, scheming, conniving
• Self-Sufficient, Self-Confident
What you’ll notice here is that Jacob has been tamed.
He’s no longer that “take matters into your own hands” kind of guy.
Now the whole story begins with
Jacob fulfilling his 14 year commitment and wanting to go home.
(30:25-26) “Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. “Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me depart; for you yourself know my service which I have rendered you.”
It is obvious that Jacob wants to leave.
He would love to “get the heck out of Dodge”
THERE IS ONLY ONE PROBLEM – LABAN
You’ll see throughout this passage that
Jacob knows if he tries to leave that Laban will take from him everything he has, including his wives and children.
In fact, later on when Laban pursues Jacob, Jacob will say:
Genesis 31:42 “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”
It’s not just a matter of Jacob wanting to leave and leaving.
Laban is standing in his way.
Jacob wants to leave, but he needs help.
And so as Jacob asks to leave, Laban says “no”.
(27-28) “But Laban said to him, “If now it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined that the LORD has blessed me on your account.” He continued, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”
Trust me when I tell you that this is no “request” on the part of Laban.
He is telling Jacob “No” here.
And the reason is because Jacob has been good for business.
Laban can see that Jacob has made him prosperous.
So instead of letting Jacob leave,
Laban instead tells him that he will pay him.
And we don’t have a lot of time to dive into it,
But Jacob knows that this is not a good deal.
Laban is a cheat and swindler.
Jacob knows that wages mean nothing to him.
So in order to leave, Jacob devises a plan,
And what I want you to see is that
Jacob does not devise a plan based on his ability, but on God’s.
1) JACOB’S PLAN (30:25-43)
PARAPHRASE:
Jacob tells Laban, here is the deal.
I’ll take all the “speckled”, “spotted”, and “black” sheep
And the same among the goats as my wages.
All the lambs born like this are mine, all the others are yours, and may it be that if you find with me any sheep not in this description you can consider them stolen.
Now, because speckled and spotted and black sheep are not the norm, Laban jumps at the deal.
And to further secure his success,
Laban quickly rounds up all the spotted, speckled, and black sheep,
Gives them to his sons and moves them 3 days away from Jacob.
So Jacob is stuck with a flock of pure white sheep that belong to Laban
And the goal is to produce speckled and spotted and black ones.
SO WHAT DOES JACOB DO?
(37-39) “Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods. He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.”
Did you catch that?
Jacob whittled on some sticks, showed them to the sheep,
And expected that their offspring would match the sticks.
I didn’t realize that in order to secure certain types of offspring
All you must do is show the parents
A picture of what you want the offspring to look like.
Of course not!
That sheep has no control over the color of its offspring, just like you had no control over the color of your child’s hair.
Sure there is a genetic contribution, but Jacob was already behind the 8 ball here since all of his starting sheep where white.
And yet “the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.”
I wonder who was causing that.
Furthermore Jacob would only lay those rods out when the strongest of the flock was breeding and thus his flock became stronger than Labans.
All this is summarized in verse 43:
(43) “So the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.”
The point being here is that Jacob’s plan
Was to put everything on the back of God.
Jacob was no doubt a fine shepherd, but even the best of shepherds
Can’t make their sheep produce spotted lambs as will.
Jacob was no longer a man leaning on his own ability,
Jacob was now a man leaning on God.
You see Jacob’s faith in his plan.
2) JACOB’S PERSEVERANCE (31:6-8)
Now this occurs after God tells Jacob to leave, and Jacob is explaining to his wives what sort of scoundrel their dad has been.
What I want you to see is that even when Laban started cheating,
Jacob still didn’t take matters into his own hands.
Even with Laban working to undo Jacob’s prosperity,
Jacob just kept right on trusting God to do what only God could do.
(6-8) “You know that I have served your father with all my strength. “Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me. “If he spoke thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth speckled; and if he spoke thus, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth striped.”
You certainly have to like the fact that
Not only did Jacob devise a plan that depended on God,
But Jacob stuck with that plan even when Laban cheated.
Jacob’s Plan, Jacob’s Perseverance
3) JACOB’S PERCEPTION (31:1-16)
And this is certainly a different Jacob than we are accustomed to.
The old Jacob acted on his own, trusted in his own strength,
And assumed all the credit.
NOT THIS JACOB.
Jacob was convinced where his prosperity came from.
(5) “and said to them, “I see your father’s attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me.”
(7) “Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me.”
(9) “Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.”
I think it is safe to say that the old self-reliant man is a thing of the past.
Jacob knows where his prosperity is coming from.
• He made a plan that trusted God
• He stuck with that plan even through hardship
• And he is giving God all the credit for that plan
And one final action reveals Jacob’s new found hope in the Lord.
4) JACOB’S PARTICIPATION (31:17-21)
God told Jacob to go back to Canaan.
Genesis 31:11-13 “Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ “He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. ‘I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.'”
This is significant because we already established that
It wasn’t as easy as just up and leaving.
Laban didn’t want him to go and Laban had the ability to stop him.
This was tremendously risky.
But Jacob isn’t walking by his own logic anymore.
Jacob is giving God’s will a chance.
(17-18) “Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.”
So obviously Jacob has done a lot of growing while in Haran.
He has come to the end of his pride and self-reliance
And is now learning to trust God.
Now at this point, we come across a strange piece of information.
(19) “When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s.”
• Some commentators take the high road and say she took them to break Laban
of his idolatry.
• Some say they were graven images of past relatives and she took them for
sentimental sake.
• But I think she took them because she thought they could help.
It is true that Jacob didn’t know she took the idols,
But don’t let that cause you to assume that
Jacob would have absolutely put a stop to it.
Jacob is doing better, BUT HE HASN’T FULLY ARRIVED.
Allow me to fast forward you chapter 35.
• Chapter 35 is where Jacob gets his name changed to Israel.
• Chapter 35 is where Jacob finally becomes solely devoted to God.
Genesis 35:1-3 “Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments; and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”
That is where Jacob finally determines that God will be his only God.
I would say that that is the point of Jacob’s salvation.
What we have here is Jacob still feeling out God.
• Remember when Abram agreed to leave Ur and head to Canaan?
• Remember when Abram built an altar in Canaan and called on the Lord?
• Remember when Abram worshiped again after coming back from Egypt?
And yet Abram wasn’t saved yet,
That didn’t happen until a few years later in chapter 15.
So it is with Jacob.
Jacob is beginning to trust God to see if God delivers,
But he still has a way to go.
Moses includes the issue of their idolatry
To show you that they haven’t fully arrived.
But, Jacob has come a long way in that
He is at least giving God a chance to come through.
So Jacob’s hope is that God will do all that God said He would.
SO THE REAL QUESTION NOW IS – WILL GOD COME THROUGH?
#2 GOD’S HAND
Genesis 31:22-55
Here we see that so far as Jacob has trusted God,
God will not allow him to be disappointed.
SO HERE WE GO:
Naturally with Jacob fleeing, Laban is angry and decides to run Jacob down.
He is chasing him to take back the flock, take back his daughters,
And take back his grandchildren.
And if he would let Jacob leave, then he would only let him go empty handed.
So Laban is in hot pursuit.
But notice that God is working for Jacob.
(22-24) “When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
That is God protecting Jacob from Laban before they ever even meet.
Laban is mad, he’s ready to fight, and God intercepts him and tells him
That he had better be careful, for he is on dangerous ground.
And you’ll notice that it obviously got to Laban.
(25-29) “Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? “Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with timbrel and with lyre; (yeah right) and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. “It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’”
And don’t you love that last statement from Laban?
I could really work you over if I wanted to,
But God told me to be careful how I treat you.
I think that must have been a huge sigh of relief to Jacob.
• God was fighting his battle for him.
• God was honoring his promise to never leave him.
Laban showing up would have been a terrifying thing to Jacob
And yet God had it all under control.
And God continued to protect Jacob even throughout their conversation.
Laban throws out an accusation against Jacob.
He accuses Jacob of stealing his idols.
WHY?
• Well, for one, Laban’s idols were stolen.
• But also, if he can catch Jacob red-handed, then he has grounds for forcing him back to Haran and even into disciplinary service.
If Laban finds the idols, Jacob is in deep trouble.
And all we can say here is that GOD IS MERCIFUL
• Although we know what God thinks of idolatry
• Although Rachel taking those idols was a slap in His face
Yet God did not treat them as they deserved,
And instead chose to protect them from Laban
Despite their lack of faithfulness.
It is yet another obvious illustration
Of God being faithful when His people are not.
2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
God covers Rachel’s back.
And as a side note, in order to make a good contrast.
What sort of god allows himself to be stolen, hidden, sat on by an “unclean” woman, and can’t even call out for help?
Jacob’s God could warn Laban before a meeting,
Laban’s god couldn’t even disclose his location.
But the overwhelming point here is that Jacob has placed himself in God’s hands, and God isn’t disappointing.
And again Jacob gives the credit to God.
(READ 36-42)
Jacob summed up the pitiful 20 years that he spent with Laban.
He was continually cheated
He was continually wronged
And were it not for God that injustice would continue.
But Jacob recognized that
The God who made promises to him upon entering Haran
Had undoubtedly kept up his end of the bargain.
God had intervened to protect Jacob, to bless Jacob,
And to bring Jacob back to Canaan.
It is nothing short of a testimony to God’s faithfulness.
So God protected Jacob before the meeting, during the meeting and then even AFTER the meeting.
In verses 43-55 Laban asks for a strange thing.
Laban asks for a covenant with Jacob.
They are to set up a pillar and a pile of stones as witness to one another that neither will cross that pillar in order to do harm to the other.
DOES THIS SOUND STRANGE?
• Laban was the one in hot pursuit…
• Laban was the one running down Jacob…
• And now all of a sudden Laban is worried that Jacob might harm him?
YES
But Laban isn’t afraid of Jacob, Laban is afraid of Jacob’s God.
Laban has realized that God is with Jacob
Laban has realized that God is protecting Jacob
Laban has realized that God even gave Jacob his flock
Laban’s fear is that with God so clearly “for” Jacob,
What if Jacob decides to come back and take it all.
So Laban asks for a covenant to keep Jacob from doing that.
Now, if you’re keeping score,
This is the third time we’ve seen this very thing.
Remember how Abimelech mistreated Abraham?
• But remember how Abimelech changed his tune?
Genesis 21:22-23 “Now it came about at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do; now therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but according to the kindness that I have shown to you, you shall show to me and to the land in which you have sojourned.”
Remember how Abimelech mistreated Isaac?
• And then again how he changed his tune?
Genesis 26:28-29 “They said, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.'”
And here we have the same thing happening again.
God’s favor is so apparent on Jacob that even Jacob’s enemy
Wants to draw up a treaty for peace.
And then we are again reminded:
Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
Now obviously this story is getting a bit redundant.
• We saw God choose Abraham, and then mold him, and then bless him, and make that blessing known to others.
• We saw God choose Isaac, and then mold him, and then bless him, and make that blessing known to others.
• We saw God choose Jacob, and then mold him, and then bless him, and make that blessing known to others.
This is the same the story over and over and over.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS THE STORY OF?
It is the story of God’s grace.
AND THE STORY CONTINUES…
Look at the children of Israel.
• Chosen, mistreated in Egypt, and then God delivered them.
• When they left, they left rich – like Jacob
• When they left, they were pursued – like Jacob
• But God intervened with their pursuer – like Jacob
This is not a new thing God has been up to.
Time after time after time after time we see God at work in the lives of those He has chosen to sanctify them, and then glorify them.
I don’t mean to constantly hit you with this reoccurring theme,
But it is obvious to me that Moses wants to make sure you get this.
AND WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE LEARNING?
GOD IS FAITHFUL
He will do what He promises!
Moses is certainly preaching this message to Israel:
Deuteronomy 4:31 “For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.”
Deuteronomy 7:8-9 “but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. “Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;”
Without a doubt Moses is telling Israel the story of her history
So she will see that God has been faithful to them
From generation to generation to generation.
As Paul said:
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
GOD IS FAITHFUL!
WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT?
So that like Jacob, you will place your life in His hands.
• So you’ll quit trying to trust in your own abilities
• So you’ll quit trying to trust in your own ideas
• So you’ll quit trying to trust in your own resources
And you’ll learn to trust God
Is that not the most foundational lesson you should learn?
We work and strive and worry and think and plan and work some more.
And all along God is saying, “I’ll do that if you’ll just trust Me”
He knows what He is doing
He knows where He is taking you
• When you walk into your trials – trust Him
• When He tells you to do something – trust Him
• When He tells you to quit doing something – trust Him
• When He tells you He’s got it under control – trust Him
How does the hymn go?
Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely.
He sees and knows all the way you have trod;
Never alone are the least of His children;
Have faith in God, have faith in God.
Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered,
Your earnest plea He will never forget;
Wait on the lord, trust His word and be patient,
Have faith in God. He’ll answer yet.
Have faith in God in your pain and your sorrow,
His heart is touched with your grief and despair;
Cast all your cares and your burdens upon Him,
And leave them there, oh, leave them there.
Have faith in God though all else fall about you;
Have faith in God, He provides for His own:
He cannot fail though all kingdoms shall perish.
He rules. He reigns upon His throne.
Have faith in God, He’s on His throne
Have faith in God, He watches over His own;
He cannot fail, He must prevail,
Have faith in God, Have faith in God.
Can you see that point thus far in how God has worked
In the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
I can almost see Moses
• Standing over the congregation of Israel
• Telling them story after story of God’s faithfulness
• Pleading with them to leave their self-sufficiency and their idolatry and their disobedient ways behind.
You can almost hear Moses begging them to start trusting God
And to quit attempting everything by their own logic.
And that message hasn’t changed in over 3,000 years.
So do me a favor this morning
And take a trip down memory lane for a second.
See the great victories in your life…
See those moments of intense trial…
Can you not see that God was in the middle of all of those?
Maybe you are in the middle of your trial right now –
You’ve been 18 years in Laban’s university.
Trust me when I tell you that God will not fail you,
He is using this trial to mold you into the person you must become.
He is faithfully working on your behalf.
Trust Him – Obey Him
Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
