Transcription of 12ID1351

Genesis 28-29 “Jacob Growing in Grace” September 12, 2012

All right, let’s open our Bibles tonight to Genesis 28. Last week, as we are continuing through Genesis, we had gone through chapter 27 and saw what a dysfunctional family Jacob grew up in. We looked, in particular, at four groups – the unspiritual father, Isaac, who certainly was not walking with God; a mother who was unsurrendered, as she plotted and planned against her husband and his Lord; an unscrupulous brother, Jacob, who didn’t want to be caught doing the wrong thing. He didn’t mind doing the wrong thing, just didn’t want to be caught; and then this unsaved son, Esau. And you begin to get the picture………..what a mess!

Last time, when we looked at chapter 27, Isaac thought that he was about to die. He had lost his eyesight, he was older, he believed that his last days were upon him. His favorite son, Esau, he wanted to bless with the blessings of the firstborn, Esau having been born first. Although, seventy-seven years earlier, when he and his brother were born, God had very specifically said that the older would serve the younger – that God had reversed the order of His choice. Jacob would be the one that He would bless. The scheme of his dad and Esau who, dad said to Esau kind of quietly on the side – “Go make me some of that good venison meat, and I’m gonna bless you before I die.” Rebekah had eavesdropped and heard, and she quickly got to Jacob and said, “Now, we can’t let this happen. God wants you to be blessed. We’ve got to help Him out.” And so she, somehow, was able to take goat meat and make it taste like deer meat, and she dressed Jacob up in the goatskin so he would be as hairy as his brother, Esau. And he went in and deceived his father and lied to him, and we went through the whole thing last week. But, needless to say, he got the blessing out of his dad about the time Esau walked in the door with the stew, and Esau was fit to be tied. And Isaac realized that he had tried to mess with God’s plans and couldn’t. And Isaac ends up in Hebrews 11, the chapter of faith, simply by just now submitting to the fact that God would have His way. It broke Isaac. He realized he had really been trying to work over the Lord, if you will, and God wasn’t about to let that happen.

Esau was angry – asked his dad to bless him. Dad really couldn’t bless him like he’d blessed Jacob, and though he had begged for that blessing, and Isaac realized God’s opposing hand, Esau was just furious that he had lost some financial kind of gain. So he hated his brother. He swore to kill him, and “As soon as dad is dead,

1 and our mourning time over his death is past, I’m going to get you pal.” And again, Rebekah, the meddler, she gets wind of it, and she goes to Isaac and says, “Could we just send Jacob back to my family in Haran – find a bride there? I don’t want him to marry a bunch of Canaanite women like Esau has been doing.” (which we read there at the end of chapter 26) “It’ll just be for a few days, and then he can find a wife, and then he can come home, and everything will get calmed down and all.” What she didn’t know was that it would be twenty years, and she would die before he would return. The whole picture of this conniving and sinful kind of – nobody wants to listen to the Lord or “We’re gonna help God out,” we kind of flushed out last week – that there are consequences. So Jacob leaves his mother, he bids farewell to his father, and at 77 years old, he hits the desert trail for points unknown. He knows where he’s headed, but he doesn’t really know what waits for him there.

It is this picture that we will look at, in part, tonight; in fact, for the next several weeks. And you can really entitle these chapters, especially for the next four or five chapters, “Growing Through Grace” – just like we named our radio program. Because this is really twenty years of Jacob’s journey from being a man who runs his own life to a man that God will govern, and he will look to the Lord. And it is really Jacob learning to grow in the grace of God. Sometimes he learns that quickly. Sometimes he learns that very slowly. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like he’s learned it at all. Oh, he’ll get it, but he won’t get it today. And yet, ever so slowly, the grace of God continues to appear to him. It is a hard work, I think, for the Lord to bring us to the end of ourselves because we are so into ourselves. Sometimes it’s a long road. Sometimes events are extreme enough where we immediately seem to be broken, and “God, you can have all that I am.” Sometimes there are mild trials. Sometimes they have to become very severe. Paul said, at the end of chapter 10 of Hebrews (verse 31), “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” And indeed it is because you’ve given God permission to mess with you, to bring you to Himself, and He will. He’ll do it because that’s the most important thing that He can do for your life and in your life. So, you belong to Him. His desire is for all of you, and He’ll take you from being saved, He’ll subdue you, He will cause you to submit yourself, and He’ll be there every step of the way. And that, I guess, is Jacob’s story because he goes out Jacob – heel catcher; he comes home Israel – God’s governed man, ruled over, victorious in the Lord. And he becomes all that God intends. I suspect that you will be, too, by His grace.

2 Did you know that, according to Gallup, America’s favorite hymn is what? “Amazing Grace.” Absolutely right. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see.” And I think most of us know the words. I think most people get to that “wretch like me,” and that slows them down a little. “Wait a minute. I’m not sure that’s me! Is it really me?” When John Newton wrote it – John Newton was a fellow who grew up in a Christian home. His mom absolutely drove the Scriptures home to his heart, and he knew the Lord from an early young man. But his mother died while he was still young, and he had to be raised by relatives, and it caused him to be very angry with God. And for years, he kind of rebelled against God. He didn’t want any part of a relationship with the Lord. He eventually ran away from home, he joined the British Navy, and he was known, according to those who knew him and write about him, for cussing up a storm and drinking like a fish. I mean, this guy had a horrible reputation in the Navy. He became a slave trader. His conscience was all but, I think, seared. He nearly lost his life more than once. But God kept him, and eventually, through all of these hard lessons, he became a slave himself. And in that desperate place of being tied up and sold off, he thought about his mother’s counsel and the words she had spoken to him about, and he turned again to Jesus. And it was when he retired from the British Navy, he became a parliamentary chaplain, and then he wrote the song, “He saved a wretch like me.” It took him a long time to be able to say it. We sing it because we learn the words, but to say it and mean it, took a long time.

It will take a long time for Jacob to say “a wretch like me.” Right now, he’s just saying, “Jacob, I can do anything. I’ve got it all figured out.” But Jacob could have written that song. I suspect any of us would have qualified for the lyrics, and that’s going to be the theme of the next several weeks – the idea of grace. And I suspect that somehow you haven’t necessarily thought all that through or grasped clearly the concept of grace. It’s not an easy concept to understand because, literally, to get something you don’t deserve and then be motivated by it - to serve - is a very difficult idea. We aren’t raised with the concept of grace. We are absolutely raised with the concept of works. That’s all that we know. You get good grades, you get a star on the top of your paper, and you get promoted. If you do well enough, you get paid to go to college. And if you do well enough, you get paid to have a job that others can’t really qualify for. It’s all about promotion and gain and accomplishments, and none of that is grace. That’s all about you doing what you do well and then taking advantage of the benefits of it. It’s all about performance. But though we are taught that, we often, then, carry that into our

3 idea of our relationship with God. We believe that “God should answer my prayers.” Why? Because “I’ve been good this week.” And God should come through because “I tithed last month.” Or, “I should be blessed because I forgave someone who has really been mean to me. And so, Lord, You kind of owe me now.” There’s this deal-making going on. We do that constantly. But that’s not grace. God doesn’t need anything from us, and we can’t earn anything from Him. So you’ve got to lay all of that aside when it comes to grace. In fact, grace is God bestowing His favor on the most undeserving. He favors those who don’t deserve it – that’s you, that’s me, that’s Jacob. And so, that’s what we’re going to be able to look at for the next three or four weeks – is the grace of God. And I hope that, as you do, you’ll come away with a better understanding of what you can expect from God in terms of grace.

So we get to start tonight – the love stories: the love stories of Jacob and Rachel, tainted by the fact they’re almost 80, but that’s okay. (Laughing); a love story between Jacob and God, and Jacob will learn the depth of God’s care and provision and love, but it’s going to take awhile. Look, he’s 77 years old when he’s running out of the house. He has not been a spiritual person. There is no record in the Bible of Jacob, over the first seventy-seven years of his life, praying at all. His dad did, his grandpa did, Jacob not once. Not at all recorded. Not yet, but that’s going to change. And soon enough, we’re going to find this young man – seventy-seven – praying, and he’ll hit the ground running for his life here, but he’ll end up coming back twenty years later, a different man. And that’s what God wants to do with you and me. Sometimes it takes time, but you’re heading somewhere. God’s doing something, and you can speed up the process by just hearing and doing, not always waiting to have to learn the lesson the hard way. Jacob’s going to get to learn some lessons, and the only way he learns them is the hard way. They’re well- learned when they’re learned the hard way, but it’s easier if you can just pay attention. Right?

So we’ll start off with Jacob, here in chapter 28, as he hits the road running. And we’d like to go through chapter 29 tonight, and I think we’ll be all right. We’ll see how we do, but I’ll just read fast. It’ll be fine.

Verse 1, “Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: ‘You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless

4 you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples; and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.’ So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,’ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.”

I think Isaac was sufficiently shaken by being fooled and realized he’d been kept from defying God - to now be willing to go along with his wife’s idea of sparing this man, that God had put His hand on, from an angry brother. So, he blesses Jacob, he sends him forth. His tearful goodbye, I suspect, was one of, “I’ll probably never see him again, but this is the way that it has to be.” And he encourages him to do the right thing when it comes to being married and where he’s to go, and Jacob heads off to do what he has been told by his mother and father.

Esau hears this blessing, and he thinks, “Well maybe dad would bless me if I married within the family” because the warning was, “Don’t take Canaanite wives,” and he had two of them already. So he moves closer to home. He marries a descendant of Ishmael, not exactly the godly line but a family nonetheless. But that doesn’t help because there’s no repentance in his heart. I mean the guy’s just out for him and nobody else, and if anything, Isaac now has his eyes upon the Lord, and Jacob is going to learn to do that.

We read in verse 10, “Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.” From Beersheba, the place that Jacob lived with his family, to this place (we will learn in verse 19 that he will name the place Bethel-house of God; it used to be called Luz or “almond tree”) is about forty miles. So we suspect Jacob left very early in the morning, that next morning. Esau wants him dead, and he’s pretty frightened. He runs a long way - forty miles in a day. That’s quite a hike, even for a guy who’s used to moving, and at 77, as well, quite a day. But I

5 think it shows you the anxiety that was driving Jacob and also that he got there well after nightfall. It had been quite a ride. Long journey, emotional departure, his brother’s fear gripping his heart, his mother and her love he has to leave behind, the security of his home, and now facing an unknown future. And he’s not an outside guy, he’s not the hunter. It probably frightens him to hear all the noises coming out of the woods and all, but he’s able to fall asleep on a rock for a pillow. That’s not easy. I’ve been in hotels and go, “Man, I can’t sleep on this pillow!” and they were pillows. So, I can only imagine that the fear of whatever he was facing was overcome by the fatigue and the weariness that he faced. But that’s all the stuff that dreams are made of, aren’t they? You’re just too tired to care, and you just say, “Ah, that’s it. If I die, I die,” and he just lays down, emotionally distraught, lots of things going on in his mind, and he lays down to sleep, and the Lord begins to speak to him. I suspect that the last thing on his mind when he went to bed that night was the Lord. I really do. I think he’s just thinking, “What am I gonna do? How am I gonna make this? What do I have to do?” He’s the schemer. So God has His wonderful plan for Jacob’s life, but he’s got to wear himself out, and then God’s got to speak to him in a dream to get his attention. And he falls asleep in the same place that Abraham had arrived into the land and worshipped. It is the same place that, after Abraham defiantly went to Egypt to try to run from the suffering, when he returned, he went back to this place to sacrifice to the Lord as well. And it is the same place that Abraham and Lot split up to go their separate ways. So God seemed to do a lot of business here. This was a good meeting place between His people.

Well, he lays down, verse 12, “Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: ‘I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ”

Now, we dream all the time. Sometimes you remember them, sometimes you don’t. Not all dreams are from the Lord. Sometimes they’re from the chili cheese dogs at 11:00 p.m. (Laughing) Just saying. But this dream came from God and is unique, as Jacob is shown a ladder between heaven and earth. It is the original stairway to heaven – right here. And he sees angels, but they’re first ascending as if they

6 were already there upon the earth. And then from heaven, descending back to the earth so that Jacob had to realize, for the first time in his life, in a God-forsaken place, because he had run forty miles, he was in the middle of nowhere, he wasn’t allowed to go home, and he didn’t know what awaited him there – it seemed like the worst place in the world to figure out that God was with him. And it is there the first night he goes to sleep that the Lord says to him, “I’m here. I’m working here. I’m busy here.” Maybe Jacob fell asleep, and the Lord showed him the shift change. Some angels were heading home, others were coming to work. The point is…………I don’t know. (Laughing) The point is God’s involved, right? Jacob needs to learn this. God is with him. He is involved in the affairs of man’s life. He feels all alone at this point – nowhere to turn. And the Lord says, “Hey, I’m here. This land is My land. It’s going to be your land. I’m going to bless you through your seed – the promises of Abraham and Isaac, your grandfather and father, are going to be accomplished in you.” And the Lord communicated to Jacob that he is not forsaken. In fact, if you go to Bethel today you would feel the same way. There is nothing there. For miles, you just look…….”Wow, what in the God-forsaken place is this!” And it feels that way, and I can imagine how it felt to Jacob. He lays down to sleep, and he says to himself, “I’ve run from my home and my family. I lied to my dad, connived with my mom, deceived my father, stole my brother’s inheritance. He wants me dead. I miss my mom. My dad’s gonna die before I get back. Certainly God can’t be with me!” And the first night, he goes to sleep, and the Lord says, “I’m with you. I’m with you,” and he hears God speak to him. And I must tell you – to my surprise, God doesn’t reprimand him, God doesn’t chastise him, God doesn’t correct him. Here comes God’s grace. Because if it was you and I, I suspect that we’d have some choice words for Jacob about now. Call him stupid, sneaky, something. Kind of point out what we had been seeing. What would your first words have been to Jacob? And I like the fact that the Lord speaks to Jacob in this condition because I always think that dreams are probably given by the Lord to holy people. And then Jacob gets one; I think I can get one. God can speak to me. Look at Jacob. For Jacob, it was just the opposite. It would appear the only way God was going to get a word in edgewise in this guy’s life was to wait until he collapsed and then visit him in a dream. So God speaks to him words of grace – undeserved. Especially in this kid’s life. From what he had come from. First reiterating the promise He had made to Abraham and to Isaac – of land, of descendants innumerable, and of the Messiah in verse 14. “In your seed” – the word is singular, not plural. Not seeds, not many. “In your seed” – the One that was to come – all of the earth would be blessed. So God meets him. He tells him who He is. He promises to do all that He had promised to the generations that

7 went before. Descendants and land – you’re going to spread out, the Messiah is going to be coming through.

And then, besides the provision, He promises His presence, verse 15. “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 spoken to you.” Promise of provision, promise of His presence, promise of protection – “I will keep you and bring you back.” All of that is grace. Right? Unmerited favor. Grace is God acting freely, according to His nature of love, without any obligation to fulfill it. He just does so because He wants to, He wills to. It is uncaused by the recipient, Jacob. It comes solely from the heart of the Giver’s will – God. Grace cannot act. Think it through. Grace cannot act when there is any claim of ability or partnership. Grace absolutely acts on its own. It stands alone. God blesses this young man – at 77. I call him young because he’s going to live a while – he ain’t halfway done yet. But He is going to bless him only by grace.

So, when you get to the New Testament, and you begin to read things like (Ephesians 1:6), “You have been accepted before God by His grace,” it ought to do something for you. You’re not on probation. It isn’t like the Lord said, “Well, I’ll take you. Let’s see how you do.” And then He watches you for a while and scores you and then decides if you’re leaving or staying. No, no, no. You, by His grace, have been found in Christ, and once the grace of God is bestowed upon you in Christ, it is never withdrawn. The secret for us is to believe and then consent to being loved while we are unworthy. That’s grace. That’s hard – because I constantly want to bring it back to one of earning and payment and obligation and debt and exchange.

Maybe this will make it clearer. You know, New Year’s, we always make resolutions. “Hey, Lord, this year…………” But let me just say this to you. Resolutions are fleshly confidences. There’s no way you’re going to perform. And what if you do? Does God owe you something? No, those are promises to get better, and they fail because we can only stand in God’s grace - only stand in God’s grace. You can expect to be blessed every day, though you should realize you don’t deserve it. That’s grace. God’s going to bless you for being a loser, for being disobedient, for being unfaithful, for falling way short, for making promises you didn’t keep. He’s going to continue to bless you. Why? Because you live in the grace of God. And if you can just get rid of “you” in that equation, oh, what a life you’ll live. But here it is on display - Jacob gets God’s promise of protection and provision and deliverance

8 and “withness.” “I’m going to be with you. I’m not going to leave you.” So don’t bother making resolutions. Just thank the Lord for His grace.

Now, you hear in the church, and there’s a truth to it in the sense that devotion brings blessing, and that’s biblically correct in the sense that God rewards obedience. But when you speak about grace, that’s backwards. The law made blessing dependent on devotion. Grace gives it to the undeserved, unconditionally. In other words, it isn’t because of what you’ve done, it’s what He’s done. And, in terms of grace, devotion or commitment to the Lord follows grace. It doesn’t precede it. It follows grace. “Oh, man, God loves me so I just want to serve Him!” It isn’t so He’ll love me more because I know that He loves me more. Then I find myself responding, but it’s often not in proper measure. I get grace, I respond poorly, at best. That’s certainly Jacob’s story. God gives him all of these promises and all of these wonderful provisions, and he goes, “All right…….” And he wants to deal with God because Jacob’s still Jacob. But learn and know upfront that God reaches out to His own here, solely by grace. And if God blesses your life, it is by grace. You didn’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. It’s not a payback. It’s not an exchange system. There’s no reward involved. If you get what you deserve, things are going to go badly from here on out. Things are just going to turn south. Don’t ever say, “Lord, just give me what I deserve!.” No, “Just give me Your grace!” And then you’ll die, and you’ll get out of the way, and you’ll be able to enjoy the blessings of God. It’s like your children, you know? Your kids get blessed by their parents. You just want to bless them. Do they earn it? No. Are they thankful? Usually not. Do they appreciate you? Absolutely – they don’t. Not until they become parents………….or later. Right? But you just bless them anyway, and everybody that watches goes, “Man, you oughta beat that child!” (Laughing) And that’s their advice, looking from over here. But all you know is grace. All you know is grace. Right? Your kid can do no wrong, just no wrong. Now, when we watch, your kids does all kinds of wrong. But not to the eyes of the parent. Same thing with God. Grace works that way, and Jacob gets it here. And Jacob don’t deserve it here. Jacob is a mean-spirited guy, who’s a conniving little sneak – and been like that all of his life. “I’m going to be with you. I’m not going to leave you. I’m going to go with you, and I’m going to bring you back.”

Now I suspect that Jacob had lots of reservations about what lies ahead. How is he going to be received? Will he be able to survive 500+ miles on his own in the wilderness. And what of his family he left behind? His angry brother, his sick father, his loving mother. And so this is an awesome promise to him.

9 Well verse 16, “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.’ And he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!’ Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.” The night before Jacob had arrived, there was no conscious awareness of God in his presence, in his life. In one night, the grace of God had changed that and the outlook of this would-be son to the Lord; and his outlook and his first steps in his spiritual life, and they’re small steps and there would be many more, but he was indeed on his way. He had met the grace of God. He names the place, “This is God’s house. This is where God’s presence is. I got here last night. I had no clue. I wake up this morning, I’m absolutely aware of the fact that God is here.” And it did a couple things to him. It left him afraid – verses 16 and 17 there, verse 17 especially - and it caused him to want to worship. “I’m afraid. I know He’s here. I’ve got to worship.” And so he does what you find many in the Old Testament doing – they establish worship by commemoration. He builds a commemorative stone, he pours oil upon it, he dedicates it to the Lord. He sets apart something physical that represents something spiritual. “This is the place I met with God that I know God is with me, that God is here, that God has spoken to me.” And so he worships by commemoration, if you will. And this is the same place Abraham had built an altar. When he came back from Egypt, he came to worship here.

So, what we read, then, is interesting – verse 19, and we read, “He called the name of that place Bethel.” Verse 20, “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to You.’ ” The word “if” in verse 20 sometimes throws people because, in the context of what we read, we wonder – being afraid, realizing that God is with him and this awesome revelation, terrified on his own and yet meeting with God – that Jacob probably wasn’t in a place to bargain, although that had certainly been his MO up to this point. Many times in the Scriptures, and this may be a part – although there’s no way to clarify - the word “if” is the word for “since,” both in Hebrew and Greek. It is a declarative sentence. “Since You are the Son of God,” not “If You are the Son of God,” you read in the New Testament. And if that’s the case, then it would be a response to God’s good word and not a bargaining, conditional statement. But

10 there’s no way to be positive. We do know that, from his response, Jacob was more than a little concerned for his well-being. He had a great desire, even though he had only been gone a day, to be back. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to be with his mother, with his family. He wanted to come back in peace. So, he commemorates the place, he commits himself – as far as he can – to the Lord, and then he contributes to the ways of the Lord. “I’m going to give a tenth. I’m going to tithe to the work of God. I’m going to make what I have available to accomplish His work” - years before the law, years before the rules, and the established Old Testament law of tithing. So, what we have is Jacob’s journey of spiritual growth and the coming to know the grace of God that has begun. Now, God will wait. He has no intentions of forsaking or leaving His own, and, like I said, we’re in one day – chapter 28, one day – of twenty years, and Jacob’s got a long way to go. But, by the time he comes back to this place, he will have totally surrendered to the Lord. It’s important that you see that God’s grace is intended to make you grow and go forward.

Before we go to chapter 29, I don’t want to miss the fact that this dream of Jacob is also found in the New Testament. And you might remember there in John chapter 1 (verses 43-51), as Jesus was ministering there in the Galilee, that He had found Phillip and that He had said to Phillip, “Follow Me.” And Phillip was from Bethsaida. It was the same city that Peter and Andrew were from, and Phillip went to find Nathanael. And he said to him, “Hey, we found Him of whom Moses and the Law and the prophets spoke. He’s Jesus of Nazareth. He’s the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said, “Really? You think anything good comes out of Nazareth?” And Phillip said, “Well, you’ve just gotta come see Him for yourself.” And so Nathanael came, and Jesus saw Nathanael coming, and He said, “Ah, an Israelite in whom there is no guile,” no deceit. And Nathanael said to Jesus, “Well, how do You know me?” And Jesus said, “Oh, before Phillip called you when you were sitting under the fig tree over there, I already saw you.” And that was all Nathanael needed, and Nathanael hit the deck. Awareness of who he was prior to their meeting, he said to Jesus, “Rabbi, You’re the Son of God, You’re the King of Israel,” and he hit the deck. And Jesus said, “Wow, you’re easily impressed.” Well that’s not exactly what He said. (Laughing) He said to him, “Is it because I said I saw you under the fig tree that you believe? You’re going to see greater things than these. In fact,” he says, “from now on, you’re going to see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending,” but this time the words “on the Son of Man.” So that Jesus, in the New Testament, makes Himself the Ladder of Jacob’s vision. The way man gets to heaven – the Ladder through whom we can

11 pass – is Jesus. He connects heaven with us. He’s the way in, and the way out. He’s the One that the angels come to minister to. So Jacob sees the Lord’s presence. Jesus, in John chapter 1, speaking to Nathanael, brings that prophecy forward to apply it to Himself - years later. “You haven’t seen anything yet young man. You’re going to see and learn that I’m the Ladder and the Link between heaven and earth, as the angels descend and ascend upon the Son of Man.”

Well, then we go to chapter 29, and Jacob arrives at the house of Laban. He comes – the con man meets his match. And Uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, is the most crooked guy that Jacob could ever hope to have to deal with. Now, the rest of the 500-mile journey from where Jacob lived in Beersheba to Padan Aram, (in modern-day Iraq, near Babylon; the word Padan Aram means “field”) but we aren’t told anything else about the next 460+ miles of his journey – just that he arrived.

We read in verse 1, “So Jacob went on his journey,” (that’s all we are told) “and came to the land of the people of the East. And he looked, and saw a well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well’s mouth. Now all the flocks would be gathered there; and they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well’s mouth. And Jacob said to them, ‘My brethren, where are you from?’ And they said, ‘We are from Haran.’ Then he said to them, ‘Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?’ And they said, ‘We know him.’ ” And I suspect everyone knew him. I suspect that all had gotten on the short end of a deal with him at some point in time. “So he said to them, ‘Is he well?’ And they said, ‘He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep.’ Then he said, ‘Look, it is still high day; it is not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.’ But they said, ‘We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and they have rolled the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.’ ” Now Jacob wasn’t a shy guy, as you can tell. He just kind of wanders up to people and asks them. Their answers are pretty terse. He’s pretty persistent. But their responses were pretty exciting. They are from the place that he was heading. They knew his uncle. I don’t know if they liked him. They might have said, “Yeah, we know him,” because of how we are going to learn that he is a crooked hustler who always gets the better of you. “We know him all right.” “Is he well?” “Yeah, he’s fine, and there’s his daughter.” And no doubt she would have been heavily- veiled, by custom. So, Jacob likes what he sees, and then he seems to do

12 something – because he’s a hustler – that xxxx, “Hey, isn’t it kind of early for you guys to be hanging around here? Come on, go get some cattle or something.” I think he wanted to get rid of them so he could make his moves on this girl or at least start to kind of handle the situation. I think he tried to shoo them along. “It’s high noon. What’re you guys sittin’ around? Let’s go, let’s go! Feed and go. Here is what we do.” You know? And they said, “No, no, no. That’s not the way it works here.” But he tries, I think, to move them along and maybe so he could have some time to talk to her. It’s now siesta time. Maybe he could turn on the charm, find out about his uncle, whatever he has planned to do. And he seems to like what he sees. He may not see much, but he likes what he sees. Now this is a great love story as long as you just put out of your mind that he’s 77 years old. (Laughing) I can’t anymore, but…….. (Laughing) ”So guys, get out of here, man. Go do something. Leave me alone here. Let me put my best move on her.” Well, they responded by saying, “You don’t enter the well until everyone is present.” And it would seem there must have been some mutually agreeable distribution of water, very precious in the desert. They were not lazy, but they’d entered this agreement regarding the use of the well. So, “When everyone’s here, and then we all use it, and then we all put it back. No one’s to be here on their own” kind of deal. Fine.

Verse 9, “Now while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative and that he was Rebekah’s son. So she ran and told her father.” Rachel had come closer with her father’s sheep. Jacob got a good look at this beautiful shepherdess, and I suspect it was love at first sight. I say that because, with great bravado, he moves a rock that was intended, I guess, to be moved by more than one person. He knew about the rule or the custom. He didn’t care. He was going to impress this girl. “Let me just get that for you.” Mr. Bigshot running over there – young love, well, 77-year-old young love. (Laughing) I doubt if everyone was happy. I suspect all the shepherds looked at him with a little bit of, “Oh, my gosh, what’s this guy doing anyway?”

Verse 11 – the kiss is customary, the weeping is not. But he is a mama’s boy, and so (Laughing) maybe he does this a lot……..I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just this whole thing overwhelmed him. “I’m running, and yet God is with me. And I’ve been a long

13 time on the road, and I meet the right people at the right time, and boy, this girl is beautiful, and I’ve got to find a wife. And here you are.” For whatever reason, Jacob says, “I’m Rebekah’s son, your father Laban’s sister.” And she quickly goes to run because the last time someone had come there like this (looking for a wife – Abraham’s servant), they had brought great gifts and jewelry. I mean everyone did pretty well, right, when the servant of Abraham came to find a bride for Isaac.

Well, true to form, verse 13, “Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him,” (crook #2 we’ll call him) “and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. So he told Laban all these things.” (whatever all these things were) “And Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh.’ And he stayed with him for a month.” Laban comes running out to greet him as if he was royalty. Mushy words. They were too mushy, I think. “Oh, you are bone of my bones.” If Jacob had begun to learn what and who God was at Bethel, he would learn what man was here at Haran. And by the time he is ready to leave – twenty years from now – he will prefer to be where the Lord is than where this guy is. But, anyway, he stays a month.

And verse 15 tells us, “Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be?’ ” So Jacob worked hard. You never find Jacob idle. I don’t find any Jacob sitting around doing nothing anywhere. He’s always on the go. Apparently Laban saw the benefits of having this young man with him - young, again, relative. So he offers him wages, and it gave Jacob the opportunity to request the one thing he wanted – Rachel. And so, “What can I pay you?”

Verse 16, “Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance. Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.’ And Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.’ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.” Leah, the older daughter, had eye problems. The word literally means “to squint,” so she was constantly, I think, squinting. Rachel didn’t have a flaw. I mean, in Jacob’s eyes, she was beautiful. And so Jacob said to his uncle, “I will work seven years to raise a dowry, that payment in advance, and I will give it to you for her. That’s what I want. I want to marry your younger daughter.” And Laban said, “Well, better you than somebody else.” Now

14 he doesn’t make any promises that he’ll give Rachel first, does he? He’s a sneaky guy. He’s big on words. He’s the guy who, today, writes all of those little words at the bottom of the advertising on the TV or that guy that talks a mile a minute at the end to disavow anything they have just promised you. “I want Rachel to be my wife.”

Now, the power of love is great for motivating, isn’t it? I love verse 20, and it says that he worked for seven years, and they just seemed like a few days. That’s love, isn’t it? Man, that’s a great definition of love. By now, Jacob would have been 84, and again, I hope that doesn’t take the romance out. He lives to be 165 (I think he kicks the bucket), so he’s halfway there. But looking over this entire picture, you might say to yourself – if you’re just kind of carelessly reading – that Rebekah’s plan to steal the birthright and then send Jacob away to get a wife, has worked out fine. Jacob got blessed, God is with him, gets the most beautiful girl. You know, everything is just falling in line. Sometimes it must work to just lie and be deceptive, and Laban appreciates him, and all is well. The deception has done its trick. But you know that’s not true. Right? Galatians 6:7 says what? “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also” – what? “Reap.” (congregation answers) “Reap.” So, we have to be looking for the fact that Jacob’s going to have some trouble here and some difficulty.

It does look, sometimes when you do the wrong thing in the wrong way and you get away with it, that somehow you’ve gotten away with it. But that’s not true. Physically, when you plant, although it takes time to grow, it’s not true spiritually either. If you sow to the flesh, corruption is going to come. The Bible says so. If you sow to your spirit, you’re going to reap life. So, it may take a while to become a parent, and it may not be readily apparent day-to-day. It’s kind of like, I remember when the kids were little, we would mark how tall they were on a doorframe. But when the kids were really little, every day they wanted to measure. “I think I’m taller. I think I’m taller.” “Well, you’re not any taller. It’s been like 30 minutes. Seriously, how could you grow in 30 minutes?!” You could only tell by waiting. You wait a month, you wait six months. “Look at the progress you’ve made!” Same thing with reaping what you sow. It may take a while, but it’s going to come up. And it may take long enough to where you’ve disassociated what you’re reaping now with what you’ve sown, and you miss the lesson altogether. That can happen a lot. Often we feel we’ve gotten away with it because we don’t see any immediate consequence to our sinful choices, and yet, “Because sentence isn’t exercised against an evil work speedily,” Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, “therefore the

15 heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Or literally, God waits so that, by the time He judges, you’ve pretty much made your choice time and time and time again against all odds. God has seen you settled your choice, and you’ve made it once and for all. So God’s slowness of response isn’t His approval, it isn’t His inability to act in judgment; it’s just His patience – that hopefully you’ll listen, and you’ll follow.

So Jacob, look, he had sought the rights of the firstborn through trickery and through deceit. Right? That’s how he was going to get hold of what God wanted for him. God would have gotten it to him in a godly manner. Unless you really think the Lord’s hands were tied, God would have worked this out – even would have messed up the plans of Isaac. Esau could have dropped dead. We don’t know, but Jacob would have gotten what God wanted. For sure. But here Jacob is about to learn a lesson. And lessons, like I say, they can come slow, but they last when they’re learned the hard way, and I think the benefit for you and me being in church every week and going through the Bible is – we get to learn some of these lessons the easy way. We get to read about them, laugh at Jacob, and walk away wiser. “You’re a dummy. I’m not doing that!” Right? That’s all we need. That’s not too hurtful on our lives. So, better that we respond.

But I love verse 20 because, in love, Jacob worked for seven years just for one reason – he had to have this woman. He loved her, and it seemed like a few days to Jacob. You girls that are dating guys who want to be intimate with you and tell you they can’t wait – after you’ve punched them in the nose (Laughing), leave them…..because love waits. And love will wait with joy. Look at Jacob. You know? Seriously, you need a godly man, not some horn dog. (Laughing) You don’t need that guy. Just find a guy willing to wait upon the Lord. Jacob was waiting, man. Love caused him to give all that he had for the sake of what he was hoping to gain in marrying this woman.

Now, Jacob hadn’t been praying. We still haven’t read Jacob had done any praying. We haven’t read that he is seeking the Lord, and apparently he wasn’t aware of the common practices of the land. And Laban was a con man, and he hadn’t really promised him Rachel. He hadn’t used those words. He just said, “Well, better you marry her than somebody else.” He didn’t say when.

In any event, verse 21 says, “Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.’ And Laban gathered together all the

16 men of the place and made a feast. Now it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. And Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?’ And Laban said, ‘It must not be done so in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.’ ” Seven years to claim his bride as by agreement, the dowry paid in advance. Dowries in the Old Testament were in case of default; the husband left, died, ran off – the wife would have sufficient monies to survive. It was held by the parents. According to ancient law, they could not take the principal. They could take interest in caring for her but not the principal. So Jacob had earned it. He had arrived with nothing to offer but service. He now had seven years worth of income. The marriage is planned, the wedding ceremony takes place, a veiled bride comes by the dark of night into the marriage tent, and poor Jacob wakes up in the morning to “squinty.” (Laughing) “Oh, no. This isn’t right!” The old switcheroo. Yeah, you reap what you sow, buddy. And I suspect, now I don’t know, but I suspect that the rivalry between Leah and Rachel was much as it was between Jacob and Esau. I don’t think you could have pulled this off without Leah’s – she was aware of this. You know? She was “in” on this. And maybe, because she wasn’t quite as attractive and charming, this might be the first time she put one over on her sister, you know? “Guess what I got to do? And guess who I got to marry? And guess who’s with me now?” Because we’ll find that being a tremendous rivalry and difficulty in the months and in the years to come. So, “What can I do?” Jacob would have to work seven more years for Rachel - the term of the word “fulfill her week.” It is one of the places, like in Daniel 9:27, where the word “week” represents a seven-year period - Hepstadt. And it is defined here, within the terms, by Laban to Jacob. “You can work seven more years, and you can have Rachel too.” And it does appear that he got to marry her at the same time, but he was now obligated to stay for seven more years. So, in one sense, he gets to reap what he had sown in seven more years. And I must tell you, Jacob treats Leah horribly, and he shows tremendous favor for Rachel. I wonder where he learned that. He learned that at home, didn’t he? So Laban out-hustles the hustler.

We will read in a few years – when he leaves twenty years later – but in a few weeks when we get to that chapter, that ten times over the next many years, Jacob’s salary would be changed by his uncle without warning; like, “We changed it.

17 You’re not quite making what you used to. Had a little tough time. Had to change things.” And Jacob had to kind of stay there and work his way through, and yet God works on the life of the deceiver by having him take some of his own medicine. And through it all, Jacob learns slowly but surely how wicked men can be and how good God is. So, now he is on the receiving end of deceitfulness. “Yeah, we honor the firstborn.” And Jacob, “Oh, yeah, we didn’t at my house. We hustled him.” “Yeah, we don’t do that here. Say hello to squinty. Mrs. Squinty to you.” (Laughing)

Now, just because we’ve run into this, this issue of polygamy comes up again in the Scriptures. And the anguish that always comes with it, you won’t find in any place in the Scriptures - where men and women who know the Lord, or are children of God, and who adopt this heathen kind of lifestyle - where there’s any benefit. There’s nothing but heartache and heartbreak. God had ordained that Adam would be with Eve, and that was it. For this reason, and it was a singular issue. Polygamy was a practice of the heathen that was picked up by Cain’s family. You remember, it was Cain’s family who began to practice that in their lifestyle. It was later, unfortunately, picked up by several folks who knew the Lord – always to their own hurt. Never a good idea. Maybe the worldly influence on the people of God reached its zenith with Solomon who (1 Kings 11:3) had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. It was extensively practiced, historically, among pagan tribes. It was considered normal for the Greeks and for the Romans. Never in God’s plans, never promoted by the Lord; tolerated, sure. He tolerates a lot of things from us, but Jesus’ words about not being able to serve two masters, I think, would certainly apply to the home. This is nothing but misery in the years to come. Favoritism, disrespect, sin, competition, all the junk that just is not fit to live is found. And not-favored Leah, now, as the wife, begins to find God’s favor and kindness.

So, we’re going to end tonight looking at the birth of the first of these several children that will become the twelve tribes of Israel. But they are born first, and in the next chapter as well, the birth of Jacob’s twelve sons – beginning with Leah and then Rachel and then Zilpah and Bilhah, their two maidservants. But all of the kids, literally all of them, are born out of competition and bitterness and strife with spiritual jargon and weird concepts of what will work and what doesn’t. Still very dysfunctional, but again, God still gets his way, right? We get blessed when we line up with God’s will. God will still – in the end, you know you start here, here’s God’s will. Now you can get there with blessing, or you can get there like this – you

18 know, lots of suffering. You’re going to get to the same place. God’s still going to have his way.

But let’s finish these verses tonight and just kind of look at what became, now, of this whole kind of relationship beginning here at verse 28. “Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. And Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a maid. Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years.” (So they appear to be both given to him at one time). And, “When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved,” (how sad is that?) “He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, ‘The LORD has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.’ ” So, God is moved with compassion on the neglected wife. And being noticeably set aside by Jacob in favor of Rachel, Leah believes that the birth of her son – whom she names Reuben, which means “see, a son” – would cause her husband to love her all the more. We’ve seen this happen, unfortunately, in families and in marriages that aren’t doing well. People go, “Well if we have kids, we’ll do better.” It doesn’t work. It certainly doesn’t work. But how pathetic and how sad is this, that she believes somehow – here’s a son – carry on the name, descendants. And it doesn’t move Jacob at all.

In verse 33 we read, “Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.’ And she called his name Simeon.” It means “God hears.” God hears what? The anguishing cries of a woman who now has her second child and still absolutely has no husband to love her or care for her, and so she names him Simeon. “Maybe the first son didn’t turn the tide of love. Maybe this one will. I’ve been telling the Lord about it. Now it’ll work!” And it didn’t.

So Reuben and Simeon, verse 34, “She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.’ Therefore his name was called Levi.” It’s a word that means “to join” or “to be joined.” And again, she just wants and hopes that the blessings of the LORD on her children will draw her husband to herself permanently. It just didn’t work. It is not to be.

Well, finally, verse 35, “And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘Now I will praise the LORD.’ Therefore she called his name Judah.” (a name that means

19 praise or worship) “Then she stopped bearing.” So it does seem, by the time the fourth child came around, that her heart was turned to the Lord, no longer hoping the kids would turn the heart of Jacob. But look at the competition, and they’re not done. When she stops having kids, the handmaiden gets involved. “Well, we’ll be up 5-0, 6-0. It’ll be 6-1. We’re gonna win this deal!” (Laughing) Oh my. Isn’t it good that the grace of God finds us in these situations because we should all be written off, shouldn’t we?

Chapter 30 next week, and I don’t know if we’ll do 31, but that’s a long one – we’ll see. A couple questions I would ask you – do you know where your Bethel is? You know, that place where God came to know you and you know Him a little better, and you determined that you better walk with God? Some place that you felt forsaken and left alone, and you finally discovered God was good? God certainly wants to do that in our life. Jacob is on this road of grace, and I’m hoping that, in the weeks to come, that becomes your lesson. Grace – not because of you but because of Him. You don’t deserve it. And you know, we do the same with each other. We get angry with each other. “I’m not forgiving him. What a jerk that guy is!” And we hold them to account, but then we go, “Lord, just more grace for me.” And then we want judgment for everybody else. If you really get grace, you become quite a different person, don’t you?

I remember hearing the story of a, and we’ll finish with this, son dreaming – much like this dream – and he woke up and said to his dad, “Dad, I saw heaven open and a ladder go up from the earth to heaven. And there was chalk at the bottom, and people would grab some chalk, and they would head up the ladder.” And dad said, “Well, what were they doing with the chalk?” “Well, they were marking down their sins on each rung, as they ascended.” He said, “Dad, then I saw you coming down.” “What was I coming down for, son?” And he said, “You were coming down for more chalk.” (Laughing)

Grace. We can use it, can’t we?

Submitted by Maureen Dickson March 10, 2013

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