THE JACOB ENIGMA Tracing the path of ‘the Twister’… a series by David Legge THE JACOB ENIGMA David Legge David Legge is a Christian evangelist, preacher and Bible teacher. He served as Assistant Pastor at Portadown Baptist Church before receiving a call to the pastorate of the Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He ministered as pastor-teacher of the Iron Hall from 1998- 2008, and now resides in Portadown with his wife Barbara, daughter Lydia and son Noah. Contents 1. God Loves WHO? - 3 2. Flesh Sells Out And Caves In - 19 3. Jacob's Unconscious Encounter - 39 4. Getting The Blessing – 61 The audio for this series is available free of charge either on our website (www.preachtheword.com) or by request from [email protected] All material by David Legge is copyrighted. However, these materials may be freely copied and distributed unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to others free of charge, and the copyright is included. This does not include hosting or broadcasting the materials on another website, however linking to the resources on preachtheword.com is permitted. These materials may not, in any manner, be sold or used to solicit "donations" from others, nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, or offer for a fee. This copyright is exercised to keep these materials freely available to all. 2 THE JACOB ENIGMA David Legge The Jacob Enigma - Chapter 1 "God Loves WHO?" Copyright 2015 by David Legge aving sought the Lord over it for quite a time, I believe I've been guided to the character of Jacob. So I'm calling this series - however long it goes on H for, I don't know, however long you'll tolerate me! But there is that much stuff here, it's incredible, as the revelation is coming before God - but we're going to look at 'The Jacob Enigma'. Let's pray before we turn to the Scripture, and it's really going to be a pretty intense Bible study in many respects, but I believe that the sword of the Word of God is going to do deep surgery in our lives here tonight, and there are going to be mighty things accomplished for the glory of the Lord. So let's pray - and do pray with me, will you do that now? Would you pray that God would speak to you? Sometimes - I think I've maybe said to you before - we usually let the fellow up at the front do all the praying, and I don't know what we think about: you know, what we're going to have for supper, or the roast tomorrow, or something like that, or Sunday School class we've to do and we haven't it sorted, I don't know. Forget about all that, and come to God now. Will you, in your spirit, approach the Lord and say: 'Lord, would You speak to me tonight?'. I don't know what your issues are, I don't know what your baggage is, but why not even bring that thing before the Lord and say: 'Lord, here I am, You know my need, would You please come and speak to me now?'. Would you do that? If you want to pray for me that's okay, because I need it! Alright, let's pray together. Father, we just want to agree with everything that we have sung tonight. We want to declare that You are great, You are great, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised! There is no one like our God, there is no one beside You, there is nothing that we can compare You to. Lord, we say these things, and yet it feels redundant even saying them because we haven't the first notion of what You are really like in all Your glory, and splendour, and majesty. The heavens declare Your glory, and we look into space through the satellite pictures and all the rest, Lord, we are just awestruck by nature - and yet it declares Your glory, yet You're bigger than that, for in You we live, and move, and have our being. Lord, we come before You tonight acknowledging that You're so great, and so vast, and so big, and we are so small. Yet, Lord, You love us and You're interested in us - and that is just incredible to us. What is man that You're mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? Lord, would You visit us tonight, would You visit us? We know You're not way out there at a distance watching us, You're here - but, Lord, may we know You're here; because for some people here tonight, I believe, You're the farthest consideration for them in their consciousness. They don't sense You, they don't feel You, they wonder are You even there. Lord, You have mercy upon us - I know that - and I pray that You will have mercy now, and that You will reach down and speak right into the heart of everybody gathered here tonight. Do business with people, Lord, change lives, transform, fix people as only You can do. We welcome You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen. 3 THE JACOB ENIGMA David Legge Now we're turning in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 25, and the whole series is going to be called 'The Jacob Enigma', and tonight's message is called 'God Loves WHO?'. Genesis 25:19, and we're going to read to the end of the chapter - we'll not be dealing with all of this subject matter tonight, but just to give us a bit of context. Genesis 25 verse 19, I'm reading from the New King James Version: "This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, 'If all is well, why am I like this?'. So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her: 'Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger'. So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, 'Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary'. Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, 'Sell me your birthright as of this day'. And Esau said, 'Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?'. Then Jacob said, 'Swear to me as of this day'. So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright". Now don't worry if you don't know what an 'enigma' is - who doesn't know what an enigma is? One honest person, two, any advance? Well 'enigma', the dictionary definition will come up on the screen here - thank you, Richard, for your help tonight - 'enigma' is a noun, and when it's attributed to a person it speaks of a person of puzzling or contradictory character. Now you know what an enigma is, maybe you even know who an enigma is - they might even be sitting beside you tonight! To give you an example of an enigma is, someone who says: 'Well, to me, he or she has always been an enigma. One minute they are completely insensitive, the next minute they are moved to tears' - an apparent contradiction in a personality. The word 'enigma' comes from the Latin and the Greek meaning 'to speak in riddles', so it literally means something or someone who is a puzzle or a mystery. On the next slide you will see a contraption called an 'Enigma Machine', and it was a German-built enciphering machine that converted messages into code, and it was used to great effect during World War II - and I think there have been films about it as well. It was actually puzzling up words, putting them into some kind of mystery to conceal information. Winston Churchill, whose burial has been celebrated this week, famously said of the nation of Russia: 'Russia is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma' - what a description! And if you know anything about Russia in recent weeks, you will know that that is very true - and it pans out, indeed, in biblical prophecy, which is not our subject tonight.