The Hand of God On the Life of Jacob

Transcript

GRS 2-8
1/16/2005
The Hand of God On the Life of Jacob
Genesis 28-31
Gil Rugh

The Book of Genesis in your Bibles in the 28th Chapter, as we walk through the lives of the Patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through the Book of Genesis, you gain an appreciation and see clearly how the Lord works through all the circumstances and situations of life. Even in situations and circumstances that are not what they ought to be, do not frustrate the purposes and plans of God and these are to be an encouragement to us. Talk about the dysfunctional family life of these Patriarchs as we refer to families today being dysfunctional and in many ways they were far below what the idea would be and what we should except of the people of God. But the work of God continues and the plan and purposes of God continue and are to be a reminder us that even when things aren’t going the way we would like them do, even when things aren’t going the way they should and this is never excused for our sin, still the work of God is being done. Again we sometimes get idea until all these details are worked out in our family or in this situation or that situation were apart. It’s like the Lord’s work is at least on a hold in the area where we are. That’s just not the case. The work of God goes on and we praise him for his grace. We are talking about the life of Jacob when we come to Chapter 28.

Chapters 28 to 36 are about Jacob. You can see he is a dominant figure in the Book of Genesis. He is going to be the father of the 12 Patriarchs who will be the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel, so a very significant person, a person given a very prominent place in scripture. As we walk through these Chapters, sometime we will see Jacob is a man of faith and prayer. He has given tremendous privileges in communing with God and God appears to him on a number of occasions in striking and significant ways. But another times, we are going to see Jacob is a man of deceit and selfishness, means no matter what God is doing and how mightily God is working and how clearly God reveals himself to Jacob, Jacobs keels sliding back to old deceitful ways like he just can’t let himself trust the Lord fully and completely and so his name as the supplanter, the heel-holder, the deceiver, characterizes far too much of his life and yet the work of God in accomplishing the promises given to Abraham reinforced through Jacob’s father Isaac and now confirmed Jacob plan of God goes on.

So in Genesis Chapter 28, first nine verses going to talk about the trip that Jacob’s going to take and that comes out of the family conflict, internal conflict and this conflict spreads between his mother and father, there is disagreement, Jacob’s twin brother Esau, and Jacob and Esau are in conflict with one another. And Isaac and Rebecca are divided over these because Isaac favors Esau and Rebecca favors Jacob, and family life goes on, the Bible doesn’t go into great detail, you wonder what it was like day after, day after day in these families. So because of the conflict between Esau and Jacob, remember Jacob worked to his brother into selling him his birthright. When he came in, he was hungry, Jacob making stew. Esau sold his birthright and he is a profane man and that’s the way the New Testament now refers to him, a godless man, had no appreciation of the promises of God in the significance of that relationship with God. So he sells his birthright. And then when comes time for Isaac to bless his son, he is going to bless Esau because he likes Esau, because he likes his game.
We would like to see more spiritual perception and depth in Isaac because the New Testament says that Esau is a godless man and Isaac favors him and loves him because Esau is a man of the field and he kills the kind of game that Isaac loves and is such a superficial foundation coming from the man who is the air of the promises given to Abraham and that’s the way this family is operating. Then Jacob through the deceitful plan of his mother deceives his father and Isaac bestows the blessings on Jacob, which is rightfully Jacob’s, but the whole way of the deceit in bringing it about, the result is Esau determines he is going to kill Jacob as soon as his father Isaac dies. And even though the Isaac has many years yet to live, Isaac himself and those around him think that he is probably not going to live long. Well when Rebecca hears that Esau plans to kill Jacob when Isaac dies, she decides she’s got to do something to spare Jacob. So her plan is to send him back to her family in Haran to find a wife because Esau has married women that are just a burden and a problem to Isaac and Rebecca. Rebecca says I can’t live with these women any longer and I can’t take it. If Jacob takes a wife from among the Canaanites, my life will be unbearable. So that’s why Jacob now is going to make the trip back to Haran and all the scheming, all this planning, this will be the last he sees his mother. She says you go there, you spend a short time and then after Esau’s anger passage, you come back. Jacob won’t be back for 20 years and Rebecca will be dead, his father will still be living. That’s where we pick up the story.

So the first nine verses are about the trip that Jacob’s going to take. Isaac calls Jacob and this has been Rebecca’s plan and so Jacob calls Isaac, blessed him and said to him you are not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. So you can see how the Lord uses all of this, where it is planned that this one and whom the promise would be fulfilled, not have a wife who is a Canaanite. So all the deception, all the internal maneuverings, and God is in charge of it all and he is going to use it all to accomplish His purposes. So go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father. From there take yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. So in other words go back and find one of your cousins and marry her. That’s the plan I would know here. As you read this account, you have wonder in your mind when Isaac realized that Jacob had deceived him, got all dressed up, so he looked and smelled like his brother and thus Isaac blessed him thinking he was blessing Esau. I mean, what did they do? It was there an internal conflict with Isaac, you know, that he called in Jacob and dressed him down and all are about deceive, one has not told any of that. But when you come to these verses in Chapter 28, Isaac accepted the fact and realized that Jacob is the son and whom the promises will be fulfilled. Verse-3: “May God almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you become a company of peoples. May he also you the blessings of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham. Isaac acknowledges that the Abrahamic covenant will come through the line of Jacob. So whatever is taken place here between Chapters 27 and 28, Isaac has seen the hand of God in this and recognizes God’s will and God’s purposes. So verse 5, Isaac sent Jacob away and he goes back to the family origins to secure a wife and verse 6, Esau realizes Isaac’s blessed Jacob. He realizes the instructions you are not to take a wife from among the Canaanites. His wives had been displeasing to his father and his mother. So he goes to the family of Ishmael and takes a third wife. He just multiplies the problem. The un-chosen child of Isaac now marries into the un-chosen family of Ishmael. There is no frustrating or avoiding the plans of God and all that conniving of man and so on, it’s awesome to realize how God, he does not cause sin. He does not move people to be deceitful, but even their sin, even their deceit, even their scheming, never frustrates God’s plan. That’s why all of us can be confident to know that God’s work will be done in or lives and we don’t need to be frustrated about those around us who may be functioning in a wrong way and think all our family will be destroyed because of what my wife does, my husbands does, because of this situation that they comfort God, You are just as much in control today, You overrule in all the circumstances and in all the situations.

Verse 10: Jacob’s traveling from Beersheba toward Haran, came to same places, going to spend the night and you spend the night, you don’t have a motel, you just lie your belongings out, get a nice rock, put it there for your head, lay on your blankets over there rock and prop up for the night, you can’t beat the price. While he is sleeping, he has a dream. Verse 12: “He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it”. So here Jacob has this dream, in it God revealing himself to Jacob and there is his ladder going to heaven and the angels are coming and going, and it’s a stairway if you will the heaven and showing the fellowship that God has with the people that he has chosen and Jacob is in that line of God’s electing choice and so that fellowship of being in the presence of God and having communion with God is portrayed here. Behold, the Lord stood above it and said; verse 13:”I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie I will give it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, you will spread out to the west into the east, to the north into the south and in you and your seed or descendants and it’s the word seed shows all the families on the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you where ever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to you. The promises are secured. Here God reaffirms and reconfirms them. They will be fulfilled. I will take care of you. I will bring you back. This is your land belonged to you and your descendants.

The grace of God again seeing here. And you might think that this will be the time God would give Jacob a lecture on being deceitful. And he would tell Jacob that I am the one who can work out all the situations and circumstances of your life for the accomplishing of my purposes. Here God just confirming the promises to him. Again, there is no way excuses a sin the way excuses that behavior, but you see what really matters is the purposes and plans God and Jacob is in that line of choice, and God promises to greatly bless him. Jacob’s response is great. Verse 16: Jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the Lord is in this place and I didn’t even know it. He was afraid and said how awesome is this place. This is none other than the houses of God; this is the gate of heaven. I mean what an awesome place that God would reveal himself here and show himself coming from haven to earth to speak to me. His angels coming and going and so the stone which He had placed his head, he sets it up as a marking pillar, pours oil on it, we calls the name of the place Bethel, the house of God and formerly it had been called Luz And then Jacob makes a vow saying if God will be with me, keep me on this journey that I take, give me the necessary things of life; food and clothing and I return to my father’s house in safely. Then the Lord will be my God. This stone which I have set up as a pillar would be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you. And it’s not making a deal with God, he is just saying God, I accept your promises, I place my faith in them and when You all that You have promised, then I will honor You in this way. It was a great statement of faith here. You see God acting in a special and significant way in Jacob and God’s work now centers in Jacob and the promise has been passed to him. Even though his father Isaac is still living, Jacob becomes the significant and dominant person in the carrying on of the promise.

Chapter 29, we are going to talk about Jacob’s marriages. Two wives and two concupiscence, sub-wives if you will. Four women. He is going to have children by all four and together those 12 sons will be 12 patriarchs. This is a strange way for God to do it. When Jesus will say, it was never God’ purpose for man to have multiple wives. You think at this key stage in Israel’s history, the best way for God to do it would demonstrate the important of one man with one women as God originally planned. And at least have the 12 patriarchs come out of a model marriage. We are going to have two wives and two concupiscence. And a dysfunctional family like none of you have ever lived in. Alright, let’s see what God does here. Jacob goes on his journey now, we pick up and he comes to the east, he comes to a well that’s become the sinner point, it’s in a field, this is where the people come because you have to bring the animals in. This is where you come come to get water. So it’s a natural place to go to and the discussion goes on as Jacob looks for his family. And again you see the hand of God here as He starts to ask about his relatives.

The verse 4, Jacob said to them my brothers, where are you from? They said we are from Haran, what a coincidence? It’s just where I am going. He said to them, Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? That’s his uncle now remember, his mother’s bother. They said we know him. He says how’s he doing? It has going to be a disappointment to find out that the family had been wiped out in a catastrophe that made this trip for nothing. You know what? Yes we know him. He is doing fine. The amazing coincidence verse 6. Here is Rachel, his daughter barrack coming with a sheep. This hand of God in over them. Just so happens. He comes to this well and meets the right people and just so happens that Rachel turns up just at the right time and verse 10, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went up rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well, watered the flock of Laban, his mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. And I do things still differently in the Middle East that you watch on the news and you see the men hugging each other and crying and weeping openly, we don’t do that here, we are more stoic and reserved. Tickle is no way to carry on in front of the woman, I mean what’s she thinking? What’s happened to him? Big ball baby, but Jacob had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father, he was Rebecca’s son, so this is a natural thing. Here, what excitement, here is your cousin, her father’s sister’s son has turned to all these years. So she runs home to tell her father. When Laban hears the news, he runs out to meet him, embraces him, kisses him, thrilled to see him.

Verse 14: Laban said to him, surely you are a bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, You are my bone and my flesh. And he stayed with him a month. He stays with him, and you just don’t sit around. There are chores given to you pitch in and help and Laban says to Jacob, verse 15 because you are my relative, you shouldn’t serve me for nothing. What could I pay you? Laban had two daughters, the name of the older was Leah, the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak and we don’t know this may mean she had eyesight. Some children need glasses to adjust their eyesight. That would be the hindrance on those days when they didn’t have the way to correct vision and naturally this would affect her appearance and so on could mean just her eyes didn’t have the same impact, the glow or whatever. There is a contrast. The point is, verse 17, Rachel was beautiful of form and face. There are two sisters, here the older Leah is not nearly as attractive as the younger Rachel. We talk about it in our day we have too much emphasis on the physical. I am not going to argue one way or other, but you ought to note even the Bible makes a distinction that Rachel was beautiful of form and face. We have already seen this drawn out. Abraham’s wife was very beautiful. Isaac’s wife was very beautiful. Solomon # not only a beautiful women, but a handsome husband. We read the Song of Solomon will learn from it, but none of you men looked like the man described there and none of the women looked like the women there. But there is a mark of beauty and nothing wrong with beautiful. Alright, enough for that. Now we like add Jacob here well, you know he was looking beyond the physical. So he fell in love with the one that wasn’t beautiful. Forget it. You know who he loved? The one who was beautiful of four women face, Rachel. So he says to Laban, I will tell you what I will do. I will serve you and work for you for seven years, she must have been beautiful, and then you give me Rachel for my wife, I mean, that’s a lot of work. Seven years. That will be my pay. You give me Rachel, I take it. Though he provided her like a hired hen, a place to live in food and clothing. But just the basics. The real pay would be at the end of seven years you get my his daughter. Alright, better I give her to you, my family member. So you are aware of the account, what is happened here, Jacob has met his match as far as a human deceiver in his uncle Laban, and interestingly you see in families even certain characteristics, alright. Jacob works for seven years and the Bible tells us here, they went by like it was nothing. He was fell in love with her, he lived in a dream world. Here you can say, oh boy! Another day down, how many days still I have to go 7 x 356, oh, I got a long way to go. I don’t know if it’s worth. These are they flew by. Seven years get up, he says I am ready and the Bible’s direct, I am ready to have Rachel as my wife and I want to go, have sex with her. So give her me, so she can be my wife, so we can consummate the marriage. And Laban puts on the marriage celebration.

You are aware of the account, verse 23, in the evening he took his daughter Leah, brought her into him and Jacob went to her said didn’t you notice well. You know she probably had her way alone. You go into the tent, can turn on the lights, so like many honeymoons, it has done in the dark. But not like many honeymoons there is surprise in the morning. I wonder what went on there, is he whispering to oh Rachel, lot of these years have gone by and here is Leah. I don’t know what went on that night, but when he woke up in the morning, there’s light. He opened the tent door and who is this is Leah.

Verse 25. He said, to Laban, what is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, you have deceived me. The deceiver is mattes much. He’s gotten the taste of his own medicine. What a blow that had to be. What a way to start out family life. Think of poor Leah here. I mean now I am given off to a man that doesn’t want me, doesn’t have any feeling for me. And he is not happy with this al tall. So Laban’s answer is, our custom is not to marry the younger before the older. So I will tell you what, fulfill the weak and what he is talking about here is seven-day week of the marriage celebration with Leah and then I will also give you Rachel, and then you serve me another seven years. Indication would be that if he received Rachel, then he didn’t have to wait another seven years. He had to finish out the marriage ceremony of Leah, and then he can also marry Rachel. Oh boy, what a way to start and it isn’t going to get any better. So he does it. And in each of these women, Leah and Rachel are given a maid, Leah had a maid. Verse 24 Zilpah, she will become significant because Jacob’s going to have children with Zilpah also and then Rachel also has a maid and Jacob will have children with Bilhah as well, Rachel’s maid. Alright, you got 14 years, you are going to end up serving his uncle to pay the price for these two these women. After seven years, he ends up the both of these women. So you’ve got seven more years to serve. Verse 31. Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved and you note in the margin of the Bible that word unloved is literally the word hated. This is the way it is that Jacob is not happy about it, he has no more feelings positively toward Leah that he did before this happened. It is not a matter he has come to appreciate her in a new light. The Lord saw Leah was hated. So He opened her womb and Rachel was barren. Leah’s ability to provide children, which were so important in that culture in that society, would elevate her importance to Jacob. So she may not have the same with the object of the affection in the same way, her importance to Jacob would be established. Even though he didn’t have, what we would say the same feelings for her. Her importance to him would be established because he needs children. That is important to him and important to a wife in that society. It’s interesting to see, isn’t it? The God’s looking out for Leah here. It is doing what will elevate her importance in the family. You might think he just give Jacob another dream and give him a lecture and how you are to treat your wife and honor her. So that’s the way he does it, but he does act on behalf here.

Result is Leah is going to be very fertile, while Rachel is barren and so you see, she produces five sons for Jacob. You got an idea of the family situation because these children are named in light of the conflict of going on in this family. Verse 32: Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben and why, because the Lord has seen my affliction. This was not an easy family life for Leah, I mean think about it. Here she is now married to a man who hates her, as a sister with whom he loves as the opposing wife, and she says the Lord will see my affection, surely now the husband will love me. She conceived again and bore a son because the Lord has heard that I am unloved. He is therefore given me the son also. So she is saying to him assuming, nothing has changed. She had hoped that, what? She had hoped that my husband will not love me, but Reuben was born, now she has a son. A son, this is an important significant. It’s not only a child, but its son, always more important to a man in a cultured society that you have a son. But with the birth of the second son, she can still say, verse 33, the lord has heard that I am hated. This is not something that’s covered up. Jacob is giving her idea, I really love, it wasn’t my choice then, but I have come to grow to love you. Even here with the birth of her second son, she knows her husband hates her, doesn’t love her at all. So God’s given me a second son because surely this will change my husband’s attitude toward me, so she named him Simeon. God’s listening. He is hearing. He’s really going to relive my affliction. She conceived again and bore a son, and says now this time my husband will become attached to me because I born – it seems like things hasn’t gotten any better, I just draw the attention. So we see this is not a good situation. I mean, here you have this, a woman in this married situation, in this family situation married to the mighty patriarch Jacob, the wonder whom God appeared in such a dramatic way in Chapter 28 and spoke to him directly. And this is the kind of family life he has. So she named him Levi, meaning attached or attachment. My husband will become attached to me. I named him Levi because my hope now is in him that Levi. Leah remained here my husband will become attached to me, so I named him attached or attachment. Then she has a fourth son, Judah and what she bore a son again. Thus this time I will praise the lord, she named him Judah, not significant. I didn’t note here. The messianic line is not going to come through Rachel. We think of the Rachel’s two sons, in particularly the one Joseph in the prominence he will play, but you understand the messianic line is for Judah and Judah is the son of the young loved wife Leah, and the kingly messianic line of David will come from the line of Judah, who was the son of Leah.

Well there are four sons. Chapter 30: you have Jacob’s children. We are going to have children born and children born and children born as we come into Chapter 30 and we are going to have Jacob becoming a very wealthy man at the expense of his uncle Laban. And that will create its own set of conflict. Jacob’s sons are the subject to the first 24 verses, because remember these are of tremendous importance. This is Israel’s foundational history. The 12 tribes that are crucial in God’s plan for the nation Israel right down to our day and in the future. And we get into the Book of Revelations, talking about coming tribulation days, we have 12000 on each of the 12 tribes sealed, see the significance of this background history. You see some of the tension in this family. Leah has born four sons to Jacob. This will cause my husband to love me, to become attached to me. There is intense rivalry going on between the sisters.

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister. Here does not say her godly character, Leah I am so glad God has been gracious to you and I realized that a difficult home life for you since Jacob’s affection is directed to me, not you. And I recognized the hand of God an owner, you not at all their jealousy. With every child Leah bears, it just becomes more unbearable for Rachel in this situation. She said to Jacob, give me children or else I’ll die, I can’t take it. I mean this is a terrible stigma for a woman in that society to be barren. Now Jacob’s really burned up with Rachel. His anger burned against Rachel. Am I in the place of God? Was withheld from you the fruit of the womb? You telling me give you children, only God can do that. I mean, it’s amazing how people can see the hand of God and be functioning like they do. Jacob says it’s God withheld children for me. I can’t do anything about it. Now he is really upset with Rachel because she is telling him to do something he can’t do. Here is a main, how do you like to be in this house. I mean, you got two sisters and they are intense rivals and you are the husband of both and so Rachel has a plan. If I can bear the children personally, I can give you my maid. And the children that my maid conceives with you will be viewed as my children. It’s a different way of wife, it’s hard to say. Here’s my maid Bilhah, go into her that she may bear on my niece, that’s through her I may have children. So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife. Now Bilhah has given as a wife, but she is not on the level of Leah and Rachel. She is a concubine wife. But her children, he sons will be Jacob’s sons and they are on the same level as the other. So we have the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel. There is no distinction made because some of these were born in two concubine wives and some were born to Leah or Rachel who are the true wives. So I gave her Bilhah as a wife and the Jacob went into her, Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob’s son. Then Rachel said God has vindicated me and I have a son, she named him Dan, which mean God has vindicated me. What do you mean vindicated me? He had taken away the stigma. Now I am not viewed something wrong because this son is viewed as mine because God has honored me because my maid bearing a son to my husband, really that son is just like I had born him. So you have Dan. Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Rachel said with mighty wrestling’s I have wrestled with my sister. I mean this battle is going on. I mean, with every child born, this is just the rivalry, now I am ahead of you, now I am ahead of you, now I have gotten back to you. What a family! I prevailed, I named him Naphtali. You know what it means, great struggle. You know even named these sons, they are ongoing reminders of the conflict between the sisters.

Every time you call Naphtali, you are reminder of the struggle, a struggle with whom? With Leah? Rachel and Leah’s battle. I mean, you even named the kids to be constant reminder and refresher of our battle, be encouraged with you family struggle. We go on. When Leah saw that, she has stopped bearing. I mean, she is not having any more kids. But now my sister’s maid is having kids. I can’t let this go on. So I have a maid. So where’s mine. She took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Jacob had another, this isn’t getting any better. This only would intensify things. So she gives Jacob her maid, Jacob goes in and she conceives, bore Jacob a son, Leah said how fortunate! So she named him Gad. And the name thing goes on, it means fortune. So every time u call Gad, you know I have been fortunate because I am now one up of my sister. Here we go. Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, happy am I., women will call me happy. She named him Asher, happy or blessing. You think all these kids there are so much, what 8 kids going so far. Let’s have full ten, two tens. You see some of tension going on.

Verse 14: Now in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went, that is her older son went out in the filed farm mandrakes in the fields, brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son’s mandrakes. You have lot of mandrake there, give me some. Look at this verse 15. Leah says, is it a small matter for you to take my husband? Would you take my son’s mandrakes also, what a comparison? What a comparison. I mean compared Jacob to a mandrake. I mean this is a family. I will tell you what Rachel says, you give me the mandrakes and he can sleep with you tonight, I mean with Jacob. I will tell you what, I will sell him to you for the night for mandrakes. Leah says I will take him. You mean, sometime wonder what is like when you come home at the end of the day. Here comes Jacob in from the field and here comes Leah to meet him. Oh no, what now? Guess what sweetie I have bought you for the night. I mean, you know, you just tell it like it is.

Verse 16, end of the verse, I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes, so sleep with me tonight, I mean what a family. Okay, and look I guess so. You bought be with the mandrakes, I mean this is going on between sisters, isn’t my wives. And now I also have two other sub-wive’s involved in this and now they barter for me during the day when I am out working. So I have been hired by this wife. It is more clear with the New Testament, where it says the husband’s body does not belong to him, it belongs to the wife and here the wife sells to another, well any rate. Now note this, God’s ended all. God gave here to Leah, verse 17 and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. You think by now God said I washed my hands in this whole thing. This all part of his plan. It’s all the way he is going to bring the 12 Patriarchs into existence. Leah said God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband. So she named him Issachar. My hire, this is all back to the conflict. I gave my maid to my husband. So now we have Issachar. See Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. Then Leah said, God has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband will dwell with me. There is no end to this. I stress this because you will understand it has not gotten better with the passing of years, with the multiplying of children. Leah is still hopping that Jacob will love her and accept her. I mean she is a wife, but in name. Jacob’s attitude to her is still clear at this point. And I born him sixth son. She named him Zebulun, a gift or honor. Then she bore a daughter named Dinah and Dinah will become very significant in a little bit in the account in Genesis. How amazing here? Then God remembered Rachel and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. Passing of years, the establishing of Leah’s position even though Jacob’s affection never evidently has changed. Leah’s importance in the family and significance with the children she has directly born and then her maid has born has established her importance in the family. And now God answers Rachel’s prayer. She conceived and bore a son and said God has taken away my reproach, she named him Joseph. May the Lord give to me another son and Joseph to me neither to add nor to take away. Some think its meaning, he will add to me another son yet, others take it to mean that the Lord has taken away my reproach. Now we think of Joseph because he becomes the most familiar to us because where the Book of Genesis is going to go, it’s going to focus on Joseph. But you understand Judah, the son of Leah becomes the most significant regarding the line of the Miseh. All the tribe are significant in the plan of God, but Judah will become the prominent tribe because it is the Messianic tribe. But we have Joseph and he will become prominent a little bit later Jacob’s prosperity. Now we have all Jacob’s children. Let me one more son to be born to make the twelfth. He has 11 sons and a daughter. So basic we have the family and Joseph established with one son yet to be born Benjamin. Now let’s talk about where he gets his wealth. You know, his family has established, now his money and his prosperity. And that’s through the rest of the Chapter how he becomes rich.

Verses 25 and 26: Jacob suggests to Laban it’s time for me to go home, back to my father Isaac, back to that land. Verse 27: Laban says, stay with me, I have divine that the Lord has blessed me on your account. Laban is a pagan, but God has made known even to Laban in his paganism. Then God will directly speak to Laban later also for another reason. But it became clear to Laban that the reason he was doing so well was because God was blessing Jacob and Laban was benefiting from God’s blessings to Jacob. So tell me what you want to stay.

Verses 32 and following, Jacob says I’ll tell you what, I’ will go although and take all the speckled, all black sheep, all the marked sheep, and they will be mine, and then that will be the pattern, all the speckled or discolored sheep become mine, all the others become yours. It sounds like a good deal for Laban because these would be the exceptions. These would be a minority. And it sounds to Laban that that’s alright. I will continue to prosper in the vast majority of the herds and the animal born will belong to me. But the hand of God is in this. There is going to be a turnaround. Amazingly, the majority of the animals and all the strongest and best animals that are going to be born or going to be the speckled and the marked and the black sheep and Laban is going to be left with a small herd of weak sickly animals. So that is the way that God is going to prosper Jacob.

Now Verse 37 says that Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, what he does is took these branches and then peeled the bark off, so that they are stripes, peals a section of bark off and leaves the section of bark, peals it off, so he has the stripes. Then he puts those in the food troughs and water troughs, so when the females aren’t eating, they come, they are eating and the males mate with the females, they will see these branches to stripe them that will cause them to mate. Now there are two possibilities, one it may be just Jacob’s superstition to affect the mating process or it may be later we are going to say that in Chapter 31.verses 11 and 12 the angel of God will appear to Jacob and say lift up your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating your stripes, speckled, and mottled, for I see all that Laban has been doing to you. He may be acting here on God’s direction and revelation. Either way God is behind it. We don’t know whether Jacob thinks she has a part in it here or God has already revealed him what he is going to do because that order has not established clearly in the way the account in Genesis is recorded. Either way, it’s God’s plan to prosper Jacob.

Now remember, Laban evidently did not have that much when Jacob came to him. He recognizes what he has as a result of God’s blessing on Jacob. So the fact that God would work this way to bless Jacob is within the plan of God because Laban has been a deceitful cunning man who has tried to keep Jacob in poverty. Jacob is going to refer to that later. The result of this is Jacob prospers and Laban is not prospering. Now we have tension with the family of Laban. That is what Chapter 31 is going to about. Jacob has been with his uncle for 20 years, when we come to Chapter 31. So seven years for each of his wives, each of the daughters, that’s 14 years and then six years beyond that, 20 years he has been with Laban. And now it is time to go.

The opening part of the Chapter is going to talk about the conflict. Jacob heard the words of Laban’s son saying, Jacob has taken away all of our fathers from what belonged to our father, he has made all this wealth. Jacob saw the attitude of Laban and behold it was friendly toward him as formerly. All this Laban was prospering, he was happy to use Jacob. And he treated Jacob well although he didn’t treat him fairly, but he liked having him there. But he was using him and Jacob knew it, they will come on the account. So Jacob decides it is time to go.

He calls for Rachel and Leah. They come out in the field to talk to him once he gets them alone. And he says “I served your father with all my strength. Verse 7. Your father cheated me, changed my wages ten times. So you see this has not been an easy time here for Jacob. Laban has been using him Jacob knows. 10 times he changed my wages always for better advantage for Laban. However, God did not allow him to hurt me. In all this Jacob is where God’s hand has been on him for filling his promises. So he talked about how God worked in how the flocks produced, they are speckled and serve on for his benefit in fulfillment. And the appearance of God, the angel of God in Verse 11, the angel of God said to him, he told him about the flocks and how they produced and then verse 13, “I am the God of Bethel”. You know the angel of God in Verse 11, is the God of Bethel. Remember Jacob had a dream, Jacob flattered. So when we talk about the Angel of God in the Old Testament being the preincarnate crisis. Because it is the manifestation of God. And here the angel of God; this messenger of God is none other than the manifestation of God. I am the God of Bethel, where you the pillar where you made a bow to me. Now arise, leave this land and return to the land of your birth. So Jacob is reiterating this to his wives, Rachel and Leah. Note he does not call out the maids by whom he has children because they are not on the same level as is Rachel and Leah. These are the wives, they are the concubines. They are still the servant of his wives and their children viewed as his wife’s children, because the children are the servants belong to the wives in that sense. God has spoken to him and Jacob has a remarkable relationship with God in spite of what is going on in his life in so many ways. God appears to tell him what to do, now it is the time to go home. You go back to Bethel. 20 years haven’t changed anything. Promises God gave at Bethel still holds true. Now you have return. The wives are in agreement. They say you know what, we agreed. They know their dad hasn’t been fared to him He might think now here Leah and Rachel and Rachel will part ways, but Leah agrees. Laban, their father has taken the money given to them and paid as a bride price for them and so on they give all that. He has taken it away. He used it that he say in Verse 15, he has consumed our purchase price. Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from my father belongs us and on our children. You have mothers looking after their children. And that is right. All these things should belong to our kids. So they are ready to go to. Jacob’s going to do what the way Jacob does things. He is going to do it deceitfully or going to sneak away. He is not going to tell Laban he is leaving and he has a fear, but here is a man who can talk about God spoke to me, the God of Bethel told me to do this, but I still got to do it deceitfully. Here is this mixture in Jacob of recognizing the God as a work, and then not being willing to trust God to get it done so doing it in his own scheming ways. So that you are ready to go and there is note here in Verse 19, when Laban had gone to shear his flock, Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s. You see there is a pagan influence in Jacob’s family as well. Why did she want the household items? There is still this superstition of false worship that these idols are significant and important perhaps for future inheritance. Rachel steals the idols, you were never told much about where the wives are in this. Why are they in relationship to Jacob’s God? These are important women. They play a significant role in the plan of God, but there is just no development on where there are spiritually. What Rachel really likes virtually where she is at this point, we just don’t know some of these thinks. So what they do is you know there are in the field he as his wives come out across their separation in Jacob watching flocks out in the field. So he has got a three day head start before word gets to Laban, do you know what? Jacob is gone. You know someone going out looking for him and finding out. He is not over there, moving the flocks around like we thought he was. So Laban gathers his kinsmen and take off after him and takes some seven days to catch off, so a total of ten days in what is going to take place? It is a pretty rapid trip. I had some information on the idols that you may have seen on the overhead there, some of the things that they are like why they might have been important to Rachel, they are going to come up again and again in Laban’s pursuit here. They are going to come up again later when Jacob finally gets into the land and he says we got rid of all the idols all the false gods that can continue to be part of us been amazing to see a patriarch that has tolerated this along the way. They have not even cleaned up the idols and false gods in his own family at this point. So you have Laban catching up the Jacob they were taken in the hills of Gilead. You know why? Jacob has covered 300 miles in those 10 days. It’s moving at a long. Keep that in mind when he meets his brother Esau on a little bit and tells Esau you go on and head me. I have to really travel slowly. It will be too hard on the flocks and the little ones if we go fast. I mean the deceiver still working his deception, because he can move it along when he wants to and he has covered 300 miles with all these flocks, his all families all of these is that he will tell means I have to go slow. Covering 30 miles a day with a group like this was significant travel time. So he has made it this far to the hills of Gilead. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? He has arrived Gilead. Again God intervenes on Jacobs’s part. Verse24. God came to Laban in Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, be careful, that you do not speak to Jacob either go to bed. I mean here is Laban is sleeping may be I am going to finish him off and take my family, my daughters, and their kids and all go back and rather just be careful. You don’t try to talk to Jacob and to go back with you. You don’t threaten him. You don’t do anyway. I mean when God intervenes on your behalf that way, what can you do. So now he catches up to him and Verse 26, Laban said to Jacob why have you done? What have you done by deceiving me. You carried away my daughters like captives with the sword. You fled away secretly You deceived me. You didn’t tell me. I would have sent you away with the party. When deceiver talking one another. Verse 29, it is in my power to do you harm and there is a strange contradiction here. It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night saying you can’t give a warning, in other word just not in my power. Is in my power humanly speaking the God says I can’t and God’s word to him was clear enough Laban knew better than to try anything.

So Verse 30.you have longed for your father’s house, but why did you steal my Gods? Really great Gods, why did you steal your Gods? Then Jacob say that I was afraid that is why I didn’t tell you. I thought you will take your daughter, and my kids and keep them. So you know there is ground for this in the character of Laban, but I did not take your Gods, you search it out. And the one who has your God is going to die on the spot. We will agree. We will execute that person. Little bit Jacob know that Rachel had the God. So you know the account Laban goes through the tense. He searched through everything. He comes to Rachel’s tent and she is sitting on the Camel saddle. And in that society the daughter would have risen in the presence of her father but she says I can’t because it is my time of the month. And really she was sitting on the camel saddle which is concealing the idols. So Laban can’t find his God. Now Jacob lays it on Laban and says you know you accused me for no reason. Verse 36, amazing how self-righteous we can become. Laban became angry and contempt with Laban and Jacob said that Laban What is my transgression. What is my sin that you have so hardly pursued me? You have gone through all my good you haven’t found anything belongs to you. There is 38, Twenty years I have been with you and your flocks prospered. Verse 39, That which was torn of beasts, I did not bring to you, he had to bear the loss. He couldn’t got to Laban and say bad news, one of the loved animals killed the couple of your lands and I had to pay for it, I had to replace it. Thus I was, at Verse 40, by the day that he consumed me the frost by night my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you 14 years for your two daughters, secured for your flocks, you changed my wages ten times. 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, the toil of my hand. So he rendered judgment last night. He told he could not harm me. So you really put Laban in his place. Laban replied, the daughters are mine children are mine, the flocks are mine, everything you see is mine. What can I do this state of my daughter and the children who are newborn and so his God said I can’t. This is an important element here. So he says let’s make a covenant and the covenant is a covenants of mistrust. I don’t trust you. And you say you don’t trust me. So let’s make an agreement. We won’t cross this line is we have to do with this God had been taken. He doesn’t want them anybody coming back, and saying we have the right to stay anything that belong of Laban, because we have his Gods and that has certain family rights attached to that we don’t know. So they make heap of stones as the witness to assign the contract to use the heap of stones. What does that stone mean, what those heap of stones mean that was a contract between Laban and Jacob. This heap is a witness between me and you this day and it is called in verse 49 Misbah. You become familiar with that and the covenant, may the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another, when Merlin and I were dating, you know they gave you these little things that hang around your neck and it had a little jagged thing and had the covenant Misbah on it. May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another, you don’t want to wear that around the neck. In another words I don’t trust you and you don’t trust me. So the Lord watching you, when you do wrong thing, the Lord will see you. That is hardly the thing you want to tell your wife to be, but those days it seemed like a cue thing to wear. Alright get my confessions out. If you mistreat my daughters, if you take wives besides my daughters, # God is with us between you and me, in other words, you can’t disown my daughters and disinherit my kids.

The Verse 51, this heap we hold a pillar, which I have set between you me. This pillar heap is a witness, the pillar is a witness, I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, you will not pass by this pillar to harm, the pillar here is the witness. You can’t come over here to do anything that would harm me, I can’t come over to do anything to harm you. May the God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father judge between us. Jacob wore by the fear of his Isaac. Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain called his kinsmen to the meal, the eighth meal, he spent a night on the mountain. Earlier in the morning Laban arouse kissed his sons and daughters blessed them and Laban departed. That is the last recorded contact between the patriarchs and their family, extended family, their origin, their roots. No more contact recorded here. Now we go to Palestine. And Jacob will become settled with his family there. Significant events that will happen in Chapter 32, and we have the origin of the name Israel. That will be brought to our attention as Jacob rustles with God and prevails and God gives Jacob the name Israel. All we say about Jacob. He is the mighty man of God, who will prevail with God. God uses us in spite of our failures, in spite of our sins, and never excuses our sin, but have to remind us God is not using perfect man and perfect woman. God is working by his grace and using imperfect man and imperfect woman, that he is called by his grace to accomplish his purposes. And even Jacob’s failures in shortcomings being a man of deceit does not change the fact he is also the man of God’s choice. He is a giant in the plan and program of God and he was used mightily in the purposes of God in preparing the nation for the realization of the promises of Abraham. Let’s pray together.

Let our hearts to be encouraged and blessed as we see your hand at work. But it is easy to point out the shortcomings, the failures of a man like Jacob. To shake our heads and wonder why he was at more a man of God. Yet we are reminded that you are a God of grace. We are reminded that we are but imperfect servants. We are reminded that we will need done all that you have instructed us to do, we have still been but miserable servants. We have done only what we should have done. We thank you for your hand of Grace upon Jacob that he is a giant as your servant. A man greatly blessed and mightily you. We are encouraged or may be challenged to realize. We should trust you more so. We should work with you more faithfully. We need not fear and try to use our all scheming, our own plans that you the God will sovereign as we are faithful. So I will pray for those going through a difficult time there. . All situations and circumstances seen, humanly speaking to be destructive and ruinous. I want to encourage each heart to realize nothing frustrates your purposes and plans. As we your people are the object of your grace and your mercy. We look forward to the weaker head of us with these things in mind in craze living. Amen.