Sermon_ Jacob Struggles

And good morning.

Is a beautiful day outside. Looking forward to getting out

there this afternoon. I hope you are too enjoying God's creation.

We're going to be continuing our study here faith foundations.

We're going through the scriptures we started in Genesis one one.

We're going through and looking at the foundations of our faith,

what we believe and God wrote the Bible so that

we would know Him, that we would understand ourselves, and

that we could know where in this.

World we could possibly find hope.

Those are the three questions that we're encouraging everybody to

ask every time we open up the scriptures, and we're

doing that. And again, what we're doing here on Sunday

mornings right now is literally what I would encourage everyone

here to consider doing with someone else. We're calling it

each one teach one where you just pray ask God

to say, who is one person that I could invite

to just go through the Bible with just to study

God's works so that they could know who God is

and understand themselves and know where there is hope, because

that is what the world needs. They need to hope,

and the only hope is found in Jesus Christ and

that's what scripture is really pointing at. Well, we were

all the way up through Genesis chapter twenty nine. Now,

so if you have your Bibles, you can open them

to Genesis twenty nine. We're in the life of Jacob,

the life of Jacob, And what we saw last week

is that Jacob was this wonderful follower of God. Right,

I heard some good laughter there. No, he was not

a follower of God. And we saw that. You know what,

Abraham we call Abraham, the father of our faith. And

just because he had grown in his faith over thirty

five plus years to the point where he was actually

confident in offering up his son Isaac to God, knowing

that God would probably raise him from the dead because

it was promised through Isaac to be all these blessings.

He had grown in his faith. He trusted God, he

followed God.

But just because he doesn't mean that his sons or

his grandchildren did. Faith is not something that's inherited. It's

something that has to be chosen by each person. And

we saw with Jacob that he really was a man

after his name. His name Jacob meant deceiver. We saw

that he had struggled with his brother, his brother, though

they were twins, his brother was technically the firstborn, and Jacob, well,

like most of us, very self centered and I want

the stuff, and so Jacob schemed, deceived his brother, tricked

his brother out of the birthright, and then later, when

his father was old and his sight had gone, he

actually deceived his father along with his mother, working with

his mother again family dynamics. Again, it's pretty horrible, but

deceiving his blind father into thinking that he was Esau,

the firstborn, so that he could then inherit the blessing

of the father, well, that led to trouble, and Esau

wanted to kill Jacob, and that's kind of where we

left the story off. Only one more thing. Jacob sent

or Isaac sent Jacob away so that he could find

a wife among his relatives, and on the journey, God

appeared to Jacob. Now we've been talking a lot about

what do we see about God, what do we see

about man? And as we saw Jacob's life and we

saw that he doesn't even claim God, he said to Isaac,

the Lord, your God gave me success when I went

out to hunt again, he didn't go to hunt.

He was lying.

But he doesn't even say, God's is God. He says, Dad,

he's your God. But God still.

Appeared to Jacob. He appeared to him to let him

know that he is the one true God.

In that I will bless you. I'm gonna take care

of you. Let's go ahead and just look at that.

Let's look and see exactly what God said.

The end, he appeared to him.

And when he was in sleep in this dream, there

were angels on the staircase going up and down, and

the Lord was at the top and there above.

It's to the Lord.

He said, I am the Lord, the God of your

father Abraham, the God of Isaac. And obviously God knows

that Jacob has not received him as his lord yet.

So yeah, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, not yours yet.

But this is what I'm gonna do.

I will give you and your descendants the land of

which you're lying. Your descendants will be like the dust

of the earth. You will spread out to the west,

to the east, to the north, of the south. All

peoples on earth will be blessed for.

You and your offspring.

I am with you, and we'll watch over you wherever

you go. I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave you until I have done what

I promised to you. Is there anything in that promise

that God says, if you do this.

Then this is what I'm gonna do. Was any If this.

Is all what God promised he was going to do,

wasn't dependent upon Jacob?

How did Jacob respond to that?

A little bit later, Jacob made a vowse saying, if

God will be with me and we'll watch over me

on this journey I am taking, he will give me

food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I

returned safety my father's household, then the Lord will be

my God.

Not a follower of God at all. In fact, he

wants to manipulate God. And we saw that that really

is a heart of man. And again, how many of

us do that? If God does things the way I like,

then I'm happy with God and he's my God. But

if he doesn't do things the way I like, well

now I'm going to be mad at God. We all

have that tendency in our hearts. We're just like Jacob.

But praise the Lord.

He is faithful, and that's what we're we're gonna see

here in the life of Jacob. We're gonna see God's

faithfulness to what he says he's gonna do. We're gonna

see God's grace because Jacob, again, if somebody said that

to you, well, if you do for me, then I will.

I'll let you be my friend. You want to be

their friend.

No, in fact, talking to God like that, what that

he deserved, You're done. But instead God and his grace

does go with Jacob, and we're gonna see that. And

I put a map up here because I think it's

important to keep in mind the geography.

And what's going on.

The scriptures tell us the names of places, because this

is a real story. This is a real count of

what really happened, especially later in the story when we

get there and we are gonna cover a lot of

ground today, so I'm gonna start moving faster. So he

starts down to Bearsheba, and he walks all the way

up to the area of Haran up there, back to

his father's and his mother's relatives up in that way,

and so that's where he goes. This is actually very

reminiscent to a time when Abraham wanted a wife for

his son Isaac, and he actually sent a servant to

make this same journey all the way back to Harand

to find a wife for Isaac. And you see that

earlier on in Genesis. Well, the story goes that Jacob

basically does get there and just and it's kind of

funny the similarities between the stories. Jacob arrives in the

area of Horan there and he goes to a well

and there's a bunch of shepherds there and they are

waiting to water the flock. And he says, hey, do

y'all know Laban And they're like, yeah, we know Laban.

Is he well, yeah, in fact, here comes his daughter

with the sheep and he's like, oh great, here she is.

He takes the stone off water's a sheep for and

everything else, says, hey, my mother is your dad's brother,

and she goes tells dad Laban. Laban comes says, hey,

come stay with me. He says, you're with my own

flesh and blood. He actually stays with Laban. The similarities

there are uncanny between the time that Jake goes in

earlier when Abraham had sent his servant up. But you

know what's really different when the servant got there and Rebecca,

Jacob's mom came up to him at the well. What

did the servant do? Is anybody remember, praise the Lord

who has made my journey a success. You know what

Jacob didn't do. Again, he's not a follower of God.

He is not worshiping God. He is not praising God

for actually keeping him safe on this six hundred plus

mile journey back to his relatives, not.

Thankful that he ends up at the well and.

Lo and behold, here comes his cousin and his uncle

right away takes him in. There is no praising the

Lord for any of this. So let's keep going with

the story here Genesis twenty nine and again, what I'm

gonna do is I'm gonna do a lot of reading

through the scripture, through the storyline, because this is exactly

what you can do with someone else. You can read

through it and then talk about what do we see

about God? We see about ourselves mankind?

And where his hope?

So Laban said to him, you're my own flesh and blood.

And after Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month,

Laban said to him, just because you're a relative of mine, should.

You work for me for nothing? Tell me what your.

Wages should be. Now Laban had two daughters. The name

of the older was Leah. The name of the younger

was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a

lovely figure and was beautiful. Jacob was in love with

Rachel and said, I'll work for you seven years in

return for your younger daughter, Rachel. Now calculating out what

the ages were. Again archaeology, they can look back at

things or written down whatnot, and they know what the

average bride price was, and they know what the average

wage for a shepherd was. So working for about three

to four years would be the average bride price. But

he loved Rachel so much He's like, I'll work for

you seven years, almost twice like a double bride price

for Rachel. So Laban said, hey, it's better I give

her to you than some other man stay.

Here with me.

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they

seemed like only a few days to him because of

his love for her. So Theyben brought together all the

people the place and gave a feast. But when evening came,

he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob,

and Jacob made love to her, and Laban gave his

servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant. When morning came,

there was Leah. So Jacob said to Laban, what is

this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel,

didn't I?

Why have you?

What's the word deceived me? The deceiver has been deceived.

He gets a taste of his own medicine. Laban replied,

it's not our custom here to give the younger daughter

in marriage before the older one finished his daughter's bride

a week. Then we'll give you the younger one also

in return for another seven years of work, another double

bride price.

So he's working now for bride prices for Rachel.

Essentially, Jacob so he finished the week with Leah because

that's how long their wedding feast would go. It would

be about a week long party. And after that then

he got Rachel to be his wife as well. Laban

gave a servant, bill Ta to his daughter Rachel as

her attendant.

Jacob made love to Rachel also.

And his love for Rachel was greater than his love

for Leah, and he worked for Laban another seven years.

Jacob struggles. He's already struggled with his own brother. He

struggled with his dad, and now he is struggling with

his uncle and he's met his match. Now he's not

the one who's doing deceiving. He is the one being deceived.

How many of us don't mind doing to somebody else,

but we hate when we happens to us. Again, this

is the heart of man. Somehow we can excuse our behavior,

like Jacob, he couldn't excuse.

I'm supposed God said before I was born, I supposed

to get the blessing. So you know, deceiving I got

I was supposed to get.

We can, we can sometimes rationalize what we do, but boy,

we don't like it.

But what it happens to us, that's the heart of man.

Struggling with Laban being manipulated. When the Lord saw that

Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but

Rachel remained childless. Now this is interesting. Pay attention to

that who's enabling his wife to have children. The Lord,

what was one of the things he said to Jacob

when he appeared to him. Your descendants are going to

be like the dust of the earth. You're going to

have many descendants. Well he's got one now so far,

and it's because of the Lord.

Leah became pregnant, gave birth to a son.

She named him Reuben, for she said, it is because

the Lord has seen my misery.

Surely my husband will love me now again, I think

that Leah and Rachel and Laban all knew of the Lord,

but as.

You read through the story, you find out that they

also worshiped other gods. Kind of like a lot of people,

we tend to say, okay, well I know the Lord,

but there's a lot of other things in her life we.

Want as well. Well.

She recognized that the Lord allowed her to be pregnant,

and she's thinking, okay, now my husband will love me.

I gave him a son. She conceived again.

When she gave birth to a son, she said, because

the Lord heard I'm not loved, he gave me this one.

Also named him Simeon Simeon, and she again she.

Conceived, and when she gave birth to a son, she said,

now at last, my husband will be attached to me,

because I have borne him three sons, and his name

was Levi.

It was interesting and.

When you look at the names of the boys, she

goes from you know what, naming the boy like, maybe

he'll love me now to well, now with this one, well,

maybe he'll just be at least attached to me.

She conceived again, and when she gave birth to us

your son.

This time, I will praise the Lord, and she named

him Judah.

She stopped having children.

She goes from maybe he'll love me to maybe he'll

be attached to me too. You know what, I'm just

gonna have to praise the Lord and forget anything to

do with my husband. When you look at the names,

you start to see desperation.

In Leah. But it wasn't just Leah.

When Rachel saw she was not burying Jacob any children,

she became jealous of her sister, so she said to Jacob,

give me children or I'll die. And Jacob became angry

with her, said, am I in the place of God?

Who has kept you from having children? She said, here's Bill, ha,

my servant. Sleep with her, so she can bear children

for me, and I too can build a family through her.

Again, the whole surrogacy thing. She gave him. Her servant,

Bill has a wife.

Jacob slip up with her, she became pregnant, bore him

a son. Then Rachel said, God has vindicated me, has

listened to my plea and given me a son.

Because of this, she named him Dan. And again.

God did give Jacob another son, because he did promise

to give Jacob lots of sons. But do you think

God's really vindicating this kind of behavior. We know that

God is not the one who designed polygamy, right, God

is not the one who designed all this, but he

is the one who promised descendants.

What do we see about man? What do we see

about God?

Let's keep going, we'll talk about that in a little bit.

Keep thinking about those things. What do we see about man?

What do we see about God?

Through this?

Rachel's servant, Bill how conceived again bore Jacob a second son,

and Rachel said, I have.

A great struggle with my sister and I have one.

And again, that's what this whole dynamic is.

It's this struggle between Jacob and Laban and now between

Leah and Rachel. Leah, who actually owned that wedding night,

had to have said, oh here I am, I'm Rachel.

Well Rachel was what locked up in her tent? I

don't know, but Rachel knows that you stole what should have.

Been mine and mine alone. And Leah's thinking, well, I'm

the older when I got married.

So you have taken my husband. And there's this struggle

about who's gonna be the wife in charge, the loved one.

When Leah saw she had stopped having children, she took

her servants Zilpa and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

And Leah servant Zilpa bore Jacob a son. Leah said,

what good fortune. She named him gad okay, I'm winning

in the children war. Here Leah servant Zilpah bore Jacob

a second son.

Leah said, how happy I am? The woman will call

me happy? She named a bastor.

During the wheat hour harvest, Ruben went out to the

fields found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his

mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, give me some of

your son's mandrakes. Now, mandrake was something they believed that

this fruit would inspire love.

And so Rachel's like, give me the mandrakes where.

Leah wanted them. But she says, all right, wasn't it

enough that you took away my husband? Will you take

my son's mandrakes too?

Very well?

Rachel said he can sleep with you tonight and return

for your son's mandrakes. Can you imagine growing up in

this household? Can you imagine Ruben's there witnessing this. Can

you imagine what this is doing to the kids. We're

gonna see that next week. What impact does this have

on the kids to watch this sexual favors and everything

else within their family. When Jacob came in from the

fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. You

must sleep with me, she said, I hired you with

my son's mandrakes. So she slept with him that night. Again,

this is God's word. He is being honest, and I

think it's a good thing. He's being honest because that

shows us a lot about ourselves, because boy, don't we

sometimes live messed up lives.

And this is pretty messed up. But yet God's at work.

God listened to Liah. She became pregnant, poor Jacob, a

fifth son.

Then Liah said, God has rewarded me for giving my

servant to my husband.

Again, do you.

Think God's rewarding her for giving her servant to her husband.

What I would propose is sometimes we can look at

the blessings of the Lord which he gives us just

because he wants to bless us, and sometimes we can

misinterpret that, can't we We can misinterpret to justify our

sinful behavior. Well, God must be blessing me, so what

must not be that bad what I'm doing?

Has anybody ever done that?

It's easy to do to think that just because things

are going well in my life, God's blessing me, so

my behavior must not be that bad. That's not the

reason he's blessing. Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a

sixth son, and Leah said, God has resented me with

a precious gift. This time, my husband will treat me

with honor because I had born him six sons. So

she named him Zebulin, And sometime later she gave birth

to a daughter.

Named her Dinah.

Then God, remember Rachel, listened to her and enabled her

to conceive again. It's God who enabled her to conceive

because they were giving their servants to Jacob, because they

were fighting over him, or just because God's being faithful

to what he promised that I will give you children.

She became pregnant, gave birth to a son, and said,

God has taken away my disgrace. She named him Joseph

and said made the Lord add to me another son.

So we see that Jacob, he struggled with the So

he struggled with his own dad, he struggles with Laban,

and he struggles with his own wives. And I can't

imagine it had to be quite a circus in that

house with who loves who and who's doing what with who.

But he's struggling. Why could it be because of his

own choices? Is the struggle because God's putting the struggle there?

Or is the struggle there because he's been trying to

get the blessing that God promised on his own terms.

I propose that his struggle is there because he's doing

it his way.

We celebrate that song, right, I did it my way. Right.

That's what we celebrate our culture, and that is the

human heart. But that's the source of most of our struggles.

Instead of waiting for God to.

Bless he's trying to get it his way, same as

his wives. Well, after she gives birth to Joseph, Jacob says, look,

send me on my way. I can go back to

my homeland, give me my wives and children for whom

I've served you.

I will be on my way.

You know how much work I've done for you, and

the language that's behind this apparently he's just like, give

me what I'm owed.

I am done. Sounds like a great relationship with the

father in law. Right Again, there's a struggle there, but

Laban says, I found favor in your eyes. Please stay.

I've learned by divination the Lord blessed me because of you.

And again Laban had many other guys we're gonna see

later on, but there's this background knowledge of the Lord

and he's learned through divination. He's getting rich because Jacob's there,

and God blesses what Jacob does.

Say. He says, name your wages, I'll pay them.

Jacob said to him, you know I've worked for you

and how your live stock is fared under my care.

The little you had before I came is increased greatly.

The Lord has blessed you wherever I've been. But now,

when may I do something for my own household?

What shall I give you? He asked?

Don't give me any things, Jacob replied, but if you

do this one thing for me, I will go on

tend to your flocks and watching over them. Let me

go through all your flocks today, remove from them every speckled,

the spotted sheep, every dark colored lamb, every spotted or speckled.

Goat, they will be my wages. My honesty will testify

for me in the future. Whenever you check on the

wages you paid me.

Any goat in my position and is not speckled or spotted,

any lambin is not dark colored, will be considered stolen. Now,

in that culture with the sheep and shepherds, they all

knew that the speckle, the spotted, the dark colored ones,

those were the rare ones. Those were the rare ones.

So Jacob's like, give me the rare ones. I'll keep

whatever word's born that way, I'll keep as my wages,

and you keep the rest. Agreed, said Laban. Let it

be as you said. And you can imagine Laban's thinking here,

this is gonna be good. The ones that are like

the rare bursts he'll get. He's not gonna get squat.

I'm gonna get everything. In fact, not only is he

gonna get the minimal, but I'm gonna make sure he

removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted,

all the speckled or spotted female goats, all that had

white on them and all the dark colored lambs, and

he placed them in the care of his son's and

put a three day journey between himself and Jacob while

Jacob continued to tend the rest of his flocks. I'm

gonna take all the speckel spotted, all the dark colored ones,

and I'm gonna remove them by three days journey so

they can't mate. That way, he's not gonna get anything again.

Laban is a manipulator, just like Jacob. What's Jacob do? Jacob, however,

took fresh cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees

and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark,

exposing the white inner wood of the branches.

He placed the peel branches.

In the water and shoughs so that they would be

directly in front of the flocks when they came in

to drink. And when the flocks were in heat and

came to drink, they made it in front of the branches,

and they bore young that were straked.

Speckled, and spotted. Those are some awesome branches, aren't they. Man,

It's awesome.

He set apart the young and the flock by themselves

made the rest face the streaked and dark colored animals

that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for

himself and did not put them with Laban's animals.

It took me a long time.

I always read that and I thought this is weird,

and I just kind of read through it and just

let's move on. But you know, when I was overseas,

I found out that again, a big part of the

world is all about animism, about manipulating the spiritual realm.

Everything that happens in the physical realm, there is a

spiritual realm that is real and that.

Is impacting the physical realm.

And so they would do these kinds of things where

if I do these rituals that manipulates the spirits to

make things happen the way I want, that's exactly what

he's doing. If I have the speckled and spotted branches,

the sheep will see that, the spirits will make sure

that they have speckled and spotted sheep.

I'm going to get this.

By manipulation of the spiritual He's all about trying to

do it himself. Still, and it seemed.

To be working.

Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place

the branches in the troughs in front of the animals.

They would make near the branches.

The animals were weak, it would not play some there,

so the weak animals went to Laban, the strong animals

went to Jacob.

In this way, the man grew exceedingly.

Prosperous and came to own large flocks female males, servants, camels,

and donkeys. And what we know from later on in

the story is that while this was going on for

a number of years, Laban's like, man, you're getting all

the speckled spot.

Okay, well, let's change up the terms.

Now you're gonna get all the sheep that are like this,

and he changed it like seven times. But no matter

how they changed the wages, Jacob was always coming out

on top and winning, so much so that Jacob heard

Laban's sons were saying, Jacob has taking everything our father owned,

has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.

And Jacob noticed Laban's attitude and towards it was not

what it had been. Ah, the lord's did. The Lord said,

you could go back to the land of your father's,

to your relatives, and I will be with you again,

promising to be with him. He calls together Rachel and Leeann.

Apparently there was more. The Lord said, because he's going

to relay a little bit more to his wives. He

said that I may see that your father's attitude toward

me is not what it has been before.

But the God of my father again, he's still not

claiming God is his own catch up. The God of

my father has been with me, which is what he

had promised.

You know that I've worked for your father with all

my strength, Yet your father is cheating me by changing

my wedges. Sorry, not seven ten times. However, God has

not allowed him to harm me. He realizes. God appeared

to him and made it clear it wasn't your sticks

I did it. He said, the speckled and spot on

ones will be your wages, and the fox gave birth

to speckled young. If you said the streak ones will

be your wages, then all the flocks bore streaked young.

So God has taken away your father's livestock and has

given them to me and breeding seasoned. I once had

a dream in which I looked up and saw the

male ghost meeting with the flock or streaks speckled or spotted.

Now remember they were all removed, so it wasn't a thing.

It was like in the dream he saw that the

sheep were like speckled or spotted, and God said, sorry, ohoh, sorry,

I must have skipped over that verse. They were and

now the things keep scrolling way fast. All right, they

were all speckled or spotted. Basically, God showed Jacob, I'm

the one who made it happen that when they were

breeding the speckled they came out speckled and spotted.

Supernatural. It's what I did for you.

You weren't coming to me asking for things, but I

told you I would take care of you.

I did. I did. So God appears to him makes

it clear.

So Jacob says, all right, well, your dad and your

brothers are all against me, and they're kind of mad

at me, so we better get out while the getting's good.

Culturally, he should have told his father in law, but

instead he didn't tell him.

He deceived Laban. Notice again the word deceived. This word

just kind of keeps coming up over and over again.

He's still operating in I am Jacob the deceiver. I

will make things work my way, even if God appears

to him and says, I'm the one who's been taking

care of you. So he fled with all he had,

crossed the Euphrates River, headed for the hill country at Gilead.

So again he's struggling with Laban. All these years. God

is working behind the scenes.

We don't see Jacob ever saying God, please do something.

We never see him acknowledging and saying God, you're the

one who did this.

We just see him trying to minutlate, trying to deceive,

trying to do things his way.

Even after God appears to him and says, Okay, it's

time for you to go, but I'm the one who

made you rich.

Know that.

Okay, what's time to go, But I'm going to do

it my way to see my father in law.

Just go.

Well, Laban goes and up with Jacob, and I'm going

to skip ahead to Genesis thirty one twenty six again

for the sake of time.

Laban does catch up to him and he says, what

have you done?

You deceived me, You carried off my daughters like captives

in war. Why did you run off secretly and deceive me?

Why didn't you tell me so I could send you away?

With joy, singing to the music of timbrels and harps.

You didn't even let me kiss my grandchildre my daughter's goodbye.

You've done a foolish thing. I have the power to

harm you, and he could have taken vengeance. But last

night the God of your father again, not Laban's God,

not Jacob's God. The God of your Father said to me,

be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good

or bad. God appeared to Laban and put the fear

of God in him so that he wasn't gonna do

anything to Jacob. Again, Jacob's trying to do it his way.

I can just deceive, I can just manipulate, I can

make things happen. I'm gonna make this all work out

my way. But every time he does, he just gets

in trouble. He leaves without telling his father in law

while he's actually in trouble. But who's been protecting him

all along? Every time he's doing all this, the fact

that he's not acknowledging God, the fact that he's not

following God, the fact that he's just deceiving over and

over again, what does he really deserve? Because deception of

any kind is sin. What is the wages of sin.

Death? God could have and should have probably just squished

him a long time ago. That's what he deserved. God

didn't do that. That's what mercy.

And the fact that this has taken place over twenty

years now that shows God is patience. And the fact

that God has blessed him with children even though he

was doing it all the wrong way. The fact that

God has blessed him with flocks and herds even though

he did it all the wrong way. God has protected

him from his father in law even though he did

it all the wrong way. That's God's grace, giving him

what he doesn't deserve. Oh, by the way, Rachel also

stole her dad's idols his God's and so that all

took place too. But God warns Laban again, we're seeing

God working for Jacob when Jacob doesn't deserve it.

Why why.

Jacob heard Laban's sons were so Oh man, now it's

all skip back again.

Anyway.

A little bit later, they basically go through they make

a covenant to say, okay, well, you take care of

my daughter my grandkids, and I won't come over there

harm you, and you never come back here and harm

me and they part ways and after that interesting, it's

just two verses where it says that the angels of

God appeared to him again.

And he says, oh wow, and it wasn't just a few,

it was a bond bunch.

He's like, we're two camps, my whole group over here,

and God's angels are with me here, two camps. God's

really protected me. He protected me by appearing to Laban.

He's got the angels right here protecting me.

This is fantastic. So what does he do next? What

does he do next? I think God's been working in

his heart.

It says that Jacob sent messengers ahead of it to

his brother Esau into land a sayer, the country of Edom,

and again it's all important.

He instructed them.

This is what you're to say, my lord, Esau, your servant,

Jacob says, I've been staying with Laban and now have

remained there till now.

I have cattle and.

Donkeys and sheep, goats, male and females are now. I'm

sending this message to my lord that I may find

favor in your eyes. Why is he sending this message

to Esau and why does he say what he does?

Well?

He saw wanted to kill him when he left right

Why because he stole the birth right that he would

have get the main share of the inheritance. He stole

the blessing. He's coming back to the land. He's afraid

Esau is going to do something to him, right, that's

what we usually think. But where the text actually tells

us where they all are? Jacob started up there and

the flag at the very top. He works his way

back down just the way he came, and down here

where it says Gilly. Id's hard to see on the screen,

but right there at the e, right there at the

e above the first flag there is where he meets

with Laban, and then the second flag down.

Is where he decides to send servant Saws to Esau.

And where was Esau? He was in the land of

Where's Edom? Anybody see it? Down there? Like over one

hundred miles away?

And this was before cars and planes and trains and

things over.

One hundred miles away.

Why is he send the message? I think God's been

working in his heart. Jacob is the deceiver who deceived

and manipulated his brother and got a taste of his

own medicine. Denny through Laban, and he comes back, and

what's he say say to my lord Esaul. I've got herds,

I've got servants, I've got everything I need. Essentially, I'm

not after the birthright. I'm not out here to lorded

over you, to be the firstborn that's going to rule

over you. I'm putting myself under you, and I'm not

worried about the birthright anymore. I think God's worked in

his heart to realize what he did was wrong, and

he's trying to make things right with his brother.

But what happens again?

Because there was no reason he wasn't going to run

into Esau's over one hundred miles away, living in a

whole different area. But he sends us word to Esau,

and then all of a sudden he finds out Esau's coming.

Some messengers return. They said, oh, we went to your

brother Esau. He's coming to meet you. Four hundred men

are with him in great fear and distress. Jacob divided

that people were with him into two groups, the flocks

and herds.

And camels as well. And he thought that if Esau

comes at text one group, the group that has left

might escape.

What's he doing again? God just protected him from Laban.

God just sent all these angels, a whole camp of

angels to be right next to him, to say, I'm

with you, I'm protecting you. And as soon as he

hears the Esau's come and what's he back to I

gotta figure this out and protect what's mine. But he

also did something else. Ooh, this is a turning point, Jacob.

What's the word he prayed?

Turning point in Jacob's life after all these years. Finally

he says, Oh, God of my father Abraham, God of

my father Isaac.

Lord. He calls him, Lord, you who.

Said to me, go back to your country, your relatives,

and I will make you prosperous. I am unworthy of

all the kindness and faithfulness you have.

Shown to your servant.

I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan,

but now I become two camps.

Save me.

I pray from the hand of my brother Esau, for

I am afraid he will come and attack me, and

also the mothers with their children.

I love that it's taken over twenty years, but we've

got movement here.

That he's actually turning to the Lord and calling him Lord,

realizing that it was God's kindness and faithfulness, and again

we talked that about that before God's showing patience, giving mercy,

giving grace. That's all God's kindness, which is meant for

what according to Romans two.

For his kindness which leads us to repentance.

God has been patiently working with him for over twenty

years to finally bring him to repentance, to the point

where he's going to actually be a follower of God.

And that gives me hope because that means he is

patiently working with all of us, and he'll be.

He's willing to work for over twenty years on Jacob.

He's willing to work for over twenty years on us

to bring us finally to the point where we'd stop

trying to do it my way.

And say, Lord, I don't deserve what you've done.

It hasn't been me doing it. All the mess ups

and all the struggles I have, that's me. But all

the good things I have is because of you, not

because of me and what I've done. He prayed, he said,

but you said, I will surely make you prosper and

make your decidance like the Sennessee, which cannot be counted

he said, God, you made the promise.

I'm gonna trust you. Please fulfill your promises. He spent

the night there.

But then, just like all of us, we very quickly

fall back into our old ways, don't we. All of

a sudden, he starts picking out a gift for his brother.

He saw, two hundred female goes twenty mail goes two

hundred US twenty rams.

And again, this is the gift that's going to Esaul.

Imagine how much he had.

Thirty female camels with are young, forty cows and ten bulls,

twenty female donkeys, ten male donkeys.

Put them in the care of his servants.

Each heard by itself, said those servants go ahead of me,

keep some distance between the herds. He instructed one in

the leave. When my brother Esau meets you and ask

who do you belong to? Where are you going? Who

owns all these animals in front of you? Then say

they belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift

sent to my lord Esau.

He is coming behind us.

He also instructs second one, the third and the others

who followed to her is to say the same thing

the esaw when you meet him, and be sure to say,

your servant Jacob is coming behind us, for he thought,

I will pacify him with these gifts. I am sending

on ahead. Later when I see him, perhaps he will

receive me, he prayed, which is a great step in

the right direction, but very quickly stepping back to I

gotta work this out. Jacob's gifts went on ahead, and

but he himself spent the night in the camp again

struggling with Esau, struggling trying to.

Figure it out himself.

And that night Jacob got up, took his two wives,

two female servantses of it suns crossed the ford of

the Jabbik, and after he sent them across the stream,

he sent over all his possessions and he was left alone.

A man wrestled with him till daybreak. There's a great

YouTube video about the location where this took place. Encourage

you to watch that. I will put it out this week.

When the man saw he could not overpower him, he

touched the socket of Jacob's hips, so his hip was

wrenched as he wrestled the man.

The man said, let.

Me go, it's daybreak, but Jacob replied, I will not

let you go unless you bless me and I think

it's Joseiah refers back to this and says he sought

the blessing with tears.

The man asked him, what is your name?

To reveal your name again in that culture, was to

reveal who you are fully, and he had to say,

I am Now the English word there is Jacob.

What's the meaning? I am a deceiver?

Who I am just always trying to work it my way,

deceive people to get what I want.

It's who I am. Go ahead and move on to

the next slide. There, Matthew, the man said to him, your.

Name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you

have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.

And that's what Israel means.

Means God strives, And really, I think that's what's at

the root behind all this. For over twenty years, God

has been striving with Jacob to bring him to the

point where he'll finally repent of just trying to do

it his way, deceiving, manipulating, and say God, I need you.

And that's what we see. He is now at the

point he says I need you to bless me. That's it,

and he's letting go of everything else.

He says to the man, please tell me your name.

And he replied, why do you ask my name? In

other words, you know who I am. He blessed him there,

and yeah, Jacob knew who it was. He called the

place penile, which means face of God, saying it is

because I saw God face to face, and yet my

life was spared. Jacob finally gets to the end of

himself says God, I need you to bless me. That's it,

and he got it, and he got a new name,

new identity.

He was no longer deceiver. Now he's Israel, the striving.

Of God, blessing and a name. What do we see

about man again? When I look at Jacob, I see myself.

I see mankind in general. We are all so self centered.

We just look at what we want and how can

I manipulate the people around me in situation around me

to get what I want?

That's our heart. That's what we do.

Even when we know God says he's gonna do something,

we tend to well, I'm gonna figure it out myself.

I'm gonna get this done. And sometimes we even go

so far as knowing that we're doing things the wrong way.

But justifying that God must be happy with what I did,

because look, I got blessing.

That's our heart.

We we don't inherit faith from the people that can

be for us.

We tend to be live in disobedience to God.

We naturally rely and trust ourselves instead of trusting God.

And we are so self centered in self gratifying. That's

our natural bent. But what do I see about God

through all this and again we've said the same thing

over and over.

He's faithful.

He told Jacob, I will be with you, I will

watch over you, I will bless you. You're gonna have kids,

You're gonna have prosperity, and I'm gonna bring you back

to the land. And God did every single one of

those things, even after twenty years and before Jacob.

Ever became a follower of God.

God is faithful to do what he says, even for

people who aren't following him.

He's always faithful, and he is patient.

He is so full of mercy that he put up

with what Jacob doing and Rachel was doing and Leah

was doing. He put it up with all of that

and patiently endured. Because every time we sin, that is

an offense. I get God that hurts, God that is

deserving his wrath every single time, and for twenty years

he put up with it. And not only did he

put up with it not giving them what they deserved,

he blessed.

Them grace upon grace. Where is the hope.

The hope is absolutely in the fact that God works

all things according to his purpose. Even with Jacob was

not following him, God said, this is what I'm gonna do, and.

God did it.

Anyway, that brings if I can trust God to do

everything that he said he's gonna do, even though I

can't see how it's gonna happen. Amen, It's it's like

he saw Esau's coming foreigner men. He had no idea

how God was gonna save him out of this one. Yeah,

he spoke to Laban, but he's he's got.

Four hundred men. How's God going to do this? Well?

God did.

The end of the story is the fact that Esau

came and said, oh, come here, brother, and they hugged

because God worked in Essel's heart from wanting to kill

Jacob to embracing him when he came home. Because God

works according to his purpose, and that is something that

gives me hope. Because if it was up to me,

my plans don't work out. How do yours work out?

But God's plans will always work? And that is hope.

There's a lot to learn from Jacob. And again, we

went through it really quick. This morning.

You're probably thinking not quick enough, but we went through

it really fast. I encourage you go back read it

for yourself. Ask the questions, what do I see about man?

Look at all the deception, Think of yourself, Think of

the people around you. Isn't this world full of deception

and manipulation our own hearts? Look what do you see

about God? Praise him for it. Find hope in his

faithfulness and his working, and his working even for those

who don't follow him, to bring them to the point

of repentance, to giving them a new name, a new identity,

and a new purpose. That's what he did for Jacob.

That's what was he wants to do for us. That's hope. Lord,

thank you for your word. I thank you for these

examples of real life people, real life that we can

relate to. Even though we're not shepherds, we can relate

to all these things. And I thank you that you

are so faithful to do everything you said you're going

to do. Thank you that you work with us to

bring us to repentance through your faithfulness and kindness. That

you give us a new name and a new identity

through Christ. I pray that you would just teach us

and help us to help show others that other people

can see who you really are through your word. And

I pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.