Genesis 31:1-21
Jacob's Gospel

Review: The story so far

Jacob at the well Laban rushes to greet him, invite him into family

Jacob wants Rachel Laban tricks Jacob (as Jacob had earlier tricked Isaac Laban gets rich off Jacob

Jacob bears a great nation through Rachel and Leah

Jacob wants to leave Laban persuades him to stay Jacob tricks Laban Jacob gets rich off Laban

1. The Story As It Happens to Jacob
   1. The Tension
      1. Laban previously favorable toward Jacob (for obvious reasons)
      2. But now Jacob's labor is not making Laban rich
      3. And this is what Laban is about.
         1. He's the man of this world
         2. He cares only for what happens in this life
         3. He's what Jacob would have been if God had not appeared at Bethel and directed his desires to the heavenly
      4. So now Laban's sons are complaining that Jacob has taken away their father's wealth (and therefore their inheritance)
      5. And Jacob notices that Laban no longer smiles at him the way he used to.
      6. Jacob has tried to make his home comfortably in this world
         1. But Laban either enslaves and deceives him
         2. Or Laban gets the worse end of the deal and ends up hating him.
         3. Jacob cannot live in peace here
         4. To be a friend of this world is to be at enmity with God
         5. To be blessed by God is to be at enmity with this world
      7. So the Lord himself comes to Jacob, reminding him of his promise at Bethel
         1. Return to the land of YOUR fathers and to YOUR family (this is not your family, Jacob)
         2. And *I* will be with you
            1. Reminds him of promise at Bethel
            2. Gives him confidence that Laban cannot harm him. If God is for him, who can be against him?
      8. So it is with those who have been given God's promises
         1. They cannot comfortably live anywhere but in the place he has promised to bring them to
         2. They cannot make their friendship with this world
         3. God will come to them again and again to push them out of this world so that they will again seek after the inheritance he has offered.
      9. But if Jacob is to leave, he wants to leave with his wives and children
      10. How will he persuade them to leave their home to seek the land God promised to him?
      11. He meets with them secretly, in the field, where they cannot be overheard, to make his case to them.
   2. Jacob's Argument to Rachel and Leah
      1. Laban is against me, but God is for me (5)
      2. Laban has cheated me; God has been more than fair (6-8)
      3. Conclusion - It is GOD who has given Laban's livestock to me
         1. I'm not cheating your father out of what belongs to him
         2. God has made the decision in this.
         3. This is slightly different from Jacob's attitude earlier
            1. Remember how he made the goats mate in front of the speckled sticks, thinking this would cause them to bear speckled?
            2. He thought that we was being tricky and devious and that HE was affecting the outcome
            3. Now he knows better. How?
      4. Supporting evidence - God appeared to Jacob in a dream (10-13)
         1. God affirms that he is the one who has given Jacob his wealth
         2. And suddenly Jacob understands. It wasn't the work of his flesh and it wasn't his own cleverness. Those things were nothing before God.
         3. The only thing that has ever mattered in this story is whether God is for or against Jacob. And God swore that he was for Jacob at Bethel.
         4. This same God has now ordered him home.
      5. So Jacob does not present HIMSELF to Rachel and Leah as their protection
         1. He does not say, I can outwit Laban; trust ME.
         2. He says, God is on my side; trust HIM.
         3. He finally gets right an argument he got wrong in the last chapter
            1. In ch. 30 he negotiated for wages with Laban by saying, in essence, The LORD is with me; what's that worth to you?
            2. And so he agreed not to seek the promised land, but to keep the Lord around to bless Laban's flock if the deal was sweet enough.
            3. Now Jacob understands. The LORD is with him; therefore let's go where the LORD directs.
   3. Rachel and Leah's Response
      1. They respond in faith.
      2. There is no inheritance for them in this world anymore (14)
         1. Laban is no longer their family; they're considered strangers (15)
         2. Laban has sold them away and given them no dowry or inheritance (15)
         3. What God has taken from Laban and given to Jacob are really theirs and their children's (16)
         4. Therefore they will throw in their lot with Jacob and Jacob's God. (16)
      3. It is a wonderful moment
         1. We saw one like it in this same land.
            1. Do you remember?
            2. God came to Abram in Haran and said "Get up out of your country. Leave your family. Leave your father's house. And go to a land I will show you, and I will bless you."
         2. So now this call comes to Rachel and Leah, who had been at home here
         3. But now their portion and inheritance is with Jacob in the land of promise
         4. His God will be their God and his people their people.
      4. In faith, they turn their back on the world … almost
      5. Rachel in secret clings to it. She steals Laban's idols
         1. What can she be thinking?
         2. What can the idols do for her that the Lord cannot do?
            1. The idols were used to bring about prosperity for the household.
               • If you have these idols, they bless you and make you rich.
               • How successful have these idols been for Laban? Has not the Lord proved mightier still?
               • Why does she feel she needs them?
            2. The idols were used for divination
               • That is you used these idols to determine what the future held so you could plan accordingly.
               • Has not the Lord appeared to Jacob and told him what the future holds?
               • I will be with you; therefore go back to the promised land.
               • What more does she need.
            3. She is like Lot's wife turning back to look longingly at her former home. Surely there was something of value there, something worth saving.
      6. Even as she is going into the promised land, she looks back to her own land and cannot give it up.
      7. Even as she has been promised security from GOD, she still cannot give up clinging for security to other things as well.
      8. Rachel has been throughout this story the symbol of attachment to this world.
         1. Jacob saw her and loved her … for what?
            1. For her hospitality and faith?
            2. No, for her looks.
         2. When he received plain looking Leah instead of beautiful Rachel, did he accept this as the providence of God?
         3. No. Still he set his eyes on that which was outwardly beautiful.
         4. So through his love of this world, he brought her, the lover of this world into their midst.
         5. So she represents the one who cannot fully embrace the promise of God, but must always love and rely on other things.
      9. So Jacob and the nation descended from him become a mixed bag.
         1. With part of their hearts they desire the Lord
         2. And with part of their hearts they cling to and trust in the world.
         3. And this tension will not be resolved until a purer nation is produced, a nation that will love the Lord only and put behind them all the things of this world.
         4. This tension will not be resolved until Christ comes and purifies for himself a nation, not linked by flesh and blood, but whose citizenship is heavenly and eternal.
2. The Story As It Repeats Itself in Israel
   1. Israel in Bondage
      1. Israel was a slave in the land of Egypt, just as Jacob was in the land of Haran.
      2. Like Jacob, they groaned under service to another, to Pharaoh, who took the fruit of all their labors.
      3. Yet in the end, they are able to flee, taking the wealth of Egypt with them.
   2. The Command of God through Moses
      1. God appears to Moses just as he appeared to Jacob, telling him to take the people out of Egypt to the promised land
      2. The people look at their lousy conditions in Egypt and agree to leave.
   3. The Response of the People
      1. In the desert, things seem worse.
         1. They lack food and water
         2. So they complain against Moses
         3. And they long to return to their slavery in Egypt: "At least we had food to eat there," they say
      2. They are like Rachel. They have not totally abandoned their former home. They have not set all that behind them, if only they may gain the promise of God which is ahead in the land of Canaan.
      3. Israel is meant to see itself in this story of their father, Jacob.
         1. They are meant to see that at the end of the story, God brings Jacob safely into the promised land. This ought to stir up their faith.
         2. They are meant to see, as well, how the seeds of idolatry came out with Jacob.
         3. This is their identity in him, to be a mixture, some with faith and some who trust in idols.
         4. This is their identity, to be forced out of the world but still, in part, to love it.
         5. They have no room for pride with such an identity but must rely entirely on the promises of God to purify their nation or they will turn entirely to sin.
3. The Story As It Culminates in Christ and the Church
   1. Christ Purifies this Story
      1. Christ is the true Jacob, the real Israel.
      2. Christ put the world behind him and never sought it
         1. He never put his trust in men or in riches
         2. He never faltered in his trust in the Father, even when he was persecuted, mocked, and crucified
      3. Like Jacob, he was in conflict with those around him; they were jealous of him.
      4. Unlike Jacob, he never sought to make his home in this world but resolutely set out to find his heavenly home, though he should pass through death before he found it.
      5. Jacob sought Bethel because there he had seen God, standing at the top of a stairway into heaven, and there God had sworn to be with him.
      6. Jesus, too, sought that place, and found it and has ascended into it to sit at God's right hand. This journey that Jacob here begins … Christ has finished it. He has come to the goal. He has entered heaven on your behalf.
   2. The Command and Promise to the Church
      1. Thus he comes to you, a better Jacob, bearing testimony to the faithfulness of God.
      2. Jacob's movement is horizontal, across the surface of the earth
         1. But he seeks the vertical.
         2. He seeks the one place on earth where he set a stone upright, pointing into heaven, testifying that his eternal home was there, in the presence of God.
      3. But now, in the age in which Christ has appeared, your movement is vertical
         1. No longer do you seek the place on earth that points to heaven
         2. For to those who belong to Christ, all places on earth point to heaven
         3. He is our Bethel, he is our destination, he is the place where we have the presence of God.
         4. And where his Spirit is, there he is
         5. Gathered here today, we have arrived at Bethel, the place where we look up into heaven and see our inheritance in God himself.
         6. More than that, we have been brought up into heaven and are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We have arrived.
   3. Our Response
      1. Then put the world behind you and seek the heavenly home where Christ is.
      2. Are you expecting earthly riches? Wealth in the here and now? After all, Jacob received these things as a sign of God's blessing
         1. Then you have not understood how this story comes to you, the heirs of the kingdom of heaven.
         2. God has given you more blessings in Christ Jesus than Jacob even knew how to contemplate
         3. Jacob had to look at a herd of speckled goats and a flock of brown sheep and some camels and servants.
         4. And with that, he had to be content, for this was the sign of God's blessing.
         5. But you … you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
            1. You have had your redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ who has died and risen again and ascended into heaven.
            2. These are not abstract things. These are gifts to you upon whom the ends of the ages have come. To have such assurance that your salvation is complete! To have such riches as only the risen Christ can dispense.
            3. And this redemption is applied to you already by the Holy Spirit of Christ who is a deposit, a downpayment on the inheritance that is yours in heaven.
            4. God has given you everything he could give you in his Son. Can you doubt that he will also freely with him give us all things, supply all our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus?
            5. Though we should be poor and naked and shivering and persecuted and despised, yet we have all things in Christ Jesus and shall be revealed as blessed above all at the last day.
      3. Come then! Your journey is to heaven where your inheritance awaits. Let us make this journey as those who are confident in the surpassing value of the prize.
      4. Was Rachel foolish to bring her father's idols on her journey?
         1. Of course!
         2. She had the testimony of Jacob that God would care for them
      5. And do we not have the testimony of God in Christ that he has cared for us completely and will fail to care for us until the end?
      6. Lay aside your idols; they are useless on this journey
         1. What good is wealth?
         2. What use are the things that money can buy?
         3. What benefit is your own cleverness?
            1. You who trust in intellect are like Jacob waving speckled sticks before the goats.
            2. You suppose that you have been clever and thus gotten for yourself what you desire
         4. But all you have comes from God
            1. And all you need has been given to you in Jesus Christ
            2. Therefore put your trust in him alone and do not rely on your own abilities or on any earthly thing.
      7. Let us cling to Christ and him only
         1. He is our Bethel
         2. He is our stairway to heaven
         3. He is our wealth and our inheritance
         4. He is our protector and the shield at our right hand
         5. He is all we need or can want or hope for, yes and he surpasses all that we can ask or think.
         6. Let us seek him and we shall be abundantly satisfied all the days of our life and so forevermore.

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