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We are not a trusting people, which is probably why we have so many ways of forcing each other to do things they have promised. Business build contracts with built in financial punishments if the agreements aren’t honored. When we have a marriage ceremony, it is done the way that it is for a reason. Couples make promises in public. This does two things. One, it is done in front of people for us all to be witnesses that this happened. Others can call the couple to account if they end up not doing what they promised. Two, this is done in front of God which is a way of saying that if they don’t hold up their promises, then God Himself will judge them. 
This second example of a marriage is the closest thing that we have to a covenant today. Marriage has been cheapened as an institution with quick and easy divorce, but the seriousness of what is being done is easy to see, once you know why it is being done that way. 
What we are seeing here today is a covenant between Jacob and Laban. We’ve seen covenants many times in the book of Genesis so far. The most common are between God and man. We saw the first one between God and Adam and Eve. Then we saw God and Noah, and since Genesis 12, we have been watching the covenant between God and Abraham unfold. 
We’ve seen a smattering of covenants between Abraham and Abimelech and Isaac and Abimelech, but this one feels a little different than what we have seen so far. Here Jacob is making a covenant between members of his family! The Abimelechs were afraid of Abraham and his son, and it looks like this covenant is being made for a similar reason: Laban is afraid of Jacob. Jacob clearly has God on His side, so if one wants peace, then they better make sure that they are on Jacob’s side as well. 
God is clearly continuing to move in Abraham’s family further and further away from their original homeland. Abraham moved out at God’s command, but he had to send his servant back to get a wife for Issac. Isaac had to do the same thing for Jacob, but after this moment, there is no going back to the “homeland.” Jacob, in a way, is going to become the homeland. Israel is being created and solidified as a people group on its own, something we will see more clearly as we get into our text today. 
Our main points today are God is the true basis of community and God witnesses all that is done and will judge accordingly (Psalm 2) 
God is the true basis of community 

We pick up from last week to see Laban’s reaction to be excoriated by Jacob. Laban has been so unfair to Jacob that there is really nothing to say in response. Clearly, Jacob has been protected by God, and one cannot defy God. 
Still, Laban is never one to go down without some sort of parting shot, and makes the claim that maybe yes Jacob has done all that work, but the bottom line is he couldn’t be in this place without him. He is claiming to be the money behind Jacob’s success, but all of us reading this text know that Laban tried everything he could to make Jacob unsuccessful. 
Following the old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” Laban suggests a covenant with Jacob. One can almost imagine Laban throwing up his arms and sighing as he says, “What can I do for my family?” One commentator noted that this is Laban making it seem as though Jacob has turned Laban’s daughters and grandchildren against him, which of course we know isn’t true, as the daughters were all too willing to leave him behind (Matthews). 
You will notice how many times the word “witness” comes up in this section of the passage. These men don’t trust each other at all, and there will be numerous things set up and named as reminders of the promise that was made. Covenants usually have something to remember the promise by, and in this situation, there is a stone pillar and a heap of rocks. These were meant to be monuments commemorating the promise made between Laban and Jacob. They also seem to serve as barriers for them not to cross, as we will see in a little bit. 
Two different monuments are set up and are given different names. These names are saying essentially the same thing— “heap of witness”—but Laban is naming one in Aramaic, and Jacob is naming his in Hebrew, which really spells out the different groups that are being formed here (Matthews). Even though Laban is Jacob’s uncle, he is a separate people now. The primary difference going forward now is who has a covenant with God. 
This is something that we do well to remember in our own lives. The only marker of identity that truly matters is your relationship to God. Just about all of you have had the chance to meet Roger from Togo. He is a pastor who grew up a child of a Voodoo priest in Togo Africa. While he speaks English very well, he grew up speaking French. Roger and I come from incredibly different backgrounds. We have, from an outside perspective, very little in common. I’m white; he’s black. I grew up in a financially secure, technologically advanced, loving Christian home, and he grew up with nearly none of those things as he was kicked out of his family when he converted. Outside measures would say that we shouldn’t be friends, but when we are together, it is like coming across a long-lost brother. The common unity there is Christ. There are other people in America who do the same job I do as pastor, but they aren’t truly following Christ. And while we may have grow up in the same country with similar experiences, those things don’t really matter. What matters is where we are going to spend eternity. 
The point I want you to take away from this section is be mindful of where you find your group identity. Football is fun, politics is, well, politics, but make sure that your group identity, whom you see as “your people” is grounded in Christ. 
God witnesses all that is done and will judge accordingly

Lets take a look at the substance of the covenant. Laban wants Jacob to promise that he isn’t going to oppress his daughters or marry additional women. This is ironic coming from the man who, apparently, spent up his daughters’ inheritances, and was the first one to make Jacob marry multiple wives in the first place. 
In the last part of verse 50, Laban invokes God as the witness. Since a heap of stones can’t really do anything to enforce the terms, he calls on God to witness what is being said here. Now, it appears that Laban isn’t talking about Jacob’s God, Yahweh. He doesn’t use that name, but sticks to the general word for “god.”Later on, when he says in verse 53, he is drawing a contrast between his gods and Abraham’s God. One commentator notices that Jacob swears by “The Fear of Isaac,” a rare title for God (that could also be translated “the Awesome”) (Belcher). This is probably referring to the effect that God has on other nations (including Laban, here!), and points out that Laban and Jacob are talking about different gods (Matthews and Belcher). This further underlines the separateness of these groups of people. 
The promise is made that neither party is going to cross the stones to harm one another, lest God judge. This is practically the only way to enforce everyone’s respective safety! 
After this, the covenant making ceremony wraps up. Laban and Jacob’s respective families eat a meal together signaling the ratifying of the agreement, and Laban kisses his kids and leaves. This all wraps a bow around the extended family of Abraham, as the story will proceed by focusing now exclusively on this branch of Abraham’s family tree. 
It is quite clear that God has indeed been a witness to the promises, and specifically His promises to Jacob. He has protected him all this time, defeating all of his enemies, even those who would threaten to undo him from his own house! 
So what are we to take from this? Has God made a promise like this to us? While the fate of nations doesn’t depend on our individual families like it did for Abraham and now Jacob, there is a promise of protection and ultimate rulership of our God over everyone else. 
I think that the best place to see God’s promise of protection for us is in Psalm 2. This short Psalm is a very powerful Psalm that ultimately points to Jesus, the “Anointed” in this passage. This whole Psalm serves as a warning to the kings and rulers of the world, which by extension means that every person in the world needs to listen up. The very first verse sets up the Psalm as a whole, namely, people are going to plot against God but it is all going to end as an empty nothing. No matter how they plan, all it can do is make God laugh. 
Near the end of the Psalm, there is a grim warning that this Anointed One (again, Jesus) is going to come and break all nations who will not serve Him. There’s that “Fear” of Isaac. The call goes out to be wise to make peace with Jesus while there is still time. 
There are a couple of reactions that we can have to this promise made to us. One, we can feel like Jesus is being kinda mean. Does he really have to smash the people that won’t submit? Yes. Rebellion against God really is that terrible. God has provided literally everything, and sinful rebellion spits in His face. This is especially true since this Anointed One died for the sins of the world. Hebrews 10:28–31 lays it out plainly, “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” 
The second reaction to this sort of Psalm 2 promise is to be smug about it. We could look out at the world and go, “Yeah, you may be ahead now, but Jesus is going to smash you one day, boy!” That is the person that doesn’t understand how much they themselves deserve God’s wrath. This sort of doctrine shouldn’t make us proud but make us humble. God has chosen us to be a part of His covenant by nothing but sheer grace. It was sheer grace that Jacob was protected by God and Laban wasn’t. And it is by sheer grace that you are a believer this morning in Jesus. A Psalm 2 passage should lead us not to gloat but to plead. The Psalm itself pleads with the nations to kiss the Son. Make your peace with Him while you still can! God’s desire is for people to be saved, and if we are going to claim to be in His image, we should desire the same. 
So what is our takeaway this morning? You are a part of a wonderful people, the people of God. You are a member of that family by sheer grace and goodness of God, and now you are commanded to invite others to be a part of that family. Look to people outside the people of God as future brothers and sisters rather than just surface friends. Don’t let the fact that you have a deep relationship with someone prevent you from having the sometimes hard conversations about the gospel. Unless they are a believer in Jesus, they aren’t as close as you think with you. But you have the opportunity to bring them closer than ever before. Pray for those conversations to happen, and just sit back and witness God at work. 

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​Do you feel like you have to go through a lot for no apparent reason? I think all of us have felt like that at times in the various spheres of our life whether that is at home, work, church, or school. Maybe it feels like the boss never treats you fairly or your husband never notices all the work done around the house. The word that I think describes what life feels like at those times is “endures.” Have you ever dreamed in those times of enduring getting to make a speech like Jacob has here? You finally get to absolutely lay into those treating you unfairly with the family there to applaud when you’re done. Maybe you even had the chance to do that and didn’t even have to think of a much better answer in the shower three days later! Maybe you got to be free of that time of enduring like Jacob does at the end of this chapter. 
If we are honest, though, there will be repeating times of enduring. Most of life is not spent on the other end of a boundary preventing your enemies from returning. More often than not, life will feel like verses 38-42 than 55. What do we do in those times? 
Here, Jacob has something to teach us in how to endure well that will be in conversation with a couple other passages. Our main point today is: Live self-sacrificially so that others may not justly accuse you (1 Peter 2:13-25).

Live self-sacrificially so that others may not justly accuse you
We pick up in verse 36 with Laban sheepishly coming out of Rachel’s tent completely empty handed. Laban has come in ripping into Jacob with all kinds of accusations, and now he has to walk back in front of everyone without a shred of evidence that the accusations he’s leveled at Jacob are true. How embarrassing for Laban, and how unbelievably satisfying that must have been with Jacob. 
Jacob now can, righteously, lay into Laban for what he has done to him here and over the last twenty years. This is where Jacob can teach us something about how to live, and it doesn’t actually come from this speech. What Jacob can teach us is what happened in the twenty years before this speech. Jacob is only able to talk like this if he has truly been living a selfless life in working well for Laban. Jacob advances three main arguments in this speech based on how he has lived his life up to this point: the flocks prospered under him, he did so at great personal cost, and Laban has not been fair to him through it all at all. 
Jacob revisits extremely recent history in which he was accused as a thief and a liar in the verses immediately before our current passage. According to Laban, not only did Jacob steal the gods, but he is so untrustworthy to give them back that the only way to know what happened to the gods is to go through all his stuff like the TSA after finding white powder in your bag. 
After such a deep search pulls up nothing, Jacob moves back a few years to revisit other wrongs Laban has done to him. Jacob paints a picture of himself as the absolute epitome of a perfect shepherd, and assuming he is telling the truth (and there isn’t really a reason to doubt it in my mind), Laban has been massively unfair to a pretty great shepherd (Matthews).
Let’s look at how the now-not-scoundrel Jacob has lived these last few decades towards Laban. 
The flocks have been well cared for under Jacob. They haven’t miscarried, likely due to God’s blessing that Jacob carries. He hasn’t eaten from Laban’s flock, and anytime a wild animal did, he repaid Laban for it. To do that wasn’t a common practice of shepherds, but apparently this was something that was Laban’s idea. This is a harsh policy Laban enforces here (Matthews). To sum up, Laban hasn’t suffered ill gotten loss from Jacob.
Jacob has taken care of these flocks at great personal cost. While he has repaid any property loss, I think what he puts up with in the field is worse. The word used for “consumed” by heat and cold is the same word for “eat” in verse 38. In other words, he didn’t eat of the flock, but the field sure ate him! Hot, cold, and sleepless ate up Jacob for years! So not only has Jacob been a model employee, he has done so under very harsh working conditions. 
Through it all Laban has been unfair. Jacob has had to work for everything he has multiple times. He served 14 years for Rachel, and he worked for six years with what sounds like nearly constantly changing wages for the flocks. Finally, as if all that wasn’t bad enough, the only reason why Laban is treating him properly now is because God Himself has threatened him, citing Laban’s own words from 13 verses ago! So Jacob has been a model employee, under harsh conditions, all to serve an unfair boss! 
This has been an utterly devastating reply to Laban. Jacob has delivered the absolute knock out punch. But as I said at the beginning, this isn’t our focus. What is truly impressive is all that he did during those twenty years that allows him to make this speech. 
We have the New Testament command of what Jacob has demonstrated here in 1 Peter 2. He exemplifies what 1 Peter 2:18 says. 
Now, before we get to that passage, I want to make something clear. We are looking at the following directions assuming that there is no other righteous means of dealing with the oppressive person in your life. If you can get out from under oppressive people, by all means do so, but look at the hope God offers to those truly hard situations from which there is no escape. 
1 Peter 2:18–20, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”
Here, Peter is calling Christians to submit where they must in government, employment, and marriage, but he has more to say than just put up with it. He has more to say than, “behave now so you can really sock it to them later.” No, look at verse 20, paraphrased, when you do good and suffer for it anyway, God notices and is pleased with you. Why? Because in that moment, you remind Him of His Son. Look at the rest of the passage:
“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."
What is Peter saying here? Quickly, he is saying that enduring hardship for doing the right thing is the very life we have been called to because that was the life that Jesus, our example, lived for us. He was perfectly innocent yet died for ourcrimes to bring us healing and reconciliation with God. This means that in this passage, Jesus lived the life of Jacob so that the Labans of the world—namely, you and me—could be freed. So, fellow Laban, if Jesus can do all that for you, you can do that for the Laban’s in your life. 
But how do we do that? It is great to know that we have God’s smile, but how do I walk through that office door on Monday to hear my boss yell at me again? How do I continue to serve my family when it seems like everyone will just sit around until I do something? 
The key to this is in verse 23 of 1 Peter 2. What did Jesus do? He “continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” What does it mean to entrust your self to God? The word “entrusting” here means “handing over” or “deliver.” If you were to hand something over to a person, you are telling them that this is under their care now. You aren’t holding it anymore. When I got married to my lovely wife, as part of the ceremony, her dad placed her hand in mine. He pulled me close and said, “Take care of her.” Here he said what he was acting out in placing her hand in mine. Now, if he continued to hold on to Abby’s hand and not let go, that wouldn’t be handing her over to my care, would it? But he stepped back and let her little girl go. Even when I picked up and moved her three hours away to Brewton for my first call. I’m sure that wasn’t his favorite plan. But he had handed her over, and trusted me. 
When the time comes to endure, hand yourself, your life, your dreams, your ambitions, over to God. Remind yourself that He is a just judge Who has not lost track of you. He doesn’t have you in this situation for no reason. Let go what you think is the ideal of your life, and instead surrender to the plan that God has for you. I know that is hard to hear. It is so hard to be convinced that we don’t know what is best for us. It starts when we are children, and it continues straight through to adulthood. Instead, hand yourself over to God. 
So how does this happen walking through the office door, through the laundry room door? The first is acknowledging the situation, even this one, comes from your gracious Father. Give to Him what your dream was for this situation, offer it as a sacrifice to Him, saying, “Lord, my dream for this situation was very different, but help me to accept what you have for me here. I hand myself over to you for help in this situation.” And then get to work, not for the oppressor, but for God. Did you notice a little phrase in verse 19? “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” In other words, your service is done to Him. In every job, your ultimate authority is God, so if you find it so hard to work for the people in your life, don’t work for them. Instead, work for Jesus in this hard field, knowing that God’s grace smiles on you even now, and is preparing a place where this sort of oppressive work will never happen again. You’ll get promoted one day, and get to work face to face, and side by literal side with your Savior. 
Now, again, if there is a righteous way to escape earthly oppression, do it! Jesus even said of preaching the gospel, if you are persecuted in one city, flee to the next (Matthew 10:23)! Jesus isn’t asking you to intentionally seek out unjust oppression for yourself. Because the fallen world that it is, trouble will find you soon enough if you are obedient to what God says. 
But if you can’t, hand yourself over to God and be at peace. You don’t have to remind yourself all the time of how unfair things are. Instead, entrust yourself to the God who treats all fairly, even you, even in that situation. 

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How do we get rid of fear? I’m not just talking about fear of monsters in the closet (though that applies as well), but fears that are evergreen: our health, our grades, our friends, our finances, our children, our pain. How do we get rid of fear? Believe it or not, the goal actually isn’t to get rid of fear. Fear is a good thing, when it is directed properly. There is only one place— one Person—to direct our fear towards, God. 
Why am I saying it that way? Wouldn’t it be better to say, “Trust in God”? Trusting in God is certainly good, but if we are going to faithfully use our fear, directing it where it needs to go, we need something additional than trust. You see, we trust things all the time. We trust our car’s brakes, but how many of you stand in your driveway in loving awe of your brakes, stunned at their ability to stop a multi ton vehicle? How many of you fall to your knees in reverent worship before your wheel wells? Unless you’re an engineer this morning, probably none of you. And the reason that you don’t is that brakes occupy a very small portion of your life. If they fail, there are numerous other systems to make up for them. 
In contrast, you should be in awe, in reverent worship, and yes, a little bit of terror, of God. He makes and continues to sustain everything before your eyes. He is so big. He measures the universe—the UNIVERSE— with His hand. He doesn’t even need both hands. Have you sat with that? Have you dared meditate on the raw power of God? Who do you think you are to not be at least a little unsettled by a Being with that kind of power? Now, yes in His mercy He doesn’t destroy us, but that is literally the only thing holding Him back. Nothing can stop God. 
When we grasp something like that, the rest of the things that we fear fall into place. That is faithful fearing, but let’s see how this might play out in real life by looking at our text this morning. We are going to walk away with one point: Fear of God doesn’t let us fear anything else

Fear of God Doesn’t Let Us Fear Anything Else
Refreshing where we are in the story, Jacob has left secretly from Laban’s house to head back to the promised land. Laban, being a man with eyes, notices this and gives chase. After a little over four hundred or so mile jaunt, Laban has caught up with Jacob, and in verse 26 Laban (along with other members of his household) confront Jacob. 
Ah, family confrontations. We’ve all experienced this to one degree or another, haven’t we? So much is at risk. Some families actually dread get togethers because they know what is coming. The cutting words, the guilt trips, the bringing up of old hurts real or imagined fill us with dread, do they not? 
So how does this play out in the Bible? Laban launches into a monologue titled “Jacob Stinks,” and the family is here to hear it. He starts out with all kinds of wild accusations, almost none of them true: “You lied to me and dragged my daughters away like they were prisoners of war! If you had just told me you wanted to leave, I would have gladly sent you with snacks, well wishes—I would have written songs for you! But you haul off and leave without so much as letting me kiss my kids goodbye, you fool! I oughta knock you out for what you’ve done!” And Laban’s sons are all standing there, arms folded, nodding along, as a tangible proof that Laban really could do what he threatens here (v. 25 “kinsmen”) (Matthews). He’s come prepared. He’s an actual threat. 
Sound familiar? The things that scare you are not fake. Health problems are real and can show up at any time. Friends can totally betray you. It happens every day. Jobs are lost and money gets used up. This is fallen earth, not heaven. Things will never be ideal for long. The things you fear are as real as Jacob’s super angry father in law with an axe to grind.
But there is one more piece of information that will change everything for Jacob and us. In this moment, halfway into verse 29, Jacob doesn’t know what Laban and we know: God has already moved. God was way ahead of this. He came to Laban already and said, “You better not harm Jacob.” Jacob may be scared of Laban (v. 31, Phillips, 227), but guess who Laban is scared of? God. Oh, Laban wants to harm Jacob, but he won’t because God told Him not to. 
Now, you may say, “Well, that’s wise of Laban, but my family isn’t scared of God at all. They don’t even know who He is.” You could apply this same logic to nuclear war or your MRI results. Those things don’t even have emotions, how is this verse comforting to me? 
Well, all of those things (like Laban) are controlled by God. God is controlling Laban here, keeping him at bay. Now Jacob didn’t know that until just now, and whether you realize or not, all those things that you fear are being controlled by God, too. God is way bigger than Laban and his kinsmen. God is way bigger than whatever it is that you fear. That should keep things in context. 
But now the story is about to turn. Laban throws one more accusation that comes way out of left field for Jacob: he stole Laban’s gods. Jacob answers the first set of accusations that he left the way that he did because he was afraid of what Laban would do (the same word for fear that Adam uses running from God in the Garden). Jacob, just like Abraham and Isaac, was afraid that a local chieftain would steal his wives. We just have to make that same mistake one more time, but Jacob isn’t really focused on that just yet. He feels that he really has the upper hand here when it comes to the stealing the gods thing. He knows—or thinks that he knows—that no one stole anyone’s gods. In fact, he is so sure of this that he starts puffing out his chest a little, too. Laban isn’t the only one that can think up a good threat. Jacob is so sure that no one stole the gods, that he will say, “Anyone who has your silly gods will be punished with death.” Whoa! Who’s the big man, now, Laban? The gangster glasses slide over Jacob’s eyes. He’s confident in what he knows. 
And that nearly kills Rachel. How ironic! The one thing he feared, losing his wives, he almost caused by putting stock in his ability to threaten rather than in God. Don’t be confident in anything but God. 
Let’s pick up the drama in verse 33. Can you imagine what must have been going through Rachel’s head in this moment? She is the only one who knows that she stole the gods, and now her dad is going tent by tent looking through everything. The author is holding tension for us as we go one by one. 
Finally we get to Rachel’s tent. We are told exactly where the idols are, under the camel saddle, which Rachel is currently sitting on. Laban is feeling all around the tent (the same sense that Isaac was fooled with earlier), but he can’t find them. It seems as if there is only one place left to look, and that is under Rachel who hasn’t moved. It looks like the jig is up, but Rachel has one last trick up her sleeve. She pretends that she is on her cycle, and thus can’t stand up. It would have been the proper thing for her to do just by her father entering the tent, but she lies to him by pretending to respect him. She apologizes that she can’t show the expected respect, but she lying! That is some next level deception. 
Why does God let her do that? Well, one, God is merciful to sinners all the time, and this would hardly be the first time that someone in Abraham’s family lied. Two, this makes these household gods look so silly. They are dishonored multiple times. One, how pathetic is it for a god to be helplessly stolen? The worshiper having to rescue the god? How preposterous. Two, camels were considered unclean in Jewish conception, so these stolen gods are being hidden by an unclean animal. Disrespect on top of disrespect. Finally, if Rachel was telling the truth, their fate would have really rendered them unclean (Matthews). 
The only thing more laughable would be the person who believes in such gods. 
But we mustn’t laugh too hard. Laban is clearly going to great lengths to get his gods back because he sees them as truly valuable. What do you value? That question is answered by what you worry about. What increases your anxiety when it goes missing? What makes you angry when you lose it? To put it in line with our theme here, what do you fear? 
Show me the object of your fear, and I will show you what you worship. Remember our exercise at the start of our message today, thinking about how big our God is? Why don’t you fear Him more than whatever it is you do worship? 
What does it look like to fear God? There is a level of intimidation present in how big He is, but the majority of our emotional response to God is that of awe. Before you get there, though, you MUST wrestle with the mighty God who tells you, “Don’t fear those who can kill the body, but fear the one who is able to destroy the body AND the soul.” Jesus said that, and He is talking ultimately about Himself while looking at you. 
You have to start here, because if you don’t you will miss seeing the blazing glory of the cross. The same God who is able to destroy your body and soul and it be an act of justice had HIS body and soul destroyed for you! Your punishment was placed on Him! He got out of His seat in heaven to make room for you. And it wasn’t because you deserved it but precisely the opposite. 
And in so doing, Jesus rises from the grave, conquering death itself, redeeming a multitude from every nation, tribe, and tongue, kicking off the redemption of the entirety of the created cosmos, and promises to be your God, and you His people whom He will never leave nor forsake for all eternity, forever and ever, amen. Feel that? That’s the beginning of wisdom. That’s the fear of God. Awe, respect, love, and yes, maybe even a little terror. That’s what keeps your other fears in perspective. 
Don’t cling to little gods that can be hidden under soiled saddles. Gross. Instead, marvel, fall to your knees every morning that God is still your God. 
So when fear grips your heart, when that icy anxiety crawls over your chest, ask yourself these three questions: 1) Is the God of the universe in charge of this? The answer always being yes, move on to the second question, 2) “Did I get here because of my disobedience?” Maybe you are worried about not having enough money because you spent it all in greed. Maybe you are worried about a test going badly because you were lazy and didn’t study. Maybe this question doesn’t apply because you are worried about something like a health problem. But No matter what the answer is to that second question, the third question is, “Am I being obedient to Him now?” If you get yes, no, and yes, Then you have nothing to be afraid of. Fear God and await His deliverance. If you get no, yes, and no, then whatever you are fearing isn’t nearly as bad as your own disobedience and unbelief. Turn from that false god, and embrace the beauty that is the God on the universe. 
If your mind is so tormented, you can’t even get past question one, take a second. Breathe, and then turn over in your mind who it is you worship. Remember His power and His love for you and what the future will be. Yes, the pain may be so bad that you are actually doubting that God loves you. Maybe you do think that He has forsaken you. Not so. Jesus took that for you. And because of that, you are going to a world that has no crying or pain. That is a God worship worshiping. That is a God worth fearing. 

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Do you love transitions in life? We look forward to at least a few of them. Starting life at college, a first baby, a first grandbaby, a new job that fits your passions better or moving from single to married. We look forward to those because we expect them. It is a normal part of the growing up process, and since they are such well-worn paths we know what to expect more or less. 
It is the unexpected transitions in life we fear. Those are the ones we don’t see coming and are not a part of everyone’s experience. Suddenly changing a job, losing a pregnancy, getting that dreaded phone call from the doctor, watching a spouse mentally or physically fade away. It feels scary because this new experience doesn’t have the same sort of “well-worn path” feel that the ones I described earlier. It feels like uncharted waters. Familiar comforts are stripped away as you are forced to realize what you are really holding on to. 
In this section of Genesis, it is a major transition for the rest of the book. For the final time, a member of Abraham’s clan is going to leave the homeland, never to return. Jacob is about to embark on his solo journey as the sole holder of the promise. He is about to go home, truly home. 
Jacob is only going to be able to make this transition by holding onto God’s promises that He will be with Him. It is my hope this morning that by the time we get to the end of our time today, you will realize that God has no borders. There is nowhere where God does not rule, and that applies to whatever country you find yourself in, and whatever stage and area of life. 
God will move you when He’s ready and He will be with all the way. 

God Will Move You When He’s Ready
We pick up our story here twenty years after Jacob arrived. He has spent 14 years working to obtain his wives, and now he has just completed the last six years to provide for himself a flock. It is looking like things are finally getting set right. 
Others are starting to notice, however, just how much Jacob is getting here. Laban’s sons, the ones who are supposed to inherit his wealth, are starting to think that Jacob is making too much. Importantly, they see him as getting this wealth at their father’s expense. Never mind the fact that Jacob is just doing what Laban agreed to, Jacob is just too successful. What’s worse, Laban has started to sour on relationships with Jacob. This is a big change from just a chapter ago when Laban was trying to make a deal for Jacob to stay. Everything that Jacob did to prosper the family’s homestead seems to be fading in the background as Jacob obviously gets richer. 
What’s more, God has now instructed Jacob that it is time to leave. He is to go back to the land of Canaan, where his fathers and kindred are. There is an ominous note to the word “kindred” as we remember that Jacob has a brother, and he didn’t exactly leave on the best terms. 
It is clear to Jacob that it is time to go, but can he convince his wives? In verses 4-16, we get a deeper dive into the details behind Jacob’s decision to leave and the provision that God has provided thus far. 
We find that it has been a tough working environment, and there has been a lot of pushing and pulling it would seem between Laban and God. It starts by stating generally that Laban doesn’t favor Jacob anymore, but God does. Despite Laban trying to cheat Jacob out of the animals he owes him, God has just kept changing which animals produce well. Everything that Laban does to try to get at Laban ultimately backfires. 
At the end of the speech, it is made undeniably clear that God has been behind everything, and now it is time for Jacob to return to Bethel (where he met God) and make good on that promise he made to God. God has done nothing but care for him, so now it is time for Jacob to hold up his end of the vow with his tithe. 
In an even clearer sign that it is time to go, Rachel and Leah agree! These two have been at odds for a while, but they are now in agreement that it is time to leave their home. They have their own bones to pick with their father, specifically, it seems that Laban has held out on giving them their dowry. Jacob worked to provide the bride price, but Laban had a responsibility to provide a dowry, an inheritance for his daughters (Matthews). He seems to have spent that. But once again, God has moved and provided all the necessary start to life they need. 
The takeaway from this section is that just because things weren’t pleasant doesn’t mean that God wasn’t ruling over it. Yes, it was hard to have wages adjusted to try to make Jacob’s cut as bad a deal for him as possible. Yes, it was insulting to have one’s marriage be a bargaining chip. But it was directly because of those things that God was building up this family to begin their journey. I’m sure all of you have similar stories. Looking back, it is clear that God was working through it all. 

God Will Be With You All the Way

Returning to Jacob, he begins the flight away from Laban. He waits until Laban is busy with the sheep shearing, so he and his crew can slip out without being noticed. He gets a bit of a head start (the three days and seven days may actually just be a turn of phrase meaning short time and long time according to Matthews’ commentary), and makes it all the way to Gilead (about four hundred miles) before Laban catches up with him. 
Laban is chasing him because two things have been stolen. The first is that his household gods have been stolen and Jacob has stolen away. The Hebrew actually reads “stole the heart of” Laban, which is a way of saying that Jacob tricked Laban (Ross). There is a bit of controversy about what exactly these household gods were or why Rachel stole them. It could be as complicated as these idols were tokens of inheritance such that the person who owned them was like the person owning a deed (this is unlikely in my opinion, as women couldn’t obtain property like this (Matthews)), or it could be that these are the idols that Laban uses in his divination practices, or it could be simply that these things were made of valuable metals like gold and Rachel wanted some spending money. 
Whatever these things were, they obviously represented some sort of security for Laban. If they were his gods that they worshiped, then they are some pretty laughable gods. He’s gotta rescue them! Or if they were money, then Laban really is desperate to get an amount of gold that can hide under a camel saddle (more on that later). 
These things were not more powerful than God. Laban was ready to rumble and chased Jacob 400 miles to do it, but he was stopped in his tracks by God in a dream. You’ll notice how Laban is referred to now, “the Aramean.” He is now the foreigner. People are now judged in relationship to Jacob. Jacob is the man of promise. The tables have turned one final time. 
Whether in Laban’s home, or the hill country of Gilead, God has controlled every aspect of the game and ensured that his purposes were brought about. 
Now, the takeaway that you might expect me to say here is that God is everywhere, so you don’t have to fear those who might threaten you. And that is a true lesson, but we covered that before. I want to make our takeaway a bit more personal. Are there any boundaries that you assume that God doesn’t have rulership over in your life? That can manifest as anxiety or avoidance. Anxiety would say that God is everywhere but the classroom test. God is everywhere and providing for everything except the doctor’s waiting room. Or your job prospects. Or your marriage. God is there. Especially if it is difficult. 
It can also manifest as avoidance. You live like God doesn’t have anything to say about the way your marriage is being conducted, or the way your time or money is being spent. What you do with your body. God owns every bit of you and guides every bit. You can rebel against that, but that will only result in your pain (see Laban). If you are experiencing this, then I would call you to repent. If you are experiencing this as anxiety, I would call you to comfort. 
I would lead you both to the same place, the table. There is no better visual reminder of the presence and working of God than the Lord’s Supper. Here, we are reminded that Jesus once walked the world in flesh and now, even today, wishes to commune with us in Spirit. This was accomplished through the very death of Jesus. It wasn’t something that made sense at the time. How does one beat death by dying? But the cross and resurrection prove to us in the deepest possible way that God rules over all things and does so with His personal presence. 

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​We love a good come back story, don’t we? It is the subject of our favorite movies and stories we like to tell, how people pull themselves up by their bootstraps, facing long odds, and with nothing but their own ingenuity and creativity, they win. This informs our own country’s ethos of rugged individualism and self-reliance, and it is very easy for us to unhelpfully mix this in with our Christianity. 
Now, the Bible is all for working hard and taking personal responsibility, but the Bible is quite clear as to Who gets the credit for the outcome of that hard work. Proverbs 21:31 “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” These passages (as well as others) are not saying that preparing and building are bad, but we just have to remember who to thank when it is done. 
This text in front of us is beginning to drive that message home, although it won’t do so explicitly until the next chapter. Though it is only a short passage, we are about to review six years of Jacob’s life after the 14 years he has spent in serving for Laban’s daughters (Gen 31:41). 
The main point we are going to be walking away with today is God is not halted by our adversaries And God is not helped by our antics. 
God is Not Halted by Our Adversaries

Jacob is ready to leave Laban. We begin our section right after the birth of Joseph, a son from Rachel’s own body. Jacob is ready to leave now, having served all his time. At this point, he has been gone from home for 14 years since he tricked his father into the blessing. It has been seven years since that awkward wedding week. He’s ready to leave. 
Laban is not quite so ready to let Jacob go. Aside from just having another person around the homestead to help out, Laban has learned through some sort of witchcraft that Jacob has been uniquely blessed by God, and Laban has benefitted from being near him. This brings to mind the blessing that was given to Abraham that he and his descendants would bless the nations that blessed them. Laban doesn’t want that blessing to leave. 
Laban re-opens negotiations in an attempt to make Jacob stay, and Jacob has an idea. He needs flocks of his own, so he is going to take the speckled and spotted lambs and goats to be his, and not just taking the spotted ones that are already here but just the ones that will be born in the future. 
Jacob’s idea would be very favorable to Laban as presented. As one scholar points out (Belcher): 

Genesis: The Beginning of God’s Plan of Salvation God Is the Source of Jacob’s Wealth (Gen. 30:25–43)"Jacob is requesting the irregular of the flock. Normally the wages of a shepherd would be about 20 per cent of the flock, but rarely would the speckled portion of a flock be that high of a percentage. So it seems like this would be a good deal for Laban and he agrees to it immediately (v. 34)."


Laban agrees to the deal, and then goes about making sure that this already advantageous deal really goes his way, he removes all the animals with spots on them so they don’t have lambs and goats with spots. Laban is a man of science and knows that parents often pass on their traits to offspring. He doesn’t want Jacob to have much of anything, so he gathers up anything that would make Jacob’s plan easy, puts those animals in the charge of his sons, and then walks a three days journey away. This could be as much as 60 miles away (Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible)! In our context, that would be from here to a little beyond Birmingham. This means that those spotted sheep aren’t going to get anywhere near Jacob’s flock. 
This is classic Laban, isn’t it? He offers to make a deal, and then he makes absolutely sure that it always goes his way. Those people still exist, don’t they? Maybe you even work for a few of them! Maybe, like Jacob, they are family! Yet, as powerful as they seem, God is the one ultimately in charge. This doesn’t mean that you have to resign yourself to be walked over or taken advantage of, but it does mean that you are not in the fight alone. The One who created the world and died for you, knows the situation you are in. If He has provided a Biblical way of escape, take it! Switch that job, get out of that abusive situation, and on the way to that escape rest in the fact that God knows and provides for you. That powerfully crooked person doesn’t stand in the way of God. And if you can’t, pray for the strength and joy to endure. One day, you will be delivered. 

God is Not Helped by Our Antics. 
Let’s check back in with Jacob. While God isn’t halted by his adversary, what role is Jacob playing in acquiring wealth? We pick up our story in verse 37. 
Jacob resorts to a folk belief, a local technique for sheep breeding, the pealed back stick method! The idea was that whatever was in front of the animal’s face during conception or pregnancy was imprinted in some way on the animal in the womb (Matthews). So if you wanted to have spotted sheep, you would put a spotted stick in front of the sheep while it was breeding. 
Now, we in our modern sophistication know that this is not how genetics work. There is a reason that Laban took his spotted lambs far away, as that is actually how genetics work. We don’t have any indication that this stick method was told to him by God. In the next chapter, Jacob describes a dream God gave him about spotted sheep, but that chapter doesn’t include how they were to be born, so I think that Jacob is simply relying on folk legend like the mandrakes of the previous section (Matthews). 
Despite this superstitious practice, God blesses Jacob’s efforts over these six years. Why? Was it because God wanted him to use sticks? No. God blessed him because He promised to. That’s it. Jacob isn’t doing anything sinful here as far as it goes, and eventually he does acknowledge that it was God who blessed him in the next chapter. But the sticks did nothing to advance God’s agenda here. 
What does this mean for us? We have superstitions as well. Be good friends with anyone who plays sports regularly, and they will eventually admit to their lucky socks or pregame rituals. We can even do this as Christians. While we are blessed by reading our Bibles and praying, we can quickly assume that because we did those things that God owes us to have a successful day as we imagine it. Yes, we should pray about the day ahead, but we should not assume that if we do what is right, we are owed ease. Just because we had the right response to a hardship does not mean God won’t bring that hardship again. 
This is even true with stuff that we “know” works that isn’t pure superstition. Yes, being careful with your money means that you will be able to address financial emergencies, but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t the one ultimately behind your provision. Yes, studying well and consistently for a test generally means that you will get a good grade on the exam, but we don’t get to take all the credit. Yes, going to the doctor, eating right, and exercising will generally lead to good health, but God is the ultimate provider of health. 
To put it another way, the section of the Lord’s prayer, “give us this day our daily bread” has not been made obsolete because Walmart exists now. This doesn’t mean we don’t need to go shopping or study for our tests. God uses our efforts, but we don’t give glory to our efforts. We give glory to God. This keeps us humble and keeps our confidence where it needs to be. 
Imagine what would have happened if one of Jacob’s sons stepped on one of those sticks and broke it. That might have seemed like all hope for an inheritance was lost! Imagine the strife within the family as Jacob looks at that broken stick, fuming at what his son did. And it all would have been for nothing! The stick isn’t the hope, God is! 
Take comfort in the hope you have with God. When the visual evidences of God’s care fade (think: health, wealth, quiet in the home), God doesn’t fade. We don’t have to mourn the bank account number. We don’t have to fear the boss at work. We don’t have to yell at the kids to just get them to behave. We don’t have to do something sinful just to keep a friend happy. Those are just sticks. 
Here’s a crazy one: your life doesn’t even depend on you. One pastor friend (Martin Wagner) put it this way, “You aren’t the answer to all your own problems.” God is caring for your life. You are not your own personal messiah, nor are you such for your workplace, home, or ministry, so stop thinking and acting like you are. Take a rest on Sunday. The world will keep spinning. Spend some more time praying and less time running around. 
Now, you may say, “But, Pastor, this is going to make people lazy!” Well, I actually want you to be lazy in work that isn’t yours to do. Be lazy in trying to hold up the world! That’s not your job. It is distracting you from what is your job, namely, to love those around you. We spend too much time acting like we must be constantly busy or we aren’t useful. Do we work hard? Sure, but not at the expense of time with Jesus and resting in Him. See Mary and Martha. Be diligent in the handful of things that God is truly calling you to right here, right now. 
Now, I can almost hear someone else saying in their heart, “Pastor, you don’t understand. My whole house really does depend on me completely. Unless I do the laundry/cook dinner/file taxes, my family will be unclothed, hungry, and in prison! I’ve tried taking a break, and everything fell apart.” I hear this, and I have been praying for you these last few days. Being the engine of the home is hard, and at the end of the day, someone does have to do those things. If this is you, let me offer you some practical suggestions. Assuming you have already clearly and with words communicated to your family that you need help with specific tasks and will let them do those tasks in their own way to no success, then pray not only for energy to do these things, but joy in that work. Jesus actually is there with you, so do the task with Him. Laundry can be an act of worship by praying for each family member as you wash their clothes. Laundry is a holy work when it is done for Christ. Secondly, know that this season of life is just that, a season. It can feel like you are trapped in this life forever, but you are not. Jacob was at work for Laban for twenty years. That means he probably left Laban when he was close to 100 years old. But he would live for 47 years away from Jacob and eventually living in Egypt with a son second-in-command of of the place! Crazy things can happen in this life, but glorious things will happen in the next. Your whole life is just a season, so keep looking to the promised land, comforted that neither adversary will halt it, nor antics advance it, because Christ died for it, rose again to it, and will one day bring you along, too. 

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What we have in front of us today is a painful story. We have an unloved woman yearning for the affections of her husband. We have a loved woman who has everything in her life except that which she most desires, a child. We have a passive husband, tossed around by every twist of emotion in the household. We have two other women seen only as objects and means to an end. 

The sad news is this is all done entirely to themselves. None of this was necessary. All of it was an attempt to control things that cannot be controlled. The glad news is that God is going to turn petty competition and profound longing into the nation of Israel that will one day bring the Messiah. 

Our two points today: Coveting kills joy through false promises, yet God blesses whether we see it or not.
Coveting Kills Joy Through False Promises

We hear the word “covet” thrown around pretty casually as just another way to say “want.” I hear people say, “I covet your prayers.” While that’s not a sin to say that, it just isn’t the proper understanding of that word. Coveting is wanting something to the point of being willing to sin to get it. That doesn’t mean that this sin is hard to commit. I can so want time to myself that I ignore prayer. That’s coveting. I can so want well-behaved children, that I’ll try to short-cut the process by being harsh. That’s coveting. I can so want acceptance by friends that I’ll compromise what I believe. Or so want good grades that I’ll cheat on a test. Or so want that toy that I’ll be mean to a sibling. It’s all coveting. At the end of the day it is what I want no matter how I get it. 
So how does this play out at first? This passage in front of us is neatly divided into four sections. The first and last sections start with an action of the Lord. The Lord sees in verse 31, and the Lord remembers in verse 22. The middle two are the sisters “seeing.” These middle sections display the craziness that results when we covet something and attempt to get it our own way. 
In this first paragraph, Leah is clearly in pain but isn’t as yet doing anything sinful to alleviate it. To be honest, she participated in the deception of Jacob. She decides to go along with her father’s plan to trick Jacob. Jacob already didn’t love her prior to marriage, and tricking him into marrying her certainly doesn’t help matters. 
Despite how she got into this position, and at this time in history she was in a rough spot (compassion where it is due), the Lord saw that Leah was hated. God was watching Leah, and acts for the hated one. God sees you, too. There are seasons of life where it feels like everyone is ignoring you, even the ones who shouldn’t be ignoring you. Parents, friends, even spouses can seem distant and distracted. That loneliness feels crushing. But God seems especially attuned to that. He has even experienced it in the person of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when all His disciples fled from Him after one of them directly betrayed Him to death. God knows what it feels like to be alone, to be hated. And He has compassion. 
He shows this to Leah by causing her to have children, sons even! A son means that the family name will continue, and for this family, the blessing to pass on! You can see Leah’s state of mind in how she names her children. All of these names are puns, play on words. They sound like other Hebrew words for the emotions she feels. She names her first son Reuben which sounds like the Hebrew word for “see.” She feels that now that she has given Jacob a son, a future, a descendant to pass on the blessing, the guarantee of land for future descendants, that she will finally get the love from Jacob that she desires. 
However, even with one son born, and even with three more to come in these verses, her status doesn’t change from “unloved.” She names her second son Simeon which sounds like shema or “heard.” She understands that the Lord “heard” she was still hated and thus sent a second son. The first son wasn’t enough, but she will find that the second son doesn’t help either. Son number three’s name sounds like the word “join,” Levi. She hopes that her husband will be attached, but even this doesn’t help. Finally, the fourth son is named Judah, sounding like the word “praise.” She is stopping the pursuit of her husband’s love and decides to simply praise God for what He is doing. 
If she could only see what these sons will do, though. Each of these sons, and all the ones to follow in the rest of our passage, will form the nation of Israel, all twelve tribes. The tribe of Judah is ultimately going to be the kingly tribe, the tribe of David, the tribe of Jesus. Levi is going to produce the priestly tribe, the tribe that will offer sacrifices for the sins of the people, the tribe that will point most clearly to Jesus’ sacrifice. All from the unloved one! You never know what is hidden in your pain. Some of your deepest pains will be the greatest offerings you give to the world. Those pains form you into a person able to serve, understand, and pray for others. Here, Leah channels that pain into praise. She is an example of what to do in this situation. She recognized the the Lord sees, and she worships Him. 
However, we are about to see what happens when Rachel and Leah see in a different way. God saw Leah with the eyes of compassion, but Rachel sees her with the eyes of competition and envy. Here’s where the “all natural remedies” kick in. 
Rachel’s seeing causes her to envy her sister and covet her position. This begins by yelling at Jacob for something he can’t control, a fact he angrily reminds her of. AS one scholar notes, “Jacob does not handle the exasperation of Rachel very well. He does not pray to God for his wife nor does he give her any comfort…Neither Jacob nor Rachel are trusting in the LORD to give them children” (Belcher). Yelling comes natural, but it isn’t the solution. The other “all natural” solution is to give Jacob her maidservant to have children with, since that went so well with Sarah and Abraham. 
Having a concubine was a very normal part of the ancient world, but the Bible never approves of this practice. Here these real women are just being used as baby machines, a practice we moderns do as well with surrogacy. In this practice, the child born to the servant (in this case Bilhah) was fully the child of the mistress (in this case Rachel). 
This isn’t even fully about having children, as such, but it seems that this is all about competing with Leah. She names her first child “Dan” which sounds like “judged.” The implication here is that God has finally done right by her in giving her a son, sort of (Ross, 511). The second son of Bilhah is called “Naphtali” which sounds like the word for “wrestle.” She feels in this moment that she is winning! 
Not to get left behind, Leah “sees” the situation, and suddenly the woman of worship enters the wrestling match. She has her own all natural remedies to this spiritual problem of jealousy by deploying her own servant, Zilpah, bearing her two more sons whose names sound like “good fortune” and “happy.” 
You think we’d be done at this point, right? Everyone has, as far as society is concerned, children. Competition done, right? Can’t be jealous if everything is equal, right? All natural remedies have worked? 
Nope. 
Leah’s son finds some mandrakes and gives them to his mother. Mandrakes were a plant considered to enhance the bedroom experience and increase fertility (Matthews). However, ingesting too much of the plant would be poisonous resulting in hallucinations, blurry vision, and even death. The plant has the same compounds we use in anti-nausea pills and those eye drops they put in to dilate your eyes. 
The fight begins for the mandrakes and reveals that the sisters still are in the same painful spot. Rachel wants them because, really, she still hasn’t had a child. Leah doesn’t want to give them because she still feels unloved by Jacob. All the competition, all that scheming, all those “all natural” remedies resulted in nothing. But we will continue down this path as the wheeling and dealing begin. Rachel sells Jacob to Leah for the night in order to get mandrakes, which Leah takes. Even without the mandrakes, she gets pregnant again, and names her son after a word that sounds like “wages,” a sort of double pun on the sale of mandrakes and on the mistaken idea that God was rewarding her efforts with the servant. She then has another son, and finally a daughter. 
That just had to be crushing for Rachel. Despite having the mandrakes, yet another all natural remedy it is another two years of no children. 
Finally, only when the Lord moves, He causes Rachel to have a son. “Joseph” sounds like the Hebrew word for “taken away” meaning this birth has removed the stigma of childlessness, and it sounds like the word for “let there be another son.” 
What a mess! 
God blesses whether we see it or not.
Now, despite their sinful motives, the Lord blesses. No one ultimately needed concubine children or mandrakes. In fact, pursuing these things never gave them an appreciation for the sons they had. It was never enough. 
So what do we take away from this? 
God is blessing you whether you see it or not. Coveting things that God hasn’t given you yet isn’t going to help you see the blessings He has given you already. 
Modern science is actually waking up to the practice of gratitude. Apparently, scientists can actually see the change in people’s brains when they spend time being grateful for what they have. 
By all means do that, but as a Christian, you have something even more powerful than that. Again, by all means, be grateful for the things that He has given you. Write them down. But don’t forget to be grateful for the Giver of those gifts. You don’t just have gifts from God, you have the gift OF God. You have a good Father who knows and loves to give good gifts to His children far better than we can (Matthew 7:11; Psalm 84:11; James 1:17)! The climax of those gifts is spelled out in Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” You, as a sinner who offends God daily, has been given forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And as it says in Luke 12:32 ““Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” 
This world is too hard for you to intentionally forget that you are going to heaven. There are too many things to want in this world for you to not start every day saying, “I’m going to heaven to be with God.” That is the only way to combat your coveting. It’s the only way to combat anxiety, which is just coveting the things that you currently have and are afraid of losing. Stare at the ultimate blessing that you do already have. This doesn’t mean that the shimmer of things in this world goes away completely. God made a good world. There are great things in it. But over time as you practice turning your eyes on Jesus, the things of this world fall into their appropriate place, underneath the glory of Christ. 

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One of the great blessings in modern life is the GPS. I don’t listen to directions very well, mostly because they are entirely absent of street names. When my family moved to Jasper, Alabama, at a time before smartphones were widespread, I would tell people that I had just moved there and needed directions to such and such. Their directions would begin with, “Well, do you know where the old Sonic used to be?” I would reiterate that I had just moved here and thus didn’t know where anything used to be! One time someone used an old fallen tree that wasn’t even there anymore as a landmark! 

Enter the GPS! Finally, no more hazy directions! Everything is laid out clearly on a map to take you right where you want to go. Or so I thought. Abby and I on one trip had to drive through Atlanta. The GPS, ever helpful, suggested that we take a detour off the highways in order to avoid traffic. I pushed “yes” and it took me through some very scary sections of Atlanta. This was a very different path than what brought me into the city! I did get home, but it wasn’t the way I expected. 
The GPS often makes us think that because a journey starts out one way that it will absolutely continue as it should. We often bring the same attitude to God’s plan for us. We think that because it operated one way for our parents that it will definitely work that way for us. Or even expecting the patterns of our own lives to repeat. When that pattern is disrupted, we can often feel like God is abandoning us. Or if this pattern is interrupted by our own sin, we can feel as though there is simply nothing good that can come from this situation now. 
Jacob is about to find out how God works. The path of God’s providence is often bumpy, but we will see God work it out to his good. Today, our main focus will be Trust God with the twists. 
Trust God with the Twists

We begin this chapter fresh off his dream at Bethel where God has promised to be with him and produce the same blessings as promised to Abraham. Scholars note that the Hebrew here points to Jacob’s outlook on his future. Where it says “went on his journey” the Hebrew is delightfully phrased that Jacob “picked up his feet,” which is a lovely way of saying that he had a “spring in his step” of sorts (Ross, 501). Life is good! 
But there is trouble on the horizon. It notes that he came to the “people of the east.” We’ve mentioned this before, the direction “east” is a symbol of sorts of moving away from God. We first see this all the way back in Genesis 3:24 where Adam and Eve are banished “east” out of the Garden. We will see this direction reverse in the New Testament when wise men come “from the east” to meet and worship Jesus. for the moment, Jacob is heading east, heading into hard times. 
But that trouble looks pretty far away for now, as things begin to fall into a familiar pattern. Jacob approaches a well where he is about to meet (one of) his future wives, Rachel. Right away, we should start thinking about how Isaac’s wife, Jacob’s mother, was discovered. Rebekah, too, was found by a well which Abraham’s servant just so happened to be at right at the time that he was supposed to be there. It looks like a repeat of Genesis 24! 
But there is one component of this story that is conspicuous in its absence: prayer. The servant before anyone came to the well, he was covering everything in prayer. This is something that is clearly missing in this narrative. 
Does this mean this is why everything goes wrong for him? Not necessarily. On the one hand, we have examples, particularly in the book of Joshua, where a lack of prayer is a big part of the reason for a lack of success (Joshua 9 and possibly chapter 7). However, we don’t look at our prayer lives as a formula to follow to get what you want. God does many things despite our prayerlessness, as I believe J.C. Ryle once said, but I think we rob ourselves of a lot of joy by not praying specifically to the Lord and see Him answer. 
In any event, Rachel comes up and Jacob is ecstatic. He rolls away this huge stone all by himself, kiss her and starts crying! Lot of feelings happening right now! She runs off to tell her father Laban, who, as we shall see, is always looking for a deal. 
After a month long stay, Laban opens the negotiations for the future. Jacob wants to get married, and in that culture, you needed to have something to give the family for a bride price. I know that sounds like a property exchange to our modern ears, but the loss of a daughter in that time was, in fact, a measurable economic loss. She is a shepherdess here, so to give her to Jacob did, indeed, mean that Laban would need someone else to help with the sheep. 
However, Laban is milking this for everything it is worth. At least one scholar points out that this was beyond even what could be required of a Jewish slave. Six years of labor was the max for that, and he is proposing seven years (Rick Philips). Jacob doesn’t have a whole lot of choice, though, as he has nothing at the moment being homeless and broke (Matthews). Fortunately, he loves Rachel so much, that those seven years fly by as if they were a few days. 
Rachel isn’t the only character entering this mix. We get a little narrative aside introducing us to the oldest daughter, Leah. There is some discussion as to what is meant by Leah’s eyes being “weak.” Some translations put it “delicate” to try to give a positive spin on it, but I think that the text is trying to be comparative here (Matthews). We are trying to draw a contrast between Leah and Rachel. Beautiful eyes were a sought after beauty standard in the ancient near East, and unfortunately, Leah struggles here. Rachel, however, is given top marks for physical beauty. 
This passage gives us many points of comparison not just between Leah and Rachel, but also between these sisters and Jacob and Esau. Rachel works out in the fields, similar to Esau, but Leah’s contribution to the family isn’t mentioned. Perhaps she is a woman of the tent, like Jacob (Matthews). There is also the way that they are differentiated. Most other places in the Old Testament refer to daughters by “first” and “second” daughters rather than “older/younger” (Matthews) which, I think, draws further comparison between Esau and Jacob. 
All of this sets up Laban’s big deception of Jacob, giving Jacob a taste of his own medicine. The question could be reasonably asked, “How on earth does Jacob not notice a different woman on his wedding day, and in particular on his wedding night?” Well, unlike our marriage conventions, the bride would have likely remained veiled the whole ceremony and into the wedding night (Matthews). Wine also would have been freely flowing during the feast after the wedding, so Jacob’s senses were not at their best, especially at night. Here, everything that Jacob used to deceive his father is used to deceive him. Lack of sight, good food, different clothing, and dulled senses are all used to trick Jacob into consummating the marriage with Leah, thus making the marriage irrevocable (Matthews). There is no annulment option, Leah is his wife now, full stop. 
Jacob is obviously upset, yet Laban says that this is cultural convention! It is just not how things are done around here. The oldest goes first. Ouch. However, Jacob is told that Rachel can be his wife at the end of the week if he serves anotherseven years afterwards. Once again, Jacob is in no real position to argue, so he agrees to these terms and marries Rachel after the week is complete. 
All of these twists and turns are things that God works through. Was Laban wrong to deceive Jacob like this? Yes it was, and Laban is going to get his own just desserts later for this. Was Jacob wrong to marry multiple wives? Yes, as God always intended to have a marriage be one man and one woman. While it hadn’t been set down in official law yet, Scripture never approves of polygamy and in fact goes out of its way to show how these marriages always lead to conflict. We will see how this works in that last part of the chapter when we get there next Sunday. 
Despite all of the sin, God is going to work through even this polygamous marriage built on lies to bring about the twelve tribes of Israel. Ultimately, all of this will produce the Savior of the world, Jesus Himself. While Jacob is getting something of a poetic justice here, Jesus would bear the ultimate occasion of being sinned against. He would be murdered on the cross for crimes He didn’t commit, and endure our just punishment for sin. He didn’t betray, yet was betrayed. He didn’t lie, but was treated as one. He didn’t murder but endured its punishment for you and me. He endured the consequences due to us Jacobs so that we might go free. Unlike Jacob, Jesus wasn’t stuck in that situation forever. But He paid for all our sins with His death, and having done so was raised from sin’s penalty to eternal life again. 
So what is our takeaway from this here? We need to trust the providence of God even when there are twists in the road. But what does that really look like? We can tend to think that this means that we are simply to become passive people resigned to our fate. “Well, God is in control, so whatever happens, happens. Nothing I can do.” No. This doesn’t mean passive resignation but prayerful participation. Look how Abraham’s servant went about finding a wife for Isaac. He brought the camels, brought the gifts, traveled the miles, talked to the families, but every single step was covered in prayer. Nothing was assumed to be “I got this. I don’t need to bother praying about it.” Bother praying about it! Yes, God will work despite your prayerlessness, but whey wouldn’t you want to participate in His work? We don’t pray to change God’s mind, but to change ours to reflect His! If nothing else, a prayerful approach to life reminds you that there is more to consider in your decisions than how much time or money it costs. 
I want you to try something this week. Pick two or three things that you just normally do without thinking. Maybe it is safety on your commute, productivity at work, creativity in a home project, your use of social media, how you play basketball, how you go to sleep, your interactions with your children, the things you worry about when you have a rare moment of quiet, and pray very specifically for those things this week. Jesus does tell us to pray for our daily bread, doesn’t He? Just see how differently you view those things after praying for them for a week. If you want extra points, write them down and see how God answers them. I’m not promising you’ll have an answer within a week or that it’ll be the answer you want. But I am promising that if you will take the time to notice, God’s bumpy providence is leading you towards Himself. 
How to do this practically? I like a system that John Piper has used and one that I use every time I preach. It is called APTAT. 

Admit. You admit that you are not able to do the thing that Jesus has called you to. 
Pray for help. 
Take Hold of a Promise (find a promise in Scripture relevant to your situation). 
Act. Do what you know you need to do! 
Thank. Thank God for how He worked in that situation. It is a very simple thing, but I have found great comfort in it. 

How would you react to a portal to heaven? What if it was located in a particular room of your house or out in a certain field. Would you visit it often? Would you feel worthy of it? Would you be scared of it? I don’t ask these questions to be coy or hypothetical. Even though this is probably the first time you’ve had that kind of question posed to you, you already have the answer to all these questions. Believe it or not, you have encountered such a reality. No, it doesn’t look like a literal window into paradise, but when it, or I guess I should say “He,” is encountered, you will find the answer to all those questions I’ve just posed. It’ll be clearer what I mean as we go on. 
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In this passage we get a small glimpse into this portal that Jacob seems to stumble into, and what it does to a man like Jacob. There is some mystery surrounding this passage, but what is shown here is beautiful and ties in with our taking of the Lord’s Supper here today. 

Our two points here are: God condescends to His people, and our only response is worship. 

God condescends to His People

Let us remind ourselves of where we are. Jacob is fleeing from the wrath of Esau, having seemingly stolen the his blessing. Of course, this blessing was always meant for Jacob, but the circumstances in obtaining it are suspect at best. He has been sent 400 miles away to Padan-aram in order to marry within the covenant and steward the Abrahamic blessing of seed as God intended. 
We join Jacob about 60 miles into his journey when we begin in verse 10. Note the circumstances. He isn’t traveling with a great caravan of people or seemingly even has a tent. He is sleeping out in a field on a rock! He is on his way out of the land that has been promised him leaving behind a brother who wants to see him dead. At this point, as one scholar points out, “Although Jacob had received the blessing, he straightway abandoned the land and inheritance to his brother Esau. It was Esau, not Jacob, who appeared to have gained the possessions of their father despite the stolen blessing.” (Matthews) 

He comes to a place that we will later come to know as Bethel, when he has this amazing dream. Notice the number of times we see the word “behold.” (Ross, 488). The text wants us to be aware of how startling this would be to witness and draw a reaction out of us. It is like a real estate agent who points out the good features of a house because they want you to love it. Here, the text wants us to be amazed along with Jacob, so let’s look at this together. 
The dream opens with a staircase leading up into heaven with angels running up and down it, with the Lord Himself looking down from the top step. What an image! What are we supposed to think about it? The word translated “ladder” here is the only time this word shows up in the Old Testament (Ross, 488), so it is a little difficult to know precisely what it means. “Ladder” is definitely one way to translate it, but Ancient thought probably would see it as a stone staircase, perhaps even “reminiscent of [the Tower of] Babel” (Matthews). Back in Genesis 11, the people of the earth thought it would be a great idea to build a tower to reach into the heavens where God was, in an act of disobedience and pride. He “came down” to see the tower they were building, and in an act of judgement, confused all their languages. Now, we have a staircase from God to Earth, and it is right at Jacob’s head! 

Can you imagine being Jacob in this moment? Before you can barely wrap your mind around what you are even seeing, God Himself begins talking to you. He reiterates all the promises that were given to Abraham and now applies them to Jacob. This passage is a combination of sorts of every promise that had ever been given to Abraham (Bible Talk Podcast). 

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, I can’t imagine anything like this because this hasn’t happened to me.” Or maybe something odd has happened to you, but you are unsure if it is real or what it means. To the Presbyterian and Pentecostal, the New Testament has something to tell you. Jesus references this moment in John 1. Jesus is choosing His disciples, and he picks Nathaniel to join the ranks. Nathaniel is a little skeptical of this Messiah, because, after all, He is from Nazareth, the wrong end of town, and can someone so grand as the Messiah come from a backwater, nothing town like Nazareth? Jesus is quick to show that kind of thinking is wrong, and Nathaniel is probably the fastest to come to an understanding of who Jesus is. Jesus responds with a “you ain’t seen nothing yet” response and includes that one of the greater things that Nathaniel will see is the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. 

This reference to this passage in Genesis gives us clarity in how we are supposed to think about it. What Jesus is saying there is that He is the stairway to heaven. The path to God is found in Jesus. He is the Way. He is the narrow gate. He is the stairway to heaven, and unlike Led Zeppelin’s lady, you can’t buy Him with gold. He’s already bought you with His blood. This reality is greater than what Jacob experienced. Jacob knows about this staircase, but now the staircase, as it were, knows us! We have a relationship with the way to God, a saving, glorious relationship with the Only Way to God. What a condescension on God’s part. God came down the stairs to become the stairs. He didn’t just provide steps, He is the steps. He didn’t give you a philosophy to follow but forgiveness to embrace. 

So when I opened a few minutes ago with those questions about what would you do if you were to encounter a portal to heaven, the answer to those questions is found in your relationship with Jesus. Do you shy away from prayer with Him and Bible reading because you are ashamed of your sin? Are you afraid of Him because you fear that, perhaps, in the end, you’ll find you weren’t on the staircase at all? Or maybe you have gotten so used to hearing His name and handling holy things you barely feel a thing. Maybe you remember a time in which you were awed and worshipfully fearful, but now that is gone. “How can that be possible,” you may wonder, “to encounter a portal to heaven and then lose your excitement?” 

There can be a number of reasons. They can be as heartbreaking and self-inflicted as hidden sin. Hidden sin is cherished sin. And a heart in love with sin, doesn’t see Jesus for Who He is. If that’s you, let that sin go. It doesn’t keep its promises to you (Phillips). Get it out in the open, let it shrivel, so that you might see Jesus. It can be as simple and ordinary as a season of physical pain or sleeplessness. You aren’t just a soul, and your body has a big impact on how your soul feels. It can also be just as subtle as where you are directing your thoughts. Have you so numbed yourself with scrolling you can barely see how your spouse sitting next to you is doing much less the glories of our God? 
So how do we get out of that mire? 

Our Only Response is Worship. 

Jacob, having seen all this, gets up and sets up a rock as a physical marker of where he had this happen. He pours oil on it, as an act of worship, and makes a vow to God that He will come back to this place, and worship with tithe in hand. Contrary to what I said last time, I have been convinced from my studies that Jacob isn’t actually making a bargain with God here. His actions show that he believes in God now, and he is acting in accordance to what He has just seen. 

We must do the same. Jesus has condescended to us sinners, dying on the cross, and rising again to open the way to heaven if we will repent of our sins and turn to Him for mercy. We need to be reminded of that. And for us, that doesn’t come from a stone that we found and make our own sign of God’s faithfulness. We have that sign right here in the Lord’s Supper. This visual picture is a reminder that the staircase to heaven, once came to Earth. He lived as one of us, died as one of us, and rose again, as we shall one day in Him. But in this moment, we have more than a memorial. Here we have fellowship. We aren’t taking this supper just to remind us to get back in fellowship with God. We don’t go on a date to remind ourselves to connect with our spouse. The act of dinner with them is part of that process. This isn’t a reminder meal, a memorial feast to a fallen hero long since gone. This is a family dinner where we are simultaneously reminded of our fellowship and actually fellowship. It is, in a true sense, a glimpse into heaven. 

Photo by Tim Graf on Unsplash
It has been wisely said that when at first you don’t succeed, just do it the way mom told you to do it the first time. We have the tendency as humans to think that we know best about life, especially our lives, and God, while usually having some good ideas, can be ignored without consequences. We saw last week the absolute disaster zone of Isaac passing on the blessing to Jacob. This week, we are going to see the beginning of God’s grace moving in Jacob’s life. 
What we are going to cover today is seeing how Genesis is going to move to Jacob being the main character going forward, yes, that Jacob. The rest of Genesis, more or less, is going to be following Jacob finishing with his death at the end. Therefore, it will suit us to get our bearings about where we are going. We will do a little more than that as we will have the somewhat unexpected opportunity to talk about marriage. 
Our main point today: God continues His blessings and God’s blessings in marriage come from His commands for marriage
God Continues His Blessings
As you may remember, most “episodes” of Genesis begin with a list of names, the genealogies, a favorite of mine. We don’t get that here at the start of this chapter, but we do get a similar structure in that we get Esau’s story wrapped up before moving onto narrating Jacob’s life. 
This episode begins in the previous chapter in verse 46 where Rebekah, still hanging onto a little scheming, prompts Isaac to send Jacob away by saying she would just die if Jacob takes on a Hittite wife. If you remember, that was Esau did, and they caused a lot of problems. 
Isaac steps in and the rest of the story kicks off from here. First, we should note that he speaks the blessing over Jacob intentionally here (about time). Over the next few verses here Jacob is either referenced or commanded about thirty times. Notice how many times the word “you” is said in this text. It is very clear that Jacob, the cheat, is going to be the bearer of the blessing. He invokes God’s name, the Almighty, which one commentator reminds us is the same name that God gave to Abraham in chapter 17 (Rick Phillips, 177). 
This should cause us to find the many parallels here of Jacob and his grandfather, Abraham. The promise of a land, seed, and blessing are presented here (although we will see them much more comprehensively delineated in the next section). He blesses him with the benediction of being fruitful and multiplying (a call back to the very beginning of the book). He is going to have many people, and he is going to possess the land of his sojournings. The NIV translates the sense of this well by writing, “the land where you now reside as a foreigner.” If we could put this in our understanding today, it might read, “the land in which you hold a green card.” 
Now, let’s look at what Isaac has so far to accomplish all these things, and we can get a sense as to what God is promising him. Right now, Jacob is in his seventies, unmarried, without citizenship in the very land that he is supposed to occupy. Can you imagine your family two generations ago moving to another country on a work visa, and now here you are in middle age, still on the work visa, and unmarried being told that yes, indeed, the plan is still to possess the entire country such that the current people’s fate is tied to how they treat you. Yes, this has been the plan for the last, oh, 150 plus years, but now the plan is for you to continue it. This is quite a promise. Almost too much to believe. 
Jacob’s faith isn’t one of believing something new, like Abraham’s, but trusting God in waiting a long time for the old, a bit more familiar to us, perhaps. Yes, he has absolutely seen God work in the life of his family in terms of wealth and favor amongst the nations (for the most part), but the full fulfillment of these promises still seem a long way away. “a company of peoples” plural? We’ve got a family of four here. The “chosen one” is in his seventies! God, you should have moved a little sooner! I could have done a bit more to prepare! 
Do you feel like that sometimes? God has promised to change you to be more like Christ, but you feel like you are only “getting it” now so late in life, too late in life to make a difference. You know that God has promised heaven, but it seems so far away and only after a long path of emotional and physical suffering. You’ve been parenting for so long, but the child still seems so far from God. Your struggle with that sin just keeps going, your fears of not having enough to provide for your family just keep being present, and it seems like God just keep saying the same things, and frankly, not delivering. 
What are we supposed to do with that feeling? Well, we have one HUGE advantage over Jacob, here. We get to see how God sets things up and gets the payoff. Jacob only had two generations to look back on, but we have thousands! We have the benefit to see that God plays the long game and loves a good twist payoff. He didn’t forget about Jacob, He was getting Jacob ready. He’s doing the same thing in your situation. You are dealing with the same God. If we could counsel Jacob, we would say, “Oh, just wait. You wouldn’t believe it even if I told you. Your second youngest son (you’re going to have 12 of them, you see), is going to save the whole known world from starvation. Hang in there.” What could someone from a hundred years from now say to you today? One day we’ll find out, and I think you’ll be amazed. 
But what to do from there once we’ve reminded ourselves of God’s care for us? Well, the next step obedience to His commands. That’s where His blessings are. 
God’s blessings in marriage come from His commands for marriage
In Jacob’s case, obedience began with marriage. In order for Jacob to have the rest of these blessings, he needs to secure a wife! Obedience begins in earnest as very careful directions are laid out for his choice of marriage partner. 
God is very clear that he is not to marry a Canaanite woman. The language here is the same as that of the commandments. The KJV has “thou shalt not.” This is a very strong command, but why? It is because Jacob cannot marry outside the covenant. Marriage for him had to be in the family of Abraham, in this case, Jacob’s uncle’s daughter. The Canaanites were an especially unsavory option because they bore the curse of God from Genesis 9. They were the cursed line from Ham who looked at his father’s nakedness. That is the only reason. They are outside the covenant. 
This isn’t a racism thing, as if God opposes interracial marriage. As R.C. Sproul points out, the writer of Genesis, Moses, was interracially married, and when that was opposed, the opposers were judged by God (Numbers 12). (https://learn.ligonier.org/qas/does-god-frown-upon-interracial-marriages). The same applies today. Galatians 3:28 tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” External differences don’t matter in Christian marriage. Might there be challenges? Sure, but there are unique challenges in every marriage. 
There are only two requirements for a Christian to get married. The person you are marrying has to be the opposite sex, and they have to be a believer in Christ (2 Cor. 6:14). That’s what God requires. You can have preferences on the rest, but that is the bedrock. That is the same requirement that Jacob has here, and the same requirement that Esau didn’t understand. He thought it was only about the Canaanites, so he went to his uncle Ishmael, a son of Abraham after all, and married one of his daughters. Sadly, Ishmael isn’t in the main covenant, either, so this is just making the same mistake a different way. 
Jacob’s journey towards obedience begins with a trip to Paddan Aram. This land is 400 miles away from here he stands right now. That would be like walking to Louisville! I’m sure that there would have been the temptation to say, “Really? You’re sure the Canaanites won’t do?” But as we saw last week, trying to take a shortcut through sin just doesn’t work. One pastor said it this way, “sin does not keep its promises” (Phillips, 175). “It’ll be easier to do it this way,” “Oh, it is just this one time, it’ll be fine.” “No one is going to be hurt.” Never keeps its promises. That pastor continued, “While God gives grace in such situations, his sanctifying purpose will often teach you through sorrow that his ways are better.” (176). In other words, God will sometimes give you grace even though you went about things the wrong way, as we’ve seen in Jacob’s life, but don’t be surprised that there will be suffering around the corner to teach, as we have also seen in the life of Jacob. Jesus forgives all our sins, taking away both the guilt and eternal punishment for them, but that doesn’t mean that our sins won’t have natural consequences. 
So what is our takeaway? 
We find blessing in obedience to God. Thankfully Jacob is going to follow after God here (for the most part), and he will find the blessings for having done so. This does not mean that his life will be pain free or even easy. The same is true for us. 
Obedience can be hard. It will almost always mean saying “no” to your heart. Single people, I see you. Loneliness can be hard. The fear of not being able to find someone can be paralyzing. So much so that the temptation can be to grab hold of the first person who looks your way. Trust God. Don’t stray from what God tells you to do. Our minds will contort our sins to seem even like they are the right thing to do. “We’ll get married and that’ll be the means of him getting to know the Lord.” That is a bad idea because disobeying God is always a bad idea. You have no idea how life might go, and you simply can’t account for the future. Sin won’t keep its promises to you (Phillips, 175), but God will. 
If you are already married to a great Christian, have you spent some time thanking God for such a great gift? Or have you gotten distracted by all the optional preferences that might not be as refined as they were at the start of the relationship? If there is serious sin going on like abuse or unfaithfulness it absolutely needs to be dealt with (and Biblical grounds for divorce). I’m not saying turn a blind eye to that, but I am saying that non-essential things are just that, non-essential. Instead, rejoice in the solid foundation that God has given you in a spouse that follows Jesus. 
Finally, remember where you are going. I know it can seem like the fulfillment of the promises of everything being restored seems so far away. It could be tomorrow for you. It might be a hundred years from now, but it is coming. Jesus has staked His blood on it. 

Photo by Chris Chow on Unsplash‌
Do you have a perfect family? Everyone gets along, there’s no conflict, no hidden sin, no masks to have to wear this morning? Well of course not! We are all sinners and that includes even as a collection of people called a family. We all realize that and know that we are all in the same boat. Yet there are some of us that think our family is especially dysfunctional, or to use Biblical language, extra sinful. We wonder how God is able to do anything with or through in our family. If that’s you this morning, you may be thinking, “Oh, if you only knew.”
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Thus far in Genesis, families in such a condition may be feeling even more inadequate. Yes, Noah and Abraham have had their stumbles, but it isn’t like there’s a horror show at every turn.
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Well, let’s meet Isaac’s family. Before we begin, we must keep something in mind. We are not here to look at this example and walk away like the Pharisees and say, “Whew, glad my family isn’t as messed up as Isaac’s!” Maybe you don’t have sons plotting to kill each other, but we all have the seeds of the sins that we are going to look at here. We are meant to walk away saying, “Now what areas in my family need repentance?” As we will see, God is going to work redemption even through the very sins we see here committed. Yet we will also see that to sin makes everything harder on oneself. It doesn’t have to be this way.
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Our two points are Fighting God beats yourself and God will use even sin to bring about His purposes.

Fighting God Beats Yourself
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Let’s meet the family while keeping in mind the context of where we are.
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The most important fact to remember is what was said about the twins when they were born back in
Genesis 25:23 “And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.””
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This is the clear message that Jacob is going to be the promised son to have the blessing. All the way back to Genesis 9:26, the blessed line of Shem is going to be the one served, so it should be clear to us what the next step should be.
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Our story starts in the last verse of the previous chapter that tells us that Esau hasn’t married very well. He has married not one, but two Hittites, the people of Canaan, and they (Feminine plural in the Hebrew) have made life bitter for his parents. This will be important to remember later.
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Ok, that is the necessary background information.
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From here, we are going to see an absolute disaster zone of sin. Usually when we look at this passage, we focus on all the lying that Jacob does here. We will look at that, too, but there are a bunch of somewhat more subtle sins at work here. Each of these sins promise to deliver to the sinner what they want, and what we will find is that it will backfire on them.
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Favoritism Never Brings Favor
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The first sin to see is the sin of favoritism, or to use the Biblical word for it, partiality. To be partial to someone means to have a bias against or for someone that makes you treat them in a way that the Bible wouldn’t want. We see this commanded in many places in Scripture but probably the most comprehensive is in Leviticus 19:15 ““You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” We saw back in
Genesis 25:28 that Isaac loved Esau (because he liked the meat he brought in) and Rebekah liked Jacob. This partiality on both ends is going to drive the rest of this nightmare.
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Our story begins with a blind Isaac telling Esau that he wants to give the divine blessing to him, a covenantal disaster! The line of the woman is supposed to be separate from the line of the snake! Marriages are not supposed to be with the people of the land, and he has married two people of the Canaanites already! As one scholar notes, “These marriages indicate that Esau is not concerned about the promises of God made to his forefathers; rather, he shows disdain for the heritage of the covenant.” (Belcher, 178-179). He continues later: “Esau is the son who wants the blessing but is not willing to live a life that honors God so that he could be trusted with the blessing.” (Belcher, 182) But, you know, he’s a good hunter! What can we say? The boy knows his way around a deer steak. Isaac cares more about his son’s food than his faith. Sadly, you will actually notice that Jacob is never referred to as “my son” by Isaac. Favoritism is ugly.
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And it isn’t just Isaac that does it. Rebekah hears the plot and springs into action. She quickly hatches the plan to make sure “her son” is the one who gets the blessing. Some argue that she is doing this for honorable reasons, but as one scholar notes, “Some would say that she strove to realize the oracle that predicted the rise of the younger, but the narrative does not attribute this directly to her motivation. Rather, it simply observes that she favors Jacob, perhaps for the sake of the oracle, but the text suggests that it is more likely his temperament and vocation she values.” (Matthews, 417) She certainly isn’t going about this the right way.
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Favoritism is actually selfishness in disguise. You are partial to one child over another (or partial to anyone, for that matter) likely because of what they do for you. Favoritism actually puts you as the favorite, not them. If you are the center of your life, then everyone else, including your kids, is judged worthy or unworthy based on how they make you feel.
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My kids were watching Bluey the other day, and there is one episode where one kid, Bingo, is much more compliant, quiet, and organized than Bluey, the older sister. The girls pick this up and pretend to be each other, both pretending to be Bluey (the loud one) and later on both pretending to be Bingo (the compliant one). The parents let slip that they are more excited by the prospect of two Bingos, and this obviously hurts Bluey’s feelings deeply. The show resolves this by pointing out that even Bingo has her flaws, and ultimately, the parents want to have both daughters as they are individually.
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Now, the show doesn’t have the Bible to point to on how to avoid this in parenting or other realms like politics where one’s own side is excused their bad behavior. We shouldn’t say, “You should be more like your brother” or “our side of politics should be more like the other side” No, we should be saying to everyone, “Be like Christ.”
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If God is at the center of your life, then you are going to be most concerned about how everyone relates to Him, not you. And if God is at the center of your life, you will know that any good that comes in their lives is credit to Him, not you! The kids who follow Christ cause you to be grateful to God, and the one who don’t (yet) follow Him cause you to be in prayer to God for them.
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It is scary to see where favoritism can take you, as we look at the next sin it lead to in this passage, lying.
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Deception is degrading.
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Rebekah “leaves nothing to chance or to providence when she prepares the player for his part.” (Matthews, 430). We’ve got the food to taste like Esau’s, the goat hair to feel like Esau’s, and the garments to smell like Esau. Imagine how silly Jacob looked in all that! But beyond that, every sense is accounted for to trick an old blind man. What degradation. Can you imagine if this had been done to you?
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But it goes on. Jacob lies through his teeth over and over to keep up the ruse, even blaspheming God’s name by bringing Him into it in verse 20. Even the kiss in verse 26 is that of Judas (Matthews, 431).
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And we didn’t pick Esau, because why?
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But the lies work (sort of), and the blessing is given to Jacob. Isaac trusted every sense he had except the common sense to follow God’s will. God always intended that the blessing would go to him, but this was not the approved way. God will work even through sin, so there is no thwarting His plan. But this path will lead to pain, as verses 31 through the end of the chapter detail.
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Everyone’s favoritism and lying affects everyone else. Rebekah’s favoritism of Jacob affects Isaac. When he realizes that he has been duped, the reaction is visceral. The Hebrew literally describes it this way: “Isaac trembled a great trembling exceedingly” (Matthews, 434). It affects Esau, as this mighty hunter is reduced to sobbing on the floor begging for scraps of blessing. Jacob’s life is now at risk such that he has to be sent away never to be seen by Rebekah again. And the whole thing started with Isaac’s favoritism of Esau. He tried to bless Esau against God’s wishes and ended up giving him what scholars call an “antiblessing.”
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Great job, everyone! This is what happens when we turn to sin. Jacob was rightly called but called in the wrong way. God’s purposes will never be foiled, and those that try to stray from the path will always feel the pain.
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God will use even sin to bring about His purposes.
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We’re left sitting back going, “What a mess! How is God supposed to work this out?” And at this point in the book of Genesis, it isn’t clear. We have a family all broken apart over favoritism, lies, rebellion, and even threats of murder! Our only hope for the continuation of the blessing is placed in the hands of the guy literally named “cheater.”
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But that’s not quite right, is it? Our hope isn’t in Jacob. It is in God. As we work our way through the rest of Genesis, and really on our way through the rest of the Bible, we will discover that God is going to continue to turn bad things into vehicles for His grace. From Jacob will come the 12 sons of Israel. One of those sons, Joseph, is going to save the world from starvation! This will only happen when an even bigger lie and worse deception will be pulled on Jacob. Jacob tricked Isaac with a goat and garment, and the same thing will happen to him because he played favorites with Joseph (Bible Talk Podcast).
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Ultimately, from this disaster zone of a family is going to come a Savior. You see, we are all Jacob. We are the cheaters, the liars, the favorite-havers. And, in one sense, as one podcast I listened to this week pointed out, Jesus is Esau (Bible Talk). How does this play out? Esau was rejected, sent away from the goodness of the land, in a word, cursed. Esau was sent away so that Jacob could have the blessing. Jesus was forsaken by His Father on the cross so that we might get the blessing. The key difference, of course, is that Jesus actually deserves the blessing of the favor of the Father, but He stood aside and now gives it to those who repent and put their trust in Him.
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So what is our takeaway today?
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One, God will accomplish His will, even through our sin. That doesn’t make Him a sinner, and we are completely responsible for our sin, and we should not do it. That’s what God says and this story demonstrates.
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Two, any sin, even the common ones that everyone does, can have devastating consequences. Resist the temptation of partiality and bias whether it is with your kids or total strangers. It is known by many names: racism, sexism, whatever else “-ism” that doesn’t see people in the light of God’s Word. Is there behavior that needs to be pointed out and corrected? Yes. Are sometimes those criticism found more in some groups rather than others? Also yes, but corrections are always to be made in light of God’s Word and the love of the person, not the dislike of them.
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Finally, never give up hope. Do you know that these brothers are going to experience a reconciliation of a kind? Don’t look at your broken family and conclude there’s no hope. There may be no hope of you fixing it, but there is never an end to what God can do with it.

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Works Cited
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K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, vol. 1B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 417.
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Richard P. Belcher Jr., Genesis: The Beginning of God’s Plan of Salvation, Focus on the Bible Commentary (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2012), 178–179.
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