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.
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