God is Witness

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash
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.