Plundering the Flock

Jacob has worked for his two wives. Then he makes a deal with Laban to continue working for a flock. Jacob would get all of the speckled and spotted from the flock.

What I want you to see is God watching over and blessing Jacob. That God provides for His servant Jacob.

How he increases the wealth of Jacob, and how this is foreshadowing what Christ will do at the cross.

Genesis 31:1-13.

Attributes of God

God is omnipresent

v.11-13

God sees the distress, the problems that Jacob is going through.

He is not a absentee father who isn’t around and lets the world spin however it wants, uncaring about the outcome.

God calls himself el-Bethel or the God of Bethel.

This is a powerful statement.

In antiquity, they believed gods were localized. There may have been the god of Hebron, gods of Egypt.

This falls in line with Daniel 10:13 when the man in linen reveals that he was fighting with the prince of Persia attempting to get to Daniel. Most likely a Demon who had power in that area.

Yahweh is showing that He is the God not just at Bethel, not Just where Abraham dwelt. But He is the all powerful God over all.

He is stating that He is powerful in every area of the world. For God is now demonstrating his power and might in multiple area’s of the world, not localized.

This is a statement that the world and Christians today should come to realize.

Jesus is not the God over just the church.

He isn’t the God of merely Sunday mornings.

He is God almighty. The one who has authority to call every man to submission, the one who every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, that He is Lord.

His rule and His decree’s extend to our families, to our places of business, to the school system, and to the government.

Why don’t we act like it?

How often do we make the statement “God says that is immoral.”

We think “saying those words is to harsh.” Or “they don’t believe in God, we can’t say that.”

Forgetting that when we point them to God, we are pointing them to the highest authority that exists, and yes, it still does exist.

God has power over the womb

Jacob was working for the spotted, or stripped. Laban kept changing which it was that would be Jacob’s wages.

God blessed Jacob in having those particular lambs continue to be born!

If Laban said the spotted lambs were Jacob’s inheritance. God would cause spotted lambs to be born. If stripped, stripped lambs would be born.

We must see, this shows the power that God has over the womb, and thus the power that God has to create.

It is revealed through David Psalm 139:13 That God “formed our inward parts;” and he “knitted us together in our mother’s womb.”

God being the creator, formed him in the womb.

Just like the baby lambs.

If God controlled the outcome of the lambs, how much more does God watch over the lives of children in the womb.

Yet it seems like a great amount of the population doesn’t care about the unborn.

The news outlets are making lots of noise about how many children are being killed in the Israel, Hamas conflict.

Which they should for it is a tragic thing.

But they are missing the there are thousands more children being killed within America at abortion mills.

Because God is omnipresent, because He is omnipotent, and becasue He is the creator, God has the means and the authority to take from the flock of Laban, and give to the flock of Jacob.

God is giving them to me

v.9

God is systematically taking the flock of Laban, and creating a flock for Jacob.

v.1, the sons of Laban recognize this. That Jacob’s flock and wealth are growing while Laban’s is shrinking.

Jacob was being built into a nation, God was giving him the wealth that was needed for this to happen.

For God is the one who raises up nations, and he is the one who brings them down.

In the same way we see Jesus building a kingdom. We see Jesus begin mightily start pillaging people from the kingdom of darkness, and bringing them to the kingdom of light.

Matthew 12:28

Jesus casting out demons was proof that the king, Jesus, had come and was expanding his territory.

He was defeating the powers of darkness.

God is omnipotent, this means all powerful.

He was powerful enough to change the fleece of the lambs while they were still in the womb.

He is powerful enough to change the hearts of men, and draw them to himself.

He is powerful enough to bind the forces of darkness, and make way for the gospel to spread.

Matthew 12:29

Remember, Jesus was just speaking of demons, and evidence of the kingdom by their defeat.

Here he is saying that to plunder the house.

To take those who have been snared by the devil, he must first bind the devil, to bind the strong man. By doing so he will make way to grow his kingdom.

Colossians 2:13-15

We were dead in our sins and trespasses.

God made us alive by cancelling our debt, for he nailed that debt to the cross.

Then God disarmed, removed the power from the rulers and authorities.

These are demonic spirits by the way.

Christ triumphed over them.

He was binding the strong man!

Psalm 68:18 speaks about what Christ would do on the cross.

Psalm 68:18 ESV

You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.

At the ascention, he led the hosts of darkness captive.

He has bound the strong man. He is continuing to triumph as the gospel goes out.

Hebrews 2:14-15

Through His death, he destroyed the one who has the power of death.

This was to deliver us, the ones who were subject to slavery.

We see the binding of the strong one, so that the gospel may go forth.

With Jacob plundering the house of Laban, we are seeing a foreshadowing of God plundering the devil.

God was building the house of Israel by changing the fleece of the sheep before birth.

God has now bound the strong man and is plundering his house by changing the hearts of man and giving us a new birth.

This is God going forth and gathering his flock.

Will we be part of the spread of the gospel? Of the growth of the kingdom?

All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. Therefore go, and make disciples.