By Faith, Jacob
By Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We have been following Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, exploring how Faith impacted the lives of People in the Old Testament, so that we can learn by example how to Follow Jesus by faith
Faith is more that just belief or trust, it is a deep seated conviction that affect how you live your life.
We have seen how Noah’s faith, which was born out of Fear of the Lord led him to Build the ark to save his Family, and God called Noah Righteous in his generation, and Noah found favor in God’s eyes, because when God threatened judgement, Moses took God seriously.
We looked at Abraham, who’s faith in God led him to obey God, When God told him to do something, he just did it, he didn’t question. and trust in God, and how his obedience and his trust in God, his faith, was credited to him as righteousness. His faith was so strong that when God told him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, he agreed to do it, because he knew God had a plan for Isaac, and had made promises concerning Isaac, so god would find a way to protect or return Isaac from the dead, which God did.
Today we are only in Hebrews 11 for a couple of verses because Hebrews does not dwell too deeply on Jacob and his family, but I think their stories are just as important.
By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
So Hebrews jumps through a few generations here, and What it is trying to illustrate is that the promise and blessing of God got passed down, from Isaac to Jacob, from Jacob to his sons, and the sons of Joseph, and from Joseph to his descendants.
Lets take a look at how the faith in these promises and blelssing played out, because its is not as cut and dry as you may think.
And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 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.” When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Isaac marries rebekah and she is barren, or infertile, and Isaac prays for her.
She has twins, and even in the womb they are constantly fighting each other.
And God speaks to her saying the older will serve the younger, and that causes her to favor the younger twin, Jacob.
Jacob’s name - the heel grabber, the one who trips, the one who supplants, cheater, leg puller, deceiver.
Whereas Isaac, a good ancient middle eastern man, favors his firstborn, Esau
And we learn pretty quickly as the boys grow up that they are very different, Esau is a manly man, a hunter, a redneck, Jacob is a “man of tents,” a thinker, educated.
And Jacob wants what Esau has.
Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Esau despised his birthright
He didn’t care for the responsibility that came with being the firstborn son.
He just wanted to go hunting
And Jacob wanted it more than anything
So he buys the birthright with a bowl of stew.
So Jacob is now legally speaking the Firstborn Son
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”
But Isaac loves Esau, and wants to pass the blessing, the promise, onto Esau.
The Same promise and blessing that Isaac was nearly sacrificed for is going to go to a person who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup
Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.” So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
Rebecca knows that Jacob is the one to carry the promise, its what God had told her, and Jacob has done all he could to be put in this postition, and legally speaking it is owed to him, as he is now the firstborn son, and she devises a way to trick her husband into blessing Jacob
Jacob brings up a couple of points where this plan might fail, and then agreed to do it.
So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed! May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
Jacob steals Esau’s blessing, he tricks his father, so that he can get the blessing ahead of esau.
When Esau learns of this he wants to Kill Jacob so Jacob is forced to run away.
He Goes to his Uncle Laban, and meets rachel
Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
Jacob makes an agreement to work for his uncle 7 years for free, so long as he could marry rachel.
But when the wedding night comes
So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.”
Jacob the triskster, the heel grabber, the cheater, was tricked into seven more years of free labor.
Now If I put myself in the mindset of Jacob, who tricked my brother into legally tranferring the title of firstborn by offering him a bowl of soup, and who went so far as to trick my father into giving me a blessing, and now my uncle thinks he can trick me into free labor, guess what i am going to do.
Jacob goes in and beggins making sure that all of his uncle’s flocks will become his own, and the next couple chapters deal with Jacob doing just that, outwitting his uncle until he has amased great wealth
Then when Laban starts to get angry with Jacob he runs away.
THe only issue is, where does he run?
The only place left to go is back home, and Esau is there.
And as he awaits Esau’s arrival he encounters God
The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
Most people when they encounter God fall to their face and worship him,
Not Jacob, jacob grabs the angel (God) and wrestles with him, all night.
And Jacob will not let him go until he recieves a blessing
Why does he want a blessing?
Because his brother, who he took everything from is coming to kill him
and his uncle who he took everything from is behind him
and he has no way out
And God calls him Israel
He who wrestles with God.
We haven’t talked much about faith this sermon.
Because JAcob lived most of his life thinking he could get everything for himself.
He was jacob, the heel grabber, the tripper, the cheater, the trickster
But now he has become ISrael, the one who wrestles with God
Jacob did not have much faith in God until he needed it, but he saw the value of the promise God had given his father and his family and he fought as hard as he could to earn it and protect it.
And then as Hebrews said
By faith Hebrews 11:21-22
By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
Jacob fought long and hard, with everything he had to help secure the blessing for his children, and his children’s children.
He secured the Blessing and the Promise.
And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn). And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
When he blesses them he gives preferential treatment to the second born, as God had given him.
So how do we learn to live with faith Like Jacob
We do our best to fight for God’s promises to us, to make sure the younger generations can get ahold of it.
To put it in context of our faith today,
We see the value of Salvation through JEsus Christ, Christ died to save us
we do not lessen the price he paid with “cheap grace” where we say we believe in Jesus and just then live how we want, that is living like esau
We fight hrd throughout our lives to honor Christ’s sacrifice for us.
We try to show others the wonderful gift Christ gave us,
and we make sure our children, and our children’s children see just how important Salvation through the blood of Jesus is.
