Jacob's Exodus
Notes
Transcript
Text: Genesis 31
PRAY
Introduction: Patterns
How many of you like patterns?
I think patterns are such beautiful things. Whether we observe them in art or other human designs or in math or music or in nature, patterns express the beauty and order that comes from God Himself.
God has established patterns in nature to give witness to His existence and His design of all things.
He has also established patterns in His Word to remind us that He is the God who has planned and orchestrated all things in history for His glorious purposes.
One of my favorite things about studying the Old Testament especially is seeing the patterns that God has established, how they repeat and grow in significance and then ultimately find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
As Paul tells us in 2 Cor 1:20, all of God’s promises are perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ. All of the patterns have reached their full expression in His perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension and His eternal reign as King and priest.
In our passage today we have another installment in a pattern that builds throughout the OT and then finds fulfillment in Jesus.
Earlier in our service we read from Luke’s account of the Transfiguration, where Jesus was on the mountain with Peter, James, and John and then Moses and Elijah also joined Him.
We read there that Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus “about His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
31 They appeared in glory and spoke about His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
The Greek word translated “departure” here is exodus (ἔξοδος), which is where we get the name of the second book of our Bible and the meaning of what happened in that book when God caused the people of Israel to depart from Egypt.
Now, nearly 1500 years later, Jesus indicates that He is about to have His own exodus - a new, ultimate exodus that He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. We know that by this He was referring to His death on the cross, by which He would free His people from slavery to sin and bring them into the promised land of eternal rest with God.
I hope to show you from our passage today how this reality of the exodus is prefigured in this account from Jacob’s life, just as we saw back in Genesis 12 and Abraham’s experience of an exodus.
But first, let’s work our way through the story. Keep your eyes and ears open along the way for clues that hint at the theme of exodus in this story.
Departure (v. 1-18)
Departure (v. 1-18)
The Circumstances (1-2)
1 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.”
2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.
The perspective of Laban and his sons is this: “If Jacob gets rich, we get poor. If he gets all the wealth, there’s nothing left for our father to give us as an inheritance.”
In reality, God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob, those who bless you will be blessed. If Laban and his sons had been blessing Jacob and seeking his wellbeing, according to God’s promise they would have been blessed.
For this to happen, two things would have been necessary, neither of which apparently happened:
First, Jacob should have communicated God’s promises to Laban and his family. “God has promised to bless me and that everyone who blesses me will be blessed. Join me and you will be blessed by God.” Sadly, Jacob himself does not seem to have embraced God and His promises, and so he also failed to communicate these promises to Laban’s family.
Second, of course, Laban and his family would have had to embrace the promises by faith as well, renounced their selfish ways, and blessed Jacob by seeking his welfare. If they had done this, they also would have been blessed by God. Sadly, they missed out on God’s blessing, both because of their own selfishness as well as Jacob’s failure to embrace and communicate the promises of God.
So instead of blessings being multiplied all around, Jacob’s possessions have increased at Laban’s expense.
As we consider these men, we see that what they are all most concerned about is material possessions. Jacob’s got all the stuff, and we want the stuff he has. And we should ask ourselves,
Am I living for stuff? Or am I living for God?
Material possessions will not satisfy you. Only God can satisfy your deepest desires.
When possessions are your idol, it makes you envy what others have (like Laban’s sons) or else it makes you refuse to share with those who have needs (like Jacob).
So as Jacob considers his situation and these negative attitudes from Laban’s family, God gives him a command.
God’s Command (3)
3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
God says, “It’s time to go back to the promised land.”
And He repeats His promise that He already gave in Genesis 28:15, “I will be with you.”
Jacob’s Conversation with Rachel and Leah (4-16)
4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was
5 and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.
It’s interesting to note that Jacob is aware of God’s providence here, but he still is not committed to the LORD.
The LORD is still “the God of my father” instead of “my God.”
6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength,
7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me.
Rachel and Leah are both already aware of their father’s cheating ways. Both of them were negative affected by their father’s selfish choice to cheat Jacob by giving him Leah when he agreed to work for Rachel. By that action, Laban had not only mistreated Jacob, but he had also mistreated his daughters.
But in all this, Jacob acknowledges, “God did not permit him to harm me.” Despite the mistreatment Jacob endured from Laban, God had brought good out of it for Jacob.
Sounds like Romans 8:28 — God works all things together for good — and God is doing this for Jacob despite the fact that Jacob does not yet love God and has not yet committed himself to the LORD.
8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped.
9 Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
Again, Jacob acknowledges God’s providence in blessing him. “God did this,” he says.
10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled.
11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’
12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
God gave him this understanding and instructions regarding how to build up his own flocks, even as Laban kept changing the terms of the agreement. God was causing Jacob to prosper.
And God sees. Just as we saw in the case of Leah in Genesis 29:31, when it says that God saw that Leah was hated, so He opened her womb, now God sees that Laban is mistreating Jacob, so He causes Jacob’s flocks to increase by giving him understanding for how to breed them.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’ ”
Now, 20 years after God appeared to Jacob at Bethel in Genesis 28, He reminds Jacob of that incident, reminding Jacob of (1) Jacob’s vow and (2) God’s promises to him.
God’s Promise: Genesis 28:13-15
13 “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.
14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
So God made several promises to Jacob including the promise that He would bring him back to the promised land. Now God is fulfilling that promise.
In response to God’s promises, Jacob had made a vow.
Jacob’s Vow: Genesis 28:20-22
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,
21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,
22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
When we studied this passage, we noted that Jacob’s vow here reveals his sad spiritual state, that he does not yet trust God’s promise and has not committed himself to the LORD as his own God.
Now in Genesis 31, God is fulfilling His promise to Jacob and reminding Jacob of his vow, basically reminding him, “Look, Jacob, I’ve kept my word — now it’s time for you to keep yours.” God is prompting Jacob to keep his vow.
And we will see in the next couple chapters that Jacob has a personal encounter with God, and he does, in fact, commit himself to the LORD as his God.
Rachel & Leah’s Response (14-16)
14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house?
15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money.
16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
Rachel and Leah acknowledge that what Jacob has said is legitimate — their father really is a scoundrel and has mistreated Jacob and them. And they submit themselves to their husband and to what God has said.
They are certainly submitting themselves to Jacob, but at the same time they are encouraging their husband to obey God and follow His leading, which is a great thing for wives to do, and it’s something husbands sometimes need from their wives. Sometimes we know the right thing to do, but we just need a humble, gentle push in the right direction. So they encourage Jacob, “We’re with you, and we’ll follow you as you follow God.”
And so they get ready to take off.
Their Departure (17-18)
17 So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels.
18 He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.
Deception (v. 19-21)
Deception (v. 19-21)
Rachel’s deception of Laban (19)
19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods.
Rachel sees that her father is away from his house, so she goes in his house and steals his gods.
Why did Laban have these gods?
This seems to indicate that Laban, like his ancestors before him, worships other gods. He seemed to acknowledge the LORD as a god, but only one among many. He is worshiping and trusting in other gods, gods who (as we’ll see) are powerless to help him, and can’t keep themselves from being stolen.
Why did Rachel take these gods?
Two possible reasons:
She may be doing this to spite her father — to get revenge on him for his mistreatment of her by taking something valuable to him. In this way she would also be mocking her father and showing how foolish his idolatry is.
She may have some commitment to these gods and desire to worship them herself. We know that idolatry was an issue within Jacob’s family later on, because he has to tell his family in Genesis 35:2, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you.” So I think it’s at least somewhat likely that Rachel actually wants to worship these gods.
Whatever her reason for taking them, she is stealing from her father and dishonoring him, and perhaps also committing idolatry.
Jacob’s deception of Laban (20-21)
20 And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee.
21 He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Jacob didn’t tell Laban he was leaving, probably because he knew Laban wouldn’t let him go. So Jacob and his family have left Paddan Aram and are headed back toward the promised land.
And even though the language of deception and trickery are used here to describe Jacob’s action, we need to remember he’s following God’s command.
The rest of the chapter now will narrate Laban’s pursuit of Jacob, the dispute between them and the (sort of) resolution at the end.
Dispute (v. 22-43)
Dispute (v. 22-43)
Laban pursues and overtakes Jacob (22-25)
22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled,
23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.
24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Again, we see that God is watching out for Jacob. Laban may have been planning some harm against Jacob, but God intervenes.
After mentioning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by name and reminding us of God’s promises to them, the Psalmist speaks of God’s care for each of them this way:
12 When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it [the land],
13 wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account,
15 saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!”
So God intervenes and protects Jacob.
Then it tells us,
25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead.
Laban’s charge against Jacob (26-30)
26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword?
Laban is acting like the victim here, but we should remember that the trickery started with him, when he deceived Jacob by giving him Leah instead of Rachel.
This victim mentality that is alive and well in our day is nothing new.
27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?
Of course, knowing what we know about Laban, we know this is a lie. There’s no way he was going to let Jacob leave willingly, much less throw a party for him before he left.
28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly.
29 It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
This shows us Laban’s evil intentions. He wanted to hurt Jacob, but God restrained him.
30 And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”
Now he charges Jacob with theft.
Jacob’s Response to the charges (31-32)
31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.
Jacob knew Laban’s evil character and was afraid of him.
32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
Jacob didn’t realize his favored wife had actually stolen the gods. So he challenges Laban to search for them, believing Laban won’t find them because he thinks it’s a false charge.
Laban’s unsuccessful search for his gods (33-35)
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.
34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them.
35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
Laban searches everywhere for his gods but can’t find them.
Rachel excuses herself by claiming that “the way of women is upon” her — a euphemism for her monthly period. Whether this was true or not, we’re not sure, but if this is true, it means that these false gods are not only powerless to defend themselves against being stolen, they’re also unclean because of the uncleanness of Rachel. So Moses is presenting these gods to us as both powerless and defiled.
Laban’s failure to find them (even though they really are there) seems to confirm Jacob’s belief that this is a false charge, so now Jacob is even more upset at Laban.
Jacob’s charge against Laban (36-42)
36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
37 For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.
38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks.
39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
Jacob tells Laban, “I’ve been suffering your mistreatment for the last 20 years. I treated you well by working hard for you, but you treated me poorly and dishonestly, and now you’re getting what you deserve.”
Jacob acknowledges that God has been on his side — still, though, the LORD is the God of Abraham and Isaac, but He’s not Jacob’s God quite yet.
But God is being faithful to Jacob, even though Jacob has not yet committed himself to God.
Laban’s response to the charge (43)
43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne?
Laban is still playing the victim. He refuses to repent and acknowledge the wrong he has done.
Deal (v. 44-55)
Deal (v. 44-55)
Laban calls for a covenant (44)
44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.”
Jacob agrees, and they make a monument and enjoy a covenant meal
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
Both Jegar-sahadutha and Galeed mean “the heap of witness”; the difference is that Laban’s name for it is in Aramaic, and Jacob’s name for it is in Hebrew.
48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed,
49 and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight.
Mizpah = watchtower
50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me.
52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm.
53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,
I think the CSB does a better job of rendering this verse, because Nahor and his father did not worship the LORD, the God of Abraham — the verb “judge” is plural here, implying at least 2, possibly more, gods. If these 3 mentions of “God” referred to the same God, I believe the verb would be singular. And Joshua tells us in Joshua 24:2 that Abraham and his extended family worshiped other gods before the LORD called Abraham.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 31
The God of Abraham, and the
So Laban is calling on multiple gods as witness, including Abraham’s God.
Jacob, on the other hand, only swears in the name of “the Fear of his father Isaac.” — the God whom his father Isaac feared. Still, Jacob is coming short of committing himself to the LORD as his own God.
54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.
55 Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.
So they finalize the covenant and then Laban goes back home. So God protected Jacob from the danger that Laban could have put him in, but we’ll see in the next chapter that an even greater danger lies ahead.
(So you’ll have to come back next week, or else read Genesis 32-33 and see what happens)
I hope as we’ve gone through this story, you’ve seen some connections to the Exodus story, and that’s what we’ll look at now.
Exodus connections
Exodus connections
Jacob = Israel
Laban = Pharaoh
Paddan Aram = Egypt
Laban forces Jacob into hard, excessive labor, just as Pharaoh forced the Israelites into slavery.
Like Pharaoh with the Israelites, Laban was not willing to let Jacob go, so Jacob has to flee
God calls Jacob to leave his place of oppression (Gen 31:4, 13), just as He raised up Moses and called him to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt (Ex 3:6-8), and in both cases they are headed back to the land of promise.
Both in this story and in the Exodus story, we find God’s promise, “I will be with you.” He says it here to Jacob (Gen 31:3), and in Exodus, He says it to Moses (Ex 3:12)
In both cases, we are told that God saw their affliction. God saw how Laban was afflicting Jacob (Gen 31:12, 42), and He saw how the Egyptians were afflicting the people of Israel (Ex 3:7).
Just as Jacob effectively plundered Laban’s wealth (Gen 31:9), the Israelites plundered the Egyptians (Ex 12:36) and left with great wealth.
When Jacob left Laban, he had to cross a body of water, the Euphrates River (Genesis 31:21), just as Israel had to cross the Red Sea after leaving Egypt.
Both Jacob in Genesis 31:17-18 and Israel in Exodus 12:37-38 are described as a large number of people traveling with many flocks and herds.
In Genesis 31:23, 36, Laban pursues after Jacob, and in Exodus, Pharaoh pursues after the Israelites.
God’s intervenes in both cases, preventing Laban from doing harm to Jacob (Gen 31:7, 24, 29, 42) and defeating Pharaoh and his army by drowning them in the Red Sea.
In Gen 31:26, Laban asks the question, “What have you done?”, and Pharaoh and his servants ask a similar question in Exodus 14:5: “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
There are some other minor connections I noted, and perhaps others I missed, but hopefully the point is clear. The biblical author, Moses, writing to the people of Israel who just experienced the Exodus, wants them to see that what they have just experienced is not the first time God has done this for His people, and by implication, it’s not the last time He’s going to do it either.
Later in Israel’s history, they’re going to fall into idolatry and be exiled from the land, and at that time, prophets like Isaiah are going to pick up the language and imagery of the Exodus to prophesy of a new exodus.
The new exodus had a partial fulfillment in the Old Testament when Israel returned from exile, but it was clear that they still needed a further work of God to ultimately rescue them from an even greater enemy than the Assyrians and Babylonians. Their greatest enemy was sin and the death that results from sin. They still needed God to fulfill His ultimate promise, to send the seed of the woman to crush the serpent’s head, to deliver His people from sin and death.
And as we come to the New Testament, Matthew opens his Gospel by telling us that the promised deliverer has come. The angel Gabriel comes and tells Joseph that Mary is pregnant, and…
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
He has come! He’s finally here!
The LORD has raised up the seed of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head and deliver His people from sin and death.
What wasn’t completely clear to Joseph and Mary or probably any of the Jewish people of Jesus’s day, was how He would save them.
And to the surprise and perhaps disappointment of many, it wasn’t by defeating the Romans and setting up a kingdom like Solomon’s with prosperity and peace.
No. Jesus came to save His people from sin and death, and the way He would accomplish that is by His own death. This is what He hinted at on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9:31 — the “departure [or exodus], which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem,” was His death.
The sinless Son of God voluntarily took on Himself the sin of His people. He bore God’s wrath and judgment, which we deserve, so that we would be forgiven and have the hope of eternal life, having been cleansed by His blood and clothed in His righteousness.
And most ultimately, this is for the glory of God. God is supremely glorified by demonstrating His righteous judgment and merciful salvation at the cross. This was the purpose of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, and that ultimately leads us to the Exodus that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross, rescuing us from sin and death by the sacrifice of Himself for us.
This is what the whole Bible is all about: God’s glory in Christ displayed in salvation through judgment. God is glorified as His justice and mercy are both upheld and vindicated, and we see this supremely at the cross, as Jesus took the justice we deserved and extends mercy to us instead.
If you have not received this salvation, come to Him today. Look to Jesus Christ and be saved. Turn from your sin and trust in Him.
If you are a believer, let your heart respond in love and worship at God’s amazing love, grace, and mercy toward you, and stand in awe of His wisdom in orchestrating all of history to highlight the glory of His justice and mercy perfectly displayed in Christ.
PRAY
