Jacob Struggles
Notes
Transcript
Last week we began looking at the life of Jacob. We found a man who was every bit what his name meant, a deceiver and manipulator.
Yet this was the man that God had said would be the one to receive the covenant that He had made with Abraham, and then with Isaac.
We found a man who was self-centered and self-seeking, who manipulated his brother out of the birth-right, who deceived his father to steal the blessing, who openly admitted that the LORD was not his God.
A man who when God in grace reached out to him to promise him protection, blessing and the covenant made originally with Abraham, said that if God will do for me, than he can be my God.
Let’s look at that as we pick up the account of his life today.
There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear
so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God
Jacob continued his journey from there
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Genesis 29 tells of Jacob arriving in Paddan Aram, and meeting his cousin Rachel at a well where shepherds gathered to water their flocks. Then, Jacob went to live with his uncle Laban.
Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month,
Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful.
Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.”
So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast.
But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her.
And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.
When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.
Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant.
Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Jacob Struggles with Laban
Jacob Struggles with Laban
The deceiver was deceived.
The manipulator was manipulated.
The younger / older dynamic had to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine.
When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.
Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”
She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.
Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.
She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.
When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her,
and she became pregnant and bore him a son.
Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.
Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.
Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.
She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”
She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”
Jacob Struggles with his Wives
Jacob Struggles with his Wives
Polygamy is not God’s design. It was the result of sinful choices of men.
And, it did not lead to a happy home life. It was a struggle as there was continual strife in the home. And, why would we expect any less?
Rachel had issues with Leah who cheated her out of her wedding.
Leah struggled with Rachel who stole her ‘husband’ and his love from her.
Interestingly, we see God at work in the mess of their making. God is the one who allowed Leah to conceive. Later, God is the one who enabled Rachel to conceive.
They thought they were manipulating things with each other, with the mandrakes, but it was truly God who was at work, blessing Jacob with children as he had promised, even though they made a real mess of their lives with all of the scheming and competing.
After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.
Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”
But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”
He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.
The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
“What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:
Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.
And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons.
Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches,
but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.
In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Jacob Struggles with Laban
Jacob Struggles with Laban
Again, let the manipulation begin.
Laban assumes he is taking advantage of Jacob (how will he get anything if I remove the speckled and spotted sheep?).
Jacob thinks he is going to manipulate the sheep to get the herds with his sticks (animism).
Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.”
And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.
Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were.
He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me.
You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength,
yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.
If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young.
So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.
“In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted.
God appears to Jacob
God appears to Jacob
God let Jacob know it wasn’t his manipulation, but rather, God in his grace had been with Jacob. God in his faithfulness to his promise had blessed Jacob and provided him with a family, and with herds.
Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away.
So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.
Jacob Struggles and Deceives again
Jacob Struggles and Deceives again
instead of trusting God, and telling Laban he was going, Jacob once again deceives.
Laban pursues, and catches up to Jacob.
Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war.
Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps?
You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing.
I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”
God warns Laban
God warns Laban
God was once again protecting Jacob, and now Jacob hears from Laban how it was not his deception that spared him, but the Lord.
Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.”
And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.
Angels Appear to Jacob
Angels Appear to Jacob
God again is reassuring Jacob that He is with him, protecting him and blessing him. It is not his scheming or deceiving that is resulting in his blessings.
Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.
I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’ ”
Jacob is coming home, and sends messengers to Esau. Why?
I believe God has been working in his heart. He knows from experience what it is like to be cheated, deceived and manipulated. He tries to make amends.
Esau is living south of where Jacob will be. So there was not going to be an encounter. He sent these messengers to show Esau that he had his own wealth, and was not needing the birthright he had stolen.
But then...
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”
Great prayer!! First time!!
But then he tries to figure it out on his own...
He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”
He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’
then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’ ”
He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.
And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”
So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
Jacob Struggles with Esau
Jacob Struggles with Esau
Jacob is operating out of fear. He prayed, but he is trying to handle Esau his way… manipulating him with gifts.
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Jacob gets a Blessing and a Name
Jacob gets a Blessing and a Name
Jacob had to get to the point of realizing it wasn’t him scheming or manipulating to work things out in his life. What he really needed was the Lord’s blessing.
God showed him that through the wrestling match. Trying to do things his way, wrestling through life was just leading to more and more hardships. It wasn’t until he was at the end of himself, that he finally just clung to the Lord, and sought his blessing.
What do we see about man?
What do we see about man?
++Faith and Following God are not inherited
++Man tends to disobedience
++Man naturally relies on/trusts self over God
++Man’s heart is self-centered and self-gratifying
What do we see about God?
What do we see about God?
++Faithfulness
++Patience
++Mercy
++Grace
Where is hope?
Where is hope?
++God works all things for His purpose
++God is faithful to keep his promises even in light of our failings
God always does what he says. Even when people are acting on their own and working for their own ends, God is going to use even their wicked schemes to bring about his purposes.
