The God Who Can Turn Deception for Good

Introduction

Last week we saw Jacob’s wives compete and fight and end up having a lot of kids. 11 in that section to be exact. Now with all of these kids Jacobs mind turns to his homeland where he desires to return and his time is up for serving Laban.

As we will see tonight though Laban’s tricks are not over. Jacob in response to these tricks tries to use his own power to still come out on top and in the end he does come out on top through a great reversal but we later learn it was not by his efforts but rather by God’s power.

Through this story we are going to see Jacob faithfully labor for Laban, from here though we see that Laban does nothing but continual exploitation, but in the end we will see God bring a reversal and Jacob will prosper despite these attempts by Laban.

The thoughts for you tonight are simple. You may be living faithfully yet you still are taken advantage of and things still do not go well, through this story you can know that you serve a great God who is the God who can reverse any situation and use every situation for your good and his glory.

So lets pray this evening and then we can begin to dive into our passage.

Jacobs Faithful Labor

Genesis 30:25–26 ESV

As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.”

A couple weeks back we saw how Jacob had faithfully labored for Laban so that he could marry Rachel. In that story though he was tricked and married her sister Leah. He then got to marry Rachel after Leah but has to now work seven more years. He already worked seven years faithfully and now he has to do seven more, that is fourteen years total and now he is here at the end. Here at the end he ask for one simple thing, let me go home now that I have paid all that I owe. See how he words it too, he says “for you know the service that I have given you”.

Jacob has given good work, we will see in the next part we cover tonight that Laban knows that it is because of Jacob that he has become so prosperous. Jacob has brought great wealth to the man who deceived him, this is the type of labor he has put forth. This is faithful labor to someone who does not deserve it.

What this is, is Jacob doing his very best work for a teacher who doesn’t deserve to have a good student. We are not going to put any names but we have all had a teacher at some point who was mean and did not teach well and did all that they could to make sure you did not do good. Do you know that you are being a witness for Christ when you put the effort into that class despite that teacher. This is glorifying God through school work.

When I was in jr high I loved to write. I would be so excited when we would get to write papers for class. When I got to hs I got a new English teacher that was just an awful person. More than just being an awful person she did not like me, she was one that if you were a good kid you had to suck up to her and I refused. In my life though I was nice to her but she did not take it take like that. One funny example was that she had a idea for a fundraiser for prom and I told her that if probably wouldn’t work here and I recommended something else that was close but would work in my town. She very loudly said in front of everyone that I just didn’t want to do anything that she had planned. We proceeded to lose a lot of money in that fundraiser. The good news is after that we did my recommendation and made back all the money we lost plus all the money we needed for prom. She thought I was out to get her when I was just trying to be helpful. In class though I would write papers the absolute best I could. I had to get good grades on them but it made her so mad. I was laboring faithfully because I thought it was the right thing to do, which it was. This led to the teacher getting in trouble though because she started doing things targeting Christians, targeting me. That led down a whole lot of issues and she hated my sister almost entirely because of me but here is the thing with this story. She recognized what I was doing as a part of my Christian life.

Jacob labored faithfully for someone who did not deserve it. Why not just make a run for it seven years ago? Because he is a changed man and this is what changed people do. As we will see though even though he is changed this does not mean perfect. Now though we will turn to look at Laban's attempt to exploit him.

Laban’s Exploitation

Genesis 30:27–36 ESV

But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your wages, and I will give it.” Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.

Laban now tells him after he request to leave that he learned by divination that all of his prospering is because of Jacob and because of this he wants to pay him in some way. Jacobs response tells him that he did not need divination, which is a pagan practice, to figure that out. Jacob adds that he will need to provide for his household so he makes a proposition to Laban. Jacob will continue to care for the flock but every non perfect in color sheep will belong to Jacob. Through this it can be easy to tell whose are whose. If there are any perfect colored lambs with Jacob they are to be considered stolen. Laban agrees to this proposition but the day that he agreed to this he has his sons take all of the different colored sheep and goats out of the flock and begin to travel several days journey away. This way when Jacob begins to pasture the flock none of them are his and the chances that through breeding any of the young being his are low.

Looking back over Jacobs story we can see that he did not merely deceive someone once but it was a pattern in his life and now it has become a pattern of being deceived. Laban is attempting to exploit Jacob for even more work. He has given fourteen years yet Laban wants more. Why do you think he wants more? Because he has prospered so much! He probably even thinks right now that he will prosper even more since Jacob is working to get his own cut.

Laban is a picture of selfishness and greed here in this section. Towards his own family he is not living like he should. This can point us towards the power of God though because even in these situations we can know that he is faithful and he will accomplish all that he intends to.

So now we can look and see God’s reversal.

God’s Reversal

Genesis 30:37–43 ESV

Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Jacob devises a plan where he is going to take sticks and make striped patterns in front of the flocks at the water where they breed so that while they are breeding they will be looking at these stripes and their young will come out striped. He does this and it seems to work and he begins to grow greatly in his herd and we are told that this leads to other wealth too.

The thing with this part of the story though is that Jacob was using phony science instead of trusting in God. Even still though God uses this situation to increase Jacob greatly. Later in chapter 31 God tells Jacob that it was not the sticks that made the flocks like that just like it wasn’t the mandrakes from last week that brought conception, it is through God and his power alone.

We see that God reverses the effects of the exploitation to where Jacob does prosper.

We must remember in life, though we do the right thing we still face trials and difficulties. But we must also remember who God is. God can reverse your situation, God can grown you through it, God can preserve you through it. Just because life is not how you want it to be does not mean that God is not moving.

Conclusion

So as we come to the end here I want to look far and see another example of where God has done this very same thing. Jesus came and was faithful from beginning to end. Despite this he was attacked and interrogated and in the end crucified. He did all of this voluntarily for one reason and one reason only, so that we could be forgiven of our sins. In the end the greatest reversal ever happened where he rose from the dead and we see that all of this that seemed so awful actually accomplished all of his purposes.

Now he tells us that if we want to take hold of this forgiveness all that we must do is put our faith in him. This is how salvation is possible. Unlike with Jacob though Jesus was perfect the whole time and did it all on his own accord. How will you respond to he who gave all so that you could truly live.