The Undeserving Sinner

The undeserving cousin

Your father comes home late at night, it has been another long day trying to get this business up and running and the food is barely making it in the fridge before it is ate. Each sale that he makes is just sufficient to meet your low income lifestyle. He continues to struggle and eventually, you join him in his work to help move product and increase the crop. Sure, its not luxurious and you don’t have a lavish lifestyle, but you never starve.

One day, your long lost cousin arrives and is looking for work. He takes interest in your family and joins the family business. As he joins the work, the crop starts to increase greatly; it seems every spring brings perfect rainfall and sun shine. You can’t believe all the crop that is being produced and not only that, it is moving quickly!

Years after great production, excess money, and living a lavish lifestyle, the cousin comes to your dad and tells him: “I have worked hard and because of me, you have prospered. Give me most of the fields and a large quantity of the profits so I can go on my way.” How would you feel? Would outrage and jealousy become your attitude towards this cousin? What if he went so far as to say that God has blessed your business because of him?

Introduction/ Reading

If anger or jealousy or frustration or any sort of disposition towards this cousin resonates in your heart, then this story is for you.

My name is Josh Wagner and I am a member at King’s Cross and it is my joy to be here with you this morning. Before we dive into God’s word, I would like to take a minute to pray that God would illuminate our hearts. Lets pray.

Father in heaven,

Remind us, O God, that you are the creator and make of all life, that nothing is outside of your hand and that you sustain all things. Remind us, Lord, that we are but dust. Help us to store up treasures in heaven and not on earth, where moth and rust destroy. Speak to our hearts as we look at your word.

Amen

We are going to be looking at Genesis 31 today and really focusing in on verses 1-9. Let us read this text now.

Genesis 31:1–9 ESV

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.” And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 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. You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 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. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

Who is the owner?

The first question we must ask is who is the owner. We see in the first verse that the sons come to conclusion that many of us may have, that Jacob is about to take what belongs to their father. In the story I gave in the beginning, most of us would feel the same way about the possessions being taken away and that they belong to our father and then to us. But let me ask you, who does the profits, the gain, the animal, the crops; who do these things belong to? Who is the true laborer that either allows or prevents these things from being given?

Today, there seems to be this misunderstanding and preconception of this issue. The word “entitled” is used a lot and it does dominate our culture. We deserve things without working for them, or because of our position, or our family members.

My full time job is a banker and I have been in the business for over ten years and I cannot tell you how many times a family has come in fighting over the money that Mom and Dad have left behind. I have watched court battles and legal proceedings because both parties feel that they deserve more or that the other has been stealing and in the end, it ends up destroying the family.

I really like what Steve Maraboli, a secularist, says:

“A sense of entitlement is a cancerous thought process that is void of gratitude and can be deadly to our relationships.”

Even people outside of Christianity recognize entitlement as an issue as a sense of gratitude is missing.

So we come back to our question that the brothers assume and we may even assume ourselves is answered wrongly. Who does the profit, the fields, the animals; who do these things belong to? To God, and He is the one that gives and takes away, He is the one that has every right to say “no longer will you be over these animals for I am giving them to Jacob.” The brothers assume that they belong to their father and that they will inherit them, but this is not the case. Let us remember this: God is the potter and we are but clay, all things belong to him. Let us remember Job’s words in Job 1:21:

Job 1:21 ESV

And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Giving credit to and fearing God, or man?

It’s very easy, as we read this story, to see Jacob as the one that causes the good conditions to take place and the reason for the flock to increase. After all, everything changed once Jacob showed up on the scene. The question asked is who was responsible for the increase? The first time I read through this, I found myself wanting to presuppose that Jacob had worked hard, that he knew secret to the trade and that he established supporting conditions to make the flock increase but as I continued to reread and study the passage, I found myself assuming and missing the point.

In Genesis 30:27, Laban acknowledges why the increase has taken place:

Genesis 30:27 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.

And then in Genesis 30:30, Jacob states the reason:

Genesis 30:30 ESV

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?”

But now, Laban sees the wages that are to come for Jacob and is becoming frustrated. See, Laban had promised to give Jacob the spotted or speckled flock before removing them and sending them far away so that no more would be bread, but the flock kept turning out spotted and speckled and Laban was watching his profits be turned over to Jacob. Jacob sees the knew affection that Laban has for himself along with how the rest of the family has low regard for him and has an encounter with the Lord telling him to return home.

So Jacob has to make a decision. See, Laban has kinsmen and others that he can come and overthrow Jacob with and take over him. I imagine that there was a fear of Jacob leaving as he would be leaving with his kids and wives and a large flock and very few others while Laban would be able to come after him with a small army. We actually read at the end of this chapter that Laban does come after Jacob once he finds out he has ran away and overtakes him. We face many decisions like this today. Who should Jacob trust? Who should Jacob fear? Remember, Jacob just had an encounter with God telling him to return home but surely Laban will not be happy when he finds out Jacob has taken off with his daughters and most of the business proceeds. When we face decisions about what God tells us to do, who do we obey? When God tells us not to sin in His word, but the world tells us to conform, who do we trust?

The wage that never changes and God’s choice

A few months ago, you may remember me preaching about God choosing Jacob over his older brother Esau. Now we see God holding to his choice as he remains with Jacob, blesses Jacob and we may ask why? Jacob had stolen the blessing from his brother, ran away, joined Laban, manipulated the flock to come out as spotted and stripped and lied and was full of sin, just like Laban, just like us. So why does God decide to choose Jacob and continue to bless him? Why doesn’t God choose Laban, or Esau, or the sons of Laban? Is this fair? Don’t they all deserve to have the same blessing?

Or let us go to a new point, a greater point. When we look at the cross and we see Jesus bleeding out to the point where his body cannot sustain life because it has become emptied; as the nails are driven through his wrists and feet and he pushes up once more to fight for air and as the father in heaven turns His back on Jesus and pours out the wraith that we deserve; let us ask: IS THIS FAIR?

Is this fair that we get to go about our life, living as liars, following the idols of our hearts, living for ourselves and receiving the blessing that was deserved by no one except the one whom was nailed to the before said cross?

We talked about entitlement and a lot of us are entitled when it comes to the cross. I love this quote:

“Entitlement is when I get the false impression that I somehow deserve more than I really deserve, which is the cross.” -Unknown

When we think we deserve something, such as forgiveness and heaven and to be loved, we forget the justice of God, we forget that God’s mercy is something we don’t deserve. When we fear others and try to live for ourselves, thinking about this world, we show our sinfulness. We can’t escape ourselves and our sin. We can’t take up our own cross. So easy, in the christian walk, is it to think that “I deserve heaven” or “I deserve wealth” or “I deserve an easy life” but that is never promised. What is promised, is forgiveness if you trust in Jesus, if you trust in the cross, if you believe Jesus died for your sins and that He has made you right, and you have made you wrong. So do not be like the sons of Laban, or even like Laban himself, believing that God owes you and you deserve what is given, because you don’t. You deserve the cross, but Jesus stood in your place and said “blame me” and now it is His mercy to give. Let us pray

Father,

Till sin be bitter, grace cannot be sweet. Lord remind us of how broken we are and our desperate need for your son. Help us to remember that you are the one that justifies us, who makes us right before your sight and that there is nothing that we can do to earn anything in your eyes. Let us remember that we do not deserve this, but yet, you give it anyway.

We love you and thank you.

Amen