I.It Does Not Depend Upon Jacob (God’s Faithfulness to Jacob)
Text: Genesis 30:25–43
Many People hear the gospel of God’s saving grace and respond with restless anxiety that they are not doing enough. They are convinced that they are an insufficient parent, an inadequate spouse, an incompetent employee or employer, and insufficient citizen, an unworthy son or daughter. The list goes on and on.
The remedy is not to say that you are sufficient. You are not. No one measures up. No one does enough. today’s text is Good News for the restless striver. Ultimately, it does not depend upon you. It depends upon God’s faithfulness. The message of today’s text is that it does not depend upon us.
A.Review
Throughout the Bible “cursing” and “blessing” are polar opposites. Genesis is the book of Blessing. That is its primary theme.
TWOT: “To bless in the OTmeans “to endue with power for success, prosperity, fecundity, longevity, etc.” It is frequently contrasted with qālal “to esteem lightly, curse”[1]
When God created Adam and Eve he blessed them.
(Genesis 1:28) “And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”
The next day God rested.
Genesis 2:3 “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
After the sin of Adam and Eve we saw that God cursed the serpent and the ground. Although he judged Adam and Eve, he did not use the language of cursing. That is because many of their descendants would ultimately receive the blessing that Christ’s virtuous life deserves.
After the fall of Adam and Eve and the murder of Able, God started over with Seth. He introduced Seth and his generations with this language
(Genesis 5:2). “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.”
Ten generations passed. Man fell farther and farther into sin and corruption, so God destroyed the earth with a flood. But, after the flood God started over with Noah. He started by blessing Noah and his family.
Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
Later God decided to create a family or nation out of Abraham and his descendants. So, in Genesis 12:2–3 he blessed the father of faith.
“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God made good on his promise. First, he blessed Abraham. Then he blessed his son, Isaac.
We are now in the middle of the story of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. At summers end we left Jacob stealing the blessing from his older brother, Esau.
Genesis 27:29b 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!”
Esau became very angry with his brother for stealing the blessing and made up his mind to kill him. So his father, Isaac, called Jacob and sent him off to Haran, the land of Isaac’s ancestors, to get a wife and eventually return. Since it was a 500 miles journey by foot, Isaac did not soon expect the return of his son. Before leaving, Isaac voluntarily gave Jacob the blessing that he had stolen.
Genesis 28:1–4 1 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women…. 3 God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4 May he give the blessing of Abraham…”
Fortified with his father’s love, Jacob set out, alone and afraid, on an arduous journey to a foreign land. (Imagine walking by yourself from Spokane to Eugene Oregon knowing that you are passing, defenseless, through bandit-infested lands). A few days into his journey, Isaac stopped at Bethel for the night. That night God appeared to him in a dream radically confirming his father’s blessing, and telling him that he was the heir of Abraham’s blessing.
Genesis 28:13b–16 (Page ) “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.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Fortified by God’s blessing Jacob continued on his journey until he came to his mother’s family in Haran. Falling in love with his cousin, Rachel, he worked for his uncle, Laban, (Rachel’s father) for 7 years for her hand in marriage. However, on his wedding night her sister, Leah, was given to Jacob instead, and he didn’t realize it. (He must have drunk way too much wine). Although Laban had deceived him, uncle Laban agreed to give him Rachel in exchange for another 7 years.
Genesis is all about God blessing unworthy creatures.
B.Text Summarized
When today’s reading starts Jacob has worked for Laban 14 years. He did not plan to stay 14 years. He planned to find a wife and return to Canaan. His life has not worked out they way he planned. (Normal for a servant of God). Now after 14 years he has two wives (Rachel and Leah), two concubines (Bilhah and Zilpah), ten sons and 1 daughter. Finally, the favorite wife, Rachel, gives birth to son #11, Joseph. Remembering back 14 years to the dream at Bethel in which God promised to give him the land of Canaan, Jacob asks Laban for permission to return to his father and mother.
Uncle Laban has figured out that God is blessing him because of his nephew, Jacob, so he tries to keep Jacob from leaving.
Jacob wants to go, but he is poor. He has no money. So Laban,trying to get Jacob to stay, responds in Vs 28, “Name your wages, and I will give it.”
Jacob, not wanting to appear greedy asks for the striped and speckled goats and sheep in Laban’s flock. In the ancient world sheep were normally white and goats black. So, Jacob asks for the deformed animals, the striped and speckled, as his payment for 14 years labor. Since he is Laban’s shepherd he knows exactly how many there are. Laban agrees to his request, but he is a greedy and deceitful manipulator. So, before Jacob can go to his flocks and take the speckled sheep and goats, Laban has them removed a three day journey away.
Jacob now sees that his request has been thwarted. But he does not give up. Too poor to leave for Canaan he returns to tending Laban’s flocks. Now all the goats are black and all of the sheep are white. However, because he doesn’t trust God to fulfill his promises, he puts striped sticks in front of the mating animals. He thinks this will produce striped sheep and goats. And, it does, but not because there is a biological connection between the sticks and the color of the animals conceived, but because God is faithful. God is determined to fulfill his promises to Jacob.
39b and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 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. 41 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, 42 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.
Jacob’s speckled flock got larger and stronger. Six years pass. Jacob is now rich. It has now been 20 years since he left home. Despite Jacob’s unbelief, God has fulfilled his promise to bless him.
43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Sailhamer, “The point of this narrative is to show that the blessing did not come from Laban. It is the gift of God.”[2]
Kent Hughes: “As Jacob prospered in Paddan-aram, he knew that his success rested upon the revelations at Bethel. Through all the ups and downs in his battles with Laban, Heaven’s commerce in his behalf had never ceased. The angels ascended and descended in both his humiliations and triumphs. God had been with him in every place.”[3]
The main point is that the fulfillment of God’s promises to Jacob did not depend upon Jacob’s performance, but upon God’s faithfulness.
C.It did Not Depend Upon Jacob: God is Faithful to Jacob
Why do we say it did not depend upon Jacob? First, because God blessed Laban because of Jacob.God promised Abraham that he would bless those that blessed Jacob. That is why he has blessed Laban.
27 But Laban said to him… “I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.”
Second, we conclude that it did not depend upon Jacob because God blessed Jacob despite manifest unbelief. In this story, Jacob’s faith is very weak.
One of the first sign of unbelief is control, and Jacob appears to be a control freak. Those who don’t trust God try to control their environment.
For example, even though his mother must have told him from an early age that he would inherit the oldest son’s blessing, he manipulated events and stole the blessing from his brother. He didn’t trust God!
In today’s story Jacob attempted to manipulate the color of the sheep and goats. He does this despite the fact that we learn in the next chapter that God appeared to him in a dream and told him he was going to give Jacob many speckled and spotted animals.
(Genesis 31:10–13) 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. 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.’”
However, God is merciful. He used Jacob’s sin for good. God ignored Jacob’s unbelieving manipulations and honored his promise. Inthe end it does not depend upon Jacob.
Have you accepted the fact that it doesn’t really depend upon you? Yes, your behavior matters, but ultimately, in the long run, for one that clings to the gospel, it doesn’t depend upon you. God will bring your salvation to pass. God will energize you to persevere to the end. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Ultimately, how your children turn out doesn’t depend upon you.
Ultimately, the future of the church doesn’t depend upon you and I.
Before we turn to our application we need to acknowledge a second truth. Jacob has sinned, and although God honors his promises to Jacob anyway, God’s mercy does not exempt Jacob from reaping what he sows.Sin is costly! Jacob deceived his father and stole the blessing. However, God is so good that he used his manipulationto get the blessing to Jacob and remove him to Haran.
God used evil for good.
However, when Laban deceived Jacob with Leah, Jacob reaped the deception he had sownand that reaping was part of God’s justice. But again God used it for good. For from Leah came Judah, the tribe from which David and the Messiah sprang.
Later, a much more serious reaping of his deception will occur. Just as Jacob deceived his father his sons will deceive him about Joseph. But even that God will use for good. He will send Joseph ahead to Egypt and position him to feed Jacob and his family during a time of severe famine.
In the words of the apostle Paul, “Note then the kindness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22).
D.Two Applications
1.God Blesses Even as we reap
Many of us have dark secrets in our past. We have sin for which we are deeply ashamed. If it is serious, there will probably be, or already has been, some form of reaping. But here is the wonderful news. God will cause you to reap what you have sowed. Then he will turn and use the reaping for your good.
You might respond, I don’t understand? How can this be?
The principle appears most graphically at the cross. The Jews crucified their King and God. Then, in 70 AD, they reaped what they sowed. The Roman army tore Jerusalem down brick by brick, rendered it a ghost town and dispersed the Jews amongst the nations. But, at the same time God was using their terrible sin to forgive and save millions of the Jews that perpetrated this terrible evil.
Fear God!
Hope in his mercy!
2.The Cross is the measure of God’s faithfulness
God has made many promises to us. They started in Gen 3:15. "I will put enmity between you [the Serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
When God gave that promise he knew that he would not be able to fulfill it until sin had been atoned for. It was a costly promise. That is why Jesus came. He came to atone for our sin so that he could fulfill his promises. In the words of the Psalmist, “God swears to his own hurt and does not change.”
In other words, ultimately, it does not depend upon you and me. The crucifixion of God’s Son is the measure of his passion to keep his promises. This means you can trust him.
What are some of his promises?
“As far as East is from West so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12).
“Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21).
“If you confess your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and believe in your heart that he rose from the dead, you shall be saved.” (Rom 10)
“I will never leave you now forsake you” (Rom 8)
God promises to be for you not against you (Rom 8:31).
“It is God who justifies, who is to condemn” (Rom 8:33-34).
“If God is for you who can be against you” (Rom 8:31).
God has promised us New Heavens and Earth, an eternal paradise. That means the knowledge and experience of “Love that surpasses all knowledge,” “Joy inexpressible and full of glory,” and “Peace that passes understanding.”
Here is the Good News that oozes out of today’s text. None of this depends upon us. God kept his promises t despite Jacob. He will keep these promises despite us. How do we know that? The cross is the measure of his passion to keep his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and ultimately you and me.
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[1]Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 285 בָּרַך. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (132). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] John H. Sailhamer, Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol 2, pg 203 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
[3]Hughes, Kent R. (2004-10-26). Genesis: Beginning and Blessing (Preaching the Word) (Kindle Locations 7457-7459). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition