Jacob & His Family
Sermon Notes
Intro
Good morning! My name is Zack and I’m one of the pastors here at City Awakening. Thanks for being here today as we continue our study through the story of the Bible. We're going to go ahead and dismiss kids to their classroom. If you're in Kindergarten-5th grade you can head to the back, and parents if you didn't get a chance to check your child in you can do that now.
Speaking of kids, have you ever noticed how kids are impatient for the good things? It can be really frustrating as a parent because I want to be able to give my kids gifts and the blessing of certain privileges, but sometimes they choose to try and take those things for themselves. It’s fun to give a treat like dessert after dinner, but if they sneak candy in the afternoon, they’ve already taken for themselves what I wanted to give them. Or my favorite is when some of my kids try to give me a wish list and some of their own money to buy them a birthday present. A) They don’t trust Brittany and I to pick out a good gift, and B) They think it’s too much trouble for us to spend our money, so they’re offering to help out. If it wasn’t funny (and mostly innocent), it would be insulting. Can you imagine if we did that as adults? What if you told your best friend, “Hey I know you might want to get me something for Christmas, so here’s a list of things I’m wanting, and why don’t you take this $25 to help out with the cost….Actually, you know what, never mind, you might not get exactly what I want, so I’ll just buy my own present and you don’t even have to worry about it.”
There’s so many things wrong with that, but today we’re going to see some characters in the Bible take a very similar approach with God. They are going to chase God’s promise of blessing by being impatient, manipulative, and deceptive. They are going to come up with some elaborate schemes to make things happen. But, what we’re going to see is that man-made schemes are never greater than God-ordained plans. We think we know what’s best and the way things should play out, but it’s never better than God’s plan.
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis Ch. 27. We’re actually going to be covering about 4 chapters of Scripture. And to remind us of how we’ve gotten to this point in the Story remember that after Creation and the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel, there’s a shift in the story as God focuses in on Abram. He calls Abram to leave his homeland and go where God tells him, and then he promises Abram that he will make him into a great nation set apart for God’s purposes. Decades later God finally gives Abram his promised son named Isaac. Isaac grows up and marries of one his cousins, Rebekah. And they have twins boys named Jacob and Esau. Sometime later God appears to Isaac to reaffirm his promise to him. He says in Genesis 26:3, “I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.” So somehow through Isaac and his sons, God intends to build this great nation. And this is where we’re going to pick up the story today in Ch. 27, and we’re going to look at this as 4 scenes in one bigger story. Let’s start with scene 1:
Jacob “Steals” the Blessing
27:1, When Isaac was old (around 130, maybe 137) and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau (in his 70s) and said to him, “My son.”
And he answered, “Here I am.”
2 He said, “Look, I am old and do not know the day of my death. 3 So now take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me. 4 Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I can bless you before I die.”
Isaac actually lives another 50 years, but he thinks he might be dying so he wants to bless his son Esau. Esau was Isaac’s favorite even though he’s already shown a lack of faith and maturity when he flippantly traded his birthrate for a meal, and then married two Hittite women that made life bitter for his parents. Nonetheless, Isaac liked that Esau was an outdoorsman, and he especially liked that he was good at cooking the game he killed. Apparently Isaac was related to Louis; he liked barbecue. The problem is God had already made it clear that it was Jacob that would receive the blessing, not Esau. When Rebekah was pregnant with the boys, the Lord told her (Genesis 25:23),
23 Two nations are in your womb;
two peoples will come from you and be separated.
One people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.
Well, Esau was the older. He came out of the womb first with Jacob following holding onto his heal, which is important because even from birth Jacob was trying on his own effort to overtake his brother. God declared that Jacob would be the blessed one, but Jacob comes out taking matters into his own hands, and now Isaac is ignoring the promise and trying to give his blessing to Esau.
To us the whole blessing thing doesn’t sound like a big deal or really make sense. But the patriarchal blessing in the ancient world was a serious thing, especially in this case since Isaac was passing along the blessing he had received from Abraham which came from God and had been reaffirmed by God along the way. As one commentator put it, “a blessing is not just words of favor, but it is determinative of destiny when the hand of the Lord is in it.” God’s blessing goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God blessed his living creation, particularly humans, and told them to be fruitful, multiply, and reign over the earth. So this blessing carries with it a power or privilege of flourishing life. That’s why Isaac wants to pass it along to his favorite son.
But Rebekah loves Jacob more and probably remembers God’s promise from the womb. She overhears the conversation between Isaac and Esau and decides to take matters into her own hands. She calls Jacob in and tells him in vs. 8,
8 Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father—the kind he loves. 10 Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.”
Rebekah and Jacob come up with a scheme to trick Isaac, and it gets more elaborate than cooking some goats. It involves a costume and straight up lies to convince Isaac that Jacob is Esau. The crazy thing is that it works. Jacob is convincing enough to trick his father and receive his blessing. Isaac tells Jacob,
28 May God give to you—
from the dew of the sky
and from the richness of the land—
an abundance of grain and new wine.
29 May peoples serve you and nations bow in worship to you.
It’s a blessing of flourishing life, and this affirms Jacob’s destiny. He will carry on God’s promise and become a great nation. So what God said would happen has begun, even though it’s being brought about in the wrong way. After all, the end doesn’t justify the means. Just because the end goal is in line with God’s plan doesn’t give license to do whatever we think necessary to get to that goal. And the story quickly reveals the fall out from the this man-made scheme.
Not surprisingly when Isaac and Esau realize what happened they are furious. Isaac shakes with anger and Esau begins scheming to murder his brother. Jacob now carries the guilt of his actions, which he knew was wrong in the planning, and he has to run away in order to save his life from his brother. As a result Rebekah will never see the son she loves again, and her death is never mentioned in the Bible possibly because her actions were considered dishonorable.
This man-made scheme used sinful means to try and protect and fulfill a promise that God was going to keep anyways. We’ll never know how the plan would have played out, but we know that the God-ordained plan was always to bless Jacob. He didn’t have to steal the blessing.
The text does indicate that Isaac recognized his error and even blessed Jacob again before sending him out to find a wife, which takes us to scene 2 of the story.
Laban Tricks Jacob
At Rebekah’s request, Isaac send’s Jacob back to Paddan-aram to her brother, Laban’s, house to find a wife. Along the way Jacob has a very important encounter with God. The Lord appears to him in a dream with a stairway going to heaven, which becomes further confirmation of God’s blessing on Jacob. He then travels on to Laban’s house where he meet’s Rachel, the beautiful daughter he immediately fell in love with. We’re going to pick up the story here in Genesis 29:16,
16 Now Laban had two daughters: the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel. 17 Leah had tender eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful. 18 Jacob loved Rachel, so he answered Laban, “I’ll work for you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay with me.” 20 So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. (And all the women sighed because it’s so romantic)
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Since my time is complete, give me my wife, so I can sleep with her.” 22 So Laban invited all the men of the place and sponsored a feast. 23 That evening, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her. 24 And Laban gave his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.
25 When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What have you done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?”
26 Laban answered, “It is not the custom in our country to give the younger daughter in marriage before the firstborn. 27 Complete this week of wedding celebration, and we will also give you this younger one in return for working yet another seven years for me.”
28 And Jacob did just that. He finished the week of celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. 29 And Laban gave his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave. 30 Jacob slept with Rachel also, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Who said the Bible was boring?! It was customary for the groom to pay a bride price to the father of the bride. Jacob doesn’t have a lot of money at this point so he offers 7 years of service in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage. But he gets duped and marries the wrong sister. So he gives another 7 years of service.
This is all about profit for Laban. He doesn’t care who marries Jacob, he’s just trying to get the most out of the situation even after Jacob offered him the equivalent of 3 times the customary bride price. He comes up with a man-made scheme to increase his wealth by getting free labor.
But think about this scene for a second. Jacob, whose name means deceiver, is now getting deceived. The trickster has met another trickster. And, it’s pretty much the exact same way he just tricked his father with a bait and switch. Isaac was blinded by old eyes, Jacob is blinded by a veil. Once the blessing was given, or in this case the marriage consummated, the truth was shockingly revealed. I don’t think this was a coincidence. I think this is God’s providence and correction in Jacob’s life.
R.C. Sproul said that, “It is as if the Lord said to Jacob: ‘Yes I have chosen you and am sovereignly using your transgressions for my purposes. But I do not approve of the way in which you have lived, and I now must discipline you for it.’”
So Laban has a scheme to get rich, but God uses Laban’s deceit to discipline Jacob. I bet it didn’t take Jacob long to make the connection between his sin and the sin of Laban. But God wasn’t just punishing Jacob, he was disciplining him. See the goal of punishment is pain, but the goal of discipline is always growth and transformation. As we’re going to see it’s going to take many years and many more mistakes for Jacob to learn his lesson and his faith to be refined to the point that he’s ready to be sent back out into the world.
This leads us to the third scene.
Leah and Rachel’s Fight for Prominence
Let’s pick up in chapter 29, verse 31:
31 When the Lord saw that Leah was neglected, he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive.
I love the picture of God’s redemption and heart for he afflicted in this verse. He knew that Jacob preferred Rachel to Leah, and I’m sure his time and affection reflected that. You can imagine how Leah would have felt like a pawn in this game that was being played out. She used by her own father and rejected by her husband, but God saw Leah and opened her womb. This was a big deal because having a baby was everything during this time. A women’s identity and success as a wife was built around her being able to provide offspring. So God saw Leah and gave her that gift. But Rachel saw Leah’s gift and became envious. Look at Ch. 30.
30:1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me sons, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.
2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God? He has withheld offspring from you!”
3 Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she’ll bear children for me so that through her I too can build a family.” (Now we’ve seen this before in the story of Abraham and Sarah and it didn’t get well then.) 4 So Rachel gave her slave Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. 5 Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; yes, he has heard me and given me a son,” so she named him Dan.
This just sets off a chain reaction of back and forth competition between Rachel and Leah to be the matriarch and to earn Jacob’s attention and approval, and he just goes along with the whole thing. Just to summarize:
God opens Leah’s womb and she has Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
Then Rachel’s servant, Bilhah, has Dan and Naphtali.
Leah then gives her servant, Zilpah, to Jacob. She has Gad and Asher.
Still trying to earn Jacob’s favor, Leah buys a night with her own husband by trading some mandrakes with Rachel (Fruit thought to cause fertility). Leah wanted Jacob, Rachel wanted to be fertile.
As a result, Leah gives birth to Issachar, and then Zebulun.
And then God remembered Rachel (very similarly to the way he remembered Leah earlier), and opened her womb and she gave birth to Joseph. And then later Rachel has one final son, Benjamin, as she dies in the birthing process.
Who said the Bible was boring?! This crazy, twisted part of the story shows us several things:
It shows us how God can have compassion on us and bless us even when we act manipulatively to get our way.
It shows us that God has grace on us even before we call out to him. He remembered Leah, and he remembered Rachel, and he’s still blessing Jacob. It’s his hand that initiates all his blessings, not the work or righteousness of his people.
And as weird as this whole story seems to us, it shows us that each child was miraculously designed and created by God. Not one of them was an accident or mistake, just like every child that’s born today. And God had a plan for each one. It was through this man-made scheme that God established the nation (the 12 tribes) of Israel, including Levi, which would be the tribe of priests, Joseph, who would be the future savior of Israel and a significant type of Christ, and Judah, who was the direct ancestor of Jesus, our Savior, and as John records in Revelation 5:5, the “Lion of the tribe of Judah."
It’s pretty cool to see how God can take such an elaborate and selfish man-made scheme and supersede it with his God-ordained plan. This takes us to the final scene of today:
Laban Tries to Trick Jacob Again
Yes, greedy Laban is at it again. Look at chapter 30, verse 29:
29 So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your herds have fared with me. 30 For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The Lord has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?”
31 Laban asked, “What should I give you?”
And Jacob said, “You don’t need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock. 32 Let me go through all your sheep today and remove every sheep that is speckled or spotted, every dark-colored sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the female goats. Such will be my wages. 33 In the future when you come to check on my wages, my honesty will testify for me. If I have any female goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not black, they will be considered stolen.”
34 “Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
35 That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he placed his sons in charge of them. 36 He put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Jacob, meanwhile, was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flock.
Laban is scheming again and trying to take advantage of Jacob. In his mind he’s lived up to his end of the deal and given both of his daughters to Jacob. He doesn’t owe Jacob anything else, so if he wants something else, he’s going to have to earn it. So Jacob agrees to work even longer, about 6 more years, for Laban in exchange for his spotted and speckled livestock. Laban agrees but takes out all of the spotted and speckled livestock so Jacob doesn’t have a chance at taking much. That’s a man-made scheme.
But, we shouldn’t be shocked to see that tricky Jacob has a plan too. He puts some striped branches in the watering troughs and low and behold he grows a huge flock of spotted and speckled livestock. And verse 43 tells us that, “the man became very rich. He had many flocks, female and male slaves, and camels and donkeys.”
Both men are scheming, but God’s plan still wins. This stick trick makes no sense except that it’s the work of God. He is continuing to establish Jacob as a nation. He now has a house full of wives and children, and he’s very wealthy with all his animals. And slowly Jacob is starting realize that he’s not the one orchestrating the story. He even tells Rachel and Leah that God has taken away your father’s herds and given them to me (31:9).
I believe that there is some growth in Jacob over these 20 years in Paddan-aram. It would have been easy for him to completely walk away from God during all of this, but he does maintain some faith that God will fulfill his promise. And if you keep reading you will see that Jacob ends up wrestling with God, demanding that he bless him so God ends up physically disabling Jacob to get him finally depend on God instead of trying to do things his own way.
This is kind of a wild story, I don’t think any of us will find ourselves in quite the same predicament, so what’s the take away for us today? It’s that man-made schemes are never greater than God-ordained plans. Or another way of saying it would be, You don’t have to take what God already wants to give you. He wants you to have life, and to have it to the full.
If we look back at these 4 scenes, and really the entire Bible, we see 3 things to be true:
Man-made schemes are:
Built on self: Our sin-nature causes us to put ourselves first, and every character in this story put together a scheme that had their own best interest in mind.
Fueled by fear: We’re afraid of what will happen if we’re not in control. We’re afraid that we’ll be taken advantage of, be forgotten, that we’ll suffer, or lose something we want.
Confirmed by destruction: There’s always negative fall-out when we take matters into our own hands. Relationships are broken, we’re burdened by guilt, shame, or anxiety, and sometimes we have to deal with natural consequences of bad decisions that can even be passed down for generations to come.
On the other hand,
God-ordained plans are:
Built on Christ: Jesus showed us a different way of living that was not about building our own kingdoms that won’t last, but about building his eternal Kingdom. His plan starts with us surrendering our lives to him.
Fueled by Faith: Because we are not limited to this world, we don’t have the fears of this world. Our faith frees us to have peace in the midst of suffering, it compels to act in way that puts us at a disadvantage, and it gives us hope for what’s to come.
Finally, God-ordained plans are:
Confirmed by blessing: I’m not talking about #blessed. I’m talking about healing that comes from obeying God and denying sin, the beauty of a restored relationship, the joy that comes from being content, and the security of walking with Christ. The blessing that God had for Jacob and the Israelites is now available to all people through the person of Jesus. Our salvation is the greatest blessing, and we don’t have to earn it or fight for it. It’s a gift that God is thrilled to give us.
Jacob and his family thought the fulfillment of God’s promise should look a certain way and so they went after that. But God’s plans for our lives aren’t going to be spelled out in a step-by-step guide that shows us what’s coming in 10 years, 5 years, or even next week. He wants us to trust him and walk with Him. We only see 1 brush stroke at a time, but God sees the entire painting.
This should leave us doing some self-evaluation. In what ways are we trying to put together our own schemes instead of trusting in God’s plan? Maybe you’re not happy with his timing or the direction things seem to be going. Maybe you’re wrestling with a decision or afraid to let go of something…..Or maybe you’ve already taken matters into your own hands and now you’re afraid you’ve messed it all up.
Here’s the good news: God is big enough to redeem any situation and any person, just like we saw with Jacob and his family. This is a beautiful story of God’s sovereignty, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness. He still loves you, and he can still use you. He can use even our worst mistakes to bring about his perfect plans. So give thanks for that, repent of your sin, and surrender your life to him, whether for the first time or the one-thousandth time.
I’ll leave you with this quote from John Calvin, “Whenever we may wander in uncertainty through intricate windings, we must contemplate with eyes of faith, the secret providence of God which governs us and our affairs and leads us to unexpected results.”
Remember that man-made schemes are never greater than God-ordained plans.
