150906Genesis_29_32 Page 1 of 5 Dysfunctional Family Drama Jacob is not interested in God at all, but the grace of God is obvious in his life. Right from the get go - wrestling - struggle - causing mom pain - twins - two very different boys - Esau - red and hairy - Jacob the grabber - heal snatcher - Jacob we will find is liar, cheater, deceiver - since the womb he has been fighting, grabbing, bucking. Birthright for a bowl of soup - birthright - double the inheritance, CEO of the family wealth, land, authority - power, patriarch Gen 25 - two nation in your womb - they will be divided - and the older shall serve the younger. Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing that God got it wrong. The question of Isaac that follows Jacob and haunts him that God will finally answer for him is - WHO ARE YOU? - Until you can answer that question in Christ - you don t know - always changing apart from in Christ When Isaac realized what he did - he trembled before the Lord - conversion - realized that God s will, will be done, despite me even trying to mess it up. God is in control. Jesus Wins. Your sin, even thought it has real and sometimes drastic earthly consequences - cannot derail God s gracious redemptive purpose for your life. Jacob got everything he wanted - and he is miserable - sleeping in the wilderness - using a rock as a pillow - because he has nothing to make into a pillow. Jacob has a dream of a giant ladder from heaven to earth - Portal into heaven - angels going from heaven to earth - back and forth - Avengers God breaks into Jacobs life, unasked for, unexpected, and unconditional - introduces Himself - and then gives promises - land, increase, and presence. You have nothing right now Jacob - I am going to give you land, family, flocks, and Presence (Me with you) Jacob was hopelessly alone. There is only one reason why God treats Jacob so well - GRACE! How does Jacob respond to God s kindness - If you do these things, then I will surrender, follow, give you my life - I need to know if I can trust you first - and I ll give you 10% God do we have a deal - Crickets - silence - the chapter ends. - Jacobs life - in living color - a life that see s God in the margins - Jacob at the center. John 1 - Jesus call Himself Jacob s ladder. - Jesus found Phillip - follow me - Phillip got Nathaniel 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit! 48 Nathanael said to Him, How do You know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
150906Genesis_29_32 Page 2 of 5 Jesus is the only way that god reaches man - only stairway from heaven - grace. You can t grasp at the blessings of god, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, they are a gift of grace Read Genesis 29:1-30 What does it look like for God to get hold of a life time. This is what we have been observing in the life of Jacob. The grace of God, pursued him, found him, and had gripped him. Sanctification - God breaks in, and God grabs hold of a life, and takes it to an end that nobody knows. The blessing he stole from Esau, has now run off with Jacob - it will take Jacob wherever God wants. On the run and sent by Isaac - A month since Jacobs dream, he comes to Laban s home territory, he has been instructed to go there and marry one of Laban s daughters. He comes to a well for watering the flocks. - Covered with a giant rock - took multiple shepherds to move the stone - keep the water protected. Do you know Laban? Oh ya, Laban is doing well, check out his daughter, Rachel (smoking hot), she has sheep all around her. Jacob falls head over heals in love with her beauty. Rachel means ewe lamb and Leah means cow He does something completely stupid and awkward - moves the rock by himself. Once I saw her beauty, I did something I can t explain, I ripped off my shirt, and flexed my muscles. Then he runs over and moves the stone - would take him like 10 minutes to move the stone by himself. Brings water to her flocks, and then kisses her and weeps allowed. Rachel is like who is this guy? This is also supposed to make you remember Abraham s servant finding Rebekah, prayer, and signs and wonders, and it is so clear that God s hand is on it. Here it is God s sovereign hand, that is unseen. Why is Jacob crying - he is starting to see God s hand - grace - God is with me - in spite of me - not deserved - not praying - and it is happening. God is working and God is not even mentioned. Just because you can t see the hand of God, doesn t mean that God is not working. Like his dad Isaac. - Joseph in the future Jacob s has love at first sight for Rachel. He s been around for a month working for Laban, Jacob is doing a good job, and Laban says I need to pay you, what are your wages. Jacob knew immediately what he wanted - Rachel. Read vs 16 - Leah s eyes were weak - appearance was not attractive, or eyes physically wrong - bulging/lazy/cross, or she had great eyes and nothing else. Contrasted with the beauty of Rachel. Jacob said I willserve you seven years for Rachel - Laban doesn t answer with a yes, he is vague And Laban said, It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me. Jacob hears what he wants to hear - Deal - and Jacob works seven years, like it is nothing. Then after seven years which seem like a few days paid an enormous prices abrupt - can we do this marriage thing, I want to have sex with your daughter - not I want to bless her for the rest of her life.
150906Genesis_29_32 Page 3 of 5 Laban throws a drinking banquet - party - week long party - feast and drink - then walk his heavily veiled daughter down the aisle to the wedding tent of consummation - jacob probably a little intoxicated - and candle light at best In the morning behold it was Leah - was there a scream - camera pan - this is comedy - very funny - tragedy plus distance - working and waiting 7 years - never a thought in his mind that it would be anyone else - just had the best night of your life - and it was the wrong person. In the morning it is always Leah - no matter what we put our hopes in it is always leah, and it is never Rachel. Most of us know what that feels like - anti-climax - in this moment a miniature of man d disillusionment experienced from Eden onwards - the fruit was going to be glorious - not what you thought it would be. Pursue a master passion other than Jesus, and infatuated with something, someone, when you work hard to get it, and you finally reach a level of intimacy with it, you find you wake up with Leah. It is not what you thought it would be. What you put your hope in, will be a leah wake up moment, tragedy, We put our hope in so many attractive things, and wake up with Leahs - unless your hope is Jesus Christ. Waking up with Leah s is something that God can use to sanctify you - by bringing you to repentance - and show you that only He is to be your hope. God will allow our hopes to crumble in our hands, while He is holding us all the while. To show us our hope is in the wrong thing and our only hope should be Jesus. C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity - Hope Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us... The Christian says, Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. These longings we have - these hopes we develop to satisfy them - are not to be found in this world - then they must be found and satisfied in another world - Heaven - Jesus Grace will reveal this to you - getting what you want, not getting what you want - always unsatisfied Jacob goes to Laban - What have you done to me? Why have you deceived me? for the first time Jacob is the victim of deception - and in going to Laban - Jacob unwittingly condemns himself. Laban responds - Gen 29:26
150906Genesis_29_32 Page 4 of 5 And Laban said, It must not be done so in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Around here we honor the first born - Zinger - Jacob exchanged the younger for the older, and Laban exchanged the older for the younger. Isaac thought he was having a life changing moment with Esau, Jacob thought he was having life changing moment with Rachel. Touches a guilty nerve in Jacob - his past has caught up with him - the deceiver deceived - in the darkness of blindness - fooled by fallible touch - Jacob dressed up like Esau, Leah dressed up like Rachel. All night I called you Rachel and you answered me - Hey buddy - your dad called you Esau and you answered him. Liar Liar pants on fire. Could go down the reap what you sow - moral road - What is so amazing is how insane and scandalous grace is - in the end Jacob gets the blessing - in the end Leah gets Jacob - bears Judah - in the line of Jesus. Jesus dressed up like us - clothed himself in humanity - not to steal a blessing - not to steal a husband - but to give a blessing - to set up the wedding feast - to bring us in as the bride of Christ. The story of Jacob is a story of a great reversal - the hinge - Jesus takes our place and we get his. Jesus takes our place in sin and depravity and broken - and we get His blessing and honor and holiness, promises, and presence of God forever more. Jacob s life has been gripped by the grace of God, you don t control how God works in your life. You may think you are in control you may grasp at control - but God is in control - He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. God is into regeneration - renewing of everything - not just what we want Him to transform - see everything differently in Christ. God is always at work in your life - small decisions, big decisions, worst moments, best moments, always working to sanctify you - transform you into what He has made you to be to Glorify Him, bless others, and experience inexpressible Joy. God does not sanctify us to make us awesome - but because we are called to be an instrument part of the redemption of the world. - All of Cape Cod Bigger picture - horse race Read Genesis 32:22-32 Jacob has had 11 children at this point and is on his way back home - afraid of Esau - Angels of God attending to Jacob - spiritual journey - hears Esau coming with 400 man army to meet him - laban behind him - no where to go sets up two companies - protect the second schemer is out of schemes Gen 32-9 Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you : 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. 12 For You said, I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
150906Genesis_29_32 Page 5 of 5 Finally - some humility - back to the promises - humble thyself before the Lord and He will lift you up. Gives Esau a present over 500 animals - very possible - trying to give back the birthright to - sending ahead all he had stolen - trying to make things right Jacob is laying there worried about losing life and family - finds himself attacked - wrestling all night - then the attacker touches hip - out of socket - Jacob schemed, lied, worked, for blessing, finally He is clinging to the Lord asking to be blessed by Him - I won t let you go until you bless me. Attacker asks What is your name? Who are you? Don t ask me that question - Jacob s identity has always been heal snatcher - flashback to Isaac asking who are you - I am Esau your firstborn. Esau was all upset - Isaac was like, his name is fitting isn t it. I am Jacob - the liar, schemer, the fool Now Jacob is broken - walk is reworked - hip pointer to Jesus God says that is not you anymore - now you are Israel - governed by God - no more wrestling with God - I saw God face to face - and lived to tell the story. - Grace - great lengths God will go through to capture our hearts. How about us? You will never know who you really are, until Christ is alive in you, and you surrender control to Him. Jacob moves from self-sufficiency to dependency on God - crippled Jacob hanging on - grasping God for dear life - What are you clinging onto - Cling to Jesus. Awkward walk in this world once you have been touched by God. - Mary clung to Jesus at the tomb - post resurrection - let go Mary - ascension - to be with everyone. the ascension is not the absence of Christ. It s the increased and heightened presence of Christ. The ascension is not the loss of his leadership, intimacy, and protection but the infinite magnification of it. Mary Magdalene, when she saw Jesus, held him. What did Jesus say? Let me tell you what he said literally. He said, Mary, don t hold on to me. I am ascending to my Father. What he s trying to say is, Mary, you don t understand. You re afraid to let go of me. Let go. Let me ascend. If you let me ascend, you will never be able to lose me again. Mary, if I stay here, I will have to be at one spot and one point at a time, but Mary, if I ascend, they ll never, ever, ever be able to take me from you. The gospel is not, Try your best to live according to these words and then God will favor you. The gospel is Jesus Christ came and lived the life you should have lived and died the death you should have died and has opened the way to him, so when you trust in him, you are completely accepted by the Father. How much more can you face life knowing the One who rules the universe rules it for us?