There are a number of you in this congregation who have named your sons Jacob. I hope you won't take this personally. But I sometimes wonder why anyone would name a son Jacob. We've been exposed a little bit to Jacob. And you know him to be what I think you could call a self-absorbed, self-reliant manipulator. But that's only half the story, and I suspect that it's the other half of the story that explains why people would name their sons Jacob because of what Jacob becomes. Jacob having been a self-absorbed and self-reliant manipulator becomes a humble and dependent worshipper. And I know that this kind of language is sort of hackneyed, but he really does become a trophy of the grace of God. He becomes a testimony to God's mighty power, God's ability to take a chaotic soul and do with that chaotic soul what he did with the creation. Bring order out of that chaos and fill out that emptiness with extraordinary beauty. I suspect that's why people name their sons Jacob because he became Israel. There are two stories in Genesis. There's what you could call the big story. The big story is the story of God's intent, his determination to overcome the effects of sin and the fall, and to make a nation from the nations. The big story is God's purpose to redeem the nation. And that's the story that's unfolding in Genesis. God overcoming the wreckage caused by sin and the fall, God rescuing and redeeming the nations. And it's a great and very dramatic story. It begins with a small promise made to Adam and Eve immediately after the fall, and that promise seems to be threatened at every turn. That promise is a little bit like Frodo and his eight friends who are vastly outnumbered who find themselves in this conflict with powers of evil that are set to undo them. And that story of the progress that they make from the shire, this obscure little place in Middle Earth, their progress from the shire to the mountains of mortar, on this mission to destroy evil. It seems like at every turn they are threatened and they really are threatened. And the promise of God is like that, but the promise of God prevails. And that's the big story. The big story is that the promise accomplishes what God intends for it to accomplish. And it's being accomplished right now. And the nations are being rescued and redeemed by the power of the gospel. And this one people is being gathered. It's happening right now. That's the big story. But woven throughout that big story are little stories. And the big story is really nothing more than individual strands. Little stories woven together to form this tapestry, this big story of God rescuing a people for himself. And Jacob is one of those strands. Jacob is one of those stories. One of those strands, one of those threads that is woven into the fabric of the big story. There's a lot to be learned from the life of Jacob. And there are some lessons, if you will, or some themes, if you will, that we're going to come back to again and again and again, as we make our way through these next several chapters. We're going to focus on the little story, not losing sight, I hope, of the big story. But understanding that the little story has tremendous application to our lives. Five themes that we're going to come back to again and again. I want to introduce them. And then in the weeks to come, we're going to return to them. Here's the first themes in Jacob's life. Things that Jacob will learn and things I trust we will learn. First, Jacob will learn that God, not he, sets the terms of their relationship. Back up to the last passage before chapter 29. After Jacob has this vision of this ladder, of God ascending, or these angels ascending and descending upon this ladder. And after Jacob awakening from his dream, declares that God is truly in this place and sets up this stone to the end of the day. And after Jacob awakening from his dream, declares that God is truly in this place and sets up this stone, this memorial stone. To honor the place where God met him. Verse 18, Jacob rose early in the morning, took the stone that he had put his head, set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He set up this memorial marker to commemorate this place where God had met with him. And he called the name of the place, Betha, then verse 20, Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And then this stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be God's house and then of all that you give me, I will surely give a tent to you. Imagine that, Jacob seeking to set the terms, the conditions of his relationship to God. Now I don't question for a moment Jacob's sincerity in making this vow before the Lord. Vows are made all throughout the Old Testament but it appears from the language that Jacob has a great deal to learn about who it is who sets the terms of the relationship. And then you contrast what Jacob says here with what God has said to Jacob's father and to his grandfather. Flip back to Genesis 17, just the first few verses. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am Almighty God, walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him saying, ask for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall you be called Abraham but your name shall be Abraham where I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also, I give to you an abundance after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession and I will be their God. Now, there is certainly the expectation that Abraham must walk faithfully before God in order to know the blessings of these promises. But God makes simple declarations to Abraham. I will do this. I will do this. I will do this. I will do it eight times in the passage. He says, I will do something. And it's almost as though and the unconditionality of the whole thing is confirmed. Earlier in Genesis 15, when it is God who in the form of a smoking pot passes between the beasts that are slain and by that act is declaring to Abraham that he will fulfill every promise that he is made for Abram. Not only the promises that he has made to Abram, but he will also fulfill Abram's obligations to keep the covenant. That's what is expressed in that. It is as though God is saying there are no conditions. I'm going to do this for you, Abram. Everything that has to be done to secure this blessing for you, I will do. And then throughout Abram's life, God shows himself faith. He does bless him. He keeps his word. He makes him to be a great family. He blesses him with great riches and abundance. And then he does the same thing in Isaac's life. You get very similar language as God repeats these promises to Isaac. Genesis 26-1-6, there was a famine in the land. Decide the first famine that was in the days of Abram. You remember this. Isaac found himself in the midst of a famine, threatened by that famine. But God spoke to him. Don't go to Egypt. Live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land and I will be with you and bless you. For to you in your descendants I will give these lands. I will perform the oath which I spoke to Abram your forefather. I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heaven. I will give to your descendants all these lands. And in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. And he did it in Isaac's life. In fact you'll remember that he blessed Isaac so abundantly that the fullest things who were suffering from the famine came to Isaac for food. In the midst of a famine God keeps his promise. And Jacob has the audacity to say if you will do this then I will give you the extraordinary privilege of being my God. Jacob has a great deal to learn about who it is who sets the terms of the relationship. Not as though God has to prove himself. It's not so God's character is in question. Jacob will learn that God is God and that he is not. He will learn that God is God and that he is not. It will take a virtual lifetime for him to learn this lesson. All throughout this lifetime he will wrestle with God. He will wrestle against God. And you'll get to Genesis 32 and that lifetime of wrestling will come to its consummation in a literal wrestling match where God meets with Jacob. With Jacob he shows up in the form of a man and Jacob thinks that he is contending with God, wrestling with God, prevailing against God. Still thinks that he is going to set the terms of the debate in an instant. In an instant God touches his hip, breaks his hip and Jacob is broken. He will wrestle all his life. Some of us do that don't we? We wrestle. Do we understand? Do you understand that you are no match for God? And it's a fruitless thing and really a foolish thing to wrestle against God. Because in an instant he will humble you. Jacob has a great deal to learn about who it is who sets the terms of their relationship. Job I think had to learn that too. Paul had to learn that. Had to learn to submit to an all wise and all knowing and infinitely powerful God. It's not wrong to wrestle folks we all do it. Jacob did it not always with good intent not always with the best of motives. Job did it certainly as you read Job with the best of intent and with the best of motives and Paul as well. It's not wrong to wrestle but no. No. That God is God and you are not. Jacob had a great deal to learn. Still about the second. Jacob will learn to abandon himself and depend upon God. Jacob will learn to abandon himself and depend upon God. There is a wonderful scene at the end of Genesis 47. It is right as Jacob is blessing his sons. The passage says that Jacob leaned upon his staff and did worship. That captures where Jacob ended up a dependent man leaning a bruised man leaning dependent upon something outside himself. And in that condition then he distributes the blessing of God upon his sons. Jacob will learn to abandon himself and depend upon God. He will learn to abandon his schemes and he will learn to trust in God. He will learn to trust that God will work out his plan in his time and in his way. Jacob has not learned that yet. Jacob was the rightful heir of the promise. This is just a bit of a reminder. Jacob was the rightful heir of the promise not because he was the eldest son but because God had declared that Jacob would inherit the blessing. But Jacob took matters into his own hands. And Jacob schemes first to secure his brother's birthright to defraud his brother. And then Jacob schemes to secure his brother's blessing, lying to his father, misrepresenting who he was, manipulating the situation yet again. Both were his. They were here, but Jacob still was dependent upon his own ability to manipulate, to control. Soon we are going to see Jacob scheming to secure a wife for himself. You can trust Jacob's securing a wife for himself, for how Abraham secured a wife for Isaac. The difference is striking. Abraham commissions the chief of his servants. You can read about it in Genesis 24, 12 and following. And this servant having been commissioned by Abraham when he gets to the land of Abraham's fathers does this very significant thing. He prays. He prays asks that God might favor his master Abraham. This is so striking. The servant has no name. He is a nameless person in the scriptures. He's not a patriarch. He doesn't have a name like Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, but he has learned something about covenant relationship to God. He has learned that at critical moments, and even in non-critical moments, in all moments, one's posture must be a posture of absolute dependence upon God, the servant abandons himself, and entrusts himself into the safekeeping of God. Jacob doesn't do it. Read the rest of the chapter. Read the narrative. No prayer. No acknowledgement of his need for God. No submitting to God, but scheming, and conniving, and manipulating. Jacob has a great deal to learn yet about abandoning himself and depending upon God. Years ago, I heard a sermon by Jerem Barz, who was an associate of Francis Schaeffer. In this sermon, Jerem Barz outlined that there are three ways to build a kingdom. You can build the kingdom of man in man's way, but the God in God's way, and believe it or not, you can build the kingdom of God in man's way. You're lying upon resources and strengths and schemes and programs and manipulations that are far removed from the means which God has appointed for building his kingdom. Jacob has a lot to learn about abandoning himself and depending entirely upon God and trusting God to work out his plan in his time and in his way. Jacob will learn that God's love confronts simple patterns of behavior. Bob said it last week. God saves us from our sin. God rescues us from our sin. Jacob has yet to learn that God's love confronts simple patterns and how does he do it? How does God confront the simple patterns of behavior in Jacob's life? Simple patterns of behavior beneath which are idols of one kind or another are heart motivations which need to be addressed and changed. How does God do it? How does God address a self-absorbed and self-reliant manipulator? He puts an even better self-absorbed and self-reliant manipulator in his path. He puts Laban in his life and Laban serves as a mirror into which Jacob gazes. In that mirror he sees himself who he is in his heart and in his actions is exposed. You know the story. We're going to get to it. But Laban is even better at manipulating than Jacob is. You ever ask yourself why is this person in my life? You ever ask why is this circumstance in my life? Now I want to be very careful here, very careful because I know that there are circumstances, some circumstances that are simply crushing me. And the thing that I fear the most when I follow this line of reasoning or this line of thought, the thing that I fear the most is that those folks who are already disposed to ask these questions, why is this person in my life? Why are these circumstances in my life? What is God trying to say about me through these circumstances or through this person? My great concern is that the person who doesn't really need to hear this, hear it, the person who is already overwhelmed by these circumstances who is already seeking to understand why this person is in his or her life, that person isn't really the person I'm speaking to right now. You know what I mean? It's not the people who are wounded in conscience who need to hear about the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. It's not the people who are wrestling with their hearts motives who need to go read Jonathan Edwards' religious affections. They need to hear about the absolute sufficiency of Jesus and the security and the utter safety that they possess ahead. There are those of us and you alone know who you are. There are those of us who need to ask why is this person in my life? And if I can say this carefully, I don't know if I can get this over, I would even suggest that for those who are already wrestling with these things, if they're very careful and very cautious and if they know that they are secure and safe in Jesus, it's not a bad thing even for them to continue asking the question. Why in the providence of God is this person in my life? Why is this circumstance in my life? If you were Jacob, how would you have responded? My guess is you would respond exactly the way I respond when the self-absorbed manipulators invade the peace and tranquility of my life. My prayer is God removed them. My prayer is God changed Laban when the point is that Laban is in Jacob's life precisely that Jacob might be changed. Why are these people in your life? Why this child? Yes, yes, yes, I know. You pray for change to take root in the soul of your child. Why this business associate who is manipulative and duplicitous and deceitful? Yes, I know. You pray for change to take root in the soul of this business associate. Why this spouse? Yes, I know. You pray for change to take root in the soul of this spouse. But you see, Laban is in Jacob's life because it is Jacob's life that needs to be changed. Jacob needs to understand and he will learn that God's love confronts simple affections and simple patterns of behavior. And that's why Laban is in his life. Who are the Labans in your life? You see, you understand that God in His great love and mercy. This is so critically important for us. God in His great love and mercy is interested in more than forgiveness. He is interested in having the glory of His Son be revealed in us. He is interested in us being changed. That's what the gospel is about. That's why these Labans are in our lives, whether in the form of a child or a business associate or a spouse. And so as you think about it and you contemplate it, you see, as hard and I understand how hard it is, I've had my Labans, I've got my Labans. But I'm a God. Honestly. But I'll tell you, God worked in me and continues to work in me through the Labans in my life. And when you begin to understand that at some deep level, you can embrace them. Alexander Sozier meets them. I thank God for prison in my life. You can embrace them as you understand that God's great desire is to confront simple patterns in our lives. Fourth, Jacob will learn that God's mercy can be severe. Jacob will learn that God's mercy can be severe, that it can be painful. It isn't always the scriptures tell us that God's tender mercies are over all of his works and they are. They're there. They're all over the place. The fingerprints of the mercies of God are all over the place, touching your lives in countless ways every day. Jacob is going to learn that God's mercy can be severe. It can be painful as I said all through his life. Jacob wrestles with God. The wrestling match that occurs in Genesis 32 is simply the culmination of a life of wrestling and in an instant God strikes a crippling blow. The Jacob. Do you see that in that text? There's a read this narrative involving God and his relationship to Jacob several times over the course of these next two or three weeks. Read it several times. God in an instant strikes a crippling blow, a physical infirmity, a physical pain to Jacob. And for the rest of his life he limps. For the rest of his life he limps. In fact, you look at the passage in Israel didn't eat the particular sinew, the particular meat that attached itself to that particular part of the bone to commemorate that God afflicted Jacob. He afflicted him. His mercy was severe at that particular moment. And that's why in Genesis 47 as Jacob blesses his sons, he leans upon his staff to keep from falling. He limps for the rest of his life. Job learned that the mercy of God can sometimes be severe. Jesus teaches about it in the New Testament. Mark 942-49. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out of your head. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better, it is more valuable, it is more desirable to enter the kingdom, eyeless, handless, limping. It is better to experience a physical infirmity. It is better to experience a severe mercy. It is better than to be cast into everlasting torment. The mercy can be severe. Brian Chappell, president of our denominational seminary, tells the story of a young man who was in his congregation 17 years old, covenant child, wild, a covenant writer. One particular night after he was out with some of his buddies, he ran his pickup truck into a bridge abutment and was paralyzed from the shoulders down. In the aftermath of that accident, he came to terms with his covenant breaking. He repented, he confessed his sins before the congregation, and they cut out a section of the last pew at the back of the sanctuary right in the center so that he could wheel his wheelchair in and sit in that place every Sunday. And every Sunday he was a testimony to the love of God, to the mercy of God which can be severe so that one might be saved. Paul says that turned him over to the devil for the destruction of his flesh in order that his soul might be saved. Jacob will lie that God's mercy can be severe. It can be painful. Oh, how much, how much you need to be reminded of the things that Jacob needed to learn. The mercy can be severe always beneath you are these everlasting arms to keep you to preserve you to hold you so that you will not perish. Jacob will learn that God's mercy can be severe. It can be painful. And finally, Jacob will learn that God's first concern is to work in him. God will work through him. This is a wonderful image. God will work through Jacob. Jacob is the conduit. Jacob is the pipeline through which all of these promises and blessings first given to Abraham will flow to the nations. God will work through Jacob. But I want to tell you that is not God's first concern. God's first concern is to work in Jacob. The appeal of the gospel, the appeal of the gospel is that in the gospel there is power to change. For the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. That's the appeal of the gospel. And when we taste that power, when we have an experience of that power, we say, I can change my town by the power of the gospel. I can change my city. I can change my nation. I can change the world. People write books about it. Come help change the world. But that isn't where the gospel begins. The gospel begins with change me. The appeal of the gospel is that it is worldwide in scope. And you, as Christians, are the conduits, each of you individually, through which the blessings of the gospel will flow to the nations. But you are more than a piece of pipe. You are more than a conduit. You are one upon whom God has set his affection. And before the gospel goes any place, he wants it to go to you. He wants you to be changed before anything else has changed. I had a conversation this last Friday night with a very dear friend. He said to me, if I get to the end of the day, and this is just him talking about his particular stuff, his particular wrestling with whether the gospel makes any difference in his life or not, he said to me, if I get to the end of the day, and my wife does not know that she is loved and nurtured and cherished. Then what is the point? And if I have not loved my wife, my children, my staff, my friends, if I have not loved, know something of how guilty I am at this point. If I have not loved as Christ has loved me, I am a noisy gong. And the gospel has not met nothing. The gospel is not about our heads. The gospel is articulating the doctrines of the reformed faith. The gospel is about change in me.
And Jacob still has a great deal to learn, a great deal to understand about the nature of God's covenant relationship to him. That God's first concern is to work in him. Jacob is a work in progress. You'll get to see it. And I trust we'll take great comfort from it. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, keep these things before us. Keep these truths from Jacob's life ever before us. And we not lose sight of him. And I plead with you, O God, that no matter how difficult a circumstance, no matter how manipulative the labens in our life, in the security which we have in Jesus, and because we are safe in Jesus, help us to ask the question, what are you trying to show me about myself? What do you want me to see? Lord Jesus, the work needs to go on here in each of our lives before we have any business serving this conduit to the rest of the world. Make that happen for the sake of Jesus. We pray in His name and the name.