Leaving Laban
Transcript
I'm one of the pastors here, and if you're perceptive and this isn't your first time hanging out with us, you may have noticed that there was a drum kit on the stage today. I want to take a second to just kind of use that as an opportunity to tell you a little bit about some philosophy of ministry stuff for us. One is, I appreciated that. I also really like the box, and I think that even when we have cajons, we should make them sit in there, because that would be fun. Especially Isaac, who is quite loud on a cajon. This being the first time we've had a drum kit on Sundays, the reason was not that we hated drums, and the reason we have it now is not that we necessarily love drums.
It's that we never had anybody who could play drums, and our philosophy of ministry is when we gather as a church, we do what our church can do. That it's us. That we don't want to pay somebody to come in and play music, although I've heard that other churches do that. We don't pay anybody to do any of this stuff up here musically wise, because we just want, it's our church gathering together to worship and to make much of Jesus. And so if you play the oboe and can throw down on it, come talk to Matt. If you're killer on the spoons, we'll do whatever we can do to worship the Lord together and make a joyful noise, and so if everybody in our band left for some reason, hopefully to go be missionaries in Menya, then we'll just have somebody read some Psalms and somebody else hum behind them, and it'll be great, and we'll go back to that until we get some more musicians.
And so that's just kind of how we do stuff. So not sold on one thing or the other as much as we're sold on the idea that we gather and worship together and we do what our church family can do. Grab your Bibles, go to Genesis chapter 30. Um, we've been walking along through the book of Genesis and we're in chapter 30 and what we've been seeing is we've gone through this. We're seeing the beginning of the world as God created the world, and then we've watched as God has worked his will, where he has brought about his desires for the world in the midst of brokenness and sin and pain. So he created the world good and humanity rebelled, and then God immediately steps in and promises that he's going to fix this.
And so we've been following with Abraham and Isaac and now Jacob as God has stepped in and said, I'm going to accomplish my will. I'm going to bless the world through you. I'm going to give you a people and a place. I'm going to make you, uh, my people. And so we've been following that story. And what we're going to see today as we read this, this aspect of the story is part of the story is we're going to get to see a clear picture of the distinction between, um, the gods of Laban, which is Jacob's father-in-law and the God of Jacob, the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And we're going to get to see kind of the contrast between Laban's gods and Jacob's God. And we're going to get to see that Laban's gods, um, are weak and frail, uh, enable, incapable, uh, of defending themselves, bringing about change. And that the God of Jacob is very big and very powerful and rules over everything. And so the hope today is that we would grow, that we would expand our thinking about God, our view of God. Um, there's a story in the gospels and, uh, there's, it's found in Mark four, as well as other places in the synoptics where Jesus is with his disciples and they're on a boat and Jesus is asleep and a big storm comes along.
Now, some of the disciples weren't used to being on boats necessarily, but a handful of them were, were fishermen and we're used to being out on boats and the storm comes in it. I mean, it, the boat's rocking and a rolling it's, it's up and down and there's this major issues and they're trying to do everything they possibly can to defend it. Uh, themselves to try to fix the situation, to handle the situation. And they can't, they finally go to Jesus. Who's asleep in the bottom of the boat. And they say, master, don't you care that we're going to drown?
So Jesus wakes up, he comes up out of the bottom of the boat and he stands up on the deck and he says, peace, be still. And the waves that had been rocking in the wind that had been blowing suddenly just stops. And the text tells us that the disciples were terrified. They were actually, the word it uses is they were more afraid. When Jesus told the ocean to stop than they were of drowning. They were like, nah, let's go back to drowning.
I can't handle this. Like, I don't, I don't know how to handle somebody who can just tell the ocean to stop. And it does it. They're terrified. And he says, oh, you of little faith. You see, when they went and woke Jesus up, they didn't wake him up because they thought he could come calm the storm.
They woke him up because they needed somebody else to bail water. They wanted somebody else to hold a rope. And Jesus walks up and handles the whole situation. And so the reason I tell you that is it matters how we approach God and how we view God. And so they had underestimated him. He was a little smaller than they had reckoned.
He was, he was a little weaker than they, than they thought. They thought he was a little weaker than he was. And that's why he says, oh, you of little faith. If they had known who they were approaching, they would have approached it differently. So we just sang.
And when you sing, you're singing to the best picture you have of God, the best image of who he is and his character and what he's like. When we pray, we're doing the same thing. The best, our best understanding, but the best human understanding falls short of God's glory, falls short of his massiveness, of his power. The best we can wrap our minds around is still short of who he truly is. But it does matter to us in our anxiety levels.
And it does matter to us in our prayers that we pray and in our approach to him. And in the way we live our life, that we know him truly and rightly and worship him fully. Does that make sense? So our hope today is to make God a little bit bigger. To, as we see these gods contrasted against one another, try to find places where we line up more with Laban, where our thinking about God and our approach to God is just a little bit smaller than it needs to be. And try to move ourselves to lining up more with worshiping the true God of Jacob in his massiveness and in his sovereignty.
So that's our hope, that God would be a little less domesticated after we leave here today. It'd be a little bit bigger, a little bit scarier, and there'd be a lot of joy found in that. Let's pray. God, we ask for your help as we read this passage, that we might see you clearly, truly, fully. And that wherever we have made you smaller, wherever we have in our minds treat you as tame, we pray that you'd break through that in a glorious, helpful, fearful way. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right. So we are in Genesis 30. We're going to start in verse 25. So Jacob and his wives just had 12 children. Eleven boys mentioned one girl, and later they're going to have another son. It'll be the 12 tribes of Jacob.
And so it says, verse 25, as soon as Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, send me away that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you that I may go for, you know, the service that I have given you. Jacob is in a very inferior position to Laban. He's married Laban's daughters. He has served Laban. He has served.
Basically, we find out this is about the end of the 14 years. He served seven years for Rachel and then he married Leah because Laban tricked him. So he served another seven years for Rachel. And so he's been there at least the 14 years. Uh, and he comes and says, let me go and let me take my wife and children with me, which in our culture, that, that would be a formality in their culture. It's not Laban had a lot of power and would have the potential ability to just say, no, you may leave, but the wife, your wives and children stay with me.
Um, and so he just says, let me go. 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 name your wages and I will give it. So Laban says, I've learned about divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Now divination is a practice that's been practiced since ancient times on up till now, which is used to try to find, uh, truth about reality by seeking, uh, to divine, to find a sign, to hear from spirits, to hear from gods what's going on. And so the way they would practice this, you could practice it with tea leaves, with sticks, with water, with dirt, uh, with the guts of animals.
Um, tarot cards is a form of this. It's, it's that. And so he says, I've learned by divination that it's your God. It's the Lord has blessed me because of you. Now, uh, there's three options in the Bible and just in the world when it comes to practicing things like divination, fortune telling, these kinds of occult pagan type practices. Option one is that it's just some people doing some stuff and it's just earthly, no spiritual aspects whatsoever.
Um, so if you went and saw a fortune teller, they're just, you know, doing the things fortune tellers to do where they'll, you know, like you go see a psychic and they stand up on stage and they say, I'm hearing a, I'm getting a letter. Um, a, no, it's B. Is it C? I'm seeing a color. It's purple or it's red. And someone says, I, I, oh, red.
And you go, oh yeah. And they just, they're kind of shotgunning and they're just good at this and they kind of work out something and there's no spiritual aspect going on. It's just kind of a trick. That's one option. The second option is that it's demonic, uh, that there's actual evil spirits at work there that, um, to God rules over the world. He created a spiritual beings.
The, the ones that worship him and stayed with him are angels. And they all point us to the Lord. They don't accept worship. They don't point away from him. There are places in the Bible where they'll show up. Somebody will try to worship them.
They'll be like, nope, stand up. We worship God together. You don't worship me. Then there are, uh, evil spirits that rebelled against God and they accept worship and they point to themselves or away from God. And so the second option is that it is demonic. It's evil.
Um, so that these evil spirits, these other gods pointed and said, yes, we are able by our godly powers to tell you that that God is doing really good things. That's what they said. Not we've blessed you, not anything else, just his God's blessed you. And we're able to tell the third option. And this happens very rarely in the Bible is that God just busts through a cult things to tell people what he wants to tell them, um, that he will interrupt people's plans and just kind of do what he wants. Um, this is forbidden later in the law.
This is not something they should practice. And it is a practice, uh, that Laban is practicing, not that Jacob is Deuteronomy 18, nine says this. When you come into the land that the Lord, your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. If you get a letter from Hogwarts, throw it away.
And because of these abominations, the Lord, your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord, your God for these nations, which you are about to dispossess. Listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord, your God has not allowed you to do this. The Lord, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him.
You shall listen. Ultimately that's fulfilled in Jesus, but that's also fulfilled in the prophetic offices that happened throughout the old Testament where someone spoke on behalf of God. And so we look to God's word and we look to Christ and we look to nowhere else. But that's what he says. So he's practicing divination and he says, they've told me that I'm blessed because of you.
And so he wants him to stay. That's what's going on in the story. So Jacob said to him, you yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have fared with me 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?
So Jacob has just served and he's made Laban rich. Jacob's doing well while he is in Laban's household. But if he were to leave, he has nothing. He just went and asked, can I keep my wife and my wives and children? But he has nothing to take with him.
He's not gained any wealth of his own. He's made Laban very rich. So he says, he says, I want to earn for my own household. So he said, what shall I give you? Laban says, okay, I'll give you something. I'll give you a portion.
I'll do something. And Jacob says, you shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats. And they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you.
Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs that is found with me shall be counted stolen. So here's Jacob's pitch. Here's his plan. He says a normal shepherd's wages, if they were going to get paid wages, would be about 20% of all the new goats and sheep born. They get about 20%. So every time there was 10 born, they'd get two.
He says, no, we're not going to do that. We're not going to do normal kind of shepherd wages. What we're going to do is we'll go. Let me go today and I will take all the spotted speckled out of the goats and all the black out of the sheep. And I'll just have regular goats and regular sheep because most goats are just a solid color and most sheep are white. Most goats are solid brown, solid black.
He says, so I'll just have a flock, solid white, solid brown. And then from then on, my wages will be everything that is born that is black among the sheep, spotted speckled, mottled among the goats. That's his pitch. Laban says, good. Let it be as you have said. The reason Laban says good, exclamation Mark, is that this was a great deal for Laban.
Why? Because 20% is way higher than what happens with the birds of black sheep and spotted speckled goats. That percentage of the population is very low. That's why you can refer to somebody as the black sheep of the family. It means that they stand out and they're the only one. But if you had a whole bunch of sheep, you'd have one black sheep that would stand out and there's not a lot of them.
If it was 50-50, that phrase wouldn't work. Tracking? Okay, so he makes a bad business deal. And if any of you have done sales, you know that if you get to the end and you make an offer or you offer a price and the person across from you says yes and goes to shake your hand, you feel bad inside. Because you immediately think, oh, I'm paying too much. Or, oh, I could have gotten more.
They would have said yes to it. The way they said yes, I could have gotten another $1,000 out of this person. Like you just feel that. Like when you go to offer on a car, if you're talking to a car salesman, you say, I'll give you 12. And they go, deal. You go, ah, 10.
I'll give you 10. I've got to go home. I'm sick. I can't do a deal with you today. But that's what he says.
Good deal. Let's go. That's what happens. And so he says, but that day, this is verse 35, Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons, in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock. Laban says, deal, but then he makes sure it's not a trick.
So Jacob said, let me go through and do this. And Laban says, deal. And then he goes through and does it. And he moves them all three days away. So he's thinking, Jacob's got something up his sleeve, so I'm going to make sure this doesn't work out for him.
I'm taking this deal, and I'm getting those far away from you. Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plain trees, and he peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks, and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks towards the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban.
He put his own droves apart, that's going to come back later, and did not put them with Laban's flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks and the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks. 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. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants, male servants, camels and donkeys. Okay.
So Jacob takes sticks and he makes them striped, speckled, mottled. And then he shows the sticks strategically to the animals while they breed. And boom, genetics. Science, you guys. This is Jacob's plan. Jacob did have something up his sleeve.
He had a way that he thought he could manipulate this. And it says it worked. And so if we just stopped here, you'd be like, this is super weird and I don't think the Bible knows things about science. It goes further and God's going to step in and say, no, no, no, no, no. I did this. And we're going to see that God blessed Jacob's hard work and his weird plan.
That's what happened. Jacob had a plan. He went for it. God blesses it. That's ultimately what I do want you to see, that God steps in in the middle of this story and Jacob works really, really hard. He's going to talk more about it later.
He works really hard. And God in the midst of that blesses it. He blesses his hard work and he multiplies it and he makes it work out in his favor. And so I want you to know that as you work in life, a lot of times we're waiting for God to bless us and we're wanting God to bless us. And we're like, I just wish God would work and he would do something. And I really wish I would just meet somebody.
And I really wish I could just get a job that would work well. And I wish I could get it. And sometimes you know what he does? He miraculously blesses your years of hard work. And it is miraculous. But it wasn't you sitting around doing nothing.
We've done this in our church. Matt and I have seen this early on where we had prayed and worked really hard. We came up with a sticks plan. We're going to do this. It's going to be amazing. And then it turns out that was stupid.
But God did some really good stuff. And we've seen that. And that's what he did here. That God works in the everyday. And so do you know that? Do you know that God works in the midst of everyday stuff?
That he's at work? That he sees you? And that he's blessing and working even when you can't tell what's going on? Chapter 31. Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken away, taken all that was our father's.
And from what was our father's, he has gained all his 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. Okay, so earlier, Jacob was making Laban rich. They work out this deal that is way in Laban's favor, and Jacob becomes rich. And he actually outgrows Laban.
So that Laban's sons and Laban are mad at Jacob. They're frustrated. It's not a good relationship anymore. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was. And he 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 stripes 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.
Okay, so we find out a little more in this story that Jacob's plan was working so much that Laban came and said, Okay, okay, we're changing this. This is, I don't know what's going on here. But I'll take the striped ones. You can have the spotted ones. And as soon as he would say that, all of them would start giving birth to spotted ones. And then he would change it again.
Did I say, I said it wrong. I meant, I meant, I'll get the spotted. You take the stripe and immediately we'd go back. And Jacob's saying that God has blessed me. And this is after Jacob's already seen a vision that he's about to tell him about a dream he had. Where he knows that it was God that was at work in this the whole time.
He says, thus, God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. In the breeding season of the flock, which runs from about August to April. And we don't know exactly when he had this dream. I lifted up my eyes, which seems like it would be the most recent one. And saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and modeled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob.
And I said, here I am. And he said, lift up your eyes and see all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and modeled. For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. And I am the God at 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.
Okay, remember earlier when I said that him splitting up the flocks would show up later? This is where it shows up. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on in this dream. Because he's like, I saw a dream. And it seems like it's special. It means something that all the goats that are breeding are spot, speckled, and modeled.
He's like, I saw them. And then he says, do you see them? And I was like, yeah, I see them. And then he was like, okay. And it took me a minute to figure out what was going on here. But here's the thing.
Jacob had Laban's flocks. All brown goats. All white sheep. Every time they had a spotted, speckled, modeled baby, he just took it away and put it in his flock. So that whenever these were breeding, it was only white sheep breeding with white sheep and brown goats breeding with brown goats.
And then God shows him in a vision and everything that's breeding is modeled, speckled, speckled, spotted. It's so hard to say those three in a row over and over again. And what God is saying is, I tweaked the genetics. I made all the males over here work as if they were over here. I made them all function as if they were. That's what he's saying.
He's showing him that I'm the one who's been at work here to make this happen. And that's why when he goes and tells them, he doesn't say, I came up with this great plan. He says, you saw what God did. God was the one who blessed me the whole time. God took control of it. God did it.
So after he sees this, he realizes that it was God that was blessing him. And maybe he did this whole thing, stepping out in faith, hoping that God would work. Maybe he just sees now that God did work. So he says, then God told him to leave. Go back. Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house?
Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us and he indeed devoured our money. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, do whatever God has said to you to do. Okay, the reason he brings him out and talks to him is that he's trying to find out, are y'all going to try to stay with your dad or are you going to go with me? Which head of household?
Which patriarch? Where are you headed? He's trying to find out. And they say, oh, we're going with you. Their answer is not, we love you. Their answer is, you own all the stuff.
He's like, okay. Fine. Saddle up. So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained and livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan Aram to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. Laban had gone to shear his sheep.
It's one of the busiest times for sheep herders. And Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob tricked Laban, the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. And he fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. Okay. Jacob flees Laban because he is afraid of him.
Jacob does not feel like he's in a position of power. He does not feel like he is able to just do what he wants. He gets his wives in secret and says, are y'all going to go if I go? And they say, yeah. And he says, all right, let's go. And he does it all as a trick when they're about three days away because he knows that Laban will not handle this well.
He's in more of a position of power than he was. Last time he went and asked for permission. This time he just says, we're leaving, we're taking our stuff. But he knows that Laban isn't to be dealt with. It wouldn't go well if he tried to do it straight up and he's trying to get away from him. This is an escape.
Also, let's pause for just a second. I want to point something out. But as we think through in our approach to God, are we viewing him correctly? Jacob leaves because God blesses him. And then God says, pick up your stuff and move. That's why he's leaving.
God says, time to go back. So the God of Jacob sits, rules and reigns over Jacob. That when he tells Jacob to act, when he tells Jacob to do something, Jacob has to do it. It says, Rachel went and stole her father's household gods. Now, these things could be as big as a person, if not bigger. We find out later they're pretty small.
She bags them up, throws them on her camel and hits the road. And here's what's very interesting. Jacob leaves because his God tells him to. Laban's gods leave because Rachel tells them to. Jacob goes where his God says. Laban's gods go wherever anybody that's around them says.
They have no power. They have no authority. So here's my question. As we relate to God, as you walk with the Lord, as you read the scriptures, does he tell you what to do or do you tell him what to do? Does he correct you or do you correct him? Does he set the pace in the course of life or do you set the pace in the course of how he'll interact in your life?
I want to be really clear with you and be as helpful as I possibly can. If you say that you worship Jesus, but you can tell him, stay put. Don't cross this line. You're welcome over here in this zone. This is none of your business. And he stays put.
That's not Jesus. If when you read the Bible, when you worship, if he fully, perfectly cosigns all of your political opinions. If when you're wanting to do something, Jesus just stands back there going, you got this girl. And he never corrects. And he never, he never leads you to repentance. If you have said, I've walked with Jesus, but you can't point and say, this is where he's changed me.
This is where he's grown me. This is where he wrestled my wallet out of my hand. This is where he wrestled this thing, this thing that I love away from me with weeping and gnashing of teeth for my own good. This is where he stepped in and told me this relationship wasn't okay. This is where he ruled and reigned over me sovereignly. If you don't have that, go ahead and carve you a little idol and stick it in your pocket.
You name it, whatever you want. Do you sit in authority over God? Or do you worship the God of Jacob that sits in authority over you? That's an important question to ask. Does he set the pace for your life? Does he tell you where to go?
Does he tell you what to do? When you hit passages in the Bible that you don't like, do you bend to be in line with what he says? Or do you try to bend the Bible to be in line with what you like? And let me tell you something. If you are going to be faithful in reading your Bible, you're going to hit passages you don't like. If I was talking to somebody who was unmarried, if you were talking to somebody who was unmarried, and they were telling you, this is what I want in a wife.
This is what I want in a husband. They were just saying stuff. I worked with a lady at Sears. She had a list of 50 things she wanted in a husband. And it was, I mean, it was extensive, 50 things. And they were minute things.
Like, I think Harry Chess was on there. Like, she had some things. She really, she was looking for this. But if you were sitting there trying, if they were talking to you about what they wanted, and they said, well, I want a wife like this. And I want her to want to watch scary movies with me. And I want her to, you just kind of, you go along with that.
Yeah, dream big, bro. Go for it. Yeah, they love sports. I'm sure they do. Yeah, they play paintball with you. Yeah, you want that.
Now, if I said that, you know what I want in a wife? You know my dream wife? And I started talking to you. It'd be about 30 seconds in. You'd be like, bro, aren't you married? What is your real wife like?
Is she like that? No, she's not like that at all. This is unhealthy, what you're doing. Like, we would step right in. And so there are some people who go, well, my God. And it's like, oh, okay.
My God would never. What says he does here? Which one are you worshiping? If it's not this one, we can close it. We can quit talking. Like, God can do whatever you want it to.
Carve it up. Give it a funny hat. It'll be cute. If you are worshiping a real God, he will not come in and cosign all of American culture. And he will not come in and join your political party. And if you are worshiping a God that never upsets you, frustrates you, wrestles something out of your hand or changes your opinion, you are not worshiping the God of Jacob revealed to us in Christ.
But I wish you would. Because all that stuff you love that he'll wrestle away from you is detrimental to your soul. And he's really, really good. Let's keep going. So this is going to get more humorous and scary.
So it should be good. So they head out. Verse 22. When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. It is fair to assume they are armed. This is a doesn't know what's going on.
Grabs all the men in this camp and heads out. Specifically his kinsmen. The reason that matters is there are times when you would take all the males when you were going to do something that you thought you would need all the males for. And there are other times when you would take just your kinsmen because you were going to do stuff that required more loyalty. He takes just his kinsmen. We don't know his plans, but they're not probably not great.
But God came to Laban, the Aramean, in a dream by night and said to him, be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad. So God cuts him off and he says, you can go catch up with him. Do not harm him. Do not try to sway him from what he is doing. You be very careful. So this does mean that his intentions weren't all good.
God actually has to come to him and say, you better slow your roll. And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, what have you done that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and trick me and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs with tambourine and lyre? Maybe he was going to do that.
That'd be nice. The text doesn't read like that's necessarily what he was going to do. It's just he says it. If you'd have told me, we'd have had a party. Okay, well, I didn't think that's how you acted over the past 20 years. I've known you, but all right.
And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. It is in my power to do you harm. There we go. That sounds more like it. But the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.
He clarifies it's your God, not mine. But he told me not to harm you. Jacob answered and said to Laban, because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. So he's in front of everybody, the kinsmen are there, and he just says, I think I thought you wouldn't let me go. That you wouldn't send me off by myself. And then he says this.
Oh, he says, sorry, I skipped something. And verse 30, and it matters to the story that we don't skip this. And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house. But why did you steal my God? So he says, you're going back to your God, to your father's house.
Why did you steal my God? Jacob answered and said to Laban, because I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. Anyone with whom you find your God shall not live in the presence of our kinsmen. Point out what I have taken that is yours and take it. Now, Jacob did not know Rachel had stolen them. Rachel is Jacob's favorite wife.
You're not supposed to have more than one wife. If you do have more than one wife, you're not supposed to have a favorite. That's how the Old Testament treats that. But Rachel was his favorite. Jacob probably would not have said that. The text includes that because Jacob probably would not have said that if he had known she said them.
But he says, we find it, we'll kill that person. Now, you know Rachel at this point, her heart's about to beat out of her chest. I didn't think they were going to get caught. I didn't think that was going to happen. So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants.
Those are the other wives of Jacob. But he did not find them. So he goes to only those in the head of the household looking for who has stolen these that they might be punished. And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. Now, Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but he did not find them.
He's digging through everything. This was not just like peeping around. He's pulling out bags. He's digging. He thinks they're hidden somewhere. He digs through all of these tents while they all just stand around.
This is taking quite a while. Felt all about the tent, but did not find them. And she said to her father, let not my Lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me. So he searched, but did not find the household gods. In this culture, you would be unclean. You would be removed kind of from society and doing some different things during menstruation.
And that's what she says. She says, I'm sorry. Don't be mad at me. I would get up. But the way of women is upon me.
Now, from what I understand, I've never menstruated. What I understand is that it's not the most pleasant thing ever. But one perk here. He doesn't kill her. So there's one little bonus there.
She, we don't know if she's lying or not. But this is told in such a way, the way the story unfolds is it's meant to build tension. And then at this last moment, we're to see how inept Laban's gods are. That they had to be protected by her lying about menstruating. That she's sitting on top of them and hiding them from Laban to protect herself. And so that's what happens.
That's the way it's told. To highlight their weakness and inability. And then it says this. So he searched but did not find the household gods. Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban.
Jacob said to Laban, what is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? For you have felt through all my goods. What have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between us two. These 20 years I've been with you.
Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried. And I have not eaten the rams of your flock. What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it. Whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
There I was. By day the heat consumed me. And the cold by night my sleep fled from my eyes. These 20 years I've been in your house. I've served you 14 years for your two daughters. And six years for your flock.
And you have changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side. Surely now you would have sent me away empty handed. God saw my affliction in the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night. All right.
The second thing I want us to consider as we think about the viewing God rightly. One of the primary reasons that it matters. That you understand how big and cosmic and glorious and powerful God is. Is that if you walk around with a tame. You worship an easy going tame God. That's nice.
Until you realize how vulnerable you are. But that's fine as long as everything is working well in life. But the truth is we are vulnerable. We do things to try to protect this. We wear seat belts and helmets. We lock our doors.
We have people monitor our credit cards. We try to defend and protect ourselves as much as we possibly can. But within a moment. Somebody not paying attention while they ride down the road. Getting a diagnosis. In a moment from a phone call.
Our weakness and our out of control. Our inability to control our world. Is so present. And in our faces. And the truth is in that moment. When you're standing.
Facing death. Facing destruction. Facing pain. If God. The God of Jacob. Revealed to us in Christ.
Rules and reigns over you. Then you are in his sovereign hands. And you can stand behind him. But if you have a small. Weak. Frail God.
You have to be the one on the hook. You have to be strong. You have to be smart. You have to defend them. So we see in the story.
That Rachel has to be clever. That Rachel has to come up with a good idea. She has to hide him in the right spot. And so what happens is. You'll be walking through life. And all of a sudden.
The bottom will fall out. The wheels will fall off. And we will be standing there. And the question is. Is your God big enough to handle it? Is he capable of you resting in him?
Can you hide under the shelter of his wings? Can you stand in his shadow? Can you know that in the midst of chaos. And pain. That he is not out of control. That he has not.
His hand has not left the steering wheel. Or. Is that the moment. That you have to be big enough. Strong enough. Powerful enough.
To withstand it. Smart enough. Some of us are wracked with anxiety. And fear. Because we are doing everything we possibly can. To rule.
And to reign. In a seat that is too big for us. It's like when my son puts my boots on. And tries to run. He can't. He looks cute for a second.
We wouldn't let him leave the house like that. And so many of us are trying to sit in God's chair. And be bigger. And stronger. And smarter. And tell him where to go.
And what he is allowed to mess with. Because we don't want to give up control. And that's fine. Until it's very very obvious. That you are out of control. And then it would be really nice.
That you had a God way bigger than you. 42. 43. 43. Then Laban answered and said to Jacob.
The daughters are my daughters. The children are my children. The flocks are my flocks. And all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these daughters.
Or for their children whom they have born. Come now. Let us make a covenant. You and I. And let it be a witness between you and me. So Jacob took a stone.
And set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen. Gather stones. And they took stones. And made a heap. And they ate there by the heap.
And they ate there by the heap. Laban called it. Jigar Sahadutha. But Jacob called it Galid. Jacob said. This heap is a witness.
Between you and me. Therefore he named it Galid. Which means heap. And Mizpah. Which means witness. For he said.
The Lord watch between you and me. When we are out of one another's sights. If you oppress my daughters. Or if you take wives besides my daughters. Although no one is there. No with us.
See. God is a witness between you and me. Then Laban said to Jacob. See this heap and pillar. Which I have set up between you and me. This heap is a witness.
And the pillar is a witness. That I will not pass over this heap to you. And you will not pass over this heap. This heap and this pillar to me. To do harm. The God of Abraham.
And the God of Nahor. The God of their father. Judge between us. So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country. And called his kinsmen to eat bread.
They ate bread. And spent the night in the hill country. Early in the morning Laban arose. And kissed his grandchildren. And his daughters. And blessed them.
Then Laban departed and returned home. So they make this covenant. That he makes a covenant with Laban. That Laban would not have otherwise been willing to make. Except for the fact that God had broken through boundaries. And told him what to do.
So they make this covenant. And then they say that God will stand between us. And the truth for us. Is that in Christ. That is our reality. That if you have placed your faith in Jesus.
That he stands between us. And the world. That he stands between us. And everything that would cause us harm. And Matthew 16. He says this.
We have it on the screen. He says. I have said these things to you. That in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation. But take heart.
I have overcome the world. So. He. He's looking at his disciples. Prior to going to the cross. And he is saying.
You're going to have trouble. You're going to have pain. You're going to have tribulation. But I have overcome the world. That I rule and reign over it. That I have conquered.
That I will conquer death. That I will conquer sin. That I will conquer hell. And that everything that could chase us down. That could catch us. That could do us harm.
He stands in between us. And it. Are you vulnerable? Yes. Can your legs get. Swept out from under you in an instant?
Yes. But our God is big enough. That in that moment. You don't have to be powerful. You don't have to be strong. You don't have to be the smartest.
The most capable. That you get to rest. Knowing that he rules. And reigns. Over it. You get to swell your eyes shut.
With weeping. Knowing that there's a God. Who has not lost control. And who has a deep and abiding love. For you in Christ. And if you are not a Christian.
If you have not placed your faith in Jesus. The real Jesus. That rules and reigns. That sets the pace. That dictates. What's real and good.
You will have to surrender. You will have to get out of the chair. That is too big for you. You will have to submit. To his leadership. His direction.
But it's so freeing. And so good. To have a God. Who stands between us. And our sin. Stands between us.
And the rest of the world. As it would seek to destroy us. That we have hope. Not that everything will. Ultimately work out well here. But that it will never be lost.
From his control. And that we can trust him fully. With all of it. They're going to. Play this next song. And during it.
We're going to take communion. And I would encourage you. To take a moment. If it's been a while. Since the God. Of Jacob.
Has led you to repentance. If it's been a while. Since he's pointed out. Where you need to grow. And change. If it's been a while.
Since you've sat with him. And you've. You've been broken. Over your own sin. I would encourage you. To ask him.
Where have I stopped. Listening to you. Where have I actively. Tried to draw a line. And say you can't cross this. What are the places.
In my heart. That I'm trying to keep from you. And I would. I would encourage you. To take a moment. And just ask him.
Where do I need to repent? Who is it. That I need to reconcile with. That I need to go talk to. Right now. That I've just been.
Holding bitterness against. Because I'm unwilling. To let you mess. With that part of my life. What is it. You've been telling me.
I'm supposed to do. But I've been holding. So tightly to something else. That I won't give it up. And I would invite you. To surrender.
To a real God. Who watches you. Who knows you. And who leads us. Into grace. And repentance.
And life. Through his sovereign will. After you've done that. If you've spent some time. Praying through that. I would encourage you.
If you are a believer. That you would take communion. Where we remember. That it is not in our power. And not in our might. That we are saved.
But it's through Jesus' body. That was broken. And his blood. That was shed. You might take communion. Reminding yourself.
Of the goodness of the gospel. And the fact that you hide. In his shadow. Let's pray. God we pray. That your spirit would move.
And that you would lead us. To repentance. And that anywhere. That we have fought against you. And anywhere. That we are defending.
Our own sovereignty. That we might repent. That we might worship you fully. And truly. Resting in you. And trusting in you.
To stand between us. And all that would do us harm. In Jesus name. Amen.