Grace Intervenes

Take your Bibles this morning and let's turn to Genesis chapter 30. Genesis chapter 30. we'll pick up where we left off in the story of Jacob in chapter 30 verse 25 and we'll read to the end of the chapter Genesis 30 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.

But Laban said to him, If I've found favor in your sight, I've learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your wages and I will give it. Jacob said to him, You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock has 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? He said, What shall I give you? Jacob said, 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, if found with me, shall be counted stolen. Laban said, Good. Let it be as you have said. But that day 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.

And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock. Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plain trees and 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 they bred when they came to drink, and the flocks bred in front of the sticks, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped, and all the black in the flock of Laban. put his own droves apart 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 and male servants and camels and donkeys let's pray once more Father we come to you confessing our dependence on you to understand the scriptures and to understand the way in which you intend them to be understood for us today and so I pray that your spirit would move among us and in us that we would learn from this that we would walk from here today with greater faith in you, greater understanding of your grace. Help us to do that, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, this Tuesday is the presidential primary. Of course, it does not matter who's running or which party it is. they all make the same essential promises. Each candidate says that he or she can provide the paradise that we so desperately want. The worker's paradise, if you will, that we all desire. Bernie and Hillary says it comes to us if we take money from the rich and give it to the poor.

John, Ted, and Mario say that it comes from the exercise of liberty. The less government, the more prosperity. The Donald says, just do what I did. these knuckleheads don't know anything. Yep. I hope that all of you here, regardless of your political preferences, know that in a fallen and cursed, broken world, we're never going to have a worker's paradise.

And that's pretty evident as we look at the working relationship between Jacob and Laban. And in fact, in this text, you find greedy, underhanded, exploitive policies run amok. How in the world do you handle such unfair treatment? Well, many people take refuge in the political process thinking we can handle unfair treatment if only we elect the right people or have the right union or if we show them what we ought to get and what we ought not to get. but I would suggest that you handle it by believing that God's at work in all of it.

That God has a greater purpose than just our comfort. He's up to bigger things than just an easy life for us. Now I say that because as I read this manual on animal husbandry I asking myself why is this here Why is this here It more than to tell us about how Jacob got greater flocks And I think we have to remember and see this in view, and the stories of Jacob must be kept connected to Genesis chapter 28, Jacob's meeting with God at Bethel.

You remember that as he started his pilgrimage, God revealed his gracious purpose for Jacob in that dream that was given him in Bethel. And you remember the promises. First, he would pursue the purpose of grace through Abraham's descendants, which includes Jacob and his family. That is, God had promised to stay true to the promises He made to Abraham through Jacob and his family.

You remember, chapter 28, verses 13 and 14. And behold, the Lord stood above the ladder and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.

And in you and your offspring shall all of the families of the earth be blessed. Now there God repeats the covenant promises He had made with Abraham, the covenant that He was going to keep with Abraham's family. Those very same promises. But then, second, he made particular promises of grace to Jacob. Particular promises of grace just for Jacob. Verse 15 of chapter 28.

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Those were the particular promises made to Jacob. Now the question is, would Jacob live in light of that grace? Would he live with belief, with faith, in the promises that God had made? And what we see over the whole story of Jacob is that God will not let him go until he arrives at a place of full faith, just like he did with Abraham.

And this story is part of that. Part of that journey. What do we find here? Well, here's the first thing I think we see in this narrative. Grace strengthens you when you believe. Grace strengthens you when you believe. verses 25 through 36, the first part of the chapter.

Now the scene opens up with Jacob now wanting to go home. He's worked for Laban for 14 years now. And his wife, the one that he particularly loved, has given him a son whose name is Joseph. He feels free now to leave since Rachel is bound to him by a child. Laban could no longer use her as an excuse, if he wanted to, to keep her there as the barren, disgraced daughter.

Now she's really bound to Jacob because she bore him a son. Yet Jacob knows, and you say, why does he ask if he can leave? Don't they belong to him? Yeah, his wives and his children belong to him, but in one sense, they belong to Laban. They belong to Laban because he knows, Jacob knows that he cannot leave without Laban's consent or Laban will pursue him with retaliation, which is exactly what happens in the next chapter.

He comes after him. Or, number two, he'll have the reputation of a runaway thief. Now Jacob is empty-handed. You see that here in this text. Jacob's empty-handed. He's enriched Laban without receiving anything in return.

He's nothing more than an indentured servant. Rather than being a relative that Laban should have helped establish his household, instead Laban has exploited him and his own daughters in order to get rich himself without anything going to Jacob, which was unusual. all. And besides that, it's prudent to build your property before you get married. I know when we got married, I had a terrific library.

That was about it. But, and my wife did not think we were very prudent in those days. And it is prudent to build your property before you get married. But Laban has prevented that from ever happening, exploiting Jacob and his daughters for the last 14 years. He's gotten it all. Jacob's got nothing.

Now, notice, Laban does not want this lucrative relationship to end. He does not want it to end. He essentially says, oh Jacob, I found out by consulting a medium that the Lord, this God whom you worship, this God whom you represent that God he blessed me because of you So name the wages you will that will keep you here Isn that interesting Everything is economic for this guy Everything is about money for this guy He's trying to purchase the guarantee of his prosperity.

Oh look, I see that I'm blessed because the Lord has blessed you, therefore I'm blessed. How much is it going to take to keep you with me? Right? He's trying to purchase this guarantee. Listen, even cheats can talk about God as long as it serves their purposes. Right?

I'll talk about God as long as He helps me. Yeah, I've got a lot to say about God. And that's exactly what's going on here. He's thinking, if I keep Jacob around, then this Lord, this Yahuwah, will continue to bless me because He's here. Well, Jacob replies to that. First of all, he says, you yourself should have figured out this without any kind of divination.

You didn't need to go to anybody. It's obvious that you've been blessed because of my relationship with this God. That's obvious. It's time, by the way, I started providing for my family, not just enriching you. It's about time that I started building my own household instead of just giving you, letting you get enriched off of my work. Name your wages?

Are you kidding me? You've said that to me before. And by the way, if you look at chapter 29, verse 15, he says essentially the same thing. He says, Jacob, name your wages. And Jacob's going, name your wages? I've heard that before.

And you pulled the wife swap on me, and I'm not going to let that happen again. Name my wages? I'll tell you what it's going to be. Forget the wages. Here's what it's going to be. I'm not going to fall into that trap again.

Instead, you give me all the speckled spotted goats and sheep and the black ones for my wages. Whatever I produce from them are mine and any others are yours. You see, Jacob figures that this plan will keep Laban from pulling the wool over his own eyes. No pun intended. Alright, he's figuring I've got him with this one. But you know what?

He's still no match for this scheming, cheating, manipulative, exploiting, greedy Laban. He's still not a match for him. So before Jacob can get to the flock to pull out all the spotted, speckled, and black, what does he do? He sends them three days away with his sons. So Jacob has no livestock to work with at this point. Now look, I think as we look at this first part, in relationship to what's happened in the past, I think you see Jacob, at least to this point, living by faith.

Now, it's a faulty faith. I mean, yeah. He's living by faith in God's promises and it's not the strongest faith, but it's faith nonetheless. And by the way, is your faith that strong? Huh? So, you know, again, we always look down our noses at these people and it's like, are you much different?

Am I much different than this guy? No, hardly. What do I mean when I say he's lived by faith in the promises of God, in the grace of God up to this point? Well, in light of God's promise to be with him and to keep him, he's been righteous with regard to his marriage agreements. He could have divorced Leah, but he didn't. He's remained true to his marriage covenants.

He has not divorced either of his wives. I know that sounds terrible to you. Well, he should only have one wife to begin with. I understand all that. But in that culture, in that day, with God not landing on their heads on that issue, at least he has said, God's going to keep me. I'm not going to divorce any of my wives.

He kept the deal to work another seven years. He could have cut and run. He could have done that. Remember, he got Rachel, and then he was to work the seven years. he could have packed up and gone after he got Rachel but he did not I think that's significant he believed the promises of God he believes that God will bring him home and now he wants to act on that promise what does he say in verse 25 he says I want to go home why would he want to go back there why would he want to go back there I mean he's he could make his money he could make his fortune here.

I mean, he's done very well for Laban's sake. Laban, I mean, he knows what he's doing. If he's left alone, he'll make a lot of money. But he knows he needs to go home because that's where the promise of God is. I've promised you this land, God said, to you and to your offspring. And notice in verse 30.

No, don't forget this. For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turn. He gives all the credit to God. He gives all the credit, not to the fact that He's good at what He does. And He is. But He gives the credit to God alone.

Why? Because He believes, as God has told Him, He would never leave Him and that He would take care of Him. And that's exactly what's happened. and so he attributes that to God. And notice verse 33. So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you. He believes God's promises because he said that he can gain his wages honestly without any tricks and without manipulation.

He's going to do this honestly. And by the way, the fact is, he says to Laban, let me go now. He's empty handed. But let me go. Why How could he say that Because he believes what God told him God will take care of me Now the question comes to my mind how do you face the exploiting, greedy, cheating world in which you live? Do you face it with faith?

Do you face it with faith? does it seem to you that your employer is demanding more and giving you less statistics would tell us that's what's happening i don't have to look at statistics i just have to talk to you folks i've heard it they want more from us and they're not giving us pay yeah i got a promotion kind of they gave me a new title but they didn't give me any more money for it They've given me more responsibility, but they haven't jacked up my wages at all because of that responsibility. I understand that. I understand all that.

But do you live by faith? Do you believe the promise that Jesus made that if you seek His kingdom and His righteousness, you'll have all that you need? Do you really believe that? But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. What were all these things will be added to you? All the necessities of life.

Your clothes, your food, all the things that you need. God says, I'll take care of that. It's a given if you seek my kingdom and my righteousness. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that? Do you remember that God watches you work for your unfair bosses and He makes promises? in Colossians chapter 3.

You know what he says? I love this. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You know what that verse says right there? It says that God watches you work. And He is keeping track.

And there's going to be a retirement plan in glory waiting for you. Do you see that? You're going to get an inheritance that goes to the blue-collar, hard-working guy who works for the Lord and not for men. He goes on. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done.

And there is no partiality. If your boss is ripping you off, do you think God cares? Yes, He does. And your boss will have to answer for it someday. Alright? Do you believe the horrible promises of God?

You know what the horrible promises of God are? Where God promises to take vengeance? Okay? Do you believe those promises too? You know, God makes what I call horrible promises. It's like, I hope he doesn't keep that promise with me.

Right? Because it's going to be bad. And one of them is found in James chapter 5. We read it this morning, actually, in our Sunday school class. James chapter 5. Listen to what God says.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You know what he says there? You've accumulated all... I want you to think about it this way.

This is what God says to employers that do not treat us well. He says, look, you've got this whole pile of gold, so much so that it's starting to corrode. That corrosion is going to be a witness against you on the day of judgment. Now he goes on to speak here. you have laid up treasure in the last days whoa that's kind of treasure i don't want behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud are crying out against you and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the lord of hosts you have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

You have condemned and murdered the righteous person and he does not resist you. Next verse. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the next election. No, until the coming of the Lord. You see? God doesn't deny that you're getting the raw deal.

And He says, those who are ripping you off, the labans of this world, I will answer for that someday. God has a heart for the laborers who are being exploited. He's made these promises. Do you live by faith? Or do you grumble and complain? You need to live by faith in the promises of God.

By the way, do you ever think about this? Has the idea ever crossed your mind? And I know how it works. I worked on the floor too. I remember, what's wrong with those engineers? Why don't they come and spend a week with us here and they finally figure something out?

What is wrong with our bosses? Right? I know how that is. Why does this company even exist? They are so bad in their policies. I can't believe they're still in business.

Did the thought ever cross your mind that it's because of you that they're still in business? Did you ever think about that? Yeah, if you weren't there, maybe they would shut down. But God made a promise to you to meet your needs, so He's keeping that company alive just for you. That's what He did with Laban. Laban's doing well.

Why? Because Jacob is there. Maybe your company is still in existence because you're there. You ever think about that? God says, I'm going to meet your needs. Yeah, boy, if I was a consumer, I wouldn't go to your company either.

But, you're there. I promise to meet your needs. I'll keep it alive. That's what happens here. Do you live by faith? So it is that because of God's gracious purposes, you can live by faith.

You can live by faith. Now, having said that, God rescues you when your faith falters. Because at this point now, Jacob's faith falters. How so? Well, he's in a tough situation. It looks to him like Laban has effectively foiled the means of his liberty.

He's taken the livestock away that he could use. And so, like his grandpa Abraham, Jacob's faith falters and he turns to means other than those provided by God. Now some might think that the Bible is inaccurate at this point because it talks about the fact that Jacob peeled some branches to make stripes in the branches so that when he put them in front of the sheep and the goats they would produce striped offspring.

Now all of us know that striped branches cannot produce striped and speckled offspring. We all know that. We've all been educated in genetics. Is the Bible inaccurate here? Well, let me suggest something to you. Number one, I want you to notice verse 38 and 39.

Last part of verse 38. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks, and so the flocks brought forth stripes, speckled and spotted. Now, in the Hebrew text, since and so are not there. They're not there. The translators put them there, so it could read this way. And they bred when they came to drink.

The flocks bred in front of the sticks, and the flocks brought forth stripes, speckled, and spotted. It's not talking about consequence. It's talking about sequence. It's not saying that because they bred in front of those particular sticks that that's what happened. And do you think that the herdsmen of that day did not know something about genetics? I mean, seriously.

Look at verse 40. and Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He knows something about that. In fact, he said, let's make a deal. I will take the striped and the spotted and the black ones, and I will produce what? Right? They know about, they at least have some familiarity with genetics.

These are herdsmen who have been doing this for centuries. They know what's going on. I like the suggestion that an Old Testament scholar made, and I think it makes the most sense. This is an instance of superstition. This is an instance of using what some have called white magic. You say, oh, come on.

No. How many of you played on a basketball team, right, that you started your winning streak, and you said, we're not going to wash our jerseys anymore? We're not going to wash our jerseys. Our first game was one in these jerseys. We're going to wear these. We're not going to wash them until we lose.

Or you know you have the same sneakers on in the games You not going to change those It the exact same things You know rally cap I mean guys people do this all the time How many people in this world say, oh, no, no, no, don't break that mirror. Ooh, boy, you broke a mirror. They throw salt over their shoulder, whatever. Maybe even some of you are guilty of some of these things.

I don't know. if you are I want to talk to you but nevertheless it's an attempt to control reality through some kind of paranormal means and that is probably what Jacob is up to it's just plain old superstition now Laban assigned the part of the flock that was not colored and Jacob then took care of the remainder of Laban's flock. Because it sounds kind of confusing. It says he sent his flocks away, three days journey away, and then here's Jacob with the flock.

Well, if you look at 35 and 36, it's talking about the remainder of the flock without the spotted and striped goats and so forth. So he's left with the poor livestock. Of course, without trying to get into a scientific discussion here, and I hope I'm right. If I'm not, I'm sure I'm going to hear about it later. But they're probably recessive genes. He will eventually end up with striped and spotted and black sheep, even with these that aren't that way.

Recessive genes and all that sort of thing. but by the way it's going to take him six years to do it because in the next chapter we find that this enterprise took him six years to get what he wanted what's the issue here his faith falters yet God graciously gives Jacob this livestock God will not be frustrated by the cheating, greedy, manipulative Laban. He's promised Jacob a land, protection, and the blessing of the seed for all the nations. He's promised him that.

Jacob does have to go home in order to fulfill those promises. And despite the opposition of Laban and the faltering faith of Jacob, God will accomplish what he has promised. Once more, we see that God is faithful to his promises. He's not going to let his redemptive purposes fall to the ground. And by the way, God's redemptive purposes are tied up here with whether or not someone gets spotted goats.

It's one step in the whole process of redemption. And God will not allow his redemptive purposes to fail. Even though the faltering faith of Jacob may seem like it's going to bring an end to it all. God is going to remain faithful to His promises. By the way, do you ever give up? Do you ever say, my faith isn't very strong.

My faith isn't very strong. It's not strong enough for God to use me. Have you ever thought that? I don't have very strong faith. Remember, it's not the strength of your faith that accomplishes great things for God. It the strength of God who uses faltering faith I think we need to understand that It is God sovereign grace using weak instruments to accomplish His incredibly powerful purposes Yeah, Jacob's faith falters.

But God still uses that weak instrument. I like what Paul Tripp wrote in one of his books. I'm trying to remember which one it is. But this is the quote. Remember that it is not your weakness that gets in the way of God working through you, but your delusions of strength. God always uses weak people.

God always uses kind of twisted instruments. He never uses the straight sticks, because there aren't any. He uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines. Alright? And so Jacob here, faltering as he is, is still going to be used by God. God will bless the nations, even the instrument of that blessing, when He seems to be the victim of deceit and manipulation and a weak faith.

God is still going to use it. I am reminded that this same God accomplished His greatest work by means of a man who was the victim of deceit and manipulation. Jesus Himself. Is that not true? Jesus was a victim of deceit and manipulation and greed. And God used Him to accomplish His greatest work of redemption.

Now does this mean that it does not matter how you respond? Faith or not, God's going to do what He wants. Right? No. I think we have to get one last point in here, that grace intervenes to accomplish God's purposes. Grace intervenes to accomplish God's purpose for you.

It fascinates me to see how God works in this situation. God knew that Jacob needed help, not judgment. Now, if you were standing there, what would you do with Jacob? Right? You'd probably say, I'm so tired of you failing me. You're fired.

I'm going to get someone else to accomplish my redemptive purposes. All right? But God knows, knew that Jacob needed help, not judgment. Could he have judged Jacob for his failure of faith? Could he have? Yes, sure he could have.

Jacob failed. But God determined that Jacob needed help, not judgment, in this point of his journey. Now, don't lose this. God knew that Jacob needed help, not judgment. On the other hand, Laban needed judgment and not help. By graciously dealing with Jacob, by graciously dealing with Jacob at the point of his failure, what's Jacob going to learn?

Jacob is eventually going to learn he can trust God. Why? Because God helped him instead of judging him at this point. Now that doesn't mean that God all the time is going to skip the discipline part and do this. It doesn't mean that. But it does mean this.

Sometimes God says, hey, he needs grace right now. He doesn't need my discipline. This is most effective for him. Not this right now And so grace intervenes in Jacob life Because that what he needed right then Now you and I may think are you kidding He needs to be slapped around a little bit But God determined something else. He needed grace. Laban, on the other hand, needed judgment and not help.

And thus he prepares the way for Jacob's exit. The exit that would be one more step in the process of God getting him to the land where he was going to be that was promised to him so he could bring about the promised blessing to all the families in the nations. Grace to Jacob brings judgment to Laban so that God would remain true to his promises to Abraham and to Jacob. are you sure that God has a gracious purpose for you and that he'll unfailingly fulfill it do you believe that God will unfailingly fulfill his grace his gracious purpose for you in your life yeah all those who've embraced Jesus as Savior who've put all their hope in him have found favor with God and they now have a Father who works everything for your good.

Now look, you're here today and your faith may be faltering. Or you said, I've had a whole season of weak faith. Is God accomplishing His purpose because of the quality of your faith? Or because of Jesus? you see, God's going to fulfill His gracious purposes in your life. So much so that the Bible says, so we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

What can man do to me? And you can count on it. You can count on it. Because wicked men exploited, manipulated, and treated God's son unfairly. And then, unlike Jacob, God abandoned him so that he would never abandon you. And you can be sure then that God's going to accomplish his purposes of grace in your life.

Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for the story of this man who is like us. Believing you at one point, faltering at another. And yet, Father, you have remained faithful to your promises. Father, in Jesus, all your promises are yes. And we thank you for that.

By your grace, help us to learn to trust you more. by your grace help us to grow in our faith Lord we are thankful that you are faithful to your promises because of our Savior help us to live in this greedy exploiting world with faith granted we pray in Jesus name Amen Thank you.