SIN AND GRACE: A ONE-SIDED CONTEST
GRACE PURIFIES OUR HEARTS
Genesis 29: 1-30
INTRODUCTION
How do you think about salvation? Do you think about it like you would
think about airplane tickets? Imagine you’re going to take a trip to Disney
World in Florida. A couple of months before you go on your trip you purchase
plane tickets. They are sent to you and you put them in a safe place.
When someone says to you, "I heard you were taking the family to
Disney World. Are you?"—You say, without hesitation, you are all
set to go on such and such a date. You might even get out the tickets
to show them that you have reservations on the plane to take you to Orlando,
FL. When you have a hard day you might think about getting on that plane
and get an emotional lift from the thought of leaving, but by and large,
the fact that you have plane reservations to Florida doesn’t have much
impact on your day-to-day life. Unfortunately, most people think about
God’s salvation in Christ in these terms. They know that Jesus died on
the cross for their sins and they believe in him and so if you were to
ask them if they were going to heaven they would respond with a confident
yes. When they are having a particularly hard day the thought of going
to heaven may give them an emotional lift but by and large what Christ
has done has little effect upon their day to day life.
Or do you think about salvation as if you have been invited to accompany
the most gifted mountain climber in the world to climb Mt. Everest? He
tells you it will be a dangerous journey but he has promised that he will
get you to the top, no matter what. However, you are not going to get
to the top without doing everything he tells you to do. You will not get
to the top except for the fact that you are lashed to him with the strongest
of all ropes and he continually is pulling you up the mountain after him.
Making it to the top depends upon his work and upon your trusting him
for everything. Your whole life is taken up in the work of the expert
mountain climber. You are completely fixed upon him and upon obeying him
at every point of every day.
There are dozens of metaphors in the Scriptures that show that the salvation
of Christ is more like climbing the mountain than it is like purchasing
a plane ticket. We are in a war, in a race, in a relationship, in a new
life, to name a few. Salvation is entirely a work of God through the death
and resurrection of Christ. His salvation is not merely a promise for
heaven at the end of a life lived as we please on earth. His saving work
in Christ changes everything. We are called into a life of becoming like
Jesus through the work of God. As we are examining the life of Jacob in
Genesis, we are watching how God works out his saving purposes in the
life of an individual who, as we have seen, is just like us. He is a man
who loves the world and trusts himself. But God has chosen him and in
chapter 28 we saw that God made promises to him. He promised to give him
and his descendants the land of Canaan, to give him as many descendants
as the dust of the earth and to bless all the nations of the earth through
him. He promised that he would watch over him and bring him back to his
home in Canaan. While Jacob is now aware of God’s presence and help, he
has not yet joined in the journey. His heart still loves the things of
this earth and not God and his ways. But God is after him and today we
will see…
MAIN POINT
God graciously pursues his people in order to purify their hearts.
I. He pursues them with kindness (vv. 1-14a)
Jacob sets out from Bethel with his donkey in tow and begins the 500-mile
journey to Haran and the home of his mother’s brother, Laban. He begins
the month long journey with the promises of God ringing in his ears and
hopeful about his future. He travels a rugged and dangerous route until
he comes to the land of the eastern peoples. As he comes over the top
of a hill he sees a strange scene. At the foot of the hill, in a shallow
valley, three separate flocks of sheep are lying down around a well with
a very large stone over the top of the well. A few shepherds sit around
the well in the sweltering heat while a few wander around the sheep, keeping
the flocks settled and separate from one another.
As we read this story we should immediately think back to another encounter
at a well in this same land. Abraham’s servant came along this same route
to this same area to find a wife for Isaac. He came to a well and there
found Jacob’s mother, Rebekah. We are to keep in mind that story as we
read what happens to Jacob. Jacob approaches the shepherds and inquires
as to where they are from. The shepherds give a short, curt reply informing
Jacob they are from Haran. Jacob, trying to hide his rising excitement,
asks if they know Laban, the son of Nahor. They say, "Yah, we know
him." These shepherds are not giving him any encouragement at all.
We can presume they are somewhat suspicious of this foreigner asking questions
about one of the wealthy chieftains from their region. Jacob waits for
more information and when none is forthcoming he asks, "Well, is
he OK?" They reply, "Yep, he’s doing fine. In fact, here comes
his daughter Rachel with his sheep. Why don’t you go talk with her if
you want more information." Jacob looks to where the shepherds are
pointing and coming down the slope of the hill on the eastern side of
the valley is another flock of sheep being led by a teenage girl.
Jacob does something now that is quite audacious. He tells the shepherds
that there is still plenty of daylight left for grazing their sheep. He
commands them to move the rock, water the sheep and take them out
to pasture before evening falls. Why does he act in such a bold way with
people that he does not know and who are obviously not very impressed
with him? He wants a private audience with Rachel. The entire success
of his journey depends upon his being welcomed into his uncle’s home and
he doesn’t want these unsympathetic shepherds to upset the apple cart.
He’s had almost a month to think about what he was going to say when he
met his uncle and his family. He has a plan to get what he wants. He probably
has a speech already to go and doesn’t want to give it in front of these
suspicious men. However, they tell him that they have to wait for all
the flocks to be gathered before they move the stone and then water the
flocks. He is still trying to convince the shepherds to water their sheep
and leave when Rachel finally arrives with her sheep.
When he sees Rachel and his uncle’s sheep he forgets about his speech
and the other shepherds who were at the well first. He moves the stone
from the well and waters his uncle’s sheep, in order to impress Rachel.
Then he kisses Rachel and breaks into loud weeping. In the midst of his
sobs, he tells Rachel that he is her cousin, the son of Rebekah, Laban’s
sister. Why does he weep? These are tears of relief and happiness. He
has found the family of his uncle. The strain of worry and fear is suddenly
broken. The loneliness of his existence for the past month is removed.
He has found what he is looking for and so he cries out of joy and relief.
Rachel runs off to get her dad and her dad runs back to the well to meet
Jacob. He hugs him, kisses him and brings him home. Then Jacob tells him
"all these things" (v. 13). You can almost feel Jacob’s relief
to be with his uncle and his desire to impress and please his uncle. What
is it that Jacob tells Laban? It’s been over 40 years since Laban has
had contact with his sister. So Jacob tells about the 20 years of infertility,
the difficult pregnancy and then the birth of he and his brother. Perhaps
he reports the promise Rebekah received from the Lord regarding her two
sons. He reports on the great wealth of Isaac, Laban’s brother-in-law.
But does he talk about the rivalry between he and his brother and Isaac
and Rebekah, because of them? Does he tell how he and Rebekah deceived
blind Isaac and stole Esau’s blessing? Does he tell of Esau’s murderous
hatred of Jacob? Does he tell of Isaac’s command that he come to Laban
and marry one of his daughters? We aren’t told if Jacob explained all
these details. We do know that he shared enough information so that Laban
was convinced that Jacob was his relative, for he says, "You are
indeed my bone and flesh."
We need to compare this story with what happened when Abraham’s servant
came to find a wife for Isaac. When Abraham’s servant came to the well
in Haran, not knowing how to find the family of Nahor, whom did he talk
to? He talked to God. He depended upon God to lead him to the woman God
had for Isaac. Jacob, on the other hand, talks to men in order to find
out where Laban lives. Rebekah showed up at the well, while the servant
was talking with God. Rachel shows up while Jacob is talking with the
shepherds. When Rebekah shows up the servant asks for a drink. Rebekah
gives him a drink and waters his camels. When Rachel shows up Jacob says
nothing and he waters her sheep. The servant had no idea who Rebekah was
until after she watered his camels. Jacob knows the entire time who Rachel
is. When the servant discovers who Rebekah is he falls on the ground and
worships God. After Jacob waters Rachel’s sheep he kisses her and weeps
and in the midst of his weeping tells her who he is. The only person who
acts the same in both stories is Laban, he runs to meet Jacob just as
he ran to meet the servant of Abraham. In Genesis 24, Moses records the
entire account, in graphic detail, of the servant telling how God had
led him to Rebekah’s family. Here we are told only that Jacob told Laban
"all these things". Laban’s family is quite excited about the
servant because of all the gifts he gave. Laban’s final statement is factual
but not enthusiastic. You can almost hear his disappointment at the poverty
of Jacob.
What we have in the way that Jacob finds Laban is the great kindness
of God and the unbelief of Jacob. If you remember at the end of chapter
28, Jacob made a bargain with God that if he would provide him with food
and clothing and return him to Canaan, then he would worship God. We saw
there that Jacob’s faith was not a true faith. What Jacob loves is a good
life on planet earth. He does not love God. He wants God to provide what
he loves. At present, Jacob is using God to get what he loves. But God
is kind to Jacob in spite of his ongoing unbelief. He is gracious to him
because he made a promise to him, not because Jacob deserves his kindness.
He provides for Jacob by leading him right to his uncle’s family. But
rather than worship God, he weeps out of relief and happiness that he
is going to have food and clothing and a wife. We are not told what Jacob
said to Laban as we were told what the servant said because what Jacob
said did not honor God, but honored him. You can be sure that he was the
hero of his story and that all the wickedness he did was neatly expunged
from it. It is obvious to us as readers that God is the one who is caring
for Jacob. Yet, he is not explicitly mentioned or called upon by any character
in this story. This is especially striking in contrast to how Abraham’s
servant came to find a wife for Isaac. The Lord is called upon, worshipped,
and exalted throughout that story by both Abraham and his servant. This
entire story is an almost exact reversal of the story of Abraham’s servant
finding Rebekah. While Jacob is happy as a clam, he is not happy for the
right reasons.
Over the past 25 years of talking with people about Christ I have discovered
that most of us relate to God the same way that Jacob is relating to God.
The vast majority of the people we live around believe that God loves
them. Many, maybe even most, would say they believe in Jesus. The majority
would say that they pray and trust God with their problems. What they
are doing is just what Jacob is doing. Pretend this chair is Jesus Christ.
He has died for our sins and risen from the dead and tells us that we
must trust in him. Now what most people do is they go to Christ and trust
him to take care of their finances. Or they are sick and they trust him
to take care of their health. Or one of their children is getting in trouble
at school and so they trust Christ for help with the child. Is it necessarily
wrong to pray about these things? No. But are these the reasons that Christ
came and that God makes promises to us in Him? No. Christ came to bring
us to God. Unless your greatest ambition is to know and love God, then
Christ has nothing for you. God’s promises are not for you unless you
want what he promises. He didn’t come and die so you can live a middle
class, trouble free life in the suburbs of America. He didn’t die so you
could enjoy a guilt free life in America. He died so you would enjoy God
above all. He came to give you infinite joy by giving you a relationship
with God. He came so that you might share in God’s holiness.
How is God going to change our hearts? Well, one of the ways is through
being kind to us. In Romans 2:4, God, through the apostle Paul says this,
"Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance
and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you towards repentance?"
God gives you all the good things he does for one reason, so that you
will repent of loving the world and love him alone. His kindness ought
to show us that he is trustworthy and that we can abandon all our conniving
to get the pleasures of this world. Jacob hasn’t learned that yet, even
though God is being enormously kind to him. So God now uses a different
tactic to get his attention.
God graciously pursues his people in order to purify their hearts.
- He pursues them with kindness
- And…
II. He pursues them with suffering (vv. 14b-30)
After a month of living off his uncle’s generosity, his uncle takes the
initiative to make a change in their relationship. He tells Jacob to name
his wages in exchange for his work. It’s hard to know if Laban’s offer
is good or bad. On one hand this could be generosity. He could be saying,
"It’s not fair that the only compensation you’re getting for the
work you are doing for me is room and board. I’d like to pay you something
for the work you are doing." Or he could be saying, "I’m tired
of supporting you. I know you are my nephew. I know you are the son of
great chieftain. But its time you got to work. Let’s make a contract like
the ones I have with my hired help. What do you think is a fair wage in
exchange for your working for me?" Based on what happens, I believe
that he is not being generous but rather is plotting against Jacob. He
knows Jacob has come for a wife. He can see how Jacob looks at Rachel.
He knows Jacob has nothing to offer as the bride price for Rachel.
The sad thing is that Jacob is oblivious to the plotting of Laban. He
is just happy to have a place to live and he is living in the blissful
ignorance of a man in love. He loves Rachel and knows that she is the
one for him. All of his dreams are going to come true. He is going to
get a beautiful wife and go back home, have a great family and inherit
all of Isaac’s wealth. So he is not at all suspicious of his uncle’s proposal
but sees it as an opportunity to get what he wants. He knows he must pay
the bride price for Rachel and so he offers to work for Laban for seven
years in order to marry Rachel. Men were expected to pay the father of
the bride for the privilege of marrying his daughter. He had no resources
and so he exchanges his labor for Rachel. The maximum bride price, according
to Deut. 22:29 was 50 shekels of silver. Seven years of labor was worth
at least 120 shekels. So Jacob shows how taken he is with Rachel and gives
Laban every reason to agree with the arrangement.
But now notice how crafty Laban is in his response to Jacob’s request.
He is less than enthusiastic about giving her to him. "It’s better
you marry her than someone else." How would you feel if when you
told the father of the girl you love that you want to marry her, that’s
what he said? He’s being very nonchalant and cool about Jacob’s offer.
Then notice he never says that he will give Rachel to him as a wife. He
doesn’t identify the "her", to whom he refers. All he cares
about is that Jacob remains with him and work. Laban has a plan, just
like Rebekah, his sister, had a plan. Jacob, like Isaac and Esau, is completely
oblivious to the plot of Laban.
Verse 20 is one of the most romantic verses in the Bible. Jacob was so
in love with Rachel that serving seven years to marry her seemed as if
it were nothing at all. It seemed like just a few days. This verse shows
that when you love someone, no sacrifice is too great. It’s a delight
to sacrifice for the one you love. (Here is a picture of the love of Jesus
for His Father and his church. Cf. Eph. 5:1, 24-32, Heb. 12:3) Verse 21
is jarring when compared with the romance of v. 20. Why does Jacob have
to inform Laban that the seven years are up? Why is he so graphic in the
language that he uses? The strong language shows that Jacob is worried.
He knows he is in a very vulnerable position. He is totally dependent
upon Laban keeping his word. Laban has Jacob right where he wants him.
Laban wants Jacob to be completely desperate and uncertain so he has intentionally
ignored the seven-year anniversary. What relief must have flooded Jacob’s
heart when Laban responds by inviting all their friends and neighbors
to join in the wedding feast. On the evening of the feast, Jacob is euphoric.
He is going to be married to the woman he loves and then they can return
to Canaan, to his parents. He expects to return in triumph with his beautiful
wife and take his rightful place as the heir of Isaac. He feels just like
Esau felt when he returned from hunting and brought the food he prepared
for his father Isaac, expecting to get his father’s blessing. Expectations
are a powerful force in our lives. Jacob has a vision of what a happy
future will be. His expectations reveal what he hopes in and what he loves.
Expectations reveal what we believe is necessary for a happy life. But,
like Jacob, our hope for the future is often not fixed on God and he does
not like being left out.
Jacob enters the nuptial tent after a day of eating and drinking and
waits in the dark tent for the veiled Rachel to be brought to him. Just
like Isaac waited in his tent, in the darkness of his blindness, for Esau
to bring him his food. Leah, the older daughter, enters, dressed in her
younger sister’s clothing. Just like Jacob, the younger son, entered his
father’s tent, dressed in his older brother’s clothing. Leah cooperates
with and carries out the deceptive scheme of her father, just like Jacob
cooperated with and carried out the deceptive scheme of his mother. Jacob
"blesses" Leah by becoming her husband even though he thinks
he is "blessing" Rachel. Just like Isaac blessed Jacob believing
he was blessing Esau. Then in the morning light, Jacob wakes up to discover
Leah lying next to him and not Rachel, just like Isaac discovers he has
blessed Jacob, not Esau, when Esau comes into the tent. Jacob flies out
of the tent and confronts Laban. Oh how unjustly he has been treated!
He served for Rachel, not Leah. He protests the injustice just like his
brother Esau did. "Why have you deceived me?" he cries out.
This is the same word Isaac uses when he tells Esau, "Your brother
came deceitfully and took your blessing."
It is clear that what Jacob did to his father and his brother has been
done to him. So we see again that while God’s purpose was accomplished
through the wicked acts of Jacob and Rebekah, yet they did evil and must
give account to God for what they did. God does not approve of what they
did and yet what they did, accomplished his will. Why is God doing this
to Jacob? Only God could arrange such poetic justice. God is using the
evil plot of Laban and Leah to accomplish his work in Jacob’s life. He
is using it to discipline his chosen son, so that he learns to love him
and not the things he gives. Again, here is another example of God accomplishing
his good purposes through the evil actions of wicked people who are responsible
for the evil they do. It is important that you understand that God is
not punishing Jacob. He is not paying him back for what he did. If God
were going to give Jacob what he deserved he would kill him and send him
to hell. He is disciplining his beloved son through the plot of Laban.
But there is more suffering that Laban, serving God’s purposes, has planned
for Jacob. Laban tells Jacob that it is not the custom of their region
to bless the younger daughter with marriage before the older. Do you hear
his rebuke and sarcasm? "We’re not like you Jacob, robbing the older
of his rightful blessing. We do things the way they are supposed to be
done." But he knows what Jacob wants and so he uses Jacob’s love
(or is it lust?) for Rachel to get more from Jacob. He leads Jacob into
more sin by proposing that he marry Rachel, after he finish the nuptial
week with Leah. It is sinful because it is polygamy and because Lev. 18:18
says, "Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual
relations with her while your wife is living." From the standpoint
of the first readers of this story, what Laban is proposing that Jacob
do is scandalous and wicked. Laban is after just one thing, another seven
years of free labor from Jacob. He is in essence, selling his daughters.
He says that he is doing it for a noble purpose, to fulfill local custom.
In reality, Laban loves only one thing, money. He is the epitome of hypocrisy.
Jacob responds to Laban’s proposal exactly like Laban knew he would. He
agrees to polygamy and an incestuous marriage bed. Jacob does not yet
love and trust God. He loves the world. He cannot imagine life without
Rachel, no matter that having Rachel will enslave him, keep him from the
land of Canaan, and disobey God. Like his brother Esau who sold his birthright
for a bowl of soup, Jacob sells himself out of his love (lust?) for Rachel.
So the story ends with multiplied suffering. Jacob has two sisters as
his wives. He loves Rachel more than Leah and so Leah suffers for her
participation in her father’s plot. Jacob must serve as Laban’s slave
for another seven years.
We know that God loves Jacob, because God told him so. Therefore, we
know that all that is happening in Jacob’s life is for his good. God cares
for him and brings him safely to Laban’s home and God sends all this misery
to him because he loves him. This has direct application to every
person sitting in here. When a member of your family or a close friend
or your employer sins against you, God is sending that suffering to you
for a good reason. Even though they are sinning against God by what they
are doing and they will have to answer to him for their sin, God is sending
them to you for your good. If we could but believe this, our lives would
become free and happy lives. Hebrews 12: 10 says, "Our fathers disciplined
us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for
our good, that we may share in his holiness." There is no happier
or delightful thing in the whole universe than to share in the holiness
of God. To share in his holiness is to share in him. It is be a partaker
of the divine nature. It is to belong to him and to be loved by him. It
is to be so taken up into God that he alone is your life and your refuge
and all your happiness. It is to live with God forever in heaven. When
your child rebels against you, ask yourself, "What is God’s purpose
for me in this pain?" When your spouse disappoints you, ask yourself,
"Why did God send this suffering to me? How does my disappointment
expose what my heart loves?" When your friend doesn’t return your
phone call, and you feel hurt, ask, "What is God showing me about
what I am hoping in?"
God graciously pursues his people in order to purify their hearts.
- He pursues them with kindness
- He pursues them with suffering
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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