The Life and Times of Jacob: Lessons We Can Learn

[Music] in the bible god provides a lot of information about a select few individuals and i think with careful review we can better come to understand those those individuals those people and if god recorded a lot of data if you will on them then it's important for us to take note of it he did so for a purpose and i guess from for many purposes because there are scriptures that can be lifted out of context and used in a variety of ways in a variety of lessons and so i think it is merit for us to review and examine those lives occasionally and ask ourselves what can we learn from the lives and details that god has provided for some of those individuals so today we'll take a tour if you will of the life of jacob and if you're looking for a title for the sermon i'm just going to the life and times of jacob lessons that we can learn verse 19 of genesis 25 says this is the genealogy of isaac abraham's son abraham begot isaac isaac was 40 years old when he took rebecca as wife the daughter of bethual the syrian of padam paten eram the sister of laban the syrian now isaac pleaded with the eternal for his wife because she was barren and the eternal granted his plea and rebecca his wife conceived but the children struggled together within her and she said if all is well why am i like this why why am i having to suffer this way so she went to inquire of the eternal and the eternal said to her two nations are in your womb two peoples shall be separated from your body one people shall be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger so when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth indeed there were twins in her womb and the first came out red he was like a hairy garment all over excuse me so that he called so they called his name esau which means means harry so the boys grew and esau was a skillful hunter a man of the field but jacob was a mild man dwelling in tents now it says mild here the i think the old king james version says plain and the margin in my bible explains here that it's literally complete and being a mild man i didn't think that i wondered exactly what that might mean so based on a couple of references i checked and about this can also be translated quiet ordinary but also physically sound so he was a a quiet man but uh being sound uh complete and he also then they were dwelling in tents and isaac loved esau because he ate of his game that uh what he hunted but rebecca loved jacob which seems to be a natural consequence of what god had told her about jacob and so we read this account we see that there is a a difference between them they're fraternal twins as i mentioned earlier esau is named harry uh it means harry jacob of course means supplanter or deceitful and uh margins also says one who takes the heel uh i just take that to understand it it means that uh maybe someone who might trip you up uh which proved to be a a foretell or forecast and a prophecy of what jacob would be like then as we we read verses 27 28 uh 26-27 we'll pick it up here in in verse 29 now jacob cooked a stew and esau came in from the field and he was weary uh the old king james here i think says faint uh could also be rendered exhausted and so one would think that he had not been successful in that particular hunt but he was weary and therefore his name was called edom which means red i'll comment on that in just a moment so but based on verse 28 if isaac loved esau and rebecca loved jacob one can only assume here that there probably was a fair amount of dissension between these two these two twins these two brothers there was a real sibling rivalry sort of what maybe from the from the get-go even when they were little one was the favorite of the father one was favorite of the mother and their differences they were very different and so they had to deal with that and uh rebecca perhaps assuming uh i say assuming but uh believing what god told her was that one way or the other jacob was going to end up with all the goodies being second in uh being born he would this law of primogeniture he was not the one who was going to inherit as with the firstborn would the blessings and all the things that would go to the firstborn from isaac and uh rebecca then of course feeling that way one way or the other at least we find here that isaac was not given the same information we can we'll see that later on as well that isaac wasn't wasn't apparently told this particular information and we read here that we go on he says that he's weary in verse 31 but jacob said sell me your birthright as of this day. and esau said well look i'm about to die so what is the birthright to me now i said he was weary he must have been truly exhausted maybe he was we what we know today we call dehydrated and he was faint and he thought maybe he he could die and so if i'm going to rather than die uh i wouldn't get the birth right anyway but what's it matter and he's willing to bargain this away and jacob said look swear to me as of this day so he swore to him and sold his birthright to jacob and jacob gave you saw bread and stew of lentils then he ate and drank a row and he arose and went his way and thus esau despised his birthright so a strong word that is used here he despised his birthright this is a uh i guess you could think this is this is sort of like uh the uh pilgrims etc the ones came to america bargaining for manhattan for getting for getting this island for a few baubles and because of that he's called red sort of a nickname i guess and as he goes through life he's called red and every time he hears this name he's thinking that was a stupid deal you know every time he gets his new here's his nickname it's like boy did i make a bad a bad decision he should have considered it uh before he did it we don't even know for sure what age they were when this happened but my guess is that uh and it is just a guess my thought is that this probably was not the first time that jacob had gotten the better of his twin brother and esau maybe should have been on alert here before i strike this deal and this thing is coming out of my brother maybe i need to think about this and after all if i'm in line to get the birthright god's not going to let me die is he he's going to see to it that i follow in the footsteps of my father and not thinking it through obviously at least thinking it through correctly that he was willing to give up his birthright for the sake of a bowl of stew jacob knew that he technically was not in line to receive the birthright uh i would think that rebecca had perhaps shared those thoughts with with her favored son and he wasn't technically in line to do it but here was an opportunity and jacob was at this point not one to pass up a chance if he is deceitful he's a bargainer he's a schemer and so he figures out this is the the way to get what i really want and i think again esau should have been on guard but he wasn't so jacob tricked esau and he saw his chance he made the bargain he got the birthright i think what is also important here is that jacob understood this was important it really mattered in what was going to happen in the future he wanted that birthright and it says here that esau despised his birthright let's turn over to hebrews chapter 12. hebrews chapter 12. verse 16 paul is cautioning the hebrews about turning away from god he says here simply in verse 16 chapter 12 of hebrews lest there be any fornicator or profane person like esau who for one morsel of bread or food sold his birthright and profane here is my margin has is godless and so clearly god is showing us that something as important as the birthright which was part of the promise given to abraham given to to isaac that esau did not did not see this as a great privilege and god says he was simply he despised that birthright he should have understood what was going on with what what god was going to do to keep his promises through isaac and his name is changed to red and he has to realize he's made a great mistake hebrews goes on to say that when he tried to repent tried to find redress on that it just didn't work no there's a lesson here for all of us because we too have been given great promises from god that we have to protect our inheritance our calling that we have to watch out for all the trickeries our bible refers to the wiles of satan what would we trade eternal life to have something else how much is eternal life in god's kingdom important how important is that to us let's turn over to first peter chapter or second peter beg your pardon second peter chapter three i'm sorry second peter chapter one and i'll skim through the verses here from verse 3 through 11 in the middle of this the thought he points out here in verse three is his divine power has given us all things and then in verse four that about which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises we have many of them and mr ames talked about this often to claim god's promises he points out in verse 5 that we should for this very reason giving all diligence add to our faith virtue to virtue acknowledge to knowledge self-control and perseverance and godliness and brotherly kindness and then brotherly kindness add love for these things in verse 8 for these things are yours and abound and you you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ for he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and is forgotten that he was cleansed from his old ways therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your call and election sure for if you do these things you will never stumble for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ and let's turn back to hebrews 12 and we'll read a couple other verses after paul is talking about talked about esau being a profane individual in verse 18 talks about us but hebrews who had been called to be part of the church and what we've been called to today for you have not come to the mountain that may be touched that burned with fire verse 22 but you have come to mount zion into the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly in church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven to god the just of all the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect you've come to jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of abel see that you do not refuse him who speaks for if they did not escape he refused him who spoke on earth much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven so god is telling us we need to be very diligent to hold on to our inheritance to hold on to our calling and he uses his example in the old testament with jacob and esau to point out the just incredible difference between a bowl of soup bowl of stew and actually give it giving being given the birthright part of the promises that have been given to abraham esau clearly was not thinking well and thinking clearly about what was at stake but he traded his birthright for a bowl of food and there is nothing nothing in this life that will compare to what god is offering us in his kingdom and we have to ask ourselves is there anything that might ever pull us away sufficiently that be willing to give up eternal life in god's kingdom let's turn back then to genesis chapter 26 genesis chapter 26 read verses 34 and 35 it says when esau was 40 years old verse 34 he took his wives judith the daughter of birai the hittite and basamath the daughter of elon the hittite and they were a grief of mind to isaac and rebecca so again how well did these two brothers listen to their grandfather and to their father because abraham had sent his servant back to his home country to [Music] obtain a wife for his son isaac so that there would be some continuity in their in their lives and also it was important to them his family heritage was an important matter and it did not obviously matter to esau in this particular case he did not follow isaac's example with his brothers but getting a wife and certainly his parents were very upset with that so again it's notable here i think that this family matter is important following that example so that we don't give up on the inheritance that god has has given to us and also in this particular case there is no notice about anything about jacob getting married only about esau that he marries two women of the the of the canaan canaan area let's continue over and then in chapter 27 and i'm just going to skim through this this chapter i'll just uh read through sections of it and follow along in chapter 27 verse 1 now came to pass when isaac was old and his eyes were so damn that he could not see that he called esau he wanted esau to come and verse 2 he says behold now i am old i do not know the day of my death so go out to the field in verse 3 and hunting game for me in verse 4 and make me savory food such as i love and bring it to me that i may eat that my soul may bless you before i die so at this particular point isaac is saying poor health sufficient to make him wonder that perhaps he's about to die and rebecca was listening so in verse 6 she spoke to jacob and she goes and tells him what to do in verse 8. now therefore my son obey my voice according to all according to what i command you go to the flock bring me two choice kids i'll make savory food from them for your father such as he loves so she knows the recipe i guess and how to make that you can make these uh these two uh uh animals from the kids from the flock pretty much tastes like whatever that esau would bring in from the field verse 10 that he may eat it then he may bless you before his death even his wife thinks that his her husband isaac is perhaps about to die and knowing what she knows she tries too much to sets out this plan in order to get jacob to receive the rest of the blessings they would come from isaac and so he does all that she she advises and she brings back the kids to her and she prepares the food and so in verse 18 he went to his father and said my father and he said here i am who are you my son he heard the voice but which we know which one is it and jacob said to his father i'm esau your firstborn i have done just as you told me please arise sit and eat my game that your soul may bless me and he obviously is lying to his father because he wants to he's following the advice of his of his mother and isaac has this gut feel and based on the circumstance he says come near in verse 21 that i may feel you my son whether you are really my son esau or not so of course rebecca and jacob have anticipated this he's got these animal skins on him so jacob went near to isaac his father and he felt him and said the voice is jacob's voice but the hands are the hands of esau so in verse 23 he says so he blessed him and the blessing he received we pick it up in verse 28 it says therefore may god give you of the dew of heaven the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine and let people serve you and nations bow down to you be master over your brethren over your brothers and let your mother's sons bow down to you cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you so he receives this blessing from his father and in verse 30 said jacob is scarcely gone that he saw his brother came in to isaac and offers him his the food he's prepared and then in verse 33 said isaac trembled exceedingly and said who where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me i ate all of it before you came and you blessed him and indeed he shall be blessed frankly i'm not sure why he that he just he was knew that what he had done was to be permanent and whatever regret he may have had he realized that it was going to be that way and in verse 35 he says your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing and again he had been living up to his to his name he takes the blessing from esau in in esau's stead and it's now obvious i think here that god clearly had not told isaac that what was going to happen that that the younger brother would rule over the older brother and again we don't know exactly when this happened so we read here in verse 41 after this has happened esau hated jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him and esau said in his heart the days of mourning for my father are at hand then i will kill my brother jacob now that happens to be a pretty important point in the history of things as it unfolds because he says i'll do this after isaac dies i won't do it while isaac's still alive because in reality isaac as we all know isaac was not about to die in this particular case he was to live a good long time after that he would not certainly die soon in spite of the fact he was worried about it he couldn't see but he was going to have a good number of years before he died so then over and do we can continue in chapter 28. well it before do the street verse 43 where rebecca is now aware that esau plans to kill jacob so she intervenes and tells jacob you need to uh you need to leave because your brother is going to kill you verse 43 flee to my brother laban and heron and part of that story then in verse 46 and getting him to leave rebecca says to jacob i'm weary of my life because of the daughters of heth these are the two hittites that esau had married and if jacob takes a wife of the daughters of heth like these who are the daughters of the land what good will be my life to me i just life would not be worth living so let's send him a way to get us to get a wife verse chapter 28 verse 1 then isaac called jacob and blessed him and charged him and said to him you shall not take a wife from the daughters of canaan arise go to patton arum to the house of bethul your mother's father and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of laban your mother's brother and may god almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of peoples and give you the blessing of abraham to you and your descendants with you that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger which god gave to abraham so isaac sent jacob away and he went to pat and aram to laban the son of bethule and the syrian the brother of rebecca the mother of jacob and esau and in following that it's indeed we won't read the verse six but verse seven that esau recognized here something that said that jacob or had obeyed his father and his mother clearly something that esau had not done because i would i would have to think that at some point isaac and rebecca in giving the training to their two sons would be to not marry women of the land men the women of canaan and yet in spite of that esau had done that very thing but jacob when he was guided and advised by his mother and then blessed by his father isaac that he did go back to the same land that isaac had sent had received his wife from when the abraham's servant had gone to get isaac a wife so in chapter 28 verse 10 says jacob went and he went toward heron and he came to a certain place and he laid down in that place to sleep so important story here we know this story quite well but it is we need to review it and then he dreamed and behold a ladder was set up on the earth and his top reached to heaven verse 13 and the eternal stood above it and said i am the eternal god of abraham your father and the god of isaac and the land on which you lie i will give to you and your descendants now this is the first record that i know of where god dealt directly with jacob he's on his way to to escape from esau and god begins to communicate with him and he goes also then verse 14 the last part of the verse and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed now this is i think important to note that many of the same words that were given in the blessing to abraham in the very beginning that are given to isaac and were also given to to jacob that in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed he said behold i am with you and will keep you wherever you go will bring you back to this land for i will not leave you until i have done what i have spoken to you and then jacob awoke and said surely the eternal is in this place and i didn't even know it how awesome in verse 17 how awesome is this place in verse 19 and he called the name of that place bethel meaning the house of god it was where god was and jacob then makes a vow saying if god be with me and keep me in this way that i am going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that i come back to my father's house in peace then the eternal shall be my god and this stone which i have set as a pillar shall be god's house and all and of all that you give me i will surely give a tenth to you and the way it's phrased here it says if god will be with me well god had just told him i'm going to be with you i'm going to take care of you i'm going to watch over you and i will bring you back in peace in the future and in many translations that word if remains there but i did find one one translation and that focus on that but it says seeing that god will be with me jacob is convinced that this is going to happen so this is what i'm going to do and then i'm going to sit when i get all of these things that god has promised me i'm going to give a tithe of it back much as his grandfather had done how did he know that by giving god a tent he'd been taught that again what he had been taught stuck with him and made a difference to him as opposed to what it did not mean to mean to his brother esau and god in verse in verse 15 again he says i will not leave you until i have done what i have spoken but i'm going to see to it he said this is done i won't forsake you i'm not going to leave you god promised to never forsake him you know if there's a lesson for us to learn and relearn and relearn as we go through the difficulties in our lives is that god has promised to us that he will not forsake us there are other scriptures that i won't turn to right now but we know the one in philippians that god is going to finish what he started in our lives he is not going to forsake us however little we might see what's going on from day to day why these trials come and go god says i know exactly what's happening in your life and i'm not going to leave you i promise it's extended to all of us and we have to again i think as we go through our problems we have our our faith is uh strong at times and maybe not so strong at others and maybe we have to just remind ourselves verbally kind of preach to ourselves convince ourselves that god is always with us he is not going to forsake us if we're trying our our best to serve him and obey him he's not going to leave us we have to leave him but that doesn't happen then god is not going to turn his back on us and we will see later that jacob gives testimony to knowing that this promise is fulfilled and has been fulfilled in his life and of course here he names this place bethel referring to the house of god we think about that in terms of the new testament the new covenant that we part of the family of god the church of god is the house of god we are a collection of individuals the ecclesia the called out ones that are part of the family of god then in verse uh in chapter 29 move there chapter 29 verse 11 says jacob of course jacob's going he finally gets to where he's he's going to tickets over to heron and to his his relatives and then jacob kissed rachel i'll comment in just a minute and lifted up his voice and wept i guess that's just he's really happy to have arrived where he's at his destination maybe that's part of it and so jacob or uh rachel runs and tells her family in verse 13 laban heard the report jacob comes to him and and he's embraced and laban kisses him a different kind of kiss i would imagine and brought him to his house so so he told laban all these things and laban says surely you are my bone and my flesh and he stayed there for a month in verse 15 because you are a relative should you therefore serve me for nothing tell me what your wages are going to be now laban had two daughters the name of the older one was leah the name of the younger one was rachel leah's eyes were delicate but rachel was beautiful of form and appearance you know jacob loved rachel you know love at first sight i guess if you will and so he said i'll serve you seven years for rachel your younger daughter go back to verse 11. jacob kissed rachel that must have been quite a kiss he was willing to work for seven years for this this young lady he's he's impressed with her i'm being a bit facetious there but uh anyway he did willing to work if you will his wage is what he was going to earn for seven years was this this young lady rachel and we can go on to verse verse 20. it says uh here that jacob served seven years for rachel and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her and jacob said to laban give me my wife and laban makes a feast now we uh traditions of the east we go back over in john we we know where christ turned the water into wine that there was a wedding feast i think that went on for a week uh great celebration and laban uh very likely the same thing makes this great feast and because he as we know the story he is going to pretty much do to jacob what jacob had done to his brother he's going to pull a fast one on him and so he took leia then his daughter and he brought her to jacob and he came to pass in verse 25 it came to pass in the morning the behold it was leah and he said to laban what is this you have done to me was it not for rachel that i served you why then have you deceived me and laban said it must not be so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn now he could have told jacob that seven years earlier but he didn't want to do that he had he was also a pretty good schemer himself and laban said it must not be done so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn but i gotta i've got an idea jacob here fulfill her week and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve for me with me still another seven years in other words i'll i'll get you for 14 years and you you can have her and jacob did so and fulfilled her week so he uh he agreed to go along with this and so he gave him his daughter rachel his wife also and he served with laban still another seven years he only had to wait that point for another week to to get rachel to be his wife so over the next seven years he's working again his wage again his earnings again are going to be rachel he got leah out of the first seven years in the next seven years he will get uh he'll get rachel but we also know that he ended up with a couple of other ladies zilpah and bilham that uh part of the deal and it would seem if you read this i'm not going to go in this in great detail but if you read this in those seven years it would seem that there are 11 sons and one daughter that are born to jacob he has two wives he has leah and he has rachel and he has two concubines and in seven years with four or four wives or four ladies you could think what that doesn't seem necessarily all that unreasonable however the indication there is that seven of those children six sons and then the daughter all born to leah what appears to be seven years so i'll just say that that's a little bit of what uh we might call a conundrum it's uh exactly what what took place in during that time but it's that's not necessarily part of the the sermon this afternoon but certainly interesting point then in verse 31 it seems it says tells us here that rachel was barren early in the in the marriage to jacob and we find then in verse 30 chapter 30 we'll go on with the account chapter 30 verse 22. now as i mentioned rachel's baron leah has four sons in succession fairly quickly so then she leaves off baring for a while and she gives her her handmaiden to jacob and a couple of sons were born with her handmaiden two were born from rachel's handmaiden two children and two sons and then later on leah is able to bear three more sons but here in chapter 30 verse 22 then god remembered rachel and god listened to her and opened her womb and she conceived and bore a son and said god has taken away my reproach so she called his name joseph and said the eternal shall add to me another son and the the word joseph is margin chose was he will add it was the meaning of that it would be a that he just believed there would be another child another son would come from her womb and it came to pass when rachel had borne joseph that jacob said to laban send me away that i may go to my own place and to my country give me my wives and my children whom i have served you and let me go for you know my service which i have done for you so uh we know from other trip will turn a moment that for that that time of his work uh for those seven years so 14 years he's ready to leave he's ready to go back to his home country take his wives take his children and leave in laban verse 27 then laban still wants to negotiate it's like this is jacob's just too good of a this is too good of a deal to give up easily on this man because he says stay with me because if i have found favor in your eyes for i have learned by experience that the eternal has blessed me for your sake then he said name me your wages and i will give it this particular case uh these are actual wages what is being what he's talking about because uh jacob now has the two wives he has the two daughters and he has the the wife that he wants and jacob said or layman says i'll give you i'll actually pay you now for your time uh he could see that jacob was a good hand to have around then in chapter 30 over in verse 43 we find out that what has worked out and i'm going to go through the whole story of that chapter there but jacob says what he wants for wages a certain kind of animal certainly from the from the sheep and what all and it sounds good to laban he thinks he can trick jacob but jacob now with god's blessing is a bit more shrewd than laban and with his knowledge of how things worked and god's blessing he says in verse 43 referring to jacob thus the man became exceedingly prosperous and had large flocks female and male servants camels and donkeys so he was very wealthy well off very wealthy himself in his own right and now he wants to leave and chapter 31 verse 11 it says then the angel of god spoke to me in a dream saying jacob and i said here i am and he said lift your eyes now and see all the rams which are leap on the the flocks which sleep on the flocks are streaked speckled gray spotted for i've seen all that laban is doing to you so god had intervened for for jacob he says i am the god of bethel this is the i'm the same one that spoke to you way back when when you were you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to me remember me remember the promise you made remember the value made to me because i'm now i want you to do what i tell you and follow your vow now arise get out of this land return to the land of your family so he leaves laban of course we know the story laban pursues him and they have to go through a uh an inspection of sorts and then if jacob is finally freed to go on to to to his homeland and then later in chapter 31 verses 41 and 42 says this i have been in your house 20 years and i served you 14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flock so we know that these he's leaving now he said he served six years and during those six years his wages were enough of these animals he became very wealthy had a lot of money bought some other animals as well and even during that time laban is back and forth he's he's changing the contract uh it's sort of uh like i think mr weston mentioned on the the update that we have this we had this contract with one one of our feast sites and they came back after it contracts all signed and they want to add an addendum i when i was in sales working with ibm i had a contract from a customer i had a system on order and my contacted the the customer i called him one day didn't give me some information he said oh by the way he said john uh you're going to give me an additional discount i said what he said well you know okay i get another two or two or three percent off and i said we have a signed contract he goes i know but you wouldn't give me another couple percent aren't you i said no i'm not but he wanted to add to this deal laban is still he wants to change back and forth he was trying to get the better of of jacob but god saw to it that none of that worked for six years he follows that and jacob then responds you've changed my wages many times ten times during those six years and unless the god of my father the god of abraham and the fear of isaac had been with you surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed god has seen my affliction in the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night or in the past yesterday jacob gosnell could now see that god was watching over him god had fulfilled his part of it i'll see that you come back come back very well the lesson for us is remember though you and i always see what's happening that god is directing what's going on in our lives that god is still there and he's not forsaking us so in chapter 32 jacob heads home two angels medium in the first couple of verses doesn't tell us why those two angels appeared maybe they were to just speculate give him give him comfort that jacob is going to be okay when we do that and of course jacob knows that he's going back that he has sent messengers to his brother that he's coming back and so in verse 3 he said jacob sent messengers before him to esau in the land of seer the country of edom and in verse 6 the messenger returned to jacob saying we came to your brother esau and he also is coming to meet you and he has 400 men with him what kind of greedy am i going to get here and he says here jacob was greatly afraid and distressed and he divided the people he has his strategy to try to protect his family but he's worried now he's very scared that god to esau is going to not only kill him but kill his family and he's terrified so we're going over to down to verse 9 and then jacob said o god of my father abraham and god of my father isaac the eternal who said to me return to your country and i will deal well with you and he humbles himself he says i am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant for i have crossed over this jordan and my staff and now i have two companies deliver me i pray from the hand of my brother from the hand of esau and i fear for him i fear him lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children for you said surely i will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea so he learns esau is coming and after implementing the strategy of course god does intervene and jacob is allowed to go on and we have in the latter part of chapter 32 verse 24 after he has sent his family and his household away part of his strategy and sending these presents to his brother in verse 24 that jacob was left alone and the man wrestled with him until the breaking of day now when he saw that he did not prevail against him he touched he referring to this man that jacob with whom he was wrestling he touched the socket of his hip of jacob's hip and the socket of jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him and he said let me go then i said let me go and jacob said no i won't i will not let you go unless you bless me because jacob could perceive that this was not just a man this was we know it was actually god was wrestling with him i will not let you go in verse 28 he says your name shall no longer be called jacob but israel for you have struggled with god and with men and have prevailed margin shows it is it renders israel is named a prince with god and so first 30 so jacob called the name of that place pineal for i have seen god face to face in my life is preserved in the other accounts god has spoken to jacob through a dream here in this case the god of the old testament actually wrestles with him and jacob realizes that he is being dealt directly but he also realizes at this point that he needs god regardless of his physical physical success he still needed god to take care of him protect him and as much as he knew that we are so reminded that's the case with us we don't know what will happen tomorrow not really whether an accident an illness could be flawless any number of things that could take away our physical well-being and whatever physical physical success that might might be a part of god's blessing that even after baptism you and i can have big challenges big test that we have to endure we have to trust god we have to go to god and it the bigger the test here was a big test for jacob the bigger the test the bigger the victory if we let god help us and i think for many of us if not all of us there are certain i'll call them watershed moments in our lives we realize that this is an important moment in life moment in our christian life that we must stand fast when we're tested in a big way some of those things may be private some of them may share with their friends but we have big challenges in the christian life and jacob when he had this big challenge realized that he he had to hold on for all he was worth and would not give and of course he went to god then blessed him he went on his way to uh ended up in sheikham and wanted to think well now here now that jacob's name has been changed to israel that apprentice with god that sort of like sometimes we think after baptism it uh the way gets easier i won't need a show of hands but i would ask if anybody if it got easier if you got baptized you can raise your hand doesn't work that way it's just the beginning it's sort of like a commencement from high school or college getting baptized is our commencement as a christian and there are trials and difficulties in moments that we are going to go through and the true that is true with jacob as well we think maybe it's going to get better no chapter 34 of genesis i'll just summarize that that dinah his only daughter is defiled it's a rather quick story not much you said about that except that two brothers took great issue with what happened seeming in levi then conspire and find a way that they destroy they kill slay all of the males of sheikham because their sister has been defiled it doesn't say too much about what jacob thought israel thought but that's his only daughter that we know of at that point that was a tragedy as fathers we could think of that would that be just one of those other small problems no that was a huge emotional see down moment days for jacob and her brothers are struck revenge it's a big deal but out of that he now jacob looks at that and he's terrified because of what the two sons have done and slaying all the males that the other cities and small kingdoms surrounding that area are going to come after him and kill him and his household so was jacob's faith real high at that moment or was it maybe it wavered because he was going to go through a trial but even there god worked that out rather than all those other cities deciding to come back and strike on it's like a joke jacob's family and household they were afraid this is you know this is one uh at this point one israelite family that you don't mess with there's something we leave him alone because as it was with moses and elsewhere that god was with him and they were afraid to do anything about that and of course that's a sheikhan and he's told then that go on go to bethel god tells him and we find in chapter 35 chapter 35 verses 9 through 13 and god appeared to jacob again and he came from when he came from padam aaron or pat and aaron and blessed him and god said to him your name is jacob your name shall not be called jacob anymore but israel shall be your name be fruitful in verse 11 and multiply a nation and the company of nations shall proceed from you and kings shall come from you and the land which i gave abraham and isaac i give to you in verse 13 then god went up from him in the place where he had talked with him and of course again that's in bethel israel then continues his journey and on the the as he's about to finish that journey rachel bears a second son benjamin and so if we thinking about the timeline again if he had left after six years of work of wages at the end with laban that that means benjamin is born sometime during that so he's about six years younger than uh than joseph that uh because joseph had been born toward the end of his time that he had worked with laban the first 14 years we think that so benjamin would have been six years younger and so just a couple of more items of chronology let's turn over again still in chapter 35 of uh genesis verses 29 7 through 29 then jacob came to his father isaac at mamrie or kergeth arba that isn't his hebron which abraham and isaac where they had dwelt now the days of isaac were 180 years so isaac breathed his last and died so isaac in fact lived a a long time after he thought he was going to die whatever number of years you want to ascribe when jacob left and went over to laban we know it was it's bible indicates it was at least 20 years and then comes back so that would indicate that if you use that number that isaac would have been 160 years old when he sent laban away we sent jacob away and he was not about to die as he as he thought but uh he's 180 years old when he dies that would mean that jacob is how old or israel how old is israel he's 120 because he was born when isaac was 60 years old so israel is 60 years old so and this occurred by the way a good number of years later after he returned in actuality it wasn't immediately upon his return we find in genesis 37 need to move along here genesis 37 verses one through three move the story forward and we find that joseph his 11th son is 17 and because of the dissension between him and his brothers he ends up being sold into servitude in egypt and talking about a trial again here is his favorite son he has his favorite code he's given him and israel is greatly hurt in verses 34 and 35 of the same chapter chapter 37. he says he would go down to his grave mourning his son so joseph is gone chapter 41 that's a big trial for israel to lose his favorite son chapter 41 verse 44 we know that this was all part of god's plan right he would work things out and then the pharaoh said to joseph this is a good while later it says i am pharaoh and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of egypt what pharaoh was saying was joseph you have complete control of my kingdom people can't move around without your permission verse 46 and joseph was 30 years old when he stood before pharaoh the king of egypt so 13 years later he's now number two man in the egyptian kingdom so note that he's 30 years old and he's right under pharaoh then again in chapter 41 we also have the story that because of this dream that joseph had been able to interpret there are going to be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine and joseph in his wisdom that god had given him in those seven years he gathers up all kinds of bounty all kinds of grain and then the famine begins and all it says here in the last part in verse 57 to 1556 is the famine was over all the face of the earth so all the countries came to joseph in egypt to buy grain and so he was selling grain very profitable for the for the pharaoh and for the kingdom of egypt and in chapter 42 verse three said joseph's ten sons went down to buy grain in egypt except for benjamin and god or israel did not want to lose the other son the brother of of rachel or the brother of joseph didn't want to lose his other son that had been born of rachel she only sees the ten sons they go down they receive food joseph recognizes them doesn't tell them sends them back he says bring your other brother with you he he finally when all the grain's gone they bring benjamin back and he says go back and you know is your father so alive well yes we'll go back and get him too and because i want i want to see him they end up with making two trips and then in chapter 46 verse 1 because isis or israel had very reluctantly agreed to let benjamin go and now he's being asked to go and god takes care of it verse 4 chapter 46 verse 1 that israel took his journey with all they had and came to beersheba and offered sacrifices to the god of his father isaac then god spoke to israel in the visions of the night and said now it's interesting he said no longer will your name be jacob be israel and those two are used interchangeably in in the old and new testament he says jacob jacob and he says i'm right here he says i'm the god the god of your father do not fear to go down to egypt for i will make you a great nation there and i will go with you to egypt and i will surely bring you up again but and joseph will put his hand on your eyes he's telling god's telling him you will die there but you will come back and we know that that uh joseph did see to it later on when uh when he died that israel was taken back and and buried in the promised land so he's realized that he goes to egypt and he'll die there and we find later in chapter 46 verses 29 and 30 so joseph made radius chariot and went up to goshen to meet his father israel and he presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while and israel said to joseph now let me die since i have seen your face because you are still alive a long time you think about that for a moment we know here in chapter 47 verses 8 and 9 that when israel went down to to egypt he was 130 years old he's 130 years old now what can we decipher from that that's 10 years after isaac died how old is joseph at that point he became the boss number two for at age 30. seven years of famine in two years i mean seven years of plenty and two years of famine joseph's about 39 years old so how old was jacob israel when joseph was born 39 from 130. he's about 91 years old so an interesting it's interesting age when you think of the fact where did all this other history how did it occur and he says here in chapter 47 verses 8 and 9 says pharaoh said to jacob how old are you and jacob said to pharaoh the days of the years of my pilgrimage or his jojourning or 130 years few and evil have been the days of the years of my life yet they're not as long as what my father's had difficult life few and evil now the word evil there is being used as an adjective and that's could be translated evil can mean challenging can also be translated as giving pain unpleasant and of course some of the things we've been through that some of them were very unpleasant and very difficult he was in the promised land and he was going through a famine so there was all these things that god had promised he's still subject to a famine subject to the world around him to a degree inspired the blessings from god and we can do some other calculations i won't go through all all the detail if you will please uh excuse that but israel was 91 years old when joseph was born and joseph was about six years old when uh they got back to the uh canaan to the promised land and isaac was still alive so he got to see his grandson for a number of years when did he leave he was 17 when god led him away allowed him to go away to egypt to being sold into servitude so isaac was around his grandson joseph for a number of years for about 11 years and if you do the math and benjamin and the other brothers were around their grandfather i think would be about 24 years but the net of that is that israel loses joseph from the time he's 17 years old to 39 22 years he did not know that his son was alive would we call that a trial or a test when he said i'll go down to my grave mourning for my son and god didn't reveal that to him for 22 years of course he was elated it was a long trial of course then from 130 years old to he died at 170 147 years so in the land of goshen the very best part of egypt israel got to reside for 17 years a great deal of prosperity in chapter 47 and verses 27 and 28 so israel dwelt in the land of egypt and the country of goshen and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly and jacob lived in the land of egypt 17 years so the length of his of his life was 147 years 17 years of great prosperity great blessings let's go then toward the end here chapter 48 verse 9. joseph has sons and joseph sydra's father these are my sons whom god has given me in this place and he said plane and j and israel says please bring them to me and i will bless them verse 14 israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on ephraim's head who was the younger and on his left and his left hand on manassas head guiding his hands knowingly for manasseh was the firstborn so he would again he was changing the the way these blessings would be passed along to the younger and he blessed joseph and said god before whom my fathers abraham and isaac walked that god has fed me all my life long to this day so he's saying god is taking care of me and he says then in verses 19 and 20 referring to the two his two grandsons he says uh he also shall become a people referring to manasseh and he also should be great but truly his younger brothers will be greater than he and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations in verse that's part of verse 20 and thus he set ephraim before manasseh so again his grandfather dealing with his grandsons way that god deals with families in working his plan and of note here a skipped over part of verse 15 and verse 16. he says that god has fed me all my life long to this day and the angel referring to god of the old testament when he became jesus christ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil as he's approaching the end of his life he's able to look back and see that here the word evil is it's the same hebrew word but it's used as a noun all evil again that can be uh described as evil little evil wickedness but can also be described as great difficulties great trials he's redeemed me from all evil from all the things that i've done wrong from all the problems i endured and blessed in these blessed lads and let my name be named on them in the name of my fathers abraham and isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth after all was said and done all these many years that god had been working with him and especially without me on his way into pat and patton arum where god began to deal with him directly all those years what kind of the trials and the ups and downs that jacob had endured israel had endured and god brought that full circle around to where the end of his life was very blessed and he was able to see his grandsons as well and passed that blessing and worked worked with him through all that time and and realized that god had redeemed him from all those problems all those trials and worked with him and he passed that blessing on to his children and let's turn over to as we close to a scripture and you probably can guess where we're turning because what's our lesson romans chapter 8 verse 28 and we know that all things work together for good to those who love god to those who are the called according to his purpose and i won't spend any more time expounding that scripture because i think the life and times of jacob israel say it very well you

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Published: Fri Nov 13 2020