Sermon Tone Analysis
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Genesis 28:18-19
Sometimes You Don't Have Enough Rocks[1]
Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
* *He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.[2]
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n the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest and Ginny are walking down a dirt road.
Childhood friends, both of them are now grown.
Ginny has lived a hard life which was marked by sex, drugs, and living as a rock-and-roll groupie.
Now, she is beginning to retreat from her self-destructive lifestyle.
As they are walking down this road they come to the shack where Ginny lived as a little girl.
As Ginny walks closer to the shack her face is distorted with hatred and anger.
She reaches down, picks up a rock and zings it toward the house.
It hits and flecks off some already peeling paint.
So she picks up another rock and fires again.
This time the rock crashes through an already broken window.
Suddenly, she begins to throw with abandon.
She throws so much that she finally exhausts herself and falls to the ground.
Forrest walks up and as he is gazing down at her he says, “I guess sometimes you just don't have enough rocks.”
What he meant, I think, is that Ginny could have thrown rocks all day and never taken that house to the ground.
Those rocks were not going to demolish that old shack.
But I think he also meant that she could have thrown rocks all day and she would never demolish the abuse she had known as a child … or demolish the effects of that abuse in her life.
She could have thrown rocks all day and never, never brought her torment, her agony, her misery, her anguish to the ground.
It is true for Ginny, and it is true for us.
You and I can throw rocks and stones at situations and relationships in the past and present, and it will never relieve our agony.
It will never assuage our misery.
It will never lessen our anguish.
It will never ease our torment.
The rocks represent words and hurts experienced now and in the past.
For some sharing our worship or reading the message, the source of misery is rooted in the present as well as the past.
We are each aware of marriages and relationships where the primary means of communication is rock throwing; and these people have real good aim.
They know just what to say to cause misery; they know just what to do to cause torment.
At the extreme the rock becomes a knife or a bullet.
You and I know of growing and grown children who know just what to say and just what to do to cause pain and misery for their fathers and mothers.
Accusations and actions are rocks that are aimed at parents in order to cause the most pain and misery.
The message is, “I'm going to do just what I want to do and I am going to live just like I want to live.”
Because of these rocks thrown without regard to the impact they will have, both parties are bloodied and bruised.
Just as we know children who are good at throwing rocks, you and I also know parents who are adept with words calculated to cause the most harm in their children.
Neglect is one of the worst rocks—with long-lasting consequences.
Favouritism can be another effective rock to injure and destroy.
Unfortunately, I suppose that we each know employees and employers that know just what to say or to do to cause pain and misery.
Tragically, we are all too familiar with churches and pastors who have gotten into this rock-throwing contest.
There is a story which you will find in the Bible that presents a family which is remarkably similar to a modern-day dysfunctional family.
Perhaps we should realise that dysfunction is not a product of this age, but that it has marked families since the introduction of sin into the world.
The proud and joyful parents in this particular dysfunctional family were named Isaac and Rebekah.
Study the story with me and together let’s discover something about what pleases God.
Study the story so that we may see ourselves reflected, both in our relationship in the home and in our relationship to one another as a people of God within the Body of Christ.
*The Natural Use of Rocks* — There are plenty of rocks, many of which we bring, consciously or unconsciously, into the Body of Christ, which are available to any life.
Among the rocks which are prominent for our use or misuse are such stones as Competition, Conspiracy, Favouritism and Greed.
A couple of chapters prior to the one from which our text is taken is found the account of the birth of the twin boys—Esau and Jacob.
Their father, Isaac, had married late in life.
In fact, he was forty years of age when he at last married.
The marriage was arranged through the intervention of his father, Abraham.
After marriage, Isaac was grieved to discover that Rebekah, his wife, was barren.
Today, we might consult an obstetrician or a fertility specialist, and having determined who was at fault, we would endeavour to correct God’s error.
It was quite different in that less enlightened age, however.
There were no specialists, nor was there knowledge of reproductive biology such as we enjoy today.
Because Isaac and Rebekah were so ignorant, they went to God.
The Word of God says that /Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren/ [*Genesis 25:**21a*].
Childlessness was a serious enough issue that Isaac sought the Lord’s intervention, and /the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived/ [*Genesis** 25:21b*].
These simple people consulted the Creator first.
Perhaps we could learn something from their humble response.
I am not disparaging consulting medical experts in this day, but I cannot help but wonder if we would not be better served were we to first consult the Great Physician?
I wonder if we are the poorer for our failure to call *first* on God?
I am compelled to take a moment to note an important issue which is neglected, perhaps even resented, by many modern couples.
The Bible makes abundantly clear that children are a gift from the gracious hand of God.
Barrenness was considered a mark of divine displeasure among people of the Bible.
We cannot begin to imagine the sorrow Rebekah felt at being childless.
Compounding the natural sense of emptiness in the home was this thought of lack of fulfilment as a woman.
Rebekah understood that her role was to be a mother; her career was to be the happy mother of children.
Not so in this day.
The more wealth we accumulate, the greater our acquisition of “stuff”, the less encouragement to be parents and to discover the true wealth which God offers.
The children were born, and Isaac and Rebekah were doubly joyous because Rebekah birthed twins.
The first son to breech the womb was carefully noted, for he would receive the birthright of a firstborn son.
At some point, the boys were observed to be exceptionally different, and the parents began to show favouritism.
The first boy and the heir to the family fortune was Esau.
The second boy born was Jacob.
They were not identical twins.
In fact they were very, very different.
Esau was the athlete.
He liked to hunt, fish, and play sports.
In elementary school he brought home all the first place ribbons.
He was the fastest runner, the best at all the sports.
Isaac was proud of that Esau.
Isaac would turn to the other parents and say, “That's my boy.”
Esau was the type of man that other men liked and with whom they could relate.
Jacob was different.
Esau ran; Jacob read.
Esau won ribbons; Jacob designed them.
Esau was first on the track; Jacob was first on the test.
Esau would bring animals home for food.
Jacob would bring animals home for pets.
Esau was Sylvester Stallone; and Jacob was Woody Allen.
But Rebekah was so proud of Jacob.
He was the star in all the church plays, and Rebekah would be heard to say, “That's my boy.”
In this dysfunctional family the rocks flew.
There was Competition of an unhealthy sort between these two brothers.
Throughout life, they struggle with one another for supremacy.
Esau assumes the right of primogeniture and exudes a sort of paternalistic aura.
Jacob, on the other hand, received his name because of his actions from the womb.
When he was born, his hand was grasping his brother’s heel.
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