Jacob's Exodus

Andy Osborne

Genesis • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Introduction

Throughout Scripture there are multiple ways that we are introduced to the idea of salvation and deliverance. This is no surprise, as the Gospel is rooted in salvation. Salvation is both relieving and humbling. This is especially the case when what we need saving from is ourselves or the consequences of our own actions.

Jacob was in a sticky situation that was very much his own doing. As we see God’s saving hand intervene, we also see Jacob’s attitude towards God soften as his own good and deliverance are completely out of his own hands. Beyond the bad situation with Laban, God is showing Jacob his inability to escape his own corrupt nature, and yet God’s love and work in his life is slowly working in his heart.

Jacob’s Declaration of Faith (31:4-16)

After 20 years of bad marriages, indentured servitude, and the continued favour of God expressed in impossible blessings we finally see a change in Jacobs mindset. Up to this point, although Jacob has acknowledged God’s presence in his life, his actions have showed an infancy in this faith. His lack of prayer and praise towards God compared with his grandfathers servant who came to this same land for the same reason in Gen 24 points this out. Jacob is shallow, he doesn’t take his responsibilities as a husband seriously, he relies on his own questionable methods rather than God’s power, he practices magic with the flocks, and that is not even to mention his tricks and manipulations. Through all of this, God has shown him the favour and love that he doesn’t deserve, but along with his love is the discipline God shows to his people to lead them away from sin and unbelief and into the humility and trust that God means to bring all of his children into. Last week we saw Jacob put into a situation where he is essentially a slave of his father in law, and that his wages of the spotted and speckled flocks would be taken away from him so that it would almost impossible for him to get anything so that his father in law can keep him under his thumb. Nevertheless, God blessed him against all odds and soon he becomes a force to be reckoned with. His father in law couldn’t bully him around anymore despite his desperate attempts and this is where our text picks up.

We are told about what Laban’s sons are saying and what Laban is thinking. Laban’s sons are accusing Jacob of theft, which is a ridiculous claim since it is actually their father who has been stealing Jacob’s wages by moving the speckled and spotted goats and changing his wages. It is an accusation made out of jealousy and greed for the power and favour that only God gives. Laban’s good opinion of Jacob has now depreciated, not because of anything that Jacob has done to him but rather because of the favour God has blessed him with. Laban was happy to be all buddy buddy with Jacob while he was poor and under his thumb, but once the favour of God really showed itself to him Laban was not happy because Laban is driven by greed and the desire of material wealth, and this has led him to become an enemy of Jacob and by extension an enemy of God, since it is impossible to be an enemy of God’s people and a friend of God.

It’s at this point that Jacob calls his wives into the field for a little chat, and for the first time we see Jacob exercising faith in a real way. Not surprisingly, this faith comes as a result of God’s revelation to him. God’s Word is the standard by which we interpret the world around us, because it alone is the source of absolute truth. Many receive the blessings of God every day, but few interpret it as such. When people ask “where was God?” The answer is, he was there powering your heart, providing you with air, giving you food and other good things in life that you believe are the result of your hands. But when we submit to God’s word, we are given a correct interpretation of the world around us and the blessings we receive. Jacob receieved blessings in his flocks and herds, and his initial interpretation was that it was because of his stick magic. However, a vision from God quickly corrects that assumption.

Jacob’s declaration of faith is found at the end of verse 5 “but the God of my Father has been with me.” For once, it’s not his own works or plans that he relies on, it is God. His faith is finally growing. Why the change of heart, we find in verses 10-13

English Standard Version Chapter 31

10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’ ”

This is Jacob’s burning bush moment, the moment where God shows himself and tells him to go to the land he has inherited by the promise of God. The angel declaring these things to Jacob also shows Jacob a curious vision. During the mating season he looks up and sees the goats that are mating are not the solid colours that they are supposed to be, they are the spotted and speckled that Laban had supposedly removed from the flock. Either God had made an illusion the goats of solid colour were actually spotted and speckled, or else God was showing a physical representation of the supernatural work that God was doing in the genetics of these animals. Whether natural or supernatural, again the point is that it is indeed God who has provided for Jacob. The magic sticks had nothing to do with it, God was making it so that Jacob was provided for through his own sovereignty and because of this vision, this revelation from God, Jacob now realizes that God’s hand it 100% what was behind it. The the angel speaks to Jacob with the voice and perspective of God. The dialogue is reminiscent of Abraham’s communication with God, especially in Genesis 22 at the sacrifice of Isaac. This calls our mind back to that important moment in Abraham’s faith when he was put to the test and he passed by offering his son in faith. This is one of two turning points for Jacob, the next will come when he wrestles with the angel of the Lord. Jacob is humbling himself before God, saying “here I am” like a servant or an obedient and loving son, his faith is shining through.

Now God is calling Jacob to an exodus of the foreign land of padden Haram to the land he has been promised as the man of God’s choosing. He is the head of the covenant, the bearer of the promises of God to one day be fulfilled in Christ, and he must now be led out of the land of slavery and into the land of promise.

Verses 14-16 show Leah and Rachel are on the same page.

Genesis 31:14–16 ESV

Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

Laban’s enmity for Jacob has reached his daughters, whom he has essentially been treating like property in an investment that hasn’t turned out well. Now he treats them like strangers to be sold and any money that they would receive from their father is not given. They also recognize that God is the one that has taken away his wealth and given it to them. So now they have no reason to stay, since they have had every reason to stay taken away. In a sense, Laban’s hostility is a blessing since Jacob will get no resistance from his wives to leave.

Jacob Flees, Laban Pursues

So they wait until Laban is our sheering his sheep and they pack up their things and leave. Sheering sheep was a process that would likely take several days, so it was a perfect time to get all the herds together, all the tents packed up, and the kids to the bathroom one last time before heading south to the land of Caanan. It’s also apparently enough time for Rachel to swing by her father’s house and pick up the household gods, but we’ll get back to that in a bit. It’s not until 3 days later that Laban finds out about it and the chase is on. As fast as Jacob tries to go, remember that he is moving herds of sheep and goats that Laban is not burdened down by in his pursuit.

God Protects Jacob

But God steps in to protect the promised line once again. God speaks to Laban in a dream and tells him to to say anything to Jacob, whether good or evil. This is an expression in Hebrew that is as much as to say, “whatever you planned on saying or doing to Jacob, don’t.” God is telling Laban that Jacob is under his protection, and indeed he is under the orders of God to leave. This is essentially a vailed threat. If Laban tries anything that he was planning to do, God will be sure to take Jacob’s side.

When Laban comes to Jacob the next day he scolds him for taking off in secret without letting him say goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren, and that he has done foolishly. However, we cannot believe that Laban had no ill intentions, especially since the next thing out of his mouth is an admission of his intention of violence, implying that if God hadn’t stopped him he would have proceeded to act violently. He also asks about the gods, which Jacob knows nothing of at this point and so he promises that anyone found with these gods shall die. Laban looks through all of the tents, finds nothing, and then gets to Rachel’s tent. Rachel doesn’t stand in respect for her father because she is on her period, but she is also sitting on the saddle in which the idols are hidden. So, why did Rachel steal these gods?

Stealing these idols is a very serious mistake for Rachel to make, and reminds us once again that Rachel was chosen by Jacob only because she was beautiful and not because of the godly character he should have been looking for. She puts their entire escape in jeopardy, and Waltke argues that if they had been found Jacob’s moral high ground would have been lost since then Laban would have some legitimate reason for the pursuit. However, God continues to protect the chosen family despite these moral failings.

There are two ways to interpret what is happening in this scene.

Rachel is secretly mocking her father by using his idols as a pad.

Rachel is trying to get pregnant through pagan means.

In the end, Laban does not find the idols and it makes him look very foolish in front of Jacob. And Jacob gives it to him! Not only has Laban failed to find his idols, which Jacob does not know about, but he also demands that Laban say whether he has found anything that belongs to him at all. At the beginning of the chapter, we saw that Laban’s sons had accused Jacob of theft, but as Laban can clearly see there is nothing here but his own flocks and herds the the things he has purchased with them. This is definite proof that Jacob has acted righteously towards Laban by not taking what was his. Laban, on the other hand, has constantly acted in deception and unrighteousness towards Jacob. Jacob points out that for twenty years he worked faithfully, if a sheep or goat went missing he paid for it out of his own pocket, and he has never taken anything from him. Jacob is not bringing this up for no reason, his point is that if God were to judge between the two of them based on the morality of their actions towards one another, Jacob would come out on top. Jacob is appealing to his actions as ones that correlates to God’s character, which compared to Laban is true but compared to God’s eternal law is not. God’s favour is on Jacob because he chose him by grace, not because Jacob is better than Laban.

Jacob also brings calls Laban out for what he clearly planned to do based on the way he treated Jacob in the past. Laban would have taken all of Jacob’s flocks, both of his wives, and all of his children and sent him away like he came, if he let him go at all. Only God’s intervention stopped Laban from wronging Jacob even more without cause. Laban’s reply is really quite ridiculous:

Genesis 31:43 ESV

Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne?

Somehow, Laban thinks he still has the moral high ground here. He thinks he has a right over Jacob’s life and all the things that God has given him. This confirms to us what Laban would have done if God had not protected Jacob. Laban has been treating his daughters like property throughout this story ad here still. This is contrary to what God says at the creation of marriage in Genesis 2:24, and men and women are meant to leave their fathers and mothers and cling to each other and become one flesh. Laban has no right to take them back into his home for no reason. The children are not his children. They are biologically his grandchildren, but these children belong to the spiritual line of Abraham, not Laban. They are not his children, they are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the sons of the Kingdom. The flocks are not his flocks, they were the wage that he tried to steal from Jacob time and time again while God showered his favour and blessings on his chosen covenant head.

Nevertheless, there is nothing that Laban can do about what he falsely believes belongs to him. God is on Jacob’s side, and no one can stand against him. So Laban suggests a covenant. Translating this as “covenant” is a bit misleading, as the wording is intentionally different from the covenants that imply loving faithfulness. This is a treaty, a nonaggression pact that benefits only Laban in an ultimate sense. He realizes he cannot beat Jacob, so he suggests a peace treaty. In a moment, Laban has been brought down from the strong bully to the one begging for peace. The pact is sealed with a meal and a pile of stones, but aside from that Jacob also sets up a stone pillar. It represents his freedom from labour under Laban’s tyranny and it also bookends this part of Jacob’s story. Jacob set up a similar pillar on his way to Laban on the look for a wife, a pillar that represented God’s promises, favour, and grace towards Jacob because of his promises to Abraham. This pillar shows that God has shown that favour faithfully despite Jacob’s failures and despite Laban’s trickery. It is a symbol that God keeps his Word at all times.

It’s interesting to see the two men swear differently. Laban swears assuming that Abraham, Nahor, and their father all worshipped the same God. Jacob does not give into this false assumption, and instead swears on the Fear of his Father Isaac. What does that mean? Again, the translation isn’t great here. It means he swears on the one his Father fears, the LORD. The treaty is made, not that this means much on Laban’s side as he has proven to be faithless to his word, but it is an important moment for Jacob. He is finally free.

Exodus of God’s People

Escaping slavery is a common theme throughout the Scriptures. Of course the famous exodus of Israel from Egypt comes to mind, but lets also not forget Joseph, sold as a slave and redeemed by the favour of God evident in his life. Even the slavery contracts in Israel included a day of Jubilee, a day where all debts were forgotten, all Israelite slaves were freed, all purchased property was returned. Redemption from slavery and restoration. Then there was the return from Babylon after 70 years of exile in a foreign land to a foreign power. This theme highlights a few of a the most important truths of our faith and practice.

The need for redemption

Salvation from slavery is one of the main ways that Scripture uses to illustrate the metaphor of redemption. To be redeemed means to be bought back, and this tells us the nature of our salvation is one where a price is paid to bring us out. This points us straight to the blood of Christ, who redeems us from spiritual slavery. Redemption implies a freedom from the slavery of sin and its guilt to the freedom there is in God. Romans 6:16

Romans 6:16 ESV

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Redemption from sin means leaving the slavery of sin behind and serving a new master, a righteous master, a loving, generous, and fatherly master. This is our redemption, not that we have been freed from any master, but that we have been redeemed from the master of sin and death we once served to serve our Lord, Creator, and Saviour.

The helplessness of our sinful condition

We also see attention brought to the helplessness of our sinful condition. To be a slave means to be powerless in the hands of another. This is our nature at birth, and it is one of the most important things for us to define. Modern society is very affected by an ideology called secular humanism. In fact, a lot more of Canadian and American society is built on secular humanism than a lot of us realize. In fact, ideas that many think are based on Christian values are actually based on secular humanism, including the modern democratic system. What is secular humanism? It is the belief that human beings, when given the freedom to express themselves and seek truth and the ultimate good unhindered, will improve society, themselves, and make a generally better world. In other words, its the belief that people can make the world a better place without God or religious influence. There are two majour problems with secular humanism from a rational perspective. First, it assumes that it is self evident, which it is not and this becomes an internal contradiction because the system, which relies on the free pursuit of truth and the skepticism of any dogma, is itself a dogma, a doctrine that may not be questioned. Second, it assumes that human nature doesn’t exist. What I mean is, they assume that there is no fundamental spiritual condition inherent in the human soul that turns us to the wrong rather than to the right. This assumption is also incorrect, and with disastrous consequences. They assume that when human beings are free from religious or ideological restraints they will arrive at a good conclusion. It assumes that people are emotionally objective, which scientifically we know is not true, and it assumes people are morally objective, which cannot be true without a revealed morality.

What Scripture tells us is that we are all born under sin, we are born with a sinful bias if you will, an internal pull to the wrong and not to the right. This is the sinful slavery that we are born into, and it keeps us from pursuing the good. Secular humanism is dangerous because it tells us that we are capable of something we are not capable of. You cannot escape the slavery of sin by yourself. The humanist would say that what I’m doing to limiting your liberation in saying that, and so would the serpent in the garden of Eden. We are not free from a nature to make good and just decisions, we are enslaved to a way of thinking we were born with under the curse of Adam. And unless we grasp that, we will not understand the need for liberation from that nature and the adoption of a new nature. Jacob was put into a situation he could not possibly get himself out of as a sort of metaphor of his own spiritual condition. For both, only God’s grace has the power to save.

The power of God’s grace

With the freedom from Laban came a revelation of God’s powerful and gracious hand in Jacob’s life. When we know how weak we are, we can finally see how great that God is. This power, love, and faithfulness that God shows in glimpses here and throughout the Scriptures is gloriously and fully revealed in the coming of Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection are the only things that give any sort of hope from the enslaving curse of sin. You need an exodus, and to undertake such an exodus you need a Moses, a saviour and deliverer. But you need more than the salvation that Moses gave to the people of Israel, you need the God who called Moses and empowered him. Hebrews 3 tells us that Jesus is all that Moses was and so much more. He is the great leader that takes us out of our slavery to sin and he is the blood of the covenant that makes us children of God. He is shepherd who both guides his sheep to still waters and lays down his life for them. He is both the priest offering up a good sacrifice for sin to God and the sacrifice itself, and the God whose wrath is satisfied by that sacrifice. God is powerful, not only to save you from physical danger, not only to save you from the guilt of your sin, he is able to deliver you from the slavery of fallen human nature to the gloriously blessed state of Christ-likeness.

Unfortunately, many are hesitant and even hostile to seeing that they are ruled by a nature, even more a sinful nature they need to be delivered from. Secular humanism existed right from the garden of Eden in the lie that without God and his rules we could be like God defining the good life and how to get there ourselves. In a big way, Genesis as a story is an argument against secular humanism. Cain was a secular humanist, when rejected from the favour of God he tries to find his own morality based on his own work and it ends his line in tyranny. Humanity doesn't get better apart from God’s grace, and the reason we exist is not fulfilled. Do you want to live for the purpose that you exist? Do you want the joy of eternal life? The ability to overcome your sinful nature is found only through the blood of Jesus Christ. In him we have purpose, joy, and an eternal life that no one can cheat us out of.

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