It is my examination that the contents listed here in verses 15-30, conveys the conviction that this man Jacob had a problem when it came down to trusting God.
The basis for that conclusion is based on the facts that here was a man, along with his mother, had conspired, schemed and tricked both his father and brother out of the blessing and birthright of the first-born. And the consequences for what he did, puts his life at risk of death to the point where he’s now on the run.
But even in his flight from the consequence of his action, the Lord, in sovereign mercy, gives him an unconditional promise of his endless presence and protection on his journey and bring him safely to the home of his uncle. And even now in this venture, Jacob still tried to do things his way. He still trying to out think, con, scam, and use his tricks to get what he wanted.
Now I don’t know how you might feel about this matter, but, to me, Jacob was a man who had a series problem with trusting God. He was a man who had a serious problem with coming to grips with the fact that God had a plan that covered all of his life; he didn’t understand that God had planned, and provisions for all of his needs since day one of his birth to day last of his death; obviously he didn’t believe that God is totally reliable and trustworthy, and that God only wanted what was best for him, Jacob only trusted himself. He always held back something in reserve. He always had a back-up plan. He trusted no one but
himself.
The vow that he vowed in Genesis 28:20-21 speaks of this problem. He says: “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go.”
But what he obviously didn’t know is that God was with him and did keep him, because he said, and if God “will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, again God actually did give him food and clothing, “so that I come again to my father’s house in peace: then shall the Lord be my God.” look at what this man is declaring, look at what he was saying, he was saying that he would not trust God until God had solved all of his problems and provided all of his needs.
And Saints we have some of these same tendency, we will hold out on God until He has met all of our demands. The positions of our total trust goes something like this: ‘Lord, if You will give me a good paying job, a brand new car, a husband or a wife, heal my body, straighten up my finances and save all of my children; then, Lord, I will serve You. We sometimes act as if the Lord needs us because we are so valuable; we act as if God would be blessed to have us. We have missed the fact that God don’t need us, but we need God.
This is why we are always in a hurry; we want God to move in a microwave fashion. We can’t wait, everything is in panic mode, rush status, and of urgency. He said if God fills this check list, then I’ll trust him.
My question is, what was Jacob going to do while God was guiding, guarding and providing for him all this time? It seems to me that the relationship was one-sided. God was to do all the giving, and Jacob was doing all of the receiving. We have to understand that a covenant is a contract, an agreement, and a bond based on a relationship. Jacob wanted God to enter into a relationship with him while he remained neutral, and He was not going to depend on God, until God moved the way he wanted him to move.
And so, the question that our text raises is, what do we do, when we fail to trust God? What do we do, when you fail to take God at his Word? What do we do, when you fail to rely on the present of the goodness of God? Here’s my real question, how are we going to make it on your own?
Well, let me suggest that there are a number of things we will do, when you have a problem trusting God.
The first things we do is: we begin to serve a human master.
That is the First Thing Jacob Did as recorded in verse 15. Because he would not serve God, he had to serve a human master. In this 15th verse, Laban says to Jacob: “Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
The fact of the matter is, that’s why he left home so abruptly in the first place: because he wanted to be served instead of serving Esau or his father, Isaac. So, he came to Haran to be served: and to have a sense of safety and a wife. So, when Laban brought up this serving matter in verse 15, it must have blown him away and deflated his pride.
I believe it stemmed from the fact that Jacob misunderstood the promise of blessings in Genesis 25:23. According to the last part of that 23rd verse, the promise of blessings was “the elder shall serve the younger.” God did not specify when the elder would serve the younger. So, I believe that Jacob took it for granted that the time factor was unimportant.
So, according to the Seasons of our Soils, there are times when we don’t understand the will and Word of God. And because we don’t understand spiritual things as we ought to, then we resort to fleshly reasoning. We act from the standpoint of our planning, and not from the standpoint of God. And that’s a mistake, because the promises of God Has a due-date. And Jacob had a problem with that!!!
And one of the problems that we have today is this disdain for submission; we have a problem with waiting on God to move on our behalf. We want the seat without the service; the praise without the pain; the glory without the gloom; the title without the tension; the position without the performance; we want the crown, without the cross.
And I must tell you this morning that the way to greatness is still thru service. Even says Jesus: whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
But that’s a problem these day because people don’t wants to start at the bottom and work their way up to the top. We want to start out as the boss. We want to by-pass the period of preparation and training. We want to come in giving orders instead of taking orders.
Let me drop this in your spirit, when the husband does not submit to the Lordship of Christ, subsequently his wife does not submit to his headship, neither do the children, the entire home become a house of lords and no servants. And from there it leaks over into all areas of life. It goes into school, neighborhood, your jobs, and your business and yes, even into the Church, because no one wants to serve. When we fail to submit to god, we shall submit to a human master. And when you serve human masters, you will never be treated fairly, and you will always be treated less than.
And that’s the tragedy of it all: when we are too proud to trust God, we fall into the hands of crafty schemers. In other words, when we don’t trust God we fall into the hands of Laban. And Laban says, oh yes, you will serve me
When we don’t trust god there are wages to be paid for our failures. When we don’t trust God, we are paid cheap. When we are at the mercy of a human master we work long hours, for little pay, and treated like dirt.
When we don’t trust God, we disrespect the rights of the first born. Understand that the First-Born of that day and culture had certain rights and privileges. They had the right to claim the inheritance of their parent’s wealth and possessions; they had the right of the blessings; that had the right to be given first in marriage.
Because, the bloodline, the name and the inheritance would be carried thru the firstborn.
So what Laban tells Jacob in verse 26: “I’m not gonna let you dis my Daughter, my family, my culture and tradition. We don’t do that here in our country. We don’t give the younger before the firstborn in marriage.” In others words, if you want the younger, you’ll have to take the eldest first, and my question is, how many times have we had to settle for what we didn’t want, because somewhere in our past we ‘dissed’ the rights of someone else ahead of us. We need to learn patience.
The story is told of a person who was new in ministry, but had been around the church for a long, but he was just learning the protocol of the church and how to go out and minister to those that were in the hospital. He was told that he was not ready to go yet, but he went anyhow. He went to go see mother Williams who had been in the hospital some time now, but when he got to her room she had went down for some x-rays. He asked the nurse where was she and the nurse said, she went down for some testing and that it wouldn’t be long before she would be back in her room. Well while waiting this young man got hungry and he seen some peanuts sitting on the tray table, and one of the first things that I learned is that we some never eat the patience’s food when visiting, but he was some impatience that he ate them anyway. Moments later Mother Williams walked back in the room and seen the young who she has known for a long time and she said baby it’s good to see you. The young man said mother, I came right over after they called your name on the sick and shut-in list to pray for you, but while I was here I ate a few of your peanuts and I hope you don’t mind. The mother said naw baby I don’t mind. Since I’ve been here my husband knows that I love chocolate covered peanuts, and each week he brings me some, and I always suck the chocolate off and sit the peanuts in that bowl. It was all because he couldn’t wait that he settled for what he didn’t ask for.
Jacob had to learn to respect the rights of the firstborn. He disregarded the rights of the first-born in connection with Esau, his elder brother. So that which he had ignored concerning his brother, he must bow to in connection with his wife.
So, finally, what happens when we fail to trust God: then we will not wait on God.
It was because Jacob had refused to wait on God’s timing for the fulfillment of God’s promise that he had involved himself in so much trouble, and had to leave home and flee from Esau. And so now because he didn’t wait now he had to wait seven years before he could marry Rachel, and had to serve seven more years after they were married.
My brothers and sisters, we must learn to wait on God and follow his will and his ways.
Because when we don’t wait, we will have issues and problems/
When Moses didn’t wait and he got in trouble and killed a man, and because he didn’t wait this required forty years of work in the pastures of Midian.
Years later, Moses became impatient again and didn’t wait God, and he smote the rock and lost a trip to the Holy Land.
Part of the problem is that we walk by sight and not by faith.
We need to understand that God’s Delays Are Not God’s Denials. They are usually the means which God uses to prepare us for something better.
Wait on God because He is reliable.
Wait on God because is trustworthy,
Wait on God because he is faithful.
Because in your waiting God will pay off.
