Genesis Series #56 August 11, 2002
Title: 5 Ways That God is Active in His People’s Lives Part 3
Email: pastorsarver@yahoo.com
Website: www.newlifeinchrist.info
Welcome to New Life in Christ. Today we continue with message #56 in our verse-by-verse study of the Book of Genesis.
Read Genesis 31:1-16
Opening Prayer
Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at Genesis 29 and 30, which are a history of Jacob after he had fled from Esau. These chapters along with Chapter 31 cover a period of 20 years in Jacob’s life. There are many life lessons and spiritual applications for our lives in these chapters. One of the dominant themes is God’s activity in his people’s lives. Through the story of Jacob we discover some of the ways that God actively works in all of his people’s lives. The message for us is that although God is unseen, he is not uninvolved. This can be an encouragement in our lives because we know that even when we are unaware of God’s presence, he is working to accomplish his purposes. In this narrative we have so far discovered three ways God actively works in his people’s lives.
1. God actively works in his people’s lives by guiding them.
2. God actively works in his people’s lives by disciplining them.
3. God actively works in his people’s lives by prospering them.
This third way of God actively working in his people’s lives was found in Chapter 30 where we saw that God prospered Jacob by providing him with offspring and livestock. He did this despite Laban’s deception and unfair treatment.
Unfortunately Jacob had a habit of turning to deception and his own resources for a remedy to unfair treatment instead of trusting God to provide. In this case he intends to use superstitious herder’s tricks using striped branches to insure that the flocks produce striped offspring. The idea was that the females would have offspring that were like whatever they were looking at whenever they conceived. The scheme seems to work as the flocks do produce an abundance of streaked and spotted offspring which made Jacob a wealthy man. In Genesis 31:10-12 Jacob is told that in a dream that his prosperity had nothing to do with his ingenuity or schemes but had everything to do with God actively working in his life.
This brings us to Genesis 31:1-16 where we see God actively working in a fourth way.
4. God actively works in his people’s lives by prompting them in the right direction.
One way God prompts us in the right direction, i.e. towards his will, is through circumstances. We see this in verses 1 and 2.
Read Genesis 31:1, 2
Jacob was quite comfortable and prosperous where he was, so there was no reason to leave and return to the Promised Land. He needed a Divine nudge to get him moving in the right direction in the same way that my daughters need some serious prompting to get them out of their comfortable beds and off to school early in the morning. God did this prompting through the use of adverse circumstances. First Laban’s adult sons were jealous and angry over Jacob’s prosperity. Many times the ungodly will be envious of God’s blessings on his people. Remember how Saul hated David and how Cain hated Able because of God’s favor upon them. This envy and anger of Laban’s sons begins to prompt Jacob to leave the area because he knows how envy and anger can lead to the intent to harm, as was the case when Jacob fled from Esau.
Verse 2 tells us that Jacob also noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was no longer favorable. So now both Laban and his sons are bitter toward Jacob, which seems like a bad thing but God is using these circumstances to further his plans for Jacob. It should encourage us to know that God even uses unfair hostility and and other negative circumstances to nudge us toward his purposes.
4. God actively works in his people’s lives by prompting them in the right direction.
Probably most of us have examples of how God used seemingly bad things to get our attention and prompt us in the right direction. It was only after this church experienced a small split that I was prompted to affiliate with Calvary Chapel. Another example of God using circumstances to prompt us in the right direction is a story that one of our elders Ken Tatje told me. Ken told me that it was only after being unfairly fired from Publix that he pursued a teaching career, which was God’s will for his life. The point is that God knows how to get us going in the right direction.
Read Genesis 31:3
In verse 3 we see another way that God prompts his people in the right direction. He uses divine revelation such as his Word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God confirms what Jacob is probably already thinking; maybe it’s time to return home. In the same way God will confirm his will to us. We cannot assume that negative circumstances mean that we should leave the situation, since many times God wants us to stay right where we are, even if it is difficult.
God prompts us in the right direction by circumstances and divine revelation. This was the case when I began to see the need to teach verse by verse. First I had seen the negative consequences and experienced the negative circumstances of ignorance and misuse of the Bible and second the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart about the need for teaching the whole word of God verse by verse.
Despite the negative circumstances and divine revelation, leaving was no easy task for Jacob. The journey would be filled with dangers and uncertainties, therefore God reassures Jacob that everything would work out by telling him, " I will be with you. " This promise prompts Jacob to take the first steps in the right direction and to reassure his family about this venture by recounting how God had been faithful to his word in the past. We see this in Genesis 31:4-13.
Read Genesis 31:4-14
In these verses Jacob and his family are reassured about leaving Laban and going back to Bethel by being reminded of several things. First Jacob notes that circumstances are not so good where they are (verse 4, 5a.) Then he notes that God had been
present with him (verse 5), God had been protective of him (verse 7), and God had provided for him (vs. 8-9. ) the last 20 years. These were examples of how God had been with Jacob and would have strengthened his and his family’s faith. Jacob may have thought that his success was due to his own ingenuity but God appeared to him in a dream to correct that misassumption (vs. 10-12.)
In that same dream God made it clear that it was his will for Jacob to return to Bethel at this time (verse 13.) All of these things were reassurances for Jacob and his family and prompting by God to go in the right direction.
4. God actively works in his people’s lives by prompting them in the right direction.
God has prompted Jacob to go in the right direction with circumstances, divine revelation, and assurances of his presence, provision, and protection. Now there’s one last thing needed for Jacob to take this step. He needs confirmation from others that he is going in the right direction and therefore has their support. He received this in verses 14-16.
Read Genesis 31:14-16
Rachel and Leah are 100 percent supportive of Jacob’s plan to leave, especially since their father had treated them so unlovingly by spending their dowry, which was supposed to be kept safe for them in case Jacob died or abandon them. Just like when Rebecca had been willing to leave with Isaac, so God had ordained circumstances so that Rachel and Leah were willing to leave their father and go with Jacob.
In our own lives God is actively prompting us in the right direction also. We have free will but certainly God will nudge us to go a certain way. He does is through circumstances, divine revelation, and assurances of his presence, provision, and protection, and through the confirmation of others.
Now let’s look at another way God is active in his people’s lives.
Read Genesis 31:17-55
5. God actively works in his people’s lives by protecting them.
Leaving Haran was no easy decision since it was very risky. There’s a strong chance that Laban and his sons would interfere and forcefully take Jacob’s wives and children or worse and there was a chance that
Esau was still angry and would kill Jacob on his return to the Promised Land.
What we see in the rest of Chapter 31 is that God was the only source of protection Jacob needed. If we are doing God’s will, we can be confident that he will protect us so that his work in us and through us is completed. Unfortunately Jacob and Rachel’s faith that God would protect them was not as strong as it should have been so they turn to their own devices to provide protection and in the end this action caused them more trouble.
In verse 19 we’re told that Rachel stole her father’s household idols. These were thought to provide protection and prosperity so her motive for stealing these idols was distrust of God’s protection. She wanted something she could fall back on in case things didn’t work out, though it seems ludicrous to trust in an idol that could not keep itself from being stolen. We too may find our security in other things besides God. When may trust in our bank account, a relationship, a certain job, etc. and because we trust in these things and find our security in them we desperately try to hold on to them, but God wants us to trust in him alone!
Jacob does not put his trust in idols but doesn’t trust God to protect him either. He depends once again upon deception instead of God, as we see in verses 20-21. Did his scheme work? No! Jacob’s deception and Rachel’s theft, which came from a lack of faith, only produced more hostility with Laban just as it had been in the case of Esau, and in the case were Abraham deceived Pharaoh and Abimelech about Sarah being his wife. There is a life lesson here. When we act in distrust of God we only bring more trouble to ourselves.
There is another life lesson in this text. God protect s his people despite their foolish choices. We see this in verses 22-24. Laban certainly intends to harm Jacob but God intervened by warning him in a dream not to "say anything to Jacob either good or bad" which is a Hebrew idiom which means: Don’t mess with Jacob! Jacob did not need to turn to his own resources or to deception because God was watching over him just as he has promised and does with us.
5. God actively works in his people’s lives by protecting them.
After catching up to Jacob, Laban put on a big act about being concerned about his daughters and grandchildren, and how he was willing to send them away joyously, but his real concern is his household idols as verse 30 makes clear. Jacob was unaware that Rachel had stolen the idols so he encourages Laban to search for them.
The way Rachel hid the idols accomplishes two things. First Laban’s is fittingly paid back for his deception of Jacob concerning his marriage to Rachel. In verse 35 the Hebrew actually says, "Don’t be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence for I am with the custom of women." This word "custom" was used in Laban’s excuse for deceiving Jacob. He said in Genesis 29:26, "It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one." So he is deceived in the same way and for the same reasons that he deceived.
The manner in which Rachel hid the idols while she was having her period also communicated a message about the idols’ uncleanness since anything in contact with a woman during this time was considered unclean. Things could have been really bad had Laban discovered the idols but God protected Jacob and his family, while he in no way approved of the theft, idols, or deception. Thank God for his mercy.
5. God actively works in his people’s lives by protecting them.
The rest of the chapter consists of Jacob recounting how unfairly he had been treated and how God had protected him despite Laban’s treatment. Laban has no real choice but to insist upon a truce between them, which was accepted by Jacob and confirmed by the setting up of a pillar of stones and a communal meal. Time does not permit me to cover the other verses in great detail but the main point is clear.
5. God actively works in his people’s lives by protecting them.
Conclusion: In the story of Jacob’s journey we can all be encouraged because we know that God is present and he is working to accomplish his will.
1. God actively works in his people’s lives by guiding them.
2. God actively works in his people’s lives by disciplining them.
3. God actively works in his people’s lives by prospering them.
4. God actively works in his people’s lives by prompting them in the right direction.
5. God actively works in his people’s lives by protecting them.
Closing Prayer
