Another Promise Kept
Text: Gen. 30:25-43
Introduction
1. Read Gen. 30:25-43
2. Jack was out jogging one day and as he passed a cliff, he got too close and fell. Grabbing hold of a branch he was stranded. No way up and certainly no way down. He began to scream, “Hello up there can anyone hear me.” He yelled for hours and was about to give up when he heard a voice.
“Jack, Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Yes, I can hear you I’m down here.”
“I can see you, Jack, are you alright?”
“Yes, but...who are yo and where are you?”
“I am the Lord Jack, I am everywhere.”
“The Lord? You mean God?”
“That’s me.”
“God, help me, I promise that if you get me down from here, I’ll stop sinning. I’ll be a really good person and serve you for the rest of my life.”
“Easy on the promises, Jack. First let’s get you down, then we can discuss those.”
“I’ll do anything, Lord, just tell me what to do, okay?”
“Okay, let go of the branch.”
“What?”
“I said, let go of the branch. Just trust me, let go.”
PAUSE
“Hello, Hello, is there anybody else up there?”
3. God is a promise keeper. We’ve heard that and we say we believe that, but are we willing to trust God to do it.
4. God has promised to prosper His people, but are we willing to let go of the branch?
Proposition: God has promised to prosper His people, but we must appropriate it by keeping His word.
Transition: To understand this we must see that...
I. God’s Promises Are Kept (25-34).
A. The Lord Has Blessed Me
1. When Jacob was at Bethel, the Lord promised to bless him, and in this text we shall see that He kept His promise.
2. Jacob has been living with his uncle Laban and has served him faithfully for fourteen years as a dowry for his two wives Rachel and Leah.
a. God has blessed him with children (11 so far)
b. God has also blessed the work of his hands
3. Now Jacob figures that his work there is done and it is time for him and his family to go back to where he came from. So he asks Laban’s permission to leave.
a. In their culture, a woman with no children could be discarded and her only protection was her family, which is why Jacob waits until after Joseph is born since he was Rachel’s first child (Walton, NIV Application Commentary, 589).
b. Since technically Jacob’s wives were considered as Laban’s property he needed Laban’s permission to leave.
4. Jacob reminds Laban that he has fulfilled his vow to him and it is time for his to go. In verse 26 he says "Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee."
a. Notice that he uses the word serve several times.
b. "Serve," "Service," and even the phrase "which I have done thee" all come from the same Hebrew root (Hamilton, NICOT - Genesis 18-50, 281-82).
5. However, when Laban hears this from Jacob he gets a little nervous, because he knows that God has prospered Jacob soo much that he too was getting blessed.
a. When Jacob first came, Laban had hardly anything.
b. Now because God had blessed Jacob, he had a "multitude" of livestock.
c. Laban was trying to look out for his own interests.
6. He says to Jacob, "I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake."
a. However, Jacob is interested in what Laban wants; he just wants to go home.
b. Not to mention the fact that Laban has already weaseled another seven years of service out of him.
7. Laban still doesn’t want Jacob to get away, so he says "name your price."
a. Jacob doesn’t want anything from Laban.
b. He knows where his blessing was coming from: the Lord.
8. So Jacob says, just give me all of the spotted or speckled goats, and all of the brown sheep.
a. In the Mediterranean world, sheep are normally white and goats are black (Hamilton, 282).
b. So all he is asking for is the rejects.
c. But Jacob know that God is able to take even the rejects and bless him through it.
B. God Is Able
1. Illustration: "If God is able to place the stars in their sockets and suspend the sky like a curtain, do you think it remotely possible that God is able to guide your life? If your God is mighty enough to ignite the sun, could it be that he is mighty enough to light your path? If he cares enough about the planet Saturn to give it rings, or Venus to make it sparkle, is there an outside chance that he cares enough about you to meet your needs (Max Lucado One Incredible Moment (Nashville, TN. Thomas Nelson; 2002) 63.
2. I know that my God is able to bless.
a. He is able to bless me
b. He is able to bless you
c. He is able to bless this church
3. I know that my God wants to bless.
a. He wants to bless His children
b. He wants to bless His church
4. I also know that God wants us to bless others through us.
a. He wants us to bless them spiritually
b. He wants us to bless them financially
c. He wants us to bless them through encouragement and the love of Christ.
5. But it all starts by standing on the promises of His word.
a. He shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.
b. He will not leave you or forsake you.
c. All things are possible for him that believes.
6. Stand on his word, believe in His promises, and God will pour out His blessings upon us.
Transition: Another thing about God’s promises is that...
II. God’s Promises Cannot Be Circumvented (35-43).
A. Laban Removes the Spotted Goats
1. Circumvent means "to avoid having to comply with (something) especially through cleverness" (Webster’s Online Dictionary).
2. That is exactly what Laban tried to do; he tried to circumvent the promises of God by an act of underhanded deceit.
a. Immediately after making the deal with Jacob, he takes all of the irregular sheep and goats out of the flock and gives them to his sons.
b. Then he has his sons take them three days down the road.
c. In other words, he cheated Jacob.
3. Now, Jacob shows that he hasn’t quite learned his lesson about God not needing our help, comes up with a scheme of his own.
a. He takes the bark from various trees and peels them so that there were white strips on them, and put them in the watering troughs.
b. He bases this on a myth at the time that pregnant animals would give birth based on what they were looking at during delivery (i.e. if they saw strips during delivery, they would deliver stripped babies).
c. This common belief is now known to be quite unscientific - New International Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM
4. Just as Rachel’s mandrakes didn’t get her pregnant, the stripped bark didn’t make Jacob’s flock grow.
a. The Lord caused his flock to grow.
b. Gen. 31:9-12 So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. And it happened, at the time when the flocks conceived, that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted. 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 leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
5. Verse 43 tells us that "the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses."
a. So Jacob was greatly prospered (30:43) in fulfillment of God’s promise at Bethel, and at the expense of Laban, who now received what he deserved.—Bible Knowledge Commentary
b. Jacob not only had large flocks, but also servants, camels, and donkeys.
c. God had blessed him beyond measure.
B. Abundant Life
1. Illustration: “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln, Oct 1863.
2. The blessings of God cannot be taken away from you.
a. The Devil can’t take it from you.
b. The oil companies can’t take it from you.
c. Circumstances can’t take it from you.
d. Bad luck can’t take it from you.
3. The blessings in this life don’t:
a. Come from the devil
b. Come from the oil companies
c. Come from circumstances
d. Come from luck
e. But they do come from God
4. However, on the other hand you can’t say:
a. I earned
b. I deserve
c. I’ve got it come to me
5. Blessings in this life don’t come from being smarter, skinnier and better looking, but they come from God.
a. Trust in God
b. Stand on His promises
c. God will bless you
Transition: Trust in the Lord, lean not on your own understanding, and He will make strait your paths.
Conclusion
1. God promises to bless His people.
2. We appropriate His blessings by:
a. Standing on His Word
b. Standing on His Promises
c. Standing on His Truth
