The Importance Of Roots - Genesis 31:19-55 Series

Jesus told one parable in particular that talked to everyone about their lives, a whole life. I find the parable fascinating because it’s very real to us today. That is after Christ lived on the earth it also helps us. But it also helps people before us. In fact Jacob would have benefited from listening to this parable that Jesus told.

Now He told it in two different parts. He described the parable and then he told its meaning. I’m going to bring those two things together first here so that you can understand them and what it looks like.

You see Jesus said this. There was a sower that went out to sow. And he cast the seed out and it fell onto the soil. Now the seed He says represents the word of God and as the seed is being cast out, it falls on four different kinds of soil. The soil represents the heart of people.

The first kind of soil that it falls on is the hard soil of the path. This is the person who gets wind of the gospel or hears the message or someone shares a testimony or they hear a sermon or they hear something about, they see a bumper sticker about Christ, whatever it is, and they just turn it off. They’re just not interested at all. They’re the person who has a hard heart and not open to spiritual things.

The second kind of soil (and this going to be particularly important for Jacob’s life) was a soil where the seed was cast and it fell onto the rocky soil. So it grew up quickly. But when the sun came out it was so hot it scorched because it didn’t have the roots necessary. When we don’t have the roots necessary then the challenges of life cause some problems. In fact let me take you right into the parable and show you that. It says there – The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and once receives it with joy. (These are Jesus’ words here.) But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution come because of the word, they quickly fall away.

So it’s persecution because someone laughs at you because you’re a Christian or criticizes you because you have faith. That’s one. But the other word is trouble. I wanted you to see what the word trouble means in the Greek language there. Because the word trouble is what Jacob is going to experience and what we experience in our own lives. It’s the word thlipsis. It’s a fun word to say. Go ahead and say it. Thlipsis. Okay, that’s the word.

This is copied directly out of the Greek-English dictionary for the Bible so you can see what the words are. Because I want you to see what trouble looks like in our own lives. It says “properly, it means pressure.” So when pressures come into our lives, what constricts or rubs together, when you’re in friction with someone or you feel constricted, “used of a narrow place that ‘hems someone in’.” You just kind of feel like you’re trapped. You almost feel like you’re claustrophobic in your life. That something is wrong here. I don’t know how to handle it. Now get this. “Tribulation, especially internal pressure that causes someone to feel confined, (restricted or without options).” You know that feeling that just the pressures of life are creeping in on you and you feel you don’t have options, so you exert something. Sometimes it means you’re anxious about it. Sometimes it means you just get angry and blow up. You feel like you don’t have the options you need. That’s because this pressure is like the sun, the scorching heat that comes down on this little plant (you in your heart, that’s your faith growing), but it doesn’t have enough roots. If it had roots it would be able to endure the pressures, the thlipsis of life.

That’s going to be our application. When you’re done today I hope you’ll be constrained or compelled to have your roots go deeper. We’re going to see that Jacob lacked that. So when the pressure grew he lost it. That’s a good word to describe Jacob. He really lost it in our passage. I’m eager to take you into the passage in Genesis 31. That’s our passage today.

But let me bring you up to speed as to where we are already. Remember Jacob had been working for Laban for twenty years. Now he has this impression that it’s time for him to leave. Things aren’t the same as they have been in the past. It's just time for him to move on. We talked about that desire sometimes that we have. It’s time to move on. We talked about that last week. So he takes that desire to the Lord and the Lord affirms that in his heart. Yes, He says, you can go back to your father’s country. And He says these five words: And I will be with you. We need those words. Because when we know that God is with us it helps us to trust Him. It helps our roots to go deeper into the soil. So that when the problems, the challenges, the thlipsis of life come, we know that God is with us, even in the midst of the scorching sun that takes effect on our lives and puts pressure. Pressure that helps us feel hemmed in sometimes.