When You Fail To Trust God

It is my contention that the contents of verses 15-30 conveys the conviction that Jacob had a Serious Problem With Trusting God. The basis for that conclusion is grounded on the fact that here was a man, who with his mother, had conspired, schemed and tricked both his father and brother out of the blessing and birthright of the first-born. And, as a consequence of which, put his life at risk of death, so he runs! But in his flight from the consequence of his character, the Lord God Almighty, in sovereign mercy, gives him an unconditional promise of His Constant Presence and Protection on his journey and bring his safely to the home of his uncle. And yet, Jacob still tried to do things his way!!! He still tried to out-think and use tricks to get what he wanted.

Now I don’t know how you feel about this matter, but, to me, Jacob was a Man who had a Problem With Trusting God! He had a serious problem coming to grips with the fact that God had a plan that covered all of his life; that God had previously planned and provided for all of his needs since day one of his birth to day last of his death; that God is totally reliable and trustworthy and that He wants only the best for us. So Jacob trusted only 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” (incidentally God was with him and did keep him); and he said, and if God “will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on” (and incidentally God did), “so that I come again to my father’s house in peace: then shall the Lord be my God….” Now here is a man declaring he would not trust God until God had solved all of his problems and provided all of his needs!!!

We have this terrible tendency to hold out on God until He has met all of our demands. The terms of our total trust runs like this: ‘Lord, if You will give me a good paying job and a brand new car, and give me the woman that I want or the man; or bring my husband/wife back home to me; 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; as if God would be blessed to have us. What kind of foolishness is that?

But the problem with that was this: 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 to be one-sided. One party was to do all the giving and the other the receiving. But a covenant is a contract based on a relationship. Jacob wanted God to enter into a relationship with him while he remained neutral. He was not going to depend on God Until…

And so, the question our Text raises is: What do you do when you Fail to Trust God? What do you do when you Fail to Take God At His Word? What do you do when you fail to Rely on the Present Goodness of God? How are you going to Make It on Your Own?

Well, let me suggest there are A Number of Things You Will Do, when you have a problem trusting God.

Let me suggest that when you fail to trust God, one of the First Things You Will Do Is:

I. 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: he wanted to Be Served instead of Serving Esau or his father, Isaac. And he came to Haran to be served: to be served with safety and a wife. And so, when Laban brought up this Serving-Thing 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 Blessing in Genesis 25:23. According to the last part of that 23rd verse, the Promise of Blessing was “the elder shall serve the younger.” God did not specify WHEN the elder would serve the younger. And so, I believe that Jacob took it for granted that the time-factor was unimportant. 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, we resort to carnal reasoning. We calculate from the standpoint of our planning not from the standpoint of God’s tempo. But that is a mistake, because the Promises of God Have A DUE-DATE! They are Due in God’s Time, not ours. But until that Due-Date, the Younger Shall Serve the Elder. And Jacob had a problem with that!!!