Dennis Tuuri

Let us attend to the hearing of God’s word. The sermon text begins in Genesis 27:41. We’ll read through 28:9 and then we’ll turn to chapter 29 skipping over some material and read verses 1-31 in Genesis 29. So we’ll begin in Genesis 27:41. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

I might just say that we pick up the story of Jacob after he has first purchased the birthright from Esau and then deceived his father into giving him the blessing that he had purchased from Esau.

So we pick this up in Genesis 27:41. So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob. And the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebecca. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran, and stay with him a few days until your brother’s fury turns away, until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him, then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day? And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth.

If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me? Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan-Aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take yourself a wife there of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples, and give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham. So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-Aram to take himself a wife from there. And that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.” And that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother, and had gone to Paddan-Aram. Also, Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. So Esau went to Ishmael, and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

And now in Genesis chapter 29, beginning at verse one. And we are skipping over here the account of Jacob dreaming and meeting God in his dreams on the road to Abraham’s relatives. Beginning in verse one of Genesis 29.

So Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. And he looked and saw a well in the field. And behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well’s mouth. And all the flocks would be gathered there. And they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well’s mouth. And Jacob said to them, “My brethren, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” And he said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” So he said to them, “Is he well?” And they said, “He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep.”

Then he said, “Look, it is still high day. It is not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go and feed them.” But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and they have rolled the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we water the sheep.” Now, while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban, his mother’s brother.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative, and that he was Rebecca’s son. So she ran and told her father. Then it came to pass when Laban heard the report about Jacob, his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.

So he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be?”

Now Laban had two daughters, the name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak. But Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance. Now Jacob loved Rachel. So he said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your youngest daughter.” And Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. Now it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah, his daughter, and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. And Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah, as a maid. So it came to pass in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you?

Why then have you deceived me?” And Laban said, “It must not be done so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve me with me still another seven years.” Then Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. And Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a maid.

Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years. When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. We do pray that your Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts with this text. Illumine the text for understanding. Open our ears which too often we plug up, not wanting to hear what you have to tell us from your scriptures. Help us, Father, then to understand this word that we might worship you for it and we might obey it and be transformed by it. We thank you for your gift to us of true knowledge based upon your word and your revelation of who you are and of who we are as well. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Please be seated.

And Isaac loved Rebecca. That is indicated for us in their closing scene of that section of scripture where they come together at the oasis so to speak. They come together seeing each other from afar. It’s a very romantic setting and there is this romantic implication of the text in terms of arranged marriages.

We also saw Abraham and Abram and Sarah just sort of appear on the scene already married. We don’t know much about how that worked out but they are traveling in the context of his father as Abram comes out of the Chaldees with other relatives. So there is this still relationship to his father. And that’s told us in the text in the marriage of Abraham and Keturah we have no oversight of course Abraham’s father is long since off the scene but I think it’s instructive to us that you know with older people courtship arrangements for marriage look different and in the setting we have today we have an even different way of looking at things.

Jacob goes and follows a route very similar to Eliezer—who we thought was Eliezer, Abraham’s servant—and yet he doesn’t go with his marriage arranged by his father or by his father’s servant. He certainly goes in obedience to his father to seek out a wife from Laban’s family, but he goes by himself. And there the perspective of the bridegroom—the bridegroom rather—the covenantal head oversees the courtship or the arrangement of marriage without really the direct involvement of the father of Jacob. So there are these different models, these different kinds of love stories or courtship arrangements in scripture.

And I want us to look at this one today and try to glean some truths from it for look, we’re going to look at it first in terms of character studies, but we’re also going to focus as we did before on the courtship, the arranged marriage of Isaac and Rebecca. We’ll focus toward the end of the sermon on the main idea, the main phrase of the passage, and that is God’s covenantal faithfulness and the greater Jacob.

And then we’ll use that by way of conclusion to exhort ourselves to some of the character qualities we see in the text itself because essentially these good character qualities that we see on Jacob’s part primarily are response to the covenantal faithfulness of God.

Now we’re going to talk about Jacob and we’ve got to remember—last week we used Abraham and Keturah to do some chiropractic adjustments to our thinking about the body and the spirit and the soul about marriage sexuality in marriage, concubines, biblical wives, etc. We have to before we get into the marriage account itself here, the marriage text itself in Genesis 29, we need to do, I think, a few adjustments to our understanding of who Jacob is.

We read, I mentioned this last week, but we read in Genesis 47:9 and 10, Jacob sort of describes his life at the end of it. And we read this. Jacob said unto Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” Then verse 10, “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh. Few and evil are my days.”

Remember we read the concluding remarks of Abraham’s days. He had good days, long life, and God blessed him and all that he put his hand to do. And when we look at Jacob, we look at a different sort of situation than when we look at Abraham. But I don’t think we look at somebody who is an opposite or a contrast to Abraham. I believe we see in Jacob a complement to our understanding of biblical manhood and biblical character.

Some people have lives that are externally very prosperous and don’t seem to have all the troubles that other people’s lives have. Abraham was that kind of a guy. He had troubles, but not like Jacob. Jacob could correctly portray his days. He didn’t sugarcoat the account of his life by saying God’s sovereign. You know, blessed be God. I don’t know what happened, but it’s good. You know, it’s okay to say that, but it’s also okay to be truthful about what God does with us. And God had put Jacob through some very difficult times for most of his life.

Jacob correctly says, you know, my days have been really tough to Pharaoh. But Jacob blesses Pharaoh. You know, that’s why I read that second verse there in the account. At the end of Jacob’s life, Jacob is the vehicle that God is using to bless Pharaoh and to essentially lead him into the faith of Yahweh. Now, we’ll see that this is not untypical of Jacob’s life.

Turn if you would to Genesis 25:27. And I think we have here a description as Jacob is a perfect, a righteously mature man, a groom well worth emulating. So before I get to his character qualities as described in the text before us and urge husbands to look at these character qualities and young prospective husbands, you boys growing up, it’s not too early in any of your lives to start being trained in these character qualities. Before we get there, I want to, as I said, do a little adjustment on the character of Jacob because he tends to get a bum rap.

He tends to be looked upon very poorly in many evangelical circles today. In Genesis 25:27, we read of the account of these two boys who wrestled in the womb. So the boys grew and Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a perfect man dwelling in tents. So the New King James Version, King James version says that Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. I from what I can tell and I’m not a Hebrew scholar. I don’t know the Hebrew language. I rely upon Hebrew language helps, but from what I can tell, these translations are really bad here.

Mild, plain—the word itself is used in Job 1 verse 1 and verse 8. In verse one, we read, “There was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, one that feared God and shunned evil.” That word blameless is the word that these translations are translating mild and plain, but it’s blameless in Job 1:1. And then in verse 8, the Lord is speaking to Satan. He says, “If you consider my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil, fully mature in righteousness.” That’s what the word means.

Again, later in Job 8:20, behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will he uphold the evildoers. Blameless is put as a summary categorization of the righteous in the land, as contrasted to the evildoers as contrasted as we’ll see to Esau in the tale before us.

Another use of this word is in Psalm 37:37. Mark the blameless man and observe the upright, for the future of that man is peace. Not the mild man, not the plain man, the blameless man, the righteously mature man. Observe him because the future of that man is peace. And the future of Jacob is peace as well. A different kind of peace than we may look for, but it is the order of God.

Proverbs 29:10, the bloodthirsty hate the blameless, but the upright seeks his well-being. See, again, the contrast of the two lines in the Proverbs are the bloodthirsty and the blameless, not the mild or plain, the blameless, those that are righteously mature. And the contrast here again could be applied to Esau and Jacob. Esau is the bloodthirsty one. He wants that red soup, blood soup, whatever it was, he’s going to kill him. Likes to go out there and kill a lot of animals. He’s a kind of a wild, undomesticated sort of fella. And after this whole scene takes place, he’s going to kill Jacob. He’s bloodthirsty. And he hates the blameless, the maturely righteous one, Jacob.

Now, some other words—it’s the same word, a little different form—is found in Genesis 6:9. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. That word perfect again is the same word that used to refer to Jacob as he grew up into maturity, he grew up righteously mature before God. Noah walked with God. Genesis 17:1, when Abram was 99 years old and God appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God. Walk before me and be blameless.” Same word, not be plain, not be mild, be blameless, righteously mature in the context of who I am. Serve me in that way.

So, Jacob, one of the first things we’re told after the story of their birth and the struggling in the womb. What we’re told is that when he grew up, God says he grew up as a righteously mature, blameless guy just like Noah, just like Abraham, just like Job. That’s how God wants us to think of Jacob as he takes us into then the narrative of what’s going to happen between Jacob, Esau, and Isaac.

Okay, real important that we see that verse and the implications of it and we don’t just kind of look over that he is a groom well worth emulating. He is a righteously mature man.

Now I know that some of you are already thinking that well you know he’s a righteous mature man you say but boy he sure was a deceptive fella in cheating his brother out of his birthright. Well few things to remember there. First of all he didn’t cheat his brother he bought his brother’s birth right. Brother comes in from hunting. Oh, I’m just I’m going to starve to death. I need something to eat right away. Jacob says, “Well, I tell you what, I’ll give you this stew here that I made up if you sell me your birthright.” Esau says, “Okay, what good is it to me if I die?” And you may think that Esau is just dying there, that he really is about ready to keel over, but that isn’t the case.

Because what he does after he has a little bit of this stew, he gets up and goes on his way. He’s just the kind of guy that’s driven by his sensual appetites. One of the things we find out about him very early on in this account is he ended up marrying two women. He’s a polygamist by choice, not a polygamist by the legal trickery of a guy like Laban by choice. And his wives are Canaanite gals, Hittites, who are a heaviness and a weariness to his parents.

That’s the kind of guy Esau is. And contrasting to that is Jacob here. So his deception of his father is based upon the fact that he’s already by two by two statements been given that birthright. God said that the elder rather would serve the younger. That’s what God told the parents of these boys while the wife was still pregnant, not yet given birth. That’s why these two kids are struggling in there.

By the way, Jacob in the womb is struggling with the wicked Esau whose life shows us how wicked he is. And what is that a picture of? It’s a picture of the righteous struggling with the wicked and it may be an indicator of Jacob’s regeneracy in the very womb itself. We can’t take that too far. But we do know that as he grew up, he matured in righteousness in the face of God.

Couple other things about deception. We saw that the way the serpent brought about the fall of the woman was through deception. And commonly in scripture, what we see happening as a lex talionis, eye for eye, hand for hand, life for life judgment is wives or women rather deceiving tyrants. Women deceiving tyrants. We know for instance these cases I’m sure you’re aware of but just to bring them to mind before we consider Jacob’s character qualities.

We know for instance that Abraham deceived both Pharaoh and Abimelech. The end result of that story is there’s no pronouncement from God that deception was improper. In fact, in the case of both those Abraham has prospered from Pharaoh’s hand and also in the case of Abimelech Abimelech asked Abraham to pray for him and it seems like we see some deal of turning to Yahweh on the part of Abimelech based upon the deception of him at first by Abraham.

We see this also with Isaac later in his same sojourns he follows the pattern of deceiving another Abimelech, a ruler of that particular era and the end result of that story is the conversion of these men who enter into covenant with Isaac. But then we have some clearer accounts for us. We have Rahab and in James chapter 2 verses 25 and 26. This is what we read. Likewise was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. So he’s talking about faith working, a faith that works. And he uses it as an example, Rahab. And clearly the text tells us that Rahab’s deception of those who sought the life of the spies from God’s people going into the land. That Rahab’s deception of the government troops who inquired where these men were is a work of faith on behalf of God’s people.

James tells us that very clearly. Again, we can look at the story of Jael. Jael’s the one who kills Sisera who comes to you know rape, plunge and murder God’s people and Jael comes to Jael’s place and she makes believe like she likes him and going to lie down going to give him some milk and ends up putting a tent peg through his head. She deceived him by her actions to get him to lie down and be quiet and sleep for a little bit.

And what do we read? We read in Judges 5:24-27 Deborah sings about this. Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Blessed is she among women in tents. He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought out cream and a lordly bowl. She stretched her hand to the tent peg, her right hand to the workman’s hammer. She pounded Sisera. She pierced his head. She split and struck through his temple.

At her feet he sank, he fell. He lay still. At her feet he sank, he fell. Where he sank, there he fell dead. Jael’s deception of the god the tyrant Sisera is approved in the text of scripture just as Rahab’s deception is approved. And so the scriptures tell us this is sort of what happens. It’s not an unusual picture for a woman and in this case Rebecca, a godly woman to enter into deception of a tyrant.

And that’s what Isaac had become by the time of the deception of Isaac by Rebecca and then Jacob going along with it. Not at first wanting to do that. We’ll get into that in just a minute. The story of Isaac as a tyrant. But all I want you to do before we now start talking about his contrast with the three major characters in his life is to remember that the scriptures have identified him for us as a perfect man, an upright, righteously mature fellow as we go into all this narrative.

And secondly, the scriptures tell us in their width and breadth that deception of tyrants is acceptable under some circumstances. Now, you know, it’s kind of like divorce. It’s kind of like alcohol. What we want to do because we see the kind of abuses of divorce in our land, we want to say we don’t want any divorce in the church. God doesn’t, you know, will not allow any divorce at all, which is contrary to scripture and contrary to God’s own actions. He divorced Israel at a certain point in time.

Same thing with drink. Well, a lot of people get drunk and so we just get rid of alcohol. Bible says you shouldn’t have any alcohol, but The Bible says it’s a good thing. Bible says you’re supposed to use wine at communion and you’re supposed to if you want to and desire strong drink, purchase that with your consecrated money of your tithe. Well, it’s the same thing here.

You know, we look at our president picture of another Laban, so to speak, and his deceitful serpent-like speech. You can never tell what he means. That’s the way Laban will be to Jacob. And we say, you know, it’s just always wrong to deceive anybody. But the scriptures say that in cases where you are unable to appeal to an authority, you cannot do anything in the face of a tyrant. God says it is both proper it is proper to both pray that God would bring a judgment upon that tyrant and it’s also legitimate at least in the case of Rahab and Jael is legitimate to when every other option is failed to use deception against a tyrant.

Now you may not agree with that. That’s okay. Test it by scripture. Be noble Bereans. But you got to deal with the text with Jael and Rahab.

Okay. Let’s now then talk about this righteous, mature man of Jacob in contrast with Esau. Esau and I’ve given you some verses there that are sort of summary sections of the way Esau was. and I want to just, you know, from the beginning, from the get-go in Esau, we read that he comes out as a hairy all over. He comes out kind of looking like a beast. And by way of the story that unfolds, Jacob has to assume the clothing, the skin of an animal so that he can convince Isaac that he is Esau. So, Esau is pictured for us immediately as animalistic or beastial in the context of his birth and then the way he grows up kind of a wild hunter.

As I said, he takes these two daughters that provide a heaviness to him, etc. Ecclesiastes 10:16-17 I’ve read these verses to you before. Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your prince feasts in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your prince feasts at the proper time for strength and not for drunkenness. Well, you can ask yourself, which of these two is Esau? As the elder son born first, he was kind of a prince in the context of his position in the household.

But did he eat for strength or did he eat for some other reason? Or no self-control. Well, in the central issue of the text of Esau, when he sells his birthright for stew, he’s like these princes that bring woe to their lands when they don’t eat in due season, but they eat out of compulsion. He comes in and wants it. Now, you may or may not agree with me that the scriptures give us pause to consider whether Jacob’s deception was godly or not, but I think you’ve got to agree with me that God’s evaluation of that incident, okay, is an evaluation that places the onus upon Esau, not Jacob.

Some people say he tricked him out of his birthright by getting him into a hungry state and then selling him, having him sell the birthright. But the God’s editorial comment from the text where Jacob buys the birthright from Esau is this. Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus, Jacob stole his birthright. No, that’s not what the text says.

Thus, Esau despised his birthright. Esau despised his birthright.

So, Esau is pictured for us as the very opposite of Isaac, a man that holds of virtually zero regard the birthright and blessings of Yahweh upon him. He’s already indicated that by his marrying Canaanite wives, two of them. But now he see, you see it in spades, so to speak, where he despises his birthright. Hebrews talks about this in verse 16 of chapter 12, says, picking up the context, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

For you know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. See, Esau is a picture of ungodly repentance. No repentance, a remorse for what’s happened to him, but no remorse for his offense to God, of despising his birthright. You see, you see people cry, that doesn’t mean they’re repentant. It means they’re remorseful.

The old guys, Matthew Henry, those guys used to talk about evangelical repentance. Yeah, there’s tears involved, but it’s a reformation of life. Remember, we stressed that we talked about the ministry of John the Baptist. To repent is to reform oneself. And it begins at the sorrow not for what happened to you ultimately, but a sorrow for the offense you’ve given to God Almighty by despising the birthright. And actually for despising the word that the Lord had given to Esau’s parents that Jacob would serve Esau.

You see, he tried to battle against that because he wanted the blessing, but he didn’t want the subjection and submission to Yahweh. Esau is a picture for us of a very ungodly guy. Esau is kind of a beastlike sort of fella. Heaviness to his parents. He’s a foolish man. The scriptures say to the fool, you know, God’s God is not in all of his thoughts. He has no concern for God in his thoughts. That’s Esau.

He doesn’t care. See, and he cares so little for God’s blessing that he sells it for a mess of pottage. Esau is a bad guy. Esau is the contrast pass to Jacob.

And Jacob spent many years in the context of growing up with his brother. You know how old Jacob was when his parents kicked him out to go find a wife? He was at the young age of 77. So for 77 years, the struggle that began in the womb was Jacob’s struggle rather with Esau. 77 years of struggling with that brood of a man who had no regard for God. Marries Canaanite gals, Hittite gals, heaviness to his parents, wild hunter. Whereas Jacob, the text says, is righteously mature, and he’s the one dwelling in tents, staying with his parents, managing the household affairs is what the implication seems to be. A real contrast of characters that the scriptures bring over into the New Testament.

Esau had legally transferred by way of purchase his birthright to Jacob. So it wasn’t the trickery at the end of the tale that got rid of his birthright. It was first the foreordination of God and secondly the legal sale of his birthright to his younger brother. Commentary as I said is that Esau despised his birthright.

Okay. So Jacob is contrasted with Esau. Jacob is also contrasted with Isaac. You know it’s an interesting thing. We were noting in the Psalms as we were reading them this morning in Bible class that while it sometimes talks about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there’s many occurrences where Abraham and Jacob are mentioned without Isaac being mentioned. And as we look at those three of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it seems to me that Abraham and Jacob are both portrayed in glowing terms in the scriptures.

And Isaac is kind of a nominal character. He has some character qualities that are good. He does come to repentance for his sins relative to his sons. But his life that 77 years is marked, the scriptures tell us, by Isaac loving the wrong guy. These are two plantings, trees as it were, with two kinds of fruit, Esau and Jacob. And Isaac likes the one that brings the fruit that appeals to his senses. Esau is sort of a perverted picture of Isaac.

What does Isaac do? He loses his ability to see. He doesn’t trust his ears when the point of deception comes when Jacob comes to him and passes himself off as Esau. He touches his sense of feel and his nose. He smells the garments and thinks it’s Esau. You see, there’s a contrast between the righteous who are supposed to discern things and attend to the word of God and the unrighteous who are sensual and who let their noses and their sensory perceptions guide and govern them in their judgments and evaluations.

Isaac is not a particularly good guy. In the context of what we have given here, I regard him as a tyrant because he attempts to force his selection of the ungodly Esau. And so he’s a tyrant over the righteous. And he attempts as a magician manipulate God. What do I mean by that? Well, Isaac thinks it’s Esau coming to get the blessing. He’s going to die. That’s the scene. He tells Esau, “Go get some venison. Come back. Make us some stew for me rather eat venison stuff you cook. Come on back and I’ll give you the blessings. I’m going to die pretty quick.” Now he doesn’t as it turns out, but that’s what he says is going to happen. You know, Rebecca overhears that, brings Jacob, pawns him off as Esau.

Well, the point is that what Isaac ends up doing is blessing who he thinks is Esau, but is really Jacob. Now, that’s important to realize for two reasons. One, he has been given the earlier recorded prophecy statement of God’s will that the younger will serve the elder. Okay? He’s trying to thwart that though through manual imposition of his hands and his voice articulating the blessing. He’s trying to conjure up a spell. I really think that’s what it is to thwart the will of God. Somehow God can be thwarted by the right way of incantation. If I just speak it this way, I’ll outsmart God.

You know, that’s what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to manipulate it so that the wrong son ends up with the blessing through his words and through the imposition of his hands and blessing. He’s it’s magic manipulation of God. Even worse than that though is the text tells us what kind of blessing he was going to give to Esau. Okay. Let’s see here. Esau comes back to Isaac in let’s see, let me look this up real quick.

Yeah. In Genesis 27, look at this if you would. Verse 37. Okay. So, Isaac has placed the best blessing upon who he thought is Esau. And now Esau comes in the door and Isaac says, “Uh-oh, what happened here?” And Esau says, “Give me a blessing too. You can give me a blessing. At least if I’m not going to get the eldest son’s blessing, you can give me the blessing of the younger son. But look what Isaac says in verse 37.

Isaac answers and says to Esau, “Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son?” Isaac not only was going to give the blessing to the ungodly Esau, He was going to completely disinherit the righteous, the maturely righteous, the perfect upright Jacob because he says here there’s nothing left to give you. I did this blessing in such a way as where Jacob wouldn’t get nothing but now Jacob’s got it all and Esau you’ve got nothing as a result.

Isaac’s not good here. Isaac is really a bad guy and preferring the ungodly one over the godly. And then in giving all the blessing to the ungodly one as opposed to the righteous one. But God of course can’t be fooled and God knows how these things work and God is superintending the whole thing by his grace.

Now we did read however that after this is all over as Jacob’s being sent away because Esau is going to try to kill him that Isaac actually then does when he calls Jacob to him to send him away give him a blessing and he states prophetic words upon Jacob asking for God’s blessing upon him. And in Hebrews it says that Isaac in faith blessed his sons Jacob and Esau. And so we see that Isaac has come to his senses by the beginning of chapter 28 and now prefers gives the blessing to Jacob freely.

So there is indication that Isaac has repented. So I’m not trying to characterize his entire life by this lack of faithfulness. But in terms of Jacob’s life, the picture here I want you to see is that the righteously mature Jacob wrestles for 77 years not just with an ungodly brother. And he wrestles all that time too with a dad who slips into a love for the ungodly one son as opposed to the godly son.

What a warning for us men and us fathers, right? As we have children growing up, you know, we see the manifestation of our own faults at times in our children. We kind of like come because of those things. And God says, “No, no, no, no, no. Train your children righteousness.” I don’t know. It’s interesting that Esau his third wife is obtained after he hears Isaac telling Jacob not to take a wife from the Canaanite women.

And Esau says, “Oh, okay. That’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to get a Canaanite wife. I better get a non-Canaanite wife.” Then he turns around and marries his third wife, an Ishmaelite daughter. Now, she’s not a Hittite. Remember, we said last week that the Ishmaelites are more like, you know, the people that are the people of the east that Jacob will go get his wife from. So, it’s better. You wonder if Isaac had ever even instructed Esau in not marrying those Hittite gals.

I mean, he seems to just find this out as Isaac is talking to Jacob at age 77.

I don’t know, but Jacob does, as I said, willingly give the blessing to Isaac. Wait, that’s not right. Isaac gives the blessing to Jacob. And so, there is that repentance that is listed for him.

And as I said, the big point I want to make here is that Jacob ends up struggling with his father as well as his brother.

Third, Jacob, of course, is contrasted with Laban. Just briefly, most of us are familiar with this story, but Laban, as I said, is kind of Clintonian. When he talks about giving his daughter to Jacob, there’s a point in which he doesn’t use her name. So, he kind of enters into this covenant, leaving his options open to give Leah. Now, Jacob wouldn’t be thinking that way, but it kind of depends on what woman the word woman refers to. And Laban uses that kind of deceptive speech and trickery with Jacob.

And then of course Laban completely enters into a terrible thing when he gives Leah to Jacob instead of Rachel whom he loved. So these are these are contrasts then between Laban and Jacob. I say here Laban is Pharaohlike. And if you look at the way this text unwinds. Jacob goes to Laban’s household seeking a wife. At first, Laban utters ushers him in and says, “You’re my bone and flesh of my flesh. You’re family now.” But then a little while later, after a month, Laban says, “Well, okay, brother shouldn’t work for nothing. What are your wages?”

Now, that looks like a good thing on Laban’s part, but you got to understand that the way that worked, the way it indicates in the Hebrew and in the culture of the times, you would never have a member of the family receive wages from you for work. What Laban was doing was taking Jacob and now removing him from family status and putting him into slave status. You know, a servant who would work for wages.

Now, Jacob responds to that and says, “Well, my wages are Rachel. I love her and I’ll work seven years.” But see, I want you to see Laban here is fickle. Just like Pharaoh received the people of Israel at first. Later on, Israel history and likes him. Then arose another pharaoh who knows not Joseph and he doesn’t like him. Well, that’s the way Laban is portrayed here. The Bible tells us that God heard Jacob’s affliction, saw Jacob’s affliction under Laban and rescues him away from Laban just the way that God heard the affliction of the people of Israel under Pharaoh in Egypt and redeems them and brings them out.

Just like the people plunder the Egyptians as they leave Egypt and leave Pharaoh. So here, unbeknownst to Jacob, his wives take some of the household idols. So they kind of plunder things as well. Just like Pharaoh pursues after the fleeing Israelites, Laban pursues after Jacob on his way from the servant-like status. Just like Pharaoh at first wanted God’s people to go into the wilderness without their wives or children, you men go and worship.

The wives and children are mine. So Laban also said, “No, these wives of yours and these children of yours and this cattle, they’re all mine.” Now, that’s because they’re treating them like slaves. If you’ve got a slave and you provide a wife for a slave, the Bible says when the slave goes free, he leaves his wife. See, Pharaoh treated Egypt, the Israelites, as slaves, although they weren’t. They saved the country early on under Joseph.

Laban treats Jacob like a slave, although he wasn’t. So, Laban’s a picture of the gentile god-fearing nations who turn bad and become Egypt. Picture of what we’ll see later. You remember we talked about John the Baptist. Herod is the new Pharaoh and Israel becomes the new Egypt, the oppression to our savior, and he’s got to flee from there.

That’s what’s going on here. Laban is contrasted with Jacob. Jacob is righteous and upright. Laban is deceitful. He’s pharaohlike. He changes the terms of the agreement. And for 20 years, folks, not seven He had to work another seven for Rachel and then another six to try to get some kind of capital put together so he could leave with money to pay for his vast holdings and stuff. For 20 years, Jacob struggled with Laban. 77 years struggling with an unrighteous brother. 77 years much of which is spent struggling with the dad who had become a tyrant.

And 20 years struggling with Laban who had become Pharaoh, kept changing the terms the agreement when he was working that last six years. Jacob is contrasted with Laban.

Let’s look now at some of these positive characteristics that the scriptures tell us of here. We’ve seen these contrasts positively. Now, we’ll go through some of the things that are reported for us here in scripture about who Jacob was. And now these are very applicable to young men and young women who grow up in difficult or trying circumstances. Not like Abraham, but like Jacob. He’s a good guy, but his life story is a different one than Abraham. He struggles his whole life.

Okay. So, already we’ve got an application from this text in terms of the struggles and trials we go through. Take, you know, take be of good comfort. Jacob has been there. Jacob shows us the way of faithfulness in dealing submissively with these things and he is a comfort to us in that way. But Jacob also demonstrates some character qualities to us as well that should be good for young men who want to portray themselves as good potential grooms.

Now remember we said in the story of Isaac and Rebecca, we had a lot of information about Rebecca, you know, her activity at the well and she’s doing all this stuff and Isaac, he isn’t even there. He’s off. He’s not really the focal point. Rebecca’s fitness as a bride is the focal point. Well, here in this text, we don’t know much about Rachel. She’s good-looking. We know a little bit more than that. We’ll talk about that in a minute, but know very little. But we know a lot about Jacob. He’s the main character at the well this time. The bridegroom is the main character, not the bride.

And so, while the sermon on Isaac and Rebecca was more geared at application for women growing up to present themselves as good potential brides, this is really geared more toward helping us to train our boys and helping them to train themselves. Okay, what kind of characteristics did this bridegroom worth emulating have?

Well, first of all, he was reverent and covenantal. Now, we won’t read take the time to read the text now, but when Isaac has that encounter on the road to seek his wife—when God comes to him in a dream and he sees the ladder with angels ascending and descending and God gives him his covenant blessing upon Jacob at that point, Jacob’s response is a godly response.

His response first is about the person of God who has appeared to him. And we read, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not. This is the gate of heaven. This is none other than the house of God.” He is impressed first of all with the presence of God in his life. He’s reverential. He thinks about God and he doesn’t just sort of think, “Oh, is that a weird thing that happened and what was the good for me out of it?” No, his focus first is Godward.

And secondly, in this text, he’s covenantal. He says, “If God is with me as he said he’s going to be, I’ll give him a tithe of all that I have.” Now, some people think that’s making a bargain with God. It isn’t. It’s covenantal language. It’s the same sort of thing we do when we enter into covenanted membership at RCC, for instance, pledge to give God his tithe in response to what he’s done for us. Jacob knows God is going to be with him.

But this is the typical covenantal formula that’s entered into by godly men. And that’s what Jacob does. Jacob is reverent. Jacob is covenantal. He is. So as we prepare our children may we prepare them with reverence for God and a covenantal understanding of life.

Jacob is energetic, strong and service-oriented. He gets to this well and there are three flocks of sheep laying around with their shepherds and you know he says what’s going on while we’re waiting for all the guys to get together. The emphasis is this big stone lid on this well that’s got to be moved and they got to bring all the flocks together. Then all the men get up or at least three or four of them and they move that stone away. Okay, so they all do it at the same time. Well, Jacob as he sees Rachel coming, and by the way, there’s another correlary to the story of Isaac.