Jacob’s life was in rather a mess. He was in his early forties, in the prime of life but he was homeless and penniless, he had had to leave the family home because his brother was threatening to kill him over the way he had twisted and cheated him. In fact he had to leave the country. But in spite of that, God had appeared to Jacob. God had promised him his protection and blessing.

God is a God of grace. That is how he deals with fallen human beings. He comes to us and encounters us in spite of our sin and failure. But when individuals encounter God, it is not so much the end of the story as the beginning. Sometimes we evangelicals make the mistake of talking as if encountering God and making a commitment to him is all that matters; we are saved, end of story.

We will see as we look at the story of Jacob that that is not the case. Jacob’s encounter at Bethel with God and his dream of the ladder up to heaven was nearer to the beginning of his story than the end. You see, when God encounters an individual, that is the beginning for them of a conscious relationship with God. God is from that point on at work in a person, leading them on; teaching and training them, changing them into the person they ought to be.

As we look at the story of Jacob, we will see how our faithful God works in the lives of individuals; enabling them to grow in character, allowing them to play a part in his purposes and plans.

Lets look first then, at Jacob as he makes his response to God, when he wakes up after God has promised him his love, protection and blessing. Jacob now has a healthy respect for God. The bible says he was afraid; ‘How awesome is this place,’ he says. That is always true when we encounter the living God; it is an awesome experience. Jacob makes an appropriate response. ‘The Lord will be my God’ he says. That is the appropriate response to us too. When God reveals himself to us in Christ, we say ‘my Lord and my God.’ We make him the object of our worship. We make him the controlling factor in our life choices and decisions.

Jacob also makes a promise. He promises that of everything God gives him, he will give a tenth back to God. There is an important truth that Jacob has grasped there. The truth is the fact that all the blessings that come our way are a gift from God. As the New Testament puts it, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father. When we encounter the creator God, we realise that he is the one from whom all things come. Jacob makes a response of gratitude and thankfulness. He promises to give to God a tenth of all he receives.

Notice that this is not a legalistic way of earning God’s blessing; it a response that Jacob makes freely and willingly. Many Christian decide to embrace that same principle and give away a tenth of their income. If we do that, it should be something that we do freely and willingly. Gratitude expressed in a practical way is part of our commitment to God.
From encountering God at Bethel Jacob continues on his travels. But now he has a personal sense of God’s presence. As well as running from his brother, there was a more worthy purpose for his journey. In fact Jacob was making the same journey that Abraham’s servant had made years before when he had gone to seek a wife fore Isaac. Jacob was also travelling to the east to find a wife from his mother Rebecca’s family.

Jacob arrives at the well. He asks the shepherds there if they know his uncle Laban. Yes they do; what’s more, Laban’s daughter Rachel is just arriving to water her father’s sheep. She is beautiful. No doubt Jacob would know the story of how his mother had come to the well, all those years before. Jacob knows this is the girl for him. He was not like the old servant who had prayed and watched as Rebecca had watered the camels.

Jacob is still a bit of a schemer. First he tries to get the shepherds to go away so that he can be on his own with Rachel. That doesn’t work, so he acts the big he-man. There is a massive stone over the well. Normally the shepherds wait till everyone is there and lift off the stone together and get their water. Jacob wants to impress, so single-handed he moves the stone, and he waters Rachel’s sheep.

He tells her who he is, and weeps and kisses her. There is something there of a sense of gratitude to God for his guiding hand and safe arrival at the home of his mother’s brother Laban. Jacob settles in and it seems he does his share of the work. After a month, Laban asks Jacob what he would like as wages.

Jacob doesn’t have to think twice, he is in love. ‘I’ll work seven years to marry your daughter Rachel,’ he says to Laban. Now Isaac had specifically told Jacob that he was to find one of Laban’s daughters to be his wife. He just knew it was right. The deal was made. It says that those seven years seemed just like a few days to Jacob because of his love for her.

At the end of the seven years, there was a great wedding feast. In the evening, Laban gives Jacob a bride. He takes her and they come together as man and wife. But when morning comes there is a shock for Jacob. The woman he has slept with is not Rachel; it is her older sister Leah. Jacob had deceived his brother and father; now his Uncle Laban has deceived him.

Laban has an excuse; he claims that because Leah was the older daughter it is customary that she should be married first. He tells Jacob that if he completes the week’s honeymoon with Leah, then he can marry Rachel as well. So that is what happens. He completes the honeymoon with Leah and marries Rachel the next week. But he has to work for another seven years in payment for his second bride.

Jacob’s was not the happiest of household’s. Leah felt unloved, but God blessed her by giving her children. Rachel was unable to have children, so she became jealous of her. In due course, she gave her maid to Jacob to have children on here behalf, just as Sarah had given her maid to Abraham in a past generation. Then Leah gave her maid to Jacob as well. Jacob soon had eleven children, ten boys and a girl. Then at long last God answered Rachel’s prayers and she had a son and they named him Joseph.
In all this, God was at work, providing through Jacob the descendants he had promised to Abraham. The second seven years that Isaac had worked for Rachel were now completed. Jacob knew that his destiny was to return to the Promised Land. He tells Laban, but Laban has perceived that God’s blessing is on Jacob. He doesn’t want to lose the blessing of prosperity that Jacob has brought to his family.

He persuades Jacob to stay on in return for further wages. Jacob suggests that he will work for Laban in return for any sheep or lambs or goats that are spotted or speckled. That arrangement will be easy to monitor, and seemed reasonably fair. But Laban still tries to cheat Jacob, by getting his sons to take away all the speckled and spotted animals that he had already agreed should be Jacob’s wages.

What’s the lesson from the scheming and trickery that afflicts Jacob? He had received mercy and grace from God for his sins; now he had to learn to show grace when he is cheated and treated badly. It is the principle that Jesus taught: if God shows mercy and forgiveness to us, then we must also learn to show mercy and forgiveness to those who wrong us. Do read the whole story of Jacob when you get home, it has so much to teach about human nature, but especially about Gods patience and perseverance with people.

In spite of Laban’s schemes, Jacob still prospers because God is with him. Then in due course God speaks to Jacob and tells him that it is time to go back to the Promised Land. So Jacob obeys. We haven’t time to go into all the details of the story, but we can say that in all his experiences, Jacob had found the reality of God’s blessing and help in his life. Jacob and his family and flocks begin the journey back to the land of Canaan.

But then there is another issue that arises. Jacob is going to have to meet his brother Esau. Esau had promised to kill him. When Jacob had left, his mother had promised that she would send for Jacob to come home when Esau had got over his anger. That message from his mother had never come. Was Esau still bent on revenge?

Jacob is anxious about meeting Esau after twenty years. He sends messengers on ahead to tell Esau of his impending arrival, and to give him news. He actually makes sure to tell Esau that he has become prosperous. He actually tells his servants to address Esau as lord, and to ask for his favour.

Yet when the servants come back to Jacob, the news does not seem very good. Esau is coming to meet Jacob, and bringing four hundred men with him. Why four hundred men? Jacob feared the worst Esau obviously is not going to let him escape. Jacob was afraid. Jacob prayed. He asked God to help him. He admitted his own failure. ‘I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant,’ He tells God.

Jacob divides his flocks into groups and sends them on ahead as peace offerings to Esau. Then he sent his wives and children on ahead of him. He stayed alone, and the story tells us that during the night a man came and wrestled with him. This mysterious figure wrestles with Jacob all night, but Jacob won’t give up. The man touches Jacob’s thigh and wrenches his hip but Jacob will still not let the man go. The man asks Jacob to let him go, Jacob says ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’

The man asks Jacob ‘what is your name?’ Jacob he replies. Remember Jacob means cheat. In this whole encounter Jacob had to face up to his past. Jacob had to face up to his sin and failure. That has to be true of all of us. In our relationship with God we have to face up to our own sin. Isaiah in the Old Testament did. ‘Woe is me for I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips’ (Isaiah 6).

In the New Testament Peter falls to the ground before Jesus; ‘depart from me for I am a sinful man,’ he says. Jacob has to admit his name, Jacob, cheat, the one who supplants. When he does that, the reply comes back ‘your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.’

When we face up to the things that we would rather hide, when we admit them to God and ourselves, then their hold on us is broken. Sometimes it is appropriate to admit them to others too. Jacob still had to face Esau, before he could lay the past to rest. When he does meet Esau he addresses him as lord. In a sense he is acknowledging his sin of cheating Esau of the blessing when he had deceived Isaac into making Jacob lord over his brother. In offering and insisting that Esau takes gifts of his flocks and herds Jacob is making reparation for his previous deceit.

When God restores us to a right relationship to himself, he does not do it in isolation from our relationships with others. Jesus said that if as we go to worship, we remember that we have an outstanding dispute with someone, we should first seek to be reconciled to that person before we come to God. That encounter between Jacob and Esau was necessary. And so Esau goes on his way.

But in due course God confirmed to Jacob all the things that Jacob had learned that night before he met Esau. We read about them in chapter 35. God called Jacob to go back to Bethel, the place where he had first encountered God. God told him to make his home there. Jacob builds an altar and worships.

There it was that God blessed Jacob, there it was that God confirmed his new name of Israel, and confirmed his blessing on Israel’s descendants, the children of Israel.

The lesson for us this morning, is that God perseveres with us. He has reached out to encounter us in Jesus. He invites us to joyfully respond in love and commitment. He helps us to grow in the awareness of his presence with us. But he also works in our lives to change us to enable us to leave the past behind, that we might become the children of God that we were created to be.
 

Amen.

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