Genesis 31 - Part A

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heidseg. We've noted something about Genesis. It's a book of beginnings. It tells us the beginning of God's creation of the heavens and the earth. It tells us the beginning of mankind as God placed man upon the earth. It gives to us the beginning of sin, the fall of man and sin entering into the bloodstream and perverting everything and everything becomes depraved after that. Genesis also reveals to us the beginning of God's plan to heal the sin that is in the bloodstream and his plan includes in Genesis chapter 3 the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent. We see the beginning of human government.

We see the beginning of marriage. We see the beginning of a nation which includes the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and now we've already entered into the next phase the 12 sons of Jacob which become the 12 tribes of Israel. So once again by way of reminder for those of us who may not have it on the tip of our minds, the book of Genesis is divided as we mentioned into two sections. Chapters 1 through 11 primeval history. Chapters 12 through 50 patriarchal history. A patriarch meaning a male leader Abraham, Isaac, Jacob were patriarchs and one of the things we noticed about all three of these guys is they were highly imperfect characters which causes us to rejoice because we relate to them. We see ourselves in them. We think God used these nerds?

Boy is there hope. Now with Jacob we saw that from the beginning he was a manipulator right? Even from his birth his name was really prophetic of what his character would be for he came out second after Esau grabbing Esau's heel as if to trip him. So he was given the name Yaakov which means one who trips or heel catcher or manipulator or Mr. Con artist and he was good at it. He stole his brother's blessing and for a bowl of stew his brother Esau traded the spiritual heritage the right of the firstborn to the second born to Jacob.

Jacob got it. As soon as he got it and as soon as he got the blessing later on conferred on him by his father Isaac he had to flee. He ran away from home. He was scared that his brother was going to murder him. Keep that in mind for next week when he sees his brother again after 20 long years. He has to run. He has to flee and in the middle of the wilderness in a barren spot he's feeling all alone.

He's feeling rejected. He thinks I'll never see my family again and he must have felt alienated even from God until that night he had a dream. The Bible says he was tired. He went to a place called Luz and he pulled up a rock for a pillow under his head and he fell asleep and he saw a vision of the angels of God on a ladder from earth to heaven.

They were descending coming down and ascending going up into heaven. He woke up the next day and he went wow this place is awesome. He was from California awesome and then he said the Lord is in this place and I knew it not. I know it now but I knew it not and it's not the Lord was but the Lord is in this place.

But he's still on the run. He builds a pillar pours oil on it makes a covenant with God. God says go and I'll protect you and you'll come back. So he goes to a place we know today as Iraq. Northern Iraq. A place called Padan Aram back then.

One of the northern Mesopotamian provinces where Laban lived and he fell in love with a beautiful young girl named Rachel. You know the story so I won't get too much into it but he got I was going to say a two for the price of one deal. Got two wives but he really it was two for the price of two and what a steep price it was. He served Laban 14 long years for Leah and Rachel though he really only loved Rachel. He ends up staying another six years. He wanted to go. He said I'm leaving back in chapter 30 verse 25. He said I'm going back to my father's place and Laban says please don't go please stay for I know that the Lord has blessed me just because you're hanging around me and I want you to hang around me so you name your wage and you can have whatever you want. So he stays for another six years and all that he said he wanted was the ability to have what Laban would consider the castaways the leftovers of his flock. Jacob as we saw last week came up with a very interesting way of reproductive management of his flocks. He took these pieces of wood from poplar trees chestnut trees and almond trees and he peeled back the bark made little strips on them and put these pieces of wood into the watering troughs of the sheep believing that when the sheep saw them and they would conceive that the Lord would stack the odds in his behalf and his flocks would grow giving them the kind of speckled and streaked animals that he said that he wanted from Laban. Now I mentioned last week that that was probably a superstition on his part. However as I think about it a little more deeply it could have been superstition or a possibility just a possibility it could have been a revelation because in this chapter he's going to say that the angel of the Lord revealed something to him in a dream and though he doesn't spell all of that out what he did in the last chapter it could be that the angel said now if you do something that's going to sound really stupid and there's really no scientific reason why this should work but if you do it by faith and trust the Lord will increase your flocks whatever it was exactly the Lord increased his flock and that's where we come to now in chapter 31. As I mentioned it's a long chapter there are 55 verses in this chapter I've divided it up into three sections and we'll go through all three of the sections in one chapter tonight beautiful lessons in chapter 31 beautiful lessons there is first of all a heavenly confirmation in the first section a heavenly confirmation as God confirms his will to Jacob to go back home number two there is an earthly confrontation now I don't know what the relationship is like with your father-in-law but no matter how bad it might be it couldn't come close to this one Jacob and his father-in-law had been at tense odds for years and that confrontation comes to a head and then third and finally there will be a carnal cooperation and that's how the chapter ends so beginning in chapter 31 in verse 1 now Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons saying Jacob has taken away all that was our fathers and from what was our fathers he has acquired all of this wealth and Jacob saw that the countenance of Laban and indeed it was not favorable toward him as before the body language the way Laban looked at Jacob had changed in communication it's not just what we say it's how we say it right body language can convey much more than even words for instance you can say something but by the tone of your voice or the stiffness of your posture or the rigidity of your lips you can mean something completely different you could say for instance to your wife you look great that will mean one thing to her if she says honey how do I look and you glance up and go you look great that will mean something different to her and if you were to even take it a step further and say well don't you look great that will mean something and I suggest you don't it means something wholly different than the first two now 20 years there had been a tension between Jacob and Laban attention and agreement but attention they were both con artists and and Jacob was great at lying and manipulating and being a con artist as I mentioned but L manipulator numero uno was Laban he was a pro at it and they would go back and forth and have this long contest to see who would outwit each other and it continues tonight but in the midst of that contest between con artists to see who would outwit each other there seemed to adjust to the tension you can adjust to any kind of tension in a relationship in fact if I you think about it sometimes out of great tension can come great harmony opposites attract you're listening to connect with Skip heitzig before we return to skips teaching if you've ever wondered what the bible has to say about some of our cultures big issues we have a great resource for you when you give a gift of fifty dollars or more this month to support the ministry of connect with Skip heitzig we'll send you god speaks biblical answers for today's issues this special resource bundle contains six of pastor skiff's booklets that address topics like suicide why the truth matters heaven and hell and the church's response to racism you'll gain valuable insight into what god's word says about the big questions in our culture and get equipped to stand for the timeless truth of scripture go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give fifty dollars or more now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching probably what drew you to your wife or your husband has also become a source of conflict but even out of that tension can come great harmony example is a piano in this well piano got raptured it's a selective rapture now that's it's behind the stage but a piano has up to twelve thousand moving parts and can exert the pressure of those tight strings on that harp of two tons two tons of pressure on a metal harp but out of great tension can come beautiful harmony so this tension between them for seven years for one wife seven more years for another wife six more years to get the flocks he wanted tension but now we see something different the tension moves into friction and the friction is the jealousy that laban's sons in fact laban himself has toward jacob because he's so successful god is blessing him now in the previous chapter he tells jacob don't go man i i love having you around because i'm blessed because you're with me so whatever it takes oh you name your wage but things have changed he's so successful and it's so showing off or up laban the body language has changed and i'm sure he was cold to him jacob how are you very formal very aloof very stiff but he could see that something has changed so the sons accuse him in verse one jacob has taken away all that was our fathers and from what was our fathers he has acquired all of this wealth now that's a false accusation jacob saw that the countenance are literally the face of laban indeed it was not favorable toward him as before if you're a public speaker you can appreciate the value of not getting hung up on looking at people's faces it's an interesting view from this angle looking at all of you looking at a crowd looking at a group a person's face can be very unsettling you don't know it but when people listen they don't always do this sometimes they do this it can be unsettling to a speaker or sometimes they do this or they get up or they they look contemplative and they're truly just concentrating and contemplating but the look of contemplation on a person's face can sort of look grumpy so that's why public speakers will often scan the crowd to find the happy faces the yes faces rather than the no faces the faces that smile those that take notes now no wonder when god called jeremiah the prophet who was a teenager when god called him and sent him as a prophet to the nation he said i've called you do not be afraid of their faces because i will be with you it would be a temptation as a prophet is giving a heavy message and people are scowling at him to look at the face and get all freaked out and not want to go through with the boldness that god prompted you to have i was once in new york city i was teaching preaching at a church in manhattan and somebody in the crowd caught my attention because he had a smile not only did he have a smile he was taking notes taking notes taking notes like like it's like the first time he ever heard a bible study in his life so i was concentrating on him a lot and then afterwards i asked the pastor i said who was this it was an old guy who is this old guy he said interesting this guy is a man by the name of john delorean john delorean was a guy who developed several cars including the delorean car used in back to the future and was indicted for 24 million dollars worth of drug smuggling and put into prison and while he was in then the charges he was cleared but when he got released from prison he showed up at mike's church every week and he could not get enough of bible study and just soaked up god's word until he died but filled with truth filled with god's word and the countenance on his face was so wonderful to look at so i digress let's get back to the story verse 3 then the lord said to jacob return to the land of your fathers and to your family and i will be with you it's worthy to note how god prepared jacob to move from padana ram back to the place he left 20 years before and i want you to note it because i think it's an important principle in your life the first thing that god did is put a desire in jacob's heart to go back six years before this six years before this in chapter 30 verse 25 he announces to laban after joseph was born i'm going back i need to go back home my heart is there i need to be back in the covenant land of abraham and isaac i've got to go back he didn't go back he was talked into staying and he did stay for six more years but that desire never left him it was a desire deep in his heart he didn't react or act too quickly on it but god put a desire in his heart and that's the first step that god uses to move us from one experience to another or one place to another he puts a desire deep within david writes in psalm 37 if you delight yourself in the lord he will give you the desires of your heart i don't think that means god will give you your heart's desire whatever little feeling you have in your heart at that time i really want that okay i'll do it i think what it means is that when you delight yourself in the lord the desires that you have are the desires that god plants within your heart where did this desire come from it came from the lord he put that desire in your heart now that desire that you have has to be confirmed you don't want to act on every desire you have it might be impetuous might be impulsive so the second thing that happens are circumstances he has a desire to go back but he stays but now the circumstances go from tension to friction and now listen carefully the circumstances toward jacob are not favorable they're unfavorable there's jealousy there's accusation there's lies in other words the nest is getting stirred up for jacob by the circumstances around him he has a desire but now the circumstances are against him so he thinks it's time to get out of here i really need to leave what i feel in my heart is now being confirmed by the circumstances that the lord has placed around me now keep that in mind when things turn sour in your life you're apt to complain god can't be in this don't be so sure oh god why would you allow this to happen i i can just hear the lord sometimes going you really you're going to ask me that you've been praying for two months that something would change in your life so now you got fired it's about to change in your life you had that old job you didn't even like it now you got fired now you're in a position of looking for a new job i'm going to give you a new job and so the lord stirs things up by circumstances and they may not be favorable and that could be the lord doing something to move you along the third thing that happens is the word of the lord comes to him it says in verse three the lord said to jacob now the word confirms what he felt in his heart and what the circumstances were telling him god says return to the land of your fathers so when life turns sour god may have some sweet blessings right around the corner don't complain don't moan to say great what opportunities might god have in store if i trust him and i move forward so the friction causes him to seek a new direction verse four jacob sent and called rachel and leia to the field to his flock and he said to them i see your father's countenance that it is not favorable toward me as before but the god of my father has been with me and you know that with all my might i have served your father and yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages 10 times what would you do if your employer changed your wage 10 times not in that direction oh then you go thank you lord what if it goes in that direction notice what he says 10 times he's done it but god did not allow him to hurt me evidently or at least probably jacob took his flocks that had grown substantively and moved them out toward the west toward the road that would lead back to the land of promise where he felt the lord wanted him to go but before he left he was smart he called his wives out and conferred with his wife wives honey number one and honey number two i feel the lord wants me to go back home your dad has spooky eyes looking at me and i think god has spoken to me so what do you say he confers with him he says he's changed my wages 10 times but the lord has been with me we're glad you joined us today before you go remember that when you give 50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through connect with Skip heitzig we'll send you god speaks biblical answers for today's issues which contains six of pastor skips booklets to help you understand what the bible says about big issues like racism the importance of truth suicide and heaven and hell to request your copy of god speaks biblical answers for today's issues call 800-922-1888 that's 800-922-1888 or visit connect with skiff dot com slash donate for more from skiff be sure to check out the many resources available at connect with Skip dot com slash store come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of god's word here on connect with Skip heitzig make a connection make a connection at the foot is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never changing truth in ever-changing times