Genesis: AUTHORITY
Favor In Tension: Genesis 30:25-43
Pastor John Weathersby
Sunday August 27, 2023
Notes, not a transcript.
This morning, we’ll see a story that is as much for us as it was for Jacob. It leaves behind a Tennant for us to understand, and that blessing isn’t always without tension. That is important to know because we have selfish, self-serving, and childlike tendencies, even you. We tend to feel like a blessing means I get what I want, and I get it now.
How many times have you seen a believer make an irrational decision, claiming to be doing it for God?
They got a feeling that they should serve God in some way. It usually means letting go of some responsibility they hate at that moment, like a demanding job or challenging situation, to relocate to something altogether new. Generally, other people should pay for it, and it needs to happen quickly.
So frequently, the details aren’t worked out, and I’ve seen it repeatedly leave people worse than they were and confused. They were propping up God to get them out of something through an exercise of His Will that they made up themselves; he wasn’t in it.
Philippians 4:5–7 (ESV)
5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Genesis 30:25–43 (ESV)
Jacob’s Prosperity
25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.
Bring your mind back as we read this to Genesis 28:15,
Genesis 28:15 (ESV)
15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Imagine now, if you will, Jacob, 14 years later, the promise of Genesis 28 in his mind. When you are Jacob, it’s probably difficult to see God’s hand in the day-to-day events of life. But, we see that God IS heavily involved. Also, in Jacob’s life, we see God making things happen that bring him great tension, sometimes great favor, and occasionally great favor from great tension. That can feel counterintuitive to us. We live in a very transactional culture and are oriented towards giving us anything we want. Food, fast like we want it. I want to pause live television and watch movies at home anytime without a pesky trip to the store.
God told Jacob in chapter 28 that He would be with him, keep him, and bring him back to this land. Whether that was top of mind with Jacob or not, it was true.
These lines and stories are essential to see what God is doing, and there is an excellent summation in Acts 7:
Acts 7:1–8 (ESV)
1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.
7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
Note the focus in Acts on all that God was doing in the patriarchs, including Jacob’s 12 sons. The story in Acts continues along.
26 Give me my wives and children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service I have given you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.
We noted earlier perhaps it wasn’t top of mind with Jacob day in and day out working and prospering, flocks growing, and while Laban was not an honest man and Jacob, God was with him, as He promised in chapter 28 to Jacob – even through tension, Jacob was blessed. In verse 27, crooked, dishonest, idol-worshiping Laban could see God’s blessing in Jacob’s efforts. If Jacob and this family of 17 (don’t forget Dinah) was a drag on Laban, we can imagine Laban would have been working to get rid of them much sooner.
I believe Jacob’s service was exemplary of Biblical principles and reflections on God’s character:
Ephesians 6:5–8 (ESV)
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,
6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,
8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
Colossians 3:22–25 (ESV)
22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
1 Peter 2:15–18 (ESV)
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
Again, the blessing of God wasn’t simply delivered through Jacobs’ comfort but many times through tension. Sometimes, that tension is God’s will for us, and we trust that it is necessary or due to the consequences of our own decisions. This was no different for Jacob – as we look to the witness of the Patriarchs recorded for our God, do we step away and expect blessed lives of ease? Do we anticipate our will drives the direction of our lives, or do we likewise anticipate God’s will shapes our lives and our direction? Do we understand that it sometimes requires patience to unfold in God’s perfect timing or demand it, like a toddler in our timeline?
28 Name your wages, and I will give it.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me.
Laban is working to keep Jacob. Jacob, whether because of verse 28’s promises being top of mind or his will being directed by God’s own will, must be set on heading to his homelands. Jacob points to God in all that has happened while working with Laban. On this verse, Calvin says:
“The use of this doctrine is twofold. First, whatever I attempt, or to whatever work I apply my hands, it is my duty to desire God to bless my labour, that it may not be vain and fruitless. Then, if I have obtained anything, my second duty is to ascribe the praise to God; without whose blessing, men in vain rise up early, fatigue themselves the whole day, late take rest, eat the bread of carefulness, and taste even a little water with sorrow.”
It is a great reminder to seek God’s favor, even in our daily work. And to rest knowing God is in it.
30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?”
31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it:
32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages.
33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.”
34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.”
We asked whether Jacob’s mind was on his lands and leaving Laban because of remembering the promise of Genesis 28 or prompted by the Will of God. This request for speckled and spotted sheep, black lambs, and spotted/speckled among the goats is weird. If you peek ahead into chapter 31 and verse 11, you’ll see this was of God. God is blessing Jacob, seeing His plan for the patriarchs through to His will through tense circumstances. God is willing this to be and showing His might. It should encourage us to see God’s direct involvement. It should encourage us to seek His will, be patient, and trust Him.
Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Homework assignment. I want you to read Hebrews chapter 11 this week and see what that great cloud of witnesses is: to help you lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely run the race we’re given, and look to Jesus’ and founder and perfecter.
35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons.
36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.
We’re not surprised to see Laban’s tricks, and God was way ahead of this, so now that we know the spoiler alert in the next chapter:
37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks.
38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,
39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.
40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks,
42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Just more of God’s providential, all-knowing grace on Jacob to leave a witness for Himself, encourage Jacob’s faith, and by extension, through its recording in the word our faith.
Remember Church; it is sometimes in and through the tension, the tough feeling times, the times that feel like this darkness, this trial, this drag is so long, that God IS blessing us.
He sees perfectly what we can never see.
He knows perfectly what we can never know.
Do we trust that?
Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Homework assignment. I want you to read Hebrews chapter 11 this week and see what that great cloud of witnesses is: to help you lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely run the race we’re given, and look to Jesus’ and founder and perfecter.
Our faith isn’t blind. It is informed by The sure Word (2 Peter 1:19), by this cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11/12, and by God’s grace, through our own experience in abiding over time as we grow more into the image of God (2 Peter 3.18),
2 Peter 1:19 (ESV)
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
2 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Philippians 4:5–7 (ESV)
5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Pray, Observe, Apply.
