DESIRE → DEPENDENCE → DEATH | The Life of Jacob
JACOB: DESIRE → DEPENDENCE → DEATH
Genesis 28–33
MAIN THOUGHT
We first come with DESIRE. Then we move to DEPENDENCE on God. Then Jacob DIES and becomes Israel.
In many ways, that is the Christian life. We come to God because we desire something from Him. Life teaches us that we must depend upon Him. Eventually Christ calls us to die to ourselves—our schemes, our control, our own glory—so that Christ can live through us.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Narrative is like watching a movie. Watch the scenes. Watch the character change.
Jacob's transformation doesn't happen in a minute. It takes scenes. It takes years. It takes time.
DESIRE → DEPENDENCE → DEATH
And God is there at all three stages.
- DESIRE — GENESIS 28
Jacob is running.
He has deceived his father. He is running from Esau, who wants to kill him. He leaves everything familiar and heads toward Haran.
Then God meets him at Bethel.
Genesis 28:12 (ESV)
“And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.”
Genesis 28:15 (ESV)
“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go... For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
GOD SAYS: “I WILL.”
- I will be with you.
- I will keep you.
- I will bring you back.
- I will not leave you.
- I will accomplish My promise.
From God's side, this is all grace.
But listen to Jacob:
Genesis 28:20–21 (ESV)
“If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear... then the LORD shall be my God.”
GOD SAYS: “I WILL.”
JACOB SAYS: “IF...THEN.”
That's quid pro quo.
“God, if You do this for me, then I will let You be my God.”
And this is often how we come to God.
We have needs.
Matthew 11:28 (ESV)
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
John 7:37 (ESV)
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”
We're tired. We're burdened. We're thirsty.
We need forgiveness.
We need peace.
We need rest.
We need eternal life.
We need a Father.
We need a family.
We need purpose.
We come through fear, pain, addiction, problems with our children, problems with money, death, loneliness. We want heaven. We need a miracle. We need a blessing.
God understands that.
It's okay to start there.
Pray for people. Tell them what God can do. God is a good Father who wants to give gifts and blessings to His children.
ILLUSTRATION — YOUR CHILD BRINGING YOU THE GIFT
It's awesome when your kid comes to you excited about something you were able to give them.
God is like that. He wants His children to come.
But we don't stay there.
We mature.
We move from DESIRE to DEPENDENCE.
- DEPENDENCE — GENESIS 29–31
Jacob arrives at Laban's house.
Jacob sees Rachel. He's all in.
But then Jacob the schemer meets a better schemer.
Laban.
Jacob works seven years for Rachel. Then he wakes up—
It's Leah.
Genesis 29:25 (ESV)
“What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
There is irony here:
THE DECEIVER HAS BEEN DECEIVED.
And it keeps happening.
Genesis 31:41 (ESV)
“I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.”
Twenty years.
And through those twenty years Jacob learns something:
I HAVE TO DEPEND ON GOD.
Listen to how differently Jacob talks now.
Genesis 31:42 (ESV)
“If the God of my father... had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.”
Genesis 31:5 (ESV)
“Your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.”
Genesis 31:7 (ESV)
“Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me.”
Do you see the change?
At Bethel:
“IF God...”
Twenty years later:
“GOD HAS BEEN WITH ME.”
Jacob is learning to depend completely upon God.
THE RICH YOUNG RULER AND THE POOR WIDOW
The rich young ruler has everything.
Jesus tells him:
Mark 10:21 (ESV)
“You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have... and come, follow me.”
Then you have the poor widow.
Mark 12:43–44 (ESV)
“This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering... she out of her poverty has put in everything she had.”
What's the difference?
It's not about money.
It's about DEPENDENCE.
Mark 10:23 (ESV)
“How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
The problem isn't having something.
The question is:
WHAT AM I DEPENDING ON?
Do I believe I made this happen?
Or do I understand that everything I have comes from God?
Jacob is finally learning:
It all comes from the Lord.
ILLUSTRATION — MARRIAGE COUNSELING
A couple starts treating each other better.
They're praying together. They're being nice. They're treating each other with respect.
Everything feels great.
Then they finally hit the issues they've avoided for ten years.
Suddenly:
“I guess God's not doing it.”
No.
Now you have to depend on Him.
Hardship doesn't necessarily mean God stopped working.
Sometimes hardship is where God teaches you dependence.
ILLUSTRATION — CHURCH PLANTING
At some point you step into what God has called you to do.
You prepare. You put what you need in place.
Then you pull the trigger.
If the Lord blesses it, the Lord blesses it.
MY JOB IS TO DEPEND UPON GOD.
Exodus 14:14 (ESV)
“The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
2 Chronicles 20:15 (ESV)
“Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed... For the battle is not yours but God's.”
STEP INTO IT.
The battle belongs to God.
- DEATH — GENESIS 32–33
Now we come to the final scene.
And the final scene has two parts:
JACOB DIES.
ISRAEL LIVES.
JACOB STILL HAS ONE LAST SCHEME
Esau is coming.
400 men.
Jacob is terrified.
Genesis 32:7–8 (ESV)
“Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him... into two camps, thinking, ‘If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.’”
There's old Jacob.
Always have an exit.
Always have another plan.
Always have something under your control.
He sends the gifts ahead.
He sends his wives ahead.
He sends his children ahead.
Jacob stays behind.
But something has changed.
THIS TIME JACOB PRAYS.
Genesis 32:10 (ESV)
“I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.”
No bargaining.
No quid pro quo.
“Lord, I am not worthy.”
Then:
Genesis 32:11 (ESV)
“Please deliver me from the hand of my brother.”
That's dependence.
GOD GETS JACOB ALONE
Genesis 32:24 (ESV)
“And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.”
Then God touches his hip.
Genesis 32:25 (ESV)
“Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.”
Why the hip?
Think about the ancient world.
No orthopedic surgeon.
No hip replacement.
No ambulance.
No emergency room.
And tomorrow—
ESAU IS COMING WITH 400 MEN.
Jacob has spent his entire life surviving by:
Running.
Maneuvering.
Scheming.
Escaping.
And God touches the part of Jacob's body he needs to run.
NOW JACOB CAN'T RUN.
So what does Jacob do?
He holds on.
Genesis 32:26 (ESV)
“I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Dependence takes you all the way to death.
Jacob is essentially saying:
“IF HOLDING ONTO YOU KILLS ME, I WILL NOT LET GO.”
Jacob doesn't defeat God.
God conquers Jacob.
God asks:
“What is your name?”
Jacob.
The schemer.
The heel-grabber.
The deceiver.
And God says:
Genesis 32:28 (ESV)
“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.”
The old dies.
The new comes.
Genesis 32:31 (ESV)
“The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.”
JACOB DIES.
ISRAEL LIVES.
ISRAEL LIVES — GENESIS 33
The very next day we see the change.
Genesis 33:3 (ESV)
“He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.”
Look at the flip.
Yesterday Jacob put everybody else in front.
Today:
“HE HIMSELF WENT ON BEFORE THEM.”
The guy who always ran is now the guy who goes first.
In the sermon, I used the seven bows as the picture of a death march—a funeral procession.
Jacob has died.
Israel is alive.
And now Israel puts himself out there for other people.
ILLUSTRATION — IRAQ, 2005
FOB Hope.
We're moving back and forth on dangerous routes. We stop near an overpass and high rises where people have been killed.
Something is lying in the road.
It looks like it could be a bomb.
Sergeant Hollister says he's going out to move it and wants somebody with him in case something happens.
Nobody wants to go.
Finally:
“Well, I guess I'll go.”
I open the door.
I'm about to put my foot on the ground.
And for a moment I'm frozen in fear.
Then I put my foot down.
I'm going with him.
And what is going through my head?
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
And:
I'm going to live forever anyway. What am I worried about?
We went out. We moved it. Nothing happened.
But that's a picture of the Christian life.
PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE FOR OTHER PEOPLE.
If somebody is walking through something—
Walk through it with them.
That's not a pastor thing.
That's not a soldier thing.
THAT'S A CHRISTIAN THING.
Your spouse.
Your children.
Your church.
Your neighbor.
Your enemy.
God's great purpose for your life is that you would be like Christ to the people around you.
HE SEES THE FACE OF GOD
Jacob walks toward Esau expecting a fight.
But Esau doesn't kill him.
Genesis 33:4 (ESV)
“But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.”
Then Jacob says:
Genesis 33:10 (ESV)
“For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.”
GOD FOUGHT THE BATTLE BEFORE JACOB EVER GOT THERE.
Jacob expected 400 men.
Instead he gets an embrace.
He gets tears.
Sometimes God fights the battle before you ever arrive.
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION — AFGHANISTAN, 2010
You told the story of Chaplain Farid Awad and a soldier who was believed to be demon possessed after a mental-health evaluation reportedly sent him back to the chaplains.
Before the chaplain entered the soldier's room, he repented of his sin.
He put himself on the cross.
He died to himself.
He depended upon the blood of Jesus Christ.
Then he opened the door.
The soldier began to weep.
They cried.
They prayed.
And that brought the sermon right back to the main point:
You've seen marriages restored.
You've seen families restored.
You've seen people finally do what God has for their lives because—
WHAT THEY DESIRED,
THEY BECAME DEPENDENT IN,
THEY DIED,
AND THEN JESUS LIVED IN THAT SITUATION.
DESIRE.
DEPENDENCE.
DEATH.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
JACOB DIES.
ISRAEL LIVES.
I DIE.
CHRIST LIVES.