After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland. 26 Give me my wives and my children that I have worked for, and let me go. You know how hard I have worked for you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor with you, stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” 28 Then Laban said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.” 29 So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your herds have fared with me. 30 For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The Lord has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?” —Genesis 30:25-29 CSB
Now Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s and has built this wealth from what belonged to our father.” 2 And Jacob saw from Laban’s face that his attitude toward him was not the same as before. 3 The Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you.” —Genesis 31:1-3 CSB
Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were. 5 He said to them, “I can see from your father’s face that his attitude toward me is not the same as before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that with all my strength I have served your father 7 and that he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not let him harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The spotted sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born spotted. If he said, ‘The streaked sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born streaked. 9 God has taken away your father’s herds and given them to me. 10 “When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females. 11 In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Look up and see: all the males that are mating with the flocks are streaked, spotted, and speckled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the stone marker and made a solemn vow to me. Get up, leave this land, and return to your native land.’” 14 Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we have any portion or inheritance in our father’s family? 15 Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? For he has sold us and has certainly spent our purchase price. 16 In fact, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has said to you.” —Genesis 31:4-16 CSB
I. God is with You
Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” —Genesis 28:15 CSB
A. God is always faithful to you.
He is faithful when you are faithless.
Paul writes about God’s ultimate act of faithfulness in the face of human infidelity in his letter to the Romans. In Romans 1:18–2:11, Paul demonstrates that all people have sinned against God by dishonoring Him and testing His patience. As a result, Paul writes that everyone has fallen short of God’s glory.
However, God kept His promises to Jacob and ultimately to humanity in general, in His greatest display of faithfulness—the death of Christ, which is for us.
Paul also reminds us that God proved His faithfulness to us while we were still sinners and “enemies” of God.
Imagine that. When you were his enemy, he was still faithful to you.
B. Our problem is we look for God in what he hasn’t done not what he has done.
Together, Jacob’s story and Paul’s words in Romans illustrate an important truth about God’s character: His faithfulness is not contingent upon human faithfulness—whether Jacob’s or ours.
Jacob is just beginning to recognize God’s hand in his prosperity.
We should learn to trust God’s character rather than acting out of self-interest. We should learn early on what it took Jacob many years to understand. God has given believers a greater promise of His presence than Jacob ever had—the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God Himself.
We need to look for God in what he has done.
C. We are responsible for the freedom that God has given us.
He didn’t make us to rule but to be free. Free to love.
He Is looking for someone who can see his hand and hear his voice
To stop acting out of self interest trying to deceive our way to freedom like Jacob. Instead of Living in the freedom he has already purchased for us on the cross and through the empty tomb.
My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. —John 10: 27-28 CSB
Listen for His voice brothers and sisters. Let Him lead.
II. The Family Cleave
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. —Genesis 2:24 CSB
A. God wants family units to cleave together.
That they grow together and mature together.
A family cannot operate that way when they are emotionally involved with parents.
- Not saying you can’t love them or hang out all the time.
- I’m saying there needs to be a separation.
- You should raise your own kids. That is your responsibility.
We have a problem with our Men in this country. They have no ability to push back against evil. Some men live to embrace it.
Lack of fear of God? We need to train our sons to be strong men of conscience.
B. When a family leaves their parents they need to leave emotionally.
When Jacob’s family was finally one, they freed themselves.
Jacob owed Laban a lot. He had to push through that.
Sometimes we owe our parents a lot. That doesn’t mean you don’t cleave.
Jacob learned the best for his family was for him to follow God and not Laban.
That is the best thing for every family. Follow Jesus. That’s what matters.
III. Prayer still changes things
A. Jacob told God to prove himself
Just feed me and clothe me he didn’t understand that God was for him.
We have not because we ask not…
You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. —James 4:2-3 CSB
This verse seems to be written about Jacob. Jacob’s strife could have so much less if he would have learned to trust God and not his ability to deceive.
He finally realized God was with him the whole time and never took advantage of it.
B. What Jacob never learned was that the presence of God is revealed in prayer.
The heartfelt prayers of God’s people moves God.
Prayer is a act of faith.
Pray as the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk prayed: Are you dead, God? This is how Habakkuk opens his prayer to God (Habakkuk 1:1-11). Are you really who you say you are God? (Habakkuk 1:12-2:20).
In what we experienced this month in Buffalo and Texas we need to pray. Our religious clichés will not be of help. Bumper sticker theology or fortune cookie comments don’t help.
We need the raw presence of God, and His presence will be present through your prayers.
We can’t determine how God answers prayers, but we can know he is here.
C. Prayer is the grease that makes faith work.
Habakkuk’s interaction with God reminds us that the life of faith often involves lament, complaint, and the pouring out of one’s honest emotions and feelings to God.
Remember, often our prayers are aches and groans because we do not know what to say. Saint Paul wrote,
In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. —Romans 8:26-27 CSB
Our burdens are so great, and we cannot find the words to pray, so we rely on the Spirit and groan in prayer for the families of Uvalde and Buffalo.
If you want to know God’s presence instead of blindly running around like Jacob you have to know God intimately.
Most Believers do not know Jesus intimately because they do not Pray consistently.
Application:
- God is for you
· Whether you are for God in this moment he is for you.
· You can count on God’s promises. He will never leave you or forsake you. His peace will guard your hearts and minds. His grace and mercy are for you every day. - Seek God in what he has done.
- Prayer changes things.
Summary
Don’t spend your life asking God to feed and clothe you like Jacob. Ask God to reveal His presence with you. So you can know the one who redeems us. You can find his presence in prayer.