When Jacob Became Israel

Lesson 4

October 24, 2010

Isaac and JacobThe Gospel in the Old Testament

Leaving Laban (Gen 30, 31) Bargaining with Laban Departing by night An uneasy peace

Wrestling with God (Gen 32) Jacob prays for deliverance from Esau Jacob wrestles with God Postscript

Outline

Introduction

“Why is that? Because rich people tend to be self-sufficient. Rich people have the drive and the means to get what they want. Rich people don’t have to rely on anyone else. They are independent. It will be hard for independent, self-sufficient people to enter the kingdom of God.” (“Preaching Christ from Genesis”, by Sidney Greidanus, p. 327

Matt 19: 23-26 - “And Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”

Jacob meets shepherds from his uncle’s land gathering at the well to water the sheep. There he meets his cousin Rachel, a shepherdess.

Leaving Laban Bargaining with Laban

Jacob wanted to return home after Joseph was born.

Gen 30:27-31 – “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. Name your wages, and I will give it.’ Jacob said to him, ‘You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 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?’”

Laban strikes a bargain with Jacob – name your wages.

Jacob Jacob asks for all of the unusually marked animals – generally a small fixed percentage of the whole that would be easy to differentiate

Laban has his sons remove most of the marked animals in the current flock – he deceives Jacob again

Jacob responds with a complex technique for selective breeding – he grows rich and outmaneuvers Laban

Leaving Laban Departing by night

God directs Jacob to return home

Jacob’s relationship with Laban had soured.

Gen 31:1-3 - “Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, ‘Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's he has gained all this wealth.’ And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the LORD said to Jacob, ‘Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.’”

“Invariably we want life to be easy and smooth. We pray and we plan as far as we can to make life go that way. We beg God to make our lives plain sailing. But sometimes the best way for God to get our attention and move us on to new levels of obedience is through a breakdown of our comfort.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 96)

It is easy to misread providence

It was not Jacob’s clever strategies that made him succeed – it was grace

Leaving Laban An Uneasy Peace (1 of 2)Gen 31:20-24 - “And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’”

Jacob’s family is behind the move, and Jacob decides to leave without a word

Rachael takes her father’s household idols

“It appears that Rachel wanted to have all of her bases covered. By stealing the domestic gods, she thought to gain a (pagan) blessing, just as her husband had earlier stolen the true blessing…We easily fall in love with objects that weigh us down on our journey through life…one day soon, willingly or unwillingly, we will have to leave them behind. On that day, the true nature of our treasure will be revealed, and only that treasure which is stored up in heaven will last.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 99)

Leaving Laban An Uneasy Peace (2 of 2)

They depart uneasily with Laban swearing an oath by his idols and Jacob’s God. Jacob swears by the God of Abraham alone.

“Although the idols remained safely undiscovered, Jacob’s curse was nonetheless strangely prophetic. Within a few months Rachel would be dead, expiring in the course of giving birth to Benjamin. The idols brought her nothing but trouble.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 101)

Laban caught up with Jacob, but God had warned him in a dream not to harm him.

Like Laban searches for the household idols, but Rachel in her pregnant condition is easily able to keep them hidden.

Wrestling with God Jacob Prays for Deliverance from Esau

Jacob sends word to Esau that God has blessed him and he is coming home

And Jacob goes to the Lord in prayer

But he receives word that Esau is coming with 400 men

Gen 32: 9-11 - “And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 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, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.”

“Now, in addition to his plan, he prayed. This is the first time we have seen Jacob praying. Finally he was learning that strategy alone is not enough.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 111)

“The one who knows and fears the Lord of Hosts need fear no other.” (“The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament”, by Edmund Clowney, p. 70)

Wrestling with God Jacob Wrestles with God (1 of 2) God’s answer to Jacob’s prayer comes when a man suddenly leaps upon

him and they begin to struggle

Jacob must realize that this is a preincarnate appearance of the Lord, because he tells the man that he will not let him go until he blesses Jacob.

The struggle lasts the whole evening. The man finally cripples Jacob, but Jacob clings to him and will not give up.

“What Jacob needed to learn was that all of his struggling against men had gotten him nowhere because the one whom he must ultimately struggle is God. It was not Esau who could prevent him entering the Promised Land; only God could do that. It is not Esau he must fear; it is God he must fear.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 113)

He is given a new name – Israel, or literally “he strives with God”

Wrestling with God Jacob Wrestles with God (2 of 2)

“God’s work is established in principle in his life, as the new name Israel clearly declares, but it would take a lifetime for that principle to work itself out in fullness…The new name Israel was acquired by Jacob not through success or shrewdness but through enduring the assault of God. It is grace, to be sure, but not the kind of grace we thought that we knew or wanted.” (“Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the Lives of Isaac and Jacob”, by Iain Duguid, p. 115)

“The new name will forever remind Jacob of his new destiny. The new limp will forever remind him that in Elohim Jacob met for the first time one who can overpower him. Jacob’s limp shows that God has knocked out his self-sufficiency.” (“Preaching Christ from Genesis”, by Sidney Greidanus, p. 333)

When asked for his name, Jacob must confess that his name is “deceiver”

Wrestling with God Postscript (1 of 3)

“The name of the Lord is too wonderful for Jacob’s ears; the face of the Lord is too glorious for Jacob’s eyes. Yet the Lord Himself comes that Jacob may know Him. His coming to Jacob anticipated His coming to us. Jacob saw the face of the Lord but dimly; we see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jacob asked for God’s own name; we are baptized into the name of the triune God. Through the name of Jesus, exalted above every name, we bear the name of the Almighty God as our heavenly Father.” (“The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament”, by Edmund Clowney, p. 75, 76)

1 Cor 13:12 – “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

The Name of God

Wrestling with God Postscript (2 of 3)

“The Servant Israel is, first, distinct from the nation Israel, for it is his task to bring the people back: the nation cannot be its own savior from sin. Secondly, he is the true and only Israel, for he is going to do what Israel was always meant to do – gather from the whole world…‘you are my servant’ is balanced by ‘you are my salvation’. Just as the world will find him to be the light they need, so he is the salvation they need. This task runs beyond what any prophet or any mere human could fulfill.” (“Isaiah”, by Alec Motyer, p. 310, 311)

Messiah

Isa 49:3, 5-6 – “And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified’…And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him — for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength — he says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’”

Wrestling with God Postscript (3 of 3)

“The Servant is also identified closely with Israel (49:3). It is not difficult to see why. Jesus, when he comes, will act as Israel’s representative. He will labor on behalf of his covenant people. His mission involves transforming sinful Israel into the ideal Israel…Jesus came from Israel, identified himself with Israel and acted as Israel’s substitute…Though Jesus restricted himself almost entirely to the Jews during his lifetime, there was a constant outward thrust to his ministry…the Great Commission is worded in such a way as to lay emphasis on the need to go and make disciples of all nations…Paul…justified his missionary expansion to the Gentiles to the folk in Pisidian Antioch with a quotation of Isaiah 49:6 (Acts 13:47).” (“God Delivers”, by Derek Thomas, p. 319, 320)

Messiah (continued)