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Jacob Part 6
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
There are people who will offer you a seat at the table and then remind you that you can't have theirs. Welcome to the Commons cast. We're glad you're here, and we hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. But welcome today.
Speaker 1:My name is Jeremy, and I'm one of the people who hang out here around Commons. Thanks for being here with us. We really are honored that you would come and spend part of your day with us to worship. But I also want to say welcome to all of those who are in Inglewood this morning. This is our second prelaunch service as we are testing out our systems for January.
Speaker 1:And today, we're actually running live here in Kensington for four services, but we're also running a service in Inglewood at the same time. And so, hopefully, all of that is working and things are going well over there right now. That said, we find ourselves in the homestretch of this extended Jacob series we've had this fall. However, before we recap, I wanna say thank you to everyone for your support of our children's pastor Jeannie in this season. Her husband Rick's passing was a loss for all of us in the community.
Speaker 1:But especially during this time, we want to gather around and support Jeannie and her family in whatever way we can. And so for all of those who offered your condolences and your presence and your kind words and your baking, thank you. I know that Jeannie appreciates that very deeply, and there will be opportunity to continue to support her in the days to come. Right now, there's a lot of family around, and there's a lot of activity. But in the next couple weeks, we're gonna really need to rally around as a community and support her as well.
Speaker 1:Now last week, we turned a bit of a corner in the Jacob story. We saw him wake from this dream in which he encounters God, and we began to see him start to perhaps make some changes in his life. Up until this point, Jacob has been in many ways the villain of the story, and yet God doesn't give up on him. God doesn't abandon him. God doesn't leave him on his own.
Speaker 1:God actually pursues, and God chases, and God relentlessly reminds Jacob of his true identity beyond all of the things he thinks he needs to grab for. And some of us here, this is probably the most important thing that we can take from the entire Jacob narrative. That Jacob thinks he needs more status to be loved by God. Like, he needs that birthright, and he needs that blessing, and we need that promotion, and I need her love, and I just need a few more views on my Facebook video, and then I will be worthy of God's attention. And yet, the hinge point in the Jacob story is when God shows up just in the moment when Jacob is at his least worthy by any external measure.
Speaker 1:He has defrauded his brother and deceived his dad, and his family has fallen apart, and he flees to the desert, and he sleeps alone on a rock in the wilderness. This is where grace appears to him. And so if you feel unworthy right now, in whatever shape that takes for you in this moment, perhaps that is only ever because you have misread what your worth was about. Know that God sees value in you apart from anything that you have done or accomplished. Your worth is not tied to the attention you receive.
Speaker 1:It comes because you are a child of the divine. And once Jacob begins to get this, we begin to see a very different Jacob. In fact, where once Jacob was infamous for grabbing things that weren't his, now we see him willing to work seven and then eventually fourteen years for the hand of the woman that he loves. And so this is a very different Jacob than the one who we saw dressed up in goatskins to trick his dad and steal what wasn't his. We are seeing that Jacob is growing and evolving and becoming something more than he was at the start of the story.
Speaker 1:And the remarkable part of that is that as God moves closer to him and as Jacob responds to God, this is when life actually gets harder for Jacob. Yet in the midst of all that, because God was there in his least deserving moments, Jacob has some sense, however faint that may be, that God will be present to him here as well. And my hope is that if you find yourselves in one of those moments where life is hard and things are unfair right now, that you might notice God beside you in the midst of this moment as well. Now we have a couple more weeks with Jacob to wrap up this story and then move into the season of Advent, but there is still a lot of ground to cover. And so let's pray, and then we'll pick up where we left off last week.
Speaker 1:God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, today, we bring whatever baggage and weight we have carried with us. Perhaps hurts and our failings and the spaces where we have gotten away with something that we shouldn't have. And we carry all of that into this room with us today. Perhaps because we don't know what else to do with that. Maybe because we don't know where to put it down or if we can leave it behind.
Speaker 1:And so we ask that you would meet us here face to face and grace to mistake so that we might experience the weightlessness of reconciliation. Grant us peace in your presence today and courage to pursue forgiveness in our relationships as we go. Lord, give us the strength to seek out those we have hurt in order to bring healing and hope back into those broken moments. And as we do, Lord, would you help us to know that the hurt of the past, both the hurts we have caused and perhaps the hurts we have suffered, these do not define our experience of peace today here in your presence. Instead, we ask for your grace and for your wisdom.
Speaker 1:We ask that your love would shape our tomorrows. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Okay. Last week, Jacob worked fourteen years in total to marry the woman that he loves.
Speaker 1:Today, we find him about to return to his homeland. However, before we jump in today, one thing that we didn't have time to pick up on last week was this idea of wells. Now I talked about two women at wells last week. Jacob meets Rachel at a well, then and I did this little bit of a detour into an encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at a well as well. And that is more than just a coincidence.
Speaker 1:This is a trope in Hebrew literature. As Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well, and wait for it, Jacob's well. That's actually what it says if you go and read the story in John four. And so what we are reading in John four is somehow connected to what we are learning about here in Genesis. You see Jacob's father Isaac finds his wife at a well, and Jacob meets his wife at a well, and Moses finds his wife at a well as well, and the pattern is well established early in the Hebrew scriptures that significant figures in the Jesus story meet their wives at wells.
Speaker 1:And so John four, when Jesus meets a woman at a well, he doesn't marry her, but he does talk to her about marriage. And certainly, if you are a Hebrew reader who is steeped in these Hebrew stories, you would immediately notice this connection. And what's happening here is that the writer of John is placing Jesus into the long story of Jewish heroes. The writer sets us up to imagine that Jesus is just like Jacob and just like Moses, and just as we settle into that, things change on us. Because Jesus says to a Samaritan, a group of people that the Jews had a long antagonistic history with, Jesus says, I am the Christ that you have been waiting for.
Speaker 1:And so part of what is happening in the background in John four is that John is using the story of Jacob to say to his people, Jesus is everything you expected him to be, but so much more than that. And, yes, he fits perfectly into your story just the way you expect, but he also fits into their story as well. Jesus is yours, but he doesn't just belong to you. And that is part of the beauty of the Jesus story that we need to remember as well. Now that's all for free, but what it does is it illustrates that if we don't take the time to understand the literary world of Jesus, which is the world of Genesis that we're studying, then we miss out on all of these incredible ways that he is communicating in and through and beneath the words that we read.
Speaker 1:Now, back to Jacob. We left him having worked fourteen years in the employ of his uncle Laban in order to earn the hand of his wife Rachel. And so in Genesis chapter 31 starting in verse one, we read that Jacob heard that Laban's sons were saying, Jacob has taken everything from our father or taken everything our father owned and has gained all his wealth from what belonged to our father. And Jacob also noticed that Laban's attitude toward him was not what it had been. Then the Lord said to Jacob, go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.
Speaker 1:So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. And he said to them, I see that your father's attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I've worked for your father with all my strength, and yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages 10 times. So what Jacob does here is he convinces Rachel and Leah that they are leaving, and they are leaving now, and they have to go and get their stuff and get out of here. And there's a couple things that are interesting here, because I think that Jacob wants to give Laban the benefit of the doubt even after he tricked him last week.
Speaker 1:At 10 times we read, the agreement has changed, and each time Jacob has remained committed to his uncle. And there is something noble in that. Right? Sometimes when someone disappoints you, this is not immediately time to cut ties. One of the best things that you can do to strengthen your relationships, in your marriage or with your friends or even at work, is to learn to assume the best of the people who are near you.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about being naive. You know, when someone shows you that they don't deserve your trust, respond appropriately. But learn to start from a place of optimism. And when someone shows you you know they care about you deeply, learn to default back to that optimism as well. Because oftentimes, it is what we tell ourselves about what has happened that is as damaging as what has actually happened IRL.
Speaker 1:And that's important, and we'll come back to that in a couple weeks, so hang on to it. But here's the problem today. 10 times this has happened, and it doesn't seem like Jacob has ever had a conversation with his uncle about this. And that's not healthy. And so what happens is he gathers up all his stuff and his family, and he leaves in the middle of the night, and Laban wakes up the next day, he and finds everyone missing, and so he goes off chasing after Jacob.
Speaker 1:Now before Laban can catch up with Jacob, God actually appears to Laban in a dream, and he says, listen. Don't overreact to this. Okay? Like, I have plans for Jacob, so chill out. But this is what Laban says when he does catch up with Jacob.
Speaker 1:He says, you have what have you done? You have deceived me, and you have carried off my daughters like captives in war. Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn't you just tell me? So that I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps.
Speaker 1:You didn't even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. Now, like any interpersonal conflict, this one is gonna be hard to parse. Jacob has his perspective. No doubt Laban has his, and Laban's is also somewhat complicated by the fact that God has intervened and shown up to him in a dream the night before.
Speaker 1:But I do think that the text is trying to demonstrate something significant here. That perhaps neither Jacob nor Laban is the bad guy in the story. Like, is it possible that all of these years, while Jacob has been frustrated and fuming by the terms of their relationship, Laban has just honestly not seen it. And I'm not saying you get a pass for being obtuse. Trust me.
Speaker 1:One of the real strengths in my life has been the fact that I can be very single-minded and focused on my goals, And that has enabled me to do and experience some incredible things, but without some serious work on self awareness, I fully recognize that I can also be almost completely oblivious to what is happening in and through the people who are near me, especially when I'm excited about something. And I need to do a better job with that, and it's embarrassing to admit, but it's true, and I'm working on it. However, I can't help but read this story and wonder what would have happened if Jacob had just faced up to this and sat down with his uncle for a hard conversation years ago. And I wonder if there aren't some uncomfortable conversations that we need to have before we find ourselves ready to sneak away in the middle of the night. And if you are ready to sneak away, maybe you already have one foot out the door in that relationship, maybe it's time to sit down with that person.
Speaker 1:I know that's hard, and I'm not saying it's gonna fix everything, but maybe there's a story you can't quite imagine yet waiting on the other side of a hard conversation. And that's it. God is gracious here. And Jacob and Laban agree to go their separate ways peacefully. But there is this kind of funny intense moment here before we move to the climax of our story today.
Speaker 1:Because just before Jacob and family leave Haran, his wife Rachel sneaks in and steals her father's household gods. Now the Hebrew word here is terephim, and it means idols. Later, Laban will describe them as Elohim, which means gods. But, basically, Rachel steals them, and Laban accuses Jacob of stealing them when he catches up with him. And Jacob says, well, I didn't do it.
Speaker 1:Of course, he doesn't know that Rachel has done it, and so he says, go ahead and search the tents. I've got nothing to hide. And so Laban goes from tent to tent, and eventually he gets to Rachel's tent, and she takes these terrafim, and she puts them in a satchel, and she sits on the satchel. And when her father comes in, she says, don't be angry, my lord, but I cannot stand in your presence. I'm having my period.
Speaker 1:And it's kind of a weird story, and it doesn't really go anywhere. And so people have wondered, what is this here for? And there's a couple of different ways we can think about this. One is that Rachel just wants them for herself to continue the religion of her father in her new home, so she steals them. Another is that Rachel has actually come to know the God of her husband Jacob.
Speaker 1:And so she can't imagine leaving her father to continue worshiping these idols, and so she steals them away from him. Unfortunately, Genesis doesn't really help us much here, except that there is a noncanonical book. That means you're not gonna find it in your bible, but it is referenced in the bible. It's called the book of Jasher or the book of the upright. And we know this book.
Speaker 1:And there in Jasher chapter 31, we read that Rachel stole these idols because she was worried her father would use them to track down Jacob. So apparently, there was some way he might pray to these idols and find out where to go. And, of course, Laban does track them down anyway, and it's actually Yahweh who helps him in a sense. And so part of the reason for the inclusion of this strange little story seems to be that the author is taking one last shot at the gods of the family that Jacob is leaving behind. They don't work.
Speaker 1:Laban doesn't need them anyway. And after all that, they suffer the indignation, truthful or otherwise, and Rachel insinuating that she has made them ritually impure with her menstrual cycle. Now we talked about some of this stuff in our Leviticus series a year ago. I know it's strange. Just remember that ritually impure does not mean sinful or broken in ancient cultures.
Speaker 1:That's not what it's about. It's just about ritual. However, the point seems to be that these idols that are so important to Laban are not worth taking seriously. And it may be that there are patterns or habits or idols that come from your family of origin. And it's possible they are not worth taking seriously either.
Speaker 1:It's important to know that where you come from does not define you. However, that brings us to our climax today. Because now that Jacob and Laban have come to an agreement and Jacob is free to return home, that brings up a new question. Because do you remember back to the reason that Jacob left in the first place? It was because his brother was out to kill him.
Speaker 1:So in chapter 32, we read that Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them, this is what you are to say to my lord, Esau. Your servant Jacob says now, let's pause here for a second because this is Jacob taking a very different posture from when we last saw him speak to his brother. And I don't think he's just faking it here. He says this not just in front of his brother to try to curry favor.
Speaker 1:He actually says this in front of his own family and his servants and his workers. This is a different Jacob than the one Esau remembers. In fact, not only does he elevate his brother by calling him my lord, he lowers himself and says, I am your slave. And sometimes, you have to be willing to do more than just lift someone else up. You have to be willing to take the lower place and actually serve them.
Speaker 1:There was a tweet by Ephraim Smith a couple weeks ago. And Ephraim is a pastor in our denomination of churches, but he said, there are people who will offer you a seat at the table and then remind you that you can't have theirs. And I thought, woah, that's tough to hear. Because that hits a little too close to home as an individual who's trying to serve others, but still has an ego. And that hits a little too close to home as a white male who wants to see justice and reconciliation happen in the world.
Speaker 1:Because it reminds me that if I want to talk about my Lord, then I have to be willing to talk about my servanthood. And I have to be willing to own and acknowledge what a more just world will cost me. And so Jacob says, through these messengers to his estranged brother, I have been staying with Laban, and I have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys and sheep and goats and male and female servants, and now I am sending this message to my Lord that I may find favor in your eyes. But when the messengers returned, they said, we went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and 400 men are with him.
Speaker 1:Now this is one of those. I got some good news, and I got some bad news kind of moments. Your brother is coming to meet you. Also, he's got an army with him. Now imagine for a moment you are Jacob, and the last thing that you remember about your brother is that he wants you dead, and now he's bringing an army to your meeting.
Speaker 1:And what do you do here? Do you go ahead with the meeting? Do you just run away? Do you make peace with your family and prepare to die? And for the record, the Hebrew here is incredibly ambiguous.
Speaker 1:We don't know if Jacob had any further conversations with these messengers. I think it would have some clarifying questions I might like to ask in this situation. We don't know what the messenger's experience of Esau was like. Was he smiling? Was he mournful?
Speaker 1:Did he laugh maniacally as he listened to them tell of Jacob's whereabouts? We don't know anything else about what was communicated to these messengers or to Jacob, and that is by design. Because the writer wants you to be just as anxious and unsure as Jacob is in this moment. So how do you respond? Well, here's what Jacob does.
Speaker 1:Verse seven, in great fear and distress, Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups. Now let's pause here. This phrase in great fear and distress, this is the phrase in Hebrew. And literally, what this means is to be very restricted or confined. This is actually the word that you would use to talk about being tied up or imprisoned in Hebrew.
Speaker 1:Now in a more figurative sense, it absolutely can mean anxious or fearful. But what's interesting is to realize that in the more concrete visual language of Hebrew, to speak of being fearful and distressed is to talk about being unable to move. And I don't wanna suggest that any action is always better than none. Sometimes, what you really need to do is to sit and to wait and to be patient. But sometimes, when you have hurt someone, and enough time has gone by, and it is appropriate, and you're not going to make things worse, sometimes you need to make movement toward that person.
Speaker 1:A gesture of reconciliation even when you feel like you can't move. This can be an act of grace for both of you. So even though Jacob feels like he can't move, somehow he musters his courage, and he divides his party in two. He figures, at least if Esau attacks, some of my people will get away. And then that night, he prays to God.
Speaker 1:He says, listen, I'm afraid and I'm unworthy, but I know you've been with me this far. And then in the morning, he selected a gift for his brother Esau. 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, and 25 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. And he is really hoping that Esau is into animal husbandry here. And then what he does is he takes these herds and he separates them, and he puts a servant in charge of each one, and he sends them in waves to Esau, each with the same message.
Speaker 1:This is a gift from Jacob, and Jacob is coming behind us. And he thinks to himself, I will pacify Esau with these gifts I am sending on ahead. And later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me. And so Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. This is where we're gonna end today because this is the point in the story where something like God shows up, where Jacob is alone and wrestles with him through the night.
Speaker 1:And finally, we will get a payoff for all this artwork we've had up for the last couple months. But there is something important here before we close today. And it's buried in the Hebrew, and it's lost in the translation, but I think it's really important. Jacob's gifts went ahead of him. We read that several times in the story.
Speaker 1:But in Hebrew, what happens here is that five times in this passage, there is a reference to face. You see, each time Jacob sends a gift, he sends it in front of him in English. But in Hebrew, he sends it in front of his face. And then in English, says, I will pacify Esau with these gifts. But in Hebrew, what he says is, will cover Esau's face with these gifts.
Speaker 1:And then when it says, I will see him and perhaps he will receive me. In Hebrew, it says, when I face him, perhaps he will face me. And so Jacob's gifts went ahead in front of his face, but he himself stayed the night in the camp. Now, there are idioms in different languages, and the idea of sending something in front of your face, this is not uncommon in Hebrew. In Hebrew, we read about our prayers coming up before the face of God.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful. But to restate this phrase in so many different ways in such close proximity, this is not a coincidence. This is a literary device. Because the author wants us to see that Jacob imprisoned by his past and constricted by what he's done, wants to move forward, but the one thing that will set him free is the one thing that he's not quite yet ready for, and that's to face his brother. You see, ostensibly, Jacob is afraid that Esau is gonna kill him.
Speaker 1:But what I think the author is trying to tell us is that what Jacob is really afraid of is standing face to face with the person he's hurt. And maybe you understand this. You have injured someone, or you've hurt someone, or maybe you've offended someone in some way, and somehow you have become aware of that, and you know you knew it was wrong, and now you want to own it, and so you sent them an email or a gift or a letter or some kind of symbol of your apology because it felt safer than showing your face. And I have done that. And I have thought that sending something in front of my face was enough, and I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Now hear me. There are times and there are situations where the injury is so deep that showing your face might actually make things worse. And please do not show up at the workplace of your ex and apologize for everything that you have done wrong and tell them you're glad they've moved on and found a new partner, that's not an appropriate thing to do. But if the reason that you are putting a gift or a letter or an email or a DM in front of your face is because you are trying to protect yourself from the weight of your actions, that you need to understand that sometimes, some things need to be done face to face. And there are times when I would rather my apology cost me an ox than a conversation.
Speaker 1:But that's not how reconciliation works. Sometimes, all the gifts in the world will never replace the humility of standing and asking for grace face to face. And so my prayer is that in those moments when I need to do that, that God would grant me the courage to stand face to face with those I've hurt because this is where grace meets us. Let's pray. God, help us as we continue to place ourselves into the story in the shoes of Jacob, to see ourselves in each part of his tale.
Speaker 1:We recognize in him the moments where we have grabbed at things that weren't ours. We see in him the moments where you have chased us down and met with us in places we didn't expect. Lord, we see in him changes that he's making and attempts that we have made to be better, to become more healthy, to move in a good direction. And yet, God, we also see in him this tendency that we all have to put things in front of our face and to think that we can protect ourselves even as we ask for reconciliation and forgiveness. And, God, I pray that by your spirit, you would be present to each of us as we need you to be, giving us wisdom and maturity to know when it's appropriate for us to keep a distance and allow someone to heal, but when the time is right that we would muster the courage to move even when we feel like we are constricted, to go and to stand and to ask for forgiveness and reconciliation because we believe that this is how the world is healed.
Speaker 1:As each of us follow your path of grace and peace and reconciliation, and that story infects and then takes over the world, that your kingdom might come, step by step and hard conversation after hard conversation, request for forgiveness and grace after request for reconciliation. God, might our actions bring peace to the world even when we are the ones who have caused the hurt. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.