Genesis 28-36: Jacob Wrestles with God

Pastor Scott Jonas

Genesis 28-36

Jacob Wrestles with God

6/21/18

Have you ever wanted to be someone else?  Imagine messing your life up so bad that you want to run away and start again.  That’s where we find Jacob in Genesis chapter 28.  Jacob is the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham.  He was promised the blessing of both God and his father.  He was one of three men on earth who shared that distinction and responsibility.  The whole world will be blessed by you sounds neat but in reality it is a heavy weight that he has felt since birth.  It finally overwhelmed him.  He stole his brother’s birthright by fooling his blind father.  He torched all of his relationships.  He doesn’t know who he is, anymore.

His brother hates him and vows to murder him after dad dies.  His father feels betrayed and foolish.  His mother is worried that Jacob is going to marry a foreign woman like his brother.  He has disappointed everyone he loves.  Who knows what God thinks of him?

God spoke to Jacob and said “go to Paddan-aram the land of Laban your uncle and marry one of his daughters.  God almighty will bless you and make you fruitful and multiply.  May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring that you may take possession of the land promised. “ So Jacob takes off to travel alone over 300 miles north to his Uncles clan.  It is an opportunity for a fresh start.  The trip would take about a month, giving him a lot of time to think.  Who does he want to be?  Is he Jacob the deceiver as his brother claims or is he better than that?

On the journey Jacob has a dream about a ladder.  He sees this enormous ladder that starts at his feet and towers into the heavens.  Angels use it like a highway to ascend and descend.  God affirms his promises.  Jacob wakes up and says, “How awesome is this place!”  then he makes a vow ,”If God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go so that I may one day return to my Father’s house in peace then the Lord shall be my God.”  Be careful what you vow to God.

Jacob travels to Haran.  Finds a well and replenishes himself.  There he sees the woman of his dreams, her name is Rachel.  It turns out she is the daughter of Laban.  That is a sign!  He vowed that he would stay true to the Lord if the Lord made his way straight and God pointed him right to Laban’s daughter the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.  This fresh start stuff really works.  Jacob goes to Laban, explains that he is his nephew and offers to work 7 years for the right to marry Rachel.  Laban agrees.  Imagine a movie montage where the seven years fly by.  Jacob and Rachel flirt out in the field.  They steal a kiss behind a goat.  They hold hands behind a tent.  They lay down on a blanket and look up at the stars.  “That is how many descendants God has promised us,” he says to her.  The seven years go by in a blink.  The big day comes.  They have a feast with way too much wine.  God is really answering Jacob’s prayer.

Record Scratch.  Jacob wakes up from his wedding night.  He looks over and is horrified.  It’s like a scene from the Hangover.  He is married not to his sweetheart Rachel but instead she’s been replaced with her older sister Leah.  Somewhere Esau is dying of laughter.

Have you ever made a deal with God?  God I will be good if you do this for me.  If you convince Ann Myers to marry me, I will be good.  If you get me into college I will be good.  If you get me a job I will be good?  If you give me a child I will be good.  When you make a vow to God it’s easy to think that you’ve turned a corner.  You’ve left that old life behind and everything in front of you will be roses.  But that’s not how life works.  That’s not how the life of faith works.  Following God is hard.  Sometimes things go smooth but that doesn’t mean that it’s because of you.  Sometimes smooth makes you entitled.  Most of the time God is trying to shape you into the person he wants you to be.  It is like you are the sculpture and he is the sculptor.  Being sculpted hurts.

Jacob has met his match in Laban, his uncle and father-in-law.  They are the same guy.  They both are sneaky, always thinking seven steps ahead.  They get what they want through manipulation.  Jacob conned his family and now Jacob gets conned by Laban.  That hurts.  Jacob is married to Leah.  He said the words and he completed the act.  Like his stolen blessing from Isaac, it can’t be taken back.  So Jacob makes the best of it and agrees to marry both Leah and Rachel for another seven years of working Laban’s livestock.  What good is it being good when bad guys take it all away?  Nice Guys finish last.

Predictably this mindset affects his homelife.  God told him to marry one daughter but he married two.  Now he figures, all rules are out the window.  At his dueling wives direction he beds Leah’s servant and Rachel’s servant.  Over the next 20 years he has 12 boys and 1 girl from 4 women.  Yet God is still working on him.  God blesses Jacob despite himself.  Laban gives Jacob the worst of his animals and God makes them become the best. 

Jacob has a decision.  He can stay and be Laban’s proteje.  He can learn how to be a master heel .  But he decides to turn his back on that life just as he did at the beginning of his journey 20 years ago.  Jacob flees from Laban.  He takes his two wives, two concubines, many spotted livestock and runs away back towards the land that is promised him.  Laban catches him.  Jacob proclaims that he has held up his part of the bargain and Laban is forced to agree.  They part ways, one deceiver goes north and one goes south.

Jacob travels the 300 miles back to his first family.  He starts thinking again.  Remember that dream with the angels on the ladder to heaven.  Remember the words of hope God declared to him.  Remember the vow, if you make my way straight then I will follow you.  God gave him everything he wanted and then some.  It is time follow God again.  Especially now when he thinks about his brother’s vow to kill him.  He could definitely use some of that God protection.  He prays to the Lord and repents, “I am not worthy of all the deeds and steadfast love and all of the faithfulness that you have shown me.”  It is the first time we have heard words of repentance from him.  By my recollection it is the first time Abraham, Isaac or Jacob has repented to God.  This is momentous.  God really is shaping him.

That same night God started taking on a more hands on approach to sculpting him.  Jacob slept alone anticipating that something big was going to occur.  Maybe he wanted his brother to find him alone rather than endanger his wives and children.  But it wasn’t Esau who overtook him in the night.  It was a messenger from God, an Angel.  Some say Jesus himself.  He wrestled Jacob and Jacob wrestled back.  It was like sparring with God through prayer only physical.  All the anger, disappointment, and fear came out of Jacob and Jesus took it.  Jacob fought like a crying toddler fights his mother.  One was hugging while the other was pushing away.  It took until sunrise but God won.  Jacob considered it a victory just to still be alive.

Jacob wanted to know his worthy opponent’s name.  God said, “I won’t tell you my name, but I will give you a new name because you aren’t the same man you used to be.  I’ve sculpted you into something new.  You were Jacob, now let you be Israel.”

God is sculpting you.  I know it hurts.  That’s how it works. 

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Genesis 26-27: Stolen Blessing

Pastor Scott Jonas

Genesis 26-27

Stolen Blessing

6/17/18

One of the threads through Genesis is blessing.  God creates in order to give it blessing.  Adam and Eve are blessed with everything they need to thrive.  They see, touch and hear their creator.  Sin takes away that way of life.  Noah receives blessed words from God.  So does Abraham.  But they can’t touch and see him.  They can only hear the promises of blessing.

            Over the generations, sin has corrupted the passing down of blessing from parent to child.  Families get screwed up.  Noah’s son is banished because he shames his Father.  Abraham and Sara demand their servant bear him a son.  There are first borns who aren’t really first borns.  There are legitimate sons and illegitimate sons.  These families have been given precious words of hope from God and it is their duty and privilege to gift them to their children.  The blessing must not be stopped.

            As we heard last week in Genesis 25, Isaac and Rebekah do it right.  No surrogates.  No maidservant complications.  They patiently wait for the Lord to bless them with a child for twenty years.  He hears their prayers and they have twins, Jacob and Esau.  They hate each other.  It goes to show us parents, that sometimes you can do things the right way and still fail.  Jacob is an entitled narcissist who believes that God’s words mean the world revolves around Jacob.  Esau is an unholy man who believes that God’s words are worthless compared to the things that satisfy his desires.  So it isn’t a shock when the entitled jerk schemes away the unholy jerks birthright and blessing, a pot of stew for the right to be head of the family, and proclaimer of the covenant.

            The birthright in any ancient nomadic family meant that the receiver got control of the majority of the family wealth.  That came with responsibility.  The receiver of the blessing had to care for his aging parents and oversee and bless the rest of the extended family or clan.  What makes the scene so bizarre is that a birthright is not something for a son to sell.  A birthright belongs only to the Father.  By custom, he gives it to the oldest son.  We also have to remember that with the birthright goes the covenant from the Lord.  He has promised Abraham and Isaac’s descendants that they will become a great Nation.  He will bless this family so all of the nations can be blessed.  If Jacob gets the blessing , the rest of the Bible will read “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”  If Esau gets the blessing then the rest of the Bible will read “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Esau.”  That is what is on the line.

            You know the story.  Rebekah connives with her protégé, Jacob by pretending to be Esau.  Jacob makes himself hairy with Goat’s skin and presents to his aging Father a meal.  The blind Isaac hears Jacob’s voice but on close inspection feels Esau.  So Isaac kissed his son and smelled him and said

            ““See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!

28 May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.  Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers,

    and may your mother's sons bow down to you.  Cursed be everyone who curses you,

    and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

            Jacob leaves and Esau comes in with his meal.  He asks for his Father’s blessing.  That the birthright, the headship, the property, the promises of God all flow to him.  Isaac doesn’t understand.  He just gave the blessing.  He thought it was Esau but he was fooled.  You can’t take back a blessing.  Esau leaves disillusioned, angry and hateful.

            This may sound like a completely different culture that has no bearing on your life, but you’d be wrong.  We need the blessing passed down to us as much now as they did in the era of the patriarchs.  As a pastor I’ve seen families that regularly, formally give blessing between parent and child.  I’ve also seen the destruction that comes when a parent withholds blessing.  It is apparent to me that we were designed to take blessing and gift it to the next generation.

            Biblical blessing is something that every Christian needs.  What is Biblical blessing?  We see it in the Isaac example.  Biblical blessing is a father kisses a child and speaks God’s hopeful promises.  Today we would apply it to any parent, grandparent, God parent, foster parent, guardian, mentor or teacher.  The receiver of blessing can be any son or daughter, boy or girl, man or woman.

            It goes all the way back to the Garden.  The Lord touched Adam and Eve when he created them.  He spoke life into them.  Then he told them about the incredible future they would have together.  We were designed for this.  You may have noticed that during communion I give a biblical blessing to our children.  I get low and look at them eye to eye.  I touch their forehead, make the sign of the cross and say “The Lord Bless you and Keep you.”  I may not be their biological father but God has commanded me to care for them.  I know we have wonderful, faithful, nurturing parents here.  I hopefully, add to the blessing they receive at home.  The touch.  The promises.  The hope.

            Here’s the Jesus connection to the Genesis story.  Who is God’s first born?  Is it Adam?  Is it Noah?  Is it Abraham?  No.  It’s Jesus.  Even though Jesus has always existed, he is the firstborn.  He receives the first portion of blessings.  The Father hugs him and says, “This is my son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.”  He receives love, knowledge, forgiveness, righteousness, sonship and all of the blessing of God.  Jesus then takes that blessing and gives it to you through touch, promise and hope.  When you were baptized, someone touched your heart and your forehead and made the sign of the cross in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  You heard the promise that God is with you always even to the end of the age.

            If you’ve received the blessing from your heavenly Father then you have a responsibility to pass on that blessing to your household.  We can make the pledge here and now that Everynight in every one of our homes we will formally bless our loved ones.  Before anyone goes to bed, go to them make the sign of the cross on their forehead and say, the Lord bless you and keep you.”  It sounds too simple.  It sounds trite. But it could have a huge impact.

            As you know, my father died when I was seven, So my single mom gave me the blessing.  But before he died I got to visit him in the hospital.  I got up into his bed, snuggled in the crook of his arm.  I don’t know the words he said, but I know they were words of blessing.  I left that room feeling that whatever happened I was going to be O.K.  My Father loved me.  His heavenly Father loves him.  And nothing would change that.

Genesis 25: Jacob and Esau

Pastor Scott Jonas

Jacob and Esau

Genesis 25

6-7-18

            Turn in your Bibles or your phones to Genesis 25.  Last week was intense.  God kept his covenantal promise and Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah.  They called him Isaac which means laughter.  When Isaac was a teenager, the laughter turned into something else.  Abraham followed God’s instructions and brought his son up to a mountain as an offering.  Abraham trusted that God would raise Isaac from the dead.  God told him to stop.  He saw Abraham’s faith.  Isaac grew up and God gave him a wife Rebekah.  The covenant has been passed down to them.  They will be the Father and Mother of a great nation that will bless all of creation.

            Just like Sarah, Rebekah was barren.  For twenty years they prayed to have a child.  Finally, he answered their cry.  As always, the blessing of a child came with pain.  The Bible says, “The children struggled together within her.”  She said “Why is this happening to me?”  Any women here experience severe discomfort during preganancy and say “Why is this happening to me?’  And then slowly turn towards your spouse.  Remember she didn’t know she was going to have twins at this point.  She just feels this struggle inside of her. 

            She went to inquire of the Lord.  We don’t know what this means.  There are no priests, no temple, no holy place.  Abraham was still living.  Maybe she went to him because God had spoken to him verbally and in visions.  This is what the Lord says to her, “Two nations “Two nations are in your womb   and two peoples from within you[c] shall be divided;

the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”  That explained the turmoil inside her but in a few months the turmoil would be outside of her for the rest of her life.

            Esau was born first.  He came out hairy and red.  Like he had won a race.  Jacob was close behind.  In fact, he was holding onto the heel of Esau, as if that counted as a tie.  The struggle was now outside.

            You and I have a struggle as well.  Jacob and Esau represent two opposite ways of living.  Both are sinful.  Martin Luther said, “All of us are either a Jacob or an Esau.”  We tend towards one or the other.  Jacobs need to be sympathetic to the Esaus and you Esaus need to be more sympathetic to the Jacobs.  Let me explain.

The word that best describes Jacob is entitled.  Entitled means to give a title, right or claim to someone.  God gave “Jacob the title of the stronger one who will lead a nation.”  He goes beyond his this prophecy and feels like the world owes him.  Everybody better get out of his way because God said that he is the chosen one.  He is like Israel’s first King, Saul.  Once he knows that he has been picked by God, he believes that he is entitled to do anything in his power to win.  Jacob may have lost the race to be first born top Esau but that doesn’t matter.  He is going to win the game of life.  He is hairless which makes him sleek and streamlined.  Hair is for animals.  Jacob is an elevated being who uses his cunning to get what he wants.  And God wants what Jacob wants.  At least that is what Jacob tells himself as he looks at his reflection.  The actor playing him is Cary Grant.

He’s a mommas boy.  Mom dotes on him so he thinks he is the center of the world.  He’s not.  He’s has narcissitic tendencies.  Jacob’s name means “Grabber of the heel” in Hebrew.  But the root word of Jacob is very close to the word “Deceiver.”  Maybe that is why a heel is a word for a bad guy.  Jacob is like the Pharisees.  Jesus is always trying to take them down a peg because they take themselves so seriously.  Their ego is so big there is no room for other people let alone God. 

Are you a Jacob?  Answer these questions.  Do you do whatever it takes to get what you want?  Do you believe that you are better than others?  Do you deserve things because you want them more?  Do you believe that your faith entitles you to a better life?  Are you so competitive that you forget that those you are competing against are loved by God?  Do you act as if the ends justify the means?  Are you so certain that you are special that you never question your destiny?  You might be a Jacob.

If you aren’t a Jacob then you are an Esau.  The word that best describes him is unholy.  He doesn’t care about anything but gratifying himself.  If he is hungry, then food is his God.  If he is bored then action is his God.  If he is needs a woman then sex is his God.  He’s heard the prophecy and it is worthless to him.  It’s just words.  What good are words?  You can’t clothe yourself with them.  You can’t fill your belly with words.  If you can’t touch and see it then what good is it? God’s words do nothing for him.  His parents may be religious but he lives as if there is no creator.

He is hairy and red, a man’s man.  I’m imagining Anthony Quinn.  He is a hunter who loves the outdoors.  What’s not to love?  If you are hungry, kill something.  If you are thirsty, find water.  If you are cold, lay on a hot rock.  If you are tired, sleep under a tree.  That is the good life.  Only the physical matters, the spiritual doesn’t exist.

As for life, he has no plan.  He makes it up as he goes along.  Jacob has plans, Esau just has desires.  The future isn’t real.  Now is real.  He is like the Israealites in the desert.  All he can think about is meat.  He’d definitely go back to Egypt if it meant meat.  He is like the followers of Jesus who walked away after the feeding of the 5,000.  Esau would have stayed for the free meal but when Jesus started talking about being the bread of Life, He’d be out of there.  Life is too short.

Are you an Esau?  Answer these questions.  Do you live to satisfy your physical cravings?  Are you very particular about what you eat?  Do you complain in restaurants when your demands are not met?  Do you spend more time feeding your stomach food than you do feeding your soul the word of God?  Do you behave as if this world is all there is?  Do you act as if the prophecies of God aren’t about you?

The story of Jacob and Esau plays out.  Give me Stew says Esau.  Give me your birthright, says Jacob.  And God shakes his head.

Jacob and Esau two opposite directions that we want to avoid.  Martin Luther often talked about the image of a road with a ditch on both sides.  On one side we have and entitled jerk and the other side an unholy jerk.  I’ve been both.  My calling as a pastor often encourages me to be an entitled jerk.  Look at me, I went to seminary.  I know so much.  God loves me because I know Greek.  But my natural default is probably the unholy jerk.  I can focus on my next meal or sporting event and careless about the future.

Malachi 1        2 “ I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated.”  He doesn’t love the entitled and hate the unholy.  If that’s the case we are all in a lot of trouble.  Those he love often become entitled.  Remember he chose Jacob before he was born.  There was nothing Jacob did to earn God’s love.

Jesus died for the entitled and the unholy.  Whatever your sin, it is forgiven.  Embrace your forgiveness.  Remember the bumper sticker:  Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven.  It could say Christians are entitled and unholy but God loves us anyway.  The only thing we can do in response to the a merciful God is to embrace our choseness.  In your baptism, God promised that he will love you.  You are chosen just like Jacob.  We can’t let that turn us into entitled annoying people.  Instead, we try to get other people to see that they are chosen too.  Everyone you talk to can be chosen.  We don’t know, only the almighty does.  But we do know that being chosen by God makes all the difference.  Jacob’s family became the family of God and Esau’s descendants were not. 

Genesis 20-24: Abraham and his Son

Pastor Scott Jonas

Abraham and His Son

6/3/18

Genesis 22

            We continue “In the Beginning.”  Abraham and Sara are such crucial characters in the story of salvation that Genesis spends 12 chapters on them.  God picks Abraham out of nowhere and promises that this old nomad will be the Father of a great nation.  Abraham holds onto that promise for 25 years.  Over that time, he travels to Egypt and denies that he is married.  Abraham goes to the promised land of Canaan and ends up rescuing his nephew from a foreign army.  He tithes to a king and priest named Melchizadek.  He circumcises himself and his clan as belonging to God.   Three strange visitors foretell that Sarah will give birth in a year.  Abraham bargains with God over Sodom which is destroyed by fire from the sky.  Now you are caught up.

            Chapters 21 and 22 are such contrasts.  In Chapter 21, The Lord visits Sarah and she bore Abraham a son in his old age. He is circumcised on the 8^th day, just as God stipulated in their covenant.  Abraham is 100 years old.  It is laughable that someone their age should give birth.  Therefore they name him Isaac, which means “laughter.”  If you remember, Sara laughed when she was told she was going to conceive.  She laughed then at the absurdity of it all.  Now that Isaac is born, she laughs out of joy.  The people of God are literally born from laughter.  The tone of the story is glee.

            That tone disappears in chapter 22.  Glee is replaced with dark resolution.  Isaac is a grown boy, probably a teenager.  God speaks to Abraham and calls his name, “Abraham!”  Abraham says, “I’m ready to do your bidding.”  Little did he know what comes next.  God says, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there.”  There is nothing funny about it.

            This story stops many a reader in their tracks,  What kind of God asks a Father to offer his son for sacrifice?  Is God cruel?  Is he evil?  Is he as bad as the other gods of the time. Baal and Ashoreth required human sacrifices, child sacrifices.  It was an abominable  staple of ancient religion.  You show your faith by offering the most valuable possession you have, a human.  What is going on here?  The God we know through Jesus Christ does not feel like this God. 

            It is hard to make sense of it.  Not just God’s extreme command, but also Abraham’s response.  God says “Offer your son.”  And Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.  They headed for the mountain of sacrifice.  What?  Not long ago, Abraham interrupted God because He said he had heard the cries of Sodom.  The Lord was going down there to put an end to their lawlessness and perversion.  Abraham bravely spoke up to God.  He pleaded the God not kill the righteous along with the wicked.  Abraham bargained God down to 10 people.  If God found 10 righteous people he would not destroy Sodom.

            Now God says offer your son as a sacrifice and there is no bargaining.  Abraham didn’t even know the people of that city and he tried to save them.  His son’s life is on the line and there is not so much as a “Please Lord.”  It doesn’t make sense.

            Is Abraham such a devoted follower of Yahweh, that he would do something immoral for him?  Is Abraham now a brainless faith zombie that will kill on command?  To say that Abraham loves God more than his son doesn’t cut it.  It doesn’t explain his actions here.  Nobody here would kill their son or daughter for God.

            For three days, they journeyed towards the mountain that would one day be Jerusalem.  At the base of the hill, the servants stay.  Abraham gives the wood to his teenage son to carry.  Abraham carried the fire starter and the knife.  It sounds like Isaac had made this trip before for animal sacrifice.  He sees that they have everything they need except one thing.  Isaac says “We have the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering?”  It’s like he knows.  Abraham says, “God will provide the sacrifice.”  It breaks your heart.  It makes you shake your head.  God what are you doing?

            Thankfully, we have the new testament to give us the answer that we need.  The book of Hebrews talks specifically about this story.  Hebrews 11:17 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”  He considered that God was able to raise him from the dead.

            That makes sense.  When Abraham was asked to offer up his son, he had a lot to consider.  God had promised him that through Isaac specifically, Abraham was going to be the Father of a great nation.  The Lord had kept all of his promises so far.  If God was going to take Isaac then resurrection had to be a part of the plan.  Isaac couldn’t stay dead, because if he did then the promise was dead.  Resurrection was the only thing that made sense.  God was going to show his power by taking Isaac’s life and then giving it back.  As the messenger said to Sara, “Is anything too hard for God?”  Certainly the God who can create the universe can bring a boy back to life.  Resurrection.  It had to be.

            So Abraham built an altar and laid wood on it.  He bound Isaac.  He took the knife.  He wasn’t a faith zombie.  He wasn’t giving up his son forever.  He would see a miracle.    An Angel of the Lord shouted from the heavens “Abraham, Abrham.”  He said “I ready.”  Do not lay your hand on the boy.  I already know that you fear God.”  Nearby was a ram, the substitute.  Isaac was given back to him.  There was no need for a resurrection demonstration today.  That would be later.

            In the next chapter, Sara dies.  There is no immediate resurrection.  Just as Abraham trusted that Isaac would rise now he had to trust that Sara would rise as well.  We all are eventually put in the position where we have to trust that God is not cruel, but that he loves us and will use resurrection to restore us and the world.

            Jesus is that substitute ram.  His father asked him to go on a journey.  Jesus was old enough to volunteer.  The Father led him to a mountain in Jerusalem called Golgatha.  The miracle had been put off long enough.  Abrham, Sara, Isaac and all the saints needed to witness this sacrifice and resurrection.  The Father knew Jesus would rise but it still pained his heart.  Jesus knew that he would rise but he still felt forsaken.  Instead of a knife, a spear was used to ensure that he was dead.  Jesus may not have experienced the flames of a burnt offering but he did experience all of the wrath of Hell on that cross.

            Three days later he rose so that Abraham., Isaac and Sarah will rise.  And we will rise with them.  God may do some things that we completely do not understand, but we trust that in the end his resurrection will make everything right.