(This sermon was first delivered on October 23, 2011 by Shawn Birss at Look to the Cross in Edmonton, Alberta. For a further study of the ideas within this sermon, see the posts from October 17-23 in this blog.)
Genesis Review:
Part 1 – Gen1-11 - Prehistory of God’s Covenant
Creation (Genesis 1-2): God created purpose out of the void. All of Creation is God’s temple. Man and Woman are priests in God’s temple.
The Fall (Genesis 3-11) and the Flood (Genesis 6-9): Sin entered the world through humanity’s choice. Sin grows until it takes hold of all society and finally perverts people's image of and relationship with God. Having been entirely perverted from God’s original purpose, it has returned to a state of void.
God uses a flood to recreate his temple as he originally intended. Still, humans no longer recognize the authority of God, Creation as God’s temple, and humanity’s place as priests made in God’s image. Humans instead elevate their own authority, build their own temples, make gods in their own image, and coerce their created gods to fulfill their needs. This was the tower of Babel.
Part 2 – Genesis 12-25 –Abraham and Covenant
Before God solved the Eden problem (sin) he was determined to solve the Babel problem (a perverted view of his identity). In his covenant with Abram, Abram sacrificed his family, gods, land, and inheritance. In return God began to reveal himself in humanity through Abram’s life, and later through Abram’s descendants, and finally through Abraham’s descendants, Jesus. Abram was blessed, Abram was a blessing, and through Abram, God revealed himself.
Abram becomes a priest of God on earth, interceding (which means praying) on behalf of all nations of the world for God’s blessing, mercy, and healing. Through Abraham’s life, God patiently reveals himself and the nature of obedience and faith.
Part 3 – Genesis 25-36 - Jacob, Redemption, and Reconciliation
Jacob is the son of Isaac, the promised son of Abraham. Though he is in line to be part of God’s covenant promise, he is a deceiver and a manipulator. His life and choices force him away from his father, his family, and his land. By his own will, he appears to lose everything that represents what God has promised to his blessed family. Still, we see God patiently offering gracious redemption and reconciliation to Jacob despite while he nearly destroys everyone around him as he tries to create his own life for himself by his own efforts.
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In Genesis 28, we find Jacob alone and on the run. His name means “deceiver”, and actually has its closest resemblance to the Hebrew word “crafty”, used of the snake that first tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Jacob has already been living up to his name. For a bowl of lentil soup, he manipulated the birthright from his older twin Esau. Later, he conspired with his mother to trick his blind and dying father into giving him the blessing of the firstborn that rightfully belonged to his brother.
Because of his lies and manipulations, Jacob now finds himself running from his own family. His brother has vowed to kill him. He is thrust from the land that was promised in the covenant, and from the family through which the covenant will be fulfilled. Like Adam and Eve or Cain before him, he is now alone and in the wilderness because of his sin. Abraham his grandfather found himself a stranger in the land of promise because of his obedience. Jacob is a stranger outside of the promise because of his sin.
Genesis 28:10-22
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Jacob’s Ladder – the Ziggurat - Genesis 28
God’s method of revelation and communication with Jacob is very interesting. The stairway in this story is the same sort of stairway as was built on the side of a ziggurat. It was a passage between heaven and earth. Just as God spoke to Abraham with a Canaanite ritual and imager in Genesis 15, he now also speaks to Jacob using his own cultural context.
The ziggurat is also the structure described in Genesis 11 called the Tower of Babel.
Jacob's response to God is very immature and arrogant:
“Thanks for letting me know that you've got a plan for me and my descendants. I'm pretty impressed by this dream, and it sounds like you're offering a good deal. How about this: I'll build this altar here, and if you be good and fulfill your side of the bargain, I'll give you a tenth of all you give me. Now, let's wait and see if you're as good as you claim.”
Jacob is treating tithe as payment to God, as though God needs anything. This is foolishness.
Imagine a teacher telling a talented student that they are a good writer, and then the student responding by demanding the teacher teach them certain ways because they're so fortunate to be teaching someone with such potential.
So the use of the ziggurat imagery on God’s part shows us something about how Jacob understands God. Jacob the schemer recognizes God as the builders of the ziggurats did. God is a god who can be controlled and manipulated. The ziggurat was built as a means to earn the favour of the gods, and pay them for their good works on behalf of humanity. Jacob’s response to God after the dream reveals this Babel problem. Unlike Abraham who chose to obey God in Genesis 22, withholding not even his only son, Jacob is testing God, promising to reward him if what he says will come to pass.
When Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, it was an image of surrender. Jacob doesn’t yet know Yahweh as his grandfather did. The events of his life show God’s patient revelation of his nature despite Jacob’s stubborn resistance.
Before Jacob left home, his father Isaac repeated Abraham's covenant to Jacob. Here, YHWH confirms the covenant again. God even promises to be with Jacob personally.
God did not pick Jacob, or Isaac, or Abraham because they were powerful or impressive, or mature enough to be patriarchs of the faith. Like he had with the formless void of Genesis 1, he made of them his nation, with his form and function, for his purpose. Their worth and worthiness were ascribed by the one who has all the worth. Their purpose was given by the one who directs all purpose.
The next three chapters show an awkward and shocking reverse of Jacob’s fortunes. His life is a wrestling against and with the sovereign God of covenant. Though he is determined to make it on his own, God graciously and patiently frustrates his attempts at every turn, eventually driving him into the hands of his loving Creator.
A MidGenesis Night’s Sex Comedy - Genesis 29-31
Genesis 29:13-30
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
(note – This is probably a foreshadowing wink to the audience. Laban admits he is just like Jacob.)
After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her.”
22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. 24 And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.
25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. 30 Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Let the soap opera begin!
All of the elements of Jacob’s story are turned around on him in the next few chapters. In an almost comedic parody of his life so far, he experiences the deceptions and traps that he has so far been inflicting on others.
Jacob deceived his father by pretending to be his brother. He is deceived by Leah, who is pretending to be her sister. Yikes.
Against tradition, Jacob was given preference as the younger son because of his deception. According to tradition, but against expectation, Leah is given preference over Rachel as the older daughter.
Jacob’s preferential treatment by his mother over his brother was to his advantage. Now he has two wives, sisters to each other, and he shows preference between them. Because of his preferential treatment, they come to covet his . . . attention. The story reads like he’s being torn in half.
Inability to conceive becomes important to the story again.
Jacob and Esau were each favourites of different parents. Now Jacob has a favourite of his wives.
Leah is obviously very distressed by her husband's preference of her sister. Still, God allows Leah to conceive four times while the favourite wife remains childless. It could have taken no less than four years to have these four sons (assuming no daughters), and she is no closer to confidence in her husband's affections by the end then at the beginning.
Rachel is hurt in her childlessness. In her story, we are reminded of Sarah, who perceived herself as treated poorly by Hagar when she conceived a child by her husband before her. She approached Jacob with a demand that he make her pregnant, saying she will die if she doesn’t have a child.
Abraham and Sarah were patient for children when childless. Isaac prayed for children when he and his wife could not conceive. Jacob is angry. His wife is being as manipulative as him.
Rachel’s demand in Genesis 30:1, that she be given children or die, is a dark foreshadowing. It remains as ironic as the rest of Jacob’s story. Eventually, she will die while giving birth to Jacob’s youngest, Benjamin.
Both of Jacob’s wives think that having children is a sign of the Lord's favour, and will heal their marriage.
This whole story is very strange. Jacob seems like a pawn in a game his wives are playing.
Jacob's wife hires him to sleep with her, like a male prostitute, and he does. Her son brought home mandrakes, commonly believed to be an aphrodisiac, or to encourage fertility. She gives the mandrakes to her sister while Jacob is working, saying she wants to sleep with him tonight. When he comes home, she informs her husband that he has been bought. He complies. Leah is as manipulative as Rachel, as manipulative as Jacob.
This is another turnaround. Just as Jacob manipulated his brother for his birthright with soup as he came in from the fields, his wife now manipulates him for his seed while he is out in the fields. Everything keeps coming back around for him.
Jacob manipulates the breeding of the sheep – Gen 30
Jacob is trying to lay the foundation of being able to leave Laban’s household without losing all he has. He hatches a scheme to earn some of Laban’s sheep, and tries to manipulate the breeding to do so.
Jacob is involved in some sort of genetic manipulation combined with witchcraft, or perhaps just witchcraft. Either way, it is more manipulation. Whatever Jacob thought he was doing, the simple breeding details would have worked out as he hoped, without the superstition. Later, God reveals that it was he who directed the process.
The chiastic structure is used again in Jacob’s story, just as it had been in Abraham’s. The beginning and end events in Jacob’s life match each other. The second and second last match, etc, until a central event in the middle of his story. This story of manipulating the breeding of the sheep matches his marriages to Rachel and Leah, whose names sound the same as the Hebrew for “Ewe” and “Cow”.
Karma’s a Bitch - Genesis 31
Jacob finally manages to escape work under Laban. When he’s caught later, he claims that Laban changed his wages ten times. This is probably why Jacob has remained with Laban all this time.
The trickery Laban used with his daughters to keep Jacob there the first time, it seems he kept up. The switch with Rachel and Leah was just the beginning. In that case, Jacob has probably been something like a slave. Laban has prospered because of his oppression of Jacob.
Jacob accuses Laban of spending the bride price of Rachel and Leah. Laban was obligated to hold onto the bride price of his daughters, presumably a garnishing of fourteen years wages, as an insurance in case they ever needed it. If Jacob were to die, for example, Laban would have the means to support his wives after death. If the "money" was never used, it would go to Rachel and Leah after his death. Since he spent it, they lost their inheritance.
This loss of inheritance is yet another example of Jacob receiving his comeuppance. Just as he swindled Esau out of his inheritance, so also has his family lost theirs by deception.
Jacob deceived Laban in order to get away. He ran from his brother, and now he is running from his uncle. He manipulated his brother out of his inheritance and ran. His family has been manipulated out of theirs, and he runs.
Rachel stole the household gods. These were probably important to them. They are a manipulative, paganistic family. Many of the gods at this time were used to manipulate fertility. Considering the importance of fertility and childbearing in this family, it’s very likely that these are the idols she stole.
Rachel sat on the gods and said she was having her period. This is likely another slightly comedic moment in the narrative of Joseph, giving the reader a nudge and a wink on the impotence of these gods.
In his twenty years with Laban, Jacob experienced a deceptive masquerade (Leah for Rachel), a manipulative food swap (mandrakes), and a loss of inheritance (Laban spent his wife's bride price. All he had done to his family was done to him.
Two things are notable in the reversal.
First, though Laban attempted to swindle payment and inheritance from Jacob, Jacob still made off quite well. Later, God makes it clear to Jacob that this is because of his blessing, not because of Jacob's cunning.
Secondly, Jacob deceived Laban as he ran away. The story shows Jacob unchanged in twenty years, even after experiencing all he had. He continues to live as a deceiver and a sneak. His wife steals gods from her father. His family lives in lies, theft, and manipulation.
This is the story of Jacob’s life. He is a sneak and a liar, and every lie he makes only causes his life to turn out worse. Though he is consistently given opportunities to give up and place his life in God’s hands, he spends his life striving to make good for himself. And failing.
As far as Jacob’s character goes, the arc of this story is completely flat. Jacob is exactly where he was at the beginning. He is a lying, deceptive , manipulative man, running from his family. The only difference is that this time he is not alone. He is weighed down by blessing and family, all of which God says he received because of God’s blessing and God’s goodness.
He is blessed despite his craftiness, not because of it. Though he has spent his life running from the source of all goodness and blessing, still blessing has tracked him down.
CONCLUSIONS
Conclusion 1 – The Chessmaster - The Hound of Heaven
(click here to read “The Hound of Heaven")
Jacob’s story is not just a story of running. Jacob’s story is a chase. God is tenaciously pursuing him, determined to reveal himself to Jacob and to the world through Jacob, as he had through Abraham.
I enjoy chess. I have chessmaster on my computer, and I enjoy playing very much. Besides all the cool graphics, animated pieces, and interesting environments you can choose to load up and play, there are also hundreds of virtual computer players to choose from. Each one has a little photo avatar of a person, a name, and a description of their style of play.
At the very top of the list are virtual players with names like Herzog, Amelia, and Klaus. Their avatars are wizened elderly men and women with white hair, usual with their fingertips pressed together, and their brows furrowed.
They’re usually described as geniuses that need not sleep and do nothing but play chess all day. They only stop playing in order to invent new scientific methods to lengthen their lives so they can continue playing chess. Their chess player ratings are over 2600 points.
I don’t usually play these virtual players. In fact, most of them have to be unlocked by playing lower level characters. It’s almost as though the program just wants to save me the embarrassment.
I play characters with names like “Billy-Joe” or “Kenzee”. Their avatars are pictures of precocious young children. I don’t remember how they’re described, but it’s probably something like, “Billy picks pieces to move at random. He likes the horsey piece best”.
They’re usually rated in the six hundreds or so. I usually win when I play them. I like winning. And I like the horsey piece best, too.
But I also like to challenge myself. I think I’m rated around 700. I like to play characters rated around 800-1000, (usually with names like Susan or Frank).
I never win, but playing these characters is where I learn, and actually improve my game.
But here is my experience: No matter what I do, the computer will always find a way to elegantly turn the game in its’ own favour. If I make a mistake, the computer takes full advantage, changing its’ strategy to bring me to checkmate sooner.
If I make a perfect move, discerning the computer’s strategy and blocking it somehow, I’ll find myself full nelsoned into its’ contingency plan.
The computer anticipates my own strategies, and has five alternate moves it could take depending on how well I anticipate its strategies. No matter what I do, I’m duped.
In Jacob’s story, God is the chessmaster. God’s promise to Jacob at Bethel is sure. He will bring it about. He will patiently pursue Jacob to the edge of Hell if necessary. No matter what move this clever man makes, God is on his heels ready to expose it. Of course, in Jacob’s story, when God wins, so will Jacob.
At the turn of the century, poet Francis Thompson called God “The Hound of Heaven”. An opium addict and self-professed frequent sinner, Thompson saw in his life a chase and pursuit like Jacob’s. He ran from God as hard as he was able, yet at every turn he was pursued and but one inch from caught. The freedom and peace and justice were in the arms of his loving God, though he did all he could to refuse submission to it. In the end, God won the chase, and Thompson relented, receiving an infinite love.
Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
From this conclusion, I see two applications.
The first is in our relationship to God. The second is in our relationship to others.
First, let’s give God more credit. We’re not going to surprise God. We’re not going to trip and fall out of God’s grace and love. If you’ve given up like Thompson or the Psalmist and have experienced the fullness of the grace of God, you’re not getting let go. God is fully aware of your faults and your weaknesses. God is not surprised by your fears and concerns. He knows you better than you know yourself.
Whatever happens, wherever we go, whatever is ever done by us or to us, God is ready with his contingency plan for grace, mercy, and reconciliation. We’re not going to screw up God’s plan. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. The gates of hell will not prevail against Jesus’ church.
Secondly, let’s show this same grace, patience, and mercy to others.
God did not pick Jacob, or Isaac, or Abraham because they were powerful or impressive, or mature enough to be patriarchs of the faith. Like he had with the formless void of Genesis 1, he made of them his nation, with his form and function, for his purpose. Their worth and worthiness were ascribed by the one who has all the worth. Their purpose was given by the one who directs all purpose.
God did not wait until Jacob was perfect and ready. Abraham was a racist, sexist bigot, yet God condescended to use him.
No one is so far gone that they are beyond grace. We have an opportunity in every person we meet to display God’s mercy by believing in them, as God does, for wholeness, for justice, for reconciliation with God and others. Let us seek to see in others the Imago Dei.
Every one of us was created Imago Dei – in the image of God. No matter what ethnicity, background, religion, or perceived sin in any person on earth, they are all marked with the Image of God, and infinitely loved by their Creator. Let us be willing to love as God does, as patiently as God does.
Let us seek the blessing and justice of God for every person on earth, those of us and those not of us, without judgment.
Conclusion 2 – Reconciliation
(Click here to read “Our Story" - Our experience with reconciliation, offence, forgiveness and submission in family)
I am convinced that reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace are better than offense and division, even when they are costly. Reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace often mean we need to humble ourselves before others. We cannot manipulate our way into other’s graces. We cannot manipulate our way into the grace of God.
God did not pick Jacob, or Isaac, or Abraham because they were powerful or impressive, or mature enough to be patriarchs of the faith. Like he had with the formless void of Genesis 1, he made of them his nation, with his form and function, for his purpose. Their worth and worthiness were ascribed by the one who has all the worth. Their purpose was given by the one who directs all purpose.
God reconciles the world to himself. It is by God’s word and by God’s work that he makes something of any life. When we place our lives humbly into his hands, he can make good of any mess we’ve made, or of any mess that has been made of us. Through us, he ministers reconciliation in the world, with God, and between people.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It is the life of a Christian to minister reconciliation to the world. To minister means to serve. Reconciliation is the restoration of broken relationship.
This service in the world is to all and for all. We live as those who have been reconciled to God, demonstrating a changed life to those around us. Since we carry the spirit of God in us, we seek to live humbly with everyone.
We also speak of reconciliation, and offer the opportunity to be reconciled to others. We do not prejudge anyone. Jesus died for everyone, and all are equally loved by God. There is no one that has not been called, no one to whom the life of Christ has not been offered. We see people through the eyes of Jesus, dearly loved and dearly valued by their Creator and Redeemer.
We demonstrate this reconciled life by seeking reconciliation with people in this lifetime.
We have been forgiven. We forgive.
Next Week – Jacob’s Life in God’s Hands Brings Reconciliation and Healing
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