Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Steffanini. Dan Martin is a staff member at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and one of our elders at Harvest Community Church. Listen in to his sermon on Genesis 30-25 through 31-55, which points to the fact that God is behind everything. Hey Harvest, this is Dan Martin, and I'm glad to be able to come with you this weekend as we continue our study in the book of Genesis. Today, we're going to be talking about that time period when Jacob is leaving Laban. Genesis chapter 30 and 31. If you want to go ahead and take your Bible and open there and get ready for this time. But before we jump into the Word of God, I'd like to pray for us. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for the opportunity to share in your Word, even through this medium. Thank you that we can gather together during this time. And thank you that we can hear the word and truth expounded to us. And I pray that today you would open our hearts and our minds, open our eyes to truth in your word and that message that you want to speak to each of us. I pray this in Jesus name. So I wanna just invite your thoughts to that time in Jerusalem, when Jesus comes through the triumphal entry and that passion week, that beginning of the week when Jesus is gonna be crucified, but he comes toward the city and people begin to shout his praises and he's riding on a donkey and they're waving the palm branches. And Jesus, as he comes into Jerusalem, the city is filled with people. It's a holiday week and people have come from all over to be there for this time, for this Passover. And so as Jesus comes to the city and he approaches the city, he comes through the gates and then he goes to the temple. But as he goes to the temple where worship is supposed to be happening, he doesn't encounter worship in those outer courts. He finds chaos. He finds what would be a bizarre. He finds the culture of a bizarre. He finds the sounds and the smells. He finds, uh, all of those sensory, uh, things that, that would attack him almost as he walks in. And, and it wasn't what it was supposed to be. And so Jesus comes uncoiled and begins with a whip to lash out and maybe the whip lands across the shoulders of someone who's selling doves and then his foot reaches out and kicks over the table of a money changer with his coins laying out there and chaos now really has broken loose. But what's going on in this scene? You see, this is not just a scene of Jesus coming into the temple and wanting religion to go on. As he confronts the situation of the culture that had arisen, he steps up as a defender of the weak. What was really happening here was Jesus was stepping up to defend the Gentiles, the outsiders who were far off, who had now been excluded and had their space to come to worship God had been taken from them. There are three things at play here. The focus of the temple had changed. In fact, it was no longer about God. It had become about the things of God. Think about that for a minute. How often do the things of God become more important to us at church and where we go to worship than God himself? The rituals, the songs we sing, the type of songs, the style, how we sit, where we sit. The things of God had become more important than God. Secondly, Jesus' actions will give the religious leaders cause to arrest him and put into play the trials that then would lead to his death. And so, as Jesus steps in and cleanses the temple, he's beginning a process that would end a few days later in his crucifixion. But the flashpoint for Jesus, and he uses the words, he says, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, was the point that Gentile worshipers had been displaced. An oppressive system had been put into place and the Jews had sequestered God for themselves. And Jesus' zeal for all men to be able to know the Father and worship the Father just consumed him and became the driving force as he cleansed the temple. But we're going to find a scene that's somewhat like that as we step into Genesis chapter 30. In fact, I've titled the message today, If God Had Not Been With Me, and the story is about someone who had a defender. It's the story of someone who stood with him even when the situation was pretty dire and pretty rough. The scene that we're going to read about today in Genesis is that of Jacob. And the main characters are obvious. If you read Genesis 30 and 31, you'll find that it's very obvious that Jacob and Laban are the two main characters of this story. But the key theological theme here is about God. And it is about God at work in Jacob's life. It's how God intervened and blessed Jacob in spite of who he was, and even in spite of what the circumstances seemed to be around him. And it's going to be the theme that Jacob is beginning to understand who God really is. And so let's begin into the story a little bit further. Let's dive into the narrative, and let's understand exactly what's going on. So let's consider the narrative. We find, first of all, and I'm just going to read a few selected pieces of these chapters for time's sake. So we'll begin here looking at another deal. In Genesis chapter 30, verse number 25, where we start, let me set the stage in the background. Jacob has arrived in Paddan Aram, where Laban lives. And as he comes into the area and he comes into the town, he finds a young lady and he's immediately very interested in her. It's Rebecca. And he finds out that Laban is her dad and that's who he's been sent to. His dad had sent him, go, go over there and find Laban. And so he finds Laban who really doesn't have a lot. Laban is a man who is always shifty and he's living kind of on a meager subsistence, but he has a lot of ambition and sometimes it's kind of a little bit crooked and crafty. He's a deceitful man. But remember, the name Jacob means deceiver as well. So the deceiver now comes to to encounter another deceiver. Things develop rapidly and Jacob is in love. He wants to marry this woman. He wants to marry Rachel. And Laban sees the opportunity for cheap labor. Here's a man who will work for him in exchange for a daughter. So they strike up a deal. as uh as as he asks for for her to be to be able to marry her and laban says work for me for seven years so seven years pass uh the wedding comes and it seems very strange for us in our western culture how something like this could happen but uh leah is placed in the wedding instead of rachel You know, in the Bedouin communities in the Middle East today, weddings are still somewhat similar to this. They're segregated. The men and the women are not together. In fact, the bride and groom are not together. And the ceremony is held by proxies. There are people, the father of the bride and the father of the groom are visiting over to the other group, and even the party even the celebration is segregated by gender. And so you have the women all celebrating the wedding and the men all celebrating the wedding, but the bride and groom are not together until after there's been a lot of celebration and typically quite a bit of drinking. And then after all of that, the marriage is consummated. And so obviously something similar to that happened and Jacob wakes up and finds out that he has Leah. So now he goes to Laban, he's angered and Laban says, work for me seven more years. And so Jacob does that. 14 years now have passed. Jacob now has 11 sons by four women and the turmoil and the dissension in this family is incredible. the women had been at each other and competing with one another. So it has not been an easy 14 years. Jacob now has two wives, the two wives handmaids, 11 sons, and that's where we come to the story and begin our reading of the passage in Genesis chapter 30. And lest we kind of mistake here and think, well, why didn't he leave earlier? Remember, Jacob is here because his father sent him here. In fact, let me just present these verses to you. Genesis chapter 28, verses one through three. It says, so Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Padnerim, to the house of your mother's father, Bethuel, take a wife for yourself there from among the daughters of Laban." So Isaac sent Jacob there to this very home. and your mother's brother, may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. Now moving to Genesis chapter 30, we find we're picking up the story of those 14 years that have passed. After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. Give me my wives and children for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I've done for you." But Lavin said, if I found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Now stop for just a minute. Does the irony of that statement strike you? Laban is saying, I went to a witch doctor and the witch doctor told me that good things have come to me because God is with you. God has blessed me because of you. A witch doctor, you know, in Deuteronomy, it says that anyone who goes to divination is to be put to death. It's an abomination to God. Laban was not a God fearing man. Laban was not a man who, who, who honored the same God of Jacob and the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. But he says, I went to a witch doctor. I went to find in divination and I found out that, that I am better off. because of you. So he continues in this passage and he says, and he added, name your wages and I will pay them. Jacob said unto him, you know how I've worked for you and how your livestock is fared under my care. The little you had before I came, that scarcity, the little you had before I came has increased greatly and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now when may I do something for my own household? you know, let me go. Laban doesn't want to let go of the goose that's laying the golden eggs. Jacob or Laban knows that if Jacob leaves, he's going to be in bad financial shape. And Laban hasn't even taken care of all of the things that Jacob had helped him earn already in those 14 years. He's just squandered the blessings of God through Jacob. So he's trying to make another deal and he makes another deal. He says, stay, work with me longer, work with me for another six years. And he gives him another deal. He says, work for me another six years and you name your price. And so in those subsequent verses, we find that Jacob says, just give me your leftovers. Just give me the animals that no one else seems to want. I'll take those. I'll take the striped and the spotted animals, and you can have the best of them all. Again, Laban agrees. Now, here's again that deceitful man, Laban. Before Jacob can get to the fields and pull out the animals that should be his, the beginning of his herd, Laban has his sons take off with the herds and hide these animals. And so again, this situation is not going well. And he comes out and he finds that none of those animals are there. And the situation is actually going from bad to worse. Now, he's been there 14 years. He's worked for these wives. He's working to try to build himself a herd. but he's facing an uphill battle all the way. Look what Genesis 31, one through three says, Jacob heard that Laban's sons were saying, Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all his wealth from what belonged to our father. Now remember, when Jacob came, Laban had very little. Now Laban has more, But Jacob hasn't taken everything. He's not left Laban with nothing. Laban still has a lot. But Jacob's prosperity has created in them a jealousy. That happens not just in a passage like this. In fact, I remember sitting with an older lady. She must have been probably in her 80s. Her name was Zoyla, Tia Zoyla in Guatemala. The Azuela was hunched over, but the sweetest Christian lady you could ever imagine. And she began telling me about her experience as a nurse. She had been a nurse for many years, and she had lived down on the northern coast of Guatemala. and she'd worked in a hospital and a school there that had been built by an American fruit company. The United Fruit Company that later became known as Chiquita, Chiquita Brands, who had their headquarters here in Charlotte for a while, grew bananas, they had banana plantations in Guatemala and they grew to be an incredibly large company. They exported bananas to the United States and to Europe and paid incredible amounts of taxes. Because of the money that they were making there, they built schools, they built hospitals, They built roads, they built a national railroad in Guatemala. In fact, they helped the country so much that the government asked them to run the post office. And in the early 1900s, this fruit company began running the post office of Guatemala. They built the telegraph and telephone company in Guatemala. But in the midst of all of this, some people began to say, well, Look at all that they are making. Yes, we are prospering. Guatemala was one of the most prosperous countries in Central America. But they said, we could prosper more if we had all of that. This is the story Zoyla told me. And so Zoyla told me that they began to expropriate the properties, the holdings of the United Fruit Company and take everything away from them. And eventually, the company just about left Guatemala. But as they took the railroad, as they took the telegraphs, as they took all of these things, as they took the schools and the hospitals and everything away from this company, it all began to fall into disrepair. Today, there's not a functioning railroad in Guatemala. Uh, the post office is, is something that when I lived in Guatemala, they would at the end of the year, burn hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail because they couldn't get them delivered because the system was run so poorly. It's that same idea. If I can't have it all, I don't want anybody else to have any of it. And that was what Laban's sons were like. They were saying, you know what, everything, look at how well he's doing. And if we had what Jacob had, we would have so much more rather than seeing that they had been blessed through Jacob as well. So the passage continues. And Jacob noticed that Laban's attitude toward him, not just Laban's sons, but 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, to your relatives, And I will be with you. So God tells him, listen, it's time to go. And so Jacob takes off and he leaves while Laban is away because he knows that if he tells Laban, I'm leaving, it's going to be another situation that that's not pleasant. And so he takes off. It's a 300 mile journey with family and children and goods and camels. And and so it's a slow going. When Laban comes back and finds out that he's gone, he takes off after him. And eventually he catches up. And the confrontation is not nice. It's a very difficult time. But as the confrontation happens, they begin to talk about what has happened. And we find that Jacob begins to talk about an unseen protector. Jacob now understands something about God that years earlier he didn't understand. And he presents a perspective about God that's different from Laban's perspective and from the pagan world that surrounded him. Listen to these words, Genesis 31, beginning in verse 38. I've been with you for 20 years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts. I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation. The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the 20 years I was in your household." Remember, Jacob talking to his father-in-law. I worked for you 14 years for your two daughters, six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages 10 times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you hear that phrase? If he had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship, and the toil of my hands and last night he rebuked you." Jacob is referring to something that Laban had told him that the night before God had appeared to him and said, don't say anything to Jacob, leave him alone and let him go. So something has happened during the 20 years. These 20 years of hardship that Jacob is talking about, something has happened have left him now with an indelible understanding, not just of the fact that God is, but that God has been with him. He's now not turning to his own devices and deceit. He's relying and resting on God. He's understanding that this is the story of God first and himself second. And Jacob is the person who benefits from God's kindness and his faithfulness. This is going to be an important element to remember as we continue now with a story of Jacob in the upcoming weeks. Jacob now is going to become a man that's very different from who he was when he was quite a bit younger. So let's consider the narrative. We find that Jacob the deceiver now fully recognizes that God has been with him. and is the source of his blessing. So now let's turn and let's learn from the experience of another. I love to learn. I absolutely love learning new things. But sometimes I'd rather learn from somebody else than to learn hard lessons myself. And Jacob went through some hard times. I think we would be wise to learn from his hard lessons. What do we find? Number one, I find this truth in this passage, that God will fulfill his promises no matter where you may be or how grim the outlook may appear. God had told Jacob years earlier, I will be with you. I will bless you. You will be multiplied. Jacob was in an environment that wasn't positive, that wasn't an easy environment. Jacob was in a toxic environment. Yet he was able to see that God was with him and God fulfilled his promise. You know, we could find that all through scripture, that people who had received a promise from God, no matter what the situation and where they may have been, they saw God fulfill that promise. So how do I apply that promise to my own heart and to my own life? Well, here it is. Take heart and trust God's faithfulness. This is not about me. This is about God. And God's character is faithfulness. God is faithful. He cannot act against himself. And so I can take heart and I can lean on that. And I can look into my own life and say, where are those areas where I doubt that he will fulfill his promises and i can i can speak to myself and counsel myself to trust what god has said that faithfulness of god is our strength that faithfulness of god is our sure hope for eternity the only reason you are i are assured of of heaven is because god has promised it It's not because we've earned it. It's not because, you know, we have found some secret formula and know how to get around the system to get there. It's God's promise. And that assurance is something very special to us. The old hymn says that God's faithfulness is our strength for today and our bright hope for tomorrow. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23 says, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. My response to this truth is trust. It's to just say, I can take heart and trust God's faithfulness. So what else can we find? Here is a second truth that I find in this passage. God is not neutral toward oppression and exploitation. Throughout this passage, it talks about what God was seeing and God's perspective. In fact, Jacob speaks of that. God says he saw this. He saw the hardship that I was going through. So how do I apply that in my life? Well, I've said take heart earlier, but I'm going to repeat it again. Take heart. And not only trust his faithfulness, but trust his righteousness. God is just and I can trust his righteousness. Job chapter five, verse number 15 says this, he saves the needy from the sword in their mouth. He saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope and injustice shuts its mouth. Listen to the words written by Peter in 1 Peter 2.20. How is it to your credit if you receive beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. You see, God sees and he's faithful. and we can rest on His righteousness, that He will take care of that. Here's another application. If God is not neutral toward oppression and exploitation in your relationships, you should act justly and righteously. You should reflect who God is. You should reflect that God is not neutral and that God is against exploitation and oppression. Micah 6.8 says, He has shown you, O mortal. Some versions say, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Throughout the New Testament, we find specific commendations to us that those who have financial or positional authority, are to use that for the good of others and not for themselves. So maybe you have that type of position. Maybe God has allowed you to have finances or authority. How do you use that? Number three, another application to that same truth. If God is not neutral toward oppression and exploitation, when injustice and oppression occur around you, stand on God's side. Don't just sit idly by. Step in. Remember the story of Jesus as he steps into that situation? Listen to these verses. Beginning in Psalm, Psalm 82, verse number three, defend the weak and the fatherless. Uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed. Defend the weak. Proverbs 29, seven, the righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. Proverbs 31, verses 8 and 9. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and needy. Jeremiah 22, 3. This is what the Lord says. Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner. fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place." Recently I heard someone apply it this way. They said, when you're in a setting, when you're in an environment, when you're around people who make a statement of oppression and exploitation, when there's a statement that maybe in a cavalier way speaks about those who are needy and there's no sense of compassion for them, Create awkward biblical moments. Wow. Just don't allow it to just go by. Why? Because people around us see where we stand and if we do stand at all. In fact, we're discipling our children when we just let it go. And we're also discipling them when we're willing to step up and stand against injustice. I believe that that's exactly what was happening. Back in the story we talked about at the beginning of this message, when Jesus, in front of the disciples, in a step of discipleship, he drove out the money changers and the merchants and he cleansed the temple. I believe he was showing the disciples that they should stand for the truth that everyone should have access to God. So let me wrap up this time, this story, and what we've seen in the life of Jacob by just talking about trusting beyond our own circumstances. Let me bring it around to your own life and talk about where you may be today. You go, well, yeah, I know God was with Jacob, but how do I know God's with me? Well, Romans 8. Beginning in verse 31, this verse allows me to see and trust way beyond the circumstances that are around me. This is where God stands. Notice this. He says, what then shall we say in response to these things? What things? Well, I believe this is the conclusion of Romans 5 through 8. It's the apex. It's the very high point. He's been building this case and he's been talking about justification and redemption and all of this. And he comes to this high moment where he says, OK, those who are now belong to him. What do we say about that? And here's the here's the statement. If God is for us, Who can be against us? And that if is not the statement of, well, some he is and some he isn't. And if you happen to be one of those who strikes it, you know, fortunate and God is on your side, then great. No, the if really could easily and correctly be translated since. Since God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It's God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus, who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. So he speaks of our union, and that God is not only for us, he is with us. Continues, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Can I stop and just say, could you plug your situation in there? Can that separate you from the love of God? from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep for the slaughter. But, no, in all these things, even as sheep that are being taken to be slaughtered, in all these things, we are more than conquerors. You see, to say that God is with me and for me doesn't mean that I don't go through these things. It doesn't mean that life is now just always easy and exactly the way I want it to be. But in all of these things, I am more than conqueror through Him who loved me. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced, the author says, that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So here's the message. As Jacob spent 20 years learning that God was with him, in just a few minutes, it's hard to convey that and for you to maybe grasp it. But could I just challenge you to say, oh, God is with me. And because we are protected by a loving God, we are secure in Christ Jesus. We can know that God is with us no matter what I want to encourage you to go through the discussion questions, and that'll be part of the interactive time that will go on later. And then also, as I read through these, what specific aspects of Jacob's life speak to God's faithfulness to him, even in the face of Laban's selfish dealings? It looked rough, but where are the lights? Where are the glimmers? Where do you see God's faithfulness? Number two, when injustice and oppression occur around you, stand on God's side was an application we had today. Can you list a few practical actions believers can take to accomplish that? And how does Romans 8, 31 through 39 speak to God's faithfulness in the life of every believer, including you, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ? Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. This podcast is also available on our website HarvestCharlotte.com. Please go there if you want to send a question or comment, learn more about our ministries, or find out how you can donate to support the podcast.