The God of Jacob
– God has kept his promise to Jacob–
Genesis 30:25-31:55
Good morning. Do you know what Immanuel means? Yes. It is God with us. Do you believe God is with you? Then, how do you know that God is with you? In today’s passage, Jacob confessed that God had been with him. In his time, there was no Bible. Yet, he said that God was with me. How did he know it? This message will teach us how God was with him in three ways and how he is with us in many various ways.
First, God was with Jacob by increasing his flocks (25-43).
Look at verse 25. After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob wanted to go back to his father’s house. At that time, how long did he stay in Laban’s house? 14 years. He must have missed his parents, his brother, and his friends. He wanted to show his wives and twelve children to his old parents.
But what did Laban tell him? In verse 27, Laban says, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” Laban learned that he had become rich because of Jacob. Jacob was a good employee. So, he wanted to keep Jacob. Like Jacob, if you are God’s people, you should be a good student and a good employee, having a good influence on others. Laban asked Jacob to stay longer. He added, “Name your wages. And I will pay them.”
Then, Jacob decided to stay (he stayed 6 years more). What did he ask Laban for his wages? Look at verses 31 and 32. What shall I give you?” he asked. Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.
Why did Jacob ask for speckled or spotted sheep, dark-colored lamb, and spotted or speckled goat? In biology, any speckled, spotted, or dark-colored is a recessive gene. This means they are born in a very rare case. Jacob suggested unfavorable things.
Then, in verse 34, Laban said, “Agreed. Let it be as you have said”. But what did he do after that? Can you look at verses 35 and 36? That same day, he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
What do you think about Laban? He cheated on Jacob again. In front of Jacob, he said “agreed,” but behind Jacob, he took all speckled, spotted, dark-colored animals and placed them in the care of his sons. He put a three-day journey from Jacob. Jacob could not get even a single speckled, spotted, dark-colored animal. How would Jacob feel when he knew about this?
However, what did he do? In verses 37 – 42, he did not give up. In summary, he took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees, peeled the branches, exposed the white inner wood, and then placed them in all the watering troughs. Then, when the flocks came to mate, he made them look at the peeled branches. Miraculously, they bore streaked, speckled and spotted ones. Also, he made his flocks face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Then, in the end, what happened to Jacob? Shall we read verse 43? In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
How could this be possible? You know the principles of Mendelian inheritance: Law of Dominance. Recessive traits are always dominated by dominant traits. For example, in sheep’s case, non-speckled is dominant, and speckled is recessive, so if a non-colored sheep mates with a speckled sheep, its babies must be non-colored.
However, what Jacob did was beyond the law. There are some theories about what Jacob did. One of them is Epigenetics (or applied genetics). Epigenetics is the study of how your environment can cause changes that affect how your genes work. It does not change your DNA sequence, but it can change how your body reads a DNA sequence. In other words, white-colored sheep keep their original DNA, but their wool color can change when exposed to a different environment. One of the examples is the color of the butterfly. It changes based on the environment in which they live. Jacob lived 3,500 years ago. There was no idea about Epigenetics. Jacob might not understand this, but he used the idea of Epigenetics to increase his flocks.
Where did he get such a radical idea? In chapter 31:10-12, he said, “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.
The idea came from God. God blessed Jacob. God is the creator. He could use the laws of Mendel and Epigenetics for Jacob. At Bethel, he promised Jacob to be with and watch over him. He said in Genesis 28:15, 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.”. As God promised, he saw all Laban did to Jacob. He showed Jacob in the dream how to increase flocks. He has kept his promise to Jacob.
The God of Jacob is with us through keeping his promise in our school study, career, and so on. Do you know how Elias Howe invented the eye of the sewing machine’s needle? He did not know where the eye of the needle of the sewing machine should be located. He believed in God. He prayed to God. One day, in his dream, he was building a sewing machine for a savage king. The king gave him 24 hours to complete the machine and make it sew. But he failed. When he was executed, he noticed that the warriors carried spears that were pierced near the head. Instantly came the solution of where the eye of the sewing machine’s needle was. This is the true story of how God was with him to invent the sewing machine in his dream.
Also, last Sunday, Dre briefly shared how God has been with him. He is going to graduate next month. He already got a full-time job offer. He said he did not originally plan to go to a job fair last semester, but he went there somehow and found a company looking for the same field he has been researching in his doctoral program. He applied and soon got a job offer from the company. Though he did not mention specific Bible verses, I am sure that God has kept his promise to him.
Second, God was with Jacob by giving him a clear direction (1-3).
Look at verse chapter 31:1-2. After Jacob became exceedingly prosperous, the sons of Laban began to complain. They said, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” Also, Laban’s attitude to Jacob was not what it was before.
Their relationship was not good at all. What should Jacob do? Should Jacob give them big gifts to get along well? Shall we read verse 3? Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
God appeared and gave Jacob a new direction. He commanded Jacob to go back to his father’s land. God was silent when Jacob planned to go to his father’s house six years ago. He did not say anything. Why? Because it was not God’s timing yet. But now, God’s timing has come. He told Jacob to return to the land of his fathers, the land where Abraham lived and Isaac lived. The land is not just where his fathers lived. The land is the land of mission. Also Jacob was returning as a God’s servant.
Then, let’s look at Jacob’s decision. He called his two wives to his workplace. He shared his dream and God’s command. Can we look at what they said to him? In verse 16, they said, So do whatever God has told you. Do you remember how crazy his house was last week? There was jealousy, competition, and rivalry between Leah and Rachel. But now, they became one heart and one mind with Jacob. They became his good coworkers. So, Jacob was very encouraged to obey God’s command.
The God of Jacob is also with us by giving us a clear direction through the Bible. In the Book of Acts, Apostle Paul was thankful that Jesus saved him from his sins. He was happy to share the good news with his fellow Israel. However, some accepted the good news, while others rejected and even hated him. He was very afraid. He did not know what to do. Then, God gave him a clear direction. Acts 18:9-10 says, One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
When I came to America, I was afraid of my uncertain future. I did not know what to do. But God gave me a clear direction through Isaiah 43:18,19. It says, Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Through the clear direction, I realized that God was with me. I learned that God wanted me to forget the former things. I also believed that God would do something new in my life.
Third, God was with Jacob by warning Laban in a dream (4-55).
Jacob did not tell Laban about his leaving. He secretly left. Then, in verse 22, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. What did he do? He took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. Laban was old at that time. Yet, he did not give up chasing after Jacob. He must have been very angry. Later, in verses 28 and 29, he said to Jacob, You have done a foolish thing. I have the power to harm you;
Surely, Laban had the power to harm Jacob. He could take Jacob’s flocks, wives, and children from Jacob by force. Jacob was in a dangerous situation. But how was God with him? Shall we read verse 23? Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
God warned Laban in the dream; Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” How scared Laban would be. What could he learn from the dream? ‘Wow, God is with Jacob. I should be careful.’ He feared the God of Jacob. So, when he met Jacob, he did not harm Jacob. He did not take anything from Jacob. In this way, God protected Jacob from Laban.
God is our protector. In Genesis 20, Abraham was afraid of the people in Gerar. He thought they might kill him because of his beautiful wife. He lied to the people, saying that his wife was his sister. Then, the king of Gerar, Abimelech, took Abraham’s wife to his palace. However, God came to Abimelech in a dream and warned him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” Abimelech was scared. He returned Abraham’s wife to Abraham. In this way, God protected Abraham and his wife from any harm.
God protects us, too. Do you know how many people have died of COVID-19 during the pandemic in America? As of today, the total number is 1.2M. Among them, the number of 18-29-year-olds who died of COVID-19 is 6,965. There are almost 7,000. If God had not been with us, if God had not protected you and me from the fatal virus, we might be one of the 1.2 M. I tested positive two times. I suffered a lot. But thank God for protecting us. Thank God for being with us.
So far, in this passage, we have learned how God was with Jacob. Once again, at Bethel, God promised him to be with him and watch over him. Some people promise, but then they either forget their promise or do not want to keep it. However, God was faithful to his promise. What did Jacob do when he found out his faithful God? Let us look at several verses of what he confessed.
Verse 5, “But the God of my Father has been with me.”
Verse 7, “However, God has not allowed him to harm me.”
Verse 9, “So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.”
Verse 11, “The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.'”
Verse 13, “I am the God of Bethel, where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.”
Verse 42, “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had now been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, last night he rebuked you.”
Jacob openly confessed how God had been with him. God showed him the dream to increase his flocks. God gave him a clear direction through his words. God protected him from Laban. Jacob did not hide what God had done to him with others.
How about you? Do you openly share your faithful God with others or keep it to yourself? I pray we may continue to put our hope in God, who is with us and keeps his promise. I also pray we may openly praise our God to classmates, friends, and others.