Please turn with me in the written word of God to Genesis chapter 30. In your bulletin it says we're going to cover a lot more ground than we're actually going to get to cover. Because as I began studying this and working through it, I realized there's so much here that we can slow the pace down a little bit. And I've actually changed the name of our sermon. It says, God protects Jacob from Laban, and certainly that's true, but I've changed that to the gradual transformation of Jacob. Because that's what stands out to me in this text and then God willing in our text for next week. So as I'm reading the text this morning, beginning in chapter 30, verse 25, and going all the way through chapter 31, verse 21, What I want you to notice, what I want you to pay attention to, is how many times does the Holy Spirit refer to God Himself? God continues to reveal Himself all throughout the text. And it's been that way implicitly in a lot of places. Here, it's explicit. So listen carefully as we read these things together. Verse 25. And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go. For you know my service, which I have done for you. Laban said to him, Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes. For I have learned by experience, or literally by divination, that the Lord has blessed me for your sake. Then he said, Name me your wages, and I will give it. So Jacob said to him, you know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. For what you had before I came was little and is increased to a great amount. The Lord has blessed you since my coming and now when shall I also provide for my own house? So he said, what shall I give you? And Jacob said, you shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and the speckled among the goats, and these shall be my wages. So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and brown among the lambs will be considered stolen if it is with me. And Laban said, Oh, that it would be according to your word. So he, that is Laban, removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, everyone that has some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Then he put three days journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, pilled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth, streaked, speckled, and spotted. Then Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face toward the street, and all the brown in the flock of Laban. But he put his own flocks by themselves, and did not put them with Laban's flock. And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Now Jacob heard the words of Laban's son saying, Jacob has taken away all that was our father's, and from what was our father's he has acquired all this wealth. And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not favorable toward him as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, and said to them, I see your father's countenance that is not favorable toward me as before, but the God of my father has been with me. And you know that with all my might I have served your father, yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. If he said thus, the speckled shall be your wages, then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus, the streaked shall be your wages, then all the flocks bore streaked. So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. And it happened at the time when the flocks conceived that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted. And the angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, Jacob, And I said, Here I am. And he said, Lift your eyes now and see. All the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted. For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, and where you made a vow to me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family. And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not considered strangers by him? For he has sold us, and has also completely consumed our money. For all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours and our children's. Now then, do whatever God has said to you, do it. And Jacob rose and set his sons and his wives on camels, and he carried away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gained, his acquired livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father's. And Jacob stole away, unknown to Laban the Syrian, and that he did not tell him that he intended to flee. So he fled with all that he had. He arose and crossed the river and headed toward the mountains of Gilead." Let's pray. Righteous Father, if your Holy Spirit is not present with us, If you do not open the hearts and the ears of your people, if you don't open the hearts and the ears of those among us who may be outside of Christ and lost, Father, our meeting together will have been in vain. So we pray, O Lord, because you've promised that if we ask for the Holy Spirit, you will not withhold him from us. For Jesus' sake, would you pour out the Holy Spirit upon us, that we might hear the word as you would have us to hear it, to believe it, to obey it. Grant repentance and faith to any here who are outside of Christ, and grant this very day they might close with Christ, but above all, glorify yourself. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Most of us in this room grew up in local churches that were tinged with Arminianism. I did, and it was many years later that as we studied and meditated and thought that we came to the Reformed faith. But if you grew up in the Arminian context, at least I can speak from my own context that I grew up in, that very often the emphasis, there's a great deal of emphasis put upon knowing the day and the hour of your conversion. As a matter of fact, so much emphasis is placed upon it that it's actually made a part of your assurance. that it's necessary for you to be assured of your faith to know the day and the hour that you were converted from darkness to light. And in fact, if you don't know the day and the hour, maybe you're in trouble, maybe your soul's having a problem, because without that, maybe you're not really a Christian at all. I trust that several of you know what I'm talking about and have been under that kind of teaching and preaching. Well, certainly, it is true that God's work of regenerating a soul and of conversion are instantaneous works. That is, there's a moment that I was outside the kingdom of God, and the next moment I was inside the kingdom of God. And if you're saved, that's true of you as well. There was a time when you did not know the Lord, and then there was the next moment when you did know the Lord. But that being said, there's also, for many, a gradual process that leads up to being converted. And for all of us, once we are converted, there's a gradual process that leads away from being converted called sanctification. That process that leads to being converted is this. We could call it by many different names. You could call it drawing. You could call it illuminating. You could call it convicting. Basically, it's this. Most of you, I suspect if I ask the question and ask you to raise hands, how many of you believed on the Gospel the very first time you ever heard it? Probably not most. I suspect that we heard it over a long period of time, and gradually, little by little, light began to dawn in our souls. We began to recognize what we were hearing was truth. Jesus began to become more and more real to us, and the Bible began to become more and more alive to us. until finally we close with Christ by repenting of our sins and believing on Christ. But there was a work of God breaking up the fallow ground for many of us that led us to the point of conversion. But then no sooner were you converted, the very moment you were converted, the drawing stopped and the sanctification started. And that's the process of the Spirit of God taking up residence in your heart and beginning to make you more conformed to the image of Jesus. And once He begins that work, He doesn't stop that work. It's a slow work, isn't it? It's blood, sweat, and tears. It has many setbacks, and failures, and obstacles, and challenges in it, and it's always imperfect in this life. Man, I wish they sold Sanctification and Appeal. I would buy it. But there isn't such a thing. But there's a process leading to and a process leading back. Now, for some of us, when we look back on our conversion, it's like a flashbulb memory. You remember where you were, you remember what happened, you remember what went on. For me, it's like that. I can tell you a lot about the day I was converted. It was December of 1977. Some of you weren't even born yet. It was December of 1977. I can literally tell you the address of the place where I was. It's about 15 minutes drive from here. It's the home that we grew up in. I was in my bedroom. I was just a few feet away from the door. I was on my hands, on my elbows, and on my knees, prostrate before God, crying out to Him in desperation. to be saved. I was eight years old. I had celebrated my eight-year-old birthday just a month earlier. And I was desperate because I knew, even as an eight-year-old, I knew my soul was in danger. I knew that if I died, I was going to face an eternity in hell. And that apart from Christ, I was lost. And I was crying out to the Lord Jesus, pleading with Him to have mercy upon my soul, and I was absolutely confident that He had the ability to save me, the authority to forgive me for my sins. What I was not confident about was that He was willing to. And I was pleading and wrestling with God in prayer in desperation, crying many tears. And then the Lord brought to my remembrance a verse of Scripture, one of His true and certain promises. It was Matthew 7, 7. That was the verse that God converted me on. "'Ask, and it shall be given. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.' And by faith, I laid a hold of that promise. And even though that was 42 years ago, I remember to this day the peace that flooded my soul. because I knew I had found Christ, and I knew I had been pardoned and forgiven for all my sins. And I thank God for that peace. I didn't know a whole lot else, but I knew I needed a Savior, and I knew I'd found that Savior. For me, I remember it so vividly, but perhaps for some of you, maybe it's not so vivid. Maybe you can't exactly remember the exact point at which you passed from death to life. And that really is okay. Perhaps for you, it was more of a gradual and less dramatic kind of thing for you. You remember the Bible becoming more and more clear to you. The scriptures, which you at one point perhaps thought was a dead book, suddenly was alive and living. And somewhere along the way, as you were interested more and more in Christ, somewhere along the way, you can't remember where, but you stopped being interested in Christ in the same way, and now you were self-identifying as a disciple of Christ. And when the transition took place, you don't really know, you just know something happened. And you applied for baptism, and you were added to the local church, and you served Him ever since. If someone asked you, when's the first time you ever repented of your sin and believed on Christ, you'd say, I don't know. What I do know is this, I'm still repenting of sin. I'm still trusting Christ to save me. But at what point, looking back, in the drawing to Christ and the sanctification that takes place afterwards, at which point was it that I passed from death to life? Well, you know what? It doesn't matter. What matters is that you did. It doesn't matter that you know that you did, because the Bible never, ever, ever says that the basis of your assurance is based upon knowing the day and the hour that you were converted. It's based upon two things. Number one, the objective promises of God. that Jesus promises to receive sinners who come to Him. And secondly, it's the subjective element of seeing the fruit of a transformed life operating inside of yourself. Yes, you're imperfect. Yes, you're still a fallen sinner who struggles with sin, but the very fact you struggle with sin now is a good evidence. The very fact that this is a difficulty, because as I've told you many times, your struggle with sin doesn't end when you're converted. That's when it's really starting. That's when the struggle really begins. But you're seeing God do things in you that you can't explain any other way, but that the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in your life. And you see those things in your life. Now, why have I told you all this against the backdrop of Laban and Jacob squabbling? Well, that's because I think it has everything to do with what's going on in our text. I've said to you on several occasions when working through Genesis that I don't believe Jacob was converted until Genesis 32 when he wrestles all night with God in prayer. And I believe it really is that point at which he makes the transformation from death to life. Now, maybe I'm wrong, because the Bible itself doesn't exactly pinpoint it, but Jacob himself will look back to that event as a very transformative event. And I get the very strong impression that he comes away not only with a new name, Israel, but I believe he came away with a new heart, that God allowed him to pass from death to life. But, long before that event ever takes place, we see God lavishing mercy upon this very unworthy object called Jacob. Even in the midst of so much sin, deceit, wanting the preeminence, always stealing Esau's thunder, always trying to be somebody somewhere and trying to deceive everybody around him, and even treating his wives poorly, as we saw last week, particularly his neglect of Leah. And yet God is drawing him And something that I am struck by, it's the primary thing I'm struck by in this passage and in God willing our passage next week, is we see Jacob changing here. There's evidence that he's changing. God is doing a work of drawing him to himself and he's beginning to be transformed. So that as we go through the text and show you, I think you're going to go, That's not the same Jacob that we first met with. Because what's happening is the God of his fathers is becoming his God. So it's not just Abraham and Isaac's God, it's Jacob's God. The faith of his fathers is becoming his faith. And I believe that what we're seeing is the work not of God converting him just yet, but rather of drawing him close to himself. So as we go through the text, I'm going to preach it under two headings. I'm going to go ahead and give you all four headings for this week and next. Because it's all connected, because the whole episode with Laban and Jacob takes several chapters to cover. This morning we're going to consider the first two things. First of all, we see Jacob being employed by Laban. Secondly, we see him fleeing from Laban. Next week, we'll look at the third and the fourth headings, which are pursued by Laban, and finally, covenanting with Laban. But for this morning, it's employed by Laban. and fleeing from Laban. So let's start with employed by Laban. The language of verse 25 in chapter 30 suggests that when Joseph was born, which was Jacob's 11th son, that when he was born, seven years have passed since he married Rachel. Because if you remember what happened, he had said to Laban, I will work for you seven years for Rachel, but then Laban gave him the wrong daughter. He married the wrong woman, didn't realize it until the next morning. He's married to Leah. And he comes to him and says, why have you deceived me? He says, well, I had to give you the oldest first. Work for me another seven years. And what he's trying to do is keep Jacob under his thumb. He's profited from him materially, and he wants to keep him there. So he says, work for me another seven years, and I'll give you Rachel too. So he marries Rachel the very next week, and then works another seven years for her. Well, now 14 years is up. He's done his time, and so it's time to say, it's time for me to go back. Remember, God had appeared to him at Bethel 14 years earlier, and he had said to him, I'm going to give you the land of Canaan as your inheritance. So he wants to go back now to his father's home. He wants to go back to the place that God has promised he's going to give him land. And so he comes to him and says, send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. Laban responds in verses 27 to 28, and his response and his subsequent behavior reveal something very clear about Laban. Laban doesn't care at all about Jacob, nor does he care about his two daughters. He doesn't care that they're able to provide for themselves. All he cares about is using them for his own material gain. Because he's a man who has his heart set upon the love of money. He's full of his own covetousness. As we're going to see, Laban has just enough room in his heart for Laban, and that's about it. And so that's what happens. So he says to him, he says, no, stay with me. I've learned by experience, by divination, maybe through the occult, maybe what he's saying here, that the Lord has blessed me for your sake. He knows that the Lord exists, but as we'll see, he has household idols. He's not loyal to the Lord in the way that Jacob is going to become. But nonetheless, he says, the Lord has blessed me for your sake, so please stay here. In other words, stay here in Kaching. I'm going to get rich because I've prospered from you thus far. And so he says to him, name your wages, and I will give it. Now remember, he had said that same thing 14 years earlier. Name the wages, and he says, okay, Rachel, that's my wages. Give me her, and I'll work for you for seven years. Well, name your wages, and I'll give it. And so Jacob said to him in response, you know how I've served you and how your livestock has been with me. For what you had before I came was little. In other words, you weren't very prosperous when I first came to you 14 years ago, and it has increased to a great amount. Now notice what he says, the Lord. The Lord has blessed you since my coming. That doesn't sound like Jacob, does it? The Lord has blessed you. He's used me as the instrument, but he's blessed you. But then he says this, and now, when shall I provide for my own house? I've worked hard for you for 14 years, but now I have nothing to show for it. I have my wives, and I have these children, and all those things, and that's wonderful, but I don't have a nest egg. I don't have a way to provide for them. So Laban says, okay, what will I give you? And notice what Jacob responds. He says, give me nothing. I'm not asking for a handout, but I have an idea." And he gives him the idea. He says, let me pass through all your flocks and take out the speckled and spotted ones and the brown ones. In other words, the ones that are less desirable. They were still valuable. You could still sell them and use them for different things. But nonetheless, they're not as desirable because they're not pure white. like the goats and the sheep that you have. Let me take those, and I'll take them as my own, the inferior part of your flock, and I'll start breeding them, and whatever is born to them, I will keep. But anything that's of the pure breed, the pure white with no blemishes upon them, you'll get to keep." And here's the response. Look at Laban in verse 34. Now, did you catch the duplicity of Laban? How deceitful he's being. Oh, that we're according to your word! That's a great idea! You can go through. Here's the terms of the agreement. You take out those speckled and spotted ones. But notice what happens the very next thing. Verse 35, So he removed that day, he being Laban, not Jacob, Laban, removed the male goats that were speckled and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. He doesn't let Jacob take them. He gives them to his sons and says, Now take them three days' journey away. In other words, he's removed everything that Jacob had agreed to, leaving Jacob with the purebreds, the idea being, okay, anything that's born, spotted, or speckled from him now on, you can have. Do you realize he's just changed the terms of agreement, which he himself said he was going to agree to. So he's being deceitful. So how does Jacob respond? Well, Jacob responds by trying an experiment in biological engineering is what happens next. He takes all the sheep and the goats and he puts these poplar rods and stuff and makes them spotted and streaked and has them stare at them while they're drinking water. The idea being, if they stare at them long enough, the babies that they have will be spotted and streaked. Sounds a little superstitious, doesn't it? In other words, okay, you're going to take them all away from me, I'll make my own. That's what he's doing. And it may seem certainly superstitious. What's funny about it is it worked. Because they do bear spotted and streaked every time this happens. And is it because Jacob was such a great engineer and because he'd come up with a foolproof plan on how to exploit Laban? No, it's because God himself was making it happen, which Jacob himself will acknowledge in a bit. And it begs the question, was Jacob still being deceitful? Or is he saying, well, okay, he's changed the terms of the deal, so I'm going to work in such a way as to make things work out better for me. Or was it that God himself had directed him, I'm going to use a strange means to produce the kind of inheritance you need, the kind of wages you need, but whatever the case is going on here, God himself is increasing the wages of Jacob and diminishing the wages of Laban. Because Laban, his flock is getting weaker and shriveling up, whereas Jacob is beginning to increase in wealth by God's blessing. So what do we see here? We see that he's being employed by Laban, but the majority of our time we're going to spend on our second point, which is this, fleeing from Laban. Fleeing from Laban, which is chapter 31, verse 1, all the way through to verse 21. Matthew Henry helpfully identifies the three reasons that Jacob flees from Laban. He says, first of all, he had a just provocation. In other words, Laban provoked him. Secondly, he was given divine direction. And third, he obtained the advice and consent of his wives. So let's consider those three things together. First of all, he had just provocation. Chapter 31, verse 1. First of all, his ears tell him something. He hears Laban's sons complaining, okay, Jacob's getting rich and our dad's getting poor, and they're not happy about that. And then his eyes tell him something. He sees Laban's countenance. Laban doesn't say anything, he just growls. His face, his countenance is hard like flint against Jacob. He knows he's not happy with me. I no longer have his favor. So that's the first thing that happens to him. The second thing is he's given divine direction. Look at verse 3. The Lord suddenly pops up in our text, doesn't he? Until now, it's almost like, where has he been? Suddenly, here he is. And he says to Jacob, he has something very specific to say to him, and I will be with you." Now, he's not making a suggestion. If you feel led, leave. No, I am leading you. Go. Go back to the land of Canaan. But as God so often does, He not only gives a precept, He gives a promise attached to it. Go, and I will be with you. I will protect you. I will watch over you. And you know, for God to promise you He'll be with you, there's hardly a greater promise in all Scripture. That no matter where I go, God is going to be with me and will not leave me nor forsake me. So He's got a specific direction. from God himself. And that leads us to the third thing, which is where I'm going to spend most of our time. And that is, he obtained the advice and consent of his wives, Leah and Rachel. And of all the things that are in our text, this is perhaps to me the most extraordinary, and I hope by the end you'll understand why. Because here is a man who had mistreated his wives, particularly Leah. Yes, he had been married to her by deceit, but we saw last week, God did not approve of the neglect He showed to her. He would not pay her any attention. He had no affection or love for her. And yet still, the fact that He would neglect her, He would still come by from time to time to give her a conjugal visit because she would get pregnant with His children. And yet, here's this woman being so neglectful. Does it not make for some of the most cringe-worthy reading in all of Scripture? To read the way that Jacob just neglected Leah. Your heart grieves for Leah. So that she's having children and saying, okay, this first one, see, a son. Look, I've given you a son. Will you love me now? Then another son. Now I've given you another son. And here's a third son. Will you commit to me? Will you spend time with me now? Instead of neglecting me. And finally, Judah comes along. Now, just praise the Lord. I'm not going to look to my husband for love anymore because I'm wasting my time. But God show me he loves me and I'm going to love him. It doesn't make you think very highly of Jacob, does it? And yet now we find him coming to his wives, Leah included, to win them over, to win their hearts. I'm leaving and I want you to understand why. Not just, hey, get on the camels, let's go. He had God's command already. He had no choice but to obey. But he's going to appeal to them. Let's see how he does so. Look at verse 4. He calls Rachel and Leah to his field. And he tells them, first of all, your father doesn't like me. He says, you see his countenance is not favorable towards me. But notice what he says, the God of my father has been with me. Not my God has been with me, the God of my father has been with me. As if he's aware of this God, but doesn't yet personally know this God. And you know that with all my might, I've served your father. By this time, six more years have passed. Twenty years have gone by. I have served him very faithfully. I've been his hardest working worker in the whole place. The most loyal man God has profited from me and from my labors. Verse 7, your father has dealt deceitfully with me. He's changed my wages ten times. That is, in the last six years, ten different times he's changed the terms of the agreement. You know, whenever you... whenever you work for an employer, you owe that employer your time, your loyalty, and investment of doing with all your heart the labors he has assigned to you. But once you have given that labor, it is the employer himself who owes you something. He owes you the wages he has agreed to in exchange for the services you have rendered. That's why James tells us in James chapter 5 in the New Testament, he rebukes the rich men in the church who had hired men to mow their fields, but then had not paid them their wages in a timely manner. And he says, you've held back the wages that you rightfully owed to these laborers, and their cry has come up to the Lord. because God loves a just weight and a just measure. Here's a man, Laban, who had been deceitful. He had not been true to his word. His yes was not yes, his no was not no. He says one thing does another, and now he's changed the wages. If suddenly there's all these speckled lambs that are born, well, I'm going to change my wages for you to spotted lambs. Well, then the spotted lambs would be born. So every time he changes, God looks after him. And notice what it says. Notice in verse 7. Here again, Jacob says, but God did not allow him to hurt me. It was God who protected me. Verse 8, if he said thus, the speckled shall be your wages, and all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus, the streaked shall be your wages, then all the flocks bore streaked. And notice verse 9. He doesn't say, because I'm so clever. What I did is I took these rods and I made them streaked and spotted and put in front of their eyes and they bore this. No, that's not what he says. Who does he give the credit to? It's not my ingenuity, it's not my intelligence. Verse 9, God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. All this sounds so very un-Jacob-like, doesn't it? Jacob is a deceiver. Jacob is a man who's a glory hound. He wants all the glory. He comes out from the womb, grabbing ahold of the heel of his brother, stealing his birthright, loving the preeminence, wanting the spotlight on him, and now what's he do? He gives the glory to whom it's due. God did this. It's very in Jacob-like because Jacob is changing. Or maybe I say it this way, Jacob is being changed by someone else. We're going to see more of that change as we go. God has taken away the livestock of your father and given it to me." And then he talks about this dream that he had, and apparently he's giving an exposition of verse 3, where God spoke to him and said, get out of your family and go south, and all this kind of thing. He's giving an exposition of what that dream was, and he's telling his wives. It happened at the time when the flocks conceived that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray spotted. Then the angel of God, spoke to me in a dream saying, Jacob, and I said, here I am. He said, lift up your eyes now and see all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray spotted. For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. He said, I have done this. I have given you the wages you have because my eyes are in every place and I see the way Laban is undressedly treating you. And because of that, I have acted. I have acted to do what is right. Even though men treated you unjustly, I gave you justice. I treated you fairly." Then he says this, verse 13, "'I am the God of Bethel. Remember me? You met me once before, twenty years ago. When you were on your way, I'm the God who met you there. Were you annoyed to the pillar? And were you made a vow to me?' What was the vow? If you take care of me, you will be my God." That was the vow he had made to God at that time. He says, now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family. So there's the commandment of verse 3. And he's telling his wives, this is what God commanded. Well, then verses 14 to 16 are the response of Leah and Rachel to what he has said. And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? The Proverbs say that a righteous man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. And here they had worked hard, but it's obvious that Laban loves money so much he has squandered their inheritance. There's nothing left. And they go on to say this, Are we not considered strangers by him? He doesn't treat us like we're his daughters. He doesn't treat us like we're his flesh and blood. He treats us like we're strangers. Foreigners who were invaders in his house. And then he says, "...for he has sold us, and has completely consumed our money." He sold us. Remember, think about Laban. Laban had seven years to tell Jacob, it's better for me to give you the firstborn rather than the secondborn as your wife. But he had deceived him in giving him Leah rather than Rachel. Why? Because he wanted to keep Jacob under his thumb and prosper from him for another seven years. But he didn't care at all what kind of situation that put Leah in. As long as he's rich, that's all he cares about. And so he treats his daughters like they're slaves rather than his daughters. And they're saying, this man doesn't care about us. He doesn't love us. Do you see that Laban loses his daughter's hearts? And what happens next? Verse 16, "...for all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do it." Now, maybe we should be critical of these two women because they're not speaking quite respectfully of their father, not giving him honor. Perhaps. But the reality is, what a man sows is what he shall reap. They had sowed, Laban had sowed iniquity and covetousness and carelessness into his daughters, didn't care about them or their future prospects. I mean, what father on earth would want his children to be destitute? And yet if Jacob and his daughters are destitute as long as Laban's rich, that's okay with him. He'll take from them these things. And so he loses their hearts, and he's about to lose them. You realize that after Jacob finally leaves, Laban will never see his daughters ever again, and he will not see his 12 grandchildren either. He's about to lose all of that. He has lost their hearts, but here's the extraordinary thing. Jacob's won their hearts. Jacob has won the heart of Leah. And they comply and say to him, whatever God has told you to do, do it. We're going with you. You see, Jacob had a command from God. He had to go down south 500 miles back to Canaan anyway, regardless, because God commanded him. Whether his wives went with him or not, but he's come to them to appeal to them and to win them over. Now, let me, this is the point I want to drive home to you. It's, again, very un-Jacob-like, isn't it? This is not how we saw him treating Leah in the last chapter. He didn't seem to care much about Leah, but now he seeks to win her. Andrew Fuller makes this very insightful comment. Quote, But everyone who deserves the name of a man will exercise it with a gentleness and kindness that shall render it pleasant rather than burdensome. He will consult with her as a friend and satisfy her by giving the reasons of his conduct. Thus did Jacob to both his wives and who by such kind conduct forgot the differences between themselves and cheerfully cast in their lot with him." End of quote. It's so un-Jacob-like. The glory hound is now giving glory to God. The deceiver is now being forthright. The one who sought glory for himself is giving glory to God. And this one who had been so neglectful and cruel to his wives is now being a husband to them and being kind to them. Why? Because God is changing him. The narrative first presents Jacob as a very unlikable fellow. Isaac doesn't like him. Esau doesn't like him. Laban doesn't like him. Frankly, we don't like him much either, because he's a tent-dwelling sissy, a man who's lazy and slothful, trying to get out of work all the time. But when we come to him now, he's a hard-working man who endures the heat of the day and the cold of the night to provide for his family. He was a man who neglected his wives, now he's a man investing in his wives and appealing to them graciously. The man's changing, and I find myself in this first chapter, you probably noticed when I was preaching, I don't like him much. But I find myself beginning to warm to him and to this wayward patriarch. Why? Because I admire the man he was? No. But because I begin to admire the man he's becoming. because God's changing him. And God's about to make the big change in him very, very soon. But he's beginning to draw him to himself more and more. The God of his father Isaac is becoming his God. And it's a glorious thing to behold. Verses 17-21 detail Jacob's escape from Laban. He gets up, saddles his camels and gets all his livestock and all his family together and starts heading for the long 500 mile journey south and forgets to tell Laban about it. He's out shearing the sheep, let's go. Let's get here and let's get out of here and he'll discover we're gone when he gets back. When he rings the dinner bell, nobody will show up. Now, you might find fault with Jacob and say, was that really the right thing to do? Because God had already said he's going to be with him. And does he trust the Lord will protect him? And was this a lapse of faith? Well, maybe. But I honestly think he's blameless in what he's doing. Because only a fool goes on trusting a man who's proved himself over and over again to not be trustworthy. He understands this man does not have his best interests in mind. And in fact, we'll see in the next chapter, he's prepared to do bodily harm to his own son-in-law and to his own daughters. This man intends his harm and not his good, and he says, look, I don't trust him. I have no reason to trust him. It's time for us to head south. And so they head south. Let's notice one important detail before we get to our applications. Notice what it says in verse 19, "...Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father's." That's going to come back to haunt her later. It's almost going to cost her her life. Jacob's unaware of it. Leah's unaware of it. But it's going to cause trouble down the road, and certainly Laban had it coming in the sense that he had been certainly a very wicked man. That being said, the Inns don't justify the means. It doesn't justify Rachel stealing these things. But here's the thing I really want you to notice. He had household idols. Little caricatures of other gods. whom he apparently worshipped. And I don't believe that Rachel stole them because she was going to worship them too. I believe that they probably had some monetary value or they could have even been a claim upon the inheritance that later when Laban died, she could produce them and say, look, I've got his idols and so I'm an heir of his inheritance since the guy didn't give me a penny before. This is my way to cash in on it. Still doesn't make it right on her part. But nonetheless, here's the thing. He is not loyal to God by any stretch of the imagination. But here's the thing I would drive home to you. I didn't have to read that Laban had household gods to know he wasn't loyal to God. His behavior has already shown that. His works denied that he was a servant of Almighty God because all Laban had room in his heart for was Laban. But furthermore, I don't have to read that he had household idols to know he's an idolater because he's a lover of money. His heart is set upon that, upon material prosperity. And if you love the Lord, you can't love money at the same time. Jesus says, if you love God and money, you'll hate the one, despise the other, be loyal to the one, and be disloyal to the other. Paul tells us covetousness is idolatry. And this is a man who is an habitual covetor. There's two applications that I want to make this morning. First, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. As you recognize, that's a New Testament quotation. By the way, the Old King James actually translates this wrong. It says it's the root of all evil. The original Greek text says it's a root of evil. In other words, it's one poisonous, noxious root alongside of other roots that are the cause of evil. But it is one of those roots that causes evil. Think about Laban. His love of money caused him to treat his own flesh and blood daughters as if they were strangers and slaves. His love of money led him to starve his son-in-law rather than provide for him so that he could have wages and a nest egg for his own house to provide for his family, for his children, his grandchildren. His love of money caused him to deceive and lie and cheat and steal, and to change the terms of his wages over and over and over again. In other words, to compromise all of God's ways, and that's what the love of money always does. Think about the rich young ruler. He was standing in front of Jesus himself. He ran to him. He knelt prostrate before him. What good thing must I do that I may have eternal life? He was desperate to have his soul right with God. And Jesus says, well, there's one thing you've got to do. Sell everything you've got. Give it to the poor and come follow me. And the man loved his own heart, his own money so much that he walks away saddened. He says, no, I'm going to hang on to this money which is going to perish. and I'm going to forsake the riches of eternity, which can't perish and can never be taken away from me." Judas loved money. He was the treasurer for the apostles, and he stole everything put in the money box. And when it came time to it, here is the man who has been the greatest friend ever to him, who has loved his soul like no one ever has. And he comes to the priest and says, what will you give me if I betray him to you? Thirty pieces of silver? Okay. That's more valuable to me than the love of the Messiah. And it's really striking that when he came and led that contingent of robbers into the Garden of Gethsemane, and came up to kiss Jesus and betray Him with a kiss, do you remember what Jesus said to him? Friend, why have you come? Friend, why have you come? But love of money. See what it does. Now, if you're here and you're in Christ, Not an habitual covetous person. We need to be aware that the love of money can ensnare us too. Because we're fallen, we're all carriers, aren't we? It's there. And you don't have to have a lot of money to have this in your heart. I'll give you an example of what I mean. We're Americans. Americans were rich, inherently. You may think you're not rich, but let me give you an example. One of the cross-cultural ministry faux pas that I committed last time I was in Cuba, which I probably committed a whole bunch of them and didn't even know it, but there's one I picked up on pretty quickly. I was teaching a group of pastors and I was giving them an illustration. I was trying to illustrate the relationship of works to faith. Works are not the cause of our salvation, but they are the effect, the proof of our salvation. And so I said, you know, if you take a diamond, say my wife has a diamond on her engagement ring, And say, you said to me, you're a cheapskate, and you don't really believe I gave her a real diamond. I can take that diamond, run it across a pane of glass, and if it cuts the glass, it proves it's a diamond. It doesn't make it a diamond, but it proves it's a diamond. And that's what works do in the life of the Christian. Well, I'm trying to explain this, but I stumbled before I could even really get to the whole thing. My translator's sitting right here next to me, and I said to the man, I said, now my wife's engagement ring has a diamond upon it. And the translator stops and looks at me and goes, really? I said, yes. Well, I'm sitting there going, oh, wow. So I try to explain to him, well, that's how it is for everybody in the States. That's what everybody's engagement ring has. I dug my hole even worse. He goes, really? And he looks and explains this to everybody in Spanish. He didn't make this gesture, but the way his voice sounded was like this. They have diamonds there. Well, to us, that's not extraordinary. But you see, to us, it's normal. But to a people living in poverty, that's extraordinary. You put diamonds on your wife's fingers? Wow, you guys are rich. The point is, we're so wealthy, we don't even realize it. We're not conscious of it. We're not aware of it. And we can covet and want more things than we have. It's part of our nature to be that way. And the problem is, when we begin to yield to that desire, that materialism, that lust for things, that lust for more money, the problem is it begins to hurt our souls. We will hurt others around us in order to obtain that wealth. We'll neglect family, and even deceive family, and begin to compromise God's ways in order to get these things. Isn't it interesting that in the parable of the soils, one of the weeds that comes up and chokes the life out of the gospel and those who profess it is the love of money? So brothers and sisters, beware of this idolatry, because as John Calvin said, and he's absolutely right, our hearts are factories for idols. They're producing new idols all the time, other things that we love more than we love Christ. And it's not a sin to be wealthy. God can give increase. He gave increase to Jacob. It's not a sin to possess wealth, but it is a sin to let that wealth possess you, and to let the love or the desire for wealth to possess you. We need to learn to be content with the things God provides, which is easier said than done, because we're sinners. The second thing that I would set before you, though, is this. God loves sinners so much that He accepts you as you are. Aren't you glad? But here's the second part of that application. He also loves you so much that He will not leave you as you are. First of all, he loves sinners so much he accepts you as you are. Look at Jacob. He plots, he deceives, he manipulates, he does all kinds of things. And what does God do? He gives him blessing. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to give you the inheritance of your father Abraham. I'm going to do all these things for you. God lavishing upon an undeserving object the things he does not deserve. And isn't that what God has done for us? God doesn't justify the godly. You hear me? Romans chapter 4. But he who believes on Him who justifies the righteous... Is that what it says? No. He who ceases from his works and believes on Him who justifies what? The ungodly. God doesn't accept you into His kingdom because you have good character. He accepts you into His kingdom in spite of your character. In spite of your fallenness, in spite of your sinfulness, in spite of the sinful record of rebellion against Him, He receives you and forgives you freely. What a glorious God it is who gives us such grace to such undeserving sinners as you and me. But there's something else. God began to change Jacob. We see him becoming a different man. The lazy tent-dwelling man has now become a hard-working man. The man who was a deceiver is now dealing more forthrightly. The man who neglected his wives is beginning to love and appeal to his wives. The man who sought glory for himself is so careful to say, this is God who's done this, and to give glory to Him. How did God change Jacob? Two basic ways. Number one, He revealed Himself to him. Number two, He took him through hardship. Brothers and sisters, how does God change you? The same exact way. He reveals Himself to you and He takes you through hardship. And that's not all He does. He doesn't take us all through hardship. He gives us joy and encouragement and comforts too. But He does take us through hardship. God is not through with Jacob yet either. There's a lot more trials ahead. He's going to deal with Laban, and as soon as the Laban crisis is over, he's going to have the Esau crisis. And he's going to have the crisis with his own kids, and all the stuff that goes on with them, and it's not going to be over until he's dead. And you know what? God isn't through with you either, and it's not going to be over until you're dead either. I can tell you right now there's joys ahead of you, and there's victories ahead of you, and there's triumphs ahead of you if you're in Jesus Christ, but I'm going to tell you something else. There's trials ahead of you, and there's hardships ahead of you, And there's pain and suffering. I like the former, I don't care much for the latter. How about you? And yet, God knows better than I do. And he loves me enough to take me through hard things. To make me more like Jesus. And he loves you enough to take you through hard things and make you more like Jesus. Sometimes, and I don't mean this to sound bitter or harsh, but sometimes God just kicks the stuffing out of his kids. Because he loves us so much. I found myself getting teary-eyed as I was reading in the scriptures just a few days ago from 1 Peter 1, verses 6-7, because I can relate to it, and I suspect you can too. He says, "...in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." God takes us through hard things because He loves us. If I was choosing for myself, I wouldn't choose those things. But I'm not the sovereign of the universe. And God knows better. He knows it's like the old adage that you can give a man who's never had experience being a sculptor a big piece of marble, a hammer, and a chisel, and say carve a statue of an elephant. Fundamentally, at least, it's a simple task. You just knock off everything that doesn't look like elephant. And that's how God handles us. He knocks away everything and doesn't look like Jesus. And I wish I could just read a really good theology book and that would settle it, but that's not how it works. Usually I read the theology book and now God says, here's the lesson, and He takes the two before and hits me across the head. And okay, now I can start learning what this looks like in experience. What does Paul say? He who has begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. He won't stop. He'll keep doing it until he sees what he wants to see in you. We can all say, I am not yet what I ought to be. I can say that to you right now. I am not yet what I ought to be, but neither am I what I used to be. And by God's grace, God isn't going to stop working on me until the day of Christ Jesus. If you're here and you're in Christ, the same is true of you. Look at Jacob. Aren't you glad that he loved Jacob so much? He received him despite his sin, and yet, at the same time, he didn't leave Jacob as he was? So that by the time we get finished with Genesis, we find ourselves admiring what we see in Jacob in a way that we didn't before because of the work God did. And isn't that what God's doing in all of us? Well, may God have his way and make us more like Christ Jesus to his glory and honor. Let's pray. Father, we praise you and thank you that you do love us enough to take us through hard things. Lord, we confess that we don't like those hard things. They're not easy to face. Think of our friends, the Voncelles, and the things they're going through with the two children they're pregnant with. And yet how we know you're using these things to sanctify them and make them more like yourself, and to bring glory to yourself. And so you do with us. Father, help us not to grow bitter through the trials, but rather to grow better, to grow more dependent upon you, trusting you that you know what you're doing. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.