Genesis 28:10-22 (KJV)
And Jacob went out from
Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
And he lighted upon a
certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he
took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in
that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and
behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and
behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And, behold, the LORD
stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God
of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
And thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the
east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all
the families of the earth be blessed.
And, behold, I am with
thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee
again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I
have spoken to thee of.
And Jacob awaked out of
his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
And he was afraid, and
said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven.
And Jacob rose up early
in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it
up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.
And he called the name
of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
And Jacob vowed a vow,
saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and
will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
So that I come again to
my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
And this stone, which I
have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me
I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
When we look in the
Bible for examples of “spiritual” people, I doubt that most people would
automatically name
· Isaac or
· Jacob
· Enoch
would come up quickly
with those who are more familiar with the Bible.
· Abraham
· Moses
· David
would come up early in
most people’s lists.
· Joseph and
· Daniel
would almost certainly
be there.
· Isaac and
· Jacob?
Not so much.
And yet, Exodus 3:6
(KJV) says,
Moreover he said, I am
the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
That’s a pretty big
deal.
Even if we would not
think of Isaac or Jacob as spiritual, it seems to me that God does.
The story of Jacob takes
up a large portion of the book of Genesis – literally half of the book is about
him.[1]
It sure would not make
sense to ignore him.
And yet, outside of
being a believer, Jacob was a mess:
· He tricked his brother
out of his birthright
· He lied to his father in
order to steal the blessing
· He ran for his life from
his brother Esau
· He snuck away from his
father in law rather than being up front with him
· He favorite one of his
children over the others
· He caved rather than
defending his daughter’s honor
· He was content to trade
one son’s life for another in the famine
· He grieved and never got
over the apparent “death” of Joseph and coming to the end of his years, his
testimony to Pharoah was, Genesis 47:9 (KJV)
· … The days of the years
of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of
the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of
the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
As I meditated on the
life of Jacob, and his relationship to the plan of God, it seemed to me that it
might be summarized like this:
He was, a less than perfect man used to build a less than perfect family in order to
reach a less than perfect world
through an absolutely perfect Christ.
I want to examine those
four points as our message this morning.
Joseph was,
I. A LESS THAN
PERFECT MAN
If you looked around you
would find someone who would challenge me on this, but for our purposes this
morning, allow Jacob to be a picture of
the Christian.
I’ve already outlined a
good share of Jacob’s sins.
Jacob is unquestionably
a believer. He has some good qualities.
But he had some major
flaws too.
That’s sort of
comforting news.
As far as I can tell,
those of us who have the best qualities, also carry around a wheelbarrow load
of flaws, don’t we?
A. Jacob had a problem with trust
He knew that God wanted
him to have the birthright blessing, but he couldn’t bring himself to trust God
to give it to him.
He has to make a deal for it with his brother – a bowl of
pottage, in exchange for the blessing.
Genesis 25:29-34 (KJV)
And Jacob sod pottage:
and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
And Esau said to Jacob,
Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was
his name called Edom.
And Jacob said, Sell me
this day thy birthright.
And Esau said, Behold, I
am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
And Jacob said, Swear to
me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau
bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went
his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
He has to lie to his blind father and pretend to be Esau.
Genesis 27:6-24 (KJV)
And Rebekah spake unto
Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother,
saying,
Bring me venison, and
make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my
death.
Now therefore, my son,
obey my voice according to that which I command thee.
Go now to the flock, and
fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury
meat for thy father, such as he loveth:
And thou shalt bring it
to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
And Jacob said to
Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth
man:
My father peradventure
will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon
me, and not a blessing.
And his mother said unto
him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.
And he went, and
fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such
as his father loved.
And Rebekah took goodly
raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them
upon Jacob her younger son:
And she put the skins of
the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:
And she gave the savoury
meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
And he came unto his
father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?
And Jacob said unto his
father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me:
arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.
And Isaac said unto his
son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because
the LORD thy God brought it to me.
And Isaac said unto
Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my
very son Esau or not.
And Jacob went near unto
Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but
the hands are the hands of Esau.
And he discerned him
not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed
him.
And he said, Art thou my
very son Esau? And he said, I am.
B. Jacob had a problem with manliness
When his brother was so
mad he wanted to kill him, instead of making it right, he listened to his
mother and fled.
Genesis 27:42-44 (KJV)
And these words of Esau
her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger
son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth
comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
Now therefore, my son,
obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;
And tarry with him a few
days, until thy brother's fury turn away;
Ladies, I mean no
disrespect at all.
If it wasn’t for the
“fairer sex” giving men a bit of civility, we probably would have killed each
other off centuries ago.
On the other hand, if
every young man had listened to:
· his mother, or
· his girlfriend or
· his wife
Hitler would have
exterminated the Jews and Japan would have walked over the United States.
And that would have only
happened after 150 years subservience to the British.
C. Jacob had an attitude problem
In the matter of his sons attack on Shechem after Dinah was
defiled….
Genesis 34:30 (KJV)
And Jacob said to Simeon
and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the
land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they
shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be
destroyed, I and my house.
In the matter of Joseph keeping Simon and demanding Benjamin
be sent to Egypt
Genesis 42:36 (KJV)
And Jacob their father
said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon
is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.
In the matter of his testimony before the Pharaoh
Genesis 47:9 (KJV)
And Jacob said unto
Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty
years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not
attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of
their pilgrimage.
I understand that life
can be pretty rough but may I just say,
Nobody enjoys being around someone who complains all the
time!
Jacob was a less than
perfect person, but God thought of him as a spiritual person.
You don’t have to be
perfect to be spiritual.
He was used to build,
II. A LESS
THAN PERFECT FAMILY
Someone would challenge
me on this, but for the sake of this message, allow me to use Jacob’s family as
a picture the church.
It would take far too
long to develop the whole story of the failures of Jacob’s family – later known
as Israel.
Just a few things:
· Two of the brothers attacked the city of Shechem and killed
all the men there – without their father’s counsel and approval and after
assuring the men of Shechem they wanted peace with them.
· One of the brothers had an illegitimate child by a woman who
was the widow of not one, but two of his children
· All of the brothers conspired together to throw their
brother Joseph into a pit and then sell him as a slave.
This does not begin to
go into the centuries of spiritual failures of Israel:
· In the wilderness
· In the book of Judges and
· In their choosing a king without God’s approval
May I just say that,
No thinking person believes there is such a thing as a
perfect church.
The best of churches,
like our church, has our problems.
· We have members who do things without consulting and getting
approval from the pastor of the church.
· We have members who sometimes embarrass us and have to be
corrected in one way or another
· We have members who turn against us sometimes and cause us
damage an pain
And that’s not just our
church.
You won’t find a church
better than this one – I have been around – I know.
Because a church is made
up of imperfect people, churches are far from perfect.
But the local church IS
God’s perfect plan to reach
III. A LESS
THAN PERFECT WORLD
Think about the history
of Israel.
They were, by far, less
than perfect.
But then, think about
the world that surrounded them:
· The Philistines – worshipping Dagon, a half man, half fish god.
· The Egyptians – worshipping Ra, the Sun god
· The Ammonites – worshipping Molech, a bull that they would
sacrifice their babies to.
And there were literally
hundreds of other gods in the nations that surrounded Israel.
Israel was meant to
present to the world, through their practice of faith and through the
presentation of the Word of God, the true and living God.
They did not do it
perfectly, but these thousands of years later, we still have the Word of Truth,
because some in the nation did take it seriously.
Think about our own
world,
· We have the evolutionists, preaching that man was
once some sort of fish.
· We have the environmentalists, preaching that our one
true calling is to protect mother earth.
· We have egalitarians, preaching, among other things, a woman’s
right to sacrifice the life of the bay in her womb.
I know we are not going
to be perfect, I know we sometimes get in our own way and I know that sometimes
we even get mixed up and let some of the world’s ideas into our churches –
But our job is:
· to protect the Word of God and
· to preach it to anyone and everyone who will listen
Because God’s blessing
on these less than perfect people comes through,
IV. AN
ABSOLUTELY PERFECT CHRIST
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
(KJV)
And all things are of
God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him.
· No one here is saying that the Baptist church is perfect
· We are certainly not saying that this Baptist church is
perfect
What we are saying is
that Jesus Christ is perfect and that God has called us to call others to come
to Jesus.
Christian, do not give
up on this!
· When you fail, get back up and go on for God.
· When you start to swallow some of the world’s ways of
thinking, spit it out and get back into the Word of God.
· When you can, open the Bible and tell others what it says.
But first and foremost,
point people to the perfect Jesus Christ.
That is a spiritual
person’s work.
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