God Prospers Jacob

If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 30. I love going verse by verse to the Bible. God prospers Jacob. We'll begin with verse number 25. Now came about when Rachel had born Joseph, and 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 depart.

For you yourself know my service, which I have rendered you. But Laban said to him, If now it pleases you, stay with me. I have divine that the Lord has blessed me on your account. And he continued, Name me your wages, and I will give it. But he said to him, You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. And the Lord has blessed you wherever I turn. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?

So I said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock. Let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted sheep, and every black one among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats.

And such shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen. And Laban said, Good, let it be according to your word. So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats, and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons.

And he put a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and fed the rest of Laban's flocks. Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar, and almond, and plain trees, and peeled white strips in them, exposing the white which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. And they mated when they came to drink. So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

And Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the stripes, and all the black in the flock of Laban. And he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock. Moreover, it came about, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, that Jacob would place the rods in the side of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods. But when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. So the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants, camels, and donkeys." You say, what's going on here?

What does all that mean? Listen, you're going to be so glad you came today. You're going to be so glad that we're back in the book of Genesis, after you hear what God has for you this morning. The word prosperity, good word. We like that word. And I guess all of us would like to be a little bit more prosperous than we are. In fact, there are things that are very enticing to us. Some of us, not all of us, but some of us. Maybe for you it's the lottery chance to win it and become extremely prosperous.

Maybe it's the opportunity to go to Vegas and to gamble and win a lot of money. Or maybe it's the opportunity for you to play the ponies and put your money on the right horse and win and be set for life. Just if we had a little bit more. And then we turn on TV and watch these TV preachers tell us about how we can be healthy and wealthy and wise like they are. How we can dress like them and look like them and drive cars like them and live in houses like them. We think, oh gee, that would be kind of nice.

Just if you send them a little bit of your money, then you can dress and look and live like them. If you have enough faith, they say. So many buy into that sending their money off to some TV preacher and he gets better looking and gets a bigger house and a better car and you still have what you have. Maybe a little bit less because you kept giving your money away. But boy, we just love to be a little bit more prosperous. I want to let you know something. Your prosperity, material prosperity, has nothing to do with luck, has nothing to do with chance, has nothing to do with your intelligence or ability, has nothing to do with the family you are raised in.

It has absolutely nothing to do with that. Whether you ever become prosperous financially or not, has everything to do with God and nothing to do with you. Now some of you will believe that. Others of you will doubt that. By the end of our lesson today, hopefully all of you will agree that you have nothing to do with any prosperity that you have. Job said it this way, Job 1 21, the Lord gives and the Lord what? Takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job understood that God gives and God takes away and Job was a very wealthy man as well as a very righteous man.

And he understood that God was in complete control. Either God's in control or He's not. And if God's in control, He's in control of everything. He's in control of every decision that is made. God controls it all. Remember what Moses said to the children of Israel? Book of Deuteronomy 8 chapter verse number 11. As they get ready to head into the land of Canaan, the promised land. He says in verse 11, Beware lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes, which I am commanding you today.

Lest when you have eaten and are satisfied and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold multiply and all that you have multiply. So He's already telling them that all that you have is going to multiply. It's going to grow. Then your heart becomes proud. You forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and the terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water.

He brought water for you out of the rock of Flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna, which your fathers did not know that He might humble you and that He might test you to do good for you in the end. Otherwise you may say in your heart, My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth. But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who has given you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day. It's God. You must believe that.

You must understand that at the outset. Because in Genesis chapter 30, God prospers Jacob. God does it. And we're going to look at a story about a man who for the last 14 years of his life has been married to four women.

He's got Rachel. He's got Leah. He's got Zilpah. He's got Bilhah. He's got them all. And for 14 years it's been a life of anxiety. He's been manipulated. He's been cheated. Things have not gone so well for Jacob. But, but through those 14 years he's experienced the grace of God, the mercy of God, the goodness of God, the love of God, but most importantly the sovereignty of God. And the book of Genesis explains to us about the sovereignty of God more so than any other book of the Bible. For from the very beginning in Genesis chapter 1, in fact I thought that maybe it would be good because we were off for so long to review for you the first 30 chapters.

But that would take us forever. Right? Because at the very outset at the book of beginnings God is saying guess who is in charge. I am. I'm in charge. I control it all. My sovereignty rules over all. I am in complete control. I am the all powerful one. I rule over everything. So the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible tells us that God rules.

God's in control. It's all about God and it's not about anything else but God. So as you go through the book of Genesis what do you realize? It's all about God. So when you come to Genesis chapter 30, Jacob's prosperity is all about God. All about God and what he himself wants to do. That's a good thing. So I want to look with you this morning at number one, the context.

Number two, the contract. Number three, the conclusion. Number four, some comments on Genesis 30 verses 25 and following. Number one, the context.

I want you to notice two things. Jacob's request and Laban's response. Jacob says it's time to move. After Rachel had born Joseph. Now if you were with us we talked a lot about the boys born to Jacob. Eleven boys, previous chapter and one daughter, Dinah. But after Joseph was born to Rachel, Jacob says, Laban, it's time for me to go on. To go back where I need to be. He's been there 14 years. Remember he went to look for a wife. He received a wife. He was cheated. He wanted Rachel. He got Leah instead.

He said he would work seven years for Rachel. After the seven years were up, Laban tricked him and gave him Leah. If you want to know all the ins and outs of that you need to get the tape. After he received Sorai's he decided that he wanted Rachel too and so he said I will work another seven years just give me Rachel. So he was then married to Rachel and then worked another seven years. Those seven years are now completed for a total of 14 years. He says I want to go home. Now to understand something is it's very significant to realize that Jacob has gone and been through a lot, hasn't he?

But you know the book of Genesis teaches us something that sometimes we forget. There are always consequences to sin. Always. And even when you ask forgiveness from God the law of the harvest is still in effect. You always will reap what you sow. And you know what? You can't get out from under the consequences. Jacob was raised in a dysfunctional home. And the book of Genesis tells us that every family is dysfunctional. Some a little bit more dysfunctional than others but we're all dysfunctional.

His dad loved Esau. His brother, his mother loved him. And he was involved in the whole deception. He was involved in the whole lying concept that his mother connived in her mind to deceive his father that he might inherit the birthright. We've already seen that's all part of God's sovereign plan anyway but what we see is that this man will reap the consequences of his sin for the rest of his life. Even though he's asked forgiveness. Even though he's been forgiven by God there are still consequences for his sin.

That doesn't mean that God's not in control. That means that God is in complete control. In fact, in his home that showed partiality, he would raise a family where he himself would show partiality and favoritism. And he would raise a family where everybody began to be competitive. He had four wives but all four of them were competitive. They all sought for the man's affection. The children became very competitive. He was beginning to reap what he sowed. Even though he had asked for forgiveness, it would go on and we'll see it further as we study the rest of the book of Genesis.

So just to set the context it's important for us to realize, so important, that when we sin there will always be consequences for our sin. I wish that wasn't the case, don't you? I wish that we could just take away the consequences. If we did then we'd sin more and we'd never ask for forgiveness. But those things happen and Jacob is a perfect illustration of that. And maybe you're here today and you're reaping the consequences of your sins. You've asked for forgiveness and you have received that forgiveness from God.

He has taken away your sin. You have a clear conscience but you know, you know that the consequences still fall on you. They do. They did in Jacob's life. But to believe in your God, to trust your God, and that's what God wants you to do, right? The reason we have those consequences is because God wants to keep us on our knees trusting Him, living for Him, committed to Him in order that through every difficult circumstance we would have to depend upon our God. And the more we depend upon Him, the greater our intimacy with Him that will take us through the consequences of our sin that we might come through victorious for Jesus Christ and glorify His name.

That's what He wants. Jacob did. That's the context. His son Joseph had been born to Rachel. She finally had her son.

After all those years God finally gave her a son. He says, I want to go back. Laban's response is rather significant because he says if now it pleases you, verse number 27, stay with me. Stay with me. I want you to stay. Of course he wants Jacob to stay. Jacob's a trustworthy man. Jacob's a hard worker. Jacob has been so instrumental in blessing Laban's life. Of course he wants to keep him. And after all, he's easy game to trick. He already tricked him once. He'll trick him again. Of course he wants him to stay.

He didn't really believe in Jacob's God. He was just thankful that Jacob's God was blessing him because of Jacob. He knew about the blessing of Genesis 12, the Abrahamic Covenant. He knew that in Genesis 28 when God came to Jacob and told him that He would bless him and He would bless His descendants, He realized the blessing would just carry over to Laban that God would bless those who blessed Him. So why wouldn't He want Jacob to stay? But He was very self-centered. He knew if He could offer some way to keep him that He would stay.

So He says, I am divine that the Lord has blessed me on your account. Now that's a very unique word. Maybe you don't have the word divine in your Bible. If you have the New American Standard, you have the proper word. It's the same word translated over in Deuteronomy 18, divination. It reads as follows, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination.

Same word used in Genesis 30. One who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. And because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. Laban practiced divination. Laban was into the occult. Laban was into witchcraft. Laban was into the things of the world.

You know, to be honest with you, I'm surprised at the number of Christians today who daily read their horoscope, who daily read what the predictions say about their lives, who are into the zodiac, or who are into occult practices, tarot cards, Ouija boards, those kind of things. I'm surprised at that. Because the Bible says that those things are detestable to the Lord, that they are an abomination to Him.

And yet we even get preachers today, popular preachers, who write books about how the gospel is in the stars. No, it's not. The gospel is not in the stars. The zodiac was on top of the ziggurat in Genesis chapter 11, where those wanted to build the tower of Babel to false gods. And if you were with us in our study of Revelation, you know that the Babylonian harlot has its roots in Genesis chapter 11 with the stars. The gospel's not in the stars. Nobody sold a bill of goods because some popular preacher writes a book about that kind of stuff.

What does the Bible actually say? And Laban was into divination. Laban was into the things that are detestable to the Lord. And those things that are an abomination to God ought to be an abomination to us as well. Stay away from those things. But see, we get into those things because we think that they really have something to say for us, whether it's fortune cookies at the Chinese restaurant, whether it's the horoscope, whether it's somebody predicting the future. We think that somehow that's going to affect us.

It does not affect you in one way or another. Why? Because God's in control. God rules over everything. And so Laban says in verse number 28, name me your wages and I will give it to you. Name me your wages. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? But it's self-serving. Jacob knew that he couldn't be bought. Jacob wanted to be very careful that he wouldn't put himself in another situation. And that would allow Laban to trick him. So let's look at number two, the contract.

The contract. And three things I want you to see. The arguments for it, the agreement to it, and then the arrangements of it. First of all, the arguments for it.

Jacob says, you yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have fared with me. For you had little before I came and it has increased to a multitude. And the Lord has blessed you wherever I turn. But now when shall I provide for my own household also? The first thing he says, you know, I've served you.

You know about me, Laban. And Laban knew that Jacob was a trustworthy man. And you'd think that he'd say, okay, man, I'm going to find out a way to get back at this guy because then I am not going to let this happen to me again. You ever been there? Sure you have. Or maybe he could have said, you know, God, you put me in this situation. And if it wasn't for you, God, then I wouldn't have been here. And if it wasn't for your call upon my life, I wouldn't have to go here. And if it wasn't for you, God, I would be a much happier man than I am today.

If you think I'm going to give you one more penny, you got another thing coming, God. If you think I'm going to worship you one more Sunday, forget it. I'm writing you off. It's over, God. Look what you did to me. As if it's God's problem and not yours. You ever been there? We've all been there, haven't we? Like somehow it's God's fault. We've got to blame God. If he's in control, it must be him. But Jacob didn't do any of that, did he? He was a hard worker. And folks, listen, I don't care where you work, you've got to be a loyal, trustworthy, hard worker, right?

And Jacob was that kind of man. Laban knew it. And Jacob said, you know, I've got to provide for my own family. I've got to take care of my own. I've been taking care of you, Laban, and your family, and my family. You give me free room and board. I've taken care of your livestock. Things have prospered. But you know what? It's time for me to get on my own and take my family and be the boss of my family and to provide for my family and lead my family. That's a good man. He wants to do whatever he has to do to provide for his family.

So his arguments are above board. His arguments are good. And then you come to point number two, main point number two, the agreement to it.

Laban says, sounds good to me. He says, so he said, what shall I give you? And Jacob said, you should not give me anything if you will do this one thing for me. You don't have to give me anything. Now, let me explain this story to you so that you understand number three, the arrangements of it.

Jacob's quick to agree. Quick to agree. And you'll notice that he jumps right on it. He says, this is all I want. I want to take, I'm going to take all the speckled, spotted, and striped sheep. I'm going to give them all to you, Laban. They're all yours. They're all yours. And you can take them, wherever you want to take them, they're yours. I'm going to take the solid white ones and the solid black ones and I'm going to put them over here. And guess what, Laban? They're all yours too. That's a great deal, right?

All these are mine and all these over here are mine. What could you possibly be asking for? But I'll tend to these. I'll tend to these. And as I tend to them, every spotted, speckled, and striped sheep that's produced by the white ones and the black ones are mine. While the white ones and the black ones still remain yours. Sound like a good deal? Laban says, that's a great deal. You're starting with nothing. I got everything and you got nothing. That's a great deal. Stay for as long as you want, Jacob.

Keep taking care of my flocks. That's the arrangements. You think, Jacob, what are you doing? Well, it's easy to the conclusion. Let me say it to you this way.

Here's the deal. So, what's Laban do? He jumps right on it and instead of allowing Jacob to separate the speckled, spotted, and striped sheep, he does it. And takes the sheep three days away because he doesn't want any of the striped and speckled one to influence the solid white ones and solid black ones. Why? Because then he would get striped, speckled, and spotted sheep and he didn't want Jacob to have any. You following me so far? Sure. You're looking at me like, oh, gee, man, I'm kind of confused here.

Well, it gets better because he takes the white ones and the black ones. He takes them over here to the watering hole. He takes these poplar branches and he begins to peel them off. They're all stripes. He puts them in the watering hole. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Lines them all up. And then he brings the white sheep, the black sheep. Bring them all over to the watering hole. And they begin to mate, thinking that if they look upon the striped sticks in the watering hole, they will produce striped, speckled, and spotted offspring.

You say, you've got to be kidding me. No, I just read it just a few minutes ago right here in Deuteronomy chapter 30. That's the story. You say, you've got to be kidding me. Jacob believed that? Yeah, he did. Jacob believed that. It was a superstitious scheme that Jacob believed in. You say, you've got to be kidding me. No. Let me tell you something.

We have them too. Let me give you one example. I talk to young married couples who want to get married and have children. And some of them prefer boys over girls. Others prefer girls over boys. And so they read books about if they conceive on a certain day, they are guaranteed to have a boy. If they conceive on another certain day, they are guaranteed to have a girl. People write books on this stuff. And families, maybe such as yourself, read those books. Every girl we have was supposed to be a boy, and every boy we have was supposed to be a girl.

So let me tell you something. We have in our own minds these superstitious schemes that we conjure up. That if we have sex on a certain day, in a certain way, we might even be able to have twins. God forbid. If you're a twin, please don't take that the wrong way. But you see, we believe in these superstitious schemes, thinking that if we do things a certain way, that we will produce the end result. But listen, this man was a skilled shepherd. He was a skilled farmer. He knew what he was doing, so he thought, same way you and I operate when we go to work and we're skilled in our position, we go and we operate that without what?

Any real trust in God in that area of our lives. Isn't that true? Listen, I could probably get up here every Sunday morning for the next two months, maybe three months, without ever opening my Bible and studying to prepare for a Sunday morning message. And just preach off the top of my head. And there probably would be better sermons than the one today. Who knows? I could do that for three or four months and just kind of go on my own ingenuity, my own creativity, my own ability and get by with it, without ever praying to God to open the Bible.

But if we don't trust God and lean upon God for all things and commit our lives to Him, we're whistling Dixie in the wind, man. It doesn't make any difference. God's in control of all things. He does everything. He does it all always right. And so, even though it was a superstitious scheme, I want to let you know something. It was a supernatural success because God caused this man to prosper. How do I know that? Verses 6 and 9. And you know, as you talk to Rachel and Leah, that I have served your father, this is verse 31, with all my strength.

Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. However, God did not allow him to hurt me. Jacob is recognizing God controlling everything. If he spoke thus, the speckled shall be your wages, then all the flock brought forth speckled. And if he spoke thus, the striped shall be your wages, then all the flock brought forth striped. Thus God has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me. It's God who's done it. It was a supernatural success. It's about God. That's a lesson we all need to learn, right?

It's all about God. Which leads me to two comments. Two comments I want to give you about biblical prosperity. Listen very carefully. Biblical prosperity is not about man-made methods. Biblical prosperity is not about man-made methods, but about meditating upon God's mandates. It's all about God. But God says, you gotta do this.

If you focus on me, I'll take care of everything else. You focus on me. And then, second, one more comment I want to give to you.

Biblical prosperity is not about superstitious schemes, but sovereign selection. Psalm 115 verse number 3 says, Our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. And the most prosperous man, the most prosperous woman in all the world is one who is what? An heir of God's adjoiner, Christ. It's all about sovereign selection. You know, if you're into things that are wrong, if you're into creating avenues by which you think you can make more money, get promoted, stop it. Forget it. I know people, man, they work so hard.

They work so long. They spend so much time away from their family thinking that if they just sell enough goods, if they just show enough people the right amount of things, they just do all that needs to be done, that somehow they'll make just that much more money, their boss will be that much happier, and they'll receive a greater promotion. You know what? It doesn't. You might think it does. Once you get your promotion, oh, my hard work's paid off. No. It's all about God and what he wants to do in your life.

Do you trust him for that? Does it mean you do shoddy work? No. It means you work hard like Jacob did. Be trustworthy. Be energetic. Do what needs to be done. But you need to depend upon God for everything because God rules over all. He just used one man, Jacob, and his sin with the four wives and all those boys to bring about a greater purpose because God rules over all. Let's pray.