“Is That Exactly What God Said?”

Genesis 31:1-16

The story of Jacob turns another corner. His story began with him and his mom making a mess of things so that he was forced into exile. He arrived at his mother’s homeland and deception and rivalries went rampant. Jacob was deceived by his uncle with the two daughters, Lamb and Calf, only to have Jacob return the deception with those same animals upon his uncle. 

 

Today’s Scripture begins with Jacob overhearing Laban’s sons talking. Remember them? Last time we read about them they had taken all the spotted and stripped lambs and calves and took them a three days walk from the flocks Jacob was hired to tend. And yet, against all odds, Jacob had managed to produce an abundance for himself. 

Jacob overheard them saying, chapter 31, verse 1,

 “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.”

Not only were Laban’s sons jealous, Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. The actual Hebrew words are translated, “Jacob could see the face of Laban, and it was not like it used to be towards him.” This begins a new motif in the narrative regarding seeing people’s faces. 

He sees Laban’s face, it’s not like it used to be. 

He is going to see Elohim face-to-face and end up in a wrestling match with Him. 

He eventually has to meet his brother Esau face-to-face which will produce more feelings. 

Jacob is beginning to see the faces of all the people that he’s been swindling over the years. 

It’s much easier to take advantage of someone if you don’t have to look them in the eyes. 

 

At this point, Jacob looks at the face of Laban and realizes, “Well, I don’t think he likes me anymore.” Then Yahweh said to Jacob, verse 3,

“Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

Jacob calls for a meeting. He sent word for Rachel and Leah to come out to the field and meet with him. Away from listening ears I suspect and he begins his spiel. 

“Okay, ladies. I’ve noticed that your father is not looking at me the way he used, things have changed. But here’s what’s been happening. The God of my father has been with me.”

At this point let’s notice a couple of things. One, the God who has been with him, is still “the God of his father” not Jacob’s God. And at this point what Jacob has said about his father’s God is true. He has been with him. In fact, the Lord had just repeated that phrase to him. 

That’s where the truth stops and Jacob goes off on a tangent with just enough truth to make his argument viable. 

Jacob begins with claiming his excellent work ethic, verse 6, 

“You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength,”

No argument there, 

“yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times.”

Not so sure about the “ten times?” A bit of exaggeration there, maybe. 

Jacob continues, 

“However, God has not allowed him to harm me.” 

This may be true, but since when has Jacob relied on God for anything. It sounds good anyway.

Jacob continues to explain that whatever Laban had chosen to be Jacob’s wages, miraculously that is what happened. Jacob claims it was God who had taken away their father’s livestock and given them to him. God certainly works in mysterious ways.

Nice of Jacob to give God the credit, but let’s be real. In reality, Laban wasn’t the one who kept changing the requirements, it was Jacob who had set up the scheme all along. Jacob uses God to cover up his scheming to make him seem innocent. 

Jacob’s next statement is where his story goes even more awry. We just read what God said, in verse 3, 

“Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

But in verse 10, it becomes a dream and listen to what God said to him this time….

“Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates. In the dream an angel of God called out to me, ‘Jacob!’

“I said, ‘Yes?’

“He said, ‘Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban’s been doing to you. I’m the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.’”

Wow, Jacob has spun a pretty persuasive case, no? 

Where do Rachel and Leah go with this story? To the negative, they reply, verse 14, 

“Has he treated us any better? Aren’t we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he’s spent all that. 

Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children’s. Go ahead. Do what God told you.”

Did you notice Rachel and Leah believe any wealth that God has given from their father belongs to “them and their children,” not Jacob. However, Jacob’s argument worked, they tell Jacob to “Do what God told him.” 

 

How many of you have heard this story before? Can you see how someone could read this story two different ways?

 

I come from a Biblical tradition that has read this story and believed what Jacob was telling his wives was exactly what God had said. Jacob wouldn’t twist things, right? However, up until this point, how much of what Jacob says has been 100% truth? Not much. So why all of a sudden would it be any different? Let’s look at what’s happening. 

 

The story begins with the narrator telling us what God said to Jacob. But then the narrator takes a back seat. Jacob becomes the big talker.  The narrator tells us that God told Jacob, “Hey, go back home. I’m with you.” Jacob reports an oracle that becomes a whole big, long dramatic dream. It just so happens that the goats that multiplied were the ones he had a lot of at this point. So clearly, God provided them all for him. Notice none of this was in the narrator’s account. Jacob was up to one of his old tricks, scheming to get his way. 

The narrator never attributes Jacob’s abundance to Yahweh at all. But Jacob wants to attribute his scheme to Yahweh because it suits his purpose to persuade his wives to leave with him, because Laban doesn’t like him any more. 

 

This becomes a major motif when we get to the prophets. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Micah have entire sections devoted to trying to discern which prophets really speak for Yahweh. 

 

Ezekiel 13:7 “Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, “The Lord declares,” though I have not spoken?”

 

The Hebrew Bible offers categories and wisdom about how to discern when people are really representing God’s purposes and God’s voice. 

Today’s Scripture offers the most elaborate case so far in Genesis. We have a story about a man who cannot tell the difference between his own self-preservation schemes and God’s blessing and will. The two have become fused, and not in a good sense. 

 

We hope that our will would merge with God’s will, and that they would become one in the same. That’s Ezekiel’s prayer 37:14,

“I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

How easy is it for us to read that Laban used divination and think, “Oh, that’s bad.” But when Jacob claims God told him, we believe him? All along, Jacob hasn’t been talking with God and waiting for answers. He has been taking God’s word and using it for his own justification. 

If we think about it, there’s a history of people using God’s word for nefarious purposes. 

Check in time. 

Who of us doesn’t know the feeling of not understanding our own motives for doing something? 

You’re doing some good things and it feels really good to tell yourself how good you feel about doing that good thing. And you think, “Well, I’m sure God’s very pleased with me.” 

And then there’s the times when we mistake our agenda for God’s agenda. If it works, then it must be from God, right? Hopefully you know that that’s not the formula to tell the truth? 

How do we know if something is God’s will? 

The best way is to get to know God better, then you will know His will when you see it. 

Jacob did not have a relationship with God. Yahweh was the God of his father, not his God. 

The best way to know a counterfeit dollar when you see one is to know exactly what a “real” dollar looks like. 

We are blessed with the story of Yahweh becoming human and living amongst us. We can read what Jesus would do in most situations and learn from His actions. 

Becoming familiar with His story helps us know His will. Inviting God to live with us on a daily basis and reading His Word, provides us with the tools we need to discern God’s will. 

Lord’s Supper.