Well, we turn in the Bible this morning to the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 30, and we're turning to verse 25. I was going to read all the way to verse 55, a good of the next chapter, and I was sitting at the kitchen table the other night, and my wife said, that's way too long, don't preach that long. And then my children said, no, mom, we like it. So it's really interesting. Sometimes children, we think we understand them, but we don't. But I agreed with my wife. It was way too long. So we're going to look at verses 25 through 21 of the next chapter. So 25 of chapter 30 all the way to verse 21 of the next chapter. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. As soon as Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, send me away that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I've served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I've given you. But Laban said to him, if I found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your wages and I will give it. Jacob said to him, you yourself know how I've served you. Now your livestock is fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turn. But now when shall I provide for my own household also? He said, what shall I give you? Jacob said, you shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats and they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen. Laban said, good, let it be as you have said. But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted and the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, every lamb that was black and put them in charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob pastored the rest of Laban's flock. Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plain trees and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks and the trumps, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred, when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks, and so the flocks brought forth striped and speckled and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks and the troughs before the eyes of the flock that they might breed among the sticks. But for the feebler of the flock, he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, camels and donkeys. Now, Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's, he's gained all this wealth. And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was and said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. You know that I've served your father with all my strength. Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. If he said, the spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock bore spotted. And if he said, the stripes shall be your wages, then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. In the breeding season of the flock, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. Then the angel of the Lord said to me in the dream, Jacob, and I said, here I am. And he said, lift up your eyes and see. All the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land, and return to the land of your kindred. Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do. So Jacob arose and set his sons and wives on camels. He drove away all his livestock, all his prosperity that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan Aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he intended to flee. He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. I don't know how much the life of Jacob has affected you and what your thoughts have been as we have studied this, following closely, looking at all these things that have happened to Jacob. But what has been most moving about the life of Jacob is not so much Jacob's actions, because they really are not noble. It has been God's pursuit of him. I have wanted to see Jacob realize that. I mean, it has really been a wonderful story to study God's pursuit of a sinner. That his life, Jacob's life, had been absolutely lifeless. I mean, it has really been shocking to study the lack of spiritual life in this man. He was dead. There was just no life in him. And we stood amazed when God, and remember, way back when God dropped the ladder to Jacob and said to him unconditionally, remember what God said, I will be with you wherever you go. I'm not going to leave you. In fact, I'm going to bring you back. This is the program. This is how it's going to go for you. I'm with you, Jacob. And whatever happens to you, and whatever you do, I'm with you, and I'm not leaving you. Now, at some point, that has to get a hold of you. At some point. You know, if you could remain dead after seeing all of this for so long, you're the greatest tragedy that has ever existed on the face of the earth. And what I believe is before us this morning is a passage showing us what happens when life begins to enter the soul of man. In other words, when the grace of God begins to prevail in somebody's life, what does that look like? What begins to happen? Well, that's what is here. And I want you to think about prevail for a minute. Because you see, in the next chapter, in chapter 32, a man is going to come in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of the night, and take Jacob down, and wrestle him down, and change his name, and that name has everything to do with God prevailing over him. I don't know how much you struggle with the love of God. I heard a pastor once say, well, everyone seems assured today of heaven I'm not so sure that's true I think it's a front I believe most people are not assured I believe most people have no confidence I don't know where you are but I want you to understand something when the Lord pursues with salvation there's a time you awake to it and the spirit bears witness with your spirit that you're a son. And you know it. I mean, you know it. The persistent, continual, relentless pursuit of God after you and how He has continued to bless you does nothing but overwhelm you and tell you you're a son. Through all of the struggle and hardship and pain of his own stupid choices, after the fog begins to lift, there's a realization that God is with you and that he never left you. And the whole way through, he preserved and blessed and kept and strengthened. And this morning, that's what's set in front of you. This morning is the relentless pursuit of jacob by god and after finally after all of these years he sees it he sees it do you i want you to study with me for a moment what it looks like this morning when the light goes on in someone's life because i'm going to say this later you could be here in this church and be, for years, you could be a long-standing church member and you can be absolutely dead spiritually. Dead. So, in this passage, I did my three-pointer this week. Here's what I come up with. Jacob's conflict, Jacob's cry, and Jacob's call home. Jacob's conflict, his cry, and the call home. Last week, we opened up Genesis and we looked at the birth wars that were going on. And at this point, 11 of the 12 sons have been born to him out in Haran. And Benjamin would soon come, which would make these 12 tribes of Israel. As we open up chapter 31, what we have here in this next section is a massive conflict between Laban and Jacob. Jacob comes to Laban and it's time. Something's happening in Jacob. It's time. He wants to go home. He wants to be released. It is time to go home. He's worked for him now 14 years under a great scheme. And by the time this episode is all done, it will have been 20 years serving this man of his life. the agreement was up so he comes to as soon as joseph's born you'll notice that he comes to laban and he says send me away that i may go to my own home and my own country give me my wives and my children for whom i've served you that i may go for you know the service that i have given you you say well why doesn't he just leave and here's where i think this is really important for us to understand he can't he cannot leave jacob has now come to realize something when laban originally hired jacob the status had changed jacob became a servant and you hear that in jacob demanding what that he release his children why why is that so important Well, throughout the ancient Near East, when children were born in servitude, they were the property of the master. Who's the master? It's Laban. The children of Israel are owned by Laban. In fact, that's exactly what Laban says when he comes on hot pursuit. They're mine. They're mine. Laban knew what he was doing. Laban was prospering greatly from Jacob, and he holds Jacob in bondage. He says in verse 28 that the Lord has blessed me for your sake, Jacob. He's riding on the coattails of this man, and he, by divination, doing his divination, his magic, he saw, I am receiving all of this. So he wants to work a deal with Jacob. he begins to work a deal to keep him and hold him in the servitude. And so in what follows may seem to be a strange kind of scene. It is strange. As you read through this, you know, I looked at this first off and I thought, what an odd scene in the book of Genesis. Why does God put all this detail with this odd scene of dealing with speckled and spotted sheep? I mean, notice this. Here's the deal. Jacob says, okay, let me pass Laban through your flocks, removing from there all of the speckled and spotted sheep and all the brown ones among the lambs, the spotted and speckled among the goats, and that'll be my wages. And look, Laban, if there is found in any of my flocks one that is not spotted and speckled and brown, it will be considered stolen. i even think you got to be kidding me i mean that's just too good to be true i i get the prime rib are you kidding yeah good let it be as you have said jacob gets a little bit in this whole deal i want everyone to look carefully at verse 34 good let it be as you have said but that day remove the male goats that were striped and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, everyone that had white on it and every lamb that was on its back and he put them in charge of his sons and then he runs and gives three days space between them. What a dog. I mean, did you see what he just did? He cuts the deal and then immediately he runs out and takes what was Jacob's. And he gives them to his sons and takes three days so that Jacob won't even know. Now this is crafty, this is cruel, this is scheming at its best and Jacob returns the favor. Jacob then falls back into his old ways, doesn't he? And he takes rods of green poplar, almond, chestnut trees and peels away the strips and he puts them in the gutters of the water troughs where the flocks drink now the notion was when you did this you put these peels before the animals when they're in heat it's going to produce a whole bunch of streaked and speckled and spotted animals i mean it's fascinating because if the last chapter the wives are using love potions now jacob is using some kind of potion with the animals you know you know if you stand back from the life of jacob this whole run to haran has been awful hasn't it 20 years 20 years of your life are spent in bondage and slavery and if you look at what's happened here. He's been continually cheated. And now, after all of this deceit, after all of this bondage, Laban comes and takes away everything from him. You know, you look at Jacob and you try to think about somebody like this in modern day life. And what do you come up with with somebody like this? You know what you kind of feel about a Jacob in this life? I've met Jacobs in this life. They're just hard and they run and do whatever they want to do and they don't seem to care and they get involved in nothing but problems and conflicts and the life is raised in the church, it could be, and the life is just dead. You know, you stand back from this and you see the life mess up and spiral out of control and you start to think, man, the guy is getting what he deserves. Don't you? You know, we consider that the guy pulled a scheme on his own dad and his dying blind dad, and then, you know, he steals the birthright from his own brother. His whole life has been nothing but deceptive. And I think it's easy for us to stand back and look at Jacob and look at people like this and say, ah, they're getting what they deserve. You know? His home is in shambles. And now he's being ripped off outside of the land. Everything's being taken from him. What do you say of somebody who's living in darkness? Well, I've heard it. I've said it. You know, to wake up, they've got to hit rock bottom. I'm careful with that now. You know, rock bottom, I've seen people hit that. And I've seen people die at rock bottom. when people destroy their lives in front of you it's one of the worst things to see when they run and they do what they want to do if you've ever seen anyone wreck their life with alcohol or with drug use and you watch it just spin down out of control i mean i've said this before all the people at the rescue missions who are in that and who are at least open and honest about it all the first thing they'll tell you is they want to get out they can't one of the worst things that I've seen is that when people are looking for an answer in the midst of the downward spiral and they never come to the right answer, you know, they're always clinging to something new. They're jumping from here to here to here to here just to get on some kind of track that will make it go okay until somebody comes along and takes advantage of them. And the situation that they're in now is worse than the last situation. And further and further and further, they're driven into the bondage. Have you seen this play out in people's lives? I don't know how many times in the ministry I've seen it. And things actually go from worse to worse. You might stand back from this and, you know, if you've ever been crossed by somebody like this or taken advantage of somebody like this, you think, well, they're just getting what they deserve. And maybe we're a bit satisfied with that. Here's what moves me this morning. The Lord's not satisfied with that. He's not happy about any of this. This is not a game to Him. Our lives are not a game to Him. What's He been doing the whole time? What has the Lord been doing the whole time? In all of His running, in all of His being taken advantage of. Jacob ultimately was schemed into having two wives. What did the Lord do last time? Steps into this and cleans up his house. These two women in his house, you had the imagery of last time, they're greatly distressed. They're full of sorrow. Talk about a sermon for mothers today, full of sorrow, full of distress and hardship, and they are really worked up. And you see the Lord's powerful intervention into the course of events and into the scene with unloved Leah. And by the time that scene is done, the Lord had loved her so much, she's satisfied in praising God, holding six children, and then the ones to her maid. and by the time he was done with rachel he gives her joseph and she's publicly saying my reproach is gone the lord's taken it talk about a cleanup talk about the lord intervening and turning sadness and sorrow into joy here's jacob all of his life he's been running all of his life he's been doing whatever he wants all of his life. He's been wrecking his life and he keeps spiraling down and down and down. And I'd say you're about at rock bottom. And what happens in verse 41? Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks and the troughs before the eyes of the flock that they might breed among the sticks. But for the feebler of the flock, he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Listen to verse 43. Thus, the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants and camels and donkeys. What's going on here? The peels didn't do it. Love apples didn't do it. You all know that, right? Behind all of this is the Lord intervening into these people's lives and taking this life that is a wreck and a mess and pursuing His own will and turning the whole thing constantly into blessing and grace over and over and over and over. Do you understand grace yet? Have you begun to comprehend it? Do you know how zealous the Lord is for His people? Maybe that's the question. You think about how zealous the Lord is for his people. You know, an angel came down one day and told one of the prophets to declare to Jerusalem this. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. If you were to calculate your life and how much time you spent on yourself doing your own will, wrecking it. I have often pondered the question in my own life, where would I be today if God had let me go? I've said that a few times from this pulpit, but I ponder that a lot. I think about it. In the pain of it, the whole life in darkness, blindness and unbelief, Jacob has shown no interest in this God. And if you have done that, and you can say, well, I'd be scary to tally my life and look at that. What have you pursued? Let's say it's sexual morality. Do you know what He kept you from? You're here today. The consequences may come. We're never exempt from the consequences of sins. The Lord uses that to train us and instruct us, and He's doing that with Jacob. But ultimately, He's kept you. You know what aggravates Him more than what you will ever understand? It's the injustice upon His elect. A life that has treated Him this way in Jacob, the Lord is showing you that. I am thoroughly agitated. with injustice against my elect. Jesus would give a whole parable on this of a little old woman who was being abused by somebody crying out for justice and God says, do you not think I will avenge my elect speedily? Every little injustice going on in this sad world against his people, that maybe you've lived and experienced that's happening to your brothers and sisters around the world right now where knives are being put to their throats. He is intervening, promising that in the end He will turn the whole thing for your blessing, that He'll preserve you and that He won't let your foot be moved. And He's absolutely relentless in it. Why have we heard this over and over? Well, at some point, Why am I feeling like a broken record here stuck on this same truth over and over and over and over? At some point, that has to get us. At some point, at some point, the light has to go on. You've got to get out of your deadness. This relentless pursuit begins to take over your thoughts. It begins to take over your life. And the most pleasant place to be is back at Bethel to worship God, isn't it? You want to go back. And that's what you begin to see in this man. It's just remarkable. I can't get over how good this God has been to him in the midst of all this. And it is that attribute of God. It's that attribute of God that keeps shining in this text that I think has overtaken Jacob. It's his goodness. Why does God keep being like this to me? And I want you to notice now how Jacob's speaking for the first time. He goes to his wives and he explains all this to them. And for the first time, he starts bearing witness. I mean, it's really remarkable. He bears witness of the truth of God's presence and grace and sustaining power. Leah and Rachel, your father has deceived me. Verse 11. But here's what's happened to me. This is in chapter 31. The angel of the Lord spoke to me. He came to me in a dream saying, I have seen what Laban's doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred. And at this point, what you have is a release that takes place because Leah and Rachel agree of coming out of their father's house who has broken the law of a father in their country. Jacob's being set free. That set freeing is being acknowledged. But don't miss what's happening to him. Don't miss what's happening to Jacob. He's been a schemer the whole time. You have love apples, you have poplar rods, you have all this stuff. And now verse 4, he's saying what? God has been with me. God didn't allow Laban to hurt me. Verse 9, God took away the livestock of your father and has given it to me. God vowed he would be the God at Bethel. He has always been with me. He's being one. he's being one behold i am with you remember what he said he says it here and will keep you wherever you go and i will bring you back to the land that blessing and that understanding had so won him i want everyone to look over in the next chapter to see what a man who is grasping this and the light is going on in life what it begins to look like, I want you to look at verse 32, verse 9. The first prayer from Jacob like this we get. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good. There it is. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you've shown to your servant. Wow. You want to know whether you're a Christian this morning? Oh, you could have been raised in this all your life and not be. Here's a broken and contrite heart. It came. We could be apathetic to the things of Christ. You could be going through a cultural club. You could do that. Israel had that problem. But here's when you know the delivering hand of God has come upon you to bring you out. There's an overwhelming recognition and assurance that Christ's love has been with you because for the first time in your life you see it and what do you see you see how unworthy you are evidenced by how you've treated him the whole way and that the whole way he has pursued you he's loved you and the only thing that comes out of your mouth is lord god of my father abraham you made a promise made a covenant that you would bring salvation. I'm not worthy of anything that you've done. None of it. And yet you've continually shown it. That's what I've known. That's what I've experienced. That's what I've received. And you see, when there's a realization of that, Do you know what He's doing? He's calling you out by name. We haven't heard from the Lord in this whole mess. But you do in this chapter for the first time in a long time. Verse 3. As the conflict reached its height, God speaks. Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return the land of your fathers into your kindred and I will be with you. Bondage is over. I'm shattering it, Jacob. It's time to go. It's time to go. The time of your exodus has come. Return. I am with you. It's the same words at Bethel. I will be with you wherever you go. What's amazing here is that the call comes in the height of the turmoil and the height of the conflict and the height of the bondage. God breaks it. So then in verses 17 and 18, Jacob arises and sets his sons and wives on camels and drove away all his livestock and all his property that he had gained, the livestock and possession that he had acquired in Padana Ram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. He packs up and he leaves. What an exodus. All the flocks, all the children of Israel. But Rachel tucks away the household idols. Have you put all this together yet? do you see what this is? Jacob came to Pharaoh and said, let me go. That's the old translation. We should retain it. Let me go. And the bondage increases. In the midst of it, Jacob keeps getting blessed by God. He keeps getting stronger and stronger and stronger. God told us this would happen. He told Abraham when he made the covenant of grace, no, certainly your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for 400 years, and the nation whom they serve I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. Well, you've got that whole story playing out here in the life of Jacob. Israel should have looked at this and known what God would do. Do you know the entire Old Testament, this is the heart of the story. This is the heart of your Bible right here. Old Testament telling us this story over and over and over and over. That's why I picked the psalm. Why is it telling us this story? Why did the psalm sing about this story? Well, God is now publishing this story in the life of Jacob. Here he is in bondage to a cruel man. He's a slave who won't release him. Israel would go down to Egypt and would be oppressed and a new Pharaoh would rise over them who didn't know joseph and he would inflict on them hard bondage come let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with burdens and it kept increasing and increasing and yet what happened exodus won the whole time but the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew god was with them and they were in dread of the children of Israel. Moses comes before Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord. This is the Lord's statement. Let my people go. Jacob comes to Laban. Let me go. God says, go. It's over. The time of your exodus has come. It's fascinating because in verse 21, he arises and he goes and he comes to where? the river. And then next week, you're going to see as he's crossing the river, guess who comes in hot pursuit after him? Laban. That's Pharaoh. This is not just nice stories, are they, boys and girls? The Exodus story is not just a story for Israel. Whatever the Exodus story meant for Israel, God's telling you it meant for Jacob. And if you want to press that, whatever the Exodus story meant for Jacob, it meant for Abraham because Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans to a land that God would show him. And you see, in closing today, I want to summarize this so you get it. We've been studying a man who's been running all of his life, who is at enmity with God and his neighbor, whose choices in life were reckless, destructive, and he lands up in a land of a cruel master who holds him in bondage, who uses him, who ultimately would want to destroy him. Well, that's your story. From the beginning, you ran from this God, and out of the Garden of Eden, you went, and you were held by the prince of the power of the air who holds you in hard bondage, Satan. He works in the sons of disobedience. But at some point, God dropped a ladder and he sent his son to you. This God who is rich in mercy said, I'm going to be with you wherever you go. I'm not letting you go all alone. And at some point, he brought you out. He freed you from the tyranny of what? What did we say in the Heidelberg? He freed you from the tyranny of the devil, and he forgave your sin. Now, all of a sudden, the light went on. You were born again, right? You had life given to you, and you realized, for the first time, I'm not worthy of any of this. A great conviction came over you, and he never left. That's what you realize. He always protected. He always loved. and the light went on and the story of Jacob and Laban, Israel and Pharaoh is the central story of the Bible. It's the story of Christ, the cross and freeing you. You see, he shattered the devil's dominion. He crushed him. That devil's going into the Red Sea like a fire. And He brought you out. At some point that call came, come out, come to me, come. With me there's freedom. With me there's joy. With me I give you blessing. With me there's life. And you know you've come out when you, like Jacob, realize what you deserve and what you received instead. Well, once you come out, we'll look at next week, the rest of your life will be a fight against the idols of your past because you still cling. Israel will hold up one on the mountain. God's committed to take it down in your life. I close and ask then, have you returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls? Maybe that call is really personal for you today because you just show no life. You'll gladly watch television tonight while God's people meet. And it won't bother you. Come out. You've spent enough of your own lifetime doing the will of the who? Gentiles. I've been with you, says the Lord. Come out. Be separate. And I'll be a father to you. And you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty. Let's pray. O Lord our God, we bow the head and ask for forgiveness, saying with Jacob that we're not worthy of the least of the mercies you've shown, but you've loved us. You've been with us. And how you protect and love your elect. And today that has gotten a hold of me as a pastor. I pray that it's gotten hold of everyone here that you have saved a people to yourself and been strong in their lives when we have been weak. All glory is to you. Thank you for being so relentless. Thank you for grace that amazes us. Thank you for persevering love. Thank you for bringing us home. Now, O Lord, keep us from idols. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.