My agenda for the past few months has been to show that there is no contradiction in Paul telling the Ephesian elders that he had declared to them the whole counsel of God but telling the Corinthians that he determined to know nothing among them except Christ crucified. The reason there is no contradiction here is because the “whole counsel of God” (i.e. all of Scripture) speaks of Christ and God’s plan of redemption that comes through him. Thus, all of the Old Testament is telling us of the one who is to come – Jesus.
The interesting thing, however, is that we get to see who Jesus is through many different angles and perspectives. As we look from this perspective or that, we find that Jesus is the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, etc. Jesus fulfills all of these dynamic prophecies himself.
We also get to see this fulfillment from different perspectives through the patriarchs. The story of Abraham focuses on the promise of blessing through his seed. This promise highlights who Christ is, for Matthew 1:1 announces that Jesus is the seed of Abraham. We will get to see another perspective as to who Christ is as we turn to the life of Jacob this morning.
Isaac and Rebekah are given a promise in Genesis 25:19-26 that Jacob will be the blessed son; he will be the one through whom the Messiah will come. I point this out for two reasons: 1) I want us simply to recognize that there is a specific line through which Jesus would come, and 2) I want us to recognize the grace of God in doing this. I’ll show you what I mean.
If we’ve read this book closely, then we’ve noticed that with God’s blessed line, there has always been one held up as if to say, “The blessing is not coming through this one.” Thus we see the blessing come to Seth and not Cain, Shem and not Ham, Isaac and not Ishmael, and now Jacob and not Esau. Why does God do this? Why do we always have to see this contrast?
I think the reason God does this is to highlight his mercy. Genesis 12 does not fit in with what’s happened in the first eleven chapters. Man is shown to be evil and God has poured out judgment. The curse was given in the garden, the flood came, and men were confused and scattered at Babel. Man has only merited God’s wrath by his evil sinful nature. And Abraham’s family was no different (Joshua 24:2). However, God blesses Abraham with his goodness when all Abraham had merited is his wrath. This is grace.
Therefore, the reason I think God always allows us to see the contrast in these individuals is to remind us that we all deserve judgment, but he is giving mercy. He is showing that mercy is not merited and shouldn’t be expected. The contrast of these individuals throughout Genesis should serve as a constant reminder of God’s grace in light of what we have merited – his wrath.
So remember this morning that all we’ve merited is God’s judgment, and if we’ve tasted his grace, then it is exactly that – grace. We have no right to salvation; our only right is to judgment. O may he always remind us of His grace!
However, in that, we see that Jacob receives great grace from God, and it is through his line that the unfolding plan of redemption will come.
God’s power is so great that he is constantly allowing obstacles to fall in way of his plan throughout all of Scripture that he might then display his might in spite of them. He does this when Abel is killed by providing Seth, when people are scattered at Babel by gathering, in his son, one people from every language, when the Israelites are backed into the Red Sea that he might part the waters, when David (the little shepherd boy) becomes king and God’s glory shines as David slays Israel’s enemy’s (e.g. Goliath), when he dwindles Gideon’s army to 300 so he might show his power in defeating the opposing army, when he chose uneducated men as disciples so that individuals might recognize that their wisdom comes from Christ (Acts 4:13), and when persecution breaks out in the early church so that they might fulfill the commission given to them (Acts 1:8; 8:1, and 8:4). The list could go on and on, but the point is that God allows these obstacles and chooses these obstacles to show his great might in situation after situation so that he alone gets the glory.
The same is true by allowing the Messiah to come through Jacob. God chooses Abraham who is 100 and has a 90 year-old barren wife to birth Isaac through whom the Messiah would come. But Sarah is not the only one that is said to be barren (at one point or another) in this line. Rebekah is said to be barren before Jacob and Esau are born (25:21). Thus, we see clearly that this is the work of God. But there is another obstacle in the story of Jacob.
God had promised in Genesis 25 that the blessing would come to Jacob and not Esau. And, in fact, Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob in 25:26-34. However, Isaac still wants his first-born son, Esau, to be the one to receive the blessing. Therefore, in Genesis 27 we read of Isaac calling only Esau to the ceremony where he hopes to bless him. This is wrong on two fronts. First of all, both of the sons should have been there, while only Esau was. And secondly, the ceremony of blessing was kept secret when it required witnesses. Finally, by planning this, Isaac was ignoring the prophecy given in Genesis 25 as well as the sale of the birthright that Esau had made to Jacob.
Thus, it is obvious that Isaac knows that he is going against the Lord’s plan and prophecy. But does Esau get blessed? No. Instead, Isaac ends up blessing Jacob who had crept in and deceived Isaac into thinking he was Esau. And with that, though Isaac wanted something different, we see that God’s plan cannot be thwarted. No one can stop his plan.1
Therefore, be comforted today that God’s plans for your life will not be thwarted as he has even promised to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28).
This is the heart of what we need to see from the life of Jacob and the promises repeated to him, those promises first given to Abraham.
With Abraham (as aforementioned) his focus had been on the promise of and blessing through the seed. With Jacob, the focus is on God’s promise to be his God and to bless him with his presence. For example, in the dream Jacob has in Genesis 28, he awakes, having heard the same covenant promises that Abraham had heard. And the text says, “And he called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God’” (28:19-21). Do you see how his focus is on the promise of God being his God and blessing him with his presence?
We encounter the same thing the night before he meets Esau in Genesis 32. He wrestles with a man that he later identifies as God himself. But after fighting, his request is to be blessed of God; and in Hebrew thought this means with his presence. Thus, Jacob’s life quest was to be blessed with the presence of God.
Why was this the case?
I think this question is answered by looking at Abraham. Why had he focused on the promise of a seed? Obviously, it was because that was something he couldn’t do on his own. He was old; he needed God’s help. In the same way, Jacob was always scheming; he was seemingly insecure. Though it had been promised that he would be blessed, he always felt the need to try to make it happen himself, whether it meant scheming Esau, Isaac, or Laban.
Therefore, he never lived with the peace of God’s blessing (at least in his own mind). He never felt he could rest. He lived his whole life in fear. In the dream, he is worried about making it back to the place where he was. Before the fight, he is worried about what Esau will do to him. He longed to know that God would be his God, would bless him with his presence, and would let his glory show in his life. He was desperate for this.
It is this promise of blessing, presence, and glory that we can then trace through the Scriptures and, ultimately, find in Christ.
In Exodus 33, the Israelites had been told that God’s presence would dwell in the tabernacle in the midst of the camp. However, they had worshipped the golden calf, and now God was telling them that his presence would not be in the midst of the camp; for if he was there, he would kill them. Therefore, Moses intercedes and cries out for God’s presence and to see his glory. He prays, “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us, so that we, I and your people, may be distinguished form all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” (33:16). This is the same cry that Jacob had made that night he fought with the stranger. And when the tabernacle is constructed, it is in the midst of the camp. However, this longing for God’s presence and glory continues.
Ultimately, the temple replaces the tabernacle as a more permanent structure for God’s presence and glory to dwell. And Solomon, not David, builds it. The reason that David cannot build the temple is because his hands had shed much blood in war (1 Chronicles 28:3). Thus, Solomon (a king who ruled in peace) would build the temple (1 Kings 4:24). And when he dedicates the temple, God’s glory fills it so thick that the priests cannot minister there (1 Kings 8:10-11). It’s not that David was evil in that he was been in constant war; it was simply showing that the one who would ultimately bring the presence of God to the people would not be a king who would need to fight, but one with so much power that he did not have to. And another would have to come, for eventually the temple would be destroyed. But who?
Again, the answer is found in Matthew 1:1 as Jesus is declared the son of David. He is the king greater than David and Solomon.
But are we right to think he ushers in God’s blessed presence and glory? Yes, for John 1:14-18, John writes, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (lit. “tabernacled”) among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth … For of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.” Therefore, it is clear that Christ brings the blessing of God’s presence and glory even more so than the temple had done. In fact, Jesus refers to himself as the temple (John 2:19), signifying that he was bringing God’s presence and glory to the people. Ultimately, God’s glory would shine most clearly in the cross (John 13:31).
Finally, as God pours out the Holy Spirit on his children, Paul can tell us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). This is greater than any blessing Jacob could have ever imagined. We are at a most blessed time in all of history.
What does the New Creation promise for us from the perspective of Jacob’s longing?
The New Covenant promises God’s presence richer than we could ever imagined. Meditate on the promises for which we wait from Revelation 21:1-3 and 22:1-4. John writes,
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, And God Himself shall be among them’ … And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his bondservants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.”
We await this ultimate end of the story (that is itself a beginning), its assurance attained in the cross and resurrection.
What should we do in light of this?
1) Trust God, living by faith – remember, his plans cannot be thwarted so trust him and walk obedient to his commands.
2) Realize that the blessings of his hand are gifts that must be fought for. Therefore, tomorrow morning if you wake up and your heart is not racing to dwell before him in prayer and in study of the word, ask God to give you more joy and love for the things of God, for they are gifts. But also, like Jacob, fight with everything that is in you to find joy in him and love for him, constantly.
3) Finally, live in light of the promise of the New Covenant. As I said last week, let your hold to this world be loose and let sin appear to you as passing and shallow as it truly is.
Bless the Lord for the presence of Christ and of his Spirit within us! Amen.