Genesis chapter 31, and we will
read from verse one. And he, that is Jacob, heard
the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that
was our father's, and of that which was our father's hath he
gotten all this glory. And Jacob beheld the countenance
of Laban, and behold, it was not toward him as before. And the Lord said unto Jacob,
Return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred, and I will
be with thee. And Jacob sent and called Rachel
and Leah to the field unto his flock, and said unto them, I
see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before,
but the God of my father hath been with me. And ye know that
with all my power I have served your father, and your father
hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God suffered
him not to hurt me. If he said thus, the speckled
shall be thy wages, then all the cattle bear speckled. And
if he said thus, the ringstraight shall be thy hire, then bear
all the cattle ringstraight. Thus God hath taken away the
cattle of your father and given them to me. And it came to pass,
at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and
saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle
were ringed straight, speckled, and chrysaled. And the angel
of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob. And I said, Here
am I. And he said, Lift up now thine
eyes, and see. All the rams which leap upon
the cattle are ring-straight, speckled, and grizzled, for I
have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God of Bethel,
where thou anointest the pillar, and where thou vowedest a vow
unto me. Now arise, get thee out of this
land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.' And Rachel and
Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance
for us in our father's house? Are we not counted of him strangers? For he hath sold us and hath
quite devoured also our money. For all the riches which God
hath taken from our father that is ours and our children's, now
then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do. Then Jacob rose
up and set his sons and wives upon camels, and he carried away
all his cattle and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle
of his getting which he had gotten in Paddan Aram, for to go to
Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. And Laban went to
shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the images that were her
father's. And Jacob stole away unawares
to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled. So he fled with all that he had,
and he rose up and passed over the river and set his face toward
the Mount Gilead. And it was told Laban on the
third day that Jacob was fled. And he took his brethren with
him and pursued after him seven days' journey, and they overtook
him in the Mount Gilead. And God came to Laban the Syrian
in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou
speak not to Jacob either good or bad. Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent
in the mount, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount
of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, What
hast thou done that thou hast stolen away unawares to me and
carried away my daughters as captives taken with the sword. Wherefore didst thou flee away
secretly and steal away from me, and didst not tell me that
I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret
and with harp? And hast not suffered me to kiss
my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly
in so doing. It is in the power of my hand
to do you hurt. But the God of your father spake
unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed, that thou speak
not to Jacob, either good or bad. And now though thou wouldst
needs be gone, because thou sore longest after thy father's house,
yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? And Jacob answered and
said to Laban, Because I was afraid, for I said, Peradventure
thou wouldst take by force thy daughters from me. With whomsoever
thou findest thy gods, let him not live. Before our brethren
discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel
had stolen them. And Laban went unto Jacob's tent,
and unto Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents,
but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent
and entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the images
and put them in the camel's furniture and sat upon them. And Laban
searched all the tent and found them not. And she said to her
father, Let it not displease my Lord that I cannot rise up
before thee, for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched
but found not the images. Amen, may the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. It's a slightly longer reading
but I wanted to take in quite a bit of the story today so thank
you for your patience. When Jacob left his home in Canaan. After deceiving his father Isaac
in order to obtain the blessing intended for his brother Esau,
his mother, Rebekah, told him this. She said, 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. We read those words previously
in Genesis chapter 27. She told him to tarry with Laban
a few days. That was 20 years ago. The few days had become a long,
long time. Those 20 years comprised seven
years working for Rachel, whom Jacob loved, only for Laban to
trick Jacob into marrying Leah, Rachel's sister. Jacob then spent
another seven years working for Rachel and then as we heard before,
six years during which Jacob's wealth grew greatly. God blessed Jacob with great
flocks of spotted and striped and ring-striped and speckled
and grizzled sheep and cattle and goats, and his wealth grew. During that time, or at least
the latter part of those 20 years, Twelve children were born to
Jacob. Eleven boys and a girl. And now Jacob knew that it was
time to leave Haran and Laban after 20 years. Three things
brought Jacob to this position. Three things happened that made
Jacob realise it was time to leave. The first thing I want
us to note is that the circumstances changed because Jacob heard Laban's
sons complaining of Jacob's wealth and accusing Jacob of stealing
it from their father, which was simply not true. And he also
felt that Laban's attitude towards him had changed. And he began
to wonder if he was welcome there anymore. Indeed, he began to
wonder if his family were safe. So that's the first thing. The
circumstances changed for Jacob, and he was aware of this growing
displeasure and indeed anger at him. The second thing that
happened was that Jacob was reminded of God's promise because the
Lord came and told Jacob in a dream that it was time to leave and
return home to Canaan because that was the land of promise. So we read in verse 13 that the
Lord says, I am the God of Bethel where thou anointed the pillar
and where thou vowest a vow unto me. Now arise and get thee out
of this land and return unto the land of thy kindred. So that
was the second thing. The first thing was that Jacob's
circumstances changed. The second thing was that the
Lord revealed to him or reminded him of the promise that was made
of the land. The third thing that happened
is that Jacob spoke to Rachel and Leah and he told them what
was in his mind and they confirmed his views. Jacob had a big decision to make
after 20 years. He was going to leave what had
been his home for those 20 years and return back to a land that
had changed. He didn't know perhaps what was
happening in his family and he wasn't sure how his brother would
react to him. It was a big decision. And for
the rest of the time that we have available, I just want to
mention some things about that. especially keeping in mind some
of the younger people that we have listening. Sometimes we
have decisions to make and sometimes we wonder what we should do. And our decision might be something
like, will we go to school? What job will we have? Where will we live? Who will
we marry? Sometimes they're big decisions
like that, or sometimes they're small decisions like, where will
I go with my friends? Who will be my friends? What
will I do with my friends? How will I pass my time? We often, if you're anything
like me, we often wish that the Lord would tell us what to do. both with the big decisions and
with the little decisions of life. And we think to ourselves,
why can't I get a word from the Lord to help me to make up these
decisions that I've got? in the way that God spoke to
Jacob or Moses or Paul because it would be so much easier to
know that I was doing the right thing if the Lord would just
tell me what it was that I was supposed to do the way he used
to tell these other people. But I want us to notice three
things about the way in which Jacob came to his decision. There
were three things affected Jacob's decision. His feelings, God's
word, and his trusted friends. And these three things came together
to guide Jacob's path. And I want us to apply that to
ourselves today. Jacob sensed, he had a feeling
that things were not right. Because he heard mumblings in
the background, he heard these sons of Laban talking. He discerned
in Laban's attitude towards him that things were not as they
once were. And so he had a feeling that
change needed to be made. And the Lord confirmed that with
that word of direction, that reminder of the promises that
God had made to Jacob and Jacob had made to God. And these two
things came together. So that over a period of time,
an impression was laid upon Jacob's mind that the way ahead required
change and alteration. The Lord had given Jacob wisdom
and intelligence and a need that he realised something was about
to change. And he gave him an opportunity
and he gave him a word of direction. And that was how he directed
Jacob as to what he was to do. And that is still how the Lord
directs his people in how we are to live and how we are to
make our decisions, big decisions and small decisions. Let me give
you an example. Supposing that you're planning
to do some studying and go to school or go to college or go
to university, but you don't know where to go. How could you
know? How do you decide about something
like that? How do you decide about where
you go to? Well, what do you feel? You think about your feelings. You think about your knowledge,
the wisdom that God has given you, the facts that appertain
to the situation before you. And you think about all those
things. And that thinking includes what
God has taught you. Not by a voice from heaven or
a dream like it was with Jacob because God doesn't speak like
that today. He speaks through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He speaks in the gospel. He speaks
through the Bible. He speaks by his preachers and
he gives us the principles upon which we are to make our decisions
and follow our paths. The preacher or the Bible is
not going to say to you that you have to go to this particular
college or that you have to marry that particular person or that
you have to study this particular course or take that new job.
but the Holy Spirit will open the Word of God to us and allow
us to test our feelings and our desires by what we know to be
right and good and helpful, so that our decision is made by
considering the circumstances of our lives, the gospel principles
that the Lord has given us, And also, do you remember Rachel
and Leah and how Jacob called them and explained to them the
situation? We also share these things with
the people that we trust and those who love us and care for
us. And those three things that happened
in Jacob's life are the same that direct his people today. So then, what did Jacob do? He left Haran. He quickly gathered
his family, his flocks, his goods, and he left, doing so with the
protection and the help and the blessing of God. But I want to
ask you a question. What if he hadn't left? What
if Jacob had not left? at that time. Though he heard
the boys speaking against him, though he remembered the promises
of God, and though his wives said to him, yes, this is a good
time to go, we're with you, let's go. What if Jacob had said, I'm
going to wait a while yet. Would God have been angry with
him? Would terrible things have happened
to him and to his family? No, no, because God would still
love Jacob. God would still protect Jacob
and God would still bless Jacob because Jacob had the promises
of God given to him. And all that would have happened
is that God by another means would have brought about the
same ends as he had promised and he had willed. Do you understand
what I'm saying here? We often make poor decisions
and we often make wrong turns in life. And we often look at
the things that are going on around about us and our circumstances
and our situations and think we need to make a change, we
need to do something and we end up making poor decisions and
wrong decisions. But God's will and God's purpose
never misses a step. God's purpose is always fulfilled
and God's love is always on his people. even when we make poor
decisions and even when we get things wrong. God leads us and
teaches us and brings us by the paths that he has ordained to
the place that he has promised. So in some senses, the question
is not what shall I do, but whose am I? Do we trust the Lord? Do we depend upon Him? Do we
see that the decisions that we have to make and the questions
that we have to answer are to be made in the light of His direction
and His teaching? And then He will take the responsibility
of looking after us and keeping us safe and accomplishing the
things that He has promised for our good. When we trust in the
Lord, he will help us, no matter which school we choose to attend
and which path we choose to take. Even our mistakes work together
for our good. The wise man Solomon said in
Proverbs chapter three, verse six, in all thy ways acknowledge
him. and he shall direct thy paths. May we acknowledge the Lord and
he will direct our paths and help us with our decisions. Amen.