Before we turn to Genesis chapter
31, I want you to look at Romans 15 with me for a moment. Romans
chapter 15. Look at verse 4. For whatever
things were formerly written, and that's speaking of the Old
Testament, were written, recorded for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Three words
stick out there to me, patience, comfort, and hope. Now, we know
that the only scriptures that the apostles had, the people
in our Lord's day had, was the Old Testament scriptures. That
was the Bible to them at that time. If they were to teach and
learn from the scriptures. It would be those Old Testament
scrolls. And Paul here tells the church
at Rome that the things that were formerly written were written
for their learning, for their instruction. That's what that
word means. They're written for our learning
too. That's why we study the Old Testament scriptures. These
things were written so that believers might be instructed by God. Genesis chapter 31. where we're
at tonight, was written that the elect of God through patience
and comfort might find hope in what God has recorded in those
verses before us tonight. I want you to find hope in our
study tonight. The scriptures were written that
we might know what to hope for from our God. We hope for forgiveness,
don't we? We hope for redemption. The scriptures
were written that we might know upon what grounds to find this
hope. How are we gonna find this hope?
Only one way, in Christ and in Christ alone. The scriptures
were written that we might know in what way to find our hope. The Holy Scriptures become a
special friend to the child of God. God's word is special to
those who find hope in its pages. Christ is the living word in
whom we find hope. And the way of attaining this
blessed hope of redemption, Paul says, is through patience and
comfort of the scriptures. I was thinking this afternoon
about how patience and comfort suggest or implies trouble and
sorrow. We are most impatient, aren't
we? We're impatient people, especially
in times of trouble. We need patience in our trouble. Whatever our trouble is, we want
it to be gone. And we want it to be gone quickly,
as soon as possible, ASAP. But that may not be God's will.
And most of the time, it's not. Trouble often brings with it
sorrow, and I need comfort the most when I have the greatest
sorrow. What a blessing to learn that
trouble sent from the Lord is a good thing for the believer.
Have you learned that yet? Still learning. I'm still learning. Look back at chapter five of
Romans. Paul says in verse 3, but we
glory in tribulations also. Knowing the tribulation works
patience, and patience works experience, and experience works
hope. which maketh not ashamed. How
do troubles and tribulations work patience, experience, and
openness? Verse five, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given
to us. You see, in times of trouble and sorrow, we learn something
of God's love for us. Paul states that we experience
his love. Patience works experience. If
we patiently endure the trouble God sends us, if we find the
comfort for our sorrow through the scriptures, then experience
will teach us that we can trust in the blessed fact that in Christ
God is going to do us some eternal good in our trouble. That comes
by experience. I'm still learning that. This
kind of experience taught by trouble is usually a long time
coming. No wonder David said, it's good for me that I've been
afflicted that I might learn the statues. And in our affliction,
God teaches his elect some things. The stories, the events, the
lives of those that we have been studying in the book of Genesis
were written and recorded by Moses for our learning. Paul
said that we might do patience. Oh Lord, teach us patience. I need patience. Especially in
trouble. Paul said that we might, through
the comfort of the things that we read and study and consider
in his Word, in the Old Testament Scriptures, we might find hope.
I need hope. And when I see how God patiently
and mercifully and graciously dealt with Adam and Noah and
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, I find great hope that he might
also be merciful and gracious to me. Yet there are some who are ever
learning, Paul said, and never come to the knowledge of the
truth. And many see the Old Testament scripture strictly as a history
book. I can assure you it's much, much
more than that. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded to them and all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself. The Old Testament's about Christ.
We know that, and we've seen that. But let me also give you
a word of caution when studying the Old Testament scriptures.
I'm sure that most of you, it's no surprise to you that I love
Old Testament pictures and types of Christ. I really do love them. We've seen many beautiful pictures
of Christ throughout the book of Genesis. We see Christ in
many ways in the creation. We see Christ in the skins that
covered Adam and Eve after they sinned, picturing Christ's perfect
righteousness. We see Christ in the blood sacrifice
of Abel. It's the only sacrifice that
God would accept. We see Christ in the Ark of Noah.
And we see Christ in that lamb caught by the horns in the thicket
that took Isaac's place upon Mount Moriah. We see types, though
none perfect, of our Lord in the person and work and faith
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And there are more to come in
our studies like we'll see in Joseph. Beautiful pictures of
Christ. And I'm telling you, I love them
all. I really do. But a word of caution, we have
to be careful not to love the pictures more than the one they
picture. Teresa and I have a picture of
our children at home, and I look at it often. I like to look at
it. I love to look at that picture
of our children. But I love our children more. And when they
come to visit, we don't get that picture out and look at it. We
look at them. We don't converse with that picture,
we talk to them. We love to look and listen and
talk and touch them, not the picture. The Old Testament, especially
the book of Genesis, foretells us of one who is coming that's
gonna deliver his people from their sin, gonna save them from
their sin. And he's the seed of the woman.
Who's going to save? It's the seed of the woman. He's
that Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He's His people's
righteous covering. He's their shelter in the storm
of God's wrath. He's their city of refuge from
the avenger of holy justice. And God shows us pictures of
Him. He's the Messiah. He's the Christ. He's the Savior. He's the one
and only mediator between God and man. And we love to see those
pictures. But we don't love the picture
more than the person. When we see Christ in the prophets
and in the Psalms and in all the scriptures, we love the picture
because we love the person that they picture. That's the point.
Let's never love the picture more than Christ who the scriptures
do picture. Okay, the Old Testament instructs
us and teaches us that the Messiah is coming. And we see in the
Gospel narratives that He's come. And then we see in the Epistles
that our Lord and Savior is going to come again. So we rejoice
in all the Scriptures, don't we? Because they're all about
Him. In the Law of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels,
and all the love letters from to the church from the epistles
are all concerning him. And that's why we preach the
same message every week just from different passages of scripture
because all the scriptures are about him. We love all the scriptures
because they're all about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And our story in Genesis chapter 31, turn there with me. was written
for our learning, for our instruction, that we might find great hope
in the God of our salvation. And I have great hope that tonight
we will find great hope in our God. Now, just a quick review. The last verse of Genesis chapter
30 informs us that God had blessed Jacob. I mean, He blessed him.
It says that He increased exceedingly. He had many cattle. He had many
maidservants. He had many menservants. He had
many camels. He had many asses. The Lord just
blessed him. Then, in the very first words
written after that, we see that Jacob soon discovered that the
sons of Laban, now these are his brothers-in-law, his family,
were grumbling about him. And they said, Jacob has robbed
our father of everything. He's gained all his wealth at
our father's expense. Well, that wasn't true. Laban
had dealt treacherously with him from the time that he came
there. Deceived him, thinking that he worked seven years for
Rachel, and gives him lead, then works another seven years for
Rachel, and then works another, and didn't get paid anything.
And then works another six years for his wages. And in verse two,
Jacob begins to notice a change in Laban's attitude towards him.
I'm telling you, there's a lesson here. Envy is a horrible thing. That was Laban's problem. Envy
is a horrible thing. Solomon said, it's the rottenness
of bones. Proverbs 14, 30. Envy, and that
includes jealousy, it includes covetousness, it includes resentment
and bitterness. It was envy that moved Jacob's
sons to later sell their brother Joseph into slavery, as we'll
see. We're told that the chief priest
delivered our Lord unto Pilate for the sake of envy. They envied
him. Envy can make men and women do
some wicked and evil things. None of us are exempt from the
evil of envy. Solomon said, who's able to stand
before envy? Envy will bring all to their
knees. And in verse three, and the Lord
said to Jacob, return to the land of thy fathers and to thy
kindred, and I'll be with thee. We looked at that last time.
Boy, that brings me great comfort. That brings me great comfort
to know that if I belong to Christ, God will be with me always. Always. That's what he said. I'll be with thee always, even
into the end of the earth. So Jacob calls Rachel and Leah
out to the field where he's watching over his flock. And Jacob says
to them, I've noticed that your father's attitude toward me has
changed. His attitude, his countenance
has changed. He don't look at me the same
way he used to. I can see resentment. I can see jealousy. I can see
envy in his eyes. And then he goes on to tell them,
but that's okay, because the God of my father has been with
me. He's blessed me in spite of how Laban has dealt with me.
That's the only comfort Jacob has, and that's the only comfort
we have in this life, is the fact that our God has been with
us and is with us. And he goes on to tell him, you
can read through the verses here, we won't take the time to read
them all, but he goes on to tell him, he says, you know how hard
I worked for your father, you know how he's cheated me, you
know how he's changed my wages, he said ten times. And in these
verses, we get a little more detail of how Laban had selfishly
dealt with Jacob over the last six years. As you know, Jacob
had suggested to Laban, and Laban happily accepted this suggestion
as wages. Jacob would get all the ring-streaked,
speckled, and spotted, and brown offspring, and Laban would get
all the rest. However, it seems from these
verses that Laban kept changing the deal. Ten times, it says.
In verse 8, Jacob explains how so to Rachel and Leah, and this
is how Laban dealt with Jacob. Laban came to Jacob and he said,
okay, now I know what we agreed on, but the speckled animals,
they'll be your wages. And then God caused the whole
flock to produce speckled. And Laban goes out there, and
he looks at all these speckled sheep, and he goes, now wait
a minute. He changed his mind. He said, no, no, no, not the
speckled, but the striped animals will be your wages. And then
God would cause the whole flock to produce striped offspring.
And in verse 9, it says, thus God hath taken away the cattle
of your father and given them to me. All blessings come from
above, don't they? God's the first cause of all
things. And then in verse 10 we read,
and it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived that
I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream and behold the rams which
leaped upon the cattle were ring-streaked, speckled, and grizzled. And the
angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, Jacob. And I said, here
am I. And he said, lift up now thy eyes and see. All the rams
which leap upon the cattle are ring-streaked, speckled, and
grizzled. For I have seen all that Laban doeth to thee." The
things that people do against us, they're not hidden from God.
God sees everything. He said, I've seen all that Laban
does to you. And he said, I am the God of
Bethel, where thou anointest the pillar and where thou vouched
to make a vow. Now arise and depart from this
land and return to the land of thy kindred. And I don't know
if you noticed, but it didn't take a lot of convincing for
Leah and Rachel to agree to leaving. They hadn't been treated fairly
by their father either. So Rachel and Leah respond in
verses 14 through 16. And again, allow me to paraphrase
for sake of time. They say, that's fine with us.
That's just fine with us. We won't inherit any of our father's
wealth anyway. We're counted by him as strangers.
He doesn't have any affection or love for us. He sold us to
you and he wasted the money you paid him for us. And all the
wealth that God has given you from our father legally belongs
to us and our children anyway. So go ahead and do whatever God
tells you to do, we're with you. And you can see that there's
no love loss here between Laban and his daughters. Verse 17,
then Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives upon camels. And he carried away all his cattle
and all his goods, which he had gained, the cattle of his getting,
which he had gained in Badanaram 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 and Syrian. That just simply means he didn't
tell him he was leaving. He packed up and he said, I'm
getting out of Dodge. And he told him not that he was
about to depart. So he fled with all that he had
and he arose and he passed over the river and set his face towards
the Mount Gilead. And it was told Laban on the
third day, three days later, that Jacob had fled. And the
first thing Laban does is he takes his brethren with him and
he pursues after Jacob seven days journey. And they overtook
him. in the Mount Gilead. Now there's
no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever, that Laban sets out here to do
Jacob great harm. He's upset. And that's what jealousy
and envy does to men and women. And here Laban, he's shearing
his sheep, and Jacob, and Leah, and Rachel, and all their children
with all their possessions take off without saying a word to
Laban. And three days later, this is
brought to his attention, and Laban's not a happy camper, as
we say. Maybe it'd be best to say he's
not a happy sheep shearer. He's not happy, I know that.
So he immediately gets all the men in the family together, and
he pursues Jacob. with the intention of stripping
him of all that he has. I found it interesting that that
word pursued here in verse 23 is the same word the Holy Spirit
used in Exodus chapter 14, where it tells us that Pharaoh and
his Egyptian soldiers pursued Israel at the Red Sea. And I
know you can picture that in your mind. They were coming out
after Israel to kill them. And God opened the Red Sea and
they passed safely across. But that's the same word. He
pursued. I mean, he's angry. Laban pursued Jacob for seven
days. He was a man on a mission. He
was a mad man on a mission. And I was thinking about this. Laban would not have went to
half that trouble to visit a friend. Sadly, evil men will go to great
lengths and trouble to serve their sinful passions. Envious
men and women are much more motivated in their anger than they ever
are in their love. That's just so. Laban's daughters
and grandchildren, whom he claims later to love so much, were gone
three whole days before he even knew it. I tell you, you try
to sneak my grandchildren out of town, And see if I don't find
out about it sooner than that. He didn't care. For seven days,
Laban is pursuing Jacob with murder in his heart. He's raging
mad. And do you know what happens next? This is what I hope gives
you hope. Verse 24, and God came to Laban,
the Syrian, in a dream by night. And he said to him, take heed
that thou speak not to Jacob, either good or bad. With one
word, God ties Laban's hands. God often ties the hands of evil
men, but he doesn't turn their hearts. And that's the case here
with Laban. The safety that God's people
experience in this evil world, I'm telling you, we may not know
this, but we do good to find it out. The safety that we experience
in this world is owing to the sovereign hold that God has on
evil men and women. Just a whisper from God can change
the course of history. God's able to deliver his people. I find so much comfort in that.
You know why? Because I need deliverance from
my sin. I need deliverance from my sin.
And my God's able. And that's what I want to comfort
you with tonight. That's what I want God to comfort
you with. God is able to deliver you, to
deliver you out of every trouble, every trial, every tribulation,
no matter what it is. And He may deliver us from some
that we never even know about. I was reading earlier this week,
and I was reading in the book of Daniel. And that arrogant
king, he said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he said, you better
fall down and worship the image which I've made of me. And he
said, if you don't worship my image, you'll be cast this same
hour into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. Then we'll see
who this God is that you claim to know. And we'll see if your
God is able to deliver you out of my hands. And Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego answered, and they said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
we're not careful to answer thee in this matter. We'll tell you
straight up, we don't fear you. Our God is the God, the only
God. And he's able to deliver us.
So, you know what happens? The scriptures say that Nebuchadnezzar
was full of fury and the form of his visage, his countenance,
was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, much like
I'm sure Laban's was against Jacob. Mad. So the king commanded that they
should turn the heat up on that furnace seven times more than
it was supposed to be heated. And the three Hebrew children
were thrown into the fiery furnace. The flame was so hot that it
killed those men of the king's army that threw them in there.
And the king looked in that furnace and he asked this question. He
said, didn't we throw three men in there? We threw in Shadrach
and Meshach and Abednego into the fire. And they answered,
yeah, true, king, that's true. And he said, I see four men.
I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and
they have no hurt while the fire hadn't done any damage to them.
And the fourth man is in the form of the Son of God. You know
why? Because it was the Son of God. God is able to deliver His
people from The worst of situations, my message of hope to you tonight
is this, God is able to deliver his people. They pulled those
three men of God out of the fiery furnace and their hair wasn't
even singed. They didn't even have the smell
of fire on them. God is very well able to deliver
his people. A couple chapters later in Daniel,
you know the story well. about King Darius and Daniel. And King Darius loved Daniel.
And through a life of hard work and obedience to God, God elevated
Daniel through the political ranks and he moved him up and
made him somebody in Babylon. Daniel was somebody. He was a
child of God and God blessed him. And the other government
officials, politicians, whatever, were so jealous of him that they
couldn't find anything on him to remove him from office. We
hear a lot in politics today about such things, witch hunts
and that. We don't get into political things,
but that's what's going on here. So they tried to use Daniel's
faith in God against him. They appealed to King Darius,
and they talked him into passing a decree for a 30-day period
where if anyone prayed to another god or man besides the king,
they'd be thrown into the lion's den. And Daniel learned of the
decree, but he didn't change a thing. Why? Because he knew
his God. could deliver him, whatever situation. Do you know that? Oh, I'm beginning
to learn. These things were written for
our learning. I'm beginning to learn. So at sundown, they throw
Daniel into the den of lions. And of course, they didn't feed
these lions for days. I mean, they were hungry lions. And the next morning, the king
rose up, the scripture says, very early. He loved Daniel.
And he went in haste to the den of lions, the scripture says.
And King Darius cried, O Daniel, servant of the living God, was
your God able to deliver thee from the lions? And there came
a reply. And Daniel said, my God has sent
his angel. And he shut the lion's mouth,
and they have not hurt me at all. Then Daniel said something
else. I should have turned you there,
but you can read it. I think it's in Daniel chapter
six, but Daniel said something else there that's worthy of our
attention. He said, Oh King, he said, I've done no hurt to
you. I thought about that and I know what did he mean by that?
Well, he hadn't brought any shame or reproach to the king in all
this. The king's law and decree had
been honored. The verdict and punishment had
been carried out on the one who had offended the law of the king. Daniel was thrown into the den
of lions just as the king's law had decreed and demanded. And
I don't know about you, but there's no doubt in my mind that Christ
was that Lord's angel that came and shut the mouths of those
lying. Christ came into the world, the just for the unjust, and
satisfied the law of God and its holy justice by the sacrifice
of himself. What a picture here of Christ. He shut the mouth of the law's
claims against his people. The law said guilty, and Christ
said no, paid, paid in full. He satisfied the holy justice
that the law required, and the sinner goes free, for God's law
has been honored, and His holy justice has been satisfied. That's
the picture we see there. My message to you tonight, God
is able to deliver you. You better believe He is. He's
able to deliver you out of your sin. And that's the worst enemy
you and I have. Okay, let me finish up. Look
at verse 25. We see that Laban overtook Jacob. And then in verse 26, Laban said
to Jacob, what hast thou done that thou has stolen away unawares
to me and carried away my daughters as captives taken with the sword? Why didst thou flee away secretly
and still away from me, and didst not tell me that I might have
sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, and with tabret,
and with harp? Well, we'd have put on a big
shindig if you'd have just told me. Do you really think that
Laban would have done that? Absolutely not. Verse 28, and
hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters, and
thou hast now done foolishly in doing so. And then notice
what he claims in verse 29. It's in the power of my hand
to do you hurt. But, but the God of your father
spoke to me yesterday night, saying, take thou heed that thou
speak not to Jacob either good or bad. You better leave him
alone. Why? Because he's mine. God is
able to deliver his people. Now we get to what really is
buggin' Laban. Verse 30, and now, though thou
wouldest needs be gone, or because you left, because you did earnestly
long after thy father's house, you're homesick, yet thou hast
stolen my gods. That's what really had him upset.
Look at verse 34, now Rachel had taken the images, that being
Laban's idols, and put them in the camel's furniture, which
was what the camel's saddle, and set upon them. And Laban
searched all the tent, but found them not. Now here I want you
to see the contrast between Jacob's God and the gods of Laban. There's a vast difference. And
I'm telling you, there's a vast difference between the God of
the Bible and the God of this religious world, too. Night and
day difference. Laban asked in verse 30, he says,
why have you stolen my gods? Well, let me ask you a question.
What kind of God can be stolen or taken captive? No God at all. He's no God at
all. Laban's gods were no gods at
all. And Jacob said, well go ahead
and you can look and see if you can find them. What kind of God
can be lost? Verse 34 tells us that Rachel
had taken the images and put them in the camel's saddle as
we just read. What kind of God can be taken
and hidden? No God at all. Rachel had taken
them and put them in the saddle of her camel and sat upon them.
Allow me to be a little ridiculous, but what kind of God can be set
upon? What kind of God can be hindered?
Not the God of the Bible. None can say unto Him, What doest
Thou? None can stay at His hand. None
can sit on Him. Not my God. Not the God who is
able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him.
Oh, can't you find comfort in knowing that God will always
deliver you. All praise to Him that is able
to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that we could think
or ask, according to the power that worketh in us, Ephesians
3.2. Do you find comfort, do I find
comfort in our God? You know, David, speaking to
his own discouraged soul, he said, soul, hope thou in God. Four words, hope thou in God. May God enable us, brothers and
sisters, to speak the same words to our own discouraged souls. Next time you're feeling down
and discouraged or a trial and tribulation trouble has overtaken
you, speak to your own soul and say, hope thou in God. That's the only place that hope
can be found, in God and in God alone. May God enable us to understand
that and to trust Him for everything.