Let's turn to Genesis chapter
31. This is a passage in Jacob's life
which is full of the redemption blessings that the church is
given in Christ. In fact, there are so many blessings
that are detailed here in this chapter I had to whittle it down. so we could focus on just a few
of these things, a coherent word. Now, when we're looking at the
Lord's blessings, I want you to remember these four things. I put it in the bulletin so you
can read it later, but first, all our blessings are given to
us in Christ. all the blessings of God are
given to us in Christ. Second, all our blessings are
contained in and given because of the redemption of Jesus Christ. If there was no redemption, we
would not be blessed of God. Third, because of Jesus Christ,
they are freely given to us of God. We don't earn these blessings. We don't work for these blessings.
They are freely given of God to His people for Christ's sake. And fourth, Christ our Lord makes
His people to know these blessings through the giving of His Spirit
and Word. That's how He reveals them to
you and manifests these blessings to us in Christ. Now, by way of reminding us, because
it's been a while since we've been in chapter 31. But an example
of these redemption blessings we saw the last time we were
here is in the first 16 chapters, where the Lord told Jacob, get
up. It's time to go back to the land
of your fathers, to Canaan. He said, return unto the land
of thy fathers, and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee. And then were told how that Jacob
gathered his wives, Rachel and Leah, and he declared to them
the word that the Lord gave to him. And the Lord blessed that
word, making it effectual to Rachel and Leah, a picture of
the church, hearing the word. That word made effectual. They
received it, and they believed it, confessing, what you're saying,
Jacob, is what God has showed us. We see it. We hear what you're
saying, and we agree. We believe. And they said, all
that God has said unto thee, do. And that is the confession
of the church, is it not? Don't we agree with that testimony
of our God? The Spirit Himself testifies
that we are the children of God. He makes this known to us. And this is a picture of what
we've been seeing in 1 John 1 verse 5, when John said, this then
is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto
you. Jacob heard the message and declared
it to the church. And God blessed it and made it
effectual to them. God testifying, these are my
children. These are my children. And so
if you would know, am I a child of God? If you have an interest
and you would know, am I a child of God? Then come and hear the
word preached because the spirit makes that word effectual and
testifies that these things are so. Lord, reveal them in my heart. He reveals these things, and
then it follows, that if we are children, then heirs, heirs of
God and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with
him. we may be also glorified together. And so I want to show you just
a portion of these truths being set forth and traced out for
us here in the rest of this chapter 31. Maybe we'll come back and
look at the others but I want to just focus on a few things
here this morning. Now when the Lord blesses his
children to hear the gospel there is a rising up of Christ in you. He's going to reveal Christ in
you. He's going to make you to know
Christ, to hear Him. There's going to be life in you. And that's the new birth. A new
birth takes place and there's a resurrection from the dead.
We live in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul even speaks of this
power in Philippians 3 verse 10 when he said that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection. That's the power we need. Every
day, every hour, Lord, I want to know the power of your resurrection. Rise up in me, Lord. Give me
life. Help me to hear and to believe
and to walk after Christ in faith, being led of your spirit. I may
know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Through our sufferings, our Lord
is making us conformed to Christ. We die daily in Christ by His
grace, by His power. These things are given to you
and I for our good, for our good to strip us and to to whittle
away our beauty and what we think we are in the flesh, and to make
us to know, nope, Christ is all, and I'm satisfied with him. He
does that for us, brethren. Now, this is what we see in this
chapter, and we'll see this in our text. The gospel's been revealed
to Jacob. He's declared it to his wives.
And we are told we see this rising up and they begin their journey
now to Canaan. Verse 17 Then Jacob rose up and
set his sons and his wives upon camels. Now understand that Jacob
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll see Jacob's a type of the
believer and Jacob is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
anytime a believer is seen doing any work, any trust of the Lord,
we see Christ in it. Because who's doing it in you?
Who's working that fruit in you? But the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so we see Jacob's a type of the believer, and we see in this
chapter Jacob is a type of Christ who rises up and sets his children
and his wives upon camels. camels. When our Lord had finished
the work of redeeming his bride the church he rose up from the
grave and he sent forth his gospel with power and authority into
the hearts of his people. And they heard that word and
Christ arose in them. They were raised from the dead. And they heard the word, and
they rejoiced in that word of God, saying, all that the Father
hath said unto you, do it. That's our confession. We hear
it. We see it. We know it. We believe
what's being declared unto us. And it's a testimony that God
hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. These are all manifest
blessings made known unto the redeemed church that God hath
done this. So there's a witness by the spirit
of God that you're the sons and daughters of God. There is a
witness that Christ is your spouse, your husband. Now, what are these
camels? Jacob rose up and put his sons
and daughters on camels. Have we seen anything about camels
before? yes we did in verse 24 actually
I'm sorry chapter 24 Genesis 24 that's when Abraham sent his
servant out to seek a bride for his son Isaac and we're told
that the servant set out from Abraham with 10 camels and those
camels were beasts of burden bearing treasure and riches out
of the treasure of their master, of their Lord, of Abraham at
that time. And they went across the desert,
through that wilderness, seeking out the bride. And when they
came to the bride, those riches were brought forth and shown
to the bride. And she saw the glory of her
Lord. And she believed that word which
was spoken that these are from your Lord, your husband. He's
back there in Canaan. Go to him. And she went believing. And those camels which were sent
out of the Lord were as blessings and carried Rebekah through the
barren desert, through that wilderness, and preserved her and provided
for her and brought her safely to the land of her inheritance
in Canaan to the arms of her waiting husband. That's what
those camels did and that pictures the blessings that our God has
given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. All these redemption
blessings are given to us as strong camels who can go deep
into the wilderness, long journeys without needing any water because
the water is within them. as a fountain within us, flowing
so that on these camels we never thirst for another righteousness.
We have found him of whom all the law and the prophets speak
and testify. We found him whom we've longed
for. We've heard him and believe him
and trust him. And so our God has done this
for us. We see these comforts for our
transport, such as the giving of the spirit, the preaching
of the word, the giving of his life, to the raising up of Christ
in us, the bearing of his fruits, to bring us, to aid us, to comfort
us, to go with us along the way to our heavenly home, our heavenly
Canaan. And so our Lord has sent these
blessings, these camels, to carry the weary pilgrim through a barren
land, and to carry us safely through so that we will not expire
and pass out and fall on the way, but we shall make it safely
to that inheritance that he's promised us and given us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Another blessing, I gave
you that for a reason, we'll come back to these camels, but
the next blessing that I want to show you is this mount. So as they set out, we're told
that what the Lord teaches us through the gospel is that we
cannot be touched by our enemies. He's made such sufficient protection
for us that we cannot be touched by our enemies, even the devil
who hates us, who hates the true and living God, hates his Christ,
hates his word, and hates you that believe the Lord Jesus Christ. He's on a leash. He's a servant
also. He can't do anything to you unless
God permits him, unless God allows it. And if God allows it, it
is for your good. It's for the good of his people
and to teach us and to provide for us in Christ. It will always
be according to purpose. But as we read this chapter,
you'll notice an enemy in Laban. And Laban sets out in pursuit
of Jacob and all of Jacob's belongings, of his wives, his children, his
cattle. He goes after him, and he catches
up with Jacob. And it would seem that Laban's
going to do harm, too. Jacob. He wanted to do harm to
him. He probably wasn't going to bring Jacob back, but he was
going to take back the wives and the sons and the cattle and
bring it all back for himself. He wasn't happy that Jacob had
gone out with all those things. And you would think Jacob is
defenseless. I'm sure he had some servants, but probably not
enough to take on Laban and defeat him. And we're told in verse
25, Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent
in the mountain, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount
of Gilead. I've been reading this portion
for a long time now. And this verse kept sticking
out to me. And it just bothered me the way it was written so
that I noticed it. It says, Jacob had pitched his
tent in the mount. Why doesn't it say in the Mount
Gilead? Now, just so you know, Mount
Gilead is actually a range of mountains. So they're in Padana
Ram, which is Syria over here. You're looking at the map. And
here's the River Jordan. And as you come from Padana Ram,
you come to a mountain range on this side, on the east side
of Jordan's River. And that area there is Mount
Gilead. It's the mountain range of Gilead.
on the west of Jordan would be Israel, what we know as Israel
now. It's where I think Gad, the tribe
of Gad, settled there in that area of Gilead. And so we know
that this is where Jacob is, that he's in Gilead. If you look
at verse 21, Back at verse 21, so Jacob fled
with all that he had, and he rose up and passed over the river
and set his face toward the Mount Gilead, toward Gilead. So he
was heading there. Jacob knows he's heading there.
And Jacob comes and catches up with him, and he settles in Mount
Gilead also, near enough so that they could speak. There wasn't
great distances between them. They were all there in that mount. And so it would seem Jacob's
pitched his tent in Mount Gilead, but it doesn't say that. And
I think there's a spiritual reason, because the Lord isn't fixing
our eyes on carnal things and earthly things. He's telling
us that Jacob is pitched on a mount, but it's not on a mount of earthly
defenses and of earthly things. You see, Jacob was fixed upon
the mount of Christ's righteousness. He's trusting in the Lord his
Redeemer to provide for him. That's why he doesn't say he
was fixed on Mount Gilead, because that's not his defense. He's
fixed on the mount, the mount of the Lord. And what do we know
about this mount? Not the physical location, but
Abraham spake of a mount at one time, didn't he? He did. He spoke
of it in Genesis 22 verse 14 when he was going to sacrifice
his son Isaac on a mountain. And he went up there and the
Lord provided and delivered Isaac and provided a ransom, provided
a sacrifice. and delivered Isaac. And Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said
to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And that's what Jehovah-Jireh
means. The Lord sees. The Lord provides. The Lord looks
down and He sees we have a need. We cannot provide for ourselves,
but the true and living God has provided all that we need. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the mount that Jacob
is trusting in. That's the mount that he's resting
in and pitched all his tempt in Christ, his Redeemer. And so Jacob, at this time, he's
learning this truth. He's learning that God is his
Redeemer, that Christ is his Redeemer, and that he provides
everything. So that Jacob, who is still a
early in his faith, so to speak, but only for 20 years there. But Jacob said at the end of
his life to Joseph, his son, the angel of the Lord who redeemed
me. That's what he called him later
on when speaking to Joseph, the angel of the Lord who redeemed
me. He's learning that every time, in every need, in every
danger, the one who provided for him was his redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we're learning
here. Whether you've believed for one day, one hour, one year,
or a hundred years, we're learning Christ is our Redeemer, our provider,
over and over and over again. That in every need you have,
Christ provides for you. He gives to you what you need
to save you, to deliver you, to protect you. And so it's in
that mount, That we have pitched our tents by the grace of God,
he's done it in us. We've pitched our tent on that
mount, and that's why it doesn't say the Mount of Gilead. Cuz
that's not his trust, that's not your trust, our trust, our
hope. is Christ. He's our rock, and
we are fixed upon him, his righteousness, his satisfaction, his provision
for all that we need. Now, the assault of Laban, it
begins rather subtly. Laban begins to twist and manipulate
these things to make it sound like, Jacob, what have you done?
You're being very hasty. You're judging me very harshly,
Jacob, as though it was somehow Jacob's fault, and that he misjudged
what Laban would have done. Laban would have let him go out
okay. It would have been fine. That's
what he says in verse 26 and 27. 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. You're overreacting and fleeing
so hastily, Jacob. Wherefore didst thou flee away
secretly and steal away from me? And it's not tell me that
I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, and with
tabret, and with harp. It's very much like the temptation
of this world to make us think, what are you doing? Why are you
separating from the world? We can get along. We're diverse. We could take you in. It's okay.
You don't have to break off everything. I think the reality is we don't
break off enough, honestly, from the Lord. But John speaks to
this in 1 John 2 verse 15. We're not being hasty at all.
John says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. But Jacob loves his father. He
longs to go to be with his father. And he's heading back there to
Canaan and fleeing Laban's world. He's getting out of there. For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the father, but is
of the world. And it's bondage. It is. The
more you partake of it, the more you see. It's just more and more
enticing to you. It's just so. It's just so. And the world passeth away, and
the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth
forever. And so Jacob, being protected
of the Lord, having pitched his tent on the righteousness of
Christ, he's not buying it. He's not buying it at all. And so the threats start coming
out. Verse 29, it is in the power of my hand to do you hurt, but
God. But the God of your father spake
unto me last night saying, take thou heed that thou speak not
to Jacob either good or bad. And I think another interpretation
of that is don't let your speech turn from good to bad. Don't
get angry as you're talking to him and be provoked and then
turn against him and do him harm. You'll regret it, Laban, if you
do that. Don't turn against my servant.
There. We see in that that Laban did
have another purpose. He came to do Jacob harm and
take back all that Laban lost and wanted in his house. As a
strong man, plunder. He wanted that plunder back.
And that's what he came out to do. But who made the difference? God did. Brethren, I declare
that to you that you trust your Savior, Christ. Trust in the
true and living God who preserves you and protects you and provides
all that you need. God would not allow this devil
of a man to touch his servant and do him any harm that he had
purposed to do. And you that trust Christ, believe
him. Stay upon him. No devil, nothing
can touch your soul and take you out of His hand. He's provided
everything you need. Rest in the true and living God. Rest in the Savior whom the Father
has sent to save you from your sins. He's your provider. He's
your righteousness. Now, the enemy may huff and puff
and rage against us, but he has nothing to sink his teeth into. And that's the next thing I want
to show you He's going to accuse, but he'll find nothing to take
your life. Nothing can take you and pluck
you out of Christ's hand. Because in Jesus Christ, you
have no sin. All your sin is put away forever. Forever. Even though the accuser
of the brethren comes and casts up our sin and throws it in our
face, in Christ, The believer's sin is put away. His sons and
daughters, their sin is put away. His wife, his church is spotless,
without wrinkle, having no blot, no spot, no sin, no darkness
at all. You are beautiful white, made
white by the righteous robe of Christ himself. for perfectly
righteous, and you shall not die in your sins. So let me show
you this. Laban comes and he accuses Jacob
of stealing his gods, verse 30. He says, and now, though thou
wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longest after thy father's
house, Yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? I can let you
go, but there's something that needs to be settled here. You've
taken something from me, Jacob. You've taken something from me
that I want returned. Now, in regard to that accusation,
this is what Jacob says in verse 32. With whomsoever thou findest
thy gods, let him not live. You can put him to death. Before
our brethren, discern thou what is thine with me, and take it
to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel
had stolen them. Look back at verse 19. And Laban
went to shear his sheep, and Rachel, she goes into the tent
of Laban, and she stolen the images that were her father's.
And now Jacob calls a curse down. upon whoever these gods are found. There's a curse on the one who
stole, the one justly stole those images, which means terrafim.
People would inquire of those false gods. They would ask those
gods, can you tell me whether I should do this or that, or
go here or there? It's false gods. And so there's
a curse now spoken. And so brethren, there's a picture
here. There's a picture of our salvation and what Jesus Christ
does for us. Now we're not told why Rachel
stole these gods. And I've read in different commentaries
and they try to make an excuse. They try to make it look good
what Rachel did. And some say that she was trying
to take those terrafim away so her daddy couldn't inquire of
them and know which way they went. Well, Laban knew which
way they went. He knew where Jacob was going. And so he was heading back toward
home, toward his father. So he knew which way to go. And then another idea that's
put forth is that she would shame Laban to say, look, what gods
are these that I could just come and take these gods and they
can't deliver themselves? So some say that she was trying
to shame him, but I think She was just turning to the flesh,
right? Her dad had wronged. her and
her husband and their children by stealing from Jacob. And so
she thought, well, there's a little precious metal value in here,
silver or gold, and I'm just going to take this. I'm going
to pay him back. I'm going to do to him what he
did to us, and I'm going to take it. It's sin, right? We're not told otherwise that
it isn't. She took the gods. What would a believer do in taking
gods? But we see this in ourselves.
We turn to the flesh, don't we? There's a lot of times where
We would do what's right, but a lot of times we get provoked,
and we turn to anger, and we say things we ought not to say,
and we do things that we ought not to do. And it's sin. We're
committing iniquity and sin, and we're doing to others what
they've done to us, and justifying ourselves. And so it's sin, just
like us. We are sinners in this flesh. And so the picture here isn't
to make an excuse for Rachel, The picture here is what Christ
has done to cover our sin and to put it away so that it cannot
be found ever again. And so there's a blessing here
in what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us in removing
our sin, putting it away so it cannot be found. And this is
why we will not die and come under that curse and be put to
eternal death. No, we have eternal life in our
Savior. These are the redemption blessings
of Jesus Christ for his people. He obtained life for us by his
blood, and that's what we're gonna see here. So Laban, he
begins to seek for these stolen gods in all the tents. He's going
from tent to tent. Jacob's and Leah's and Zilpah's
and Bilhah's, and now he comes up to Rachel's tent. And remember,
here is the curse, with whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him
not live. Rachel, whom he loves, is under
a curse now. He loves her. Now Rachel, verse
34, had taken the images and put them in the camel's furniture. She hid them in the camel's furniture
and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent,
but found them not." What is the Gospel here? What is the
Gospel being declared here? These images are all hidden away
in the camel's furniture. What did we see earlier about
these camels? What are these camels? These
are the blessings of Christ, His provision for us, what He's
provided for us in His redemption, not only to come and bring the
treasures of Christ to us, but to carry us safely through the
wilderness all the way till we reach our heavenly canyon. and come into the embrace and
arms of our husband and before our Heavenly Father. And so these
camels, they picture the blessings of Christ. This is the foretaste
of what our Savior has done for his people. And what On these
camels, nothing's going to pluck you from Christ's hand. Nothing's
going to pluck you from the Father's hand. You are Christ's. His blood
has bought you, purchased you. You're His and nothing can take
you away from Him. He's redeemed you. We are His
purchased possession. And this is what our Lord accomplished
for us on the cross. His blood cleanseth us from all
sin. It's hidden away. It can never
be seen or found again. Though the accuser come and accuse,
he's got nothing on you because Christ has put it away. It's
hidden away forever. And so verse 35, 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. She's saying to Laban, it's an
issue of blood, and I can't get up so that you could find out
my sin. It's an issue of blood. My sin
will never be discovered. You've got nothing on me. It
cannot be found. And that's what Christ has done.
It's an issue of blood. His blood is shed. It covers. All our sin and everything we
need is hid and stored up for us in the camel, in the camel's
furniture. It's away forever. You're Christ
and nothing's going to pluck you from his hand. Your sin can
never be found. The accuser may come and roar
and strike at you and try to get you, but there's nothing
he's got on you. The sin is put away forever,
never to be found. We don't even hear of these things.
ever again. They're gone. Gone for good.
Gone forever. So that in verse 36 and 37, Jacob
was wroth and he chode with Laban. And Jacob, a picture of our Lord,
said to Laban, what is my trespass? What is my sin? What have you
found? Nothing. You've got nothing. Said it here
before my brethren and thy brethren, what's my sin? Let them judge
and discern between us. There's nothing. before the throne
of God, there is no sin, brethren. You have no sin, nothing found
in you, because Christ's blood covers all our sin. It's an issue
of blood, brethren, an issue of blood. And so our Lord declares
to us, And all these blessings were dead to the law. The law
is satisfied. The curse is put away from us. That curse has nothing on us. And the justice of God is satisfied. cannot be slain for your sin,
because Christ was slain for our sin and put it away for his
people. So believe, brethren, on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house and all
that you have shall be saved and delivered by the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the rich treasures of Christ's
redemption shall never be stripped away from us because of your
sins. His blessings which flow from
Him will carry you safely home through the wilderness until
you reach at home that heavenly kingdom. I pray the Lord bless
that word to your heart's contentment. Amen.