Then Jacob rose up and set his
sons and his wives upon camels, and he carried away all his cattle
and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his giddy,
which he had gotten in Pedanaram, to go to Isaac his father in
the land of Canaan, the promised land. Laban went to shear his
sheep. 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 Jacob fled
with all that he had, and he rose up and passed over the river,
set his face toward the Mount Gilead. 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. Now Jacob is leaving
Padanerim. And in God's mercy, in God's
good providence, the Lord turns people against him so that he
won't leave that heathen land. And what a picture this is of
how the Lord makes us discontent to stay here in this heathen
land, in this sinful world. He's sending us to the Father,
home where we belong, to the Promised Land. Jacob, as we keep
seeing, is a blessed type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, as he is, so are we, the
people of God. Jacob was loved by God, chosen
by God, called by God, spoken to. Look at verse 3. The Lord
spoke to Jacob, saying, return unto the land of thy fathers
and to thy kindred, and I will be with them." Jacob was given
a family, and he gathers his family. Verse 4, Jacob sent and
called Rachel and Leah to the field under his flock. What a
picture of Christ he is, and God's people who gather their
family into the fold of worship And they're made willing, these
wives of Jacob are made willing to go in the day of God's power.
They love Jacob and they realize and they confess, we have nothing
here. And they leave their father's house to cleave unto their husband.
That's Jacob and that's Jacob's wives and that's Jacob's sons. And God says, I am the God of
Jacob. God of Jacob. Christ came for
his people. Christ came for his bride. Christ
came for his own, and he's taking every one of them home with him.
The people of his getting. The people of his getting that
he got when he came here and did that glorious work on Calvary's
tree. All the sons of Jacob are going
home to their father. Every one of them. It's going
to be a long trip, though. We will see in these next few
chapters, many trials await, many troubles await, but they
all make it. Every son of Jacob makes it all
the way home, all the way back to the father. A wonderful picture
of Christ and his people. Now let's look at the man Jacob. All right, verse 5. Now Jacob's a believer, although
he doesn't always act like it. He doesn't always seem like it,
does he? He doesn't always look like it. But he is, because look
at his testimony. He said, I see your Father's
countenance is not toward me as before, but the God of my
Father hath been with me. God is with me. Verse 7, he says,
God suffered him not to hurt me. God has protected me. God
has kept me all these years in spite of myself, in spite of
everyone else. God has kept me. Verse 9, he
says, God has taken away the cattle of your father and given
them to me. All that I have, God gave me, he said. He's a
believer. And that's our testimony of every
believer. If I'm kept, it's because God
kept me. No matter who's against me, it doesn't matter if God's
for me. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. Everything I
have was given to me by God. That's the testimony of all the
sons of Jacob. But he's fearful. He's a believer,
but he's fearful. He's running scared. He shouldn't
be afraid, should he? He shouldn't be afraid. God made
promise after promise to us. Spoke to his heart. Spoke to
him. But he is. But thank God, he
knows our brain. And he said, you weren't. Fear
not now. What, Jacob? Weren't. Weren't. He fled, verse 17. He's
running scared. He fled. He rose up and said
he's wise and he's fearful for himself. He's fearful for his
family. Verse 20. He fled with all that he had.
Stole away. By his own admission, verse 31,
when Laban asked him, why did you flee? He said, because I
was afraid. I was afraid. You know, if he
would have been more believing, he wouldn't have made haste.
Doesn't the Scripture say that? He that believeth shall not make
haste. Not worry. Be still. If he was more believing, he
would have just sat still, knowing that God is God. Be still. No,
no. You've got to run. You've got
to hide. You've got to do this. And then that's all of us is
constantly afraid and fearful for ourselves, fearful for everything,
when we really have nothing to fear and no one to fear. Mindy,
I've got to tell it, honey. Anyway, some shady looking characters
came to our house yesterday to purchase something we had on
the Craigslist. And I was gone, and Mindy was a little fearful,
as we all are. So I came running home to be
with her. I had to tell it, because we all are. We're all afraid. Every one of us. Every last Jacob
was afraid. Abraham was afraid. Abraham was
a father of the faithful. He was afraid, what? He was fearful
for his own life, and he said to his wife, she protected him. Isaac was afraid. He did the
same thing. Jacob was afraid. David. One time David went out in front
of that whole Philistine army and said, is there not a cause?
He said, if nobody stands with me, God is, and I'll take them
all on. And he did. Later on, when he was an older
man, when he should have had no fear then, after seeing all
the Lord's protection and providence for him, all the enemies that
had come and gone. And he wrote psalm after psalm
about seeing his enemies vain. Yet he said, I'm going to die
at the hands of Saul. I've got to get out of here.
And he ran. That's all of us, isn't it? If
we'd just be still, we'd know He's God. Wait on the Lord confidently,
fearlessly. David wrote things like this.
The Lord is my life and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Whom shall
I be afraid? The Lord is the strength of my
life. The wicked, my enemies and foes, came upon me to eat
up my flesh. They stumbled and fell. Have
a host encamp against me. My heart shall not fear. But
he did, didn't he? And I'm so thankful that the
Lord knows our prime. And I'm so thankful he wrote
that. That he wrote the fears and the unbelief of all of his
best men and women. Because every man at his best
state is altogether an angel. The Lord is our strength. And
what time we are weak, that's when he shows himself strong.
And we don't really experience that until we find out just how
weak we are, how fearful we are, how afraid we are. And the Lord
comes back to us mercifully and graciously and promises the same
things that we should have believed in the beginning. Well, we didn't. And we just bring troubles on
ourselves, don't we, by all this fear. It was Matthew Henry, I
think, that said, Unbelief is its own punishment. It's its
own punishment that makes us fearful and troubled and miserable
when we just believe. Why are you so fearful? The Lord
said that constantly, didn't He? Fear not. Fear not. The whole world was against Him,
wasn't it? Yes, sir. Every man at his best state.
And God does this that we might, these things to us, that we might
know that we're just men, just men. And the God of Jacob is
our refuge. See, the God of Jacob is our
refuge. Oh, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his
help, for his protection, for his salvation. Thy blessings
upon thy people, Psalm 3 says. All right. Rachel steals some
idols. Look at verse 19. Laban went to shear his sheep.
Rachel had stolen the images, the idols that were her father's. See, I told you Laban was a heathen. He's an idol-worshipping heathen.
He didn't believe the God of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. He
said he did. He made a pretense at it. He's
related to Abraham, but he doesn't know Abraham's God. And he made
a pretense at it. But like the children of Israel
in one place in the scriptures, they feared God and worshipped
idols. He can't do both. He can't do
both. When God reveals himself to you,
the idol's got to go. He said that to the Thessalonians.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. He said, thanks be unto God who left your idols to serve the
living and true God. Rachel is born in a heathen land
to a heathen father, an unbelieving father, and Leah. And I started
to ask the question, you know, Jacob's a sinner, no doubt. Well,
what about his wives? They're fine, upstanding women,
aren't they? No, they're not. They're like their husband. They're
going to be. They're going to grow in grace
and the knowledge of the Lord, and they will be, in time, fine,
upstanding women. Not all the time, but some. Rachel stole her father's idol. She lied to Jacob, her husband. And she lied to her father, Latham.
That sound familiar? Just like her husband. And this
is written to show the daughters of Zion like the sons of Jacob. You know, Scripture so often
talks in the terms of him, him, him, he, he, he. But that's you
too, ladies. In Christ, there's no male or
female. It's all to all of us. The daughters of Zion need to
see too, like the sons of Jacob, that they're just sinful women.
Sinful women. Why did she want these idols?
Why did she steal these idols? Why did she take these idols?
There's no excuse for it. She had heard from Jacob, probably
not enough from Jacob, but she had heard from Jacob about the
God of Jacob. Jacob was a believer, and he
did not nearly enough. Like me, I'm guilty. Not nearly
enough that he'd bear witness to his God, his Father, as the
head of his home. He did not set the example that
he should have. Guilty. Guilty. But she did here. But she cannot blame her husband
for this. Eve could not blame Adam for
this. Eve could not blame Adam for what she did. And Rachel
can't either. She did it. from her own sinful,
covetous heart. She was covetous. Idolatry is
covetousness. Covetousness is idolatry. Is
there any daughter of Zion in here, any professing believer
who is not covetous? Anybody. Any daughter of Zion
in here who does not have any fondness for any of the things
of this world? If there is, then I don't have
any more to say to you, because this is for guilty people. This
good news is for Rachel, the wife of a sinful man. Covetous. She was idolatrous.
She was hesitant to part with her gold. God's going to make
her part with her gold. She can't do this. She can't
hide these idols. She can hide them a while, but
God's going to root them out. Was she superstitious? Did she
keep any of her superstitions from her former religion? Oh,
my. How long does it take for a believer
to get rid of all of the false notions and all of the former
idolatry and all of our ignorance and all of our traditions? How
long? A lifetime. of growing in grace and the knowledge
of our Lord, His Word, she had some idols. And Rachel
is a picture of all of us, male and female, every profession,
believer, covetous, idolatrous, sentimental. Did these things
mean something to her? Do things mean anything to you?
Come on now, be honest, Rachel. I have some things that I'd be
loath to part with, but there's one thing, and the fact of the
matter is, everything that we have is going to be taken from us.
And in the end, we're going to have to say from
the bottom of our heart, Christ is Christ. Can we say that now? We do. We believe that in our hearts.
But the fact is, God is taking these things from us and setting
our affection on things of that. But it takes a lifetime. It's
going to take a long journey. Rachel, I said everyone, Rachel
died before she finally settled down. Gave birth to Benjamin.
That was her purpose. That's her purpose. But Rachel
is a picture of all of us. Ignorance. We're leaving this
world. We have no portion here. We have
here no continuing city. Yet we still cling to many things. Look at chapter 35. Chapter 35
in the end there. Right before Rachel died, she
learned. Right before she died, the Lord
had her put away all these items. Look at chapter 35, verse 2. Jacob said unto his household,
and all that was with him, right after God said you're going back
to Bethel, he said to his household, verse 2, put away the strange
gods that are among you, be clean, change your garment, arise, we're
going up to Bethel. We want to worship our God. Get
rid of these idols. You're going to be with the Lord.
You don't need anything but Him. And so it is with all of us.
We need purged, don't we, with hyssop. And you know, new believers,
Rachel here in the first of this story, Rachel is a new believer. She's young. Jacob's not. Jacob's over 70 years old right
here. You know that? It's over 70 years old. He lived
to be 145, I think, or 135. Now, he's an old man. There's no excuse for his sin
except he's just a man. He's Jacob. He never will be
anything but Jacob in his flesh. But God, in chapter 32, changes
his name, doesn't he? He changes his name. But as I
said, I guarantee you Jacob was never called himself Israel.
I guarantee you he never introduced himself as Israel. What's your
name? Jacob. And we don't go running around
telling people we're Christians, do we? I'm just a sinner. But God calls us His sons. Old religion and new believers,
old religion, old idols, old notions, are often carried around
for years until we finally learn, until they're finally discovered
unto us by our husband. Like Jacob said, you've got some
idols? I know you do. I've seen you hiding them. That's what Jacob said. Get rid
of them. Rachel, honey, get rid of them. And he does. The Lord does. New
believers, though, are still full of worldliness. New believers
have an earthly language. You often hear young believers
use words like luck, lucky, or chance. There's a chance of rain
today or whatever. Old believers, what's the chance
of rain today? Accidents. Language like that.
Or trusting in Pharaoh, trusting in Egypt, trusting in the world,
listening to the world. and so on and so forth, not trusting
the Lord. You hear young believers do that.
What's troubling is if you hear old believers say things like
that. He sure was lucky. We need to get that out of our
language. Oh, may the Lord purge that out
of our talk. We have a testimony before this
unbelieving world that believes in luck and chance and doesn't
believe in God. And our testimony is this, the
Lord did that. The Lord said that. The Lord
will. If the Lord will. Not if luck
or chance will have it. But if the Lord will let me. That's the language of God's
people. It needs to be eradicated. And
it will be. Jacob's leaving. All right. And it's not going
to be easy. He's got enemies. They're going
to pursue him. He's going home. God's taking
him home. God's taking him home, but it's not going to be a smooth
road. There's going to be nothing but
trouble on the way, and he's got enemies pursuing him. His
own family is after him. This is why this is written.
All things, Paul said, that are recorded are written for our
learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scripture,
might have hope. Hope where? Hope in God. Hope
in Christ. Hope in His Word. And we look
at this life of Jacob and Jacob's wives and Jacob's sons and all
of them. They're sinful and wretched and
miserable, poor, blind, naked. But God chose them and loved
them and promised them and said, I'll keep you. And He did, didn't
He? God did exactly what He said He would do. But Jacob's still
afraid. That's his flesh. And his wives
are still idolatrous. And that's our flesh. And Jacob
has enemies, but God said. Look at verse 24. God came to
Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said unto him, Don't
you speak a word to my son Jacob, good or bad. Don't open your
mouth. Oh, I wish I could believe that.
Don't you? I sure wish that I believed that. That's why God wrote this for
unbelievers like me. Just like Jacob's children, we're
fleeing the city of destruction. Just like Jacob and his children,
we're fleeing the city of destruction. We're pursued by enemies. But
God says, God has our enemies in His hand, from Pharaoh down
to whoever it may be. Like the children of Israel,
remember, later on, sons of Jacob were fleeing Egypt. Did they
have any enemies? Oh, their enemies had multiplied.
It wasn't just their home. It was a whole world that was
against them. All of Egypt, with all of its power and all of its
armies, were pursuing after a bunch of unarmed Israelites, sons of
Jacob. They're no match. That's right, they're no match
for God. Let God be for us. Let God be for us. When are we
going to learn that? Everybody and everything, God
ordained it. The book of Job is the oldest
recorded book in the Scripture. Satan wanted Job so bad. I'm talking the head, the rulers
of darkness of this world, principality and power. spiritual wickedness
in the highest place, the arch enemy of which even angels don't confront it. Satan desired this
one man, but he couldn't touch him. He couldn't touch him or
anybody or anything that he had because God Is that just Job? No, that's all of the sons of
God. We believe this right now, and
it gives us hope right now and comfort right now, but when we
walk out this door and we hear the tumult, all the noisome pestilence
all around us, and we hear them pursuing us, And this was the
worst fellow of all, this fellow in us. We know he's going to
bring us down. If they don't bring us down,
this old man in me is going to bring me down. No, God said,
sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the law.
You're not keeping yourself. I'm keeping you. Kept by the
power of God, under salvation. You're ready to be revealed. And the Lord said to these enemies
of Jacob, don't you say a word. You know that even a dog can't
bark? How insignificant is a dog? God
showed the children of Israel so much of His power and His
will over everything that moves, that when they were leaving Egypt,
God said, a dog is not going to bark at you. I'm not going
to let a dog bark at you." And they went out and they saw
all this. And it says they went out with a high hand singing
the songs of Zion. They were marching to Zion, marching
to Zion. There wasn't a doubt in anybody's
mind when they left Egypt. And it lasted about 24 hours. And God sent these enemies again
to show, he said, I've raised up Pharaoh to dump him in the
river. Raised him up to show my power
in him. And to show you my power. That
though a host should encamp against you, God is our refuge. He really
is. See, there's nothing new. He
who rules everything keeps all of us. Not a bone shall be broken,
he says. Not a little toe will be separated.
Not a toenail shall fall off. It keeps all of us. Not a hook
will be left behind. And not a hair, not even a hair,
will fall to the ground without your having to bother. And the wrath of man shall praise
him. The wrath of man. Psalm 46. I
almost wish I was dealing with that right now. The wrath of
man, he said, I'm going to be exalted among the heathen. That's
what he said there. I'm going to be exalted. You'll
see. The wrath of man shall praise him, but listen to the rest of
it. The remainder of wrath he shall restrain. It's all good, even our enemies. The Lord hath made all things
for himself, even the wicked for the day of glory. Old Jacob,
I am thy God. I am with thee. I'll keep thee wherever you go. And I will, he said, I will bring
you home. Bring you home.