"'Schoolin' Jacob"
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Genesis 29-31
August 15, 2010

         I was looking for an introduction to this sermon when my brother, Daryl, called yesterday, to tell me he would be coming here today.  He has Sundays off his church job this month and mentioned he was going to hear a different preacher each week, including a very good one named Rob Bromhead.  I told him I was honored to be considered in the same group as Rob.  But Daryl quickly informed me that I wasn’t in Rob’s league at all!  He also warned me that I had better bring my “A-game” this morning!  Now I should admit that I’ve said far worse things to Daryl and that he was just kidding with me- I think!  Ironically, today’s sermon continues the story of two brothers who also had some issues with each other- Jacob and Esau.
          We’re continuing the saga of Jacob this morning.  The story began when God made promises to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham- to prosper him, give him many descendants as well as the land of Canaan, and to bless the whole world through him.  These promises were passed to his son, Isaac.  And last week we learned that the promise would pass to Jacob.  We noted that Jacob was an odd choice, being the younger brother, as well as a swindler and a cheat!  In fact, that’s how he got the blessing, by stealing it from his older brother, Esau, and deceiving his aging father, Isaac!
          Well, Esau was enraged when he found out he had been cheated, and he vowed to kill his brother in revenge.  You’ve got to love all these biblical family values, right?!  Deception, cheating, stealing, and murderous revenge.  Anyway Jacob flees from his brother and travels to his mother’s homeland of Haran.  In route, God appears to him and assures him that he will protect, prosper him and return him safely home.
          But while he is away from home, God begins to work on this schemer who has been chosen to be the leader of his family and bearer of God’s promise.  It’s almost as if Jacob has been sent to a boot camp for wayward patriarchs!  Gen. 29 tells us what happened when he arrived at the home of his Uncle Laban.  We begin in verse 13.
          13  When Laban heard the news about his sister's son Jacob, he ran to meet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. 
         14  And Laban said to him, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh!" And he stayed with him a month.
         15  Then Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?"
         16  Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
         17  Leah's eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful.
         18  Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."
         19  Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me."
         20  So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
         (Gen. 29:13-20.)
          The first part of God’s training for Jacob involved love.  I have been privileged to share a wonderful love with my wife, Bonnie.  In fact, later this week we will celebrate 34 years of marriage together!  I have learned a lot during these many years of love.  In fact, Bonnie has taught me a number of things about myself that I really wasn’t interested in learning!  But I am a far better person for having learned them.  From love we learn about sacrifice and give-and-take and just plain giving.
          Jacob had a great love for Rachel, which God used to shape his character.  She was beautiful and graceful, according to the text.  Guys today would say she was hot!  And Jacob immediately fell hard for her!  He wanted to marry Rachel, but he had no property or money to pay the bride price.  So he offered to work for his Uncle Laban for seven years for the right to marry Rachel.  And work he did, serving Laban by tending his vast herds for those seven long years.  But “they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.”  (Gen. 29:20) That’s what love can do for us in hard times.  And God would use Jacob’s relationship with Rachel, the love of his life, to shape his character in a more godly direction.  We can see already that God is teaching him patience.  Love is the first part of God’s school for Jacob.  But there is more.
         21  (Seven years later) Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed."
         22  So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast.
         23  But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her.
         25  When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?"
         26  Laban said, "This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn.
         27  Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years."
         28  Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.
         30  So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He served Laban for another seven years.
          (Gen. 29:21-23, 25-28,30)
          Talk about reaping what you sow!  Jacob, the schemer and cheater, has met his match in Uncle Laban, hasn’t he?  Jacob wants Rachel.  He was attracted to her from day one and his love has just deepened over the years of living in close proximity to her.  But instead, Jacob gets beauty-challenged Leah.  Now ladies, you may be shocked to hear this, but guys can be a little shallow at times when it comes to women.  I remember when I was much younger and less mature how important physical appearance was to us guys.  I’m sure our young guys at GPC have much more depth today.  Anyway, back then when a girl was mentioned in conversation who wasn’t very attractive and we didn’t want to be cruel, we would simply say that she had a great personality and everyone would understand...
          Leah had a great personality.  The translation in our pew Bible says that she had “lovely eyes” but the Hebrew actually says that they were “weak,” whatever that means.  The point is that she was completely overshadowed by her younger sister who was called “graceful and beautiful.”  Apparently suitors weren’t beating down the door for poor Leah, so Laban saw a novel way to marry her off.  And he did, much to Jacob’s chagrin.  Brides were usually heavily veiled, and Jacob probably had a lot to drink at the wedding feast, and it would have been pitch dark in that  desert tent.  So he was fooled until the next morning, when it was too late.  The cheater has been cheated.  And he is forced to work an additional seven years to obtain the woman he really wanted!
          God was teaching Jacob through the experience of being cheated.  And old Laban had several more tricks up his sleeve for Jacob over the years.  Jacob simply had to take it.  He learned self-control.  He learned to trust God for justice, rather than taking revenge.  And that’s an important lesson. 
          A pastor’s six year-old daughter had misbehaved so badly that he and his wife decided to punish her by not allowing to go to the church picnic, one of her favorite activities.  But when the day came, they decided that they had been too harsh and changed their mind.  When they told their little girl she could come to the picnic after all, her reaction startled them.  She cried and sulked.  “What’s the matter?  We thought you wanted to go to the picnic,” they said.  “It’s too late,” wailed the little girl.  “I’ve already prayed for rain!”  Revenge has a way of boomeranging on us.  And Jacob was learning to stay away from it.
          Jacob learned more lessons by working hard for Laban.  He winds up serving him for 14 years in exchange for his two wives and then for another six years after that.  He oversees Laban’s flocks, selectively breeding them, deciding where to graze and water them, caring for them in scorching heat and freezing cold, and regularly being cheated out of his wages.  Jacob learns important lessons from this hard work.
          Following my sophomore year of college, I went to work for an electrical contractor.  I started working on condominiums in the hot Virginia summer.  My first two weeks I had one task.  The bricklayers had neglected to leave holes in the exterior brickwork for the electrical boxes for the outdoor lights.  I used a hand sledge hammer and chisel (this one!) to knock box-shaped holes in the brick, eight hours a day, five days a week, sometimes on two-story ladders for the ones in the back.  As I would get more tired, I would occasionally miss the chisel and clip my hand.  It was miserable.  (I was really happy when they finally hired a new guy and he got the brick-chiseling job!)  But I learned some important life-lessons from that experience.  I learned perseverance and endurance.  I learned to do work that I didn’t like.  I learned to get along with all kinds of people, including people who were as different from me as night and day.  Those skills have helped me in my role as pastor!
          Jacob also learned from his hard work.  He learned to persevere in the midst of hardship.  He learned to cope and find satisfaction in a less-than-perfect situation, which included working for a man who regularly cheated him and living in a home with two competitive sisters who vied for his love and attention.  Jacob learned from his hard work.
          Finally, he also learned to trust God when his abilities, gifts, and scheming plans had no effect.  On one occasion, Laban and his sons became jealous because Jacob’s herds were  prospering more than theirs were.  The sons felt threatened by Jacob’s success, accusing him of stealing from their father.  Jacob was vulnerable, far from home with no means of defending himself, at the mercy of those who had long been hostile to him.  All his plotting and scheming couldn’t help him now.
          So Jacob learned to rely on God and God’s promise of protection.  Listen to what happened next in Gen. 31.
         3  Then the Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I will be with you."
         4  So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was,
         5  and said to them, "I see that your father does not regard me as favorably as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.
         6  You know that I have served your father with all my strength;
         7  yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me.
         8  If he (Laban) said, "The speckled (goats) shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, "The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped.
         9  Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father, and given them to me.  (Gen. 31:3-9)
Jacob has learned humility.  He knows that it is God who has prospered and protected him and he readily admits it.  He believes that God will honor his promise to return him safely home because God has already fulfilled his other promises by protecting him, giving him wealth, and giving him many children (12 sons and at least one daughter!).  Jacob has learned that ultimately he cannot control the future.  None of us can.  We can only accept what God brings to us and face it with grace and courage.
          Jacob learned the lessons that God’s school taught him.  We can learn from Jacob’s example, too.  From loving relationships we can learn patience and giving and sacrifice.  From times when we are wronged we can learn self-control, refraining from revenge and trusting God to make things right.  From hard work, we can learn initiative, honesty, and perseverance.  From times of vulnerability we can learn to lean on the Lord for our protection.  And throughout our lives we can learn to trust in God’s promises.

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