There are many times when decision making is hard. Guidance doesn’t always come easy. But in the case of Jacob in Genesis 31:1-21, the Lord made the decision for Jacob to leave Laban a relatively easy one. He told him to go. Circumstances around Jacob were also pointing in that same direction. And even when he talked this over with Rachel and Leah, they too were of the same opinion. And so, he upped and left – with his family – all without telling Laban. Not that he was running away looking for ease. Rather, he had an appointment to keep with his brother, Esau.

Message

Outline

• The tenth in this series
• Where we are in the story
• A gradual change in Jacob
• See how Moses tells us of…

1. How the plan was prompted (v.1-3)
2. How the decision was confirmed (v.4-16)
3. How the departure was enacted (v.17-21)

Clarity in a crisis moment
Three ‘green lights’ – time to follow the Lord’s directions!

Through all the story of Jacob’s life, God’s providence and favour toward him is evident. This is never more so than in the outworkings of the evenst recorded in Genesis 30:25-43. While Jacob is trying to free himself from Laban’s hold, the Lord enables Jacob to see his flocks and wealth flourish under His good provision, so that when the time comes and Jacob flees from Laban and parapres to meet his brother, Esau, he also has much to give.

Message

Outline

• The ninth in this series
• Where we are in the story
• Jacob’s ‘itchy feet…’
• See how Moses tells us of Jacob and Laban and…

1. The topic they discussed (v.25-28)
2. The plan they formed (v.29-36)
3. The result they noted (v.37-43)

Proposal, counter proposal and the Lord’s proposal…
Behind a ‘frowning providence’ – the hand of the Lord!

Although the Bible tells of men who had more than one wife (such as Abraham and Jacob) it never speaks favourably about it. Jacob is a case in point. Although he loved Rachel and ended up being married to her after marrying her sister, Leah, things didn’t work out well! Jacob soon found himself in a corner, unable to solved Rachel’s infertility and the centre of a squabble between his two wives and their maids. Not a good place to be in. It was a place however, where Jacob could not wrangle his way out of, but he, and his wives, all needed a good dose of wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord.

Message

Outline

• The eighth in this series
• Where we are in the story
• The honest truth about the patriarchs and their wives!
• See how Moses tells us of…

1. Rachel’s unwise decisions (v.1, 4-14)
2. Leah’s unhelpful reaction (v.15, 17-21)
3. Jacob’s unholy confusion (v.2-3, 16)

Relief for Rachel and lessons for Jacob and Leah…
The way of the truly wise…

The ongoing story of Jacob and Rachel and Laban continues in Genesis 29:21-35. The text tells of how Jacob ‘met his match’ in Laban, that is, to say, his match in deception! For in having woken up the morning after his marriage to find that he had married Leah and not Rachel, Jacob had been deceived in a similar way to his own deception of his father and brother. But God had good to Jacob, and despite the ongoing saga this created, He blessed him with 4 sons – one of whom who would be the ancestor of the Lord Jesus!

Message

Outline

• The seventh in this series
• Where we are in the story
• It’s a win for Jacob and for Laban…but…!
• See how Moses tells us of

1. Jacob reaping what he had sown (v.21-30)
2. Jacob receiving what he didn’t deserve (v.31-35)

There must be consequences for sin…
There is grace for those who sin!

In Genesis 29:1-20, so many of the promises of God that Jacob heard at Bethel began to be confirmed. No wonder he wept. He was aware of the goodness of God toward him, not only leading him to the place he set out for, but also providing for him a potential wife in Rachel. It remains to be seen how things will work out with his future father-in-law, Laban, but at this moment in his life, all was very good.

Message

Outline

• The sixth in this series
• Where we are in the story
• God’s providence for Jacob and his plans for him!
• See how Moses tells us of the providence of God in …

1. His arrival at Haran (v.1-8)
2. His meeting with Rachel (v.9-12)
3. His employment with Laban (v.13-20)

God will guide you…
God will grow you…

The next event in Jacob’s life as recorded in Genesis 28:10-22 is highly significant. Jacob was now an exile from home, and so it was while he was on his journey to his uncle’s that the Lord God appeared to him and gave him many assurances. The result was not only that Jacob had hist first encounter with God, but also called the Lord ‘my God’, proceeding from Bethel with the promise of blessing and protection by God – all undeserved and all of grace.

Message

Outline

• The fifth in this series
• Where we are in the story
• Jacob setting out on that journey!
• See how Moses tells us of …

1. His temporary respite (v.10-12)
2. His terrifying revelation (v.13-16)
3. His grateful response (v.17-22)

What Jesus said about this event…
The promises of God – for you!

After stealing the birthright from Esau, Genesis 27:1-29 tells us how Jacob, led by his mother Rebekah, conspired to also steal the blessing that would normally be given by the father to the first-born, in this case his elder twin, Esau. By deceiving his father, and blasheming against God and following his mother’s instructions, Jacob succeeded. But all was not well within the family. And all is not well when we seek to manipulate others into doing (what we might think was) God’s will.

Message

Outline

• A well-known story
• Like a daytime TV soap opera!
• That recipe for disaster…
• See how Moses tells us of …

1. Isaac, the spiritually blind father (v.1-4)
2. Rebekah, the scheming mother (v.5-13)
3. Jacob, the complicit son (v.14-29)

Aiming for the right goal but doing it the wrong way…
The blessing of the Lord – so needed!

After the introduction of the twins, Jacob and Esau, into the family of Isaac and Rebekah, the two boys could not have been any more different. In Genesis 25:27-34, we find that Esau was a hunter and Jacob a man of ‘tents’. One was more inclined to be the outdoors type, while the other, indoors. The traits these brothers showed were probably inculcated upon them by their parents, who played ‘favourites’ among them. Isaac’s favourite was Esau. Rebekah’s favourite was Jacob. This style of parenting reared some ugly fruits – the first seen in Jacob’s stealing of Esau’s birthright and Esau’s own despising of that birthright.

Message

Outline

• Where we are in the story
• Twins and identical twins
• Dysfunctional parents…
• See how Moses tells us of …

1. The traits that defined them (v.27)
2. The parents who mistreated them (v.28)
3. The meal that divided them (v.29-34)

Understanding God’s eternal decrees…
Avoid placing the temporal over the eternal…

The character of Jacob in the Old Testament is no small, ‘bit part’ player. As one of the patriarchs, with Isaac as his father and Abraham as his grandfather, Jacob plays a vital role in the unfolding of God’s promises to Abraham ‘to bless all the nations’ through him. However, in recording the arrival of Jacob onto the scene, Moses tells it, ‘as it is’, Not all is rosy in the family, and there are hints given that not all will be easy in the lives of Jacob and his twin brother, Esau.

Message

Outline

• Why preach a series on Jacob?
• The importance of Jacob in the Scriptures
• A man saved by grace…
• See how Moses tells us of …

1. Who Jacob was born to (v.19-23)
2. Who Jacob was born with (v.24-26)
3. What Jacob was born into (v.27-28)

A vital character introduced into the plot line…
No longer defined by a physical birth!

Genesis 3:15 would have to be one of the most important verses in all of the Old Testament. Straight after Adam and Eve’s rebeliion against God’s righteous rule, the Lord himself promised that the ‘seed of the woman’ would one day come and crush ‘the head of the serpent’. This verse is widely known as the first announcement (or proclamation) of the gospel, and it is very, very good news – all fulfilled in Jesus, the seed of the woman!

Message

Outline

• A Christmas series!
• The unfolding story to grasp…
• What a text to begin with!
• See how the text tells of …

1. A sober reminder of humanity’s undoing
2. The original setting for conflict unfolding
3. The certain promise of Messiah winning

There is hope here…
There is good news here!