Genesis 31 now, and just to remind you kind of where we're following on from, from last week in Genesis 30, where we saw Jacob's two-wife situation causing big problems.
We saw Rachel envious, and even suicidal, I mean it was a pretty messed up situation, wasn't it? She was envying the other, well at that point she was envying Leah.
We looked at what a powerful emotion envy is, and it resulted in some pretty crazy behaviour, like getting your husband to marry your handmaid.
That's pretty crazy, isn't it, right? And that came from envy, envying the children that Leah was bearing, or envying Leah herself.
Then we saw how crazy behaviour is often copied, with Leah then doing the same with her handmaid, and you know, kind of a little folly kind of spreads quickly, doesn't it?
A little leaven, leaven's a whole lump. Next thing you know, Leah's doing the same.
And we are easily led, so we talked about how we want to make sure that it's the Lord leading us, right?
Everyone is led to some degree where you want to make sure it's the Lord that's leading you.
And during all of this craziness, and now sort of harem of Jacob's, was providing him with son after son and a daughter, Deena too.
The previously barren Rachel is eventually blessed by God and bears his 11th son, Joseph.
And then Jacob decides it's time to move back to his own land with his family.
Laban wants him to stay where he's been blessed through him, through the hard work and through the blessing of God upon Jacob.
So they make a deal that Jacob will stay in return for building his own flock of speckled, streaked and basically the blemished cattle.
It seems that Laban then removes a load of these after making the deal, but God still blesses Jacob with the breeding, resulting in Jacob's flock growing.
With Jacob controlling the breeding, with the rods we were looking at seemingly encouraging it and perhaps funnelling them into close proximity during watering,
it said in verse 39, the flock's conceived before the rods, these are rods that it peeled and it put down their poplar trees and others,
and brought forth cattle, ring-streaked, speckled and spotted.
And Jacob did separate the lambs and set the face of the flocks towards the ring-streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban,
he put his own flocks by themselves and put them not unto Laban's cattle.
And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of cattle in the gutters,
that they might conceive among the rods.
But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in, so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's,
and the man increased exceedingly and had much cattle and maidservants and menservants and camels and asses.
And Genesis 31 then starts with verse 1, and he heard the words of Laban's son saying,
Jacob hath taken away all that was our fathers, and of that which was our fathers hath he gotten all this glory.
I'd like to pray before we continue.
Father, thank you for your word, thank you for this chapter of the Bible, Lord, that I'm going to preach through tonight.
I just pray that everyone here will just have attentive ears, Lord, to parts of this chapter which will hopefully speak to people individually here
and maybe where it's expanded and, you know, just sort of the emphasis put on certain parts of this chapter
that will be just edifying to the Church here, Lord, that they'll just have attentive ears and attentive hearts
and want to just learn from tonight and apply things to their lives.
Please swim with your spirit and just bless all aspects of this sermon. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Okay, so Laban's sons are getting bitter even after what seemed like a dirty move by Laban in the previous chapter.
So we looked at that and I'm pretty sure because the deal in chapter 30, it says in verse 31, this is what was meant to happen.
It said, and he said, what shall I give thee? So do you remember he's, you know, he's asking him to stay.
And he's saying, what shall I give thee? And Jacob said, thou shalt not give me anything.
If thou will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock, because he wants to keep them on, he wants to keep them working there.
I will pass through all thy flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle,
and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and of such shall be my hire.
Verse 33 of chapter 30 says, so shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face.
Everyone that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted, stolen with me.
So he's saying, I'm not going to tell you any that aren't.
And Laban said, behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
And he removed that day the he-goats that were ring-streaked and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted,
and everyone that had some whites in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
And I believe that's Laban doing that. And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob.
The same here, I think it's the same person being referred to, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock.
So he's clearly removed the ones that they've just made the deal for, right?
And he's removed them and got rid of them, but God still blessed him regardless.
In a few years down the line, Laban's sons are blaming Jacob. Why are they blaming Jacob then?
Is it because they've forgotten that this happened?
Well, it's just the usual biased opinion, and it's something that we just have to be careful of in life ourselves as well.
It's so easy to just have a skewed opinion of things, isn't it?
And ultimately because they're respecting their father above him, and they just want to take his side,
and they're finally a reason to blame Jacob. But we can all do that to some degree, can't we?
We can all sort of already make a decision, already make someone as our favourite,
someone as a person that we've already decided we have allegiance to, and then we don't judge righteous judgement.
And we should judge righteous judgement, shouldn't we?
In John 7.24, you don't have to turn there, Jesus said,
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement.
We are told to judge, by the way.
So anyone who's ever had their heads turned by the judge not nonsense,
I hope we don't have that in this church here, because you're not welcome.
You need sorting out if you do think that, alright?
But no, we are told to judge, but we're told to judge righteous judgement.
So we should judge righteously, we should take things into account.
Now, it's supposed to be righteous judgement, not slanted by favouritism,
not slanted by allegiances and things like that,
we shouldn't be respecters of persons when we judge situations.
But with that said, there is something to be said for the character of witnesses, though.
So don't forget that as well, because sometimes you could go too far with this.
For example, say we had two just flaming sodomites walked in here tonight,
and somehow they managed to get past the ushers, they just kind of didn't realise, you know,
and they came in and then they just came in here and started accusing
one of our upstanding church members who, throughout history of their church life here,
we've never even seen them ever be dishonest.
So you've got two just flaming sodomites telling us that they've said this or done this or done that.
Are we going to take that witness?
Well, we're going to go, well, let's take into account the character of the witnesses here, right?
And that's something to remember, because obviously we see that situation in the Word of God,
for is it, I'm trying to remember the name, is it Naboth Vineyard?
It's for the vineyard, isn't it?
Where he basically sets up two children of Belial, two reprobates as false witnesses,
and eventually he ends up getting stoned to death because of those two witnesses.
So it's like, well, any two witnesses, obviously you need to judge that situation, don't you?
And we judge righteous judgment, we judge based on many factors, right?
Well, here anyway, Laban's sons are just hating on Jacob, OK?
So despite his years of hard work, despite being cheated by Laban,
they're just like, whatever, you know, Laban's our dad, so we're just going to judge him based on that.
And it says in verse 2,
And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and behold, it was not towards him as before.
So although we don't want to go too far with how someone looks, it's always interesting, isn't it?
The countenance of someone is an interesting thing, isn't it?
Right? And we could go too far, OK?
We can just kind of judge everything by someone gives you like a look.
And before you know, they were thinking something in their head that had nothing to do with you until you were like,
the way they looked at me or something else, you know?
And you could go too far, but I'm sure that this probably wasn't a one-off.
This was probably over a period of time, I don't know how long,
but he's beheld the countenance of Laban and it was not towards him as before.
And when someone starts to hate you, you can just see it, can't you?
You generally, you know, we kind of, usually we're astute enough to realise when someone just really hates you.
It's kind of quite hard to hide it when you really hate someone, isn't it, right?
And people just find that hard and we can see that and we can see that in the countenance.
It said in verse 3,
And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred and I will be with thee.
And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock and said unto them,
I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before,
but the God of my father hath been with me.
And that's how you know because it's not as before.
So it's hard if it's someone you've, someone just walks in here,
I can't tell if they hate me or not necessarily, right?
But when you've known someone over a period of time, I mean, he's known this man over 20 years,
and you get to know someone over 20 years and they start looking at you
and the eyes suddenly narrow a little bit and they find it really hard to look at you without.
Daggers literally seem like they're going to come firing out of their eyes.
You can tell.
And so it's something we don't want to jump to conclusion with people who don't know so well,
but when you get to know someone over time, and obviously, like I said, you'll have one-offs,
you'll have times when maybe they've got something else on their mind,
you'll have times when maybe they're going through a rough period,
you'll have times in their lives where maybe, you know, they're not even thinking about you or something else,
but over a period of time when it's not like it ever was before, you usually get the feeling,
yeah, that person's got an issue with me.
And Jacob, obviously, he's astute, he's worked this out here, he's seen the difference here.
He says, and you know, with all my power I have served your father.
So Jacob does go on later to tell us what a good worker he was, and we're going to see that shortly.
But he said in verse 7, and your father has deceived me and changed my wages 10 times,
but God suffered him not to hurt me.
So this is a phrase, by the way, we see a few times in the Bible.
10 times being a sort of saying, really, okay?
Excuse me, meaning multiple times, as opposed to counting exactly 10.
For example, you don't have to turn a bit, in Job 19-3,
Job said, these 10 times have ye reproached me.
Ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
And obviously he's talking to his so-called counsellors, his friends there.
I don't believe he counted out 10 reproaches.
It's like saying, you know, loads of times, you know, multiple times.
We might use a word a few, and a few can mean anything from sort of three upwards, can't it?
You know, and it's here, I think that's what we're seeing with 10 times.
And I don't think Jacob was necessarily counting out 10 changes,
he's just saying many times, he's changed my wages, he's just...
Laban's a real slippery customer, isn't he?
Verse 7, it said, and your father has deceived me and changed my wages 10 times,
but God suffered him not to hurt me.
If he said thus, the speckled should be thy wages, and all the cattle bear speckled.
And if he said thus, the ring-strait should be thy hire, then bear all the cattle ring-strait.
So like I said last week, I don't believe that the rods somehow created speckled and ring-strait lambs per se,
it's that the rods encouraged breeding,
but God ensured that the result was the colours that they had agreed would be Jacob's.
It came from God, he said in verse 9,
thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
Why? Well, maybe he was blessing Jacob for being such a hard worker,
for putting up with a froward boss,
but also Laban was now reaping what he had sowed with his deception, wasn't he, as well.
So don't forget that as much as we say, well, Jacob's reaping what he sowed previously,
you know, with the situation with Esau and his father and the blessing,
well, you know, Laban, I mean, he's been deceiving him for a long time.
I mean, the wife thing, you're amazed that Jacob even got over that,
let alone then all the stuff following, right.
However, the other thing is that Jacob vowed to tithe too,
as we're going to see in a minute, which seemed to have a bearing on this,
we're going to see later on as well.
Verse 10, it says, and it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived,
that I lifted up mine eyes and saw in a dream,
and behold, the rounds which leaped upon the cattle were ring-strait, speckled and grizzled.
So he had a dream which showed him what was to happen when he got them breeding,
which he then encouraged, resulting in that, right.
And it resulted in them all becoming, at least his cattle, ring-strait, speckled and grizzled,
and the rounds leap upon them, so that means that that was going to be the result of the breeding.
And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying,
Jacob, and I said, Here am I.
And he said, Lift up now thine eyes and see all the rounds which leap upon the cattle
are ring-strait, speckled and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
So it's God that made it happen, okay.
And I believe that, you know, that's all true.
I don't think he's just, he's lying here.
I know, I'm sure, and I can't remember, I'm sure I've heard it preached before,
maybe some say that they believe that Jacob's just making this up now.
I don't believe that.
I believe this is true, I believe that this is basically what happened.
It said in verse 13, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointest a pillar,
and where thou vowest a vow unto me.
Now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
Now, go back to Genesis 28 to see this vow.
So he just said, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointest a pillar,
and where thou vowest a vow unto me.
And Genesis 28 in verse 20, Genesis 28, 20, it says,
And Jacob vowed a vow, this is a vow he's talking about, saying,
If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go,
and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on,
so that I come again to my father's house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my God,
and this stone which I have set for pillar shall be God's house,
and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
God's clearly reminding him of this vow, isn't he?
He's reminding him of this vow, but the vow also seems to have a bearing
in the blessing that he eventually received.
Verse 13 says, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointest a pillar,
and where thou vowest a vow unto me.
Now arise, get thee out of it from this land,
and return to the land of thy kindred.
And I get the feeling that Jacob was probably already fulfilling that vow,
perhaps with burnt offerings,
something that was already being done much earlier in Genesis.
For example, Noah did it coming straight off the ark,
because there wasn't necessarily a house of God to give, you know,
of your, you know, of your wealth or anything else to.
And at the end of the chapter he does just that.
If you just jump forward for a second, we will go there in a bit.
Verse 54 it says, and Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount.
Verse 54, and called his brethren to eat bread,
and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount.
So perhaps Jacob was mostly waiting to get to Bethel,
but regardless, he made a vow,
and God seems to be acknowledging that, doesn't he?
He made a vow, and I believe he's fulfilling that vow,
at least he's going to ultimately fulfill it,
but I believe he probably has to some degree until that.
And God's acknowledging that.
And again, you know, it's not something,
and I will preach on tithing in January,
and again, it's not for the church, it's for your own good.
And clearly here, for me, that's pretty clear, isn't it?
That he's going to remember the vow you made,
and he's just blessed him with all of this stuff.
And it's so clear, isn't it, in the Word of God,
and you see it, this is long before the law, by the way.
Okay, and you just see it throughout,
yet so many people have just, again, like I've said many times,
and it doesn't help them, they just have an issue with tithing
because of covetousness, and they're just missing out
on so much blessing from God,
and they have financial issues, or eventually will do.
And the Word of God's pretty clear on it, isn't it?
It really is.
Well, here anyway, he reminds him of the vow.
He said, you vowed a vow to me,
having given him all of this stuff, right?
And of course, like we said, it goes along with,
he's a hard worker, he's just clearly not a covetous guy.
And we're going to see in a minute that he's working hard,
and he's even bearing the loss and everything else,
not going, oh, because God's going to give me money.
He's not even focused on that at all.
This is just a good, honest, hard-working guy.
He's not focused on money.
He's not just thinking money, money, money.
In fact, he's thinking just be a good worker.
He wants to serve God.
He vowed a vow to God with this as well,
and we see him getting blessed for this many years down the line, right?
It says here,
And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, in verse 14,
Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?
Are we not counted of him strangers,
for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money?
Now, you get the feeling there's a bit of a contrast here, isn't there?
Jacob doesn't seem to be about money, money, money,
but Labour's daughters do, don't they?
A laban who's a slippery customer,
laban who, if you remember when we first see laban,
that his first reaction to his sister at the time,
to Rebecca, is having the jewellery on her hat.
He sees the jewels, doesn't he?
And we talked about how that was a picture of seeing maybe the blessings of God,
the blessings of maybe the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
But there was another point,
that that was kind of like the first thing he noticed,
was her with gold on her wrist or whatever.
It was either the bracelet or the earrings or whatever else, right?
And then he runs off and then he kind of, you know,
and he seems to be behind all this.
And then we can't,
I just get the feeling that we're being given a few hints
about maybe a bit of a covetous issue in laban's household.
Because the daughters here, that's what they're talking about.
And then in a minute we're going to see that one of his daughters
ends up stealing some gods in inverted commas,
some images or whatever it is of his,
which I'd imagine were probably worth a bit of money as well.
And there's definitely an issue here, isn't there?
We see Jacob, who's made this vow to God
and everything else he's reminding him of,
and then we've got the daughters who are just like,
well, yeah, I mean, you know, is there any money for us?
So how about you're married and go with your husbands?
It's like, well, let's work this out.
Money, money's better this way, let's go that way.
That's the way it seems, isn't it?
Are we not countering strangers?
Free of soldiers, they're quite devoured, also how are money?
Like, what's their money?
But apparently it's their money.
And obviously they're talking about the fact that
he gave Rachel a leer to Jacob in marriage
in return for Jacob's service for 14 years.
So they're, it seems, thinking that somehow they're owed that money.
I don't know.
They just seem to be money, money,
like obviously laban has some issues with this as well.
And maybe, you know, talking of him trying to rip them off
over the cattle maybe,
but just the 14 years of service he got from Jacob,
they seem to think they're owed something for that.
Verse 16 says,
For all the riches which God hath taken from our father,
that is ours and our children's.
Now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.
Definitely they've got some issues, right?
For me, they're just like, money, money,
you just do what you need to do, let's just hope we get richer.
So the other thing they don't seem to have
is much allegiance to their father anymore.
And there's obviously some bad blood there,
again, probably due to money,
and understandably, they're seeing their father ripping off their husband, OK?
Their allegiance, though, regardless, should be to their spouse now.
So at least they got this bit right, whatever their motivation is.
It's called leaving Cleve for a reason, OK?
And just, you know, I think this is always a good point,
you know, a good time to just,
whenever we see this in the Word of God,
we're going through these Bible studies,
just to remind everyone that, although, yeah, this is a messed up harem, OK?
I don't even know how you could,
I mean, they can't even become one flesh, the whole thing's a mess, OK?
However, when we married, anyone here who's married
and anyone who marries in the future,
you became one flesh with your wife,
you didn't become one flesh with your wife's family,
or vice versa, or you didn't, in fact, away from that,
you didn't stay with your parents and then invite your wife in
as some sort of secondary thing in that equation.
No, you became one flesh, you left your father and mother
and cleaved unto your wife, right?
And we have to remember that,
because a lot of people start putting their parents,
their siblings and everything else up there,
and sometimes their wife or their husband a little bit lower, don't they?
And you've got to make sure you don't do that,
because now your allegiance, your love, everything should be to that person.
They come above your parents.
And you've got to remember that,
because sometimes there can be some tough situations in life
where you kind of have to choose a little bit,
I don't mean choose forever,
but sometimes you have to know,
no, I'm putting my wife first, men out there.
Or wife, sometimes you can go,
no, I'm putting my husband first above, you know,
my dad who tells me we should do it like this
and we should pair it like that.
No, but what does my husband say?
Because he's now the boss, right?
And you've got to remember that,
because a lot of people do get that wrong,
and they've had so many years with their...
And it's something that, if you can get that right early,
I think it will really help your marriages as well,
and those of you, maybe you aren't married,
maybe in the future, is when you get married,
your wife or your husband becomes number one in your life,
above your parents, above the family and everything else.
And I think that will really help, you know,
because a lot of the time there can be these awkward situations,
and with that, what you don't want to be doing
is every time you have a problem with your husband or your wife,
going off to the in-laws, sorry, not the in-laws,
your own parents, and going off and,
he said this, she said that, I can't believe it.
You're really going to have problems,
you should never be doing that, right?
Your wife, your husband, your spouse
should be number one in your life, right?
Shouldn't be talking about them behind their backs to others,
and including to each other as well, right?
And I don't think, we don't really have it here,
we don't really have a culture of people coming in going,
the wife, you know?
Or the wives coming in and going,
I can't believe my husband did this the other day,
and everything else.
But we really don't want that culture in this church, do we?
Because that's the culture out there, isn't it?
Everyone moaning about their spouses to each other,
and you go in the workplace, they're just moaning about it.
You hear it all the time, don't you, you know?
It's, oh, well, of course, got to put up with her,
her indoors, you know, the boss.
And we don't have that here,
and we want to keep that like that,
because that's a bad place to be, isn't it?
And how rubbish would you feel as a spouse,
thinking that your husband or wife's going off
and airing out your dirty laundry to everyone else?
It's horrendous what goes on out there, isn't it?
Okay, so, anyway, here at least they've got that right.
Verse 17 says,
And Jacob rose up and said 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 getting which he had gotten in Padanaram,
for to go to Isaac his father and the land of Canaan.
And Laban went to shear his sheep,
and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.
So Rachel is now stealing, okay?
Like I said, they've got issues these long.
And it's not just anything.
She's stealing some sort of graven images, it seems, doesn't it?
Verse 30, it says, and now, just look at verse 30, it says,
And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone,
because thou saw longest after thy father's house,
yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
This is Laban talking here.
So he's referring to these images as his gods, okay?
So whatever he's...
I mean, this is obviously not a good thing, okay?
The narrator calls them images, here and later on, too.
Now, they seem sizeable enough to need hiding in the camel's furniture
we see later in the chapter, so they're not pocket-sized either.
These aren't like some tiny little things that she could have just stashed on.
She's having to hide them in the camel's furniture
because they're obviously quite large,
and they're probably made of something probably semi-valuable to some degree, anyway.
What's going on here? Turn to Exodus 20.
I'll tell you what's going on here.
People just love to have something physical to worship.
They love it.
Something physical to hold, something physical to look at,
to worship in life, yeah?
Many, for example, bow down before those silly little fat Buddhas, okay?
People all over the world, bow down before that silly fat Buddha image, yeah?
Others, it's elephant gods with, like, multiple heads and all sorts.
It's just some bizarre stuff that people...
A lot of these people, because I think in our mind we kind of...
They must be, you know, real imbeciles.
These people are probably, you know, at least IQ levels are higher than you, me
and everyone else in this room.
They're all just complete morons, you know?
They just love worshipping idols.
People love graven imagery.
They just like something tangible that they can look at and worship, yeah,
in one way or another.
Shrines. Think about all the weird shrines in Buddhist countries
and Hindu nations and stuff, just weird shrines of all sorts.
Sometimes it's got a little photo of someone dead in it, sometimes it doesn't.
There's all that sort of stuff.
The Catholics with their images of Mary.
They love that goddess, don't they?
They love worshipping an image of Mary.
Crucifixes.
And, you know, I mean, I've seen some pretty horrendous crucifixes, right?
And it's always just got this bizarre image of Christ.
And if anyone's ever confused about this issue there.
So, look, I don't have an issue with crosses, yeah,
but you don't want to be worshipping a cross, right?
So if you're bowing down before your cross,
then you've made an idol, you've made a god of that cross.
But, look, if you feel like, well, the cross reminds me of Christ stuff,
that ain't the end of the world, but when that cross has an image,
a graven image of Jesus Christ on it,
that's an idol and that's wicked.
And these people are bowing down before those idols.
Like, what's that about?
And that's big, isn't it?
Okay, that's massive. That's all over the place.
If it's not just like...
If they've managed to get their so-called image of Jesus
up to the level of being an actual adult,
and it's not just like their mother-son weird worship thing,
where it's just like a baby Christ child and a big Mary image, okay?
Well, that stuff is... I mean, that's wicked, okay?
It really is wicked, all of that stuff.
Pictures of the Pope.
I mean, some of these staunch Catholics,
they'll have a photograph of the Pope up here.
I mean, he's like top dog in their house, right?
They might have a little Christ image or something down here
and then the Pope up there.
I mean, that's wicked, isn't it?
And they worship him as well.
Have you ever seen, when he goes on visits,
there are people literally kissing his hand,
bowing down before him and stuff.
What a wicked devil to let people do that, right?
What a wicked man.
But there are other...
There are so-called Bible-believing Christians,
and there are Bible-believing Christians as well,
but there are so-called and legitimate to some degree.
For example, with paintings of Jesus.
There are people that are probably saved out there.
They have paintings of Jesus that they kind of worship to some degree.
They're kind of like, oh, Jesus, and thinking and then imaging,
imagining, sorry, in their mind that picture of Jesus
and they're bowing down, and that's an idol.
That's not the God and Jesus of the Bible.
That's why we're against all that.
That's why we don't have the kids colouring in all that stuff,
in whatever.
We don't have colouring books of weird images of Jesus,
because people start to make that the God, don't they?
Which they shouldn't,
because that's why we're not given that description and all of that
for us to make this image to worship.
There are believers, for example, that will have all those angels
or the huge crosses they've bowed down before and all that sort of stuff.
But there are other images that people worship too.
So we can look at all of that stuff, look at the religious stuff,
and rightfully we can go, yeah, label that and go, that's idolatry.
You're bowing down before images, you're bowing down before false gods,
you're making a God out of these things.
However, there are images that Christians worship as well,
that they make gods of in their lives.
For example, royalty.
I mean, when the Queen of England died,
there were people who were going mad, absolutely mad,
wanting to come and pay their respects, bow down before it,
all this sort of stuff.
A lot of people lift royalty up there.
You go to some nations, I remember going to Thailand,
and I mean, a lot of Thais will have, I mean, the king is up here.
In fact, the king's above Buddha.
The king is taught, and it's like my king,
and they worship and everything else.
It's not just royalty.
There are Christians that worship celebrities in one way or another.
You know, they'll make a god, they'll put a celebrity above god.
They will.
And you go, well, what?
You know a lot of the time what they'll put above god is a semi-clad celebrity.
That semi-clad celebrity's kind of pride of place, right?
And whether or not they're bold enough to have it on their wall,
it's just something they're looking at all the time
on their handheld device or something else,
it starts to become a god in their life.
They start to worship some sort of image of something or someone.
Sports stars, obviously, is another one.
People just idolise, they just make idols of sports stars.
Deceased relatives can be another one.
People make idols and start praying to them.
They start making them this idol in their life.
They're making them a god, sorry, in their life.
And jewels and wealth and things like that as well.
How many people make idols, make gods in their life of money,
of wealth, of jewels?
And sometimes it might be some sort of family jewel or something.
Yeah, they might not get prostrate before it,
but it's of a higher importance in their life than God.
And if we're putting anything above God in our life,
then that becomes an idol, doesn't it?
That's a false god.
If anything takes more importance than God,
you're putting that above God and God should come before everything.
And look, there are a lot of false gods out there,
even amongst, by believing Christians.
Did you turn to Exodus chapter 20?
It's such an issue that at the beginning of the Ten Commandments,
we see the first six verses really dedicated to this.
It says in Exodus 20 and verse 1,
And God spake all these words, saying,
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above
or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,
nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me
and keep my commandments.
So it's such a grievous issue that we've got kind of the first six verses
just dedicated to this sort of problem.
And, you know, really, if you think about,
well, how's that iniquity visited?
Think about where idolatry takes nations in the end.
You've got nations where they're almost like just giving over to idolatry, aren't they?
Aren't they?
If you go over to, especially areas of Asia and stuff,
where it's just like, I mean, they're just so far gone in that.
You know, trying to preach the gospel in those nations
can be really hard in some of those places, can't it?
Because they're just so taken away, just so carried away with idolatry.
And, look, it's a big, and like I said, it can be an issue in believers' lives.
And if you think about it, what do you think one of the reasons
people that we've got saved over the last couple of years
haven't stepped foot into our church
or probably into any other legitimate church or anything else?
Do you know, a lot of the time it's because of some sort of idol in their life.
It's because of money.
It's because of the idol, the idolatry of something similar.
And it ruins people's lives, doesn't it?
A lot of the time in the West it's going to be wealth.
It's not always wealth, but a lot of the time it is.
It's also so grievous that 1 Corinthians 5 says to kick out idolaters.
Just bear that in mind as well, because we talk about it and we go,
okay, well, you know, it's an issue for Christians as well
and believers can make idols in their life.
We're told to kick out idolaters.
So you want to make sure you get right with that
because that's the sort of thing that if it comes to light
and we can go, look, actually we have evidence that you're clearly,
you're making idols, you're worshipping idols in one way or another,
then that's something that can eventually end up with church discipline.
You want to make sure that if you've still got the crucifixes
and any of that stuff, you know what the best thing you could do with that
is put it on the ground and stamp it.
Honestly, stamp that and grind it with your heel
and make sure that you never ever have that on your wall or anywhere else again
because that is wicked. It really is.
If you haven't heard a preacher like this, well, hopefully you've heard it now
and you understand that, look, God hates that stuff.
He really does.
There's nothing religious in terms of when it comes to real religion,
true religion about that stuff.
It's all pagan idolatry.
Get rid of that stuff.
There's one God and he doesn't want us worshipping images
supposing to be him.
It's nonsense.
Rachel stole Laban's images.
Perhaps to worship them.
I don't know.
Perhaps because they're of value.
Maybe the positive could go,
maybe she just wanted to stop him worshipping them.
I don't buy that.
Regardless, she's well out of line here.
She shouldn't be stealing stuff and she causes a lot of trouble.
Verse 20 says,
And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian
in that he told him not that he fled.
By the way, let's just add a couple more to that just off the top of my head.
Saint Christopher amulets and little imageries and everything else.
The patron saint of travel.
Catholic hocus pocus nonsense idolatry.
People do that stuff.
Oh, well, I'd better take my Saint Christopher amulet with me
because I'm about to get on the train somewhere far.
That's idolatry.
What are you doing with that junk?
Who is Saint Christopher?
Probably a reprobate.
If he even existed, isn't he?
Is he a reprobate?
So I smoke without fire.
You know what I mean?
That's another one as well.
And all that sort of stuff...
I'm going to think of another one in a minute.
But all that sort of stuff.
You need to get rid of that stuff.
OK, here's another one.
It's the time of year.
Saint Nicholas.
Satan Claus.
That's an idol.
That's a false god.
People put him up here.
Most kids in this country, he's up here and God's down here.
Christmas, isn't that just about Satan Claus?
That's what it's become, isn't it?
That's an idol.
And you want to get that stuff out of your kids' lives as well.
Believe me.
Oh, but what does it ruin?
What does it ruin?
Still give them the presents.
Give them a stocking if you want to give them a stocking.
Just don't pretend that some fat bloke
came down their very skinny chimney.
Because it's all magic, idol, God stuff, isn't it?
And people love that stuff.
And the kids love that stuff
and then they start making the God of Satan Claus.
And it's wicked.
Get that stuff out of your lives.
Oh, but what if they tell their friends at school?
Amen.
Great.
They might help out some other kids as well.
Anyway, where were we?
Right.
Jacob stole unawares to labour in Assyria
and he told him not that he fled.
So he fled with all that he had
and he rose up and passed over the river
and set his face toward the Mount Gilead.
So he's passed over the Euphrates,
I think is the river they're talking about here.
Remember, he's up in Syria.
A name for Mount Gilead,
which is northeast of Jerusalem
on the east side of the Jordan River.
And Gilead reaches about 3,000 feet elevation, apparently.
So it'd be a good landmark to go towards,
you could imagine as well.
That's pretty high up, right?
And it was told labour and 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.
So his brethren are his people from Haran.
And from Haran, that's about 450 miles.
So they've really put the miles in to catch him
and they've caught up as well.
So they've really put some time into this as well.
And obviously they're not bringing all the young
and the baby, you know,
remember he's got a young family here.
But it wasn't to shake his hand
and wish him farewell, was it?
They didn't like travel 450 miles
for any goodwill gesture.
However, it says in verse 24,
And God came to labour in Assyrian in a dream by night
and said unto him,
Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
So this is something that he also did with Abimelech
back in chapter 20.
We're not going to go there.
They're warning these men in a dream
not to mess with his people.
And by the way, that still stands to this day, doesn't it?
Okay.
Turn to Romans chapter 12.
Now I'm going to read Psalm 34.7.
Psalm 34.7, you're turning to Romans 12,
which says,
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them
that fear him and delivereth them.
And sometimes we do suffer a bit.
We might get some grief, some slander,
some attempts to destroy us and our families.
And the best thing that we can do really
is to let God deal with it.
That's the best thing you can do
because he can deal with it so much better than you can.
Now it's tempting to want to handle it ourselves, isn't it?
And many people sometimes when you get some grief,
when you get some persecution,
when you get some people,
whatever they're saying or doing,
the flesh wants to deal with it, doesn't it?
And sometimes that could be a hard thing to deal with.
You want to fight back in one way or another, don't you,
with people.
But aside from physically defending ourselves
and our families in the moment,
and look, there's nothing wrong with that, okay?
So don't ever get pulled into that,
like you're somehow meant to just lie down
and let all sorts happen to you and your family.
No, you're perfectly entitled to self-defence.
But aside from that,
the best thing we can do when it comes to revenge
and things like that is just to leave it to God, yeah?
The best thing you can do is leave it to God.
Romans 12 and verse 19.
Romans 12 and 19 says,
Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath,
for it is written,
Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord.
So we don't have to get our own back, okay?
Let God deal with it.
And he's going to deal with it much better, okay?
He can do far more than us,
and he won't get arrested either,
which is always a plus point, okay?
Because really, you know,
you could go far with this stuff, can't you?
Because the flesh can,
you can get in the flesh,
and you can feel like getting some sort of revenge on someone
or, you know, getting a bit vengeful,
and that's always just going to end badly
when God can do so much more than you can do, really.
Connie,
a hundred times worse than you're going to do.
Leave it to him.
It's amazing.
I always find it amazing
how these people that claim to fear God
will attack his people in various ways, yeah?
Attack his different churches around,
attack legitimate churches,
whether it's literal physical attacks
or a lot of the time, like slander
and all these sorts of things, right?
Find ways of trying to just really, you know,
turn people's heads against people, et cetera.
And all of these, like, for example,
these so-called holy YouTubers
who seem to be obsessed with attacking
the few soul-winning churches around,
what a coincidence, right?
And they're out there, aren't they?
There's a lot of these guys out there,
the holy YouTuber who just,
they just so need to just really bring down those NIFB churches,
you know, those ones that seem to be the only ones that are soul-winning.
You know, we've got to get them somehow, you know?
Let's find something that we can somehow try and turn some heads
and something that, you know, can hopefully, you know,
that can be used a bit to slander someone.
If they were really legitimate,
they had best be pretty certain about the pastors
that they're slandering, right?
Don't you think?
If these people were legitimate,
and they're not legitimate, yeah,
but if they were really legitimate,
saved men and women had got out there
that are just like their campaigns of slander and everything else,
they'd better be pretty sure about those pastors
that they mock, slander, scorn, insult in one way or another,
because, well, if it's just that those pastors are their enemies,
they're in big trouble, right?
If it's that those pastors that they're attacking
aren't the horrendous false prophets that they claim,
then vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord.
And these people who claim to believe the Bible,
who claim to be so holy seem to have missed that, right?
Because they don't usually have much evidence
for their so-called slander, do they?
They just come out with it and whatever else.
And it's the same with the stalkers,
so however grieved they might feel,
because usually stalkers are people
that have been kicked out of churches, usually,
or have, you know, left after some sort of, you know,
dodginess or something else,
do they really believe this verse and others?
Because if they do, why can't they just move on?
Or are they that convinced they're that,
so they always have to try and convince you,
they know this guy must be a false prophet,
but they never really have any real reason or evidence for it.
They'd better be sure, otherwise,
God's going to give them an absolute whipping.
And that's generally what happens, I think, with these people.
Verse 19 said,
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto them.
For it is written, vengeance is mine,
I will repay, saith the Lord.
And God can avenge in a million different ways.
So for me, I'll leave it to him, thank you very much.
If, and again, I'm not saying I'm perfect with this, yeah,
the flesh can kind of, you can get in the flesh,
you'll just want to somehow get your own back on people,
but really, if you leave it to God,
he's going to do it so much better than you could do, yeah?
Therefore, he said, if thine enemy hunger,
now he's talking about our own enemies here, feed him.
If he thirst, give him drink,
for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire
on his head.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Now, just a point here, yeah?
This is talking about your own personal enemy.
And so it's not just that the God-hating reprobate
will get some sort of vengeance from God at some point, yeah?
That's including people that are just your enemies.
If they're attacking God's people,
like, for example, Laban,
I don't think we have evidence saying that Laban's
some sort of reprobate God-hater.
He's just an enemy of Jacob,
and he's getting warned here, isn't he?
You mess with my man, you mess with one of my children,
God's saying, you're going to get it.
You better be careful you don't speak to him good or bad.
And that's the same with us,
unless you start trying to take it into your own hands,
because then you're basically saying,
no, no, God, I've got this under control,
and then you just, you know,
he could have dealt with it much better.
So it is something that we need to do,
and this is just talking about our own enemies.
The point being, when we try and handle it,
ourselves will take it out of God's hands.
And look, the haters of God, just to, and again,
I think everyone understands this point,
we talk about it a bit,
but this isn't talking about the haters of God
that we're told to hate.
Okay, he said, thine enemy,
therefore if thine enemy hunger,
feed him if he thirsts, give him drink.
You shouldn't be taking an obvious,
if someone is, you know for sure that they're a God-hater
and there are certain unclean lusts, for example,
certain vile affections which prove that.
There are certain, there are certain clear characteristics,
for example, a false prophet standing behind a pulpit
preaching a false plan of salvation.
We're not meant to feed them.
You're not meant to go,
knock on the door of the local false church and go,
hi, we've just come around with a basket of food
from Strong Tower,
because then hopefully God will deal with that, you know.
Like that's, you know, it's Harvest Festival time,
we've just come with, you know,
tins of weird beans and stuff like that, right?
In Second Chronicles 92,
you'd have to know Jehoshaphat was approved for doing that,
for helping God's enemies,
where it says, in Jehu the son of Hanani the seer,
okay, this is basically a prophet, a god,
went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat,
shouldest thou help the ungodly
and love them that hate the Lord?
Okay, this isn't now personal enemies,
these are enemies of God,
therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.
You go around trying to help out reprobates,
you go around trying to,
oh, well, I just want to do really good
to like this sodomite and everything else,
and then, you know, and if I get it wrong,
well, maybe God will deal with it.
No, no, no, you're going to have wrath upon you from God, okay?
Because God makes it clear,
no, they're not our enemies, they're God's enemies, okay?
And sometimes they're your enemies as well.
But when it comes to your own personal enemy,
okay, when it's your own enemies,
when it's not someone that's clearly an enemy of God,
well, then be nice to them,
like try and just overcome evil with good
and let God deal with it, right?
And he'll deal with it much better than you can.
In Luke 18, you don't have to turn there,
Jesus said this, he said,
and shall not God avenge his own elect,
which cried day and night unto him,
though he bear long with them?
And now, obviously, there's an ultimate avenging
coming in the day of wrath, right?
But God does avenge his elect,
and it's not just talking about
the God-hating reprobates either, okay?
And sometimes people need a bit of a slap about
to deal with the fact that
they've been attacking God's people.
And some people, look, can be your own enemies,
and we should try and be good to them, try and be nice.
But really, the ultimate reason,
of course, it makes you happier,
being bitter and being full up
with all sorts of vengeful ideas and everything else
usually doesn't make you have a happy life, okay?
If your days are spent writing down ways
you can get your own back on people,
you're probably not going to be that happy, okay?
You're probably not going to have the joy of the Lord
and everything else.
But ultimately, one of the reasons that we do that
is because then we put it in God's hands
and let him deal with it, right?
Well, back in Genesis 31,
he warned Laban not to mess with his people.
He said in verse 24,
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.
So he's saying, you better watch what you say, okay?
Then Laban overtook Jacob.
Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount,
Laban with his brethren pitched him out of Gilead.
And 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?
They're his wives, by the way,
but Laban seems to have missed that.
Verse 27,
Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly and steal away from me?
And didst not tell me that I might have sent you away with mirth
and with songs, with tabaret and with heart?
What a liar!
And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters?
Thou hast now done foolishly in so doing.
But obviously he wouldn't have done that, okay?
Remember that his countenance had changed, okay?
And his sons were accusing Jacob of ripping him off.
And you know, like we said,
when you know someone for a while
and then you see the countenance change,
you just know, okay?
You know.
And I've talked about it before here.
There have been people in our church before
where you could just see that countenance
is just pure hatred for you, you know,
for the minute you get behind this pulpit
or even the minute they walk into church.
You just know.
And it's like, look,
there's no pulling the wool over my eyes.
I can see, right?
And then it's just a matter of time with people like that.
But here anyway, he knows, okay?
But he's still trying to brag.
And these people will try and brag it.
They'll literally hate you,
look at you with absolute hatred in their eyes,
then try and pretend,
I was just being a church member or something else.
It's like, come on, you know?
It's ridiculous.
But anyway, okay.
And obviously, you know,
many people have that in various ways in their lives.
But remember,
he was constantly changing the agreed deals
and you could be sure
that you wouldn't have let Jacob go with all that cattle.
No doubt about it.
So why is he saying that?
Why is he saying,
yeah, but I would have done this,
I would have done that?
Because people convince themselves
they're in the right, don't they?
People do.
Look, even ourselves, we can do that
when we're in the wrong
and then we start to convince ourselves
that we're in the right
and we convince ourselves,
no, because I would have done this,
I would have done that.
And people are dishonest with themselves,
aren't they?
And that's what he's doing here.
He said in verse 29,
it is in the power of my hand to do you hurt,
but the God of your father spake unto me
yesternight saying,
take thou heed that thou speak
not to Jacob either good or bad.
So like, you know,
he's saying it as if he's a good guy here, you know?
I could, I have the power to do that.
However, you know,
I'm a godly guy
and I had a little chat with God
and decided I'd let you off, you know?
And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone
because thou saw longest after thy father's hand,
not after thy father's house,
yet wherefore has thou stolen my gods?
And Jacob answered said to Lame,
because I was afraid,
for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take
by fourside daughters from me.
And by the way,
that first answer is in answer to the question
in verses 27 and 28, okay?
And Jacob was probably right, okay?
In fact, God told him in verse 13
to arise and get out of the land, didn't he?
Verse 32, Jacob says this,
So with whomsoever thou findest thy gods,
let him not live
before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me
and take it to thee, for Jacob knew not
that Rachel had stolen them.
So remember that they're all originally family, aren't they?
Okay, so don't forget that.
This is his mother's brother.
So I think the brethren just being amongst all,
like the people that he's brought with him,
I think he's just referring to as our brethren.
At one point, he says my brethren and thy brethren,
but I think he's just talking about the same people, okay?
Ultimately, they're family.
Now, what on earth was Rachel thinking, okay?
And you can imagine,
this must have been a pretty tense moment for her.
If she understood this, she overheard this bit,
and he said,
he said,
For whomsoever thou findest thy gods,
let him not live.
I mean, you can imagine this is probably
kind of knee-knocking time,
and she's thinking, okay, I'm in trouble here.
Why did you go and say that?
So this is a tough moment.
I hope that, well,
maybe this was bad enough for her,
but let's see what happens with verse 33,
And Laban went into Jacob's tent,
and into Leah's tent,
and into the two maidservant's tents,
but he found them not.
Then went he out of Leah's tent,
and entered into Rachel's tent.
So they've all got their own tents,
Jacob included.
This is a bizarre setup,
just to remind you again.
There's no like,
sort of his soulmates,
or whatever.
He's like,
they've all got their own separate tents.
I wonder which one cleaned his tent.
I don't know.
I reckon it was one of the maidservants,
but you never know.
Maybe Leah was a good cleaner,
apart from the eyes.
But anyway,
verse 34 says,
Now Rachel had taken the images,
and put them in the camel's furniture,
and sat upon them.
And Laban searched all the tent,
but found them not.
And 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.
So I think she's saying
it's her time of the month, okay?
Now you also get the feeling
that Rachel's being well favored
probably helped out here.
Do you remember she said
that she was beautiful,
and well favored as opposed to her sister,
who was tender-eyed, yeah?
I get the feeling that he probably
turned Jacob's tent upside down.
Don't you get that feeling?
He went into Jacob's tent first.
So he went for Jacob.
He's like,
He's got to be in here.
And he's probably like
just turned it upside down,
frisked him and everything else.
But now he's got
the beautiful and well favored daughter.
And look,
she's obviously very respectful,
but you get the feeling
that being the last tent,
he probably was hoping
that it wasn't with her.
I'd imagine, you know,
you just get the feeling
that he probably didn't want that.
Now, she was respectful.
She apologized,
I think the idea is for not rising up
before the hoary head type thing
for the respect for her father.
But he didn't just accept
this weak excuse, didn't he?
And he kind of felt like
maybe had that been Jacob,
it wouldn't have been the same way.
Oh, well, sorry, I can't get up.
You know, I got a bit of a dodgy leg.
I'm just going to sit on this kind of mound of stuff.
So, I don't know,
it doesn't seem like she got off lightly here
and it's probably because
she's well favored to some degree.
And this is a low point for Rachel, isn't it?
I mean, what on earth, OK?
But she had caused a low degree
and although she got out of it,
I mean, what an absolute shame unto her anyway.
I don't know what she would have done
with these gods afterwards,
but hopefully just this whole tense moment
was punishment enough, but I don't know,
because obviously she does die in childbirth.
It is a long time after, so I don't know.
But verse 36 says,
And Jacob was wroth and chode with Laban,
and Jacob answered, said to Laban,
What is my trespass?
What is my sin that thou hast so hotly pursued after me?
Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff,
what hast thou found of all thy household stuff?
Set it here before my brethren
and thy brethren that they may judge betwixt us.
So Jacob is angry now, understandably in his mind.
He's just thinking, what on earth?
You've come and chased me down, hunted me down,
and now finally that nothing's been found,
he can really kind of let the self,
you know, this sort of self-righteous anger go now.
He's just like, what on earth?
He said this,
20 years have I been with thee.
Thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast so young,
and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.
That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee,
I bear the loss of it.
Of my hand didst thou acquire it,
whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
Thus I was in the day the drought consumed me
and the frost by night,
and my sleep departed from my night.
So he's been a great worker, hasn't he?
And I know we talked about this last week,
so I'm not going to go into depth on this,
but he's gone above and beyond,
and he's a great example, isn't he,
of how we should be as workers,
just hard workers,
we should just serve our employer.
When you're employed,
work hard, be the best worker you possibly can,
and if you really can't deal with that employer,
instead of being a rubbish worker,
find a new employer,
and until you can,
until you get a new employer,
keep working your best for them, right?
And it's the same with the self-employed,
so for those of you who are self-employed going,
well, I don't have a boss,
well, your customer's your boss.
You take someone, pays you to do something,
do the best possible job you can, right?
And if you can't,
if they're a terrible customer,
we'll move on eventually, right?
But whilst whoever's paying for you to work,
we should do our best, shouldn't we?
We should be the best possible worker we have.
And this guy, I mean, he's been going above and beyond
with someone who stitched him up with the wife,
who apparently keeps changing his wages,
doing all this dodginess,
and he's been a great worker, okay?
He's worked the same in extreme conditions, it seems.
He's paid for losses out of his own pocket as well.
He's not just a hard worker who wants to get rich, is he?
There are plenty of those around.
He's just a hard worker.
It's not that he's like,
yeah, if I work really hard and he's like,
you know, calculating, writing down, you know,
then I can get this.
He's just paying for things out of his pocket.
He's not fuss, he's not about the money.
He's just a grafter, isn't he?
He's a grafter.
He's just got that right work ethic.
And yeah, it can take years, right, for God to reward that.
You might be thinking,
well, if only I'd gone and done that.
If only I'd gone into like the better paid job,
but eventually God blesses him for that, doesn't he?
And here he's worked hard.
And one of the reasons I think that God blessed him in the end,
because he's not covetous.
That's the other thing.
If you're living for God
and you're a covetous person but you're saved,
do you think God's really going to give you like money
and wealth and things like that in life?
And it's not always a blessing, is it?
So I'm not saying, right, those who are rich must be blessed.
But what I'm saying is if you're a child of God
and you've got issues in that department,
God's never really going to,
I don't think he's going to want you to have money
because it's going to ruin your life.
And that can be an issue for many people
is they just focus so much on it.
They've got so many issues with it.
He doesn't have that.
He said,
Now, some would look at it and go,
see, that was why Labour took advantage of him
because he was too amenable.
He was too just subservient.
He just kind of paid for things out of his pocket.
He just worked really hard.
However, who are we really working for?
Who are we working for?
We work as unto the Lord, don't we?
God provided you with a job.
God provided you with the ability to earn.
God provided you with that.
So we're working as unto God.
He blesses us and eventually God will reward us
in one way or another for being a good worker.
So when you work for that froward boss,
you are still working for God.
So, yeah, that boss might take advantage of you
for being such a hard worker,
for being so honest,
for being so just willing to just give
as much as you can in the workplace.
But eventually God's going to bless you in one way or another.
Blessings don't have to be financial.
You might find that you've been working really hard
in a low-paid job.
That's where God's got you.
That's what you're doing.
However, you've been blessed with a lovely family.
Or maybe you've been blessed with something else.
Maybe you've been blessed with seeing the salvation
of other family members.
Things have worked out.
You've been able to get to them at the right time.
There are hundreds of ways you can be blessed with love.
Maybe you won't see it until you go up there
and suddenly, you know, they're a good and faithful server.
Look how hard you worked in that job role.
You weren't focusing on money.
You were just focusing on working hard
and, you know, coming to the joy of the Lord type thing, right?
And maybe that's how you'd be blessed.
But either way, we're working for God
and we just want to be hard workers in everything we do.
And I'll tell you what, by the way,
a couple of things to think about.
Do you know what Jacob wouldn't have done?
I bet Jacob wouldn't have gone on strike.
I'm sick of people going on strike, right?
I hope no one here ever goes on strike
because what is that about?
I mean, what sort of a wicked mentality is that?
You work for someone and then you're refusing to go to work
with half the company or even more
to try and push more money out of you.
If you've got a problem, go and find a new employer.
I mean, what is that about, right?
And I bet Jacob wouldn't have gone on strike with the rest of them
if they'd gone on strike.
I bet Jacob wouldn't have taken sickies, would he?
Jacob wouldn't have been ringing in and pretending he's sick
when he's not because he fancies a day off.
Well, he hasn't really used much in many of his sick days.
You know, the other guys, they've been sick a lot.
I haven't had a sick day for ages, so I might as well take a sick day.
I bet he wouldn't have done that, right?
And he knew full well that Labour was untrustworthy.
He was working for a terrible boss.
Verse 42 says,
Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham,
and the fear of Isaac had been with me,
surely thou had sent me away now empty.
God have seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands.
So God had seen the labour of his hands and rebuked thee yesternight.
So God sees our affliction, but he also sees our labour too, doesn't he?
So God sees what we go through, but he also sees how hard we work.
They're the reasons that God has blessed him.
And Labour now said unto Jacob,
These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children,
and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine.
And what can I do this day unto these my daughters,
or unto their children which they have borne?
Now therefore, come now, let us make a covenant iron now,
and let it be for a witness between me and thee.
So he's still trying to take some sort of high ground here, yeah?
And say, well, I wouldn't want to do wrong to my seed, basically, is what he's saying.
He's going, well, you know, these are my daughters,
these are my grandchildren, you know, that they've borne.
He's saying, you know, I'll let you have my cattle, I think is what he's saying,
because, you know, basically you've got all my family with you and everything else.
So he's trying to take some sort of moral high ground,
or at least moral level ground,
but it really was the warning from God that swayed him, wasn't it?
That was the reason, because he had a warning from God.
And it was God that had prevented, you know,
Jacob being sent away empty earlier, wasn't it, as well, okay?
And the fear of Isaac, the Isaac, by the way, here,
said the fear of Isaac, I think is probably,
and we see it again shortly, is probably another name he's giving to God.
That's how I read that, and I might be wrong there,
but he said, except the God of my father, the God of Abraham,
and the fear of Isaac.
I think possibly just a name for God,
rather than talking about fearing Isaac, who's some blind old man somewhere.
Maybe he's got some kung fu skills, I don't know, okay?
But, I don't know, that's what I think it probably is, okay?
However, Jacob doesn't correct him, have you noticed that?
So, he doesn't say, no, Laban, this is all my stuff.
You can't, like, what are you on about?
You're letting me have this stuff.
You've been warned by God, you know this is all mine, this ain't yours.
He doesn't do that, does he?
Have you noticed that?
And he probably would have been correct to have said that,
to have said, what are you talking about?
These daughters are not your daughters, Laban, they're my wives.
These children are not your children, Laban, they're my children.
And these cattle and my cattle, fair and square, Laban, what are you talking about?
Let's hash this out even further, I'm going to back you into a corner
and prove to you that you're completely wrong and everything else.
He didn't do that, did he?
And I think sometimes, look, with conflict resolution,
that's not always wise, is it?
I think, like, this is, ultimately, this is conflict resolution now, isn't it?
He's got a guy who's hunted him down with a load of people.
Yeah, he's had a warning from God, but at this point he just lets him,
sometimes you have to kind of give people a way out, don't you?
Sometimes you let them take a way out
and you don't have to prove to them that they're wrong.
Look, it's something I sometimes find hard, you know?
Sometimes I just want to be like, no, I'm going to show you you're wrong, OK?
You're completely wrong here and, no, what are you talking about?
You're not taking some sort of high ground here,
you're completely wrong, but you don't have to do that, do you?
And Jacob doesn't here, he just kind of lets that go.
It's just like, look, whatever, whatever,
you want to try and tell yourself that you're doing me a favour here,
whatever, Laban, because it doesn't really matter.
I think a lot of the time it's pride that stops us doing that, isn't it?
Well, he's let him convince himself that he's been kind,
and we can do that with people, let them convince themselves
they've been kind, forgiving or something,
because it's not really that important in the end, is it?
Verse 45, it says,
And Jacob took a stone and set it up for a bit,
even make some covenant with him after all this,
instead of having a row about the fact of whose daughters are whose
and everything else.
And Jacob said unto his brethren,
Gather stones, and they took stones and made in heaps.
So he's saying to his brethren, I think it's the same people,
and made in heap, and they did eat there upon the heap.
And the stones, I think, just being a sort of visual reminder
of the covenant they're going to make.
Okay, verse 47,
And Laban called it Jegar sahadutha.
Okay, but Jacob called it galid.
Now, this basically means a heap of witness,
and the reason that Laban called it that
is because that's a Kaldi name, I think, for the heap of witness,
whereas galid is a Hebrew name for that, okay?
And Laban said,
This heap is a witness between me and thee this day,
therefore was the name of it called galid,
and mitzvah, for he said,
The Lord watched between me and thee
when we are absent one from another.
Mitzvah meaning watchtower or lookout.
If thou shalt afflict my daughters,
or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters,
no man is with us.
See, God is witness betwixt me and thee.
So, I personally think Jacob's probably got enough wives already.
However, you know, he's warning him.
Look, there's nothing wrong with a father saying that, right?
He's going like,
Look, I've already given you two of my daughters.
I won't take you any more.
Okay, maybe he could have left it at the one, but never mind.
But he's giving him a warning.
And in verse 51,
And Laban said to Jacob,
Behold this heap and behold this pillar
which I have cast betwixt me and thee.
This heap be witness and this pillar be witness
that I will not pass over this heap to thee,
and thou shalt not pass over this heap
unto this pillar unto me for harm.
So, some sort of dividing line they've put here.
The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor,
the God of their father judge betwixt us,
and Jacob swear by the fear of his father Isaac.
So, again, I don't know.
Maybe he's swearing because he fears Isaac,
but I think that's just a name for God.
Like we saw in verse 42, that's what I think.
Verse 54,
Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount
and called his brethren to eat bread,
and they did eat bread and tarried all night in the mount.
So, he's giving sacrifice of his substance to God, yeah.
Verse 55,
And early in the morning Laban rose up
and kissed his sons, his daughters, and blessed them,
and Laban departed and returned unto his place.
And that was a close call for him, okay,
and we see another close call coming up as well,
but God saw him through it, didn't he?
God saw him through that, and he got through that,
and that was, I know we went slightly over there.
Sorry about that.
That was Genesis chapter 31.
I wanted to do it in one,
and we're going to finish up now in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you for,
well, the lessons we got out of that chapter, Lord,
and just great examples of being a hard worker,
being an honest, hard worker from Jacob there,
and just also his conflict resolution there as well
and the way that he didn't have to kind of
just keep going and keep going to disprove Laban,
but the fact that Jacob, you know,
having faults as well is also,
shows us some good examples of certain attributes
and help us to be led by some of those examples there, Lord,
and also just to watch out for, you know,
things such as idolatry and other things
that we see the bad examples of there in Laban
and possibly Rachel there as well,
help us to, Lord, just take some of these things to heart,
things which really apply to us right now
and help us to just apply them, you know,
into our lives going forward this week, Lord,
to try and get those, any form of idols or risks of that,
we're told to flee idolatry just out of our lives, Lord,
help us to have a great week to get home safe and sound,
help everyone to just recover,
all the children to get healthy and well,
ready for this Sunday, Lord,
and in Jesus' name, for all of this. Amen.
Amen.