Much More Than We Can Imagine – Jacob

The Total Christian Life

Genesis 27:18-24 (NLT) 

    Jacob carried the platter of food to his father and said, "My father?"

    "Yes, my son," he answered. "Who is it—Esau or Jacob?"

    [19] Jacob replied, "It's Esau, your older son. I've done as you told me. Here is the wild game, cooked the way you like it. Sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing."

    [20] Isaac asked, "How were you able to find it so quickly, my son?"

    "Because the Lord your God put it in my path!" Jacob replied.

    [21] Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come over here. I want to touch you to make sure you really are Esau." [22] So Jacob went over to his father, and Isaac touched him. "The voice is Jacob's, but the hands are Esau's," Isaac said to himself. [23] But he did not recognize Jacob because Jacob's hands felt hairy just like Esau's. So Isaac pronounced his blessing on Jacob. [24] "Are you really my son Esau?" he asked.

    "Yes, of course," Jacob replied.

Genesis 27:41 (NLT)  

    Esau hated Jacob because he had stolen his blessing, and he said to himself, "My father will soon be dead and gone. Then I will kill Jacob."

Genesis 29:16-20 (NLT)

    Now Laban had two daughters: Leah, who was the oldest, and her younger sister, Rachel. [17] Leah had pretty eyes, but Rachel was beautiful in every way, with a lovely face and shapely figure. [18] Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father, "I'll work for you seven years if you'll give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife."

    [19] "Agreed!" Laban replied. "I'd rather give her to you than to someone outside the family."

    [20] So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.

Genesis 29:25-28 (NLT) 

    But when Jacob woke up in the morning—it was Leah! "What sort of trick is this?" Jacob raged at Laban. "I worked seven years for Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?"

    [26] "It's not our custom to marry off a younger daughter ahead of the firstborn," Laban replied. [27] "Wait until the bridal week is over, and you can have Rachel, too—that is, if you promise to work another seven years for me."

    [28] So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. A week after Jacob had married Leah, Laban gave him Rachel, too.

1.  What goes around comes around.

Proverbs 26:27 (NLT) 

    If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will roll back and crush you.

Eccles. 11:1 (NLT) 

    Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later.

Genesis 32:22-31 (NLT)

    But during the night Jacob got up and sent his two wives, two concubines, and eleven sons across the Jabbok River. [23] After they were on the other side, he sent over all his possessions. [24] This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn. [25] When the man saw that he couldn't win the match, he struck Jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.

2.  We begin to grow in depth and maturity when we stop running away from issues that God wants us to confront.

 [26] Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is dawn."

    But Jacob panted, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

    [27] "What is your name?" the man asked.

    He replied, "Jacob."

    [28] "Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won."

    [29] "What is your name?" Jacob asked him.

    "Why do you ask?" the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.

    [30] Jacob named the place Peniel—"face of God"—for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared." [31] The sun rose as he left Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

3.  When we confront the real unresolved issues in our lives, God will take care of everything else.

Genesis 33:3-4 (NLT) 

    Then Jacob went on ahead. As he approached his brother, he bowed low seven times before him. [4] Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him affectionately and kissed him. Both of them were in tears.

Genesis 34:11-12 (NLT) 

    Then Shechem addressed Dinah's father and brothers. "Please be kind to me, and let me have her as my wife," he begged. "I will give whatever you require. [12] No matter what dowry or gift you demand, I will pay it—only give me the girl as my wife."

Genesis 34:24-30 (NLT) 

    So all the men agreed and were circumcised. [25] But three days later, when their wounds were still sore, two of Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, took their swords, entered the town without opposition, and slaughtered every man there, [26] including Hamor and Shechem. They rescued Dinah from Shechem's house and returned to their camp. [27] Then all of Jacob's sons plundered the town because their sister had been defiled there. [28] They seized all the flocks and herds and donkeys—everything they could lay their hands on, both inside the town and outside in the fields. [29] They also took all the women and children and wealth of every kind.

    [30] Afterward Jacob said to Levi and Simeon, "You have made me stink among all the people of this land—among all the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are so few that they will come and crush us. We will all be killed!"

Genesis 20:1-2 (NLT) 

    Now Abraham moved south to the Negev and settled for a while between Kadesh and Shur at a place called Gerar. [2] Abraham told people there that his wife, Sarah, was his sister. So King Abimelech sent for her and had her brought to him at his palace.

Genesis 26:6-9 (NLT) 

    So Isaac stayed in Gerar. [7] And when the men there asked him about Rebekah, he said, "She is my sister." He was afraid to admit that she was his wife. He thought they would kill him to get her, because she was very beautiful. [8] But some time later, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out a window and saw Isaac fondling Rebekah.

    [9] Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, "She is obviously your wife! Why did you say she was your sister?"…

Genesis 35:2-3 (NLT) 

    So Jacob told everyone in his household, "Destroy your idols, wash yourselves, and put on clean clothing. [3] We are now going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. He has stayed with me wherever I have gone."

4.  God calls each one of us to stand in the gap by being His shepherd to the lost around us

God matures us through trials and difficulties in order that we can become shepherd to those in the process of growing up.

Ezekiel 22:30 (NIV) 

    "I looked for a man among them who would…stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it...