Genesis 34

Intro:

It seems like every book I’ve read and the differences between men and women has pointed out:

That men have a voracious physical interest in women while women…just don’t have the same testosterone levels driving them on.

That a lock of hair, a sultry smile, a little skin showing are all it takes to get a man’s attention, while women are drawn to conversation and sweet acts of kindness and prefer to be cared for and protected.

All the studies show it. All the experts know it. All the married people affirm it. But what do all the TV shows say? What do we see in the movies? What do the magazines sell you? The exact opposite!

The beautiful brunette is the tough lead cop. The chief of the department is a woman.

The knockout redhead is constantly growling with lust for some hunk she can’t keep her hands off.

The blond is the is sleeping with 2 guys at once. And all their girlfriends can talk about is how much fun sex is in the city.

And every girl in a magazine is panting to make you happy.

And after our hero and his beauty finish surviving a fall from an airplane, a shoot out, and the explosion of the bad guy who strewn mangled bodies of humans all around the room and the county, -they of course do what every traumatized, victimized persons who just narrowly escaped death do: they make out!

[I'm not sure, but maybe it's because men are writing the scripts or buying the material.]

Here’s my question: why would women, who mostly desire to be protected and loved, and who do not ordinarily have stomachs growling with animal desire, –why would they play such parts? Why would so many girls pretend in so many pictures, or on so many covers? Why do so many celebrities pose for the world to look at them? Why would Dinah, in Genesis 34, Jacob’s only daughter, take off to hang around with local girls and end up in a date-rape with some foreign man?

I think it has to do with our need for love. People will do almost anything to feel loved.

1. Knowing you’re loved and feeling you’re loved are different things.

A. Here’s the thing about Dinah, and it’s not that she’s in the kitchen with a bango. This is only the second time she’s mentioned and the only story we have about her. We know that Jacob was somewhat of a deadbeat dad. We know he had his favorites and that he embittered most of his boys enough that they sell one of their brothers. We know that girls weren’t as prized as sons in that culture. So what do you think life was like for Dinah?

In all likelihood she did not feel loved by her dad, Jacob. In all likelihood, this is behind her going “out to visit the women of the land.” (Other ancient literature shows us that a prostitute was call “one who goes out in the countryside.”)

Now, was she hoping to be grabbed by a foreign man? Probably not. Did her parents ever tell her they cared? It’s a good possibility. But it’s also a good possibility she didn’t feel valued and loved and that would certainly fit with a girl going and looking for love in all the wrong places.

Illy: The human need to be well-fathered is illustrated by the enormous response to Bob Carlisle’s 1996 ballad, “Butterfly Kisses.” The song speaks of the tender love between a father and his daughter, of pony rides, and bedtime prayers and growing up to get married, but always kisses goodnight.

Reflecting upon the song’s phenomenal success, Bob Carlisle said, “I get a lot of mail from young girls who try to get me to marry their moms. That used to be a real chuckle because it’s so cute, but then I realized they don’t want a romance for mom; they want the father who is in that song, and that just kills me.”

B. Being a person who caused the birth of another does not make you a dad or a mom. Making sure your child feels your love makes you a good dad or a mom. We don’t do that by paying the bills or going to work. Our children feel loved when we invest ourselves in them.

“He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” Proverbs 13:24, NIV.

In his book The Masculine Mandate, pastor and author Richard D. Phillips writes of his meaningful relationship with his father. In 1972, Phillips was just 12-years-old when his father was sent to Vietnam. The only way he and his father could communicate was through letters. He writes:

One of the most powerful memories is the thrill of the letter I would receive from my father almost every week …. Recalling my personal letters from Dad practically brings me to tears even now. He would simply begin by telling me about his life. Not big military issues, but “neat stuff” that happened or that he saw. Then he would talk to me about my life, writing things like this: “Dear Ricky, I heard you had a great baseball game and made a great catch. Your mother told me how exciting it was when you won. How I wish I could have been there, but I can see you making that catch in my mind.” …

Do you see what [my dad] was doing? My dad was telling me that I was his boy and that his heart was fully engaged with me, even from halfway around the world …. In the midst of a life-and-death war zone, with all the weighty responsibilities of a senior Army officer, my father was truly absorbed in my life. And I knew it. So when he said to me, in effect, “My son, give me your heart,” he had already given every bit of his heart to me, his boy. I couldn’t possibly help giving my heart back to him.

Parents, worry less about your real estate and pay attention more to your children. They are your only real estate. You can’t just say you love them. They won’t feel you love them without you involved in their day.

2. When your kids know they’re loved and feel they’re loved it makes them strong.

A. Here’s another thing going on in Jacob’s family. Jacob is an out-of-the-picture dad. Did you notice in this, perhaps the darkest story of the Jacob cycle, that Jacob isn’t dealing with the molesting of his only daughter? No, it’s the brothers who get upset, who deal with Hamor, who do the negotiations. Where’s Jacob? Absent. And where’s Jacob when his boys walk off into a foreign town and murder all the men as they lie recovering in bed? Absent.

“The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.” Proverbs 29:15, NIV.

A girl loved and cared for and valued by her father does not feel the need to find it in the bed of her boyfriend. A son who knows down in his soul that he’s important and loved by his family doesn’t need to go looking for heroin to escape his emptiness. He doesn’t need to try and be cool by drinking foolishly with other hurting guys. That’s just the way it is. There are girls and boys everywhere sleeping with people, being used and abused by people because they don’t feel an undying surety down deep inside that some loves them at home.

James Dobson tells this story:

Several months ago, I talked to a man who described one of the most painful experiences of his life. When he was 17-years-old, he was one of the stars on his high school football team. But his father, a very successful man in the city, was always too busy to come see him play.

The final game of the season came around, which happened to have been the state championship. The boy was desperate to have his dad there. The night of the big game, he was on the field, warming up, when he looked into the stadium just in time to see his father arrive with two other men, each wearing a business suit. They stood talking together for a moment or two and then left.

The man who told me this story is now 58 years of age, and yet he had tears streaming down his cheeks as he relived that moment so long ago. It’s been 40 years since that night, and yet the rejection and pain are as vivid as ever. I was struck again by the awesome influence a father has in the lives of his children.”

B. There’s a corollary to this point: children who do not feel they are loved and valued by their parents tend to be more mentally, emotionally and spiritually troubled.

Girls without a father in their life are two and a half times as likely to get pregnant and 53 percent more likely to commit suicide. Boys without a father in their life are 63 percent more likely to run away and 37 percent more likely to abuse drugs. Both girls and boys without a father are twice as likely to drop out of high school, twice as likely to end up in jail, and nearly four times as likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. [Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services press release, "HHS Launches 'Be Their Dad' Parental Responsibility Campaign" (March 26, 1999)]

According to a study of white families, daughters of single parents are 53 percent more likely to marry while still teenagers, 11 percent more likely to have children as teenagers, and 92 percent more likely to dissolve their own marriages. [Source: Cited in Irwin Garfinkel & Sara McLanahan, Single Mothers and Their Children (Urban Institute Press, 1989)]

(There goes the fabled notion that being a single parent is just as laudable as being a married couple. Now, we don’t look down on people who suffer from broken relationships. It is for us to love people in their needs. But lets just be careful of adopting the media’s presentation that single parent homes are just as healthy society as not. That there is no reason to agonize over the dissolution of a marriage, or that we can be a corporate go-getter, amassing accomplishments in the world of business while others raise your kids -and not affect the lives of our offspring.)

Premarital pregnancy, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and absent fathers are the most common predictors of child abuse.

 3. Knowing you’re loved and feeling you’re loved helps you be spiritually genuine.

A. What does it mean to be spiritually genuine? Well, what does religious fakery look like? You go through motions, but have no heart. You attend some church but think not about God or interact with him. You claim you follow God, but you cheat people if you can get away with it, don’t save yourself for your marriage, Spiritually genuine people let their faith affect their actions.

When they sell something on ebay, they deliver what they promised.

When they pray, they aren’t thinking about what other people in the room are thinking.

When they perform a service, they do their best even if they’re not making top dollar on this sale.

When they are given too much change, they give it back because God like that.

OK? I’m saying that it’s easier to be spiritually genuine, or moral when you know down deep that you are loved by your parents.

B. What else do you see going on here in the dark chapter of Genesis?

For one, Jacob’s sons are turning out just like him. His name meant “deceitful”, or “tricky.” Now they are deceitful also. (v13) We should not miss this. Further, they use their very religion to murder a whole town, stabbing all the fathers and brothers with swords! Good grief! Far be it from us to read a story like this an interpret it as God’s way of getting rid of pagans! Even their evil against Dinah didn’t merit these repercussions!

B. One of the criticisms of Christianity is that it is a crutch for the weak. Belief in God is considered by some to be nothing more than an illusion to satisfy unconscious needs. But Dr. Paul Vitz wondered the opposite: suppose it’s the atheists who are engaging in unconscious wish- fulfillment.

To find the answer, Vitz scanned the last four centuries for patterns that distinguish the lives of atheists from the lives of theists. After studying the lives of more than a dozen of the world’s most influential atheists, Vitz discovered they all had one thing in common: defective relationships with their fathers. Vitz defines “defective” fathers as those who were dead, abusive, weak, or who abandoned their children.

Sigmund Freud wrote that his father was a sexual pervert.

Thomas Hobbes’s father was an Anglican clergyman who got into a fight with another man in the churchyard and, subsequently, abandoned his family.

Ludwig Feuerbach, at age 13, was abandoned by his father, who openly took up living with another woman in a different town.

Voltaire fought constantly with his father, causing him later to reject his surname.

Schopenhauer’s father committed suicide when he was 16.

Both Bertrand Russell and Nietzsche lost their fathers at the age of four.

Sartre’s father died before Sartre was born, and

Camus was a year old when he lost his father. Hume also lost his father in early childhood.

Hitler’s father was a violent man who unmercifully beat Adolf, his mother, and even the family dog; he died when Adolf was 14.

Stalin’s father also administered brutal beatings to his son.

Obviously, much more evidence needs to be obtained on the “defective father” hypothesis. But the information already available is substantial; it is unlikely to be an accident.

Sources: Professor Paul C. Vitz, “The Psychology of Atheism,” Truth Journal and his lecture, “The Psychology of Atheism,” delivered at Columbia University (9-24-97); Anne Morse, “Atheism and Its Link to Bad Dads,”

 Conclusion: Two concluding thoughts”

1) For those who feel fatherless, or are poorly loved by their parents in this world, know that you do have a parent is constantly pursuing you and loving you. Let your pains push you toward his perfect affection for you.

“Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.” Psalms 27:10, NIV.

 “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.” Psalms 68:5, 6, NIV.

2) For those who are parents, know that the quality of the attention you give your children sets the course of society

Hebrews 11:23-28; 13:1-16

Guest pastor:  Dave Veldhorst, our missionary to Thailand

Genesis 32

Intro: What makes you who you are? Some ethnic backgrounds have a practice of naming or at least renaming people according to things that are distinct about them. In our country the American Indian is known for this practice. It was celebrated in the movies, like Dances with Wolves. We may tend to name our kids according to ancestors, or movie stars, whereas an indian might name them according to something they like or saw recently.

“Come Spotted Fawn, it is time to eat.” “Daughter-who-Feeds-Me, where is our son, little Swings-from-the- Chandelier?”

You would never name your 3rd daughter Winona, because it means “firstborn daughter.”

Some of our modern things bear indian names. Kohls sells Sonoma clothing. Ford had a truck by the same name. It means “ground place” in Miwok. I have no idea what they were thinking.

In biblical times, names were much more significant than they may be for us. Especially when someone is re-named, as happens with Abram, Sarai, Jacob, Simon, etc.

Todays text tells the tale of the naming of God’s nation, in their fore- father Jacob and it has something to say to us about how God thinks of us, and what’s really important in life. Israel means “fights with God.”

What does it mean that the chosen people of God are called after their father’s name “God-Fighters”?

Maybe “God-strugglers” is a better way to put it. Just as Kevin Costner’s character was named Dances with Wolves because that’s what he did, so Jacob is named “Stuggles with God” because that’s what he did, or should we say, learned to do.

Another good word for “fights” is “deals with”, or contends with, or messes with, or is involved, or is up to their knees in –you get the idea? God-strugglers are people in hand to hand interaction with God. That’s what it means to be one of God’s people; to be in the mix with God.

 1. For those who struggle with God, our damage does not define us.

Jacob started out the trickster, the deceiver, but that was not what God meant for him. Oh no, God’s plan was far higher than that.

Deceiving and conniving, planning and manipulating; this was Jacobs natural way. No one had to teach him this. He was hanging on to his brothers heel when the two twins were born!

And no one has to teach you and I to be greedy. No mother sits her child down and says, “Now when I give you a brownie, this is how to be greedy and want some more. Compare your’s to your brothers. If his is smaller, smile and feel good. If his is larger, squint your eyes, frown and try to feel gipped.” Don’t be silly. Kids do that all on their own!

Ever notice how some babies want whatever the baby next to them has? On bald kid picks up a block. The one next to him whines and reaches for it. There’s no class for that.

B. Many times you and I give up on the struggle of being human and think that our flaws define us but they don’t.

I’m just a greedy pig. I can’t help it.

I can’t shake my depressed nature. Why fight it?

These temptations never go away, I might as well indulge, give in, quit fighting. It’s who I am. No, it’s not!

The good secret of God’s book is that those things are not true. There are spiritual powers (creepy, I know) working at convincing you of this, but it’s not who you are when you are a God-struggler, somebody in-the-mix with God.

He renames you. He overpowers your old nature.

 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV.

Paul talks in Romans 7 about the old nature and the new nature. They are at war. But one is our false self. The new is our true self. The new self is our destiny. That means it’s on the way. It’s where we’re headed.

“he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6, NIV.

Are you a lonely boy? You won’t be.

Are you an addicted girl? You won’t be.

Are you a worried mother? You won’t be.

Are you an angry person? Listen, pray.

Pray specifically against the spirits working on you. Pray “I come against the mind-binding spirits with the Kingdom of God. I bring the rule of Jesus over the spirit of loneliness keeping my in my house and away from others. In Jesus name, I command you to leave me!

That’s God-wrestling, God-struggling.

 2. For those who struggle with God, the blesser outweighs blessings.

Jacob shot out of the gate wanting more, wanting blessing. From childhood he was after the birthright, the parental blessing, the good things of life that God was supposed to give him according to the prophecy. But all his stuff never gave him peace or confidence. It didn’t make him a happy man.

What Jacob needed was to be in the mix with God. This he put off and put off. Finally God came in a theophany, a physical, real presence in the world – and wrestled hand to hand with Jacob. Jake was a slow learner. Can you relate? And what did Jacob discover? He discovered God wanted to be with him. God wanted him. God wanted to struggle with, to work with, to mix with, to live with him!!

v24-25, Why does this guy show up?

V29-30 Jacob doesn’t need to be told his name. He knows very well who it is. It’s God. And he knows very well that he was “spared”.

That’s probably why the word “overcome” in v28 would be better translated “lasted” or “survived” or “prevailed.”

Hey, when all the guy has to do is touch you and your leg wrenches out of socket, it’s not a contest. He’s only there because he wants to be.

B. Guess what? God wants to be in your mix! God wants you in the mix with him! Yes, you heard me right. I don’t know why, but the True God loves humans. The True God comes looking for them, us. He comes calling. He’s calling to you right now!

You don’t need everything to work out just like you planned. With God in life with you, you’ll be OK in whatever.

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13, NIV.

What Jake finally learned was it wasn’t the blessings that made life life. It was the blesser; God. When you are walking through your day in full realization that Jesus is walking right beside you, you can be at peace.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Romans 8:28-35, NIV.

C. Jacob went from a scared, conniving man to a courageous, confident man once he directly struggled with God.

He’s no longer the scared guy hiding his family across the river (Crossing a river at night, in a world without flashlights, flood lamps, he must have been pretty anxious.) Now (33:3) he’s leading the way to meet Esau.

He’s no longer competing with Esau. Now he can repeatedly refer to himself as “your servant”. (33:5b)

Look how generous he becomes. He’s not worried about stuff anymore. He’s not back to take Dad’s inheritance from Esau by right. He doesn’t even feel the need for it! (33:11)

So what happened? He was finally walking with God. That’s pretty much it. He wasn’t living his life vaguely aware of God. He was walking with God. He wasn’t going to school and once in a while sitting through devotions. He was walking with God.

Can I ask, what are you doing? What am I doing? Life is different. WE are different when we are walking with God.

Conclusion: The invitation of Israel’s story here is to make the main thing about your life your spiritual struggle.

 “This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 9:23, 24, NIV.

What we see here is temporary. What we don’t see, the spiritual, is what’s eternal and lasting. We need to be attending to the things that are worth it.

 “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:15-18, NIV.

Check 32:1. Remember how when Jake was running away (Ch28) he saw the angels of God, the stairway to heaven and named the place Bethel/ House of God? Now angels again. Later, it would seem some condescended form of God himself. And he would name the place Face of God, or Peniel.

It’s a label indicating God’s in my mix and Im surviving! I think that’s what he means when he compares Esau to God in 33:10. Once again, Jacob is in the presence of dangerous power (Esau and 400 men) and is OK, he survives.

God-strugglers are people who know walking with God is the main thing. It’ makes all the difference.

We will be hosting a Blood Drive on Sunday, February 26th  from 10-2 pm.  Look for the Heartland Mobile Coach in our east parking lot. All blood types are needed.  Please bring a photo ID with you.  Give blood and stay for lunch, compliments of First Church!

If you would like to sign-up to participate or if you would like more information, please contact the church office at (219) 838-6231.

Please join us on Saturday, March 17th at 7 pm for a fun filled evening of laughs with Christian Comedian, Jeff Allen!  You may have seen him on Comedy Central, VH1, Showtime, TBN CBN, Family Net and numerous other networks. He was also featured in the Chicago Tribune recently!  His show entitled“I Can laugh About It Now” is a gospel message of restoration and redemption, and a celebration of marriage.

Tickets are available in our church office:  $10 for adults and $5 for 18 yrs. and under. 

Please call us at (219) 838-6231 or e-mail us at office@firstchurchhighland.com to purchase your tickets TODAY!  All proceeds from this event will benefit First CRC Charities!

Jeff Allen’s website

November, Chicago Tribune article

Ever wonder about that old painting that is in your attic collecting dust?  How about that china that you inherited from your favorite aunt?  Now is your chance to see what it might be worth!

We are excited to have Rex, owner of Rex’s Antiques, coming to First Church on Wednesday, March 21st at 7 pm.  His busy schedule includes speaking engagements at 90 libraries every year, private house calls everyday for appraisals, and has the experience of over 1500 presentations including being a past guest on Fox TV.  Rex is knowledgeable, entertaining and serious about ‘collecting’ which he has been doing for over 30 years.  He shares his expertise in collecting, trends, and ‘fair and honest’ appraisals.  According to Rex, categories getting attention and the best price now are:  old/silver, art, coins, jewelry, military, vintage furniture and anything retro.  His specialty is paintings/art/jewelry, coins , and designer furniture (really much more!).  Rex personally is a collector of African American art.

Join us on Wednesday evening, March 21st in our Social Hall for a special night filled with memories and unforeseen treasures.  This event has NO COVER CHARGE but we do ask that you limit the number of items brought for appraisal to ONE. 

If you have any questions, please contact the church office at (219) 838-6231 or email at office@firstchurchhighland.com

 Rex’s Antiques Roadshow flyer

Genesis 31

Intro:   I was young, innocent, infatuated with a short, blonde girl not altogether unlike my someday-to-be wife. Ah, but this was long before true romance. Anyway, I digress. Being the romantic type and also a happy Christian, when I came across a Mizpah coin, it struck me as the perfect thing. Here was a coin cut puzzle-like in half, each half attached to a chain. The coin as a whole read the loving verse “May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are apart one from another.” Wow, so heartfelt. So Kings English with “thee”s and “whilest”s. So much more than the common, “Yo! God Bless!” I bought it and gave half to the short blonde. It said it was 14k gold overlay, but when my half started turning green I didn’t care. This was romance!

Over time that “relationship” would fade away, but my attraction to the Mizpah coin started to fade before that when I came across the actual text from which it was taken; our text for today. One afternoon, after spying it around my neck my mother bluntly informed me that it wasn’t a romance verse so much as pact between two thieving rats agreeing to leave each other alone. Talk about cold water on a hot lover! I was offended! So I looked it up and you know the rest.

The lyrical verse imploring the Lord’s thoughtful gaze was indeed more like a swearing between two mob bosses marking off territory under the Brooklyn Bridge. “God is my witness yous cross dis street & yous will swim wit da fishes… and I mean that in the nicest possible way!”

Trickster Jacob and Swindling Laban traded shielded offenses as often as money changed hands. Their story shed’s some insights on our spiritual development. So lets dig in.

 1. I am a mixture of godliness and godlessness.

A. One of the striking things about this story is the mix of what we hear and how much we don’t hear. In the 20 years that Jacob was gone from Canaan we hear little if anything about his interaction with God.

1) We hear of no sacrifices. We hear of no prayers, talks with God. Whereas the first patriarch, his grandfather Abraham was constantly interacting with God.

In addition, Jacob is by hidden trickery sucking the profit out of Laban’s herds. While several commentators assert it to be well known that what a female sheep sees while conceiving affects the fetus within –at least Laban didn’t seem to know this bit of shepherding.

2) On the other hand, Jacob’s religion is sprinkled in there just a bit. God is mentioned in the naming of his children, but his wives do that. It’s as if Jacob isn’t involved, an oddity to a Jewish person. Rachel references the Lord in naming Joseph, but then what’s she doing stealing her fathers idols when they leave for Canaan in the next chapter?

We do see Jacob admitting to Rachel that only God can give children. And we see him admitting later that for all his efforts in stick carving and shepherding, it is really God who took Laban’s flocks and handed them over to him (31:9)

We can be quick to agree with this, as Jacob set himself up with a risky disadvantage: sheep tend to be all white; goats all black. The mixed colors are that abnormal. Which makes the result clearly something special if Jacob should prosper at all.

Yet, if Jacob was sure God would help him, he is equally sure that he will have to force God’s way to come about, like he did with getting Isaac to bless him, the younger son, even though God had promised it already.

It seems that Jacob is not unlike many of us; bouncing back and forth from believing and following God, and disbelieving and trying to make things turn out by our own strategies.

B. We must of course, ask ourselves at every turn whether we are feeding the godlessness within, or the god-like image in which we were created. Whether we are feeding the false self, or the true self, the old nature, or the one set free by Christ.

What will you do today, on God’s day of rest? And will it feed your soul in becoming a bit more loving, sacrificial, generous, patient, joyous, and kind -like the God who sent his son to die in your place? Or will what you use this day for help you to be more selfish, violent, materialistic and spiritually lazy?

Are we sprinkling God on like a dash of seasoning over the dinner plate. Sit through worship, say a little prayer and then live like everybody else?

Don’t we see how much like Jacob we are? Oh sure, we believe in God. We even stand up and join the church! We’re members! But we don’t talk to him much. We really don’t believe he answers our prayers so we just don’t value praying. When he does answer clearly enough that we can’t miss it, we think we’re hallucinating or just going loopy. This friends, is Middle School Christianity. We have not yet graduated. There is farther to go.

C. One way to move on, grow up in spirituality is to make choices that require trust in God. Many people who have begun experiencing God never continue to the point where his interaction is a daily normal thing merely because they never take a chance on him.

They don’t tithe. They don’t take the $20 challenge or even come to the reports to see if God delivered? They don’t obey his word. They don’t close up shop to have a day of rest. Then they wonder why God doesn’t seen real to them. God’s just letting us provide for ourselves since that’s what we’re choosing.

Jacob didn’t trust God so he posed as Esau.

Jacob’s lack of trust made him turn to peeling sticks in an attempt to get the breed sheep to see spots. We can read this 2 possible ways: 1) it was superstitious and Jacob was turning to divination, or dark powers thus not turning to God, or 2) it was just good science, he had discovered this possible effect on the sheep and he was using it to his advantage.

Either way it’s shady. 1) Suppose it was just good science? He certainly wouldn’t tell Laban about it because he was in essence forcing Laban’s flock to produce for him, Jacob. 2) Suppose it was superstition? The he was turning to false gods for power, something strictly forbidden in the Scriptures for it’s lack of turning to Yhwh.

D. So we have 2 biblical lessons:

1) If you encounter a power that does not recognize and serve Jesus Christ, have nothing to do with it. Place your trust in Christ not just for heaven, but also for the stuff of earth. Have no doubt friends, psychics, witches, and the like have very real powers. They deal with very real spiritual realities. But these powers are not from the true God. Leave them alone. Even if it costs you, submit your life and outcome to God alone.

2) Never seek your gain dishonestly, trust God to prosper you as he sees fit. This doesn’t mean we don’t work hard, invest, plan ahead. But while we might figure Laban deserves to be cheated since he himself cheated Jacob out of his wife –this is not God’s way.

 “Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.” Proverbs 20:22, 23, NIV.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath,  for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:17-21, NIV.

2. I need not dispair for even when I am godless, God is faithful.

A. Lets go back to chapter 28:13-15. Here is God’s promise to Jacob, the continuation of the same promises to Abraham and Isaac. He promises what? The land. Many children and descendents like dust. And that his chosen ones will be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

OK then, what’s happening in our text?

1) Jacob has just finished having a dozen children.

2) Laban has clearly observed that he has been blessed by Jacob’s presence. 30:27

3) Jacob is headed back to what he calls in v25 “my land”.

4) God is keeping him safe. Cf 31:24 God appears to a non-God follower and tells him right out to leave Jacob alone!

Basically this section is showing us that God was doing exactly what he said he would, even though it seems like life is such a struggle for Jacob:

He’s tricked into marrying the wrong girl.

He labor for 14 years but then has nothing but kids and wives. No flock, or wages, or bank account.

Laban keeps changing the deal. Cf 31:6-9

B. So here’s the application: God always keeps his promises even when it seems like he isn’t.

What has God promised you? If you are a lover of Jesus then:

God has promised you will live forever.

God has promised never to be away from your side, whether you have learned to see him or not.

God has promised that even the evil things in your life he will smash and remold into good things for you. Rom.8

God has promised his Holy Spirit will be living within, whispering to you if you will but listen for him.

God has promised that your needs will always be supplied (Phil.4:19)

God has promised that if we delight in him, he will satisfy the desires of your hearts.

God has promised he will pass blessings on to 1000′s of your generations!

And when do you wonder if God is really keeping his promises?

When you are honest but the greedy and the cheater gets ahead on your back?

When you work hard but your business doesn’t grow exponentially like the seminar promised?

When you faithfully taught you child the Lord’s ways but he seems glad to splash around in the world’s?

When you have been unfaithful in raising your children, leaving it all to another but now wonder what you have done?

When you have outright sinned against God and the guilt is destroying your spirit?

When you are not please with your lot in life, but can do nothing it seems to alter it?

No my friends, God has not forsaken his promises. God’s gears have not ground to a passive halt. And he has not wandered off in search of someone else. God is gracious to everyone who turns to him and repents.

Say it to him, “I return to you. I repent. Be gracious to me.”

“The LORD will fulfil his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures for ever–do not abandon the works of your hands.” Psalms 138:8, NIV.

 Conclusion:

Will the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from another? You can be sure of it.

Even if it did start with two cheaters, still, it certainly is true that God watches over those we love and his plan for them does not come to and end just because we’re not around. And you can be sure God is watching over you too, even though all godlessness is not gone yet, and even though we have a long way to go before we are really like him. But he is never finished with his own.

Will God deliver? Maybe Jacob was allowed to serve many years in a foreign land under a harsh master and then delivered back to his own land of Canaan after miraculously becoming wealthy quite quickly –all so that when his children went down to a foreign land and were enslaved unfairly they would be able to say in the misery of it all “God will provide. God will fulfill his purpose for my life.” And so live like Godly people even in the face of evil. Maybe. And maybe we who are the new Israel can remember the same thing.

Genesis 30

Intro: Last week I drove down the street of a mobile home park in Black Oak that was the scene of a news report not so long ago. A little boy had been kept in a dog cage for several years before eventually murdered. This was a case of serious abuse.

John was giving several of us local pastors a tour of Gary. Along the way he would stop and point out homes of people he knew, families most of whom had gone through deep tragedy. There lived Tony before he drowned. Andrew was shot right there. Greg was in trouble with a gang and that’s where his house used to be. His mom died in the fire. Cases of human abuse.

John works on a plot of land about the size that I live on. He bought the little fire house there with his own money about 20 years ago to bring the presence of God’s love to the hurting culture of Black Oak. He’s been burned down three times. There are bullet holes in some of the walls. He teaches the neighborhood kids Tae Quan Do, basketball, and about Jesus whenever he gets a chance.

As our tour continues, he points to a house where one of his best black belt female students was shot while on the phone with her friend. The friend heard the whole thing. Human abuse.

We drove through the village of Small Farms. Honestly, it was more like driving through an overgrown marsh. I looked very much like places I’ve gone deer hunting, except for the narrow, broken tar roads outlining sections of the woods that surely were once neighborhood blocks. There were still some houses, if you could call them that dotting the lowland tundra. And three horse stables! A few hundred yards through the trees you could see Highway 80/94. But you probably have never seen Small Farms from there. I hadn’t. Everywhere there is evidence of dying community. A serious case of abuse.

In another community far away, in the corn-belt of our nation, there was a young boy whose mother used to leash him to a nail in the kitchen floor and beat him with a rolling pin. When I met him, he was the pastor of a small Methodist church in the country near our town. One of his ears really didn’t look like an ear at all. More like a hole in the side of his not very round head. That was from the rolling pin. Human abuse.

Some folks in the Bible-Belt of our country have had long traditions of dressing up in shiny shoes and ties on Sunday, and talking under there breath about how evil it is to run in church, or sit in the wrong place, or heaven forbid it, hold hands with a boy because we all know where that leads.

These same folks might also tell their children they were going to hell when they cussed, or mouthed off. I know of such that were actually roped to a tree and told Jesus was coming for them to punish them. All in the name of God, mind you. Human abuse.

I know pastor’s kids, lots of them, who greatly dislike God, and Church people because of human abuse.

Not so long ago, a professor at our denomination’s Calvin College was suspended because he had an inappropriate relationship with a lovely student. We call it abuse. But we forget there’s more. What about the human abuse somewhere in either of their lives that would lead the professor to take advantage of a younger person, or the girl to believe there was something good or valuable in this inappropriate relationship? We of course can only guess.

 1. Our sinful nature naturally leads to human abuse, odd as it may seem.

In our text there is a whole lot of human abuse going on. The founding father of the nation continues what began with his parents. Favoritism.

At it’s heart, favoritism is concern with self-pleasure. Pleasure in itself is not a sin, but concern for self-pleasure reeks havoc on relationships. Favoritism is essentially favoring ourself. So maybe you favor a child because he or she is more like you. You feel more comfortable with him/her. Or because one is a better student, or better looking which makes you proud out there in the world. But favoritism is not love. Love has nothing to do with the quality of the beloved. It is an inner movement or decision to care for another not based on what one receives.

Favoritism leads to human abuse.

We read earlier in Genesis that Jacob’s dad, Isaac, loved Esau, and Rebekah loved Jacob. You know how that turned out.

Now Jacob loves Rachel, but not Leah although she is his wife. She sleeps with him. She bears him sons so prized in that culture. But he does not love her. That’s ab-use.

Then there is the sisterly rivalry over making babies with the big guy. In their race for children they barter over who gets to sleep with him and when.

[How far from our own day, right? Aren't you worried about over-populating the earth Leah? Don't you want to be a “working woman”, have a career? You could afford cruises if you didn't have so many kids to put through school. And what about that goal of retiring early and seeing the country? Plan Leah, plan! Live your own life Leah!]

In our tour of Gary, we drove past Michael Jackson’s childhood home. A small house about the size of my garage, where Michael, his 6 brothers, and three sisters grew up. Times have changed, haven’t they? In our career, and “success” driven world children are often things we collect like cars, and fishing pools. (We know what we want before we’re married: a dog, a house with a big yard, a good pickup, and then maybe one girl, one boy. Have you got that down,God?) We have smaller families today, and we rent storage bins on the other side of town for our excess stuff.

The danger here is what we’ve been looking at all along; our propensity to human abuse.

2. What is abuse? Simply defined, it is negative (“ab”) “use” of a person. It is to use or treat someone in such a way as to cause damage or harm.

Jacob damaged both his wives by not loving Leah.

Jacob damaged his sons, as we will see, by loving Rachel’s boys more than Leah’s. In their jealousy for their father’s love they would eventually sell Joseph to slave traders ending him up in Egypt!

Rachel and Leah both abused their servant girls, making them sleep with Jacob and have kids they would claim. How do you think that went? And how did it go when say, Naphtali eventually found out his birth mom was his mom’s housekeeper?

(note: v18 is what Leah thought about the whole situation, but that doesn’t make it true. The rest of scripture would argue with her logic. )

Rachel and Leah are abusing Jacob too. Verse 16. Jacob may not have minded, but if that’s the case, he is more emotionally removed than we thought and that’s never good in relationships.

B. And now we come to the convicting part. What do we hear from the Holy Spirit as we read the sacred text? Where do I miss the sacredness of human being?

Our culture, perhaps all cultures, lends itself to the sin of human abuse. In other words, we humans easily miss the true sacredness of people as image bearers of God.

Abortion: Naturally, on this weekend many Christians focus on the human abuse of abortion, the outright killing of children who haven’t breathed air yet, but are fully human as are we. Millions of them, because we favor convenient lives, and less struggle, and lots of sex with little responsibility. [show video on sanctity here] But abortion is easy for us because in so many other ways we already are used to not believing in the sacredness of a human being.

Degrading language: Some parents curse their children when they irritate them. Some treat them like dogs to be kenneled. Others just have no time for them. They work, and make lots of money. I know some children who drive very expensive cars, lead aimless lives, experiment with drugs, and other things to fill the emptiness they feel because while they do have parents, they don’t really feel important to them.

Porn is essentially the lack of treating someone as sacred. It’s deceptive because it feels like we are admiring the person in the photo, but we are far from loving them. We are loving our own delight, and using them for a moment to get it for ourselves. And we have trained ourselves to use people.

We use their pretty face to sell tires, as if they were related somehow. We use their exposed bulges to sell beer and hot wings. We use their handsome jaw to sell novels and cigarettes. And just about every magazine in the checkout aisle ab-uses a woman’s body to get us to read about it’s abuse of their private lives.

Hollywood is human abuse if you really think about it. Marilyn Monroe’s life was an illustration of human abuse. A beautiful face turned into a “star”, which could be translated, idol, or money maker, or object. The public treats them like gods with red carpet, flashing cameras and tabloids. But we don’t really love them. We use them to entertain us in our boredom.

Husbands who don’t listen, or even want to know what’s going on in their wives minds…

Mothers who are too tired to make their kid a lunch, or never think to ask how school went today…

Sisters who tell girlfriends they never really liked them to begin with…

Father’s that mutter that the son never does anything right and will never amount to anything…

Students who only talk to the pretty girls at school, or who won’t sit near someone perceived as uncool…

Parents who use physical danger to get children to obey…

Adults who use kids for sexual pleasure…

Parents who talk so much their kids hardly do, or who lecture to correct them for extended periods of time, also in public…

Brothers who won’t talk to each other…

Church people who let the visitor stand alone in the Fellowship Hall feeling like a fish out of water…

It’s all abuse for one major reason: every human is a sacred being!They bear the image of God, everyone of them.

 Conclusion: The solution to human abuse is to start treating every human as sacred.

Don’t refuse to go to the hospital because they give you the creeps. Love goes because there is a sacred human there who is hurting.

Psalms 82:3

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2, NIV.

Genesis 1:27

Let’s keep one final thing in mind. Because Jesus considered us sacred, and family he came to be killed in our place. And because resurrection power belongs to him, Jesus can resurrect us out of our abuse and abusing. Jesus did not come for holy people, so stop pretending that your so holy. Face up to your own sins, and the sins of those around you and bring them to the Christ. Only he can overcome them.

This Jesus chose to come into this world through Jacob’s family, Leah’s son Judah to be more specific. And Jesus was the active God in the whole process of that family. He was not gone.

Leah clearly notes it in the naming of her first four boys. 29:32-35

Little “God Sees”

Little “God Hears”

Little “God Joins”

and Little Praise Him.

Jacob admits it to Rachel when she demands children from him. ch30:2

Also the narrator states clearly that God blessed the abused wife with children. 29:31

So God is not absent in the abuse we experience. He is molding their evil behaviors into his ultimate divine plan. I am not saying it is OK, only that it is conquerable, and useable by our Savior.

Pray unto God in the abuse you are enduring. Bring it to God’s people for help. But do not stop calling to God that his goodness may result (this is a lesson we will learn again later from Jacob’s youngest so Joseph whose story fills the last 13 chapters of Genesis.)

And repent of the ab-use you are doing. Repent and ask forgiveness and God will forgive you and reshape you.

In James Cameron’s graphically stunning film Avatar, the human hero Jake Sully is rescued in a forest of the planet Pandora by a native female there named Neytiri.  He learns many things from her, not the least interesting of which is how they say “I love you.” in their culture: “I see you.”

This I think is also a biblical image.  Psalm 139 spends a lot of time reminding us of our Heavenly Father’s care, mostly in terms of how much he knows about us, has planned for us, and “sees”of us moment by moment.  This is the great truth that Kerry Livgren was looking for when he wrote “Dust in the Wind.”  He found this truth to when he met Jesus Christ.

There are many times when we wonder if God is really watching lovingly, like a parent, and guarding our lives.  I think it natural that our longing to see God back grows as we mature in our spirits.  We long for heaven, for Christ to come back and sometimes we call out to God about it all.

Oh God I long

to see you face to face.

Oh God, so strong

who made both land and space

My God, how long

till I feel your embrace

Oh God, my song is for you.

Do you still see me down here on earth?

Have you been counting the days since my birth?

Am I a vanishing mist on the wind?

Am I mere dust that forgets where it’s been?

Oh God, come near

and whisper aloud

Oh God, make clear

your Spirit’s around

God I revere

your passion abounding

Oh God my song is for you.

Relieve our pains and come to our aid.

You know our names at least that’s what you said.

Don’t leave us here apart from your grace

O God we long to behold your face.

John Wesley has a well known line in his journal about his conversion to becoming a follower of Christ.  He says that as he sat listening to someone reading some words of Martin Luther, “my heart was strangely warmed.”  He was feeling the presence of God. How often have you felt such a presence.  I believe that God’s presence is available to us at all times, yet we miss experiencing it most of the time. This can be learned.  We can practice the historical spiritual disciplines to draw closer to God.

Christmas time is a season where I often ponder deeply, and more often feel those “strangely warm” moments when God is touching my mind or heart.  The following is a prayer in the form of a poem/song that asks for this very thing.  Maybe it will help you too.  Maybe you could set it to music!

Strangely warm my heart, my savior

Let me sense that you are near

Manger-King command, impart your

word of love that calms my fears.

Refrain:

Keep oh keep me by your side

Break away my sin and pride

Let me live the light er’lasting

From the dark to you I’m hast’ning

Stangely form my heart, my savior

Shape it to your perfect will

Manger-Ruler raise your septre

Speak the Word, your purpose fill

(refrain)

Strangely storm my heart, my conquerer

I would gladly be your slave

Manger, angel-sending Father

How I prize the gift you gave.