Read the Selected Scriptures from Gen. 28-31

·       28:13-14: At Bethel #1 God blesses Jacob.  It was long before his growth in mature faith, of course.  That’s the way it is with us.  The word of the gospel has been announced by the Lord.  We are called to believe.  So Jacob was called to believe.  The promise from God is an encouragement for Jacob to trust God.

·       28:20: “If” is a specific Hebrew word, not just the “mood” or “tense” or even the “context” of the passage.  The first use of the word was in Gen. 4:7 when God set out the “if” condition for Cain: if you do well.  Here, Jacob is setting out a condition for the LORD.  To me, this is not an expression of faith but the conditional promise of faith in the future, if God meets the condition.

·       29:2: We should never forget what a great place a “well” is in the Bible.  Being there provides a great opportunity to connect with people, of course.  And if it is near a field, shepherds will come to care for the sheep, and for Jacob that’s a good thing because that’s his “profession.”  It also turns out to be a “God thing.”

·       29:4: “My brethren.”  Jacob, the “shmoozer.” Or "schemer."

·       29:31-38: For three boys Leah hoped Jacob would love her.  Then with Judah, she resigned herself to just thanking God. 

·       30:6,8: Rachel is competing with Leah for honor.  Leah is competing for Jacob’s love.  Rachel doesn’t understand.  God’s blessings are for us, to us, not our surrogates.  I can hear Rachel arguing with people: “these two are from me.”  It was an empty argument.  Furthermore, Leah can do the same thing, give Jacob her handmaid.  But in the end, Leah’s life is also empty.  In 30:16 she “hires” her husband to sleep with her.  In 30:18,20 it is clear that she is still trying to buy Jacob’s love.  As for Jacob, what do we have?  Fourteen years with lots of sex (29:31-30:24).  Now he becomes wealthy (30:25-43).  But what of his relationship with God?  Laban believed God was blessing Jacob (30:27).  Did Jacob think this or did he just say this in 30:30?  The three people (Jacob, Leah, Rachel) illustrate the emptiness of life apart from a relationship with the Creator.

·       31:1-13: To be honest, it is hard to tell if Jacob is being honest here.  It seems more likely that 30:25-43 is an accurate account while 31:4-13 is exaggerated.  Certainly, 31:1-3 was true.  But Jacob lies because he wants his wives to be convinced.  Even v11-13 is questionable.  It could be he wanted a “miracle story” like his dad and granddad.  In what follows, he is still struggling, literally, to trust God.

o     This is not meant to criticize Jacob.  His struggles are a perfect picture of the struggles of the flesh and the Spirit (Gal. 5:17).  Jacob is typical for us as we seek to come to faith and to mature in faith.