Transcript
Brace yourselves, this is the story of how God worked through a deeply flawed family to keep his promises and save his people. The family began with Abraham and if you were here last week you know that he was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob but also Jacob’s twin brother Esau.
We don’t hear as much about Esau but his name rhymes with hee-haw which may explain some of that. When he was born he was covered in red hair like an animal but he came out with his little brother Jacob holding on to his heel. That’s how Jacob got his name which means heel grabber, which means supplanter, which means the one who tries to take something that doesn’t belong to him and that’s what Jacob did.
A few years after that he was cooking a pot of stew. When his brother Esau came home from hunting, tired and hungry, Esau said to Jacob, give me some of that stew. But Jacob said, what will you give me? Esau said, what do you want? And Jacob said, I want your birthright.
Because Jacob knew that in those days the custom was that the older son would receive twice as much of the inheritance as his younger brother. But Esau said, what good is a birthright to someone who is about to die of hunger? Give me some of that stew. And so Esau, hee-haw, sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.
Not long after that Isaac, the boy’s father, said to Esau his favorite, I’m getting old. My eyes have already grown dim. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around.
Why don’t you go out and hunt some of that wild game that I love so much and bring it home and cook some of that savory stew, my favorite. And then I will eat and drink and give you my very best blessing. Well Esau went out to do that very thing, but Rebecca, the boy’s mother, overheard the entire conversation.
She pulled Jacob aside, her favorite, and said to him, go out to the flock and bring in two young goats. I will prepare them and make the savory stew that your father loves so much. And then when he has had his fill, when he has eaten and drunk, he will give you the blessing that he was going to give to your older brother Esau.
Jacob said, but mother, Esau is hairy as a goat and I am a smooth-skinned man. Suppose, just suppose, my father feels me and realizes that it’s Jacob and not Esau and gives me a curse instead of a blessing. His mother said, don’t worry about that.
I’ll take care of that. You just do as I say. And so he did.
Went out to the flock, brought in two young goats. She butchered them and prepared them and made a savory stew. She dressed Jacob in Esau’s very best clothes and took the goat skin and wrapped it around his smooth forearms and over the backs of his hands.
She put some around the back of his neck where his neck was so smooth. She said, now take this tray with a bowl of stew and a loaf of bread and a jug of wine and go in there to your father and get your brother’s blessing. So Jacob went in and he said, father, Isaac said, who is it? And Jacob said, it’s me, it’s Esau.
And Isaac said, come a little closer. And Jacob put down the tray of food and Isaac reached out for him, got him by the back of the neck, pulled him in close and breathed deeply. He said, the voice is Jacob’s but the smell and the feel is all Esau.
Which means that Esau smelled and felt like a goat. But Isaac ate and drank and when he was well contented, he gave Jacob his very best blessing. And it was a good one.
He prayed that Jacob would prosper in the land, that he would rule over the surrounding nations and over his own brother. When Jacob had received the blessing, he went out and about that time Esau came in with a bowl of savory stew. He said, father, here I am.
And Isaac said, who is it? It’s me, it’s Esau. And Isaac began to tremble violently, realizing that he had just given the right blessing to the wrong brother. Well after Esau found out about that, he wanted to kill his brother Jacob.
And when Rebekah, his mother, heard about it she warned Jacob to run for his life. He did run. He ran toward the land of Haran where her people were from.
And on the way he stopped after the sun had gone down. He laid down on the ground and put a rock under his head for a pillow. Which may have explained his troubled sleep and his interesting dream.
He dreamed of a ladder that stretched to heaven where he saw the angels of God descending and ascending. And he heard the voice of God saying, I am the God of your father Abraham and of your father Isaac. And I am going to fulfill my promise to them through you.
I tell you, your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, uncountable for the number of them. When Jacob woke up, he was terrified. He said, surely the Lord is in this place.
For this is none other than the house of God. He named it Bethel, which in Hebrew means exactly that, the house of God. And then fearing that God might judge him for his past sins, he made a promise to God.
He said, listen, if you will just watch over me and protect me and keep me fed and clothed and bring me back safely to this place. If you will do all that, well, I will give back to you everything. Well, no.
I will give back to you half of what you had. Well, maybe on second thought, I will give you a small fraction of what you have given to me. One-tenth I will give back to you.
And then Jacob went on his way. And God did watch over him. God helped him to prosper.
He made it to the land of Haran, where he saw this beautiful young woman coming toward him, driving a flock of sheep. He asked the other shepherds, who is that? And they said, that is Rachel, the daughter of Laban. And Jacob realized it was his cousin.
It was Rachel. He ran to her. He kissed her on both cheeks.
He said, look who it is, your cousin Jacob. She was so excited, she ran away without inviting him to come home with her. But eventually Laban, her father, came out.
He found Jacob. He brought him into the house. He was so glad to see him.
He heard all the news about the family and about his sister Rebecca. Jacob went to work for Laban and had worked for him for about a month when Laban said, it isn’t right. You should work for me for nothing.
Name your wages and I’ll give them to you. And Jacob, who was deeply in love with Rachel by this time, said, I would work for you seven years for the privilege of marrying your daughter Rachel. And that’s the arrangement they made.
And it seemed to Jacob like only a few days he was so in love with her. When those seven years were completed, Laban threw a great wedding feast. He invited all his friends and neighbors.
They ate, they drank, they danced. By late that evening everyone was feeling good and Jacob was waiting in the bridal tent when Laban brought him his bride. The next morning Jacob woke up and rubbed his eyes.
He looked and saw that lying beside him was not Rachel, his beloved, but her older and apparently less attractive sister Leah. And he was furious. He ran and found Laban.
He said, you tricked me. Imagine. You tricked me.
And Laban said, well that’s the way we do it in this part of the country. Boy, we always marry off the older daughter first. We save the younger one for later.
But listen, I know I promised Rachel to you. You can have her as long as you work for me another seven years. And what could Jacob do but say yes? He worked those seven years.
He worked six more years after that. He accumulated for himself not only two wives and their maidservants, but a number of sons and at least one daughter, flocks and herds until he was a wealthy man. God had been good to him, helped him prosper in that faraway land.
Jacob took all of that and began to make his way back toward his home in Canaan where his father Isaac was still living. But along the way he got the news that his brother Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred armed men. And Jacob once again was terrified.
He didn’t know what to do. He sent flocks and herds ahead of himself as a gift for his brother Esau. Maybe that would appease his anger.
He divided his family into two groups and put them in separate places. Rachel and her family on one side, Leah and her family on another. He himself camped alone in a tent on the banks of the Jabbok and that night all night long he wrestled with God.
At least that’s the way he told the story. Some people say, no it wasn’t God, it was just your anxiety over meeting your brother Esau. It made you toss and turn all night, that’s what you’re remembering.
And Jacob said, this tossing and turning, throw your hip out of joint? I don’t think so. I’m telling you, I wrestled with God and just before daybreak he knocked my hip out of its socket. I have seen God face to face but I didn’t let go of him until he gave me his blessing.
And then he gave me a new name. He called me Israel, which means the one who strives with God and prevails. The one who strives with God and prevails.
Jacob was never the same after that night. He walked away from that place with a limp but also with God’s blessing. And let me just say to those of you, any of you who are currently wrestling with God, just keep holding on.
Keep holding on. You too may walk away with a limp but perhaps also with God’s blessing. Jacob made his way all the way back to the land of Canaan.
His beloved Rachel died along the way and Jacob began to pour all that love and devotion into his boy Joseph, Rachel’s son. Joseph was his favorite and he made no secret of it. He gave him a beautiful coat with long sleeves that shimmered in the sunlight with all the colors of the rainbow.
His brothers hated him for it, that he was their father’s favorite. But then he had a dream and told them his dream. He said, we were out in the field binding up our sheaves and suddenly my sheave stood up straight and tall and all your sheaves bowed down to mine.
For which they hated him even more. And then he said, oh had another dream, the Sun and the Moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. And even his father didn’t like that one.
Are you saying that your mother and I will bow down to you? Sometime after that his brothers were in the field watching over the sheep and Joseph came out to meet them and they said, here comes this dreamer. Let’s put an end to his dreams once and for all. They intended to kill him, but one of the older wiser brothers talked them out of it and instead they sold Joseph to a group of Midianite slave traders on their way to Egypt.
And then they took his robe, that beautiful coat with the long sleeves and the many colors, they dipped it in the blood of a lamb and took it back home to their father. When he saw it he could only assume that his beloved Joseph had been torn apart by wild animals and it broke his heart. He said, I will never see my son Joseph again.
I will go down with my gray hairs to Sheol. He was inconsolable. But Joseph, in the meanwhile, was on his way to Egypt where he was sold as a slave to a man named Potiphar.
And God prospered him in that household. Soon Potiphar had put him in charge of everything, everything. But Joseph was handsome and good-looking.
That’s what it says in the Bible, not only that he was handsome but also good-looking. I thought those two things were the same thing, but Joseph must have had a double portion. And Potiphar’s wife saw that, she was attracted to him.
And when Potiphar was away on a business trip, she sidled up to him and said, lie with me. And he said, oh no, no, no, no, no. Your husband trusts me with everything.
I cannot break his trust. But she just kept coming and coming and coming, day after day, saying, lie with me. Why won’t you lie with me? Until one day when he had said no too many times, she grabbed him by his coat.
When he wriggled free, she held it up and shouted to the household staff, do you see that this Hebrew slave has tried to rape me? And when Potiphar heard that, he was furious. He had Joseph thrown into prison, the same prison where the Pharaoh’s prisoners were kept. Two of them, the royal cupbearer and the royal baker, were sitting at breakfast one morning moping about something.
And Joseph said, what’s the matter boys? Didn’t sleep well? And they said, we’ve had dreams. We’ve had these dreams about these things that might happen in the next few days. And so they told Joseph their dreams and Joseph said, it’s God who gives the interpretation.
But here it is, good news for you, not so good for you. In three days time, he said to the royal cupbearer, your head will be lifted up. You will be restored to your former position and serve once again in Pharaoh’s court.
But to you, he said to the royal baker, your head will be lifted up off your shoulders. You will be killed and the birds of the air will eat your flesh. Well, that’s just what happened.
And two years after that, two years that Joseph languished in that prison, Pharaoh had a dream. And he couldn’t find anybody to help him understand its meaning. His wise men, his advisors, were useless.
And that’s when the royal cupbearer remembered Joseph. He said, oh, forgive me, but there was a young man in prison, a Hebrew, who was able to interpret my dream. And Pharaoh sent for him right away.
Joseph bathed and shaved and dressed and came and stood before the Pharaoh who said, listen, I’ve had a dream. No, two dreams actually. In one, I saw seven fat cows come up out of the Nile River.
They were followed by seven skinny cows who ate up the fat cows but were just as skinny as before. And then I saw seven plump grains of wheat and seven skinny ones. And the skinny ones ate up the plump ones and they were as skinny as before.
What does it mean? Joseph said, well, the two dreams are one in the same. And this is what it means. There will be seven years of abundance in the land in which the crops will yield plentifully, followed by seven years of famine in which there will be nothing to eat.
What you should do, Pharaoh, and this is just a suggestion, but what you should do is find someone who is wise and discerning, who could oversee the entire project and during those years of abundance store up a surplus of grain so that in the years of famine there will still be plenty to eat. And Pharaoh looked around at his court. He said, is there anyone more wise or discerning than this young Hebrew slave? He said to Joseph, you will be in charge of this project.
And he took off his signet ring and put it on the boy’s finger. He dressed him in his royal robes. He hung a gold chain around his neck.
He changed his name to Zaphonath Paneah and gave him a royal chariot to ride through the streets. Joseph was something. Well, his words came true.
There was abundance in the land of Egypt for seven years, followed by seven years of intense famine. But Joseph had stored up so much grain in the storehouse cities of Egypt that it could not be numbered. It could not be counted.
It overflowed. And when the famine came, the people of Egypt had food. But the famine affected not only Egypt, but also the surrounding nations.
It affected the nation of Israel. And there was Jacob sitting with his 11 sons who were looking at each other, wondering what to do. Finally, he said to them, go down to Egypt.
I hear there’s grain there. Go down there and buy some grain for us. And so they went.
And they came to Egypt. And they were told to go to the royal official whose name was Zaphonath Paneah. He was in charge of the whole operation.
They saw him from a distance. And my goodness, he was so impressive in his royal robes with that gold chain. He looked like an Egyptian.
He talked like an Egyptian. He walked like an Egyptian. They didn’t recognize him as their brother Joseph.
And they bowed down before him. And when they did, Joseph remembered his old dream. He didn’t tell them who he was right away, much to his discredit.
He spent the next few months playing a cat and mouse game in which they didn’t know what was happening next. They thought their lives might be in danger. And that’s just the way Joseph wanted it.
Until that moment when he was having a meal with all of them, including his little brother Benjamin, the one he had so desperately wanted to see. And there in his presence, Joseph broke down and wept. The Bible says he wept so loudly that the Egyptians outside the room could hear it.
And through his tears, he said to his brothers, I am Joseph. You are the ones who sold me into slavery, but here I am, second in command over all of Egypt. And they were terrified.
They thought that now, surely, he would seek his revenge upon them. But he said, no, no. What you did, you intended for evil.
But God has turned it into good. And if you could take anything away from this story, I would want you to take this. That often when it seems that things are at their worst, God is at his best, working behind the scenes to bring about a different result.
You can’t see it in the moment. In the moment, everything looks awful and horrible. But God is at work bringing good out of evil.
I think about that Friday afternoon when Jesus was hanging on a cross, and the sky had turned dark, and the rain was falling, and his disciples had abandoned him. And someone said, look, the Son of God has just died. Can’t imagine that anything would be worse than that Friday afternoon.
Only years later were we able to look back and see that in that darkness, God was preparing the miraculous thing that would happen on Easter Sunday morning. Sometimes, when things are at their worst, God is at his best, doing his work in secret, getting ready to reveal it in a way that will stun everyone. So hold on to your faith, friends.
Even in the hard times, God isn’t finished yet. Shall we pray? Gracious God, we thank you for the story of Jacob and Joseph, these two people who were so human, so frail and fallible, and yet you were able to work through them to keep your promises and save your people. We pray that you might work through us even now to keep your promises and save your people, that we might be seen as the instruments of your will.
May it be so, for we ask it in the name of Jesus, amen.
