Big idea: Set your heart toward home; God’s promises and presence go with you.
Three exoduses:
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that that is just so thrilling that we get to be part of that we don't necessarily talk about it enough. We should talk about it more. God has built us to be a counseling church. God's built us to be an equipping church. We train and send. You know, if you, if you total up 30 plus years, six years of strategic Bible institutes in Russia and the former Soviet republic produced about 150 church plants, which is extraordinary. We have a couple of local language church plants, let alone the ones that the belches planted in South America and Venezuela and now Ian Tenerife, we could talk about varieties of things, missionaries that have gone out locally and internationally. It's extraordinary. We get to be part of that. What makes that happen? What makes that happen is a community that gathers together, that understands we have a mission beyond this life. We love each other, care for each other, as each of us have a mission, and then we also seek to launch for new language groups, for other cities, other places, other places in the city. So it's really a thrilling thing for us to think about. We are all on this journey toward a new heavens and a new earth. I We are in the book of Genesis, and as we shift to our sermon, you might want to turn to Genesis chapter 30. Let me, let me double check here before you stand up. Let me just give a couple of remarks about this in chapter 30. If you're brand new with us today, welcome. We're really glad that you're here and visiting. If you're visiting, we're going to talk a lot about animal breeding. It's in the Bible, along with a lot of other things that are in the Bible. This is part of a continued story in the life of Jacob. Jacob is the great object of God's grace and blessing as an answer to his promises to his grandfather, Abraham, Jacob's being blessed in part because of a promise made to his grandfather. He is one of the least likely candidates for hero if we're going to use the literary way of using Hero in the Bible, like if anybody is more undeserving of this blessing, it's Jacob. And yet it's a great object lesson, because God gives grace to the undeserving, and that's how he's making a people. So you're going to jump into this, I would encourage you, if you're new, go back to the previous set of sermons in the life of Jacob, and today, Jacob is turning his attention home. We're going to talk about that. Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word. I'm going to read 3025 through 3116 it's a little longer reading. If you can't stand for the whole that's all right to sit and yes, we're going to repeat phrases like spotted, striped and mottled over and over, because that's what's in the text. That's what makes it interesting. But we'll see why God put such an emphasis on it to show his unusual, powerful grace, verse 25 as soon as Rachel had born, Joseph Jacob said to Laban, send me away that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for i for whom I have served you, that I may go for you know the service that I have given you. But Laban said to him, Well, if I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your wages and I will give it. Jacob said to him, you yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me, for you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household? Also he said, What shall I give you? Jacob said, You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and spotted and speckled among the goats that they made shall be my wages. So my honesty will will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you, every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats. And black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen. Laban said, Good. Let it be as you have said. But that day, Laban removed the male goats and were that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black. He put them in the charge of his sons, and he set a distance, three days' journey, between himself and Jacob. And Jacob pastured the rest of laban's Flock. Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees and peeled white streaks on them, exposing the white to the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks. And so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black of the flock of Laban, he put his own droves apart and did not put them with laban's Flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks and the troughs before the eyes of the flock that they might breed among the sticks. But for the feebler of the flock, he would not lay them there, so the feebler would be laban's and the stronger Jacobs. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks female servants and male servants and camels and donkeys. Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's, he has gained all this wealth. And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was, and said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before, but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and has changed my wages 10 times. But God did not permit him to harm me. If he said the spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock bore spotted. And if he said, the striped shall be your wages, then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me in the breeding season of the flock. I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped and spotted and mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream Jacob. And I said, Here I am. And he said, Lift up your eyes and see all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now Arise, go out from this land, return to the land of your kindred. Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our Father's house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do this is the word of the Lord God.
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We praise you that you give us your word. And your word is not plain and sterile. It is not a collection of people who did good and got blessing or heroes. It's a story of real people and real trouble, we thank you that you worked your grace, and as hardly any of us are ranchers, we don't necessarily understand animal breeding, animal husbandry, yet you have some things to teach us here about how we can trust you and how you provide as we ourselves look forward to the next stage of life, that you call us to the next mission and ultimately to our home in heaven. Pray that you would guide us and teach us, Father, there are brothers and sisters in our midst who need your comfort and aid. I pray for Stacy OTT that you would continue to heal her from her cancer surgery. Thank you that it has gone well and recovery is happening. We pray for a college retreat. Ian is probably finishing up his last sermon this morning for the college students. Use your word powerfully and help the interactions go well. Help the students come back eager to please. You continue on mission on the college campuses. It's Veterans Week. We have many here who have served in wars, and we pray that You would bless them. We are not unaware that part of how you have protected our nation, part of why I can stand here, is because you have faith. Faithfully protected and faithfully guided people in the military. And we pray many veterans suffer with many problems after they come back, and we pray that you would bring the gospel to them and open their hearts. Help us be ready to serve in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. You it.
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So here in the story of Jacob, we find after 14 years, he's turned his heart home, part of the story line Exodus and return. Exile and return is making its turn here. Jacob had to flee, if you're new with us. Jacob had to flee from his home. He had to be exiled because he had cheated his brother Esau out of the blessing. He had tricked him out of the birthright, and Esau wanted to kill him. He had to flee in exile do his own deception and trickery. And yet, because God has set his electing love on Jacob, Jacob is going to be in the line that leads to the 12 tribes of Israel. And 12 Tribes of Israel is going to have one special tribe in Judah, where Jesus is going to come. God does this in His amazing grace for him, he spent 14 years. He's got two wives. He doesn't have any money, but he wants to go home. He has a longing for home. A longing for home is really a really familiar story line. It's familiar in story telling both Tolkien's masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, our journey, our voyage and return, stories, quest and return. In the middle of two towers, Frodo and Samwise Gamgee leave, have left the Shire. They're in a dark, dangerous place, and they're longing for home. They're longing for home. Says the smell of the Shire. He missed the touch of the soft earth, the taste of strawberries and cream. He could see it in his mind. Eye, the party tree, the hill, the water running past the mill. It's from two towers you've undoubtedly seen a lot of exile and return stories. They're great stories. It always involves characters changing. If you're visiting with us, if you're not yet a follower of Jesus, I want to prove to you that you have a longing for home, even though you might be home. I was trying to tell my wife, the best lessons in life are learned through country music. Okay, the Bible first, but like never count out country music, she reminded me this morning walking in to my study of the classic that even people in check sing, you're going to sing it. I don't sing well, but we're going to do it anyway. And you're going to sing because you know this song,
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almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge mountain, Shenandoah River, life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, flowing like a breeze. Country Roads take me home to the place I belong. You're crying right now. Right West Virginia. Wait, West Virginia. Oh, we were so good.
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We're in Czech Republic with 75 atheists, and they know that song. It's a common feeling, so God put eternity in the heart of man, and you may be home in a good place, a dating relationship, a couple, a marriage, great job, good city. And yet, you know, there's more. You know there's more. There's a longing for. For home. The Bible is an exile and return story. That's what it is. Starting in Genesis three, the perfect world that God made for Adam and Eve. They forfeited it by their sin, they were exiled from the garden. And from Chapter Three to Genesis, 22 is a story about God taking and making a people and bringing them home. The whole story of the Bible is about God bringing a people home for his glory, even if we live our whole lives in one place. In the words of the Apostle Peter in first, Peter 211 it says we are sojourners and exiles. We are on our way home. Jacob sets his heart toward home and God's provision and his presence, just as He promised go with them, I would say that's a good place to set. Our big idea setting your heart toward home. For Jacob, it comes in stages. For us, it normally comes in stages, with the ultimate stage and a new heavens and a new earth. Set your heart toward home. God's promises, especially the promises to provide, to be with us go on. There are many exile and return accounts in the Bible. We don't have time to go through those. But this one is particularly important for Israel. There is Jacob here going to Canaan, and it's a mini Exodus. He's not coming out of Egypt. He's coming out of Haran, when the nation of Israel gets Genesis on the plains of Moab, about to cross into the promised land. This is going to be a significant story. A lot of ahas are going to go off. This is how our father Jacob, our patriarch Jacob, left and went home.
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And all of it foreshadows the great Christian Exodus provided by Jesus Christ, as Jesus Christ returns to take us home, establish a kingdom and eventually a new heavens and a new earth, that is the final resting place being with God in His glory, where no one sins, no one gets old, no one dies, the world does not decay. Is the full offer of the Gospel through Jesus Christ, that's the full offer. So as we start, I just want to start this, because I don't know everybody who's come today, have you taken that offer by faith? Because what I'm about to say won't make a lot of sense to you or be helpful to you until you do. Jesus said to Nicodemus, like he says to you, you must be born again John, three old teacher, comes to Jesus says, I know there's something different about you. And Jesus tells him, you must be born again. Well, how do I start over? I'm an old I'm an old man. How do I be born again? And Jesus starts by telling him, well, you're going to see just as Moses lifted up the serpent, so the Son of Man must be lifted up on the cross, and then he says these words you also have heard and know well, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son on the cross to pay for our sins that whosoever believe in Him, that is believe what He did on the cross to pay for our sins, has the only way back to God. Whoever believe in Him might not perish but have everlasting life. That little phrase, everlasting life when you believe it starts now and finishes in its fullness and eternity in a new heavens and a new earth.
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Have you done that?
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Have you repented from your sin? Has God made you born again by His Spirit? Have you confessed Jesus as the only Savior. If you do, you have a better Inkling and understanding of that final resting place that's the Christians who. A forever home. So as we look at this, we have a case study in Jacob, in setting our heart toward home. God's promises, especially his provision and his presence, help us get there. What Jacob needed to get to Canaan, we need to get home in heaven, and by God's grace and His glory, He provides for us. We're going to take it in two parts. We're going to look at trusting God's provision for the journey. We're going to look at trusting God's presence. We're going to answer some really interesting questions about animal husbandry that come in this passage, and I'm going to direct almost all of them to Joe Swanson, who is the only known rancher here. So he gets to explain to the kids how all of this works. We can trust God to provide along the way. And for Jacob, like for us, things happen in stages. He has gone into exile. He has gotten his family. He's ready to come back. He is going to go back to the Promised Land. He's got a lot of obstacles on the way. First one is, how is he going to feed his family? There's 14 mouths to feed. Obstacle number one. Obstacle number two, will Laban ever let me go? Next week, we're going to see obstacle number three, the fears and difficulties he has eventually we're going to see obstacle number four, he's got to reunite with Esau. All of these require a big view of God, His grace, His presence and His provision. And you might have your own stages that you're dealing with to trust God for all of those things. Let's, let's look at this first, trusting God's provision for the journey. As soon as Rachel had born, Joseph Jacob said to Laban, send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. That's where we're taking our theme from. He wants to go home to his country. God's going to call him home to his country. Says, give me my wives and my children from whom I have served you that I may go for you know the service that I have given you. So he says to Laban, I've done what I promised. I've I've labored for 14 years for my wives. Now, Jacob had set his heart to return, and according to many of the ancient laws in neighboring countries, Laban would normally give gifts to his daughters and his grandchildren and sent them off, but Laban, Laban recognized something about Jacob which wouldn't let him go very easily, and Jacob probably knew that Laban was going to try to work a deal. Verse 27 Laban said to him, Well, if I found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Laban used a pagan practice of divination. We don't know how he did it, but whatever spiritual mumbo jumbo we worked, God used it, and Laban learned that the multiplication of his own sons and his daughters, his grandchildren, and all the prosperity that had happened with his flocks was due to Jacob. And here's here's what's critical if you're going to look forward to taking the next steps of faith to the next level of whatever God has intended you for home here on your way to heaven, you're going to have to look back at what God has done to provide for you his first the first witness in this text is a non Christian Laban who says, I know God is with you. And this is a promise that's been fulfilled directly from Genesis 12. Those who bless you, I will bless those who curse you. I will curse. Laban is going to do both things, bless, curse. He's been blessing and so God has been blessing him. Jacob said, I know God's been with me. God's provided for me. He says, For you yourself, know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turn. But now, when shall I provide for my own household? It's been 14 years. I've followed the deal. I've got the two wives. I've got all these kids. I want to provide for my own. Laban says, What shall I give you? Jacob? And Jacob said, You shall not give me anything. Now, Jacob had a plan, too. Jacob's plan provided the most obvious integrity and acceptable deal with Laban. Customary oversight for a flock was 20% pay to the shepherds. Jacob said he's going to take the spotted, striped and mottled colored animals. You notice how many times those words are repeated practice saying all those things fast? Why? Is this a big deal? Here it is, most animals were monochromatic, monochromatic, meaning they the sheep would have been white, the goats would have been black, the cattle would have been Brown. They were generally monochromatic, but there were recessive genes that produced spotted, striped, mottled colors. And recessive genes means two animals with the recessive genes have to mate so that they produce more with it, which was very rare. So that should have been a very small percentage. Jacob does something extraordinary. It really helps him be clear about what's his. All the monochromatic animals would have been laban's, all the colored ones would have been his. It's going to be easy when I settle up to tell what belongs to me. But Jacob was also taking a huge step of faith, because he was counting on God to provide for him through the recessive genes, through not the smartest breeding techniques, Jacob was putting his his future and his provision into the hands of God. Interestingly, Laban is the one who separates them. Because Laban is thinking, we're not going to we're not going to make this easy for him at all. Laban goes through the flocks, takes all the striped, spotted, mottled colors. He takes them out, gives them to his son, sends them three, three days journey away. So it's impossible for those who had those recessive genes to be part of Jacob's pool. Now he only has the monochromatic ones. This is even harder. And God makes this situation work out. Jacob comes up with the ingenious bark peeling tactic. Verse 37 Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees and peeled white streaks on them, exposing the white sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks, and the troughs, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks. Here was the idea all the animals go to the watering holes. This is where the breeding always happens. Usually a rancher, the person would take his his bulls, his males, and he would release them to the flock at that time, and by putting these striped sticks in the in the troughs, Jacob was influencing how everything turned out. Are there any powers to this trick, if there were they'd still do it. There's all kinds of debate, from speculative science, like maybe the smell of the almond bark made the animals that were stronger want to make like they do. All kinds of guessing. Most likely, it was a folk belief that this might influence, much like mandrakes might make you have a baby. That's what Rachel thought. So Jacob thought this might work, and it did. It did work. In fact, it worked so well. Verse 33 it says that the man increased greatly. Had large flocks, female servants, male servants, camels and donkeys. Not. It was not just a select few. And whenever he went to breed his animals and he used the stronger he they produced. They produced for his wages. He could sell off sheep, goats, cattle, to local traders, and he could accumulate other things that he needed. And he becomes very wealthy. God is providing for Jacob. He was growing rich.
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Now notice a couple of things. Jacob looked back at God's promise from Bethel, we'll see it in a minute that God would provide and he did so he could take a step of faith with Laban and his deal with the sticks and their stripes, trusting that God would provide second notice this he acted with integrity. I mean, that's different for Jacob. Jacob's name means deceiver, cheater, and he wants to act with integrity. God is now teaching Jacob.
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This starts the second or the last of the periods 14 years. This is going to go on six years. There's one other thing that we shouldn't miss. He did maximize his productivity. He did maximize his productivity once he understood that the bark trick worked. He always took the strongest of the animals at the breeding time to have them breed, and the weakest he had breed separately. His flocks grew stronger. Laban's flocks grew weaker. Jacob operated in perfect alignment with his contract. That's how all good shepherds would breed their flocks if they knew it worked. The results of the breeding were always still up to God, and God provided miraculously through these bizarre mating practices. So think about it. And I want you to think about how fears and anxieties and obstacles work in your head. You look back, and the person who might be a follower of Jesus looks back and said, I see how God did this in the past for me. You might be at the present, and you might say, I know God is with me. But you look at the future and you think of what's ahead, and you think of the challenge, like, I don't know if we're going to have enough to feed my family. And you look ahead and you imagine the future without God, almost always, fear and anxiety about the future are an imagined time where God is not present, where God is not providing, part of the key of being able to step out in faith and move forward in God's mission is going to be remembering where God was in the past, what he's doing in the present, counting on his promises for the future, whatever your fear and phobia, whatever the difficulty You see, God provides for his people. Second, we can look at this first, we need to trust that God provides. First, remember God. God provides second, we remember God's presence. Jacob needed to remember God's presence as he went. You know, the Bible tells us that we cannot see God yet, but he's with us. He's with us because he's omnipresent. He is everywhere, always, all at once. God is here, even though we can't see him. He will promise, and he promises to be with us invisibly until we arrive in heaven. To see him visibly, we need to remember God's presence. Jacob was told this, what is the evidence of God's presence? It's usually provision and protection, it's usually provision and protection. 31 One. Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our fathers, and from what was our fathers, he has gained all this wealth. They're getting jealous. So his cousins are getting really upset laban's flocks are shrinking. Jacob's flocks are increasing, and they have the wrong idea, the wrong interpretation, that it really should still belong to their father. Jacob saw verse two that Laban did not regard him with favor as before, Laban and his sons had this skewed view based on their greed, and Laban, the natural trickster himself, was changing his mind. What's Jacob's next obstacle to going home? Will his father in law even let him go. Will he let his wife and children go? He's got his own set of fears, but says this. Then the Lord said to Jacob, return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you. That's what you circle. God is present. He promises to be with his people. It's time for Laban. It's time for Jacob to leave Laban, and he says, I'll be with you. I'll protect you. So Jacob does the second thing for the first time in this Jacob story, he teaches his wives, we see him act with integrity for the first time. Now he's going to teach his wives. He's got to have a conference. He's got to remind them of what God's been doing and that God's calling them away. So Jacob sat and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was, and he said to. Them, I see that your father does not regard me as with favor as he did before, but the God of my father has been with me. There it is. Circle it again. God's presence has been with him just as promised. Now they can count on God's presence being with them as they go forward, even though your father doesn't regard me. Well, the God of my father does. Now that's a really important realization in this journey. You know, you you may be home, but still not be home. It's usually that realization you think that, you know, during the era of, like, you're growing up, you're getting wisdom, we call it education, you're getting ready for a career, and you get out, and you start your career, and you start your career, and you go, like, it's all right. Oh, I can't wait to get my career. And you get your that's all right. You get married, you're like, it's great most of the time, most of the time, maybe it's not great for you at all. And you realize this isn't home yet. You buy your house and it needs repair. You buy whatever it is. There's a realization that you're not home yet. You he's trying to remind his wives you, your father has left you hanging, but my God and Father will provide for you. He says this God did not Oh, verse six, you have you know that I served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages 10 times. Remember, Jacob meets his match like the deceiver gets deceived 10 times like he needs to get these lessons. But here it says, But God did not permit him to harm me. So not only was God with me, God protected me. He explains how it all worked. This turns out that these sticks and spotted sticks trick was all superintended by a gracious promise keeping God. If he said, your father in law said, the spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock bore spotted. If he said the striped shall be your wages, then all the flock bore stripe. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. This is again the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise those who bless you. I will bless those who curse you. I will curse and now, as Laban has shifted his treatment of Jacob, whatever he says, changing the deal actually becomes part of the wealth of Jacob. God is preserving him. He had a vision in the breeding season of the flock. I lifted up my eyes and saw, in a dream, that the goats that made it of the flock were striped, spotted and modeled. Now this has got this is why this is repeated so often. It is the unlikely that become his wealth. This is not, this is not the proper get rich scheme. These are not the high performing stocks. These are not the ones with dividends. These are the unlikely ones. These are the ones with recessive genes. It's like a family of of all black haired mom, dad, all the other kids having a blondie, yeah, I mean it was in there. There was a descendant way back that came from Denmark. But so it's repeated over and over for you to know that God was intervening through the unexpected to provide for him. I God said to him, I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I will be your justice. And it's God's supernatural intervention. God's been working. God will keep working. He reminds him of the promise and the vow from Genesis 28 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now Arise, go out from this land, return to the land of your kindred. That was the place where Jacob was homeless, penniless, wifeless on his way to Haran is so poor and so pathetic, he finds a hilltop and a stone for a pillow. I mean, the ultimate of comfort. God came to him there in a dream and told him that he would be with them. Did Rachel and Leah need convincing?
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What I think. What was going on, for the first time in Jacob's life, is Jacob was bringing to bear to his wives the work and promises of God to help them trust, to help them turn their attention. We're going to see next section. Rachel's got a ways to go still. Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, and I just stopped there. They're unified, speaking with one voice, something's changing. Something's changing in them, as Jacob tells them about what's going on. Not only is their father Laban a deadbeat father, so to speak, but God has been working, and they're unified. In fact, you don't find another fight between them for the rest of their story. Rachel Leah answered and said to him, is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our Father's house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? He has sold us that the 14 years that you paid was way overpaid, and he took the extra money, and he has not sent us out with any of it. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children now, then whatever God has said to you, do husbands? Are you walking close enough with the Lord making godly, wise decisions according to his Word, according to the revelation that God has given, that your wife could say whatever God has said to you do? This is a very powerful scene from a guy who was once a trickster and cheat, they agreed they had no good earthly father. Now they have a good heavenly one. They're willing to trust him so how do we progress this? This is the first micro Exodus. We're going to see the macro one. We'll finish out the stories in the coming weeks. We'll see the macro one with Israel, the nation coming out of Egypt into Canaan. And even that was quite a journey, a wilderness, wandering. How do we think about it ourselves? Number three, just as a way of application to this, we need to be pursuing our heavenly home. We need to be pursuing our heavenly home. It's clear that the macro of Jacob anticipates the micro of Jacob anticipates the macro and the ultimate with our God in the new heavens and the new earth. Jacob was called to found a nation. We're called to make disciples. There's quite a difference. How do we think about the returning home in terms of provision and presence? Just like Jacob, his eternity happened in stages. He's got to get married. He has his family. He moves back to Canaan. But Canaan won't be the end of his story. In fact, he'll have to be exiled one more time into Egypt. All the patriarchs, according to Hebrews chapter 11, did not see Canaan as their final land, but a kingdom where all would have been restored and resurrected, and ultimately a new heavens and a new earth, even Jacob didn't think this home going was going to be his ultimate home. Going, how do we think about returning home in terms of present provision and presence. The apostle Paul had one unmistakable vision of home. It is with Christ in heaven. That is until Christ returns. So he says this in Philippians, 320, our citizenship is in heaven, our nation, our country, our home is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is an anticipation, because home for us is ultimately in the presence of God, in front of the God man, Jesus Christ. Paul says things like this, if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right, right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. And he's going to explain that is the impure, ugly of the world, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. That is the great longing for home. You might be in the wisdom gaining phase students. You might be in the Find My people. Days, maybe married, married, maybe a church. You get married and you bring you with you, and she brings her with her, and it's great. It's not heaven. You find a church which should be a destination and a home for you for a long period of time in the church, it's great. It's not heaven, yet, there is still something ahead. And so what does he say? To endure? My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory, in Christ, Jesus, God promises to provide as you seek to fulfill your mission. The Wisdom phase of life leads to the typically the find your people, family, church phase of life in that you need to find a mission, and God will provide for you as you pursue your mission to serve Him, until Jesus comes back, or he calls you home by provision, he will be present with us. Two New Testament books are devoted to the returning home theme, Hebrews and First Peter. I don't have time to unpack both of those, but in the book of Hebrews, there's a wandering theme. Jesus, our forerunner, had gone into heaven. We are to follow with him. And there is this promise at the end of the book and all their trials of persecution and difficulty and suffering, the writer of Hebrews says this, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because here's the thing that you want to do, you have something you're like. Heaven is my home. Jesus is my only Savior. I got married and I started trusting my spouse. I got a job, I started a bank account. My 401 k is growing. I started out trusting Jesus. Now I trust my money.
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And so it goes
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with the heart. He says, Keep your life free from the love of money. Be content with what you have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Five negatives, never, never, never, never leave you or forsake you. So we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear What can man do to me? It is common to get Christ and His glory, here his presence, here his word of revelation to sustain you, direct you, guide you, transform you a body of believers which is our home until Heaven, still longing for heaven, all the good home going stories like Jacob's lead to character transformation Frodo and Lord Of the Rings makes it back to the Shire, but the Shire is no longer home. He tells Sam this, as he is ready to sail to Valinor Tolkien's conception of eternal life in Lord of the Rings. Frodo says this, I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so. Sam, when things are in danger, someone has to give them up, lose them so that others may keep them. Frodo must leave the Shire for the undying lands, that's a good picture of the Christian life. You find your home, maybe in a relationship, a marriage, in a church. You have your family, and that's home to you. You have your mission, but in the end, you know it, you're still singing country road
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with a longing, with a longing. We're not
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quite there, yet. God's presence and His provision go with us. Let's pray, Father. Thank you for this really interesting story, how you provided for Jacob in yet another unusual way, and you do that in our lives every day, providing an unusual way. Thank you for what you have given us in Your word that gives us new life and. Spiritual provision really changes our lives, physically. Thank you for providing for us. I pray that we'd walk out today thinking of home, maybe in a sentimental way that would stir us up to think about being with Christ in heaven, Lord Jesus. We thank you that you have given your life to give us an eternal home now as we celebrate Lord's Supper, help us put all those things together in Christ's name.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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As we continue reading through Genesis, we see God’s grace and faithfulness to keep HIs promises to Jacob and his family. We see people like Jacob and Judah learning to fear God and to obey Him through many sins and failures. We begin with the J...