20250727_IWillNotLeaveThee

[0:00] Where were we last week? Ring straight cow. Yeah.! So, we had a strange animal husbandry plan, but it was orchestrated by whom?

[0:19] ! In fact, we're going to read it. It was orchestrated by God. For what purpose, by the way? Well, to get even, yeah.

[0:33] Well, that's the way Jacob said it, wasn't it? Hey, they've been cheating me. But God's evening it out by making me wealthy. But what is God's purpose in this?

[0:53] Well, what's God's plan here? What does Jacob have to do with God's plan? Is it just a mistake? It's Jacob.

[1:06] Okay. I hear one no. Was it a mistake that it was Noah?

[1:18] Was it by a mistake? Okay. Was it a happenstance? He doesn't make mistakes. Okay.

[1:30] It wasn't happenstance. It was Noah. It wasn't happenstance. It was Abraham. Who actually called Abraham?

[1:41] Abraham. Who called him? God called him. Where was Abraham when he was called? He was in the Chaldean.

[1:56] He was in Ur of the Chaldees. Were they worshiping Jehovah God? No, they were idol worshipers. Who called him?

[2:09] The true God called him. Now, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as? Righteousness. And it is upon that argument that the Apostle Paul will say, you're saved by grace through faith and nothing else.

[2:26] And he's going to say, here's the proof. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Now, was Abraham totally righteous in practice?

[2:40] No. Did he do some things that were wrong? No, he lied a couple of times. God then gave a promise to Abraham.

[3:00] And he sealed it with what? A covenant. And it was a one-sided covenant. He told Abraham, look, I'm going to bless you.

[3:18] I'm going to make of you nations. And in your seed, in your posterity, shall all the world be blessed.

[3:31] I'm going to make your posterity. And at this time, Abraham had how many children? None. None. None.

[3:42] And he's an old man. And Sarah is an old woman. And so, God says, I'll make a covenant with you.

[3:55] So, Abraham cuts the covenant. We've got to go through this quickly, but I know. But we apparently need the review. So, Abraham cuts the covenant, doesn't he?

[4:10] That is, he takes the animals, he slices them in half, lays them on, and he's supposed to... He's supposed to... So, the idea is, David and I make a covenant.

[4:25] We kill these animals. We lay them on... And arm in arm, we go between them. And that's to say, may it thus be to me, if I don't fulfill my share of this covenant.

[4:41] That's the idea. Thank you. So, Abraham cuts the covenant, and he and God go through the covenant, right?

[4:55] Absolutely not. How does that work?

[5:09] God went through alone. It's a one-sided thing. It doesn't depend upon Abraham. Thank God.

[5:21] It doesn't depend... And by the way, the Apostle Paul is going to drive this home in Romans especially. He's going to say, so is your salvation.

[5:37] Your salvation is not based on your fulfillment. It's based upon who? God. It's based totally upon the veracity, the integrity, and the power of God.

[5:59] And so, that's why the Apostle Paul will say, by the same power that he exerted when Jesus Christ arose from the dead and took on a resurrected body, that same kind of power is going...

[6:14] is exerted or laid upon, worked through you, if you trust Christ.

[6:24] That's pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing. And I'm very thankful for it. So, it wasn't an accident for Abraham.

[6:35] It wasn't an accident for Isaac. In Isaac shall your seed be named, right? The promise is coming through Isaac. Not through Ishmael.

[6:46] It's coming through Isaac. Was Isaac perfectly righteous in practice?

[6:58] No. But God's plan's working out. And so, now we're with Jacob. And by the way, these are the three that will be, I am the God of...

[7:14] This is what he'll say to Moses, if we got in our time machine and went 500 years. He's going to say to Moses, I am the God of...

[7:26] Abraham. And by the way... By the way, whether Israel...

[7:37] Whether these people knew or not, they certainly didn't have the revelation we have, right? We have the completed word of God.

[7:50] They didn't have all of that. But in Hebrews, we know that they were looking for a city, a building, not made with hands, eternal in the...

[8:03] heavens. So, and he's talking about these Old Testament people. So, they did have some concept of that. Job, who I don't know where to put him, really, in terms of of chronology, but Job is going to say, though this body dies, and is eaten by worms, yet I know that in my flesh, I will see God.

[8:39] So, God makes him prophesy, even in that. So, there was something about an eternity. Jesus Christ is going to say to the Sadducees, by the way, why is he going to say it to the Sadducees?

[8:58] If you were a child, you may have heard it termed this way. The Sadducees were sad, you see, because they did not believe. You've heard that, haven't you?

[9:10] Because they didn't believe in a resurrection. And so, they're going to talk, they're going to try to trap the Lord Jesus Christ, when he's in ministry in Israel, on the earth.

[9:24] they're going to try to trap him with a resurrection question. And he's going to say, what does the scripture say?

[9:37] It says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, he's the God of the living.

[9:48] So, there was, even then, there was maybe not complete, but there was the hint toward that eternity.

[10:03] And the Apostle Paul is going to drive that home to us, that we have security, because God is faithful.

[10:16] God is faithful, faithful. And I'm thankful for that. Because if he says it, he will do it. So, let's get into 31 then.

[10:29] So, now, they've gone through, they've had this, Jacob's been there a number of years. We don't know for how long exactly at this point.

[10:42] we're going to hear him say. But, he's been there at least, well, how long for his wives? 14 years just for his wives.

[11:00] So, he's been there 14 years, plus some years serving Laban, his father-in-law, in order to eventually provide for his own household.

[11:17] And that's where we're going to get. So, as we left it last week, the breeding program enriched Jacob.

[11:32] So, Jacob's going to be a pretty wealthy man at this point. But, things begin to change in that clan relationship. Look at your first verses there, the first three especially, in chapter 31.

[11:51] Some of you have already been reading there, so you already have the answers. How do things change in the clan relationship?

[12:05] I'm sorry? Okay. What does it read? How do we know that Laban is not real happy? Yeah.

[12:22] His countenance has changed is what the King James said. He doesn't look on him like he used to look on him. Now, what do we know that Laban thinks about Jacob?

[12:34] Well, we know that Laban knows that he has been blessed of God.

[12:46] That was part of the deal when he's saying, name your way. How can I keep you here? Because Jacob's already said, hey, time for me to go. Time for me to go.

[12:59] And Laban says, what's your price? What will it take? Because I know that God has blessed me because of you.

[13:12] So he wants, they go into the breeding program, and Jacob increases. Laban still increases, but he's not nearly like Jacob has.

[13:23] Now the balance is shifting. now I'm never tempted to really like you when things are going well, but when you start to do much better than me, I'm never tempted for my countenance to change.

[13:46] change. We don't see that, we don't see that in our social, in our society in America, do we?

[14:00] Oh, you're doing better than me, Dave, so that means you're bad. Well, we joke about that, but it isn't funny.

[14:12] That's really how we think, isn't it? Well, we'll see it in fact here when we see what they say. Okay, what do the sons say? Laban's sons. This reiterates it.

[14:32] He's saying, hey, he's taken everything that was our father's and now it's his because the breeding program went all spotted, didn't it?

[14:46] No pun there. It went all spotted. So, Jacob increased faster than Laban. And now they said, oh, because he's increased faster than dad, therefore it means that he took too much.

[15:06] He's one of those guys that says, there's only this much of the pie. pie. And if you have half the pie, and four of us have a half the pie, it's because you took from us.

[15:22] You hear that. You hear that. In fact, we have people basing whole economic systems upon that theory. And social systems, by the way, on that theory.

[15:39] Now, so, the clan has changed.

[15:52] What does God say to Jacob? Return to the land of your fathers.

[16:04] So, it's time, Jacob, to get up and move back to Canaan. Is that all he says? What's he say?

[16:17] I will be with you. You remember when Jacob was leaving Canaan. What happened as Jacob was leaving Canaan?

[16:31] He was fleeing from Esau, remember? He's heading for Haran. Okay.

[16:45] He makes his bed and he lays down and he dreams a dream. What does he dream?

[16:57] What does he dream? Yeah, we are climbing Well, we're not, by the way That's not, there is, no matter what those modern philosopher, poets have said There is no stairway to heaven I don't know who writes that dribble, well, I do know who wrote that dribble, but Anyway We are not climbing that, but that's his dream He sees the angels of God ascending and descending, and at the top of the ladder is God And what does God say to him then, do you remember?

[17:47] Or, that's part of it, but he says, I will not leave you until I have accomplished everything that I've said to you I will be with you Well, here he says it again He's going to reiterate it again He says, he says to Jacob, time to leave And I will be with you When there are fearful decisions in my life I need to remember That God said If you're my child I will be with you Because It's easy for me to say now when things are bright

[18:49] But you know someone who suffered in the dark days I'm sure you do Where they've said I don't know if God loves me I don't know if he's really here And some have even said I don't know that there is a God And I need to be careful Because usually I think that way Because God didn't do what I wanted him to do In intervention of something You know someone who I prayed for grandma and she died You know someone, I'm sure So God reiterates to Jacob Look, I'm going to be with you Time to leave Okay, let's go to the next verses

[19:50] Four through nine especially So God's told Jacob To return to the land of your fathers So what does Jacob Now do?

[20:14] Okay, he calls a family meeting He calls his wives to him What does he What does he say? Daddy ain't happy He calls him In fact he calls him from the camp And he says Come out to the flock We have to have a meeting now So they go out And he says Your father doesn't look at me like he used to Alright But God has been with me Right Now at this point you notice That in the scripture They regularly say The God of Abraham Or the God of my father Or In some cases they'll say The God of your father

[21:15] Or your God That is going to be a frequent statement I'm not always sure How to Put that Nevertheless We know that this is The one true God Speaking to Jacob And he says God's God Has been with me He calls him to remember something What does he call him to remember?

[21:52] Yes At least in this area It's still big here It's big in Canaan too As far as Monotheistic religion Is concerned It's pretty Pretty small by this point It started out to be the only religion Remember I mean Who Everybody Abraham Or Abraham I'm sorry Adam Actually Saw The pre-incarnate God Right God walked with him And talked to him Enoch Walked with God And he was not for God took him So Those people Actually Were given a vision A real physical manifestation

[22:56] Of God Abraham Was visited by God In a pre-incarnate state On a couple of occasions Including Up to And The destruction of Sodom But by this time Most people aren't doing that anymore Most of the monotheists Now Are going to be A one family deal At least as far as Our revelation is concerned We don't know how many others May have thought of One God But An oddball Thinking But God It could be Well

[23:56] We'll talk We're almost there So Remember that When we get into When we get into Him actually leaving But Right Don't lose that Don't lose that Okay Now So He calls them To remember what I have been diligent In my service Of your father And I'm sorry And he's cheated me He changed my wages Ten times See That wasn't all Revealed to us But nobody denies that And this won't be The last time he says it He's He Every time something Happened And I was gaining He changed it I mean

[24:58] We We get a picture of Laban By the way We get a picture of Laban's character Don't we Right from the beginning He Right from the beginning He could have said No Jacob I'm not going to give you Rachel I'm going to give you Leah And then if you want Rachel We'll work out another deal He could have done that But he didn't He didn't want to lose The deal Did he Yeah Some Some people have called That a bait and switch Now I don't mean to be Too facetious with it Because these are Human beings And a big deal But that's what he did

[26:00] Yeah Jacob Well Well Sometimes I do reap What I sow Now Here's the wonderful thing He did not get He did not get kicked out Because he wasn't This great guy That is Jacob God didn't say Okay I'm done with you I'll go back And get Esau That's not what God said In fact We know in the scripture The apostle Paul Is going to say Look God chose Jacob Over Esau Before they were born That was That was in God's plan So Back to it though He

[27:02] He Calls them to remember His diligence In serving their father You know That I've been diligent You know I've served him With all my power I've done the best I can do God has increased me And he's changed my wages Ten times Now It's because of that That I Now he He says God has taken From your father's cattle And given them to me Meaning that My herds Have increased Faster than your Your dad's That's why We have an imbalance Now That's why I'm wealthy And he He's I mean Laban's still wealthy Don't get We're going to see that In a minute He still has Lots of servants He still has

[28:02] Herds But Jacob Has increased Past him Go to verses 10 through 13 And To keep To keep us Rolling here This clarifies What Jacob Was thinking That we talked About last week Right What does Jacob explains To them His Where he got The idea Of his animal Husbandry Where was it God told me In a dream That this is How it's Going to go And so It has gone And then

[29:05] In verse 13 Pardon me In verse 13 He tells him I'm the God You saw Where At Bethel What What's the Significance Of Bethel He set a Memorial stone Why That's where He saw The vision Of the Ladder To heaven And he Set up A memorial Stone And anointed It And he Called it Bethel House of When you See the Word El In In the Scripture It usually Is referring To God It's God

[30:05] Well L In a Name Like And when Jesus is on The cross And he Says Eli Eli My God My God Okay So And by The way It's Rarely Translated Into English In our Bibles Elohim But in The beginning Elohim In the Beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth And the I am by The way Is a Plurality So That's Enough of That lesson We'll keep Rolling So he Says Look God Told me This And he Said Get Gone Go Back To Canaan I'm The God You Saw At Bethel Where

[31:06] You Anointed The Pillar All Right So as We Keep Going There If You're If You're Still Back at 13 Move On To 14 14 15 16 Those Verses In There How Do Leah And Rachel React To Jacob's Decision To Go To Canaan Okay How Do We Know That Well What Do They Say Yeah He Said Look Or They Said They Said What's Left For Us Here What's Left Here He He's

[32:07] Used Up Everything That Would Be Ours He's Already Spent Our Inheritance And Our Children's Inheritance We Have No We Have No Real Future Economically They Specifically Say Economically We Have No Real Future Here So What Do They Say We May As Well Go Let's Go In Fact He Said Don't Doesn't Dad Treat Us Like We're Strangers He Doesn't Even Treat Us Nicely You See That So Now I'm Not The Family Relationships Haven't Been Really Even Keeled I Mean The Girls Haven't Got Along Real Well Over The Whole Your Child My Child Contest

[33:07] But Nevertheless Now They're On Board Time To Go Look At Look At Verses 17 And 18 What's The Family Do I'm Sorry They Packed Up And Off They Go Now Do They Send Word For Going Away Party We're At Verses 19 Now 19 And Going They Just Packed Up And Went Now Where's Laban At This Time Where Right

[34:10] He's Out He's Out With The Herds So He's Not In His Main Camp He's Out With The Herds And He's A Few Days Journey Off And They're They're It's Shearing Time So He's Out Shearing Sheep And Then What Happens With The Family While Laban Is Shearing They Leave And They Don't Tell Him They're Leaving Now Look At Verse 19 And Now It's Time To Get Back To Brad's Question About The Paganism Or His Comment About The Paganism Okay Now How How Many Of You Have That Images King

[35:11] James Usually Us Translates That As Image Sometimes It Might Even Be Translated As The Word Is Teraphim But These Are Household Gods Idols!

[35:31] In The Houses And She It Does Not Tell Us Why She Took Them But She Took Them Whether It's Out Of Spite Whether She Thought Well Maybe Maybe She Thought Well Dad's Going To Go Try To Consult The Taraphim As To Where We Went Or Something Like That I Have No Idea All We Know Is That She She Took Them Now We Also Know That Jacob Doesn't Know She Took Them And We'll Get To That In A Little Bit Okay So Rachel Steals The Images And They Take Off Unawares To Laban And They Head Out Now What Are These Taraphim They're

[36:31] They're Mentioned Elsewhere In The Scripture These Are Household Images If You We'll Read It Later But If You Jump Down To Verse 30 What Does Laban Call Them Gods Why Have You Stolen My Gods All Right So We Know That They're They're Used In Idolatry All Right We Know That Part Turn Do You Know Some Other References To Where These Images Show Up Not These Not The One She Stole Necessarily The One She Stole Will Show Up Eventually But Okay Let's Go To Judges Chapter 17 And 18 Just Real Quickly Now What Do We Know

[37:31] About The Time Of The Judges What's The Overriding Thing That You Remember When You Think Of Judges And The Time Of The Judges What's What's The Scripture Concept That Comes To Mind The One That Comes To My Mind Most Often Is Everyone Did What Was Right In His Own Eyes All Right And We Know That In Judges By The Way This Is A This Is Something For Us To Consider In Judges They Went Through Almost A Generational Hop That Is About Every 40 Years Approximate Israel Would

[38:31] Would Leave God Then They Cry Out To God And God Would Raise Up A Judge That's Why We Call This And They Would Judge Israel Things Would Go Better They Deliver Them From Their Oppressors And Then The Next Generation Would Do The Same Thing That The Other One Did It Takes Me About A Generation To Fail Doesn't It So That's Why It's Important To Pass On The Truth Generationally One After Another It's Very Important Because It's Easy For Me To Get Lost In

[39:34] Yeah In Romans Is Is it Chapter Two You Say Don't Rob Do You Rob Temples Do You Desecrate The Idols Yes And He Uses That As A Condemnation Of The Moralist And The Israelite Because He's Going To Wind Up In Chapter Four Saying God Has Put Everyone Under Sin So That He Might Be The One That Shows Mercy!

[40:04] Okay So You See There There Was This Guy And Was He In The Tribe Of Dan I Think And Instead Of Going To Shiloh To The Tabernacle And Worshiping God He Said That's A Long Way Down There I'll Tell You What I'll Do I'll Set Up A Teraphim Here And I'll Consecrate One Of My Sons As My Priest And He'll Be My Go Between I need To Be Careful That I Don't Try To Organize Doctrine According To Me Rather Than According To God's Word Because That's What He Did And Then Later

[41:06] In First Samuel Chapter 15 Verses 22 To 23 Saul Is King Of Israel He Was Commanded To Destroy The Amalekites Totally Did He Do That I'm Trying To Get Us To Remember I Know That You've Heard About It The Answer Is No He Saved Some Of The Cattle And Some Of The Sheep And He Saved The King And Samuel Samuel Has A Great Line In That Section Where He Comes And He Says Hey Saul Did You Do What I Told You To Do And Saul Says Yes I Did Everything The Lord Told Me And Samuel Has A Great Line He Says And What Meaneth The Bleeding Of The Sheep If

[42:09] You Did Everything You Were Told To Do Saul Why Do I Hear These Sheep And Then He Will Say In Those Verses The Sin Of Disobedience Is Like The Sin Of Idolatry That's The Teraphim Word By The Way So It's Equated With Idolatry There And Then There's One More Use Before We Stop That Became A Very Interesting Use To Me So Saul Still King David Has Married Michael Michael Michael Now That's Not A Man's Name In The Scripture That's That She's A Woman Don't Worry Saul's Daughter He Has Married Michael And Saul Wants To Michael Gets Word Of It And

[43:09] David Flees And Michael Takes A Teraphim And Stuffs It In The Bed And Says He's Sick I Don't Have Anything To Say More On That I Don't Really Know But Anyway She Takes A Teraphim That Had Been In Her House Puts It In The Bed You Can Read That In First Samuel 19 And We Need To Stop There Because It Is Time For Cookies And Coffee Anything That You Want To Say To Finish Thank You Very Much You All Be Blessed Have A Great Day And Nathan God Bless You As You Break The Word This Morning!

[44:06] I