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I’m going to invite you to Genesis chapter 30. Genesis chapter 30 is where we’re at together today. And this is a rather, uh, I will say, uninteresting section of Genesis. I’m just when you read through Genesis, no one’s ever like, you know, the chapter that really rocked my world. You know, it’s typically not Genesis chapter 30, but but what we do learn something important about the book of Genesis and won the book of Genesis. Genesis 30. One of the things Genesis 30 does for us is it speaks to the importance of the gospel and how the gospel should reshape our life from a from a negative perspective. Really, you think when you read the book of Genesis it is so valuable, so gospel centric, and how God renews us in the beauty of what the gospel is. If you remember the book of Genesis written to Hebrew slaves, they they’ve been taught to find their identity in what they do. Their their worth was based on what they merited, right? They earned. They earned their value. That’s not biblical. Good or right. What you do in life should be an outflow of who you are. Who you are is not determined by what you do, but what you do is is determined by who you are. Does that make sense? So so if you if you look to things in this world for your value and meaning, you’re going to discover it just by simply in, in your ability to perform.
And, and there’s always someone that can do it better than you. There’s always someone that looks better at doing it than you. There’s always someone that has more stuff than you. And then the question is, if you find your value of what you merited and someone can do it better, does that make you worth less? In the book of Genesis starts, it says to us from the very beginning, no, it reshapes the identity of these Hebrew slaves as they’re free from Egypt to understand their value is given to them, not not merited, but intrinsically from their creator who made them in their image. Right? And so we have incredible worth, not because of what we do, but because of who we are. God made us intentionally for a purpose and relationship with him. But here’s what we discover man sins. You’re going to see it in Genesis 30. You see it throughout all of Genesis. Every time man gets involved, it just messes up. But the beauty is, is God didn’t give up on you. You find from the very beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned, God pursued Adam and Eve and God not only made us in his image, but he promises to remake us in the gospel. And so, as believers, we come to understand the full picture of the gospel. Is Jesus coming in the flesh to take your place on the cross, the sin debt that you owed.
He gave his life on your behalf so that you could be free in him. It’s not based on what you do, it’s based on what he’s done for you. And so not only are you made in the image of God, but you’re remade in the likeness of Christ because of what Jesus has done. And it’s important that we surrender our lives to the Lord at the cross. Like we cry out, we’re sinners, we need rescued. God save us, and we surrender ourselves there as God gave his life for us. We give our lives to him and we allow us, our lives to be reshaped in his goodness and what that means in his image and and to pursue him. And when we we wake up every day, we have the opportunity to be reshaped in the gospel that not only are you saved in Christ, but every day you get to walk in that salvation of Christ, that his mercies are new every morning, and he is faithful to us. And so each day we we get to start afresh, saying, God, my life you created for your purpose. What does that look like for me to follow you? And so we get this, this beauty of being reshaped. And we’re also reminded in Genesis the dangers of of not allowing ourselves to be reshaped in the gospel, that we have this tendency to to usurp the position of God, that rather than surrender our lives to God, we pretend like we are God and we we live life for our glory.
And in so doing, we treat people around us like they’re tools to serve us for our benefit. Because, well, life is for my pleasure and it ultimately leads to destruction. We introduce things to our to our lives that not only destroy us, but it doesn’t let us walk in the freedom of what it means to to be renewed in the Lord. And in Genesis chapter 30, this is what you’re going to see. Um, in fact, I thought about just kind of tongue in cheek, just titling the hundred dumb Things We Could Possibly Do as human beings when we don’t allow ourselves to be reshaped in the gospel. And it’s more than 100 things, but there’s probably at least 100 things in this chapter that I could identify. And because that’s a little bit cynical and I don’t want to go through 100 points, I just decided rather to say this, the title for today, why we need to be Reshaped in the gospel. The big answer is because we’re sinful and we need hope. And the and the hope truly comes for us in the grace of God who pursued us and gave his life for us, that we could be free in him. The reason we need to be reshaped is because of sin. But more particularly, we’re going to see pragmatically what that means for us by looking at the sinfulness that’s found in this chapter.
And so why do we need to be reshaped in the gospel becomes very pointed as we see the characters of the story Rachel, Leah, Jacob, Laban living a life contrary to what God has called them to and living for their glory rather than his. And point number one we’re going to find in your notes, is this the reason we need to be reshaped in the gospel? Number one. Envy kills. Envy kills. You know, it’s been said throughout church history that the number one sin that mankind wrestles with is pride. That that rather than surrender to God, we make life about us. And so we battle with pride. But in the fourth century, there was an early church father named Basile who came along and said, um, it’s actually more particular than pride that what brought the downfall of of humanity and really God’s creation wasn’t broadly pride, but more specifically it was envy. Uh, he he went back and he pointed to Satan, and he pointed to Adam and Eve, and he said, you know what brought the downfall of Satan? Satan was created as a beautiful angel, right? An archangel, a saint was in charge of music and and what, what what brought the downfall of Satan is he wanted to become God. He wanted to become like God. And he sought to usurp the position of God because he envied the Lord.
And then when Satan gets the Garden of Eden, he shares that same lie with Adam and Eve. He says to them, God’s withholding his best for you, that you know better than God. In fact, if you listen to what I say, you can become like God, which is not what God created you for at all, right? It is an impossibility to become like God because you’re finite. He’s eternal. It’s. And but but they they bought into the lie and envy brought the destruction. In fact in in Genesis chapter 30, verse one, this is this is exactly how it starts. It says, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, give me children, or look at this, or I shall die. Now it’s a little bit over the top here in her expression, but you certainly see where envy has led her. It says in this passage, right. She she envies her sister. And the result of that? She says that she’s going to die. Now, the irony of that is, is this statement is really a foreshadowing of where Rachel’s life is ultimately going to end, that she ends up down the road, she has a couple of children and the second child she has, it actually does lead to her death. So it’s an ironic foreshadowing that that’s taken place here. But but you see the the destructive attitude of Rachel in this story when it talks about her envy.
Envy is defined this way as wanting something which belongs to another person, wanting something that belongs to another person. Look, it’s not wrong to want things right. But the question is, what’s your motivation in the want? What purpose is it serving? Right? It’s certainly not wrong to want things. In fact, some have said you could probably categorize your prayers in one of two buckets. One is thanking God for the things that you do have, and crying out to God for the things you want and need. It tends to be as human beings that pretty much describes most of our prayers. Thank you Lord for this or God I want or need this. And it’s not wrong to want things, but the the question is what’s driving the the desire behind what it is that you want? Is it to take the things that God gives you in order to honor him, bless others? Or is it simply to serve you as if you were God? Because you see, the whole point of life is simply about pleasing you because the center of life is you. But what we discover in this story is that envy, envy for us leads to this path of brokenness. It not not just brokenness, but ultimately death. Envy kills your intimacy with the Lord, and envy kills your relationships with others. And in the end, ultimately, envy kills you.
One of the quickest ways to stop following the Lord is to arrange your life by comparing yourself to others, rather than ask the question, God, what it is that you desire for me and pursuing the purpose for which he created you. All of a sudden you take your eyes off the Lord and you start measuring your life by what others have. And rather than seek seeking God and and the purpose which he’s created you and living that out now your life becomes this competition of competing with other people, because you’ve bought into the facade that what they have has brought them some sort of peace, happiness and contentment. And you make your objective to to receive what they have, in fact, maybe even compete with what they have in order to do it better. I mean, I think it’s one of the primary reasons that fuels social media, right? You get get on and you just start scrolling through and you start thinking to yourself, oh man, I’m a loser. I’m a loser, I’m a loser. Oh, my family’s a loser. Even my dog is a loser. Like, like you. Just that comparison game and it just robs you of joy and contentment and discovering the purpose for which God has created you, because your eyes aren’t even on him. And when your life becomes about this competition of proving in order to get because you think those things will. Make you happy.
You’ve removed yourself from the very reason of which God has created you. Life is not about a competition, and in fact, we can. We can ask the question like, how do I know? How do I really know if I’m struggling with envy or jealousy? Because I think sometimes we can fool ourselves. And and so let me just ask you. Um, when, when great things happen in the lives of people around you, are you one that typically celebrates that? Where do you get jealous about it? When there’s downfall or some demise, or maybe a demotion of someone around you. Do you celebrate that? Or do you weep and mourn with them? The the way your human nature responds in those circumstances would let you know how your heart is doing. Are you competing or are you finding your identity in things and about what you get? Do you see other people as an obstacle to, to to win, to win above them, or win over them so that they’re beneath you because, well, you want to be better than them? Or do you do you see their victories as your victories, especially among God’s people? Like when God’s people, when things happen in our lives that are good, it’s an opportunity to celebrate. Because when they win, we win. And when they go through certain battles and it’s an opportunity to to weep with them because when they struggle, we struggle as a community because we understand the purpose isn’t about beating other people.
The purpose is to live my life for his glory to the benefit of others. And God has me in a position to not only learn about him, but to take what God has given me through him in order to to bless others. But envy becomes this battle for us. And you’re you’re seeing it play out with, with, with the relationship between Rachel and Leah, not only has it negatively affected her relationship with God because she’s taken her eyes off the things of the Lord, it’s also negatively affecting her relationship with her. Her sister. She envied her sister. I mean, you remember how the story goes in Genesis 29 when were first introduced to these two girls, these two ladies? It’s it’s at first Leah is envious of Rachel because she’s more beautiful. But now Rachel is more envious of Leah and her womb. And it’s created this, this competition between each other. And now they’ve become blind to what it is that the Lord wants to really do in their lives. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes chapter four verse six, he says, better is to live your life full with just one hand of quietness, than to try to fill both of your hands with the toil and wind. And so what he’s saying is, sometimes we get in these competitions in our life where we think more is going to make us happy. And so rather than just be content with what we have, we start pursuing more.
And it’s like chasing the wind. And what you discover in Genesis chapter 30 are these all these characters thinking all these things are going to make them happy? But in the end, everyone is just miserable and envy has destroyed them. And rather ask the question, God, what is it you want me to be? They think the the point of their life is, is to attain the things of this world and to compete with those around them, and all it does is drive a further wedge. Envy destroys their relationship with the Lord, envy kills the relationship with others, and ultimately it kills them. You know, reality is, if you find your identity in your successes and your possessions, then you also have to find your identities in your failures and your loss of possessions. And here’s what we learn. If if you think your worth is based on what you do, there’s always going to be someone that can do it better. There’s always going to be someone that has more. And so for, for them, you’re you’re always going to view them as, as someone that’s adverse to you, the enemy to oppose. But but the Bible tells us we don’t wrestle. We don’t wrestle with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, there’s spiritual things happening there that we truly need to look at, not not as someone else, as the enemy.
I mean, that even happens in the church among God’s people. Yeah. Even, you know, working with pastors, sometimes I find it healthy to remind them as representatives of a church. Look, God doesn’t call you to be like a church down the road. God created you for a mission to live greater than you, right? For a purpose bigger than you, and to use what he’s given to bless those around you, but not to compete with other people, other churches. Right? You think about an area in which we live and Lehigh, 80 some thousand people towns around us easily add more than 80 plus thousand, a couple hundred thousand people around us. That takes more than one church to get it done. And God calls us on mission to reach people, to invite them into relationship with him. We need to celebrate when God’s people are doing this throughout our valley and not see ourselves as well. We got to compete with the church down the road. We got to offer what they have and do what they do and and God doesn’t, does, doesn’t make us to be like them. God created us for a purpose. And and if we try to look to other people to to figure out what it is that we need to be, then we’ve completely taken our eyes off of who God has called us to be in him. And so rather than compare ourselves, we want to celebrate successes.
We want to weep with those who weep. And we want to continue to look to the Lord to ask the question, God, what is it that you desire to accomplish in us? Now, certainly, certainly people can help you aspire. You can see what certain people do and look at the creativity of that, and that can encourage you and how you could use the gifts that God has given you. But it’s not for the purpose of being better than anybody. It’s for taking what God has given me to honor him to the best of my ability, or to the best of of your ability. So envy can kill. And you see the fruit of envy and the way it plays out in the story, chapter 30, verse one, you see Rachel using this, this word, um, she that I’m going to die. So you see, because she’s chasing after the wind, she’s aspiring to things that she’ll never even truly grab a hold of. She’ll never be content with this. And because of that, her anxiety is growing. You see that in just those words, right? Anytime you read the word envy in Scripture, this person is about to act envious. You need to know in your mind whatever takes place from here on out, it’s going to be more like Jerry Springer than anything else. That’s that’s what you’re going to see in this story. Is Rachel’s anxiety growing? She’s in an identity crisis, certainly, because she’s looking for for identity and things rather than the Lord.
And through that, then she puts this unreasonable expectation on relationships around her. We tend to do that. Like if we don’t get what we want, we think the things in life were intended to to satisfy my ultimate desires, we put pressure on those things to perform in ways they were never designed for. I mean, we most particularly might do it in relationship. I have this longing for more, for eternity. And and you need to do that in a relationship. To me, you’re they’re not God. And and Jacob says as much in this story to to Rachel in chapter two, it says Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel and he said, am I in the place of God who is withheld from you the fruit of the womb, the womb? It frustrates the people around you. This idea of envy and this expectation, verse verse 3 to 5, she she justifies then a very stupid decision, that one that even her culture would find acceptable. Um, though the Lord would not. And in verse three, because she’s so envious, look what happens then she said, here is my servant Bilhah go into her so that she may give birth on my behalf, and even I may have children through her. So she gave her her servant Bilhah as a wife. And Jacob went in to her, and Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
So here a couple of bad things happening in this story. She’s frustrated her husband now, her husband’s gotten frustrated. He’s become passive. He sort of becomes a a bystander to his own life. And and guys, let me just say, this is not an excuse to be passive just because she’s put this expectation on him. God’s got you in a position to to bless your family, even in difficult circumstances. But Jacob here, he is passive and he listens to his wife in a way that he shouldn’t. You certainly should listen to your wife. But the M.O. of Jacob’s, the M.O. of Jacob’s life has been he just follows whatever the women say rather than what the Lord says. Remember in the beginning he he he listened to his mother to deceive his father rather than listen to what the Lord would want him to do to honor the Lord. He’s finding his identity in what people are saying. And now here he is in another situation. He’s not with his mother anymore, but now he’s married, and now he’s listening to his wife in the same way. And it leads to this, this path of destruction. And her husband plays this role of passivity. She justifies this decision. Man, we get envious when we think we’re owed. We start to see ourselves. You’re going to see this in Rachel in a minute as a victim, and therefore we can justify anything.
Oh, I should have this because this will make me happy. Even if it’s not pleasing to the Lord. We can justify it. Her her culture was that way. Her culture was one that that it it would say to her, look, if you can’t have children, it’s completely okay. If you can afford a servant and that servant can have children and therefore, uh, let let her have children in your place and just adopt that child that was culturally acceptable. Does it make it good or honoring to the Lord? But this is what how she justified it. And then she verse six, you see her become this, this victim. It says. Then Rachel said, God has judged me, and he has also heard my voice and given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan. Rachel’s servant. Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, with mighty Wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed. So she called his name Naphtali. You know this idea of of this name, Dan literally means it vindicated me. So this is where she thinks she’s the victim of this circumstance because, well, her idea. The entity is in what she can do. And since that’s where her value is achieved and what she’s doing rather than what God says because she can’t have that and that’s her idolatry, then she’s become a victim. And in being that victim, you look at the the idea of the next child.
It says it loosely translates as entangled in a desperate contest. So Naphtali becomes this idea of she, she, she thinks her problem is with others and she’s wrestling with them. They’re her her competition. Their destruction is is her success. And so she’s living for the praise of people. Her desire is to beat her sister. To get ahead. To win against others. Is that really what God wants? Is that really why God created us? For us to be better than each other. Is that the purpose of life? When you find your identity in the things of this world. That’s the road it leads to. That’s why it’s essential that the gospel renews us. Because when we play the comparison game, it takes our eyes off the very reason for which we are created in the Lord. In fact, the book of James chapter four says it like this what causes the corals? What causes the fights among you? Rachel, you see your sister as as an enemy. What causes that? And you would expect the answer to be, well, it’s them. It’s their fault. If they would just stop doing what they’re doing right, they’re the problem. If they would fix themselves, then that would help me and I could be better. And we kind of blame other people for what it is that we do, as if we’re not responsible for our own actions. And he says, and James goes on and says, this is it, not this.
That your passions are at war within you, he says. Is it not? I know you blame people, but is it? The reality is, aren’t you responsible for you? And other people are going to do things. They may do things that you don’t like, but doesn’t God still call you to follow him? And he goes on and says, you desire and do not have. So you murder, you covet and cannot obtain. So you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. In the next verse it says, and when you do ask, you ask with the wrong motives. And the motives are to serve yourself. Your eyes are completely on you. And by the way, all these years that I’m saying, please know I don’t mean you specifically. All right. Apply whatever fits we’re talking about. You know, bad people that don’t aren’t here. I’m just kidding again. But but it’s important as James is speaking particular to us in this. But here’s what’s interesting. He’s saying in this verse. He’s referring to them as murderers. He’d be like, oh man, James must be writing this to people in prison, right? Like people that have taken the lives of others. The envy has driven them so much. And the competition of, of of beating other people, they’ve actually killed other people. Look at that. Well, it’s good for James that he wants to reform the prisons.
But you come to find out, James has not written prisoners, James has written to Christians and he’s written to prisoners. Could be Christians, too. But but he’s writing this to the church. He’s saying, look, he’s saying the attitude in your own heart can be murderous. When envy takes control of your life, it kills your walk with God. It kills your relationships with others. It kills you. And what’s important for a life is to find our identity in him. Rachel’s thinking is so inappropriate. It even even in the story, she drags God into it. If you saw it in verse, verse six, she said, God has judged me. Not in a bad way, but God has vindicated me. That’s what she’s saying. God’s vindicated me. She’s gotten so messed up in her theology that she sees God existing for the purpose of just doing whatever she wants. She’s drug God even into this, and her view of God has become warped because of it. Envy kills point number two. Let me add to it jealousy isolates. Jealousy isolates. You know, we tend to we tend to refer to the word envy. You kind of use the word jealousy as sort of this blanket statement for for envy and jealousy. Envy is like the longing for what someone else has to be yours, to the point that you will destroy them to get it. Um, jealousy carries the idea of of hoarding things that you think belongs to you, right? So jealousy is the idea is defined like this.
It’s the fear that something which we possess will be taken away from us. It’s like this schmiegel off the Lord of the rings. If you want to. You want an image in your mind. You’re precious. It’s yours. You worked hard. It belongs to you. It’s all for you. Therefore, you should keep it. And it works like this in our life where, um, we we we start with the facade of everything that I have is mine, which is incorrect. Everything in this world is not yours. Even the things that you possess legally, it’s not truly yours. It all belongs to the Lord. All of it is God’s. You just happen to be a steward of it for a season and it’s not going with you. And here’s the reality. When you have things in your possession, the more you have, the more you’re accountable to the Lord. For there’s a Proverbs I can’t remember the exact reference, but it says basically this idea that when you have many ox in the barn, there’s a lot of poo to shovel along with that. Now it makes you think, wait a minute, before I buy an ox, I got to I got to consider I got to consider how big I need a shovel. Right. Like and same thing with the possessions that you have. It’s not wrong to own things.
It’s not wrong to have things. But the question is, do you own those things or do those things own you? Do you find your worth off the things that you own? Do you think that that makes you more valuable? Does a name brand make you mean more in the world? It would say yes. But to the Lord we should know as God’s people. That is absolutely a no. There’s nothing that can make me more valuable than Christ. There’s no greater worth that’s been placed on my life. So why? Why, if I my value in things that are passing away, when I can find my value in one I can walk with for all of eternity. But jealousy has this, this tendency of of holding on to things. And and we have this way of justifying it. Um, but but Jesus taught us that the way to combat jealousy, honestly, is this place of generosity. Jesus said in acts chapter 20, verse 35, Jesus is quoted as saying, um, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And the only way you get to that place is to recognize that what you need in life isn’t found in the things of this world. What you truly need in life to find yourself whole, restored, renewed is found in Christ alone, and what you have in him can never truly be lost in envy and jealousy. It’s all about fighting to hold on to things, to find our worth and value.
I need to feel important so I. I fight people for these things to give me value. I need to feel important. So I hoard things jealously in order to give me value. But all of it’s a facade and all of it passes away. But the reality is, what you have in Christ endures forever. And the things that pass away, we should, with open hands, be be willing to look for opportunities to bless. And the things that we know endure forever are locked in Christ. That no matter if someone takes temporarily things away from me, well, ultimately, what I’m intended to have in Jesus, I will receive forever that Jesus makes all things new and restores all things. But there’s this battle of jealousy within me. And you see this in verse 14 to to 18 playing out. It’s really it’s a silly interaction here, but here it is. In the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben, one of Leah’s kids, went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son’s mandrakes. This is so funny, man. I’m like, I’ve never gone through the grocery store. I’d be like, give me those daggum mandrakes. Like the lady’s taking the last mandrakes. I’m like, let’s, we’re going to fight over this. I need me some mandrakes. But here they are fighting over mandrakes.
But she said to her, is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also? Right. You see this competition? And Rachel said, then, then may he lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes. They’re pimping out Jacob now over mandrakes, as then when Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, you must come into me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes. So he so he lay with her that night, and again passive man here. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband. So she called his name Issachar. Um, yeah. Let me just let me say it like this. I think sometimes, sometimes we think in terms of envy and jealousy. You might think of other people, like real quick that just they look really worldly envy and jealous. And you may ask yourself, am I really am I really a jealous person? Let me just tell you how it plays out in this story, because I think this is how often it plays out in our lives. Um, and if not you, I’ll just say me. Okay, uh, someone does something that wrongs you, right? And before you got wronged, you would consider yourself a generous person.
But now that you’ve been wronged, you’re like, oh, you were. You were mad. You were that way towards me. And then you can justify how you respond to them, right? Because they were ill, ill tempered towards you did something maligning towards you, attacked you did something you didn’t like towards you. You took it offensive. Whatever it happened towards you, then you justify how you react towards them. And the way it plays out in this story is Rachel was envious of Leah to the point where she was competing with her and Leah knew it. And now all of a sudden, Leah has something that she can bless Rachel with. And rather than just share the stupid mandrakes with her sister, it becomes this entire argument. You know, I looked at this passage thinking, man, there must be something like deep in the Hebrew culture that’s happening during this time. I just don’t understand. I don’t know why I should give a rip about mandrakes, right? Like I’m looking at this, trying to read this, get the deeper meaning. And, you know, as I studied, I spent way too much time looking at this. And as I studied it, um, you know what I found? Nothing. Nothing. This is just a dumb argument over mandrakes. That’s what’s happening in this passage. They’re literally just fighting over mandrakes. And the reason is because they want you to get frustrated by the jealousy, too. Why are you just get if you got a lot of mandrakes, some of these mandrakes probably won’t go bad.
Just let your sister have some mandrakes. You need to manipulate your sister over this. You got it. You have it. You can give it. Just bless. Just share. But that’s not what she does. And the reason she doesn’t do it is because, well, she can justify it. My sister was mean to me this way, and so I don’t have to share with her. I’m not going to be nice to her. I’m just going to do what I want to do and just use this for me. You find anywhere in the Bible where it says to you because people act like fools, that it gives you a reason to respond the same way. God calls us to be light in darkness regardless. Our walk with Jesus is not determined by other people. Were called by him. Other people do not dictate who I am in Jesus. Jesus dictates who I am in him. Just because people act terrible doesn’t give me an excuse to respond in the same way. I want to honor God regardless of what people do around me. That’s that’s I’ll say my pursuit. I wish I did that perfectly, but it’s the pursuit of my life. God help me in the midst of darkness to still be a light I want you to discover is that is more transforming than anything. I think what it took for me to become a Christian.
There were a couple of pastors in the town I lived in that would come to me and talk to me about the Lord, and I was always rude and mean back to them because I didn’t believe in God, and I hated the God that they believed in at the same time. And then one day I went through this crisis and and I saw the consistency of their character. And that’s what the Lord used to soften my heart, to listen to what they had to say. It was their consistency in choosing to honor the Lord, regardless of how I responded. Guys, can I tell you? It’s the very thing that changes all of our hearts. Because this is how Jesus treats us. While we’re sinful in our most unlovable state, God did not stop pursuing me. God gave his life for me that I could be free in him. It’s the only hope I have because apart from that, the only place I can go to find my value is the things of this world. And what drives that motivation is envy and jealousy because, well, if that’s where I find my value, I need to get more than you have in order to make myself more important than you are. But, but, but what we discover is that the gospel I need to get to in a minute is ultimately freeing. Let me just skip on real quick.
You see this play out again how jealousy isolates and the story of Jacob and Laban. After Rachel had a child, Jacob comes to his father in law and says, um, we’re ready to leave now. Let our let our family depart. And Laban talks to Jacob about sticking around. The reason Jacob came to his father in law after Rachel had a baby and said, can we leave? Is because that was actually the cultural custom that when a man married a woman, that he would stay with the family until the wife had a baby, and then they would leave. And the reason they would do that is because, according to cultural custom, if the wife didn’t have a child, she didn’t give an heir to the family. That was sort of like the retirement and safety of a family that the kids would take care of mom and dad as they aged. And so if you didn’t have that, you didn’t have care for you. So you you had concern for your life. And so there was written in their law, and this is not good or right, that if a woman couldn’t produce an offspring that the husband would could divorce her. Well, in this time period to, to leave a woman alone and abandoned in some foreign place where Jacob was from, it could lead to her death. And so the custom was for the husband and wife when they would get married, to stay with her family until she produced an offspring.
And then the family knew there was an heir in the family, and then they could move away. And this is what Jacob approaches Laban. It’s time to to leave. And I’m not saying that’s good or right, it’s just the custom of the day. And so it goes. In verse 29, Jacob said to him, you yourself know how I have served you, how, how your livestock has fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it was increased abundantly. And the Lord has blessed you wherever I turn. But now when shall I provide for my own household? He said, what shall I give you? Jacob said, and you shall. Jacob said, you shall 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. And they shall be my wages. And so my honesty will answer for me later. When you come to to the 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. Laven said. Good, let let it be as you have said. But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and the female goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had white on it, and every lamb that had was black, and put them in charge of his son.
And he set a distance of three days journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastored the rest of Laban’s flock. Let me just really summarize this real quick because again, this is like mandrakes all over. Um, Jacob is saying like, let me take the worst part of your business right as my payment and I’ll, I’ll make that what I try to to nourish while I take care of of your business. I’ve made you wealthy already. But let me continue to do that, and I’ll just take the worst part of your business with speckled and spotted goats and lambs. And and in this time period, and even today, goats are brown or black, usually one color and lambs are white. But. But Jacob wants to take the unique ones, which would have been rare. Right. And and rather than just agree to that and let that be the father then takes out all of those things as soon as he agrees with Jacob and sends his servants away with speckled and spotted lambs. Three days journey. So Jacob didn’t have access to them. He sort of had to start over from scratch. And what we’re learning is Laban’s jealousy again. He’s found his identity and his possessions, and because of that, his jealousy is isolating him.
His jealousy is pushing away his children and his grandchildren. He’s even robbing them. For what? So that he feels important and in the end, nobody’s happy. In fact, towards the end of Genesis, Jacob recounts his life before Pharaoh, the leader of the known world. And when Pharaoh introduces himself and has him come in, he wants to know about Jacob’s life. Wow. Here, 130 years old. Tell me about your life, and I want you to see how Jacob describes himself. He says the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojourning. I mean, he’s still comparing himself. I only sing as days are in comparison to others have not been that much, and in fact they’ve been full of evil. I mean, he’s he’s lamenting with regret over what his life has been. His story is really teaching us where envy and jealousy get us. Envy kills. Jealousy isolates. But but in the end, guys, what’s important for us to recognize in the last point of your notes. The gospel redeems. The gospel redeems. I heard a story of two shopkeepers once where they were across from one another in business, and every day they would walk outside and they would they would look at the the other shopkeeper and the business they were getting, and then they would just watch each other and they were just competing.
They wanted to beat each other. One day the devil came to visit one of the shopkeepers, and the devil said to him, I want a grant for you. One wish. And he said, whatever you want, any wish you want more power, more beauty, more fame, more money, whatever you want, I will give it to you. And the shopkeeper is excited, you know. But then he says, but there’s one catch. Whatever you ask for, I’m going to give the other shopkeeper double. And then the man thought to himself, oh no, what am I going to do? And so then he turns to the devil and says, I want one, I. Because he realized the other shopkeeper then would become blind. I mean, you see, rather than just take the blessing of what he could have, he’s so envious and jealous that he just wants to see the demise of others. People are the competition to him. But there’s a different way that God has called us and that is in the gospel. It redeems us rather than to find our worth in the things of this world would ultimately leads to destruction of each other. The Book of Titus says it like this. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to our passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy.
And look at this what it leads to. Hated by others and hating one another. Everyone becomes my competition. But he says, when the goodness and loving kindness of our God Savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done, not based on me, what my efforts by us and righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly in the gospel you learn it’s not based on what I do. I’m not here to prove anything. It’s based on what he’s already proven on my behalf, what he has done. And now I get the privilege of being free of the broken things of this world for which I may have thought before, gave me worth to discover my ultimate worth in Christ. And what I truly have in Christ can never be taken away from me. I don’t have to worry about jealously hoarding it. I don’t have to be worrying about enviously fighting for it that God has completely set me free. And what I have in him is something new, something glorious, something greater than myself. Something. No matter how much I worked for, I could never attain to all given to me because of the grace of God. And therefore I can walk in the newness of life for the purpose of blessing others, because I truly don’t ultimately need anything from them, but rather now I have the privilege of giving something to them, because what I have in Christ endures forever, and that privilege, that position, that that, that worth, that value, that meaning becomes the anthem of my life that matters beyond anything this world can give.
And anything anyone ever takes away from me. Momentarily it may be gone, but ultimately God will restore. That means I don’t have to worry anymore. It doesn’t mean I have to get anxious. It doesn’t mean, like Rachel concerned with, oh, I’m going to die if I don’t get this. But rather I trust in a God who knows where I’m at, who knows what I need and can give it to me. And one of the most beautiful ways I see this played out, I think, in church history, is through the lives of missionaries, and they find themselves renewed in Christ, and they go to the ends of the earth to proclaim the gospel. In Christianity, there was this renewed passion and missions that took place in the 1800s. In the 1800s, it became a growing popular thing to go to foreign lands, to proclaim the gospel. And what’s interesting when you study missionaries is during the 1800s, when there’s not antibiotics, the average life expectancy for a missionary when they would go to regions like Asia or Africa was about five years, and it took them about four years to learn the language. They get about one year of productive ministry and they pass away.
And it’s like, for what? And it’s because they have found their identity in something completely different. And one of those one of those people that is inspiring is a lady by the name of Mary Slessor. Now Mary Slessor. A single lady goes to Nigeria and she serves in Nigeria. She died in the early 1900s. She went to this particular cultural group that had this this way of thinking that if you had twins, you were considered cursed and families would either kill one of the twins or abandon them. And so she went in, teaching them the value of every human being and rescued children. Uh, she created an orphanage. She she adopted some of these kids, but she used her life to give it away for the glory of God. How does a person do that? The only answer is it’s reshaped in the gospel. It finds the worth of who you are not in the things of this world holding and hoarding, but in the goodness of who God is. Uh, John Piper says it like this whatever you do, find the God centered, Christ exalting, Bible saturated passion of your life and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it, and you will make a difference that lasts. Remember, you have one life. That’s all you were made for. God. Don’t waste it. Envy kills. Jealousy isolates, but the gospel restores and redeems us.