Lord of the Mess

Sermon for Sabbath, March 3, 2012, at North Hill Adventist Fellowship

Text:  Genesis 28ff.

About 3000 years ago, a woman named Rebecca was pregnant. She gave birth to twins, Jacob and Esau. They were not identical twins. They were visibly different from the day they were born. As they matured their differences became even more pronounced.

Jacob was a homebody. He liked to hang around the house. He liked to cook. He was his mother's friend, her companion.

Esau was pure testosterone. He liked to play cave man and dinosaurs. He made a bow and began hunting rabbits when he was scarcely larger than a rabbit himself. As he got older, he was as at home in the wilderness as Jacob was in the kitchen. Esau was his dad's favorite. It appears that in temperament, Dad (Isaac) was actually more like Jacob than Esau. Maybe Esau was the man Isaac dreamed of being.

As you might imagine, there was fairly intense competition between the brothers. Once when they were, perhaps, in their early twenties Esau returned from a hunting trip. It had been a miserable expedition. He was famished and exhausted. He walked in, and the place was full of the aroma of a lentil stew Jacob was cooking. To Esau at that moment, it smelled like heaven. He did what any self-respecting brother would do, he asked for some.

Jacob says, “Sure, you can have all you want, but it'll cost you. Sell me your birthright. You're fainting from low blood sugar. I'll take good care of you, just sign over your birthright to me.”

Esau was angry and flippant. “Sure, whatever. Just give me some food.”

Jacob: “Swear.”

Esau: “All right. All right. Okay. You can have the birthright. Just hand over some stew.”

Jacob ladles up stew and Esau settles down to eat. Satisfied.

Esau wasn't worried. The birthright—the special role of leadership in the family and an extra measure of the inheritance—was not something kids chose. It was something Dad gave. Esau knew there was no way his father, Isaac, was going to give the birthright to Jacob. Jacob didn't have the leadership ability, the drive and guts, a man needed to take on the management of his father's estate.

Fast forward another twenty years or so. By now, Isaac is getting seriously old. His cataracts have nearly completely obscured his vision. He summons Esau. “Listen son,” he says. “I'm getting old. I don't know how much longer I have. Take your bow and hunt some venison for me. Fix me a feast as only you know how to do. Then bring it so that I may eat and bless you.”

Esau was thrilled. Dad was finally passing the torch of family leadership. That little deal Esau had made with Jacob decades earlier was out of the picture. Just as Esau had known, his dad was too smart to make the mistake of putting Jacob in charge of the family.

Esau took his bow and headed out to find a deer.

As soon as he was out of the house, Rebecca summoned Jacob. “Listen, son, I just overheard your father send Esau out to get a deer. He told Esau to prepare a feast so he could eat and then bless Esau. Now, listen to me. Fetch me a couple of baby goats from the flock. I'll fix meat the way your dad really likes it. (He can hardly taste anything these days anyway.) You take the food in, have your dad eat and bless you.”

Jacob was appalled. This was a straight up lie. This was not what he had in mind when he made Esau sign over the birthright. Jacob protested.

Rebecca brushed aside his concerns. “Just do what I tell you. It'll be okay.”

“But,” Jacob said, “What if Dad touches me? Esau is hairy as a gorilla. I'm smooth as a china doll. There's no way Dad can miss that if he touches me.”

“Don't worry,” Rebecca says. “I've got it all figured out. Just do what I say.”

So Jacob fetched the goats. His mother fixed them. While they were cooking Rebecca outfitted Jacob in some some of Esau's clothes she had in the house. As a finishing touch, she glued the skins from the baby goats to the back of Jacob's hands and to his neck.

Dinner ready, Jacob took it into his father. His father was immediately suspicious. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“Why, I'm your son Esau. I'm bringing the food you asked me to prepare.”

“How did you find it so fast?”

“God blessed me.”

Isaac smelled a rat.

“Come here, my son. Let me feel you.”

Jacob came over. Isaac runs his hand over the back of Jacob's hand. Sure enough it is as hairy as a goat.

Isaac says, “It is the voice of Jacob. But it is the hands of Esau. Tell me, are you really Esau?”

“Yes, Father.”

Isaac lets it go.

He Isaac ate the food Jacob had brought, then pronounced a blessing. “May you be blessed in every way. May your fields yield rich harvests. May you rule over your brother and over the nations around you. May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed.”

The blessing done, Jacob scooted out. And no sooner was he gone than Esau walked in to his father's room, bearing a platter of venison, suspecting nothing. When he greeted his father, Isaac instantly realizes something has gone terribly wrong. Isaac has been “had.”

“Who are you?” he demands. “I am Esau, your son. I am bringing you the venison you requested.”

“Then who was that who was just here? I blessed him. And the blessing is irrevocable. He is truly blessed.”

“Didn't you reserve any blessing for me?”

“No son. I made him your ruler. I blessed his fields and his herds. What has been spoken can't be undone. What's done is done.”

Esau wailed.

He hated Jacob and began telling people that once his dad was gone and the time of mourning was completed, he, Esau, was going to take care of Jacob. (And that was not a good thing!) News of Esau's threats reached Rebecca. She knew Esau was quite capable of doing what he was saying.

She told Jacob what Esau was saying and urged him to go to his uncle's place back in Haran. “Go see your Uncle Laban. Stay there a little while until your brother's anger has cooled, then you can come back home.”

Rebecca talked to Isaac. “Listen, these Canaanite women Esau has married are driving me crazy. If Jacob marries one of these local girls, it'll be the death of me. Let's send him back to Haran so he can find a wife among my people.”

It sounded reasonable to Isaac. So, he summoned Jacob and ordered him to go to Haran, to his mother's family and take a wife there. He elaborated on the blessing he had pronounced the day of the birthright ritual.

May God Almighty* bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants multiply and become many nations! May God pass on to you and your descendants* the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where you are now living as a foreigner, for God gave this land to Abraham." Genesis 28:3-4

Days later—about 70 miles from home, so four days to a week later—Jacob stopped for the night in a desolate place. This was not common practice in those days. Travelers usually hiked from village to village. But this evening Jacob was on his own, in the wilderness. As it got dark, found a place among some stones to sleep. It was so confined, he had to use one of the rocks for a pillow. (I hope he put some moss or leaves or something soft over it, but all the Bible says is that he used a rock for his pillow.)

He fell asleep and had the most wonderful dream. A ladder stretched down from heaven to the place where he was sleeping. Angels traveled up and down the ladder.

At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, "I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.

What's more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you."

Wow! That's a rich promise.

Now, let me emphasize where we are in the story.

Jacob lived in a dysfunctional family. He is his mother's favorite. Esau is his daddy's favorite. It seems that Mom and Dad were conducting a proxy war through their kids. Esau was so ticked off by Jacob's snatching the birthright, he's planning to murder Jacob. The aggrieved brother is so furious he plotting to kill Jacob. So Mom persuades Dad to send Jacob packing on the pretext of finding a better wife than is available locally.

This is a mess!

And then God shows up. While Jacob is hiking to his uncle's house to avoid getting murdered by his brother for defrauding him, God shows up and reassures Jacob: I am with you.

Where is God? In the middle of human messes.

In this story, God is not just present in the mess offering consolation, it's clear that God actively working in the mess, using the dysfunction and mistakes and chaos as tool to help bring about God's own long-term plans for a good and blessed future.

Have you screwed up? Is your life a mess. I've got good news. God is with you. God has a plan. It starts from your lonely spot in the wilderness while you are running for your life.

Jacob's life does not suddenly become smooth sailing after this vision. Jacob makes it to his uncle's house where he is warmly welcomed. After a month, Uncle Laban offers to hire Jacob and asks him what he wants for wages.

This is an answer to prayer. It is the sweetest thing that has ever happened to Jacob. When he first arrived at Laban's town, he came to the well outside of town. Just after he arrives he sees a shepherd girl coming with her sheep. She is a stunning beauty. It turns out she is Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban. He has been dreaming of her constantly ever since.

So when Uncle Laben says name your wages, Jacob is ready. “I will work for you for seven years in exchange for the hand of your daughter Rachel in marriage.” The Bible reports the seven years Jacob worked seemed to Jacob but a few days, he was so enthralled with Rachel.

On the wedding night, Laban pulls a switch and sends his oldest daughter Leah into Jacob. In the morning when Jacob realizes what has happened, he is devastated. He does eventually get to marry Rachel, but as a second wife. His uncle cheats other times. It is an abusive relationship.

It's a mess. Still the Bible claims that in all this mess, God is present. Jacob is a conniver. His uncle is a scheming, shifty character. Their dance is not something beautiful to watch. Still God is present. God is present in the mess of this dysfunctional family. And God is working to move their family story forward toward the grand climax more than a thousand years later—the birth and ministry of the Messiah.

And God is present in our messes, too. God has plans to do us good. God works with who we are. He works with the situation we are in. He works with our actual lives and actual bosses and employees, our actual spouses and kids. God is deeply inside the messes that our lives sometimes are.

He is with us.

Because God is with us, we are capable of touching other lives with hope and help and healing. God calls us to give the love we can. To share the money we can. To pass along wisdom when we can.

God is with us. God is in us. And through us, he wants to be present in our families, in our schools, in our jobs.

Actually, I should say, because God is with us and in us, he IS present in our families, in our schools, in our jobs, in our neighborhoods. Just as our messes do not intimidate God, so don't allow the messes of those around you intimidate you. Be there. Radiating the wisdom and grace of God. Sharing with others the grace you have received.