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Guest (Male): Jacob had to be willing to listen. Doesn't matter what God's got to say, you're going to listen. And God speaks to you and me directly to our hearts, but in His word. If you spend time in the word, God's going to be saying things to you. And we have to be willing to hear those and listen. And when God says "get up and go," we have to be willing to say, "Lord, I'm up, I'm on it. Tell me which direction. Tell me what to do."

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible.

Continuing in Genesis chapter 31, verse 4, Jacob explains God's hand on his life as Rachel and Leah agree it's time to leave. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Well, verse 4 says this. Jacob sent, after Jacob figured out what was going on here and God said "get up, return, get up and go," Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field. Notice he didn't go in, he didn't go home. He called them to come out there to where he's working. So they leave the kids in the hands of some of the maids and the girls come out to the field.

Verse 5. He said to them, "I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the Lord of my father has been with me." In other words, God is with me. "And you know that with all my power I have served your father. I haven't cheated him, I've done the best I could do. And your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times; but God allowed him not to hurt me." In other words, God protected me through it. You think your boss is cheating you? Just keep trusting and doing a good job. You keep trusting and let God take care of all that.

Well, he says in verse 8, "If he said thus: ‘The speckled shall be thy wages,’ then all the cattle bore speckled babies. And if he said thus: ‘The ringstreaked shall be your hire,’ then they bore all ringstreaked ones," the goats and the cattle, etcetera. "Thus God has taken away the cattle from your father and given them to me." In other words, my flock is bigger than his now. That's what God did, not me and you, but God did it.

He's telling his wives, "And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, I lifted up my eyes and I saw in a dream..." Here you go. "And behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled." So he saw all that in a dream. "And the angel of God spoke to me in my dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And everybody mark this down. Jacob said, ‘Here I am.’"

He said, "Lift up now your eyes and see all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you." I see him cheating you over and over. "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where you vowed a vow to me." Notice when you make a promise to God, God doesn't forget it. You might forget it. Jacob kind of has, but God's not going to forget it.

When He makes a promise to you, He doesn't forget it. When you make a promise to Him, He's looking at you going, "Hey, you promised me. I didn't ask you, you promised me." Right? And He's just reminding Jacob of his own vow, his own promises. "I'm the God of Bethel, which you anointed the pillar there, and where you vowed a vow to me. Now get up, arise." And here it is again. Get up and go. "Get up, get thee out from this land, and return to the land of your family."

And Rachel and Leah answered and said, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? We don't have anything there anymore. We're your wives, this is our family. We have our children, these are our flocks. We have nothing from our father. And are we not counted of him strangers? I mean, he loves us, I'm sure, but you know, we're your family now and he's kind of worried about his own stuff. Are we not counted as strangers? For he has sold us and has quite devoured also our money. For all the riches which God had taken from our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatsoever God hath said to you, do it."

Okay, that's a big deal because this is their home. This is all they know. They've never been back to that land. What's that land like? He's probably talked to them about it a little bit, but he doesn't know a whole lot about his way around over there either. And they're going to go back sight unseen and they're ready to go. Who did that? God did that. They're all ready to go. God put it in their hearts. And then Jacob starts seeking the Lord. "What do I do? How am I supposed to do this?"

I like this. He calls his wives out to come see him, Rachel and Leah both, and he calls them out to the field where he kept the flocks. That is done in a term we use today: self-defense. Why he's getting them out there is because you do not know if you come home and you're talking to the ladies, even quietly in your tent, you don't know who's got a little glass up to the tent wall. You don't know who's hearing and where it's going to go from there.

He didn't want too many ears, and especially the wrong ears. And you may not know who the wrong ears are. So he didn't want them to find out and word get back to Laban because if he did, he knew there would be trouble. Laban's just looking for a reason to do something to Jacob. Jacob sees it. Also, he wanted to let his wives know what the Lord told them. And he wanted nobody else around, just in case.

"The Lord's called me to go back home." Six years ago, I had that desire. It's still there. And the Lord told me, "Get up and go." What do you do when God says get up and go? You know what you do, everybody? You get up and go. And I know Christians say, "Well, I'm waiting to see. I know I want to go here, but I don't know what the next step is over there." You know, God is waiting for you to take step number one before He tells you what step number two is. Christian, if you're waiting for God to tell you everything that's going to happen to you, stop waiting. Get up and get moving. You can't steer a parked car.

The Lord's called me back to my home. And Jacob wants to take his whole family. Well, that's a big deal. That's a lot of people: a couple of wives, some concubines, etcetera and so forth, eleven kids, sheep and goats and stuff and servants. Because the flocks are so big, those three adults and some of those maids are not going to take care of the flocks. You're going to have to have servants. And you're probably going to be paying them something. Especially, well, you're going to at least feed them and clothe them if you're not paying them. Probably paying them something also.

So you've got a caravan on your hands basically. And he's telling the ladies he wants the whole family to go, but at the same time he wants his wives to be willing. He's not saying, "This is what we're going to do, I'm the man. And when I get angry, flies don't dare to fly. So you're going to do it." No, it's not that way. That's not the language at all. The language is, "I need to tell you what I believe God's telling me to do." He wants his wives to be willing. He doesn't want to drag them away from their home against their will.

But Jacob could see the flaws of Laban so clearly, and he's telling the girls that. "Your dad's kind of ripped me off. He's cheated me ten times. Maybe he thinks I don't realize it, but he's cheated me a lot of times." He's exactly right about Laban. You know why? They are spitting images, they are mirror images of each other. They're both weasels. They're both out to do the other one in. "I'm going to get something over on you. I'm going to get you. You fooled me once, you ain't never..." Right? And you say, "Boy, those two weasels." No, the point is you and me. You and me.

And Jesus brings that up. Jacob knew Laban so well because Jacob was just like him. He was a reflection of Laban. And Laban didn't trust Jacob because Jacob was a reflection of Laban. Laban was a reflection of Jacob. Right? You get the point? All that to say this. Jesus said that about every one of us. You and me, not just Laban and Jacob.

Jacob is going to learn to love with the love of God. The word in the New Testament used, a Greek agapao, or agape you would say. Agape. That's God is agape. And the Greeks have six different words for love. The Americans have one. And so you'll say, "I love my son and I love French fries." Now, you have to determine what kind of love that is. We only have one word and we use it for everything. "I love little baby ducks and pickup trucks and slow moving trains and rain." Okay, what kind of love is that? You have to determine because we only have one word.

But the Bible, the Greek New Testament has six words. One of them's never used: eros, sexual, physical contact. The Bible doesn't use that one, ever, in the New Testament. But Jacob has to learn and is learning to love the love of God, the love of God Himself, the agape love. That's why we sang that tonight because if I could talk in any language there was, I'd just be a noise if I didn't have love. We sing it, we know it, but we're not walking in that. We're not living that.

And he needs he's learning to walk in it, and so should I be learning to walk in it. And so should you. Love. That's what tells us we'll sing it coming up when we're done. That's what tells us that we're truly Christians. That's how others will know that we are Christians, by the love that we have for one another. By the love. Not speaking in tongues, not going to church, not being a preacher or being a holy woman of God and going to every woman's study in the world with tissues and all, right? Nothing like that.

It's love. And if we're not doing that, well, it doesn't matter how your marriage is going. It doesn't matter how your job is going. It doesn't matter how your this or that at work. Love is what shows that we are truly born again. You can just get down and fall on your face and worship for ten hours and get back up and still spit in somebody's eye. If you don't love, that worship is what? Noise. The singing is like a clanging cymbal, a banging little noise because there's no love to it.

Jacob will learn to love with agape love, the love of God Himself. We are learning, and we can watch Jacob, and we'll watch you're seeing him grow. He's more mature now than he was twenty years ago. And he's got a long way to go and he'll get there. You watch, love of God. We're learning in and through God's Holy Spirit how to love with true agape love. And how are we doing? I think we fumble and fall regularly, don't you? You love somebody until you're either in a bad mood, or your windshield wipers don't work, or until you thought you had the lottery numbers and now, man, the whole world is at right?

First Corinthians 13:5. We sang it in a paraphrase, but let me just read it to you. Something that I don't think Jacob understands here. He'll learn. And I don't think some of us do either. And it's written for us in the New Testament this way. Love does not act unbecomingly. If you like, you can use the word inappropriately. First Corinthians 13:5. It does not seek its own. Love has no self to it at all. It is not provoked. There's no "easily" in the original Greek. It is just plain not provoked. You can't make love mad.

And it does not take into account a wrong suffered. Did you hear that? It doesn't take into account a wrong suffered. Literally, agape love doesn't notice when others have tried to hurt it. Not only are you not keeping score, you don't even notice that they're trying to hurt you. And I think, I don't know too many people like that. "Were you calling me a name? Were you trying to say?" They notice. Love doesn't. But we're learning, aren't we? Are we growing or are we not?

Agape love does not even notice when others do it wrong, meaning does not take into account a wrong suffered. And someone comes up and says, "I'm sorry I said that to you the other day, I was angry." And you would go, "Oh, no problem. I didn't even notice. Not a big deal." Or, "Yeah, you were a jerk the other day and I was going to mention that, but I thought, well, be holy, Bob." Think about it, everybody. I'm trying to make you smile because this is kind of embarrassing, isn't it? How we walk as opposed to what God says.

The song we sing is "Love Hardly Knows," we paraphrase it this way when we sang it a while ago. Love hardly knows when it's under attack and it never waits for an opportunity to strike back. You know why? Because you're not keeping score and you're not paying attention. It just it's gone. It's not there. That's what Jacob needs to learn to do. He's hurt right now. He's angry, he's bitter, and he's going to head out. And God's saying, "Time for you to get out, you need to go." And he's going.

And see this. See this. As he's telling his wives the things that God told him, the things that God promised him. He said the Lord spoke to me in a dream and said, "Jacob." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." That's the response we should have as well. When God says, "Bob," I go, "I'm here, Lord. I'm right here. I'm listening." Instead of saying, "Wait, well, wait, I got mad and my foot hurts right now and I'm old." Right? My home was a mobile home. We have to explain? No. "Here I am, Lord."

Jacob had to be willing to listen. He had to be willing to listen. You want to know God's will? I gave you some scriptures earlier, and Romans chapter 12:1 and 2 really put it all together. But I gave you some scriptures, but really to be honest, the main thing is you're going to have to, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not into your own understanding. Remember Proverbs 3? Well, one thing you've got to be doing is listening.

Jacob had to be listening. God says, "Jacob," "Here I am, Lord." Jacob had to be willing to listen. Doesn't matter what God's got to say. If you think God's going to be mad at me, I'm not even going to show up. You're going to listen. That we need to listen. And Jacob needs to listen. He said, "Here I am, Lord."

And God speaks to you and me directly to our hearts, but in His word. If you spend time in the word, God's going to be saying things to you. And we have to be willing to hear those and listen. And when God says "get up and go," we have to be willing to say, "Lord, I'm up, I'm on it. Tell me which direction. Tell me what to do." That's Jacob. He had to be willing to listen. I need to be willing to listen. You need to be willing to listen. Then we need to be willing to walk in it. Get up and go, in other words. Do as God calls you to do.

God says to Jacob, "I'm the God of Bethel." And then God says something I know Jacob remembered it, I know he did. But listen to God. God is cool this way. He says, "I'm the God of Bethel. Remember, Jacob? Remember Bethel? You named it Bethel. You anointed that pillar there. You promised me something. I didn't ask for promises, you made a vow. So get up and get going. Leave here and go back to the land of your family."

Here's what I love about Jacob. He's instantly saying, "I'm on it. Let me get these wives out here and explain to them why I'm doing what I'm doing." They happen to agree with him. That's God. Could have been a big fight, big family thing. But God was working. And so you made a vow, so get up and get going. Leave here and go back. Jacob says to his wives, "I did make a vow, you know." In other words, "That's true. I made a vow to God." And he hasn't kept his vow.

Remember, "I'm going to give you ten percent of everything I get. I'm giving it to you." He hasn't given God nothing yet. He didn't have anything for the longest time. Now he's got a bunch of sheep and stuff. Notice he forgot, and God just loves him, says, "You promised. Get up and go. Let's do this." Jacob is saying to his wives, "I did make a vow and I want to keep that vow. I want to." He may not be able to in his own strength, but he's got that desire. Don't you?

God says, "Follow me," and you say, "I'm following, I'm following you." And then now you catch yourself dragging a little bit, sitting down, not wanting to go any further. And God says, "Hey, come on, come on. We're with it." And you get up and you say, "Okay, help me, Lord. I'm tired. Get me up and let's get me going. We need to get going from here," he says. "I want to keep my vow. I want to do it. We need to get going. That's what God told me to do."

Rachel and Leah both agreed. I'm going to paraphrase what they say. You notice they say that their dad has spent their money. Here's what they're talking about. They both agree we've lost our inheritance. We're married to you now. And my dad's inheritance is dwindling. Yours is getting bigger, his is dwindling. My brothers are kind of upset, they know that. Right? And so we're doing all that and they say, "We've lost our inheritance. It has been taken from us. So let's go. There's nothing here anymore for us."

Not only had Laban treated their husband like almost like a servant, slave, a common slave, but he also used up and spent the dowries that would have been a lot of money and a lot of stuff for each daughter. Jacob didn't get it, neither did the girls. They never got their dowries. Their dad spent it. On whatever. He spent up their dowries. So they're saying, "Yeah, let's go back. We'll go with you. We're good."

You know, God always leads us in the path of righteousness, doesn't He? God always does. I'll read it to you. Psalm 23:3. "He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." He's leading Jacob and his family in the path that's righteousness. Not such an easy path. So notice something, let me say it this way. God always leads you and me, always leads every true believer in paths of righteousness. We need to be willing to follow. That's the key.

If you find yourself in all kinds of this or that, stop and say, "Wait a minute, am I following God or am I just doing what I want to do?" Because He always leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. But I have to be willing to follow Him. If I'm going to have to do my own plan and my own bidding and my own will, I'm going to be miserable because it's usually never going to match up with what God's plan for me is. Same with you. So I like it. That's where we'll stop, verse 16. God always leads us in the paths of righteousness if we are willing to trust Him and follow.

Now we want to share communion together with all of that in mind. I don't make promises to God. I used to try, and I'm learning. Don't do that. Don't make promises to God. Just say, "Lord, help me. I want to do Your will. Help me." "But I promise I will never..." As soon as you say "never," the devil goes, "Wait, what did he just say? Never? Got one!" Because as soon as you say, "I'll never get mad again," guess what you'll be? Mad in a heartbeat, won't you?

And so now aren't you glad that Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us? He became He humbled Himself to become human. And he came lowly, lowly, born in a manger, in a barn, to poor parents. He came lowly. It's like if this were a planet of all dogs, Jesus would have become a Chihuahua and take the lowest of the low just to die for us. And here's what's weird. He will be the only body in heaven that is not perfect. He will have the nail prints.

So let me put it this way. He became a Chihuahua, the one of the littlest among all of us dogs, and He will be a Chihuahua for all eternity, willingly, to save us. He humbled Himself and He went to the cross and He stayed low. He let them spit in His face. He's God, He could have stopped it. He let them nail them to the cross. He's God, He could have stopped it. But He humbly did that so that I could and you could, so that we could be with Him in heaven. And all eternity we'll have perfect bodies and we'll be tall and strong and everything. And He will have the nail prints in His hands and His feet and in His side. All eternity, so every time we look at Him, we're going to remember how we got there.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is the radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. That's NorthCountryChapel.com/studies.

If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854. Or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again: 1-800-572-8851. Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. If you have been blessed by the teaching or have prayer requests that you would like to share with us, write, email, or call us as well. Please join us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse by verse on Apply Within, sponsored by North Country Chapel.