LIFE LESSONS
JACOB
DR. JIM DIXON
GENESIS 25:29-34, GENESIS 27:36, GENESIS 32:22-30
NOVEMBER 3, 2002
Ossuaries are receptacles for the bones of the dead. The Jewish people used ossuaries in the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century AD. For those two hundred years surrounding the birth of Christ, the Jewish people practiced what is called secondary burial. They buried their loved one, and one year later when the flesh had decomposed, they dug out the bones and they placed the bones in ossuaries.
This past week as reported in Time Magazine and in Newsweek and in U.S. News and World Report and in all of the major newspapers, archeologists have declared that they have discovered the most significant ossuary ever found. Apparently, this ossuary was originally in a burial cave in Israel in the Kidron Valley across from the Mount of Olives beneath what once was the pinnacle of the Temple. This ossuary is dated to the 1st century AD, and it is inscribed with words in Aramaic, the language of the Jews in the 1st century AD. The words of the inscription are these: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”
Many scholars believe that this ossuary contained the bones of James, the biblical person who was the brother of Jesus Christ and who came to head the Christian church at Jerusalem. This James grew up in Nazareth in the home of Mary and Joseph, and he was one of the younger brothers of our Lord Jesus Christ. Traditionally, the book of the Bible that bears his name was written by him.
Now, scholars and authorities have pointed out that in the 1st century AD there were many Jews named James. Of course, there were not many named James who had a father named Joseph or had a brother named Jesus, but there were many Jews in the 1st century AD named James. After all, even in the New Testament many individuals were named James. In addition to James, the brother of our Lord, there was James the Greater, the son of Zebedee, the brother of John, the Sons of Thunder—one of the original twelve disciples. Then there was James the Less, the son of Alphaeus, also one of the twelve disciples.
But why? I mean, why were there so many people named James? It all goes back to the person that we focus on this morning. It all goes back to Jacob, the patriarch, and his fame. You see, no one in Israel was really named James. James is an English name. It’s the anglicized form of the Hebrew name Jacob, or Yacob. The Hebrew name Jacob in the Greek is “Yacobus,” and in the Latin, “Yacomus,” and in English, James. You see, it’s not really James but it’s Jacob, and it all goes back to Jacob the Patriarch. Everybody in 1st century AD wanted to name their son after Jacob the Patriarch.
So, we come to Jacob today, the Father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and from his life we have four life lessons. First of all, avoid deceit. We look at the life of Jacob and we have this life lesson: Avoid deceit.
In Dallas, Texas, last fall, a man was driving home from work. His cell phone rang in the car. It was his wife. She said, “The company will be here in an hour, and I still need some things. Could you rush to the store and buy me these things?” He said, “Sure.” He drove to the store. He was in a hurry and, incredibly, he left his keys in the car. He went into the store, bought what his wife needed, but when he came out of the store, he was stunned to see that the car was gone. He felt humiliated and embarrassed, and he called his wife. She came and picked him up. The dinner party was cancelled. When they went to bed that night, they were both frustrated and angry. But the next morning when they woke up, they were amazed. They looked into their driveway and there was the car. The car was right in their driveway, and there was a note on it. The note said, “Sorry that I took your car, but I was desperate, and it was an emergency. I found your address on the vehicle registration. The keys are in the car and also two tickets to the Dallas Cowboys football game this Sunday.”
He looked inside the car, and sure enough, the keys were in the car. The car was in perfect condition, no damage to it, with two tickets to the Dallas Cowboys football game. He said to his wife, “Can you believe this? This all turned out to be a good break.”
Well, that Sunday they went to the Dallas Cowboys football game, and they had a great time. They had wonderful seats. They got in their car and drove back home early evening. They opened the door to their house, and nothing was inside. Everything had been taken out of the house. The whole thing had been set up. It was all a deception.
We live in a world like that, don’t we? We live in a world of deception. There’s deception in our relationships. There’s deception in corporate America. We live in a world of political deception, deception in political advertising. And of course, we even deceive ourselves. Jacob was a deceiver. He had this flaw. Though he was used of God, he was a deceiver. He tricked and deceived his brother Esau out of his birthright and then out of his blessing. He was a deceiver.
Some of you might be thinking, “Well, isn’t deception okay sometimes? Didn’t Rahab the Harlot deceive the authorities in the city of Jericho when she gave friendly welcome to the Jewish spies? Isn’t she listed amongst the Heroes of the Faith in Hebrews, chapter 11? Wasn’t her life pleasing to God, and partly because of her deception? Were not the Christians who lived in Germany in the Nazi era heroic who deceived the German authorities and hid Jewish men and women and children in their attics and in their cellars? Wasn’t that deception righteousness? And how about POWs? I mean, when they are captured by the enemy, do they not deceive their captors for the sake of national security, and is not that deception honorable?”
And certainly, we can understand those points. But we also need to understand that biblically deception is always evil. Now, there might be circumstances in where deception becomes the lesser of two evils. There might be a few circumstances in which deception constitutes the lesser of two evils—certainly to save lives, certainly for the sake of national security. But nevertheless, the Bible makes it clear that deception is displeasing to God. We should understand that Jacob’s deception was not implemented for the purpose of saving lives. It had nothing to do with national security. It all had to do with prospering himself. God warns us, “Do not be involved in deception.”
Jacob paid a price. Because of his deception, he was alienated from his brother. For decades, he lived in fear of his brother’s wrath. Because of his deception, he was separated from his parents who loved him and whom he loved. He never ever saw his mother Rebekah again. He fled for his life to Northern Mesopotamia. By the time he came back decades later, his mother was dead and he found his father on his deathbed. All of this was the consequences of his deception.
I know many of you have heard of Ferdinand Waldo Demara. You can read about him in your encyclopedia or in many history books. Historians refer to Demara as “the great imposter.” He was a great imposter. He dropped out of high school, but he did incredible things through falsified documents, through forged credentials. He served as a medical doctor and surgeon in the Canadian Navy because of falsified documents. He served as a Professor of Psychology at a college in Pennsylvania because of falsified documents. He served as a biologist in cancer research and as a Trappist Monk in a monastery; he served in many other occupations all through deceit, all through falsification and forgery.
Later in his life, he became a Christian. He gave his heart to Jesus and he changed. He confessed everything. He made all of his deception known. He brought it all into the light, confessed everything, went to seminary, and became a minister. Every time he spoke, he told people, “We’re all great imposters.” Every one of us in this room are all involved in deception of some kind. There is the person other people think we are, and that’s deception. There is the person you think you are, and that’s deception. Then there is the person God knows you are, and that’s the real us.
You see, Christ calls us with every passing day to come into the light and be more and more real, to be honest, to be truthful, to be men and women of integrity and avoid deceit.
A second life lesson is to persevere in love. Jacob had many wonderful qualities, and one of those wonderful qualities was this: He persevered in love. When he fled from his parent’s home and he made that long journey away from his brother Esau to escape his wrath… He went to Northern Mesopotamia to the region of Hebron to where his grandfather Abraham’s people dwelt. And there he fell in love. It is one of the most beautiful love stories in the Bible. He fell in love with a young woman named Rachel, and he persevered in that love.
I want to show you a clip from the movie, “Jacob.” The part of Jacob is played by Matthew Modine and the part of Rachel by Sarah Flynn Boyle. I know it’s difficult to see a person who starred in Wayne’s World play the role of Rachel, but in that scene, Jacob is talking to Laban. He wants to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel, but Laban’s oldest daughter is Leah. Laban wants Jacob to marry his oldest daughter Leah, but he agrees to let Jacob marry Rachel if Jacob will work in his service for seven years, and Jacob agrees to do it; he loves Rachel so much. But then after seven years, Laban tricks him even as Jacob had so often tricked others. After seven years, Laban gives to Jacob not Rachel but his oldest daughter, Leah. Jacob, incredibly, agrees to work in the service of Laban for another seven years, that he might have Rachel for his wife. In the aggregate, Jacob winds up serving for 20 years that he might have Rachel whom he loves. He loves her and she loves him. They marry and she bears their children, Joseph and then Benjamin, and she died while giving birth to Benjamin.
It is one of the great love stories in the Bible. Jacob perseveres in love. I think we all can understand that on the romantic level. Biblically our marriages call for persevering love. When I said my vows to Barbara, I said, “I, Jim, take you, Barbara, to be my wedded wife. I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful husband, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, and in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live. Through every circumstance of life, I pledge my love will persevere.” That is what marriage is. Jesus said, “For this reason, a man leaves his mother and father and cleaves unto his wife and the two become one. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no one put asunder.” Persevering in love. Every time I perform a wedding ceremony, as the bride and groom touch hands at the end of the ceremony, I place my hands on their hands and say, “Whom God hath joined together, let no one divide.” Marriage calls us to persevere in love. It is a choice we make every single day whether we are a husband or a wife.
But, of course, there are other types of love. The Bible uses the Greek word “eros” for romantic love. The Bible actually does not use the word eros. It is not found there, but in the Greek culture, the word eros is used for romantic love. The Bible uses the word “phileo” for friendship love, “storge” for family love, and “agape” for divine love, selfless love. We are all called to love selflessly and to persevere in that love.
Barb’s mom and dad have recently come here to Denver. They live in a nursing home. Barb’s father is 86 years old. He had a stroke 25 years ago, and for 25 years, half of his body has been paralyzed. He cannot speak hardly at all. The things he loves to do he has not been able to do for 25 years, and now he just longs to go home and be with Jesus.
Barb’s mother is 75 years old, and for 50 years she has had rheumatoid arthritis, and it has crippled her. It has damaged her body inside and out and ravished her. She has fought three different types of cancer. Like Barb’s father, she too is in a wheelchair.
There are people like them all over this country, people who life in nursing homes. Of course, in most nursing homes there are four levels of care. There is independent living, there is assisted living, and then there’s nursing care and hospice. They need the deepest kind of care. They also need love. They need their family to persevere in love. They need to persevere in love. I mean, this is life in this world.
There are thirty-five million senior citizens in this country. Hopefully, they all have families persevering in love, and hopefully they are persevering in love. It is the call of Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I’m a noisy gong and a clanging symbol. If I have prophetic powers and understand all knowledge and all mysteries, and have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have and deliver my body to be burned but have not love, I accomplish nothing. For love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not seek its own way. Love does not rejoice in the wrong, but love rejoices in the right. Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things. Love never ends.” We are to persevere in love.
So that is the second life lesson from Jacob. Persevere in love. Then thirdly, dream heavenly dreams. We receive this life lesson from Jacob. Dream heavenly dreams.
Many of you have been to Edinburgh, Scotland. You have gone to Edinburgh Castle, and you have seen the rock that is kept there. One of the most famous rocks in the world, it is called “The Stone of Scone.” The Scottish people call it “The Stone of Scone.” The rock has been used for 1,200 years in the coronation of British kings and queens, both Scottish and English.
In the year 1296, King Edward I, King of England, took the stone from Edinburgh Castle and he brought it to Westminster Abbey in London. It remained there for seven hundred years, but just recently, in 1996, Queen Elizabeth II sent the rock back to Edinburgh with the proviso that it would be returned to Westminster Abbey for all future coronations of all future kings and queens.
What makes this rock so special? Why are all the kings and queens of England and Scotland, and in the past, even Ireland… Why do they all sit on this rock when they are crowned? What’s so special about this rock?
A lot of people in England believe it all goes back to the Bible, to Genesis, chapter 28, and it all goes back to Jacob. They think that that rock was once in the town of Scone, Scotland, but it did not originate there. It came from Oban to Scone, but it did not originate in the town of Oban, on the coast of Scotland, either. They believe it came from Egypt, but it didn’t originate in Egypt because they believe that the Jewish people in the time of Joshua brought that rock into Egypt when they went to live in the land of Goshen. They believe that originally the rock was in the region of Luz, which Jacob named Bethel, and it was the rock in Genesis 28 that Jacob used to rest his head upon when he slept that night, weary from his journey.
I don’t believe for a second that the rock in Genesis 28 is “The Stone of Scone.” I’m sure you don’t believe it either. What really bugs me about the legend is that basically it turns Genesis 28 into a story about a rock, and it isn’t a story about a rock. It’s a story about a vision that took place when his head was on the rock. This vision, the dream, was a vision, a dream of heaven, and oh how we all need dreams and visions of heaven. In this dream, Jacob sees a heavenly staircase or a heavenly ladder. The Hebrew word could mean either. This dream transforms his life.
We could have many questions about this heavenly vision wherein Jacob heard the voice of God, but there’s no doubt about this. Jacob’s life was transformed by that glimpse of heaven and by the voice of God. His life was transformed. All of the evidence is that up to this point, Jacob had not really been a spiritual man. But this glimpse of heaven and this message from God transformed him and he began to think in terms of serving God, pleasing God, and following God. He even vowed that from that point on, one-tenth of all that he made would go to God and to the work of God.
How we all need glimpses of heaven, every one of us. We need to dream heavenly dreams and we need to touch the divine. We need little glimpses of heaven. The reason we send our kids to Christian camps is so that they might get a little glimpse of heaven there. The reason we place our children in the Sunday School is that they might touch the divine, that they might get a little glimpse of heaven there.
Why do you come to church? Hopefully, you come wanting some glimpse of heaven as you sing the songs and as you hear the words. You want to feel the touch of heaven. It transforms our lives. When we are touched by heaven, it changes the way we live on earth. If we have really had a glimpse of heaven, we no longer live the same way if we’ve encountered Christ, if we’re experiencing Him, if we’re seeing His glory. It changes us. We begin to offer our time, our talent and our treasure to Him. We begin to seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness as we live on earth. We need to remember this life lesson from Jacob. Dream heavenly dreams. Seek those glimpses of heaven.
Finally, fight for the blessing. There is this strange passage that I shared with you in our scripture this morning in Genesis, chapter 32, where Jacob has sent his family across the River Jabbok, and he’s left all alone and its night. Prior to this moment, he has prayed because he is on his way to meet Esau when Esau is coming with four hundred men. Jacob is afraid he is going to lose his life, and he prayed to God and he’s seeking God.
So, there he is all alone in the dark at night, and this man comes—no normal man. A divine personage comes, and they strive together. They struggle. They wrestle. They fight through the night to the breaking of the day. Jacob leaves that struggle a different man. He leaves that struggle crippled, blessed, and renamed. The new name given to him is the name Israel, which means “to strive” or “to wrestle” or “to fight.” Of course, Jacob was always a fighter. He fought in the womb with his brother Esau. He fought even with this heavenly personage. Even with this divine figure, he fought.
How curious it is that the twelve sons of Jacob became the tribal leaders of the twelve tribes and collectively the people were called Israel! They were called Israel because of the name given to Jacob. How true it is that the Jewish people, Israel, have fought with God and man through all the years and even to this day.
But, you see, the message that we have here is, “don’t let go of God.” Jacob didn’t let go. Theologians debate, “Who was this divine figure? Was this a theophany? Was this God in the flesh, a corporeal manifestation of God Himself? Was it a Christophany? Was it Christ appearing prior to His incarnation in the flesh? Was it the Angel of the Lord who appears in the pages of scripture from time-to-time, this mysterious figure who seems to represent God Himself? We do not know, but we do know Jacob wrestled, in some sense, with God, and he would not let go. He wouldn’t let go until God had blessed him.
I do not know what you are going through. You may feel like you are wrestling with God, striving with Him, struggling. Do not let go of Him. Do not let go. Maybe you are in the midst of a health problem, and you are struggling with disease or illness, and it is pretty grave. Do not lose faith. Do not let go of God. Maybe you are going through financial problems, and you are really afraid about your future. You do not know how you are going to make ends meet, but don’t let go of God. Do not let go. Maybe you have relational problems, maybe emotional problems, spiritual problems. Do not let go of God. Do not let go of Christ. Hang on.
Maybe your struggle for righteousness is making you weary, and you are kind of tired of saying no. Maybe you are just feeling like a failure in your struggle for righteousness, seeking to live a life that pleases Christ. Whatever the case, do not let go. Do not let go of Christ. Hold on to Him. Fight for the blessing.
So, we have these four life lessons from Jacob the Patriarch. Avoid deceit, persevere in love, dream heavenly dreams, and fight for the blessing. Let us look to the Lord with a word of prayer.