Part 198. Jacob's Trouble - Part 1: The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin

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Sermons Series 3:198, 7 February 2009

Jacob's Trouble

Part 1: The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin

Main Themes: Jacob's troubles, prophecy, Israeli Republic, the 21 year principle
Minor Themes: Amos, 1948 Israel, failed rapture and Armageddon doctrines, false prophecy uncorrected, no state born in a day, puppet Illuminati state, broken yoke, second return of Israel & miracles, king of restored Israel, Jacob & Esau, 21 years symbol, hard labour for fraud, new heart of the true Israelite, trials of David, running ahead, Jacob's fear

Introduction

Shabbat Shalom and grace and peace in Yah'shua our Messiah. Today I am going to be looking at an old topic in an entirely new way - I say that before you cringe and back off because I really think you are going to be blessed by the insights offered. We are going to be integrating some diverse themes and witnessing the divine hand both historically and personally. Of necessity this will entail upsetting one or two gospel hobbyhorses which have been in the way of a clear revelation of the endtimes, preventing believers from discerning the times and the ways of Yahweh.

Was Biblical Prophecy Fulfilled Fifty Years Ago?

Half a century ago, in 1948, a new country was born in the Middle East called 'Israel' (though they had also toyed with the idea of calling it 'Judea'). For millions of Jews and Christians this represented the re-establishment of the original biblical nation and the fulfilment of ten or so Old Testament or Tanakh prophecies such as that given through the prophet Amos:

"'I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,' says Yahweh your Elohim"

A Prosperous Nation?

Since 1948 and before Jews have been entering Palestine and doing these very things, and the land appears to be prosperous even though, as we shall see, it is far from being self-sufficient. They appear to well and truly entrenched in the land until you remember the uprooted settlements of Sinai, Gaza, and in some places on the West Bank, and the forced resettlement of Jewish families by the Israeli government as a result of political agreements with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli Wars of the 20th Century

And the war of 1948-9 did have some superficial resemblences to divine miraculous interventions of old. Jewish enemies like Azzam Pasha, the Secretary General of the Arab League, pronounced a war of extermination, a war he was convinced the Jews would lose because of the overwhelming superiority of Arab weapons and manpower. He indeed boasted that the Jews would be massacred on a scale compared to that of the Mongols and Crusaders. He was proved wrong. In the two major wars that followed - the Six Days War and the Yom Kippur War, the Jewish state again faced overwhelming odds and again prevailed, though the Yom Kippur war did mark a turning point and the beginning of the slow reversal of Israel's fortunes. Thereafter many of the victories of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) appeared pyrric.

What You Were Not Told About 1948 Prophecies

Millions of Jews and Christians today believe that this little nation and what has happened to it is a window into biblical prophecy and the return of the end-time Messiah. But if you go back to 1948 and read the publications of those evangelical Christians in particular who saw the establishment of this little republic as a sign of even greater things, you will discover they were saying that the rapture ¹ and Armageddon would occur any day. They taught and preached that the tribulation would begin immediately and last for the anticipated seven years. They taught that there would be a sudden mass conversion of 144,000 Jews who would then be propelled into the world as instant missionaries, that their message would be rejected, because the Holy Ghost had been removed from the earth! And then, when war broke out between the nascent Israeli state and its Arab neighbours, it looked very much as though Armageddon was about to happen. What happened? Did 144,000 Jews convert and become instant missionaries? No. Was there a sudden rapture? No. Did Armageddon occur? No. Was the Holy Spirit removed from the earth? No. Instead, the Israeli army won and no Israelis converted to Christ and the Ruach haQodesh continued as before.

Failure of the Rapture Doctrine

As a result of these failed prophecies of both pentecostal and baptist evangelicals, the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine fell out of favour and a mid-tribulation rapture was prophesied for 1952. But after 3½ years there was still no rapture, the war ended, the Jews remained unconverted, and the 144,000 missionaries never materialised. By the end of 1955, seven years after 1948, the prophecy-pushers had so much egg on their faces and for a while it looked as though Christians had finally seen through their error of believing that 1948 had witnessed the restoration of biblical Israel. Based on prophetic timetables in the Bible, something should have happened and the tribulation should have occurred if Israel had indeed been restored then.

The Illusion of Fulfilled Prophecy

And yet evangelicals, and latterly, messianics, continued to push the doctrine that Israel was restored in 1948. As they read the Old Testament prophecies and look at the outcome of the Jewish' State's three major wars since independence, it seems as though even more prophecy had been fulfilled. Ezekiel in particular was, and is, much cited:

"So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!' Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh-Elohim: 'Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Ruach in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it and performed it,' says Yahweh'" (Ezek.37:10-14, NKJV).

No Repentance After the False Prophecies

You have to remember that the people citing this and similar scriptures have done so whilst refusing to admit they had been wrong about the rapture or tribulation in the 40's and 50's which should have followed the restoration of the nation of Israel according to prophecy. In the face of such a massive, blatant and undeniable error, the prophetic soothsayers should have repented and the teachers of false doctrine should have owned up to the truth and denounced their incorrect teachings. But sadly then, as today, they did not, and far from being expunged, these false teachings about the restoration of Israel and the rapture not only survived but have become even more entrenched, and they are still being pedalled today. Today the latest merchants of the restoration of Israel are the messianics amongst whom there is an almost idolotrous and chauvanistic worship of the now 50 year-old Middle Eastern state. Neither the evangelicals of 1948-1955 nor the Messianics of today have bothered to re-examine the foundations of their prophetic view to see if their premises were in error or not because they have invested so much of their spiritual credibility in these beliefs and to admit they were wrong would be to challenge whether they were really inspired by the Ruach haQodesh at all.

The Israeli Republic is Built on the Western Secular Model

Today Messianic ministries are still touting the Republic of Israel as biblical Israel restored and are urging fellow believers to support and/or immigrate to the Israeli State to give it their support. And sadly, the truism that time is the ally of deceit has been proven right once again and it seems that nothing short of the defeat or obliteration of the Israeli Republic will convince them that they were wrong. The myth of Israel's invincibility has been diminishing since the reversals of the Yom Kippur War and subsequent wars and an honest and close examination of what's actually going on in this little country reveals that its existence is owed not to special divine (at least, no more than any other nation) favour but to Jewish lobbying in American politics for financial aid and the latest military hardware. Without American financial aid the Israeli Republic would have been bankrupt a very long time ago. It is not a commercial viability in spite of the glitter and high tech. It is not a commercial success as the Solomonic Empire was. It's financial success is about as illusiory of the West's in general because it is built on exactly the same satanic system.

Revealing What's Really Going On

I am going to here say once again that both the evangelicals and messianics have quite simply got it wrong. And the longer they back and promote such lies, the harder it is going to be for them and their supporters to discern the true Ruach haQodesh when discernment may come to be a matter of life or death.

However it is not sufficient to claim that these two huge movements got it wrong when we don't proclaim what is right and prove it from Scripture. This is my task over the next few weeks leading up to Pesach. My goal will be to untangle the lies and shine the light of truth on biblical and world history. A lot of myths are going to be shattered, a lot of pet doctrines are going to be dismantled, and a lot of ministries are going to face extinction after their people have become disillusioned with them if they do not repent of their errors and embrace the truth.

The Truth Makes Its Demands

Along the way we are going to have to deal with a number of illusions and counterfeits which appear to be the real thing simply because they use scriptural language and, as I mentioned, because of the illusion of the vindication of time. The way many believers see the world will be changed because they have been looking at the wrong prophetic markers. We are going to have to see beyond labels and into the heart of truth. Some hearts are going to grow faint and some are going to be thrown into crisis as each soul is challenged to let Yah'shua take the reins of their lives and show them the Truthful Way. Some will refuse to change because they prefer the comfort of the lie of a false prophetic paradigm to the truth, and that because the truth will require more of them - more responsibility and accountability. Scapegoats used to justify hard-heartedness and a lack of repentance will be removed.

The Puppet State

The ressult, my friends, will be that honest believers will be forced to lean far more on Yah'shua and and less upon a misguided patriotism for the Republic of Israel will be shown to be no more than an Illuminati puppet state that is exploiting two groups of people - Jews and Arabs alike - in order to foment war and instability to promote their New World Order.

In order to succeed in so monumental a dupe such a counterfeit would, of course, have to be convincing and an elaborate theology would have to be evolved to justify it that also panders to various human vices. Satan knows his scriptures better than you or I - he has been analysing them for millennia and knows them in their original languages.

Born in a Day

Let's consider another prophecy of Isaiah:

"'Before she was in labour, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day (yom echad)? Or shall a nation be born at once (in a moment - OJB)?'"

Read any messianic or pro-Zionist Christian commentary since 1948 and most of them will wildly proclaim that the nation 'born in a day' was the modern Republic of Israel. Some are a little more cautious and claim the Zionist state to be a precursor to the 'real thing'. There is no doubt that a state was born in the Holy land in one day in 1948. Any day now another one may appear called 'Palestine' and then two states will have appeared in two days. The Palestine Mandate under Great Britain ² was also born in one day, approved by the League of Nations in 1922 just as the United Nations recognised two states of 'Israel' and 'Palestine' in 1948 until one of them was wiped out by the other and the rest gobbled up by the neighbouring nations of Egypt and Jordan. That Palestinian Mandate, incidentally, originally included the Kingdom of Jordan, the east bank of the River Jordan with the tribal homelands of East Manasseh, Gad and Reuben. Though the Zionists wanted the East Bank they never got it. As far as the restoration of geographical Israel is concerned, the British Mandate came closer than the Israeli Republic ever did to the biblical territory. Today three of the Israelite tribal territories lie in an Arab State and the prophesied borders of end-time restored Israel fall far short of the little Jewish State which has a northern border nowhere near the River Euphrates or a southern one near the River Nile.

In any case, Isaiah is not here saying that a nation will be born in one day in real space and time. Quite the reverse. "Is a country born in one day? Is a nation brought forth all at once?" (Is.88:8, JB) is a question being asked to point that that something else is going to happen that will seem as amazing as if a nation were about to be born in a single day. No nation has ever been born in a single day but comes into existence by degrees. Its institutions and laws are matured gradually over many years. The fact that the Israeli Republic was recognised by the United Nations on a certain day in 1948 does not mean that a nation materialised fully fledged out of nothing. It had been evolving gradually even under the British Mandate so that when the British left, all the essentials of nationhood were in place. So what is this 'something else' whose happening is compared to the impossibility of a nation being created overnight? It is the appearance of the new heavens and new earth! (Is.65) This is a supernatural event involving spectacular changes in both the physical and spiritual worlds. Such an event did not take place in 1948 and it still hasn't happened. This passage in Isaiah therefore has nothing to do with the end-time appearance of a new country, let alone biblical Israel.

The Broken Yoke

"'For behold, the days are coming,' says Yahweh, 'that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,' says Yahweh. 'And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.' Now these are the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and Judah. For thus says Yahweh: 'We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labour with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labour, and all faces turned pale? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day,' says Yahweh of hosts, 'That I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve Yahweh their Elohim, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them'" (Jer.30:3-9, NKJV).

Are the bonds of the inhabitants of the Middle Eastern Jewish Republic broken? Are her borders secure as they were in the days of Solomon? The stormy history of the last 50 years tells us that they are not. Indeed, the Jewish State is slowly contracting. Are the inhabitants of the Israeli Republic serving Yahweh their Elohim as Jeremiah prophesied? All that you have learned and been taught here will tell you a resounding 'No'! This Jewish State, which was supposed to convert to Messiah and supply a crop of 144,000 missionaries, is even more anti-Christian and anti-Messianic than it was before. It is now illegal to proseletyse non-messianic Jews to Yah'shua just as it is in Islamic States under Sharia Law. How, then, can this turbulent Jewish state, which so hates Christ, possibly be the restoration of biblical Israel?

The Truth of the Second Return

Jews have been pouring into Palestine both before and since the independence of the Jewish State. And the Bible does indeed speak of a return but not in the way that it has happened either before or since 1948:

"Thus says Yahweh-Elohim: 'Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their Elohim'"

Where's the King?

I ask you, in all candour, have things happened in the 20th century as prophesied here? The King of Israel was always a theocratic king, under Covenant. I ask you, are the Israeli Prime Ministers and Presidents abiding by the Covenant? Most are secular socialistic Zionists who have no belief in or love of Elohim! Do some research - list all the Israeli heads of state since David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir and tell me which, if any, fulfil the requirements of an Israelite Covenant King! I guarantee that you will not find even one. And we know, do we not, that the only King that qualifies is Yah'shua the Messiah. Until Yah'shua returns and is enthroned as King in Jerusalem this prophecy will not be fulfilled. This Jewish State is not - I repeat, absolutely not - a fulfilment of any biblical prophecy.

Miracles of the Second Return

Recently I have been pointing out to you that when Israel returns for real there will be so many incredible miracles that this second return will totally dwarf the first exodus and return under Moses and Joshua. This is how Jeremiah tells us how it will be:

"'Therefore behold, the days are coming,' says Yahweh, 'that it shall no more be said, 'Yahweh lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' but, 'Yahweh lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.' For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers'"

Go to any passover celebration, messianic or non-messianic, and what do you hear? The story of the exodus under Moses. What did Jeremiah say would happen after the final return? "it shall no more be said, 'Yahweh lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt'" And yet that is still what we are still doing because nothing more incredible has happened since. I am sorry to spoil the illusion that has been spun by the Zionists but the emmigration of millions of Jews to the Israeli Republic is absolutely not the fulfilment of biblical prophecy. It is a wicked deception and the Jews are the cannon fodder of an evil cabal of men with anything but biblical ambitions in mind. Even the Othodox Jews have been duped (but not all - some recognise that they have no claim to the Holy Land at all ³ ).

Prophetic Mathematics

Now there are other prophetic passages in the Tanakh that talk about the return but they are mostly concerned with mathematics and dates. This is something we shall need to look at carefully because many are claiming that a 1948 return is prophesied in the Scriptures. I will show you that it is not but that the British capture of Jerusalem was. ⁴ I will also show that what happened in 1948 was indeed prophesied but that it has nothing to do with the restoration of Israel but of EDOM. ⁵

Introduction to Jacob's Troubles

Earlier we saw how Jeremiah speaks of 'Jacob's Trouble' and that this is a time similar to childbirth, a fairly common prophetic theme in the Tanakh (Old Testament) that has its application to multiple situations. In order to understand what happened in 1917, 1948 and what is yet to happen with respect to the restoration of Israel, we need to do some careful studying and retrace the prophetic paths to see where the modern exegetes, sold on Zionism, went wrong.

Jacob's First Trouble

'Jacob is Israel, and Israel is Jacob' must be a key to understanding the descendants of this patriarch. What was the original 'Jacob's Trouble' and indeed was there only one? It is well known that Jacob had a troubled life. His first 'trouble' took place in Haran (Gen.31:41). There he had to physically labour hard (a sign of all true Israelites). He slogged away for 20 years tending Laban's flocks and adding this to the year it took to win Rachel, we may reasonably conclude that this 'first labour' occupied 7+7+7 or 21 years. The Book of Jasher (Yasher), believed by some to be mentioned in the Tanakh (Josh.10:13; 2 Sam.1:18) fills out a lot of the details absent in Genesis. ⁶

Jacob Robbed by Esau's Son

When Jacob arrived in Haran he was a pauper because en route he was robbed of the dowry that his father Isaac had given to him for a bride - robbed by a son of Esau called Eliphaz in exchange for his life (Jasher 29:30-38). Jacob was 77 and Eliphaz a mere 13! I want you to remember this because it is of great prophetic significance for our age.

21 Years of Hard Labour

The only reason Jacob had to work back-breakingly hard when he got to Haran was because he was impoverished. He struck a deal, therefore, to work for seven years to get Rachel since he had no dowry to offer. Spiritually-speaking, this could be viewed as a kind of 'indentured service'. ⁷ And then, as we all know, Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Leah. Sceptics find it hard to believe that Jacob would have been fooled but when you realise that Rachel and Leah were twins, were veiled, and it was dark, plus Jacob had lived a life of chastity for seven years (in other words, there would have been little or no physical contact except the non-sexual variety that was permitted between relatives) it is not hard to understand how Laban accomplished the deception. We learn this information from the Book of Jasher. And as you all know, shrewed old Laban struck up another deal enabling Jacob to have Rachel as well for another seven years of service, though on this occasion he got 'credit', as it were, and received Rachel a few days after Leah. So poor old Jacob's tribulation was doubled from 7 to 14 years of exploitation.

Prosperity and Homeward-Bound

During the first seven years of this double marriage Rachel remained barren and Leah gave Jacob four sons: Reuben (the firstborn), Simeon, Levi and Judah. At length Jacob acquired two more wives, the maidservants of Leah and Rachel, and another 8 sons and a daughter, Dinah. Rachel did not give Jacob his first son by her until he was 91 years old (Jasher 31:21) ⁸ right at the end of his 14 year-long tribulation. Though by now ready to return home, Jacob was persuaded to remain yet another 6 years and during this time dramatically and cleverly increased his wealth. Finally, in the 21st year, Jacob finally made the break with his exploitative father-in-law and headed home west back to Canaan. Thus ended the 21 year-long 'Jacob's Trouble'.

The Torah Cost of Fraudulence

You cannot understand modern histiory without understanding these prophetic events. Jacob had defrauded his brother Esau. He was forced to make some sort of compensation when Esau's son Eliphaz got his bridal endowment in exchange for Jacob's life. Jacob's fraud has cost him 21 years of servitude as a bond servant for three rest year cycles of 7 years length each. Finally, at the end of the third 'work week' Jacob finally left Laban and servitude.

Legal Service

This is also further testimony that the Torah, though not written down, was known and obeyed before Moses for we read:

"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing" (Ex.21:1-2, NKJV).

So Jacob worked six more years for Laban and was then 'set free' of his bond on the seventh. The mathematics of this is very interesting:

"If we look more closely at the chronology of Jacob's time of servitude, we see that he went to Haran at the age of 77, which was the year 2185. The previous year (2184) had been the 312th rest year from Adam. 44 Jubilees had passed, and the year 2184 was the fourth rest year into the 45th Jubilee

⁹ cycle. Jacob left Laban in the year 2205, after serving 20 years. This was the 7th rest year, leading up to the 45th Jubilee the following fall of the year".

¹⁰

21 Years and the Full Scope of Sin

It took Yahweh 21 years to deal with Jacob's scheming nature and therefore prophetically this number represents the full scope of sin. It wasn't until the 21 years were past that Yahweh not only released him from his servitude but we learn that at Peniel he finally overcame his scheming nature after wrestling with an angel and obtained a blessing and a new name: ISRAEL (Gen.32:24-31) to indicate that he had finally understood what the Sovereignty of Él actually was. Until then his own heart had ruled him. It took 21 years of hardship to burn that carnal nature out of him It represents the final death of his old nature and his acquisition of a new one. Finally, after 21 years of fighting the righteousness of Yahweh, he surrendered and got a new heart! And the fact that this took place during a rest year leading up to a Jubilee makes this of great prophetic significance for in it is revealed a divine pattern that will repeat over the centuries down to our day and beyond for both individuals, families, nations the world, and in particular, for Israel.

The True Israelite Has a New Heart

AN ISRAELITE IS A MAN OR WOMAN WHO HAS GOT A NEW HEART FROM YAHWEH! An Israelite may (and must) subsequently do other things like obey Torah but unless he has first got this new heart, no amount of Torah-observance will make him an Israelite! There are messianics out there who are boasting of their Torah-observance who are not even Israelites because they never got a new heart. They're actually in bondage as Jacob was. And they are lawless born-again evangelicals out there who have obtained a new heart who are Israelites but not obediently walking in the commandments. What an irony! That is why we are evangelicals first and messianics afterwards. Anyone who lives the Torah with the scheming heart of unredeemed Jacob has a Haranic period of hard labour to go through, and it'll probably last him a good 21 years until he has paid off his debt, depending what his sin has been. And what was Jacob's sin? TAKING WHAT WAS HIS BEFORE HIS TIME AND BY DISHONEST MEANS.

Paying Off Your Debt

Yahweh was, of course, blessing Jacob even during the time of his 21 years of servitude. He gave him his family of four wives, most of his 13 ¹¹ children and great wealth. Jacob was righteous in many ways but far from perfect. He had offended Yahweh and man and was paying off his debt according to Torah requirements. Laban may have been a despicable trickster but he was Yahweh's instrument and he was no worse than Jacob who had tricked Esau (a case of poetic justice), and Yahweh used Him to give to Jacob what He wanted Jacob to have - his four wives and a substantial chunk of Laban's wealth. So many believers fail to realise that whilst there is forgiveness for sin in the atoning blood of Yah'shua there is also an indemnity to be paid for sin that may consume large amount of our time and effort that we would have preferred doing other things with. And since the punishment is inscribed in Torah by Yahweh, Satan has legal claims on those who break those laws. Grace is not cheap. Though the blood of Messiah may cancel our debt to Yahweh, give us forgiveness and peace, it does not necessarily automatically mean peace in the world. There are consequences for sin even after we are forgiven which is why we must not take sin lightly - ever! Rather, we should fear Yahweh as well as love Him, for His law is not to be trifled with. And someone who truly loves Him also fears Him.

The Trials of David

King David, the friend of Yahweh, knew this only too well. Though forgiven by Yahweh for his evil in committing adultery and murder, he spent the rest of his life paying for the consequences of his sin - trouble at home, rebellion in the nation, civil war, and strifes too numerous to list here. And though this does not mean that every trial and tribulation may necessarily be the consequence of former sins playing out in the arena of life but be the result of the suffering all of Yahweh's servants must endure for righteousness' sake, they very often are and we need to be honest enough to consider the possibility that we have not feared Yahweh properly and treated His commandments lightly.

Rushing Ahead of Yahweh's Timetable

One of my personal weaknesses has been rushing ahead before Yahweh's time. I suspect it is, moreover, more common that we might care to admit and that we're all guilty of it one way or another. We have plucked fruits before they were ripe and been surprised by the bellyache they gave us. We are not unlike the little boy who, seeing his gift-wrapped birthday present, makes off with it by stealth before his birthday and wonders why his parents are so angry with him. After all, it was his, wasn't it? Well, yes and no - it was set aside for him, and only him, but it had not been given to him yet. He was a thief, in fact, just as David had been, stealing the poor man's ewe-lamb.

The Prodigal Son Runs Ahead

This sinful attitude is illustrated in the story of the prodigal son who demanded his inheritance while his father was still alive! He was, in a way, saying: "Father, I wish you were dead so that I can have my share of your hard-earned wealth which Torah legally entitles me to." That death-wish on his father backfired on him because when his father agreed, he reaped death. He hit rock bottom and had every last vestige of his pride stripped from him. He was finally defeated. So don't get ahead of Yahweh - wait your turn! What Yahweh intends for you is not yours until He gives it to you! It isn't your 'right' just because it's lawful in Torah. Eating lamb is kosher but you can't just help yourself to any lamb you wish as David did.

The Deathly Fear of Jacob the Schemer

I sometimes wonder how Jacob must have felt. There he was, with a huge family and lots of wealth, breaking away from the bondage of gruelling labour but still consumed with fear. When he learned that Esau was on his way to meet him in person he was terrified! He was sure Esau wanted to despoil him again, as he had through his 13 year-old son Eliphaz 21 years earlier. Here he was now, having lost everything, having sweated his blood out to get his wives and herds, only to face the possibility having everything taken again and with the chance of losing his own life once more. For surely, he must have thought to himself, Esau would come like his son had earlier and demanded everything he had? So what did Jacob do? He divided his camp in two and hid half of it, approaching Esau with only some of his family and wealth. He thought he would cut his losses but by stealth at least save half his family if Esau got nasty. Here he was, once again, relying on the arm-of-flesh, opon strategy and cunning, whilst being driven by fear. I am sure, that by now, he had fully understood his wrong against his father and against his brother, and understood that justice was about to fully overtake him. In one last bid to have some sort of control over his circumstances, he hid half his family and tried to buy Esau off with a huge present. Pathetic, isn't it? But in reality we all do it! The trouble is, so long as we do, we are confessing that YAHWEH IS NOT OUR SOVEREIGN. We are trying to do it our way.

A Personal Experience

Until I started preparing this sermon for you - and there was no premeditation in it - I just felt the irresistible call to do it, not knowing where it was taking me - I did not realise fully that I too was coming out of a 21 year term of 'indentured service' to my own Laban, my own flesh. My life has not been without its trials and tribulations though I have not always been sure how much was of my own-making and how much was simply suffering for the Gospel. Though I don't know the exact proportions, I do acknowledge that it was a mixture of both. And it's been trial and tribulation more or less constantly, building up to a climax over the last six year period. Only two days ago, after another defeat, did I finally let go and yield it to Yahweh. Then the bitterness of the struggle suddenly lifted and I felt a peace. I suddenly knew that I had done everything that I could possibly do to resolve the problem and that from now on I would have to rely 100% on Him to do the rest. So I am coming to you today with a huge burden lifted off my chest. It really feels, quite suddenly, as though I have entered a sabbatical rest inside. But three days ago it was not so.

Our 21st Ministerial Anniversary

As a ministry we have just had our 21st anniversary. This year it's 21 years since we began in Norway. I scarcely believe what has happened in that period of time. The ministry, though having the same basic foundation of truth, has gone through enormous changes. It's like we have never been still. Like Jacob we have picked up family and wealth along the way. I myself have changed beyond recognition - those who knew me when we first began in Norway in 1988 will have little idea who I am now. Truly Yahweh changes us!

Jacob Was No Youth

One thing that is interesting about Jacob, that we learn from the Book of Jasher, is that he was no strapling youth when he left his father's home and headed northeast for Haran, even if the Bible movies may present him as young man in his early 20's. He was 77. One thing we can be quite sure of also is that his wives were considerably younger than he was, which is not untypical - it's pretty certain, for example, that there was a large age-gap between Joseph and Mary ¹² who almost certainly had either been married before and was a widower or had more than one wife like Jacob. While Esau went awhoring after Canaanite wives in his youth, Jacob kept himself chaste for 70 years and then worked another 14 to get Leah and Rachel! Of course, they were much stronger in those says and lived longer, so I guess if we were to compare their longevity and health with our own, we could say that comparitively speaking Jacob was in his 40's or 50's before he started his family. But we must at least admire him for his self-discipline and spiritual values. How many men and women would wait so long to find the right spouse? I thought waiting until my mid 20's was bad enough! He did not overcome his major issue until later in his life which goes to show that it is never too late to repent and enjoy a vibrant life in Messiah.

Conclusion

We have today taken a brief look at the patriarch Jacob's life and been introduced to some new concepts that we will be exploring in more depth over the next few weeks. At the age of 77 on his way to Laban's house Jacob had a dream of a ladder into heaven with angels ascending and descending. He named the place Bethel. 21 years later, when he was 99, he returned to the same spot where he had poured oil over the rock he had used as a pillow, as Yahweh had commanded him (Gen.35:1). Bethel, as you know, means 'House of Él' or 'House of God' - it was a special temple or sacred spot for the patriarch. On the second occasion that he went up to Bethel, he did not anoint the rock with oil but poured a drink offering on it (Gen.35:14). Is there any prophetic significance in this? Absolutely! Oil is the symbol of the Ruach haQodesh and therefore of Shavu'ot (Pentecost) whereas the drink offering is a symbol of Sukkot (Tabernacles) - drink offerings were made on each of the seven days of Sukkot under the Old Covenant (Lev.23:37). We therefore see that the spiritual difference between Jacob the trickster at 77 and Jacob, renamed, Israel at 99 is the difference between Shavu'ot and Sukkot, representing two different anointings of the Ruach haQodesh. Sukkot is the overcomer's feast, Shavu'ot the feast of those entering covenants to follow Yahweh and His Torah with the initial equipping that follows the Pentecost anointing with a view to overcoming.

The difference between Shavu'ot and Sukkot spiritually-speaking is the 21 years of cleansing from self-centredness and the flesh-based life. Jacob, though he loved Yahweh with his heart and was far more spiritually-minded that his brother Esau, was nevertheless carnal in the first century of his life. He thought he could get by on his own intelligence and craftiness. But he did not escape his sins, as no one can who is serious about being faithful to Torah. He had to face the awfulness of his own fallen condition, as must we all.

Next week we shall take this further by looking at the divine pattern of 21 and how it affected Israel's history and the various spiritual principles in the Torah that show how Yahweh's cycles work. If you are new to the teachings of this ministry, I recommend you go back over the sermons on the festivals ¹³ for there are many important keys there upon which we will be building here. May Yahweh bless you and keep you until next Shabbat. Amen.

Click here for Part 2

Acknowledgements

[1] Stephen E. Jones, Secrets of Time (God's Kingdom Ministries, P.O.Box 3929, Batesville, AR 72503: 1996

Endnotes

¹ See Rapture When?

² See Wikipedia British Mandate of Palestine

³ See for example Jews Against Zionism

⁴ See Our Amazing Bible: As Birds Flying - Jerusalem 1917

⁵ Edom was the nation founded by Esau, the brother of Jacob

⁶ See The Book of Yahsher is a pharisaic pseudepigraph that comes in a number of variants and, though it may contain bona fide historical material, is almost certainly a work of fiction.

⁷ Because he had defrauded Esau, so instead of obtaining a wife in the way Isaac did, he had to slog his guts out to get his. In this we see Yahweh's perfect justice for though Jacob was the more spiritual man of the two brothers, his method of obtaining what was rightfully his caused him much 'trouble'.

⁸ 91 is a multiple of 7, specifially, 13 x 7, the age of the son of Esau when Jacob was dispossessed of his dowry. In other words, Jacob did not get the son of the originally intended wife (Joseph) until the proper atonement had been made.

⁹ The Jubilee or yovel is the year at the end of 7 seven-year cycles of Sabbatical years, the 50th year and is of extreme importance not only in understanding the management of time in Messianic Israel but also of Yahweh's justice, because the 50th year is a time of national dedemption.

¹⁰ Stephen E. Jones, Secrets of Time (God's Kingdom Ministries, Batesville, AR: 1996), p.152

¹¹ Notice the number 13 again

¹² Most traditions depict Joseph marrying when he was 30-43 years old and Mary when she was about 15. There could therefore have been as much as 30 years difference between them, if not more. See WikiAnswers, How Old Was Joseph When He Married Mary? Catholic tradition proposes an even greater age gap: "They lived forty-nine years together and had six children … A year after his wife's death, as the priests announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Juda a respectable man to espouse [betrothe] Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age, Joseph, who was at the time ninety years old, went up to Jerusalem among the candidates; a miracle manifested the choice God had made of Joseph …" (Catholic Enyclopedia, 1913 edition). It is quite likely, then, that the couple were engaged when Mary was as young as 12-14. One must bear in mind when considering such data and comparing it with modern times that boys and girls reached puberty at a much earlier age than they do today, and were certainly spiritually much more mature than modern young men and women. Even a couple of generations ago it was not uncommon for people to marry aged 15 and to get engaged even earlier (in the United States). Accordingly we, like most Christians and Messianics, and in view of the lack of maturity and plague of spiritual issues that have followed in the wake of mass godlessness in the West over the last half century, do not recommend marriage until much later. In most nations of the world today, 18 is recognised as the legal age of marriage without parental permission, with parental consent being required from 15/16 years of age. See Marriage Laws in the World by Age We believe this to be sound practice.

¹³ See Festivals

Author: Lev-Tsiyon

This page was first created on 6 February 2009

Last updated on 10 January 2017