Where there is Trust there is Peace - Genesis 30:25 - 31:55

Genesis 30:25-31:55
Where there is Trust there is Peace
INTRO
The saga of Jacob’s life continues before us this morning. And brace
yourselves, for similar to last week when Ray preached, we are going to take
another Big chunk of scripture on it. (Genesis 30:25-31:55). A chapter and a
half. This will be without question the largest volume content of scripture I have
every preached upon. So the stakes are high that I’ll acquire the golden mic for
longest sermon preached…currently held by Jason. But time will tell, so let’s
get started. Clock is ticking. SO,…How to go about this? WELL, I see the BIG
Idea and the 2 points leading to it as being very concise. Which is so helpful.
YES, I said two points from this chapter and a half…this narrative portion of
scripture on the continued saga of Jacob’s life that fits into the bigger narrative
of God’s redemptive story of which our lives also, if you are in Christ, are a
part of. IF your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life then God has brought
you into His Redemptive story of salvation that will be revealed at the return of
Jesus. SO it behooves us to pay attention and learn from accounts such as
what is before us this morning that we ourselves would be working with God in
the most complete way possible to fulfill our part of it that He is doing through
us.
The short and sweet BIG IDEA…our End Game take home for today is Where there is Trust there is Peace…..Where there is Trust there is Peace
And the bedrock of Trust stems from one’s Loyalty…or one’s faithfulness you
could equally say. God is Loyal. He is a Faithful God. Caleb Rice loaned me
a short read by A.W. Tozer called “The knowledge of the Holy”. I’ve been very
blessed by it and have captured multiple quotes to retain and reflect back on.
LISTEN to this one spoken on God’s Faithfulness.
A.W. Tozer - “God, being who He is, cannot cease to be what He is, and being
what He is, He cannot act out of character with Himself. He is at once faithful
and immutable, so all His words and acts must be and must remain faithful.
Men become ‘unfaithful' out of desire, fear, weakness, loss of interest, or
because of some strong influence from without. Obviously none of these forces
can aﬀect God in any way. He is His own reason for all He is and does. He
cannot be compelled from without, but ever speaks and acts from within Himself
by His own sovereign will as it pleases Him.”

Such a good quote and so key to what we are looking at today. FOR, the first
point, as we kick oﬀ and start moving towards the conclusion of Where there is
Trust there is Peace….our first point is - The UnFaithfulness of man. SO
accurately described by A.W. Tozer. And the second point, also SO
accurately described by Tozer…is - The Faithfulness of God. The first results
in NOT having Peace while the second brings Peace.
THE way I intend to move through this is much like going on a mountain bike
ride. A common thing you’ll encounter on a trail moving towards and end point
is little markers placed along the way. A popular one being little gnome
statues. Little white beard men with pointy hats, ‘Kebler elfish like’ just placed
here and there along the way. In a similar way, I see this long path of The
UnFaithfulness of man with multiple markers of The Faithfulness of God placed
along the way to our destination of Where there is Trust there is Peace. SO
saddle up, get on your bike and lets’ go for a ride.
We set oﬀ with our Our First point - The UnFaithfulness of man
BODY
1)
FIRST POINT - (Genesis 30:25- 31:1-29).
The UnFaithfulness of man
The outline of how this is will be broken up,…will be diﬀerent from the norm.
For you type A’rs, here, where this is important and helpful, this is what I want
you to do.
Our First point - The UnFaithfulness of man - encompasses most of the
narrative before us (Genesis 30:25-31:44) to be precise. WHILE the Second
point - The Faithfulness of God - is marked here and there along the way. SO,
give yourself plenty of space under the first point to take notes on and then, find
a fitting spot to place the header for the Second point - The Faithfulness of God
- and when we encounter those markers along the way, jot them down under the
second point. Jot them down, capture them and what they entail as they are
the crux of how peace is arrived at in the end.
OKAY, time to pedal…we have ground to cover. Read along with me (verse
30:25-34).
Things are looking pretty good here at the moment. Essentially, what is taking
place is that Jacob, now with two wives, 11 son’s and 1 daughter is at a place
in his life where he sees it is time for him to no longer be under Laban as his

servant, but rather return to his home and country and make a living for himself
and his family.
It’s important to note also, that we see clear marks of growth in Jacob’s life…It
struck me funny that I initially held JACOB, while preparing this sermon, in not
so positive of a light because of his patterns up till now…but I kept finding
myself saying…. “No, no…Jacob is conducting himself godly here. This is a bit
of a diﬀerent man” …..As he should be when God is at work in his life same as
for any one of God’s people…for you Christian. The eﬀects of sanctification
ought to be apparent to you….and perhaps, more importantly, to others over
the lapse of time in your walk with God. We see this in Jacob’s life as he
humbly and respectfully makes this request to Laban, seeking his blessing upon
it. This is a diﬀerent Jacob then the one who left Cannan 14 years ago fleeing
the wrath of his brother Esau who is bent on killing him. God has been working
in Jacob’s life,…instructing him through the school of hard knocks, through
life lessons…and JACOB is learning, he is being shaped by it for the better. WE
ALL, and especially the youth here, should give thought to that. May such lead
to humility in our lives and not hardness.
JACOB has grown in humility evidenced by his request to Laban who doesn’t
say no, BUT nor does he say ‘yes’ rather his attention goes to the fact that Life
has faired well for him because of Jacob whom Laban gives respect for it.
Acknowledging that through divination, which could be simply understood as
‘learned by experience’ though Laban hasn’t shown himself to be an upright
man so it could be something more like the practice of divination or fortune
telling.
Either way, it is clear to LABAN that The Lord has blessed him (Laban
has become very wealthy) because of JACOB.
Knowing his prosperity is directly linked to JACOB, Laban entreats Jacob
to stay. Using the words in the passage. “Name your wages, and I will give
it?” “Name your price.” Laban says. “I’ll start paying you now.” JACOB, grown
through life experiences in large part by being under Laban’s abuse and strong
arm, knows not to bite on the oﬀer. Doing so would keep him where he is at.
SO, after aﬃrming God’s favor shown to LABAN being because of JACOB
himself “For you (Laban) had little before I before I came (Jacob says), and it has
increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned…”
JACOB then presents a fair and balanced proposal, a proposal that divvies up
the flock between the two of them and keeps things honest. LABAN has not
shown himself to be a honest trustworthy man to JACOB who has been
cheated by him. This wise proposal is made and they both pleasantly agree to
it.

The proposal being that JACOB would go through and separate the flock as
determined by their specific markings,…..making a distinction to that which
would be Laban’s and that which is JACOB’S. JACOB would have the flock
with markings on them and Laban’s would not. Pretty clear. JACOB also says
that he would remain and continue to pasture Laban’s flock and keep it for a
time before he departs as a form of payment for the share of the flock,…similar
to how he obtained Leah and Rachel as his wives. Which I believe to be very
generous of Jacob considering the situation. We learn later the time span turns
out to be about 6 years. During these 6 years, any time Laban could come and
inspect Jacob’s flock to see if any of Laban’s were there. The flock had
distinguishable markings of whose were whose. In short, keeping things honest
between them.
THIS IS A GREAT START. These two men have an agreement. There is
perceived trust and therefore peace between them. This is a good path to
take….that is, so long as they remain loyal to one another. So long as there is
honesty in word and action between them that TRUST would remain intact.
And this is where things begin to go side ways because of The UnFaithfulness of
man.
Picking up now in (verse 35) reading through (verse 43)
Right away. Right away LABAN acts dishonestly. The very day he agreed for
JACOB to go through and separate the flock by distinct markings,…he acts
behind JACOB’S back to manipulate the outcome. With help of his son’s, he
depletes the flock of the very sheep and goats that bear the markings of what
was agreed to be JACOB’S. And “he set a distance of three days’ journey
between himself and Jacob, who pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.” WHO,
because of the cheating of Laban, once again, has no flock of his own at the
present time.
We’ve gotten to know Jacob fairly well up to this point. HOW do you
think he will respond to LABAN’S disloyalty? He is being molded by God, but
he still has trickery up his sleeve…it’s in his genes.
JACOB manipulates the situation himself through cunning eﬀorts. This time,
by some strange breeding manipulation which one would rightly think… “HOW
would this work? Since when did breeding taking place while facing striped
branches or sticks influence the outcome.” It seems more silly than having any
authentication of being eﬀective. But JACOB needed to act if he were to ever
go out from under the thumb of Laban.

SO, he implements this strange breeding tactic to manipulate the growth of the
flock….and…it works. (only, I’d add briefly here, it works only because God
caused it to work which we will see in the upcoming verses shortly,…God, not
Jacob’s cleverness or cunning, but God faithfully working amongst the mess to
bring about His purposes… ). God allowed this strange breeding technique to
work for JACOB who further exploits it by only using the bizarre breeding tactic
when the “stronger of the flock were breeding.” THUS, over this span of 6
years, builds up his flock with the strongest and leaves the weakest for LABAN.
As (verse 42) says.
SO, in the end of these 6yrs. (Verse 43) “Thus the man (Jacob) increased
greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels
and donkeys.” God’s blessing, as He promised, is upon JACOB.
We had a peaceful agreement based on trust,…LABAN isn’t loyal to it which
presses JACOB to familiar means of cunning to contend for himself. What is
going to result? WELL, certainly not peace between them. The TRAIL
continues moving on and I believe our first gnome…or our first marker of The
Faithfulness of God is soon approaching. And boy is it needed.
The result. Onto the next chapter, chapter 31, picking up with (verse 1
through verse 16)….read up to 3 then stop - There it is. We encounter the first
marker of The Faithfulness of God. God visits JACOB. Let’s continue on
through (verse 16) to get the full content of it. - read God is present. Move your pen down to the space provided under the
second point - The Faithfulness of God - And take note of the first marker in
(verses 1-16) of chapter 31.
God is present. He is always present and He, at this time in Jacob’s life,..visits
him again providing direction and most of all….assurance that He, - GOD…the
same…“God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me…”
GOD specifies to JACOB in (verse 13). “It’s me, the same one you met at
Bethel.” “It’s me and know this,…..’I am with you.” And boy, HOW must have
JACOB needed that at this time. Report comes to JACOB of the envy
expressed in hostile words by Laban’s sons over Jacob’s prosperity,…accusing
JACOB falsely of taking/stealing from their father….which was simply not true.
LIES are being spread about JACOB. But JACOB, assures his wive’s that God
has been with him and promises to be with him still. God is so faithful to do
just that SAINTS. Often times it’s in the most bleakest of hours He waits till,…
before He shows up and provides what we need in the moment. JACOB
needed this assurance, “I will be with you.” We ourselves also need to be

reminded of this same assurance. “And behold, (Jesus says) in (Matthew
28:20) I am with you always, to the end of the age.” “I will be with you.” The
Faithfulness of God. (Hebrews 13:5-6) “…I will never leave you or forsake you.
So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man
do to me?” GOD assures JACOB of this, same as to us Christian… “I will be
with you.”
GOD has been with JACOB the whole time as he makes known to his wives in
(verse 5) “….“I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did
before. But the God of my father has been with me.” JACOB continues to
inform them of how GOD, who has been with him, has guided and blessed
JACOB through all the years LABAN their father has been cheating him. GOD
brings JACOB guidance by a dream of His Faithfulness to bless JACOB
through the means of the unusual breeding tactics mentioned earlier. God was
present there, as if saying to JACOB in the dream… “The success of your
breeding tactics is not to be credited to your cleverness …uh uh… it’s me…It’s
me…I’m behind it, I am directing the flock in your favor.” GOD has been with
JACOB the whole time and every time LABAN changed wages, changed
terms on JACOB, God was present there “seeing all that Laban is doing to him”
God who is present with JACOB would Providentially turn things in the favor of
JACOB….time and time again….
WE see The Faithfulness of God here. Which reminds us with comfort
and encouragement….God is present and sees all that is taking place in your
life. With His hand upon you, as with Jacob, He is sure to bring guidance and
work His will through Providence in fulfilling every purpose of His in your life.
(Psalm 138:8). So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear;
what can man do to me?” Though man tries…this TRUTH we can be confident
in because of ……The Faithfulness of God.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Free up your pen now as we take oﬀ from this first
marker of God’s Faithfulness, which is our second of two points,…and peddle
a bit further down the trail of The UnFaithfulness of man…the first of the two
points…..from (verse 17 to 21). - read
JACOB is getting out of Dodge. And can you blame him? He is making haste
to gather all that is his and quickly go as God told him,..to his home and
country,…back to Canaan. And HE does so, not only in haste but secretly. Any
amount of Trust between Laban and Jacob is nil. Dishonesty, Deceit, and
Disloyalty to terms agreed upon has eroded away completely any TRUST that
would have been there had they remained Faithful. But that wasn’t the case.
Man was Unfaithful. This results in the polar opposite of the peace between

them if TRUST was present in their relationship. Instead,…we have more
division, more turmoil and heartache for the individuals involved,…which is
everyone. EVERYONE. Collateral damage will most likely if not always ensue
when trust is broken between to parties.
LABAN is a crooked man….but to not have the opportunity to say good bye to
his daughters and grandchildren…in all likelihood being the last time he would
ever see them. That would hurt. Consider also everyone in Jacob’s house,
which is not a small number….EVERYONE is on board there to gather all there
belongings and flee to Canaan….However,….EVERYONE is likely looking back
over their shoulders all along the way with concern over LABAN and his men in
hot pursuit of them…(which is what happens). And that is just it, isn’t it?
Collateral damage will most likely if not always ensue when trust is broken. It
will not remain isolated.
In short, Where there is no Trust, there is no Peace. And where there is no
Peace, life is miserable. Miserable. You could be in a glorious mansion placed
in the most picturesque of spots and be an absolutely miserable soul because
of having no peace in your life.…. Where there is Trust there is Peace. BUT it’s
not here, due to the eﬀects of The UnFaithfulness of man.…..and RACHEL adds
a layer to it doesn’t she. (Verse 19) “Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and
Rachel stole her father’s household gods.” WELL that ought to help the
situation out…NOT! What in the world was she thinking? Who knows, not
much is said about it but it is revealing of her heart isn’t it? Clearly she had
attachment to these false gods…. these household gods of her fathers, as did
her father Laban as we will soon see. Was it for monetary purposes or was it
more than that?
Not sure and we won’t speculate on that,…BUT what we will take note of,
…what we will take note of,…is that she….STOLE IT!,.. and she covers up
stealing it by lying to her father’s face when he comes seeking for it,..and lastly,
…that nothing is recorded in scripture of Leah taking anything….of that nature.
Leah is not sinless, but the fact that it is Rachel and not Leah does reveal a bit
about their hearts. It’s worth noting that it was through the line of Leah the tribe
of Judah came which is from whom our Lord Jesus descends from. It wasn’t
through Rachel’s oﬀspring. Though she was attractive in appearance and form
and was loved by Jacob more than her sister….but God’s promised blessing
wasn’t through her oﬀspring.
WOMEN here,…and especially the young
women present…this is a timely place to consider (Proverbs 31:30) “Charm is
deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be
praised.” That is a gem of a (verse) to commit to memory. Having a warm and
welcoming personality,… and properly caring for yourself to be healthy through

all your years are good attributes to have….but it all pales in comparison to the
inward beauty adorned on the heart of a woman who fears the LORD. She
indeed is to be praised.
Back on the trail now of The UnFaithfulness of man.
Let’s continue with (verses 22-30) - read
The situation intensifies….BUT did you catch the gnome?…Did you see the
marker of The Faithfulness of God? (verse 24)…referenced again by LABAN in
(verse 29). LABAN learns of JACOB fleeing to his home and country and is in
hot pursuit. He closes in on the heels of JACOB and company…..and just
before LABAN overtakes them….the night before, (verse 24) GOD visits Laban
in a dream to give him what?….A WARNING! “Be careful not to say anything to
Jacob, either good or bad.” Which I find humorous. Either Good or Bad. A
heavy way of saying “Don’t touch him. Watch yourself Laban. Jacob is under
my protection.” The Faithfulness of God shining through here as our God is a
God who contends for us. He fights for us. Drop down and put that under the
second point. OUR God is a God who fights for us. Is not this what we read
so often in the scriptures? (Deuteronomy 20:4) “for the LORD your God is he
who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the
victory.’’. That’s so awesome. I love how Moses says it moments before leading
the Israelites through the Red Sea…..before the water is parted mind you with
the Egyptian army poised to destroy them. Moses says this…in (Exodus 14:14)
“The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”…or in other
words…TRUST Him. You only have to trust Him, He will fight for you. He did
then, He does here with JACOB and He is Faithful to do so all the days of your
life Christian. You may TRUST Him in this with all your heart.
LABAN, likely still weak in the knees from the warning received from God,
overtakes JACOB and asks why did you flee and why did he take household
gods from me? Let’s pick up in (verse 31) and read through (verse 35) to
continue the narrative account. - read
MORE dishonesty, more Unfaithfulness….what will this yield? An irate
JACOB. Much growth in Jacob’s life by God’s hand upon him but this doesn’t
mean he won’t have a breaking point, which,.…let’s not forget,.. would not have
been reached had the love of his life ‘Rachel’ not stolen her father’s gods in the
first place. Which JACOB did not know about….so understandably….at this
point…JACOB is lit up. Get ready for this tongue lashing by JACOB against
LABAN. (verses 36-42)
I picture LABAN kinda doing one of these numbers (Illustration)

BUT I don’t think that is the case for look at what he says as we continue in
(verse 43) - read
He still views everything as his own. What a stubbornly arrogant unfaithful man
LABAN is.
The only reason he doesn’t take them by force is because of God’s clear
protection over them. Otherwise, I believe scripture is making clear that he
would have. But recognizing he can’t, for doing so would be fighting against
God, LABAN seeks to make terms for peace between them by Covenant.
That’s what we see here in the closing verses.
CONCLUSION
Let’s go ahead and finish up (verses 44-55). - read
Another agreement is made between the two of them. That JACOB would not
take any other wives when returns to his home and country and that neither of
them would go beyond the location of where this covenant is being made,…to
do one another harm. To be and remain at peace with each other.
Were there any markers of The Faithfulness of God on this final stretch of
trail bringing about this lasting peace by covenant? Indeed their was…
(verse 49) “The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one
another’s sight.”
God holds us accountable.
Marker #1in this passage of The Faithfulness of God- God is always present,
Marker #2 - God is a God who fights for us and Marker #3 - God holds us
accountable.
And it’s by all this, by God’s Faithfulness to all this Whereby TRUST is
brought in between them that peace may be had.
For….. Where there is Trust there is…..Peace
I’ll close with this in regards to TRUST. Let’s start horizontally, with trust
between relationships we share with one another. First oﬀ, I’d argue it (Trust) is
to be prized as one of the most highly valued virtues to have.
IN ALL relationships. Where there is Trust there is…..Peace . When it is not
there,…life is miserable and bound to be full of strife, restlessness, anxiety, fear
and the like….churning your life to be in a state of steady turmoil and agitation.
And since the bedrock of Trust stems from one’s LOYALTY. Sadly it can easily
be pulverized by disloyalty, by dishonesty by The Unfaithfulness of man. TRUST
can be just ripped out of your heart. I believe everyone here knows to a degree
what I’m talking about. We want to trust others because Where there is Trust

there is…..Peace. SO when it’s been broken it can feel like it’s just been ripped
out of your soul….. But let me say this…Let me say this. TRUST is always
worth the risk to have rebuilt in the relationship if at all possible. If at all
possible it is always worth the risk to take those steps of faith in doing so.
Now TRUST vertically. Between you and your Creator.
Is there Peace between you and God? In the depths of your soul can you say
“I have peace with God?” I am not asking whether you have knowledge about
GOD or can quote any number of scripture….I am asking - Is there Peace
between you and God?
To answer that question,…I’ll ask a few more.
Do you Trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ? That His blood shed for you
on the Cross on Calvary atones for your sin which you stand guilty before God
for? Do you Trust GOD to Forgive you for all your sin, (past, present and future)
through your faith in JESUS whose sacrificial blood (The Bible tells us) cleanses
you from all unrighteousness? Do you Trust that “He who began a good work
in you will be faithful to bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
Christ?” (Philippians 1:6). Do you Trust him to daily supply the grace for you to
practice repentance as you pursue holiness in the fear of God? Do you Trust
He (Hebrews 13:5-6) “…..will never leave you or forsake you. So you can
confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Do you Trust God? Is there Peace between you and God? For Where there is
Trust there is…..Peace
The answer to these questions determines whether you will have abiding
peace all the days of your life both here now and for all eternity.

- PRAY
COMMUNION - (1 Corinthians 11:23-29)
This is a celebration for the believer, but it also is to be done soberly as God’s
Word clearly lays out in the passage just read. SO, in obedience to scripture,
give some time for examination prior to coming up that you don’t do so in an
unworthy manner.
BENEDICTION
(Psalm 62)


Related Media
Related Sermons