The Legacy of Jacob - Moriel Ministries

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Feature Article Jacob Prasch Painting by: Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (Italian 1483-1520) Acts of Apostles – Paul spreads Christianity in the Eastern Medterranean 45-58 C.E. T Part 1 – the lesson for all belivers Jacob (Ya’aqob) is my father’s grandfather’s name. I often joke that Ya’aqob means “swindler,” but actually it does not. It could be translated “supplanter,” but it really has to do with “heel.” Jacob grabbed his brother’s heel. The story of Jacob has a dual format all the way through. There is a personal story of Jacob which teaches very important things for us as believers—how God perfects us. Something for every believer is taught in the story, life and experience of Jacob. On the other side we are going to look at how Jacob personifies Israel and the Jewish people. In Scriptures whenever it specifies “Israel” or “Jacob,” it does so for a reason. “Israel” has the language of incorporation; Gentiles could be grafted into Israel. “Israel” has already wrestled with God and is broken, “Jacob” has not. The Jewish people, because they are not broken, are personified by “Jacob.” The Great Tribulation is called “the time of Jacob’s trouble” and has a meaning for Israel and the Jews. We will begin by looking at the first aspect of Jacob, how Jacob teaches about you, how Jacob teaches about me; how Jacob behaves is the how we tend to behave, and the way God deals with Jacob to perfect him teaches an awful lot about the way God is going to perfect us. Jacob often did not have a very easy life, even up to the end of his life. Similar to Abraham, and certainly to a degree to Isaac, even to his very old age God was working out some very basic things in his life and in his character. Forget this idea, “I’m old, I’m retired, I’ve had it”—we have not “had it” until we go home. God is working out things in our life until we get there. My personal, favorite verse in the Bible is Philippians 1:6: For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. But the way He is going to do it is the way He did it with Jacob. “Fallen” vs. “Natural” The God of Abraham is very much the God of promise, the God of Isaac is the God who gives the son of promise, but the God of Jacob is the God who perfects the son of promise. All those who are in the Messiah Yeshua are sons of promise. Jacob represents the natural man; not simply the fallen man, but the natural man—there is a difference. When Adam was created he had no imperfections, but he was not perfected. Imperfection comes because of the Fall. After we become born-again, God gets rid of the fallen man by faith. The fallen man or fallen woman is crucified by faith at the cross of Jesus and they are born-again—they become a new creation. However, God deals with the natural man after we are born-again. “Pick up your cross daily and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23). The fallen man is one thing, the natural man is another. It is so easy for us as Christians to be motivated by good intentions. I know people who have gone to mission fields with good intentions. They saw pagan peoples perishing because they were without the Gospel, they saw people in sub-human poverty, and being teachers or medical doctors they wanted to introduce the Gospel to people who were suffering in the developing world. Their motives were right. Praise God for good motives. Before they were saved they just wanted to build a career and make money just like anyone else, but then they put that on the altar and said they wanted to go to a mission field. These are good motives. We, as believers, have a natural tendency to be motivated by good motives. However, in God’s economy new motives and good motives are simply the first step—we have to be motivated to missions by the Holy Spirit. Jacob was somebody who attempted to achieve the purposes and Moriel Quarterly • March 2012
lessings of God in his own sense. His motives were right, but he wound up with a “the ends justify the means” mentality. I have seen so many big missions organizations and church organizations that began with the right motives, but they eventually adopted “the ends justify the means” mentality, and the natural man took over. I have been at meetings where big Christian businessmen want to finance missions, I have been at meetings with missions boards, I have been at meetings with executives of denominations, all of which had two minutes of perfunctory prayer and then began negotiating the same as secular businessmen would in the world. Their motives are right, but in their way of thinking the end—the target, always justifies the way they act. That is the natural man; that is Jacob. Jacob is in them, Jacob is in me. It is easy for me to criticize these big wheels on missions boards, except that if I were a big wheel on a missions board, I might not be any better. It is so easy for the natural man to take over. When we are born-again, God deals with the fallen man or the fallen woman, but then He begins to deal with the natural man or the natural woman. Jacob’s Troubles Look at all the trouble Jacob had. Every trial he went through was designed by God to deal with his natural man. And the kinds of trials that we go through will be trials that God has designed to deal with our natural man or natural woman. What we like to say is, “This is a financial attack of the enemy.” There are three kinds of trouble. There is the kind of trouble that does come directly from the enemy. Paul says, “Satan hindered us” (1 Th. 2:18). Then there is the kind of trouble that God is prepared to save us from that we otherwise bring upon ourselves. We have enough trouble in this world, yet we stray from God’s will and we bring upon ourselves trouble God does not want us to have. But then there is the kind that God does want us to have. Even in Isaiah Satan is called God’s servant. But even though it may be an attack of the enemy, “All things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28). Just think of persecution. Persecution cleans up lukewarmness and fear within the Church—it gets rid of nominal believers. It is a thing from the enemy—I do not pray to God for persecution. I have seen persecution in Israel and it is not nice. We lived in Israel in the 80’s when the Likud was in power with the religious party, and the religious party was doing terrible things. There was burning of Messianic synagogues. I have seen what persecution is somewhat like, although it is not nearly as bad as what persecution in Muslim countries is like. Of course it is the enemy, but God has a purpose. God had a purpose in Israel. When I first immigrated to Israel in the 70s, believers were afraid to evangelize publicly. But after their meeting places began to get Jacob Prasch burned down in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ashdod and elsewhere, they said, “What is the difference Why should we be afraid” The trials we have as believers are designed by God to deal with the natural man. A Life Replayed So much of Jacob’s life replays that of his father and his grandfather. Jacob came looking for a bride from among his own people, and he preferred Rachel. But only after he learned to love Leah as much as he loved Rachel did he get Rachel. In the beginning Leah has all the children, but in the end Rachel has all the children. All the great men of the Bible prefigure the Messiah in some way. In the beginning the Gentile Church is the most fruitful, but then in the end Rachel’s the most fruitful—the Jews. The Jewish people as a nation begin with Jacob: the twelve sons of Jacob—the tribes and patriarchs of Israel. He replays the experiences, and even some of the trials, of his father and grandfather. When we go through trials in our lives as believers, we do not think about it, but other believers before us—in a spiritual sense, our fathers and grandfathers—have gone through those same kinds of trials. The Church itself has to learn the same lessons over and over. Just look at the history of the Church. It begins to compromise, it goes away from the Bible, it backslides, God raises something new, it is good for a time and it goes through the same process again. It is just like the kings in Chronicles. The history of the Church undergoes the same kind of phenomena as in Judges, Kings and Chronicles for Israel. The history of the Church tells the same thing. Jacob replays the experiences of his father and grandfather. Jacob represents the natural man. …and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” (He obviously did not believe the lies of prosperity theology.) It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have Feature Article been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (Hebrews 12:5-11) When we go through trials it is pretty miserable, but in retrospect when we come out of them we see that it was God’s hand. We might say we could not go through that again, but we are glad we went through it the first time, even though while we were going through it we did not want it. Jacob is a perfect illustration of that process. Isaac typifies the new creation the most—he is put on the altar; Jacob is the son of the new creation, as it were. The Character of Jacob & Esau Let us look at what happens for this natural man, and what happens for this fallen man, as the story of Jacob continues. The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.” When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them. (Genesis 25:23-26a) The character of the Jews as a nation and the character of the Arabs as a nation replay the characters of Jacob and Esau. Esau despised his birthright (Gen. 25:34). To this day, because of the rise of Islam, the Arab peoples despise their birthright. On the other hand there is no doubt that Arabs have been mistreated by Jews. It is not nearly as bad as what Arabs do to each other, but there have been injustices. The character of the Jewish people and the Arabs in these two brothers is personified in that of the patriarchs. Right from the beginning he is grabbing his brother’s heel. Let us look further at when it came time to give the blessing. Some people postulate that when the hands of Isaac were put on these sons they may have been 70 years old or so. In this story his mother puts him up to something. But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. She also gave the savory food and the bread, which she had made, to her son Jacob. Then he came to his father and said, March 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
Page 1 and 2: "MORIEL" GOD IS MY TEACHER January/
Page 3: featured articles "MORIEL" GOD IS M
Page 7 and 8: example, which have right motives,
Page 9 and 10: can stand in front of the mirror an
Page 11 and 12: lessed him there. So Jacob named th
Page 13 and 14: God looks at Israel, what does He s
Page 15 and 16: the promised reward of an eternal h
Page 17 and 18: you name a denomination which is fu
Page 19 and 20: • All our administrators across t
Page 21 and 22: moriel japan News from the Far East
Page 23 and 24: The term ‘nerapa lanu’ in Isaia
Page 25 and 26: Scott Noble who ruled Kashmir in th
Page 27 and 28: esurgence movement of Asian religio
Page 29 and 30: Elon and Hadass Moreh Moriel Israel
Page 31: - After speaking at Mennonite, stud

The Legacy of Jacob - Moriel Ministries

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?