1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word in our Lenten Midweek series, “Coming Home from Exile: The Exoduses from the Scriptures,” is taken from Genesis 28:10-17 and is entitled, “Jacob the Heel Comes Home,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. As the mother gave birth to twin boys, the second child exited her womb clasping his older brother’s heel (Gen 25:26). So he got the name of ya‘aqob, which basically means “heel.” Now you might think that with a name like that, little ya‘aqob was destined to get walked all over by those around him. Think again. As it turns out, this heel-boy, Jacob, was quite good at walking all over others, but always in a sneaky way. And no one did he deceive more than his own family—most notably when he tricked his old, blind father into giving him the blessing of the firstborn that belonged to his brother, Esau. But, such trickery turned out to be his Achilles’ heel, his downfall, for his deception nearly got him killed when Esau discovered what his kid brother had done. So, to save his own skin, Jacob headed for the hills, exiled from the Promised Land, with little more than the clothes on his back.
3. I take that back. He didn’t have “little more” than the clothes on his back; he had much more, especially after his overnight stay at Bethel. For there, God put these words into his heart. A word that said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac” (28:13). A word that said, “In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (v 14). And a word that said, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (v 15). So, with those words playing over and over in his mind, Jacob walked onward. His back was toward everything he’d known, his face toward the unknown, but with this certain promise attending him: that Immanuel, which means “God with us,” traveled alongside him.
4. There are plenty of Jacobs here this evening, in fact, a whole church full of them. For the more things change, the more they stay the same. As it was with Jacob, so it is with you. The Lord walks beside you. The Lord slips his words into your heart too; and, really, that’s all you need. “Take they our life, Goods, fame, child, and wife, Though these all be gone, Our vict’ry has been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth” (LSB 656:4). His Word remains ours. I don’t care if you clear four figures or six figures a year; it doesn’t matter if the roof over your head is attached to a shack or a mansion; the truth is, in the blink of an eye, it could all melt away. You could have as little (or even less) than the exile Jacob had. And then what will you have? Still everything. For “whether . . . the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:22–23).
5. There’s only one problem: we don’t believe it. Our actions speak louder than words. We often fear poverty and homelessness more than we fear God, don’t we? We would probably explode with greater joy if we won the lottery than all the joy combined that we’ve ever had over the forgiveness given freely by Jesus, wouldn’t we? We may find greater comfort about the future in a retirement plan or savings account than we find in the Father’s promise to help and support us in every physical need, don’t we?
6. We Jacobs, need to repent! “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21). And where your heart is, there will your treasure be also. Get your heart out of your wallet and your wallet out of your heart. For if the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, then trust in money is that root’s soil, fertilizer, and water.
7. For look at what a kind and gracious Father you have! He not only promises to feed you, clothe you, protect you, and walk with you through thick and thin. He’s proven time after time that he will. What God promises, He will do.
8. See what happened to Jacob, our fellow exile? He left home with no more worldly goods than he could carry on his back. When he reaches his relatives’ home, his uncle gives him a job as a shepherd. And for the next 20 years, he labors away, those divine words still echoing inside his head: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. . . . In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. . . . I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (vv 13–15). And for the next 20 years, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—our Lord Jesus Christ—blessed this exiled son. For at the end of those 2 decades the man who had arrived empty-handed had more than a thousand pairs of hands could hold: 2 wives, 11 sons, and huge flocks and herds of sheep and goats, cattle and donkeys!
9. And so, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does for you. He gives you a family, puts food on your table, clothing on your back, shoes on your feet, money in your bank, a roof over your head, and—for most of you—tons more. He not only promises, but he also delivers the goods. If he knows how many hairs are on your head, doesn’t he know all your needs? And won’t he provide exactly what you need? He has, he does, and he will, for you are his beloved child.
10. Yes, his beloved child you are, even as Jacob was; and for you he does what he did for Jacob: He brings you home. As he brought Adam and Eve back to paradise in the sacrifice of himself; as he brought Abraham and Sarah out of Egypt and back to Canaan; so after blessing Jacob through 20 years of exile, he prepared the way for this lost son to step foot in the Promised Land once more. But, our Lord, had one more blessing to give to this son named, “the Heel.” He met Jacob at the river, wrestled with him all night, and then, as the sun rose, he changed Jacob’s name to Israel. No more would he be called by the name Heel, but the name that means “one who strives with God,” for he had “striven with God and with men, and [had] prevailed” (Gen 32:28). Then he crossed the river to meet his brother, from whom he had fled so many years before, to discover that Esau had long since forgiven him. Brother to brother, they embraced in forgiveness and peace. Jacob’s, or rather Israel’s, exile had ended. God had brought him home again.
11. And so, the God of Israel does for you. Into a world where men sell their birthright for a bowl of soup; into a world where sons fool old, blind fathers; into a world where brothers hate brothers, where Cains murder Abels and Esaus plan revenge against Jacobs; into a world where sinners such as you covet and worship the creature rather than the Creator; into such a messed-up world the Son of the Father came down. In love he came down to join you in your exile, to walk in the shoes of all Jacobs, and to accomplish for you what you couldn’t even begin to accomplish for yourself. He came to soak up all the hatred that Cain has for Abel, Esau has for Jacob, and you have for those who hurt you. He came to absorb the deception and lies to which we use to get what we want when we want it. He came to take into himself our love of money, our false trusts, our betrayals. In mercy, he came into our exile, made all these evils his own, and hung on the cross in our place as the Judge of heaven poured into him the wrath that we had earned. Jesus became Jacob the deceiver, Esau the hater, you the greedy—he became it all that all might be paid for in the currency of his own blood. With his own blessed heel, that “Jacob” on his foot, he squashed the skull of that slithering serpent Satan of hell.
12. And he’s brought you here, to your home, to the land of Canaan, called the Church. At the river of Baptism, he changed your name to Israel, for in Jesus you, too, strive and prevail. And he places in your hand not a bowl of soup to buy your birthright; instead, he puts in your hand and to your lips his flesh and blood—the flesh and blood of the firstborn—that you, too, might be an equal heir along with him of the riches of the Father. Welcome home, Israel, welcome home from exile to the promised land of grace. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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