failure and faith…

on the front porch we have looked at some of the characters in the first book of the bible genesis.  we have looked at adam and eve, noah, abraham and now we are going to look at jacob.

now as we go through his story and look at what happened, many of you are going to recognize yourselves.  more of you are going to recognize your husband or wife, you’re going to see your kids.  you’re going to see people at work.  but i want you especially to look for yourself.  and as you see yourself in this story, some of it might look a little depressing at first, a little discouraging but stick with me till the end of the story to see what GOD does in the life of this man named jacob.

jacob’s name means “schemer, deceiver”.  it’s all there in the name.  his whole life is expressed in his name.  here’s this guy, jacob, who cheated his brother for the birthright, one of the most important things in that day.  he cheated his brother for a blessing.  he cheated for land.  he always had a way of getting into things and he always seemed to come out on top. 

somebody has said of jacob that he was the kind of guy if you followed him into a revolving door he’d come out ahead of you somehow.  have you ever known somebody like that?  maybe you are somebody like that.  we’d call jacob an upwardly mobile patriarch who would step on anybody on his way to the top.  

but this is one of those cases where i’ve got to let you know the end of the story before we start the story.  the end of the story is told to us over in the new testament in hebrews 11.  this is called the faith chapter, which might give you a clue to the end of the story. 

hebrews 11.21 (niv), by faith jacob, when he was dying blessed each of joseph's sons and worshipped as he leaned on top of his staff.  here’s a man who ended well.  here’s a man who at the very end of his life, the bible says of his life – by faith, faith.

now as we look at jacob’s life it looks like the definition of failure.  he fails in his relationships.  he failed with his family.  his plans kept caving in.  if you want a definition of failure, jacob would qualify.  but in hebrews 11, he’s commended for his faith.  i like that!

don’t you ever feel like a failure sometimes?  well here’s a man whose life was filled with failures but in the end the bible defines his life with the word “faith, by faith”. 

just a thought from the front porch…