Partial Obedience vs Full Obedience in Jacob's Life

with me to Genesis and chapter 33. Genesis and chapter 33. We've been working our way through the life of Jacob and we're picking things up this evening at verse 12. So just to provide a little background, Jacob has gone to meet his older brother Esau and they have been reconciled after many, many years.

And this is what we read in verse 12 and following. Then Esau said, let us be on our way, I'll accompany you. But Jacob said to him, my lord knows that the children are tender, that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young.

If they are driven hard just one day all the animals will die. So let my lord go on ahead of his servant while I move along slowly at the pace of the flocks and herds before me and the pace of the children until I come to my lord in Seir.

Esau said, then let me leave some of my men with you. But why do that, Jacob asked.

Just let me find favour in the eyes of my lord. So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir.

Jacob, however, went to Succoth and he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is called Succoth. After Jacob came from Adam Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. For a hundred pieces of silver he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. And there he set up an altar and called it El Eloi Israel. Let's imagine that dad asks his son one evening to put out the rubbish, it's bin night. And he picks up a couple of bags that have been filled with rubbish. He opens the front door, chucks them outside and then closes the door again.

He hasn't really done what he's been asked to do. You see what he's really been asked to do is to take the rubbish bins down to the end of the drive and to leave them there for the bin man to collect them. Let's imagine that mum asks her daughter to lay the table ready for dinner. And so she goes to the sideboard, there she finds the cutlery and some serviettes and she takes them and she just plonks them on the middle of the table.

She hasn't really done what she's been asked to do. You see what she has been asked to do really is to properly set out the table so that it's right ready for everyone to have their meal. Now what would we call this?

How would we sum up this sort of behaviour? Well the way that I would sum it up would be to call it partial obedience rather than full obedience.

Partial obedience as opposed to full obedience. And I'm sure that you and I could so easily be accused of partial obedience when it comes to the things of God. That would be true of you and it would be true of me. Well that said, let's turn our attention to these verses in Genesis chapter 33.

What we've seen over quite a number of Sunday evenings now is Jacob growing in grace. He's been maturing as a believer or as an Old Testament saint. He's been learning to trust in God rather than rely on his own resourcefulness. God has clearly been at work in his life to shape and fashion him into the person that he wants him to be. But here in these verses that we are looking at tonight it seems to me that Jacob exercises partial obedience rather than full obedience.

Firstly, in order to do what is right before God, he lies. In order to do what is right before God, he lies. If you look at verse 12, you will see that Esau says to his brother, let us be on our way, I'll accompany you. Esau wants to accompany Jacob and his family to his home in Seir. And of course, with Esau's 400 men, Jacob and his wives and his children and all that he owns will be kept secure. But Seir is outside the promised land.

And Jacob knows that God has called him to return to the land of his birth, to the land of Canaan. Just turn back with me a moment to chapter 31 and verse 13. For there we read God saying to Jacob, I am the God of Bethel. Please just take note of the name Bethel there for a moment, we'll come back to it in a little while. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land.

Do so at once and go back to your native land. And Jacob is committed to going back to the land of Canaan. And in going back to the land of Canaan, he tells a lie. A lie to his brother Esau. Look at verses 13 and 14.

But Jacob said to him, my Lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing the young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die. So let my Lord go on ahead of his servant while I move along slowly at the pace of the flocks of the herds before me and the pace of the children until I come to my Lord in Sir.

He gives his brother the impression, doesn't he, that he's going with him to Sir. Verse 15, Esau said, then let me leave some of the men with you.

Why do that, Jacob asked, just let me find favour in the eyes of my Lord. Jacob has every intention to return to the land of Canaan. And we see that in verses 16 and 17. So that day Esau started on his way back to Sir thinking that Jacob and his family and belongings would follow him.

Jacob, verse 17, however, went to Succoth where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. And what do we see here? We see the old Jacob coming to the fore again. And one wonders why he didn't just tell the truth. After all, he and his brother had been wonderfully reconciled. Oh, it might have been that Esau would have had his nose, you know, slightly put out of joint, maybe a little bit miffed that his brother didn't want to come and stay at his house. But let's be honest, he wouldn't have killed him.

As I say, they had been reconciled. Why didn't he just tell the truth? But here, as I said at the beginning, we see partial obedience.

And secondly this evening, I want to argue that Jacob didn't build an altar to God where he should have done. Well, we've just seen in verse 16 that Esau left Jacob and went back to Seir and that Jacob went to a place called Succoth, which seems to me to be a little odd because Succoth is not in the Promised Land.

Succoth is north of the Jabbok River and east of the River Jordan. And it seems difficult to reconcile this journey to Succoth with the call of God upon his life. One commentator suggests that he was attracted by the fertile land there and went there to replenish what he had before returning to Canaan. Well, maybe so, but why couldn't he replenish things in Canaan?

The land was good there too, wasn't it? Well, verse 18.

Eventually, Jacob goes to Shechem in the Promised Land and he camps north of the city. And one wants to say, well done, Jacob. You have exercised obedience to your God. But then we read in verses 19 and 20.

For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. And there he set up an altar and called it El Eloi Israel, which apparently means God, the God of Israel. Why did he set up an altar to God in Shechem? Because Shechem was not the... He bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. And there he set up an altar and called it El Eloi Israel, which apparently means God, the God of Israel. Why did he set up an altar to God in Shechem? Because Shechem was not the house of God.

Bethel was the house of God. I would argue this evening that Bethel was the place where he should have built this altar. And it would not have been that difficult for him to go there because it was only 20 miles away from where he lived. And so again, I think what we have here is partial obedience on the part of Jacob rather than full obedience.

And again, this evening, I think we all recognise that so often our obedience towards God is partial rather than full. God has called us to be holy as he is holy. God has exhorted us in his word to strive to be holy in the power of the Holy Spirit. And yet, so often, we fail to be the people that God would have us be. Why? Well, because we are not yet fully sanctified.

Or to put it another way, we are not yet glorified. We have been justified, praise God, but we are still being sanctified. John Currid, in his lovely two-volume commentary on the book of Genesis, writes, and I quote, and please bear with me because this is slightly longer than what I would normally want to quote, Sanctification is an ongoing gradual process that occurs in a believer after he or she is justified. As the Westminster Confession of Faith says, This sanctification is throughout in the whole man, yet imperfect in this life. There abideth still some remnants of corrupting in every part. Whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. Currid goes on to say, This is what we see in Jacob and ourselves. Elements of corruption remain, yet through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jacob and we are overcoming.

That is, he and we are growing in grace and increasing in holiness. If we are a Christian here this evening, God has begun a work within us. He has begun the work of sanctification and he will carry that on. And one day he will bring it to completion and we will be holy as God is holy. We will be like the Lord Jesus, but in the meantime, God is at work within us and thus our obedience will be like Jacob's. It will be partial obedience. Not that we should be happy about that. We should hate our sin because it is an offence against God.

We should strive for holiness in the strength that God supplies. Nevertheless, we must recognise that we are a work in progress and keep looking to the Lord to enable us to be the people that he would have us be. Let's pray together and then we'll sing again. Our loving God and Heavenly Father, as we've been looking at the story of Jacob, we have seen the way in which you have taken hold of him and been at work to mould him and make him into the person that you would have him be. We thank you for his growth in grace. We thank you for his concern to be obedient to you. Lord, we thank you for the work that you have begun in our lives. And we're encouraged by the fact that your word tells us that you will continue the work that you have begun.

And that one day you will bring it to completion. Lord, we look forward to that day of completion. is growth in grace. We thank you for his concern to be obedient to you. Lord, we thank you for the work that you have begun in our lives. And we're encouraged by the fact that your word tells us that you will continue the work that you have begun and that one day you will bring it to completion. Lord, we look forward to that day of completion because it means being without sin, no longer having to fight against temptation, no longer having to battle against the flesh. We will be all that you want us to be. We will be like your son, but that day hasn't yet come.

So we pray that we may be a people who strive to be holy as you are holy. May we be a people who listen to the promptings of your Holy Spirit. May we be a people who spend our time in your word knowing that we are a justified people, knowing that we are accepted in your sight but are seeking by your enabling to live out what we are in Christ. Help us, please, to do that so that our light might shine brightly for you in this dark and perverse generation. Lord, we want to be a people who are holy or fully obedient. Please forgive us for our partial obedience. Lead us on, we pray. And we ask these things in Jesus' name and for his sake.