The Fear of Isaac and the Fear of Jacob
Gen 31-35
how Jacob learned godliness
1 of 6
Intro:
In my devotions this week I came across an interesting theme in the life of
Jacob. It will make up our message for this afternoon.
The theme is fear. I’ve given the message this title:
The Fear of Isaac and the Fear of Jacob
or, ‘how Jacob learned godliness’
Now I don’t want to spend a lot of time in introduction since we will be reading
a lot of Scripture for this message. Let’s get right into the message.
I. The fear of Jacob (Laban, Esau, Shechem)
The period of Jacob’s life we are going to mainly discuss today is marked
in particular by fear. Let’s read the texts:
•
Gen 31.1-5, 17-21, 25-28, 31
•
Gen 32.1-8
•
Gen 34.1-7, 13-17, 25-30
A. Jacob feared Laban because he knew what Laban had done to him in the
past – so Jacob fled.
B. Jacob feared Esau because he knew what he had done to Esau in the
past – so Jacob offered presents and excuses
C. Jacob feared the Canaanites because he was afraid of what they might
do to him in the future – so Jacob moved
All of these instances speak of a fear because of our
intimate knowledge of the nature of man: we know the
sin nature of others and the sin nature of ourselves.
II. The fear of Isaac (the God of Abraham and Nahor)
A. The names for God in Genesis 31
1. The God of my father (5)
2. The God of Bethel (13)
3. The God of your father (29, cf. 24)
4. The God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac
(42)
5. The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor and the fear of his father
Isaac (53)
© Donald C S Johnson
110821c.JacobFear.doc
Grace Baptist Church of Victoria
8.21.11
The Fear of Isaac and the Fear of Jacob
Gen 31-35
how Jacob learned godliness
2 of 6
B. Two of these terms are especially interesting
1. The God of Nahor
a. There is a question whether Laban knew God or not
b. Laban is the one who introduces this term into the conversation
1) Nahor is a brother of Abraham
2) He is the father of Bethuel (-el is a name for God)
3) Laban is the son of Bethuel (and brother of Isaac’s wife,
Rebekah)
c. Laban is visited by God in a dream before meeting up with
Jacob (31.24)
d. Laban’s language in 31.53 may be an attempt to demonstrate
his ‘fellow feeling’ with Jacob since he is equating the ‘God
of Abraham’ and the ‘God of Nahor’
e. Clearly Laban’s testimony is not pristine – but he has some
acquaintance with God (and some respect for him in that he
obeys the vision he received)
“Looking at the family of Terah as a whole we may see
in it a good illustration of the different classes referred to
by our Lord in His parable of the sower. It is not at all
difficult to see in Abraham one in whose heart the good
seed of the Word of God sprang up and bore much fruit.
On the other hand it is clear in Lot we have a sad
illustration of “such as hear the Word, and the cares of
this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts
of other things entering in choke the Word, and it
becometh unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). Terah and Nahor may
represent those “which are sown on stony ground,” and
“who when they have heard the Word, immediately
receive it with gladness; and have no root in themselves,
and so endure but for a time” (Mark 4:16, 17). They
show signs of life but they bear no fruit. Like babes who
die in infancy they never come to maturity, but they are
counted as members of the family nevertheless.” 1
•
1
In Laban, we are observing a man in whom
there is some fear of God, but not a lot.
Carl Amerding, “The God of Nahor,” Bibliotheca Sacra 106, no. 423 (1949): 365-366.
© Donald C S Johnson
110821c.JacobFear.doc
Grace Baptist Church of Victoria
8.21.11
The Fear of Isaac and the Fear of Jacob
Gen 31-35
how Jacob learned godliness
3 of 6
2. The fear of Isaac
a. The word ‘fear’
1) This is a different word for fear than the one used to
describe Isaac’s ‘fear’ of Laban and Esau – five basic
meanings for that word
a) “the emotion of fear
b) “the intellectual anticipation of evil without emphasis
upon the emotional reaction
c) “reverence or awe
d) “righteous behaviour or piety
e) “formal religious worship” 2
In other words, this might be considered the basic word
for fear and closely parallel’s our English word.
In these cases, I think we are talking about the emotion
of fear, but perhaps also a bit of ‘the anticipation of evil’.
2) The ‘fear’ part of ‘the fear of Isaac’
a) Definition: “pāḥad serves as a strong verb of fearing
with emphasis either on the immediacy of the object
of fear or upon the resulting trembling. The verb
may refer to the kind of fear aroused by a paḥad
“terror” … Most of its occurrences are in poetic
passages so that it could be considered a strong,
poetic synonym for yārāʾ (q.v.).” 3
b) Most occurrences in poetry
i) 12 vv. in Job, 11 in Ps, 6 in Pr, 1 in Song – 40 out
of 69
ii) Another 13 vv. in Isa, mostly poetical
iii) Examples:
KJV
Exodus 15.16 Fear and dread shall fall upon
them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as
still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD,
till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.
(actually a poetical passage, Song of Moses, after Red Sea)
2
‫ י ֵָרא‬in R. Laird Harris, Bruce K. Waltke, and Gleason L. Archer, Jr., eds., Theological Wordbook
of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 399.
3
‫ ַפּחַד‬in Ibid., 720.
© Donald C S Johnson
110821c.JacobFear.doc
Grace Baptist Church of Victoria
8.21.11
The Fear of Isaac and the Fear of Jacob
how Jacob learned godliness
Gen 31-35
4 of 6
KJV
Deuteronomy 2.25 This day will I begin to put
the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the
nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall
hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in
anguish because of thee.
c) I think we can say it is a bit more ‘elevated’ and
‘intense’ than the ordinary word for fear.
b. Unique usage – by Jacob, not Isaac
1) The two verses in our chapter are the only two places
where this term is found, the fear of Isaac
2) The term is in the mouth of Jacob, not Isaac – Jacob
swears his oath to Laban by this name (31.53)
3) Ps 76.11 describes the Lord as someone who ought to be
feared (a third word for fear)
Matthew Henry commenting on Ps 76.11-12 “is [fear]
not due to God? Yes; (1.) He ought to be feared: He is
the fear (so the word is); his name is glorious and
fearful,; and he is the proper object of our fear; with him
is terrible majesty. The God of Abraham is called the
fear of Isaac (Gen. 31:42), and we are commanded to
make him our fear, Isa. 8:13. When we bring presents to
him we must have an eye to him as greatly to be feared;
for he is terrible in his holy places. (2.) He will be feared,
even by those who think it their own sole prerogative to
be feared (v. 12): He shall cut off the spirit of princes; he
shall slip it off as easily as we slip off a flower from the
stalk or a bunch of grapes from the vine; so the word
signifies. He can dispirit those that are most daring and
make them heartless; for he is, or will be, terrible to the
kings of the earth; and sooner or later, if they be not so
wise as to submit themselves to him, he will force them
to call in vain to rocks and mountains to fall on them and
hide them from his wrath, Rev. 6:16. Since there is no
contending with God, it is as much our wisdom as it is
our duty to submit to him.” 4
Taking all that into consideration, we need to now turn
our attention to another aspect of Jacob’s character.
4
Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible : complete and unabridged in
one volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), Ps 76.11-12.
© Donald C S Johnson
110821c.JacobFear.doc
Grace Baptist Church of Victoria
8.21.11
The Fear of Isaac and the Fear of Jacob
Gen 31-35
how Jacob learned godliness
5 of 6
III. The fearlessness of Jacob
A. Fearless before the angels of the Lord (Gen 32.1-2)
B. Fearless in the presence of the Angel of the Lord (Gen 32.27-30)
What we have to say about Jacob is that he knows his
father Isaac feared God, but we have to ask, ‘Did Jacob
fear God at this point?’
C. God once again appears to Jacob at Bethel (Gen 35.9-15)
1. God calls himself ‘God Almighty’ (11 – Shaddai)
2. God changes Jacob’s name to Israel – ‘prince with God’
a. Indicates a change of character
b. The changed character will take some time to be fully evident
c. The changed character will be produced by Jacob’s greatest
loss, and greatest recovery – the story of Joseph
D. Listen to the way Jacob responds to God after Joseph is rediscovered
(Gen 46.1-4)
E. Consider the way Jacob describes God in his blessing of Joseph (Gen
49.24)
1. Notice that the word ‘God’ is in italics – literally, ‘the mighty one
of Jacob’
2. This becomes a term to describe God for the whole nation in days
far in the future: three times in Isaiah (1.24; 49.26; 60.16), twice
in the Psalms (read Ps 132.1-5)
a. One of the songs of degrees, sung as the pilgrims headed to
Jerusalem for the feast days
b. Describes the submission of the nation to the Mighty one of
Jacob – who himself learned submission the hard way
Conclusion:
Looking back at Jacob as we do, no doubt there is much to the story that we do
not know. But we do know that he used all kinds of stratagems to get ahead in
life. His eyes always seem to be focused on ‘right now’.
He is bold and fearless before the Lord, fearful in the presence of other men.
When we see him at the end of his life, he is broken and humbled. He now
submits to God readily, and sees in God his ‘Mighty One’.
© Donald C S Johnson
110821c.JacobFear.doc
Grace Baptist Church of Victoria
8.21.11
The Fear of Isaac and the Fear of Jacob
how Jacob learned godliness
Gen 31-35
6 of 6
His father Isaac doesn’t appear to have such trouble – to him God is God, and
God was his ‘fear’, as his son described it.
The point of this message is to show you that the fear of man brings a snare (Pr
29.25), but fear of God is life and peace (Rm 8.6)
What is the status of your relationship to God? Are you attempting to wrestle
with God and impose your own terms on Him? Or are you submitted to God as
God?
© Donald C S Johnson
110821c.JacobFear.doc
Grace Baptist Church of Victoria
8.21.11