Confronting Your Jacob: Tear Down Your Idols And Know The One True God

Genesis 29:31-35 (NKJV)
"When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son and she called his name Reuben; for she said 'The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will love me.'
Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said 'Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also, and she called his name Simeon.'
She conceived again and bore a son and said 'Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have bore him three sons.' Therefore, his name was called Levi.
And she conceived again and bore a son and said 'Now, I will praise the Lord.' Therefore, she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing."

In modern times, we think of idols as statues. We picture them as Greek goddesses or little men with round bellies. That is not what defines an idol. An idol is the thing you worship. An idol is the thing you yield your strength to.

I understand that most of us do not have shrines in our homes or places of work, but that does not eliminate the possibility that many of us have idols. Do you realize that you can worship someone or something simply by paying too much attention to it? A person can be an idol in your life if you spend that life trying to impress them rather than the God you serve. By allowing someone’s opinion to determine your value or allowing their perception to validate you, you are opening the door to living for someone else and depending on life from someone rather than God.

It is an idol!

God declares in Exodus 20:3-5:
“You shall have no other gods before Me…. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.”

Like the story of Leah in Genesis 29, you may often birth blessings that you don’t enjoy because you a right thing for a wrong reason. Leah kept producing something good, but she did it for wrong reasons. You can do a right thing in a wrong way, but it will always leave you empty and going back for what you will never satisfied with. That is, until you confront your Jacob.

Why though? Why do we create sick cycles in our life?

Where there is a wound, there is vulnerability and vulnerability can be entrance to the enemy to create idols in your life.

Why does Leah want his love so bad? Why do I do the things I do?

By examining Leah’s life, God will liberate your own form the vulnerabilities and from your false gods. God will liberate you from your Jacob.

Leah is the older daughter of Laban, who deceitfully gave her in marriage to Jacob. Jacob was to instead receive her younger sister Rachal until this deceit. If you will recall the story, Jacob worked for 7 years to receive Rachal’s hand in matrimony and is instead given Leah. Jacob does not value Leah, his wife. Laban does not value Leah, his daughter. This is a familiar story to every woman who feels she isn’t enough to her husband, every son who was told they were an accident by their parents, every brother or sister who found themselves at the lonely end of family dinners. Three lines into our recollection of this story we can already trace the start of the sick cycle. Often times, the problems we live out as adults are formed from our childhood years.

Leah has a father who does not value or validate her. He uses her like a pawn, manipulating her for his own personal gain.

Why does Leah want Jacob’s love so bad? It is because she is chasing the love she did not receive from her own father. It is a familiar story. Her relentless desire to please and capture the affection of Jacob is an extension and projection of her broken relationship with daddy.

When people are asked, “Why do you want to be close to another human being?” the answer is often three-fold:

1. So I wont be lonely.
2. So I wont feel unlovable.
3. So I wont feel afraid.

In other words, “I want to be close to some so that I will not feel as an adult what I have felt as a child”. In essence, many people say, “I want an intimate relationship to fix my childhood lack”.

This, unfortunately, does not work. Relationships were meant to complement, not compete. Relationships were meant to enhance, not fix. There are defining moments that made you the person you are. Regardless of whether we are male or female, I am sure that many of us can identify with Leah. We know that deep desire that just cant seem to be filled that extends from rejection we barely understand.

For the struggle to cease and the cycles to be broken it is vital to recall the inconsistent messages of your childhood. Like it or not, those messages may still be influencing your behavior today on an unconscious level in every area of your life.
To change your life, you must change the message:
Romans 12:1-2- “I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God.”

Ephesians 4:23- “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind”

You must change the message! In order to change the message, you must be aware of the message. You cannot conquer what you do not confront; you cannot confront what you do not identify.

The knowledge of how your current patterns were formed will help give you the tools to release you from self-critical indictments that create sick cycles and are ungodly.

Here are some of the major messages (False Labels) from a dysfunctional family:

1. "I love you-go away"-
   Sometimes the dysfunctional parent was warm and loving, at other times they were hostile and rejecting. There was no consistency. That is what may lead you to be attracted to the person is loving and warming one moment, then hostile and rejecting the next. You play your childhood over again because the only consistency you know is inconsistency.
2. "You can’t do anything right- I need you"-
   You could never meet the standards of perfection created for you no matter how hard you tried. You were just good enough to be kept around, but not good enough to be validated. You truly believed that everything that went wrong was your fault, yet you knew you were needed by the very one you felt inadequate towards. It was impossible to make it without you, even though you were worthless to them. You struggle to “fix” things even when they are not broken. You may find yourself drawn to partners who are extremely dependent and highly critical. You may be drawn to those who repeatedly put you down, although you know they cannot get along without you. In these relationships, you always find a way to blame yourself to make everything ok. You have grown up to be the perfect doormat to inconsiderate people.
3. "I'll be there for you- next time- I give you my word"-
   You learn how not to want so that you do not get disappointed. This can cause you to be tired and resentful, feeling as though you carry everything important in the relationship. Your fear of asking for something and not getting it is as unsettling as your fear of asking and actually receiving it. The first fear of not getting reinforces that you are unworthy. The second fear is so unfamiliar you actually don’t know how to react. Even a simple compliment makes you uncomfortable. You will only be happy with the fantasy of a hero who already knows how to please you without you communicating.
4. "Everything is fine, don’t worry- but how can I deal with all this?"-
   Don’t concern yourself; everything is going to be ok, yet the underlying sense is that everything is NOT ok. The result is that you develop into your idea of a super person by the time you are an adult. You can and you will take care of everything. You are in charge.

These messages create myths instead of truths. The myths then lead you to relationships that are unfulfilling. These myths lead you from the Fruits of the Spirit to the fears of the enemy. Worst of all, these myths lead you to the altar of idols.  Your first objective is to take a good hard look at these myths.

1. Acknowledge them-
   Leviticus 26:40/42- “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary to me…Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember… I will remember the land”
2. Reject them-
   2 Corinthians 10:5- “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”
3. Replace them with the truths of God-
   Joshua 1:8- “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate on it day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”

Some of the myths-

1. If you really knew me, you wouldn’t care for me
2. If you find out that I am not perfect, then you will abandon me
3. Being vulnerable has negative results
4. We will never argue or criticize
5. Anything that goes wrong is my fault
6. In order to be loveable, I must be happy all the time

Truths-

1. You are fearfully and wonderfully made-Psalm 139:14
2. You are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus-Ephesians 2:10
3. You are victorious-Revelations 21:7
4. You are established to the end- 1 Corinthians 1:18
5. You are called by God- 2 Timothy 1:9
6. You are more than a conqueror- Romans 8:37
7. You are an ambassador for Christ- 2 Corinthians 5:20
8. You are beloved of God- 1 Thessalonians 1:4
9. You are the joint heir-Romans 8:17
10. You will be overtaken with blessings-Deuteronomy 28:2
11. You are complete in Christ- Colossians 2:10
12. You are firmly rooted, built up, and strengthened in faith- Colossians 2:7
13. You will always triumph- 2 Corinthians 2:14

So Leah was caught in the "sick cycle".

She produced Reuben (See Me). The right thing for the wrong reason.

She produced Simeon (Hear Me). The right thing for the wrong reason.

She produced Levi (Connect with Me). The right thing for the wrong reason.

She was trying to win Jacob with her successes. She was trying to please man with what she could do, what she had, what she could produce instead of thanking God.
After all, the Bible clearly says-
"When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb"

It was God that saw her/your heart breaking. It was God that heard her/your cries. It was God that saw her/you wounded and weak. It was God that gave her/you something for it.

God is the one that opened your womb Leah, not Jacob!

You, like Leah, maybe trying to use your blessings to cover your failures.

That is idolatry!

God is calling you to confront your Jacob. He is calling you to refocus your attention on the giver of life and healer of hearts.

Winning Jacobs love will always be an area of vulnerability for her. She will always carry that struggle, but can she confront her Jacob?

Is there an idol that has stolen your attention from the God that blesses you? Confront it!

Have you missed the sweet taste of Gods favor because you took what he gave you and paraded it to people you wanted to please? Confront Jacob!

The Bible says-
And she conceived again and bore a son and she said "Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah and left bearing"

Judah means praise. You cannot praise or honor God for what he has given you until you have been weaned from the idols of your past!

God will deal with Jacob. Do not worry about your Jacob, for the Lord is the judge of man. You focus on tearing down your idols and worshipping the One True God who has opened your womb to produce fruit!

Say this prayer with me now-

"Father God, I come to you now with repentance on my lips and in my heart. Please turn my heart away from any idols in my life and turn it towards you. You are the fountain from which all blessings flow and I will praise you, Elohim, as long as I shall live. You are the one true God. You are my deliverer and the opener of my womb. You have healed my barrenness by revealing your Son and your Spirit without which I would be lost in darkness. I pray against any attack of the enemy on my mind. May the works of satan in my life be destroyed by fire. Seal any crack or crevice that gives the enemy entrance to my mind, will or emotions. Use my hands to glorify you and destroy the works of the enemy through your Son, Jesus Christ. Remove anything and anyone from my life that does not align with your divine will for my life and my destiny in you. Grant me the discernment to identify and remove idols from my life. I praise you and thank you for my deliverance. I will glorify you all the days of my life. In the name of Yeshua. Amen."

-Love Paula