Slow Learners

Jacob’s fear

I’m a slow learner. How many times have I read about Jacob/Israel in the book of Genesis? How many times have I listened to biblical teaching about him? And yet it’s taken me all these years to really see the enormous change in his life that takes place in Genesis 28-33.

Jacob is a slow learner, too. God Himself appears to him in a dream as he’s fleeing from his older brother Esau. The Lord declares that He’s going to give Jacob great blessings and bless the whole world through him. This is the covenant He made with Abraham two generations earlier.

God is telling Jacob that he’s been chosen to be the recipient of all those covenant promises. In addition, He says He’ll be with Jacob and watch over him and bring him back safely to the land he’s leaving.

Could God’s grace get any bigger? Jacob just deceived their father, Issac, into granting him the blessing that should have gone to Esau. Now the Lord is freely bestowing on this liar and cheater and manipulator totally undeserved blessings that far surpass anything Isaac could possibly give him.

Seems like such a vision and such a promise and such grace would instantly erase all of Jacob’s fears. But for twenty years, he still lives in anxiety. Even when God speaks to him (again) and personally tells him to go back to the land he came from, reassuring him (again) that He’ll be with him, Jacob is terrified. Terrified of both Esau and his father-in-law, Laban.

Instead of being honest with Laban and witnessing to him about how God’s spoken to him, Jacob deceives his father-in-law and sneaks away from him, taking his family and possessions with him. Laban pursues him, and they end up making a covenant of peace.

The next challenge to face is Esau. When Jacob finds out that his brother is on his way to meet them with four hundred men to back him up, he carefully places his herds and wives and children and servants ahead of him, so they’ll run into Esau first. Partly to try to soften his brother’s heart. Partly to let the leaders of the group sound the alarm so the rest, including Jacob, can turn and run if Esau is still angry.

Jacob has seen God in visions. He’s been chosen to receive the Abrahamic covenant. He’s been promised repeatedly that God will take care of him. He’s experienced God’s provision ever since arriving at Laban’s home in Haran. But he’s a slow learner. He’s still afraid.

Jacob's faith

And then everything changes.

After sending his family and possessions across a stream (the Jabbok), Jacob is alone. A man appears and wrestles with him all night. Jacob is winning. But he won’t let the man go until the man blesses him.

The man wrenches Jacob’s hip, then changes his name to Israel, meaning wrestles or struggles with God. Jacob realizes that this isn’t just an ordinary human being, saying later that he “saw God face to face.”

He and his family continue on their way. Jacob is now limping. He must be exhausted from spending the entire night wrestling. He’s more vulnerable than ever. And yet, when he once again organizes the crowd, this time “he himself went on ahead.” He’s no longer afraid. He’s finally trusting God.

All those years of hearing His voice, listening to His promises, and seeing those promises fulfilled in many blessings, didn’t change him. He was still Jacob, meaning deceiver. It wasn’t until he wrestled with God that he believed Him.

Slow-learning disciples

In Matthew 14 and 15, Jesus feeds five thousand men (plus women and children) with a few loaves and fishes. He sends the disciples ahead while He dismisses the crowd, then walks on water to join them as they sail across a stormy lake. After getting into the boat, He calms the wind. His followers respond by saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” When they arrive on land, He amazes everyone by healing “the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others.” Miracle follows miracle in a short period of time.

Then the people run out of food (again). Jesus tells the disciples He wants to provide for all four thousand of them. These twelve confused and faithless men reply, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” As if they’ve learned nothing from His recent actions.

I’ve heard some speculation that there was really only one supernatural feeding. The details are slightly different, but that happens in eyewitness accounts. The speculators question why the disciples would respond the way they did when Jesus offers to repeat the same miracle. Surely they’d get the message the first time. Surely they wouldn’t experience any doubts in the same situation just a few days later.

But Jesus Himself says in Matthew 16:9-10, “Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?” Two different feedings. Two different stories. He knows that slow learners need repeated lessons. He graciously provides for them spiritually and psychologically, as well as physically.

I’ve also heard that the Sermon on the Mount, starting in Matthew chapter 5, is the same event as that recorded in Luke chapter 6. Again, the details are slightly different, but why would Jesus bother presenting the same information twice? Wouldn’t once be enough?

Then a pastor suggested that they’re actually two different situations. One on a mountain (“he went up on a mountainside”). One on a plain (“He went down with them and stood on a level place”).

Why bother repeating His teaching? Because Jesus knows that the disciples are slow learners. They need to hear it again. They also need the reassurance that God understands slow learners.

Other slow learners

Look how long the Lord put up with the Israelites in the desert on the way to the Promised Land. He performed great miracles before freeing them from bondage in Egypt. He supernaturally produced manna for them for forty years. How could anyone question His love and grace when it was so obvious?

And yet they grumbled and doubted time after time. God judged them for their lack of faith. But even that judgment was proof of His existence and His righteous character. He punished them, but He continued to forgive these slow learners and He remained with them as He led them into a land flowing with milk and honey.

The author of Hebrews calls his readers “slow to learn” (vs. 5:11). Based on the length of time that they’ve been Christians, they should be able to teach others. Instead, they still need to be taught even the most elementary truths “all over again.” Hebrews was written to meet that need.

In Galatians 3:1, Paul exclaims in exasperation, “You foolish Galatians!” The gospel has been explained to them so clearly and so carefully. They’ve obviously accepted it. They should know it by heart. And yet they still have to be reminded that salvation is by grace, through faith, not by human effort.
 
A wise teacher

The bad news is we are all slow learners. The good news is we are all slow learners. I’m not alone in this struggle. The people in the Bible weren’t any better or worse than I am. And the Lord handled their doubts and fears graciously, presenting the same lessons over and over again. Like Jacob/Israel, some of them finally got it.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’ll deal with me in the same way as He dealt with all those foolish, slow-learning examples in His Word. Patiently. Compassionately. Maybe with discipline, but always with grace. Like a wise teacher reaching out to the most hopeless cases. And I just might finally get it, too.