Jacob's Marriage

0:00Good morning. There it is. Welcome. Welcome, welcome to another week through Genesis. You can turn to chapter 29 this morning. That is where we will be. We're going to look at Jacob's marriage to Leah and Rachel. So this is Jacob's marriage to Leah and Rachel. A few things to consider as we get into the text this morning. We're going to once again see the familiar theme of God continuing to work even through the sin of the people. Despite man's foolishness, pride, and blatant deception, God does not go back for a second on his promise. And he continues his faithfulness in and through and to Jacob. We also see and have the opportunity to contrast the power of prayer. We talked a little bit about prayer this morning. And God's willingness to grant our requests against what happens when we try to act on our own wisdom. And finally, we will see how God works through humble means. It is often very near, meaning God is very often nearer to the neglected and to the broken-hearted. It is certainly my prayer this morning that we see how merciful God is, and how silly our pride is. And how it is silly when we have the benefits of hindsight, which we do this morning. And may it please the Lord to show us this and whatever else he wishes this morning. We have a bit of a longer passage to read. So that's all the intro we're going to get. And the words are not going to be on the screen because there's a lot jumping around and there's so much. So stand with me. Grab your Bibles. I'm going to skip around a little bit. So follow along best you can. If you don't have your Bible with you, just listen as we read this story, starting in Genesis 29, verse 1. Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a whale a well, sorry, in a field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it. For out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the w well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well. Jacob said to them, My brothers, where did you come from? And they said, We are from Haran. And he said to them, Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said to them, Is it well with him? And they said, It is well, and see, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep. He said, Behold, it is still high day, it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them. But they said, We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well, then we water the sheep. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now, as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman, and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father. Skip down to verse 16. Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Skip to verse 21. Then Jacob said to Laban, This is after seven years, give me my wife that I may go into her, for my time is completed. So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. Now, verse 25. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah, not Rachel. And Jacob said to Laban, What is this that you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? And Laban said, It is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete this week with of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years. Jacob did so and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. And finally, starting in verse 31. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren, and Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she had said, Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love me. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, Because of the Lord he has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also, and she called his name Simeon. And she conceived and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons, therefore she called his name Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, This time I will praise the Lord, therefore she called his name Judah. Then she she ceased bearing. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for this story, Lord. We please ask that you would teach us and lead us and speak to us this morning. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Thank y'all for bearing with me during that long, long passage, but uh I couldn't find a spot to not read, and we had to get through the whole story, so there we go. Thank y'all. Have you ever had a big decision to make in your life? Anybody ever made a big decision? No? I think it's safe to say that everyone here over the age of 18, or maybe 18 or older, has had at least one big decision, possibly many of them. Or that they will have to make them very, very soon, some big decisions. And I'm talking about big decisions here first. We'll get to all the decisions later, but like buying a house or a car, or changing jobs, or decision to get married, right? Or to whom, as our story kind of alludes to. Decisions like those are the ones that seemingly make or break your future, right? The question I want to begin with this morning is that when faced with those decisions, do you pray? Sounds simple enough. Do you pray? Do you earnestly seek the Lord and his will, or do you trust in your own judgment? And sure, we may air quotes pray about it to check the spiritual box and to make ourselves feel better about our decision that we've kind of already made. We just want to pray about it to confirm it in our own minds. But I'm asking, do you really seek the Lord's will for your life? Let me draw your attention back to Genesis 24. Okay, five chapters ago. This is about three weeks ago. When the servant of Abraham, you remember, journeyed to seek a wife for Isaac. You remember the story? The servant of Abraham journeyed to seek a wife for Isaac. This was Rebecca. And if you remember, when he got to the well there back then, he immediately prayed, asking God to grant him success in his search, right? And then he also prayed for certain actions that would confirm the kind of character in a person suitable to be the wife of Abraham's son, right? He was seeking an answer, and in this case, a woman whose character aligned with the character of God. We mentioned that this was the definition of praying according to the will of God, and that's exactly what the servant of Abraham did when he showed up at the well. Now then, when we read the text this morning, and Jacob shows up at the well, which was quite possibly the exact same well and likely the same well, where the servant of Abraham met Rebekah some 50-ish years earlier. What was noticeably absent with Jacob? He didn't pray at all. He didn't pray. Not only did he not pray, but he shows up and starts giving orders to the people that are there, right? Why are you gathering the sheep now? It's still the middle of the day. Water them and put them out in the pasture, he says to them. Their reply was that there was a particular way that they do things, which involves waiting for the whole flock to arrive so that they could all be watered at once. He didn't seemingly didn't want to hear that. And perhaps his rash behavior here, as we read, was because he wanted to get the men out of the way or get them to move on so that he could be alone with Rachel, who had just arrived. So he takes it upon himself, as we read, to move this heavy stone out of the way to water the flock, which is typical of a guy wanting to lift heavy things in front of a girl, right, to impress her. This is exactly what he does. So he waters the flock against the plans and the will of the family. And this is followed by him just going up to Rachel, kissing her, and weeping aloud. Jacob is our brother, so I'm not going to disparage him here, but as Brother Stephen is known to say, Bro needs to relax a little bit. Okay? Like just a little. Needs to relax. Jacob's pride and his ego is clearly in the driver's seat here. And not only is he not seeking the Lord's will, but he's asserting his own will. Right? He's kissing the first pretty girl that arrives at the well. Okay, there's no discernment, there's no thought put into his behavior. There wasn't any sort of seeking God's will here. We have the benefit of hindsight, right? We can judge this situation in hindsight, but this is not a good start for him here. And if we were to give Jacob some pastoral advice, if we could go back then and give him some pastoral advice, we might tell him to slow down a little bit here before he gets himself into trouble. And maybe he wouldn't have listened, I don't know, right? But no such advice was offered to him. And as we know, he did get himself into a bit of a mess, didn't he? He got himself into a really big mess. What was the problem? He didn't pray. He didn't seek the Lord's guidance and will. And that was certainly an issue. And involved in that is the fact that he was making decisions based upon his own eyes and his own heart and not upon the will of God. Okay? If he had approached this situation in humility and prayer, perhaps he would not have ended up in what amounted to slavery to Laban for 20 years. As we have established, though, God uses the foolish and the brash behavior of Jacob to bring about his promise, as we will see. Something that immediately stuck out to me, and it's something that we actually providentially talked about in Sunday morning. That keeps happening. How quickly we forget the face and the presence of God. We don't know how much time passed between the revelation of God to Jacob at Bethel, right? That's that was last week, and the encounter of this well. We don't know exactly how much time passed there. But even if it was months, it could have been potentially months. It's still too short a time for Jacob to have just forgotten about God's guidance. The Lord, not long ago to Jacob, showed up in a dream and promised to lead him, promised to guide him, promised to keep him. And in turn, Jacob vows to serve the Lord, but in relatively no time at all, he has seemingly forgotten who is leading him. It's a silly mistake by Jacob. But I contend that such actions and attitudes are just about a daily occurrence for us. Not that we are deciding who we're going to marry every day, but how quickly do we forget who is doing the guiding in our lives? Who is doing the leading? Who is doing the keeping. May we be people who pray first and act second. Okay. Next in our story is Laban's response to Jacob being there. I'll draw your attention again back to the story of the servant of Abraham because there is very, very similar circumstances around these stories. And when the servant of Abraham shows up to find Rebekah, it was Laban, if you remember. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. It was Laban, the brother of Rebekah, who ran out to meet the servant of Abraham when he showed up. And it's the same Laban, right, who's now giving his daughter, daughters in marriage. And if you also remember, the servant of Abraham brought lots of gifts with him when he came to seek Rebekah's hand in marriage for Isaac. He brought silver, gold jewelry, he brought garments, costly ornaments, it says. That's all from Genesis 24, 52 to 54. So as soon as Laban, this time around, hears that there is another child of Abraham at the well seeking a wife, he runs out. The text says, as soon as he heard, he runs out to meet him, embraces, and kisses him. And maybe he really just was excited to see his nephew. Had nothing to do with the potential gain from Jacob, possibly. But I think the rest of the story paints a little bit of a different picture for us. And we didn't read it to open the passage. We didn't read it during that opening reading, but the passage says that Jacob told Laban everything that had happened that had brought him there. So they go inside, presumably, or possibly outside. I think actually it says they were back inside then. And Jacob tells everything, Laban, everything that has happened that has got him to that point. We can only assume that the everything that the text says that Jacob told included the deception, the swindling of the birthright, the deceit to get the blessing, his exile, his running for his life, all of that. To which Laban replies, quote, surely you are my bones and my flesh. This comment should have been an immediate red flag to Jacob, that after recounting all of the trouble and his deceitfulness and what that has put him in, Laban's reply is, We are very much alike, you and I. No follow-up questions, Jacob? Like, what do you mean? We're very much alike. All the signs are there that Laban is not one to be fully trusted. But it seems that Jacob is so blinded by his desire for Rachel that he does not see it. Not yet, at least. The other difference in this story and the circumstances surrounding Rebekah is that when the servant of Abraham brought all the gifts to Laban, Laban consulted with Rebekah, and then he gave her away and let her go back with Isaac, or to Isaac. Here we see when Jacob is empty-handed as he is now, no riches, no treasures. Laban doesn't freely offer his daughter, but rather offers Jacob a job, and there is an agreement to work for seven years for one of his daughters. I don't want to make too many assumptions at the passage, but it does seem more than a bit greedy that a man would leverage his daughter to get work from his family. He's essentially selling his daughter for work, which is not a great look. Laban is personally benefiting and greatly so by all the work that Jacob does for him, right? So much so that he is doing everything he can to keep Jacob under his control. This whole section is about that, is about Laban continuing to keep Jacob under his control. Laban even tells Jacob, this is a little bit later than what we read, that Laban has learned by divination, he says, that the Lord is blessing him, Laban, because of Jacob. And he again, because of this supposed divination that he hears, he tries everything he can to keep Jacob around. And I pose the question, who is Laban hearing from when he learned by divination that his exploitation of Jacob is profiting him? I don't know that. Jacob is fully in the company of greed here, right? That is for sure. And the irony that is really rich here of Jacob getting angry because of the deceitful switcheroo that was played on him, switching Leah for Rachel, when that is literally the exact same thing that he did to his own father, should not be lost on us. That irony should not be lost on us. And I can't help but think of the connection here with the words of Paul in Romans 2. Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on one another you condemn yourselves, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourselves, that you will escape the judgment of God. Make no mistake about it, the mess that Jacob got himself in here is a judgment of God on account of his sin and his deception, and Jacob rightly receives chastisement from the Lord's, from the Lord at the hands of Laban. But in this grand mystery of God, the deception and the judgment becomes the blessing. Not just a blessing for Jacob, not just a blessing for Leah and for Rachel, but all of humanity will reap the benefits of this story. And let's look at that next then. Everyone really screwed up here, right? The only real innocent party, if you could call her innocent, is Leah. She was used as a pawn in Laban's plan of deception. And Jacob despised her from the start because, as our text says, she wasn't very good looking. Many modern commentators interpret the statement that Leah had weak eyes. That's verse 17. They convert this to a positive statement. And I assume that this is their attempt to scoot around the Bible referring to someone as not pretty. But saying that it was a positive term, and what the Bible really means is that Leah had gentle eyes. She just wasn't quite as pretty as Rachel. The obvious problem there is that this is not what the Bible says. And I think one of the main emphasises, emphases, emphasises, emphases, of this passage requires that Leah be not very good looking. It requires that. She was mistreated. She was used. She was despised by Jacob. She was rejected by her father and her soon-to-be husband. She was humble in appearance, that's putting it kindly. We don't know what she looked like, but she was humble in appearance and in many ways discarded. And the only reason why she even ended up married was because of her father's trickery. What a heartbreaking situation, right? But God. He brought forth the following sons from Leah, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, who through came Moses and Aaron, Issachar, Zebulun, and most importantly the fourth son Judah. Six of the twelve tribes of Israel were born through Leah, the discarded, unwanted, unattractive daughter of Laban. Even more, the great King David came through her fourth son, Judah, from whom also was born our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What does it mean that the Father chose to bring his son, the Son, into the world through an unattractive, unwanted, discarded vessel? And maybe it's just coincidence that the connotation connected with Leah's weak eyes is carried through Leah to Christ and his message of whom Paul says concerning the foolishness of what we preach, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Or hear the Lord's words to the prophet Samuel. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. And how often does our present culture consider the opinions of someone to be of greater value when that person is attractive? And this is exactly why we care what influencers have to say, right? Or churches consider people to be leaders in the church when their only qualification is that they are somebody or that they give money, whatever. I'm not going to get on my soapbox there. This is so anti-gospel, though, right? It's in complete opposition to what the Bible actually teaches. The entire lineage of Christ is filled with the younger, the weaker, the unwanted, the mistreated, and the sinner. So that we may know both that God has a heart for the neglected, and that this is his work. We have nothing to boast about here. How many times does God show his character by working through the younger, the weak, and the rejected and the humble? That's all he does, right? It's continually work through those means so that we will see Christ, who is himself all of those things. And so often we look for God in the big things and the grand things, in the lightning and in the earthquakes, but he is rarely there. We find him in the gentle breeze. The humble vessels doing the humble work. Leah points us to Christ, then. And to the character of God who doesn't neglect the neglected, but uses them wonderfully in his story. What an amazing God we serve who is near the brokenhearted and does wonders through them. Wonders. So we'll pull all that together for a few points of application. First, going back to my original comments to open, the text demands that we be diligent to pray. Diligent to pray for the Lord's will in our lives. We must pray. Often we are our own worst enemy, aren't we? We need to plead with the Lord to help us get out of our own way. Big decisions, small decisions, and everything else in between. Let us first pray. Let us first pray. Asking Him for the things that we know are in His will, and trusting that in humility he will guide us in the rest. Present state of our country included, then, the necessity for prayer and for petition for God to guide us and have mercy on us is as pressing as ever. Secondly, we must be encouraged by the reality that God uses the humble and the ordinary. God uses the humble and the ordinary. The humble and the ordinary are often his primary mode of transmission. Do you feel like you are lacking in life? Are your days filled mostly with unglamorous things? Changing diapers, running irrigation lines, farming chickens, selling widgets, standing over a hot stove, working on ACs, or just living life as a retired person. It doesn't have to be fancy or flashy to be godly. Often it isn't. Whoever you are, wherever you are, God can use you and will use you for kingdom work. Eternity shifting kind of work. Yes, even you. Believe that and keep walking with him. Okay, finally, as I've repeated many times now, uh, this is the theme that keeps coming up. God's plans will not be changed. They won't be changed. You can make a lot of dumb decisions, and you have, and you continue to do so. And those dumb decisions will inevitably put you in a lot of really bad situations. And often we are in those situations. But even then, you can be assured that God's plans will not be thwarted, and He is always at work no matter what. I know I've read this passage quite a bit lately, at least two or three times in the past many weeks. Um, but this uh this morning, I suppose, our text and really what happened yesterday as well, uh, I think it's important to hear these words again. I pray that uh our passage this morning, because of our passage this morning here in Genesis and the current political uh context helps to drive these words straight into our heart this morning. This is a course from Romans. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's truly a blessing, right? Amen. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, uh, for your word. We thank you especially this morning for what you've taught us through this story of Jacob and Leah, Rachel, and Laban and all of those characters, Lord. We uh we thank you that you use humble vessels, Lord, and we pray and ask, Lord, that you would not only keep us humble, but continue to work in us through uh our humility. And ultimately, Lord, may we look to Christ, the humble life that he lived for us, Lord. May we see how all of these stories ultimately open our eyes to see Christ, the work that he has done for us. The only one who was neglected who did not deserve to be so, Lord. Again, we thank you for him. We thank you for the work that he has done on our behalf, and we testify to that and pray and ask for your forgiveness, Lord, as we now partake of this supper. I ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.