Main Idea: God is always with His people, so walk with Him by thankful faith and trust.
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I am Josh Gilchrist. I have the privilege of bringing the word to you today. I also have the privilege of being the resident pastor over our doxa ministry. College students, college aged, turning your Bibles to Genesis chapter 29 we've been covering the life of the patriarch Jacob the last two sermons and in our growth group discussions, and we've learned about how Jacob deceived his father and brother to be able to inherit the blessing, and had to get out of dodge, basically because his brother was wanting to kill him also for the purpose of going to find himself a wife. Dan, last week, talked about the dream that Jacob had, where God assured him that he would be with him and bless him. And we will pick up today in Genesis, chapter 29 where he makes his journey east. Stand with me for the reading of Genesis. 29 one through 30. If standing for a long time is an issue during the the reading of Scripture during prayer, that's that's okay. You can feel free to be seated during them. Let's read Genesis, 29 one through 30. Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the East. As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep. Lynn 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 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 do you come from? And they said, We are from Haran. He said to them, Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? They said, We know him. He said to them, is it well with him? They said, it is well and see Rachel, his daughter, is coming with his sheep. He said, Behold, it's still high day. It's 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, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob, came near and rolled the stone 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 Rebecca's son, and she ran and told her father. As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, surely, you are my bone and my flesh. And he stayed with him a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be? Now, Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel. Laban said it's better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love that he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, 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. But in the evening, he took his daughter, Leah, and brought her to Jacob, and he went into her Laban gave his female servant, Zilpah, to his daughter Leah, to be her servant. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And Jacob said to Laban, what is this you've done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said it's not done so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn, complete the week of this one who 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. Laban gave his female servant, Billah, to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. So Jacob went into Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. This is the Word of God. Yeah, Lord, we thank You that You have given us your word so that we can grow in our knowledge of you, that your word is sufficient for all things pertaining to life and godliness, that it equips us for every good work. It equips us to know you and to have a big view of you, Lord, Lord, in this passage, there's brokenness, deception, lies, but there's also evidences of your provision and goodness, Lord. And we acknowledge that we live in a broken world where there's setbacks, there's sin, there's disappointments and devastation, Lord, and we want to learn to trust in you in the midst of that, to know that you are always working and accomplishing your purposes. Lord, we thank you for the book of Genesis, your origin story that tells us where we come from. Tell us that you are our Creator and God, the One who longs to make a people for Himself. Lord, I do just pray that you would use your word and in our hearts help me to speak it clearly. Lord we pray just echoing the prayer that we prayed when we were doing gathered, prayer that your gospel would be proclaimed and faithful preaching would transform lives. Lord we pray specifically for Cornerstone Community Church in Northwest Spokane, for Pastor Dan Harris, who does the majority of the preaching there, leading that church, Lord that you would just use the proclamation of your word to help people love you, to love each other and to be transformed. Be with our church. Help us to grow stronger in our faith, stronger in our love and affections for you Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please be seated.
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What renowned missions pioneer Hudson Taylor once said, depend on it. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. Hudson Taylor's parents believe that they knew that God was doing a work where he was making a people for Himself from every tribe, language, people and tongue and nation, and so they prayed for their young son, Hudson, that he would one day become a missionary to China, and God answered that prayer of theirs. And at age 21 Hudson Taylor left England to go to China as a missionary. And while he was there, he experienced a number of different challenges and setbacks. His original sending missions agency was no longer able to support him financially, but he persisted and continued ministering, knowing that God would supply the work supply his needs. He took over the administration of a missions hospital when it was unclear where both the workers would come from and where the funds would come from to keep it operational. He also experienced illness that would cause him to have to leave the mission field and return home to England. But when he was back home, he never gave up on the work. Never gave up investing in it. He got involved in a speaking schedule where he would go and promote missions wherever he could. He studied medicine further so that he could enhance his skills, so that he would be more useful. When he went back, he worked on translating scripture into Chinese, and he founded a missions agency. He's being very productive, and for the rest of his life, he spent time between China and the Western world, either doing missions work or promoting it. Hudson Taylor knew that God's work done God's way would never lack his supply. Similarly, we could say that God's promises carried out, God's way will never lack the means to bring those promises to fulfillment, even when those means involve sinful people and terrible setbacks we all when we read about people like Hudson Taylor, we probably as believers like man. I wish I had faith like that, and we have to remember that Hudson Taylor was a man too, but he was moved by his faith. Scripture in the passage we're going to look at today shows that God will bless his work that he promises to do, and we'll see that happening through the happenings in Jacob's life. Here as believers, I think we all believe that God will work, but we also struggle with having faith. At times it feels weak and small, and sometimes the challenges in life can just really weigh us down. Maybe you are in a job, and you've been in that job for a long time, and you feel like you're never going to get the appreciation that you deserve, the recognition, the promotion, even worse, you might be experiencing unfair treatment from. Co workers, you may be being used and exploited. Maybe you feel alone, like Buddy the Elf. Everyone has the same talents, except for me, everyone around me seems to be just amazing at this one thing that I can't do. Why can't I be like everybody else? Those people over there seem to have everything going together. They have their relationship. Relationships, the home, the vacations, everything that anyone would seem to want. Maybe the sins from your past are haunting you, and you are in a season where you are reaping some of the consequences. Sins can have real, lasting consequences, even even forgiven ones. Possibly you lament the fact that you not only have your own sins, but you've passed your sins on to your own children or someone that you've influenced. Well, the stories that we've been reading in Genesis show that God has always been in the business of making a people for Himself, and those people include very flawed individuals, from Noah and his grapes and getting drunk off of his wine, from to Abraham, who started out as a moon worshiper and then became a deceiver Isaac and Rebekah, with their favoritism, and now Jacob with his deception and all these stories, we can see that God is still gracious that he calls flawed people to be His people. So our big idea today is this God is always with his people. So walk with Him by thankful trust, thankful faith and trust. God is always with his people, so walk with Him by thankful faith and trust. We're going to look at this story in Genesis, 29 one through 30, and see three stages of God being with Jacob. And next to each of those stages, there's going to be an exhortation for us that we should follow. So the first stage of Jacob's journey is faith, the faith stage, and through what we see in verses one through eight, we're going to be challenged to walk in faith that God will keep his promises. Jacob had received a vision and promised that God would be with him, and so he leaves poor and destitute to go east. He's fleeing from his brother's wrath for cheating him out of the inheritance and blessing, but he's also going there to try to find himself a wife from his own people, and not the Hittite women. Last week, Dan preached on Genesis chapter 28 and in verses three through four, Isaac blesses Jacob before he departs, not knowing if you would ever see him again. Jacob not knowing how long it was going to take him to find a wife and come back. It ends up being 20 years of time. And Isaac says to him in 28 three through four God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of peoples. May He give you the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham as Jacob departs and goes to sleep one night, laying his head on a rock for a pillow. I still don't quite know how that works. He has a dream where God repeats the promise of land and numerous offspring and worldwide blessing. And then in the dream, in 2815 look there for a minute. It says, God says to him in the dream, behold, I'm with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised for you. God is promising to be with Jacob. He promises to be with us, his people. So Jacob, in verse one, lifts up his feet and sets out on his journey by foot to Haran, the land of the people of the East. Now, as we've studied Genesis, whenever you see the word east, it's usually not a positive connotation or reason for people to go east. Adam and Eve, when they are banished from the Garden, go East of Eden. Cain is sent east. After he murders his brother Ishmael is sent east, and the sons of Abraham's concubines are sent east. It's a place of exile for people who really don't belong to God's chosen people. It would be kind of like setting out from the Shire and going to Mordor. Probably not that bad, but not a great place, not a positive place. So keep that in mind as he goes to this setting. This is where Abraham was from, originally, where he was a moon worshiper. But he's heading back to the place. Place where his mother had left about 100 years earlier. He's going to find his relatives, Laban, the grandson of Nahor. In verse two, we see Jacob's perspective as he reaches the destination. He sees a well in a field. He sees a giant stone covering the mouth of that well, he sees three flocks of sheep and shepherds there. We don't know how many flocks were there altogether, but verse three gives us some more information that about this stone and about how they would water at this well. It says that when all the flocks will be gathered, the shepherds would remove the stone, water the flocks and put it back. So Jacob, in a new place, Stranger in a Strange Land, walks up to them and starts talking in verse four, he says, my brothers, where do you come from? They tell him they're from Haran, good. I've reached my destination. I'm getting close. Do you know my uncle, Laban, the son of Nahor, the the grandson, a descendant. Son is a term used for, really, any descendant, just as Jesus is called the Son of David. Then he asks, is it they say, we do know him. Jacob asks, Is it going well for him? How's he doing? They say he's he's well. And in fact, look here comes his daughter over here. Look at all the sheep that are with with her. Things are going well, and all of a sudden, Jacob becomes an expert on shepherding, and he's
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like, why are you just sitting there? This isn't really the time to just have all the sheep sitting around like water them now and go and take them to pasture. And they reply that they can't do it until all the sheep are there and all the shepherds are there so that they can move the stone together. It's a very big, heavy, cumbersome stone that takes multiple people to lift, and it's hard to explain what's Jacob doing here. Jacob is just a tent dweller and a recipe maker from the past. Nothing wrong with making recipes. But what is he doing here? He could be just trying to stall and keep the conversation going so that he has an excuse to stay there until Rachel gets there. He could have been trying to establish himself as someone who, like, cares about the welfare of the sheep and their business, as someone who might be a benefit and profit to them. John MacArthur, in his study Bible, says that Jacob wanted the shepherds to get out of the way so that he could be alone with Rachel, whatever it was, he's suddenly excited to get involved in the business of the local shepherds, and it seems like he's excited to talk to Rachel. Now, whenever you move, if you've ever moved to a new place, it's always encouraging to run into people who you either know or they know, someone that you know. When our family moved to Arizona about 20 years ago, we quickly came to realize that there was a small contingency of people down there who had been a part of faith, Bible, church, and that was really encouraging Jacob here as he comes to Haran. He only has the name of his uncle, whom his mom probably hadn't seen in about 100 years, but he starts taking baby steps of faith that God is going to be with him and bless him, as he said in the dream, and we see him acting with confidence and inserting himself into local affairs and the conversation and getting to know the people there. He seems confident at this point that God is with him as he enters the outskirts of Heron. Where do you need to step out in faith, trusting in God's promises, knowing that God's word will always accomplish its purposes and will never return. Void. Do you need to be bold and share it with other people? Maybe you just need to get over the awkwardness of not really talking to your neighbors or co workers or classmates and confidently speak up to them. Get to know them, ask them questions, as Jacob was asking questions of these shepherds and caring about what it is they're doing and seeking to help. God is always with his people, so we can walk with Him by faith and trust. In this first stage of Jacob's journey feels somewhat uneventful. Jacob seems to be taking baby steps of faith, confident that God is with him, and he starts to connect himself to the people of Heron stage number two of the story, Jacob meets his family, and he's going to receive a lot of blessings in this stage. And even though we don't see Jacob thanking God for them in this text, we can pause and reflect on the ways that God bestows His blessings on us. So my exhortation to you and point to is to thank God for the blessings He bestows. Now this story in Genesis 29 parallels an earlier account of something that took place in Genesis. 24 about 100 years earlier. I've mentioned, I've alluded to that time frame a couple of different times, Abraham had sent his chief servant to go east, to the same area, to go and find a wife for Isaac. Abraham's servant and Rebekah met at a well, and we're going to explore some of the other parallels in this section. So in verse nine, Rachel shows up with Laban sheep. It wasn't unheard of for women to be shepherdesses, but this would show that Rachel was strong bodied, able bodied, on her feet all the time, moving around, tending sheep, carrying them on her back, perhaps very, very strong. And when Jacob sees her coming with with the sheep, something really interesting happens. He single handedly, removes the large stone and waters Rachel's sleep. Rachel's sheep. This is the stone that all the shepherds had to be present to be able to lift together. Now he's either really strong, which, again, he was a tent dweller and recipe maker, so I don't know how strong he could have been. Strong guys make recipes, or God could just be blessing him with superhuman strength to be able to work hard do things make an impression. So we might be wondering, why is Jacob wanting to he was telling the guys to water their sheep so they could get out of the way. What's his motivation for doing it? Is he trying to make an impression so that Laban will bring him into his home and put him to work and provide for him? Could it have been to impress a girl so that she might notice his strength and kindness like girl, look what I can do. Power Lift. Oh, by the way, come over here. Bring your sheep over here. Got some water for you. Got some water for you. It could be a little bit of both, but he's following the footsteps of his mother, Rebecca, who watered the flock of Abraham's servant when he came seeking a wife for Isaac. Then Jacob kisses Rachel in verse 11, and he weeps aloud. A kiss was a customary greeting. We don't do that in American culture. Handshakes, hugs are kind of the way that we greet but that was an ancient, Near Eastern way of greeting people. But what about the weeping? I think that Jacob was probably just overwhelmed to be connected to his relatives, feeling like God is really like taking him where he needs to go. But there's probably some emotion related to Rachel. He'd been sent to laban's house to find a wife, after all, and here's a girl right away. Isaac, or Rebekah, very likely, would have told Jacob how they met, how the servant came and found her at the well. And here he is at a well in the same vicinity, about 100 years later, looking for a wife, Jacob, after kissing her and weeping aloud, tells her who he is, he probably should have reversed the order like, Hi, I'm Jacob, good to meet you. But Rachel runs back and tells her father, just as Rebekah had run back to tell her family about Abraham's messenger about 100 years earlier, Laban enters the stage in verse 13. He was also there in Genesis 24 when his sister Rebecca ran home to tell of the messenger. And if you remember in that story, Laban noticed that Rebekah had been given a couple gifts. She'd been given a very nice gold ring and two very expensive golden bracelets that were on her arm. And then when Abraham's servant left, he gave Rebecca's mother and Laban costly ornaments as a gift as he departed with Rebekah, so he knew that, oh, from Abraham's family. Rebecca went over to be a part of Abraham's family lots of money. You've probably seen cartoons where a cartoon character sees the opportunity to make some money, and his eyes turn into dollar signs. Ka Ching, I like money. The motivation for gain is a powerful motive, and we'll see that in what we read about Laban today and in weeks to come. But we could just give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he was genuinely excited to see his sister's son and get some news about the family. It had been a long time. And so he gives him a warm greeting, and kisses him as well that customary greeting. Then he brings him to his house and hears more about Jacob and his journeys. And then, in verse 14, Laban says, surely, you are my bone and my flesh. We're family. We're related, and Jacob stays with him for a whole month, and we can. You that God is indeed being with Jacob as he sets out on his journey. He's keeping the promise I'm with you and will keep you wherever you go. He's brought him to his destination. He's given him strength to lift a really big rock off of a well, he's found his family and maybe a potential wife. He left with nothing, but God has brought him to this place. And after that month passes, Laban and Jacob make an arrangement. Laban says to him, you know, you shouldn't. You can't you know, what will your wages be? It's not right for you to be here helping out and not getting anything. Jacob, like we said, has gone east to find himself a wife. So verses 16 and 17 show his thought process, what's going on in his mind. And in these verses, we learn that Laban has two daughters, and we're introduced to the second one, who's actually the first born. And there's a contrast of the two daughters. Leah is the older and has weak eyes when you first read that you're like, what does that mean? Weak eyes
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probably just means soft and color, tender, pale. If I lived in this culture, my eyes would probably be considered weak because they're lighter color, blue, paler color, not as piercing and sharp as others. That's really all that gets said about her. She's older and she has weak eyes. Rachel is described as beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance. Jacob is smitten by her, and it says that he loved her. She's the object of his affection. It's love at first sight. It's captivated by her beauty and appearance. Where Leah is not very enticing to him, and he says, I will serve you, Laban, for seven years, if you'll let me marry your daughter. Now look at verse 18. He's very, very specific here, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel, not let me marry your daughter Laban, your younger daughter, Rachel. Now it was customary for the husband to pay a bride price before he got married, and again, he had nothing. So all he could offer was toil and labor, and the customary bride price would cost probably about four years worth of wages. And this is not Laban setting the price. This is him making the offer. I will serve you seven years for the hand of your younger daughter, Rachel. This is a very wonderful compliment to her. Like you are worth a lot. You're worth more than the average bride price. I'll work seven years, almost twice as long as the average person would. Laban replies, it's better to give Rachel to you than to any other man. Stay with me and stay he will. Verse 20 shows that Jacob keeps his word and that he loved Rachel intensely. The seven years seemed to him but a few days because of the love that he had for her, guys, gals. That's super romantic. It's seven years is nothing if I get to marry you. Seems like just a few days beautiful. He really loves her, cherishes her. If there was a soundtrack to this seven years of working, if they made a movie of it and showed a little, you know, scene where Jacob is working for seven years and growing a beard and getting stronger, the music that would probably be playing would be ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no contract long enough to keep me from marrying you. He's in love and motivated by that love. Jacob is just getting so many blessings here. He has strength to work and labor. He's transforming from that guy dwelling in tents to a hard working man, a man of the field. He finds his relatives and a place to stay. He's found romantic love and someone to live for and work for, and he's found the promise of a wife. But there's another contrast in Genesis 24 that we need to look at, that same parallel story where Abraham's servant came to find a wife for Isaac, the story we're looking at now. In Genesis 24 the servant prayed before the journey, when the servant met Rebecca and realized, I think this is the one that God has given me success on the journey, he bows his head in worship to the Lord, and He bows himself to the earth and worship when Rebecca's father and Laban say she can go home with you and marry your master. Isaac. In today's story, there are no mentions of Jacob worshiping or bowing in humility before God as He blesses him. And the last mention of the Lord from Jacob is in chapter 28 after he has his dream where he makes a vow, and it's not. Even really him talking to God. It's just him saying, if God will come through on his promise, he this Lord will be my god. Jacob still has some learning and growing to do. So I ask you, do you see the blessings of life, every one of you in this room? Do you see the blessings in life as a gift from God. Say are and do you thank him for those blessings. I want to give all of you in here, especially believers, challenge to think about three to five things each day that you're thankful for. Share those with family member, friend, but most importantly, go before God and pray. Bow your head and worship to Him, thanking him for the blessings. It's a powerful antidote to discontentment. It's a powerful comfort in the midst of trials and waiting to see what God is doing. Psalm 145 verse nine says the Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that he's made, even those who have not made the LORD their God. God is good to and he provides, he provides life breath, and everything acts 1416, through 17. Paul is preaching, and he talks about God's common grace, how even those who go their own way, who turn aside of their own way and don't follow God, God blesses them. Says, in Acts 1416, through 17, in past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Every blessing and provision is a gift from a good and generous God who blesses all. He is omnipresent. He's everywhere all at once. He's in control of everything, and he's especially with his people and those who he calls he was with Jacob as he set out with a semblance of faith and God's promise, and he's with him in this second stage as he meets his family and has the hope of his own immediate family. We come to the third point, stage three. Jacob is going to experience fraud. He's going to be cheated. The cheater will be cheated. The deceiver will be deceived. The seemingly blessed seven years and one month takes a terrible turn in this section, in verses 21 through 30. But through this, we can trust God, through the setbacks and sinfulness. In verse 21 Jacob has done the seven years, it seemed. But just a few days, says, give me my wife. I've fulfilled the contract. Give me my wife. And so Laban gathers everyone together in the place to hold a marriage feast in the ancient Near East. A marriage feast, when we think of weddings, it's usually just one day. This was a seven day celebration, a week long. Festival would be a better way to look at it, where there would be eating and celebrating and drinking of wine, and the marriage would become official when the father of the bride would bring his daughter to the tent of the groom, she would be wearing a veil, she would go into the tent, and the marriage would be consummated. And in verse 23 we see the terrible turn that this story takes. Says that Laban waits until it's evening, and instead of Rachel, he brings Leah to Jacob in the marriage tent, and Jacob went into her now we need to know that Jacob is getting tricked here. He's expecting it to be Rachel. He thinks that it's Rachel. For those of you who paid attention in English class. I'm thankful that you did, because that's near and dear to my heart. You should pay attention in English class. But dramatic irony is when the audience is aware of something that a character in the story doesn't know, like, No, don't, don't go in that room. No, Romeo, don't drink the poison. No, Jacob, it's not Rachel. It's not Rachel, it's Leah. There's trickery going on. Verse 24 Jacob is probably not aware of this either. Probably only Leah is Laban gives one of his servants, Zilpah, to be lay Leah, Leah's servant. So how does Jacob not know that seems kind of weird. In addition to it being dark and Leah being veiled, many commentators think that Jacob had maybe had too much wine to drink at this celebration. It's interesting, when we think about Leah, Leah is going along with it, or maybe she has no choice and is just being forced to do it. I. But perhaps she likes the idea of being married before her younger sister, too. We don't really know, but she is going along for along with it, and playing a major part in this deception, pretending to be someone that she is not. That would sound familiar to Jacob, who had recently pretended to be his brother, Esau, the first half of verse 25 gives us Jacob's perspective in the morning. Behold, it was Leah. You just imagine him the morning after the wedding, laying on his side, starts to wake up. Good morning, Rachel, my sweet wife, Leah. He runs to Laban, what have you done to me? I gave you seven years. I served with you for seven years. Why have You deceived me? You betrayed me? Jacob is astounded that anyone would use such cunning and trickery on him.
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But then he possibly remembers his father and his brother, Leah and Laban had taken advantage of the darkness of the tents Jacob had taken advantage of his father's blindness. Laban coldly and simply responds and appeals to a local custom. It's not done so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. The younger shouldn't get married first, just like the younger shouldn't get the inheritance over his older brother, Jacob, the deceptive younger brother, had cheated his older brother out of the inheritance and stole the blessing from him. Now he wants to marry the younger, and he gets a taste of his own medicine and gets to marry the older sister. And oh, by the way, Jacob, that night that you spent with Leah right now, it makes it official. She is your wife now, but Laban tries to make a new arrangement. In verse 27 says, After this marriage week ends, we can have another seven day wedding feast. I'll let you marry Rachel, if you serve me for another seven years now, Laban is not trying to be virtuous here by preventing two sisters from getting married during the same marriage feast, marriage week. He's not trying to be virtuous by fulfilling a local custom. He is trying to profit off of Jacob's love for Rachel. He's already gotten seven years of service. Now he's thinking he can get another seven as he dangles Rachel in front of his nose like a carrot. He's pawned off his older daughter as well. Jacob agrees, showing how strong his love was for Rachel. Says that Jacob completed the week celebration of the marriage to Leah, and then Laban gives him Rachel. We get another parenthetical in verse 29 where Laban gives a female servant to Rachel named Billah, just as he had given Zilpah to Leah. These two servants are going to play an important part in our next message and in helping fulfill God's promise for lots of offspring. The story concludes with Jacob consummating his marriage with Rachel, and it says that he loved Rachel more than Leah. And I think that we can be understanding of that. It makes sense it was her that he had made the agreement for it was her that he was in love with and wanted to marry. He was tricked, but then he has to serve for another seven years. Jacob, at first, seems super happy to have found his extended family, but ends up being married to two sisters, just like that, any sibling rivalry or tension or jealousy that he was hoping that he could escape from by running away from his brother was now a part of his new immediate family. And while there's people all through the Old Testament who have more than one wife, there's never really a lot of positive associated with that. There's always turmoil and strife hurt connected to it. God's design has always been for a man to leave his father and mother and be joined one flesh to one woman, one wife. So we can imagine possibly that Isaac told Jacob's Son, let me tell you How I Met Your Mother. Jacob would one day have to tell his sons. Let me tell you how I met your mothers. This story takes a terrible turn for Jacob, yet it's not without its silver lining, and better said, it's not without the Providence control of a good God. One commentator says that. Deceptive acts of Laban ultimately result in the emergence of the heads of the 12 Tribes of Israel, furthering God's plan to create a new people for himself. This is the means that God is using that will help bring about the fulfillment of Jacob having lots of offspring. There's certainly turmoil, difficulty and treachery, but God is using this to fulfill His purposes. And through all this, Jacob is becoming a hard working man. He's developing character and patience and endurance. He's also granted a longer time period away from his brother so that his brother who wants to kill him can cool off. That's a positive God can and does work in our disappointments and devastations. He can, and he does. He uses broken people, the horrible dealings of sinful people, to bring about his predetermined will. Proverbs 21 one says that the Lord turns the heart of the king in whichever way that He pleases to bring about his will even wicked kings like Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel and King Ahasuerus in the book of Esther. Laban's deception was not outside of God's control. He could turn it any way that he pleased to work it for good. Acts 223, when Peter is giving his first sermon at Pentecost, he says to the Jews, the people gathered this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. There was murder committed, there was wickedness and lawlessness taking place. But God accomplished his purposes, his definite plan and foreknowledge in any injustice and wickedness that takes place around us, we can remember that God was in control when the biggest injustice in the history of mankind took place the righteous, the perfectly righteous, was condemned, and The guilty and wicked got to go free. Christ, who knew no sin, became sin on behalf of the wicked, and he suffered and died and was murdered, but he resurrected, so that you and I might be brought from spiritual death to spiritual life, from wickedness and sinfulness to having his righteousness applied to us. God was sovereign over the biggest injustice. All you have to do is confess that Jesus is Lord, confess your sins and make the Lord your God. God worked through the crucifixion of his son, and he will work through what's happened here with Jacob and Laban. We see Jacob getting a taste of his own medicine. Here, if you belong to Christ in here, you can have confidence that God is working everything in your life for your good and his glory. You can Romans, 828, no mistreatment at work is outside of his control, no season of loneliness, no season of uncertainty. He is with you, brothers and sisters, even as you struggle, even as we struggle with putting sin to death in our lives, and we see the consequences and effects of it on the people that we love and it grieves us. God is still with you and wants to help you with that. He's always up to something in your life. Can you say he is always up to something good in my life? Always to stabilize your soul. Genesis, 5020, records Joseph's climactic words at the end of the book of Genesis, where he says to his brothers, what you meant for evil, the Lord meant for good. Those words could definitely be applied to Jacob's deception of his father and laban's deception of Jacob. There's nothing that God cannot work for good. Nothing we see Jacob met his match here, didn't he? He met his match, found someone that who is even more deceptive than him. This shows that we reap what we sow, that our sin has consequences. I imagine that this caused Jacob to do some real, deep reflecting, and it caused him to think differently about what he had done to his father and to Esau. Still, God's will was accomplished through his sin and deception. That should be an encouraging thought, but I think that it woke him up a little bit. And I have to ask you, when God lovingly disciplines you and brings about consequences for your sins, do you accept His discipline. Do you sit under that and reflect and allow him to work in you, or do you complain make excuses? Another thing that we're learning in Genesis is sometimes our children reap what we sow. Angry parents raise angry children. People pleasing parents. Parents raise people pleasing children, but by God's grace, broken and contrite gospel centered parents raise broken hearted and gospel centered children, by His grace alone, we see that Jacob inherited, we'll see that in Chapters to come, that he inherited his parents' favoritism and his uncle's deception, his grandfather's deception, and that it would be detrimental to his own family in the future, favoritism and deception will continue as Genesis unfolds. Parents, do you see the great power that you have to influence the next generation, grandparents, your grandchildren, older siblings, your younger siblings, upperclassmen, the younger people in your life. Do you know that you have amazing power to influence and pass things on to people you're all influencing somebody you all are. And with that knowledge does that prompt you to be broken hearted over your sin and seek, by God's grace, to put that to death first in your life, so that you can help other people with it?
46:12
I want to encourage you. As hard as this can be, can be to talk to someone in your life, and this is a plug for discipleship and mentorship and being involved with other believers, if you're not already in that situation, I encourage you to be around believers who can know you and can walk in life with you, and therefore you would be enabled to ask them, Do you see anything in my life that would be a detriment to the people around me? For those of you who are married, you can ask your spouse, Honey, do you see something in me that's a detriment to our kids? I want to fight that. I want it by God's grace to put that to death. God is always with his people, so walk with Him in thankful trust and faith. God will always bring about the means to fulfill his promises, no matter what in this story that we looked at today, Leah entered a dark tent. This is reminiscent of a man who entered this dark world to be a light in the darkness. He knew that God was with him and would have come accomplish his purposes, and that he was going to be important to that story. He knew that the place that he was going was not his home, and that it would be a place of evil and brokenness and temptation. He knew that it was a place of tribulation, and he knew that he would suffer in that place, but for the joy set before him, he endured it hundreds and hundreds of years before. His ancestor, Jacob was deceived by someone who once greeted him and kissed him, and this man who knew everything and it was impossible for him to be deceived, was betrayed also by a traitor's kiss. He endured the cross, despising, the shame, knowing that through it, through his blood, would purchase people from every tribe, people, language, tongue and nation. This man descended from Jacob from the tribe of Judah, Leah's fourth born son. This Jesus is the means to the fulfillment of the promise that all the nations of the would be blessed the seed of Abraham. God used flawed people in the story to bring about his means for that promise to be realized in Jesus, God is always with his people, no matter what, he's always up to something good. Let's pray. Lord. We thank you for your goodness and grace. We thank you that we can bank on your promises 100% Lord, without any wavering or faltering Lord, we confess that we do, we can be weak in our faith. Lord, help us to be people who step out in faith. Help us to be people who see your goodness and provision and thank you for it. Help us to be those who trust you when life is difficult that we would have a grand view of you and what you're doing in our lives through the setbacks and difficulties, Lord, we thank You for Your word Your grace in Jesus. Name, Amen.
Josh serves as Resident College Pastor for Faith's college ministry, Doxa. He and his wife, Pam, have three children.
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