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I’m going to invite you today. We’re going to look at Genesis chapter 29. I want to invite you to Genesis chapter 29. And I’m going to give you a warning going into this chapter. It is a a messy chapter. Genesis chapter 29 is and you’re not going to see a resolution of any sort in this chapter until you get to the very last verse. So we’re going to talk a lot about a mess today, which is really, if we’re honest, indicative of the book of Genesis. If you’ve been reading the book of Genesis, I want to tell you what Genesis is like from the from the pastor’s perspective. You say, you know, we should go through the beginning. We’re our plan is to look at the first book of the Bible. And in the months ahead, we’re going to go to the last book of the Bible, and you’re going to see the grand theme of Scripture untold. But when you when you get to the book of Genesis as a pastor, there’s a little bit of a heart palpitation when you engage this book because you know just how messy it is. The Genesis is an incredibly messy book. In terms of Genesis 29. We find ourselves in this story dealing with the the trouble between two brothers. If you remember, one brother deceived the other, and the brother that was deceived now wants to kill his brother who deceived him. And so you see the problem of of a brotherly relationship.
And that’s not the only brotherly problem that you find in the Bible, right? I mean, Genesis starts off with the first two brothers killing each other or one killing the other. And Genesis ends with a group of brothers deciding it would be a good idea that rather than kill their brother just to sell him into slavery. Right. And so you see, and here we are in the middle of this book dealing with other brotherly problems. And, and so this book certainly has a mess, and especially in terms of family relationship and this that’s not the only mess that you read in Genesis. I mean, it’s just it’s peppered with all kinds of messes. I mean, when you start to read about individual characters, you know, you read, you read through Genesis, you start to see by chapter 11, it tells us just how messy things are. But you but you do read it at one point about this character named Noah. And Noah was a sailor, as probably where sailors sometimes get a bad rap based on some of Noah’s behavior. Um, he didn’t choose really to be a sailor. God chose that for him. But after his boat lands, the Bible tells us almost immediately he gets wasted drunk, passes out nothing but his birthday suit. When he wakes up, he curses his grandson. Like that is a what do you do with a story like that? Right? And then even reading beyond that, you see other family troubles where the first two patriarchs it talks about in scripture, Abraham and Isaac, they lie about their relationship with their wives and say, oh, they’re just my sisters, right? And which which ends up terrible for the ladies.
They get basically kidnapped by the leaders of the land where they find themselves. And and Abraham even received, uh, monetary gain from this. He became wealthy because of that lie. Another terrible situation in terms of other relationships. You see things like, uh, there’s a son who decides to have, and we’ll say, an intimate relationship with his, his half brother’s mother. Or there’s another story where, uh, two daughters decide it would be a good idea to get impregnated by their father or or another story where you find a young lady whose husband passes away and she decides to pose as a prostitute in order to get impregnated by her father in law. It’s like, what do you do with stories like that, right? I get the the joy of presenting the goodness of Jesus and all of that. That’s that’s what Genesis brings to us. It’s a it’s a very messy story. And and today’s story focuses on a family that is is broken and messy. And if anything, these stories should make you feel good about your own family, right? You’re like, we’re not so bad here, right? I might feel a little comfortable inviting someone to a family reunion, right? I mean, sometimes we have that competition.
It’s like, oh, no, my family’s worse than your family. Just. Just so you know, um, I’m from West Virginia. My wife’s got some family from West Virginia and Kentucky. Doesn’t matter how bad your family is, we automatically win with that right there. It’s just that’s just the nature of how things go in our in our country. But, um, but you see this, this messiness, and you just start to wonder, where is the hope? Uh, you look at this particular story in Genesis and you might think the same thing, but, you know, Jesus didn’t say to us, look, come to me, all of you who have it all together, who have the ideal families and the fairy tale marriages. And Jesus says, come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and Jesus, he doesn’t qualify what that should look like. He just knows in a sinful world we we bear the marks of that. And God’s desire is to do a powerful, transforming work in our lives. But but to get there, you’ve really got to get to the end of yourself. And for many of us, it takes a broken path to recognize our need for a greater hope that’s beyond just self and what we want. And in Genesis 29, that’s really what this story becomes for us. Uh, this passage wants you to see that no family, however broken or dysfunctional, is beyond divine grace and redemption, that God’s sovereign hand is at work despite our sinfulness and imperfection.
Schultz. And so today the sermons titled A Faithful God in a Broken World. And point number one in your notes is this is just to acknowledge, as we look at Genesis, as we look specifically at this story, we all come from broken places. We all come from broken places. And in Genesis 29, this is exactly where we pick up. If you remember, chapter 27 was the deception of Jacob to his brother Esau. He he deceived his father Isaac, who was blind into thinking. Jacob deceived his father into thinking that he was Esau in order to get the birthright. And Esau becomes angry when he realizes that Jacob deceived his father and stole his birthright and wants to kill his brother. And so his brother goes on the run. And when you read Genesis chapter 28, we saw his brother was in a position that was really absolutely destitute. And we talked about the idea of Jacob when he’s on the run. He didn’t even know where he was. He knew where he was ultimately hoping to get, but he didn’t know where he was. In the midst of his fleeing to the point that he was so destitute, he was sleeping on a rock to communicate you. He literally had nothing. And Genesis 29, as he was fleeing, his father said, hey, since you’re on the run, you might as well look for a wife, basically.
And he’s like, go to the land where your mother is from and find a wife there. And that’s where Jacob runs to. He runs to that land. And in chapter 29, he finds himself by a well and a little bit different in his story, the first ten verses, this is what starts to unfold. I’m going to just give you a synopsis rather than read it for time’s sake. But but he comes to this well, and he he meets this young lady and he helps water her her sheep. And, and in this story, something that is a little bit unique from from the first encounter at this. Well, if you read in Genesis 24, Genesis 24 is when Abraham sent his servant to this well or to this land in order to find a wife for Isaac. And when Abraham sends his servant, Abraham is focused on the Lord prayerfully, when the servant gets to the well, you read in Genesis 24, verse 12 to 14, the servant is even prayerfully talking to the Lord about finding a young lady for Isaac, and that’s where he finds Rebekah. But now Jacob finds himself at this well. And when Jacob goes to this well, rather than praying and seeking the Lord, you just see Jacob focused on what’s before him. And it’s just it’s an eerie difference in where they are in their walk with God that that Isaac, Abraham, very mindful of the Lord.
Jacob doesn’t really have that personal relationship with God. We know in 28, chapter 28 he had an encounter with the Lord, but he really hasn’t come to this full relationship with God yet. And so he goes to this well, he’s not really engaging the Lord. He sees this young lady. And in verse 11 it gives you this response and it tells you then how this starts to pick up where the story, uh, come comes to us. It says in verse 11. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. I just, I just want to stop there for a minute. I know the rest of this is important, but you got to think of how weird this has got to be for Rachel, right? She has no idea who this person is. She’s out by the well trying to feed her or water her sheep. And then all of a sudden, the stranger runs up and it just lays one on her. This is the first kiss in the Bible. I mean, there was one kiss before this in Genesis 27 where Isaac kisses his son. You know, there’s that father to child kiss. But this is like, this is the first real kiss in Scripture. And and it is a it is a weird one at best. Right? You read that Jacob’s like, oh, there she is and just lays one on her.
You know, I got to think when I read a verse like this, I very quickly I start to personalize this. I think, man, I think this is why God did not give me girls I got. I have four boys, I’m happy, I have four boys. I tend to think if if this story was written about me and my daughter, verse 11 would read And Jacob ran to the well and kissed the girl, and verse 12 would read, and Nathaniel killed him. Right. That’s that’s kind of how that would go. But but that’s not what happens here. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. Very weird kissing and all of a sudden cry. That’s a weird dude, right? Verse 12. And Jacob told Rachel that he was he was her father’s kinsman and that he was Rebecca’s son. And she ran and told her father. Verse 13, as soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him. There’s all kinds of kissing happening here. It gets even stranger, doesn’t it? And he ran and kissed him and brought him to his house. And 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. You know, I know when I’m reading these kisses, I kind of a little tongue in cheek talking about it here, but most likely this is this is customary, you know, this is according to the traditions of the land.
This is kind of a a formal greeting. Um, and but it doesn’t still have to make you comfortable. I got to say, I am very comfortable with my greeting traditions as an American. Um, you know, when someone comes in a little handshake, maybe a little dap, you bring him in, give him a couple pats, two pats, two little three pats or perfect fours too much. Right. That’s that’s good. I’m good with that. Okay. That’s that’s enough for me. Uh, having traveled around the world, sometimes when you go to a different culture. I don’t want to bring my American to that culture. I want to I want to enjoy that culture as it’s honoring to the Lord and and let people know that I’m for them. Right. There was one particular place I won’t tell you recently where I was and and I went to I went to had been there multiple times, made friends with people and really want them to know I support them. I’m all about them, I love them, I care for them, want to see what God wants to do in their lives. And we’ve gotten to be such good friends that immediately when I arrived got off the plane, I went down to greet them. I’m hugging them, saying hi to them, and one of the guys, we have to walk back up this hill, and we took a church missions team on this particular trip, and we have to walk back up this hill, and one of the guys reaches over as we turn to walk and he grabs my hand.
And now a man, another man my age. We’re holding hands together, walking up this hill, and for like a brief second, I think to myself, man, I’m I’m glad they know that I really care about them. And then the other second immediately is, how can I get this hand off of my hand like I am not comfortable with this, but I was so happy that they were happy that I was there. But I immediately started thinking, how can we stop being friends and just go back to acquaintances? This is I am not comfortable here and this is kind of the same thing in the story. They’re they’re greeting one another in a way that I’m happy for. Other cultures I’ve learned. I just want to keep mine the way that that is. I’ll embrace other cultures in other ways. I just want to do my culture this way. But. But you see these greetings happening with Laban. We’re introduced to this character of of Laban. And this is not the first time that Laban has been introduced to you in Genesis chapter 24, verse 29. That was actually the first interaction.
This was during the time when Abraham’s servant found Rebekah, and it tells us that Rebekah immediately goes to her family. As soon as the servant found her, he knew she was the answer to to his prayers, and he gave her some gold. He gave her a gold ring, he gave her a gold bracelets. And the story tells us that when she runs to tell her family, one of the first things that Laban notices is the the monetary gain here. And it was through seeing the wealth that that Rebekah had on her that Laban is like, oh, who is this guy? Let’s just invite him in, right? And it starts to speak to the character of of Laban. It’s a foreshadowing in Genesis 2429 to the type of person Laban is, it’s an indicator that what he’s interested in is what he can get out of it. And so this character of Laban, he’s he’s brought to us that way. And now we see him coming back to, to interact with Jacob. And he invites Jacob to, to stay with the family. And in verse 15, it goes on, it says, Then Laban said to Jacob, because you are my kinsman. Should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall shall your wages be? And this is a fairly normal interaction here. You know, you think when you travel long distances during this day, there is not a hotel or motel or anything like that to really stay in? Uh, it was expected that when someone had to travel a long distance, they had to do that for a very justifiable reason.
And therefore hospitality is very common in this area of the world even to today, uh, that you you try to provide for strangers and care for them and, and you see this with, with Jacob. But now it’s in terms of family. And so he wants to care for him a little more inviting him in. But if you’re going to stay for a long period of time, it’s expected that you will contribute to the well-being of the family. And so Jacob is not only wanting to contribute to that, but there’s indication in this text he’s going to stay even longer, which is why they’re talking in terms of paying him, uh, for for helping the family out. And then it goes on in verse 16, it says, 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. And Laban said, it is better that I give her to you that. That I should give her to any other man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seem to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
So a couple things in this text, as Jacob thinks about, um, what kind of wage he would want, he knows he’s there because he’s looking for a bride. And the Bible says that in terms of of Leah, that her eyes were weak. But Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Look at that. That’s a little bit confusing. What is Scripture saying? Why in the world would it tell you? Leah’s eyes are weak, but Rachel is beautiful in form and appearance. What it’s telling you is Leah is not easy on the eyes. Um, that Jacob is not attracted to Leah, but rather Jacob is attracted to to Rachel and it describes her, her beauty and her appearance. And in order to marry Rachel, it tells you in the story that Jacob decides to serve for Rachel. He decides to serve for seven years, and what it’s saying is Jacob is actually paying an exorbitant amount of a dowry in order to have the opportunity to marry Rachel, and for him, it just seems but a small payment. Because of how much? He loves and cares for Rachel. In fact, there’s even some texts from this Mesopotamia region during this time period. They’re called the Nuzi texts, which talk about the average price. People were paid for certain things, including a dowry. And it’s known that during this time period, a typical dowry for a bride was somewhere between 30 to 40 shekels.
And when you hear shekels, that 30 to 40 doesn’t sound like a whole lot, probably, at least for us, because of inflation. Right. But but shekels. During this time period, a typical shepherd was paid about ten shekels a year for their labor, and so for for a dowry price, you’re looking at 3 to 4 years. And so if you take the middle, middle between those two at 35 shekels, what Jacob is saying here is I’m going to pay double the price for Rachel, more than, you know, 35 shekels. I’m going to pay 70 shekels for her in order to have the opportunity to to marry her. And Laban agrees to that with, with with Jacob. But it’s a it’s a demonstration not only of how much his heart’s desire is to have Rachel as his wife, um, but it also communicates the fact that how destitute and broken Jacob really is, because he really doesn’t have any negotiation power in these moments. You remember he he came into this chapter with nothing. He was destitute. He was lost in the middle of nowhere, uh, hoping to get to this land that he finds himself. But he was so destitute he had to sleep on a rock. He has nothing. And so he kind of has to take what? What’s given to him. And so he offers an exorbitant amount towards his dowry price because he’s he’s starting over from scratch.
And so Laban agrees to this. But we see very easily, um, even in the story of Jacob and hoping to marry Rachel, we all come from from broken places. And point number two in that is this we all experience the pain of a broken world. We all experienced the pain of a broken world. And in this chapter, you’re going to see that these broken people are really coming together and out of their brokenness, they end up using each other. That typically happens in our relationships, in life where you when you get together with someone under a roof 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you start to learn you’re not as good as you thought you were, and you start to draw out from one another not only good things, you can do that, but also broken things. And those broken things can create further tension. And now in these broken characters come together. It’s sort of like gas on a fire and highlighting where their shortcomings really are. And you’re going to see this in in Laban and Jacob and Leah as the story plays out. But in verse 20 it goes on and the pain of a broken world. Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife, that I may go to her, for my time is complete. So at the end of seven years it gives the indication that Laban knows it’s the end of seven years, but he’s sort of slow to the wedding ceremony, and he’s supposed to put on the wedding ceremony according to the tradition.
And and Jacob comes into this kind of a little bit frustrated. You can see by that. And this this statement is a little bit crass. He’s kind of blunt, like, I’m ready for my honeymoon now. That’s really that’s really what he’s saying in this story. She’s looking forward to the wedding. I’m looking forward to my honeymoon. You know, I want that now. That’s that’s kind of how bluntly he’s putting this here. And in verse 20, 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 her 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 it that you have done to me? And you can imagine what a difficult morning this would have been for Jacob, right? I mean, you think of all the difficult things you’ve gone through in life. No one’s probably had quite the shock that that Jacob has. You go to bed at night thinking you’re going to bed with Rachel, and you wake up in the morning realizing that it’s Leah. And that is a very difficult thing.
But metaphorically, you know, we as people have done the same thing as people so often in life we know what God says, but there’s what we want, and we think what we want is better than what God says. And so we’ll marry ourselves to it, thinking it’s a Rachel, only to wake up the next morning realizing, oh no, what have I done? This is not this is not what I thought. Right? This is Leah and this is what happens to Jacob in this story. He, he he realizes what’s taking place in the next morning, and he asks the question, what is it that you’ve done to me? And again, we we hopefully have not had this spirit experience directly. Right. But but we can relate to the question because all of us have experienced the complexity of relationship. You develop relationships with people, right? And maybe even the most intimate of relationships in marriage. And you get into those relationships and all of a sudden you start to. Realize this is not what I thought it was. And you ask the question, what is it that you’ve done to me? You had these certain expectations and they didn’t pan out. And now you’re living in the pain of the brokenness and sin. What’s happened here? Uh, maybe even in in a marriage relationship and hopefully not the day after your honeymoon. Right. You’re asking this question, hopefully, if you’ve ever asked this question in terms of your your marriage, you’ve asked it several years later and maybe not even out loud, maybe even the quietness of your heart.
If you have asked this question, you’ve posed it, maybe even you’ve posed it to the Lord. Now what is it you’ve done to me? And I think wisdom teaches us that even the Lord teaches us in His Word, that what he’s done to us is exactly what happens when two sinful people get together. And just because you get married doesn’t make everything fairy tales like the movie tells you. I heard one person describe marriage like this. You have to eat your vegetables before you enjoy the dessert. And what they’re saying is, um, when it comes to marriage, you really get you get out of it what you put into it. If two people are willing to surrender their lives to the benefit of one another, and they nurture that relationship in a healthy way, then they get to enjoy the dessert of it. But you know the beauty of the beauty of marriage. The Bible tells us God creates marriage to be a blessing. That blessing starts with the two people, right? Uh, being willing husband and wife to lay themselves down for the benefit of each other, to to help them become who God has called them to be. You know, it’s this idea of surrendering love is this unconditional, sacrificial love for the well-being of another.
And and through that, when those two people are blessed, the the story goes that that your marriage multiplies, it creates family. And through the blessing of the two comes the the blessing to the family. And as the family learns to walk with the Lord, so it becomes a blessing to the community. And communities are only as strong as the marriages that make them up. And when two people learn to surrender to one another according to the way God has created us and designed us to bless each other, then you get to enjoy the dessert of that. But the reality is what marriage becomes this, this beautiful place of God doing a work in your holiness before him, meaning one of the the greatest things that God does in marriage for us is it teaches us where our own shortcomings are, because when we’re all by ourselves, sometimes it’s people not saying being by yourself is easy, but but sometimes we have this tendency when there’s no relationship we’re interacting with directly, that we tend to think that we’re a lot better than we really are. And we tend to think, you know, when you’re on your own or when you’re by yourself and you’re not engaging in any sort of relationship. I’m really loving and I’m really patient and I’m really gracious and I’m really kind. And then when you start rubbing shoulders in the mess of life with people, you start to realize, I’m not as patient as I thought I was.
Screaming two year olds cutting teeth tend to tend to do that. You know, you start to recognize I’m not as always, loving that, my love. Sometimes it comes to an ending and I act in the flesh and and I’m not as selfless as I thought I was. And while you go through the brokenness of those relationships and you start to highlight one another’s shortcomings, you realize where you need to mature in your walk with the Lord. And marriage has this beautiful way of helping us learn what it is to conform to the image of God, and helping us learn how much God really had to sacrifice to love us where we were. And now we have the opportunity to to do the same. And so Jacob is asking this question, what is it that you’ve done to me? And I think it’s a very reflective question for all of us. When we experience complexity of relationship to to evaluate where our own heart is and how God could be refining us in the midst of our struggle. But looking at a text like this, I know it’s important to ask a few questions, right? Like not to just sweep the story under the rug and and just spiritualize it or make it some metaphorical teaching related to your own life. But very basic in this question. Like, I want to know, like, how are you tricked? Like, how did this happen? This is a seven day wedding feast.
How do you not know that that you’re you’re going to bed that night with Leah instead of Rachel? How does that happen? And why would someone want to deceive that way? Why would someone want to do that? And I think there’s a few reasons that to to defend Jacob a little bit why he wouldn’t recognize that it’s Leah instead of Rachel. Um, one is because they don’t have electricity, right? If you’re having a wedding celebration, they’re doing this most likely at night or in the evening, and all you’ve got is some candles and even that it might be a little expensive to burn candles that long with that much light, where you can tell things that, well, in the dark. Um, that that would be a difficult thing. And then traditionally, to be covered in a veil, you’re not always going to see the bride, you know, at the the times that could reveal that you might be being deceived. And third on that, Jacob could have possibly had a few too many to drink. All these things are a possibility. Um, probably it’s a it’s a combination of some of those things, if not all three of those things. But whatever the case is, Jacob doesn’t realize that it’s Leah instead of Rachel. And then why in the world would you deceive someone like this? And the answer is, it’s really speaking to the character of who Laban is.
What he’s interested in is himself, and how to make his life comfortable. And one of the stresses that he has as a dad is to get his daughters married off. And so because of that, because his desire is just to simply honor himself, regardless of the consequences to the relationships around him, he deceives for his own personal gain. Um, even in so doing, you see that he gets seven more years out of out of Jacob in order to get Rachel again. And so he’s he’s thinking about possession, monetary gain, thinking that’s going to bring him happiness. But what we find is it brings brokenness to his family. And you see, in this next part of verse 25, Jacob confronts Laban. It says, he says to him, did I not serve 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. Um, this this passage doesn’t come out and say to you, and this is a very pinnacle moment of the story, but it’s important for you to know this is a very pinnacle moment of this story. This is a part of what God uses in order to bring Jacob to a place of humility. We said Jacob’s own relationship with the Lord is really nil to this point. He’s had an experience with God, but he doesn’t really, truly walk with God.
And it’s not until he finds the end of himself that he discovers new life in the Lord. And God uses this as a part of his story to humble him. Um, for for many of us we may say the same thing, like when when it came to knowing the Lord. If you know the Lord that God may be used. A series of broken events in order for you to come to the end of yourself, to realize what you’ve truly longed for was found in the Lord all along. And for Jacob it was found in this moment. Because what you what you discover is Jacob comes into this asking these questions. You can just sense the the emotional charge of this moment. I can’t believe you would do something like this. How disrespectful, how despicable. Towards myself, towards Leah, towards Rachel. And the only thing Laban responds is this it’s not so. It’s not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. And then Jacob, in response to that, doesn’t really say anything. All of a sudden he just calms down. Why? I think the answer is, is because this comment pierced the very soul of Jacob. If you remember, there’s a there’s a Hebrew tradition that says this, or a Jewish legend that says this. It expresses it this way. It says all night Jacob kept calling her Rachel, to which Leah kept answering yes.
And in the morning, when an angry Jacob called Leah a liar, she responded, was it not just this way that your father called out to you, Esau? And you answered him, yes. If you remember the story in Genesis 27, Isaac was blind, wanted to give the birthright to his son Esau. Jacob found out about it and comes into the room and deceives his father in the blindness and the darkness into thinking that he is Esau, so that Jacob can receive the birthright he deceived in order to receive. And now all of a sudden, Jacob’s been matched. His deception has been matched by a greater deceiver. And now Jacob begins to experientially realize all the pain that he put his family through. As he has experienced the pain of this moment, he realizes his own deception has done the same thing to his family. It’s why he’s on the run. And this brokenness is what the Lord begins to use to stir Jacob to this, this place of humility that God’s going to continue to work in him. And in verse 27 it goes on and says, complete the week of this one. Laban says to, to, to Jacob, and we will give you the other also, in return for serving me for seven years in tradition during this day was to have a wedding feast that took place for seven days, and it’s thought it was because it mimicked creation.
If you remember, in the beginning, God created male and female for the purpose of two becoming one to multiply and bless. And God created seven days of creation. And in that creation it’s newness of life. And so to reflect on that, they had a seven day feast for for marriage to to recognize that when a couple comes together, it creates new life, new opportunity. And so they’re celebrating that here. And it goes on in verse 28, Jacob did so and completed her her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his female. No servant Billy to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. It talks about these two servants in this story for for future stories that are about to be told. But in verse 30, look at this. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah and served Laban for another seven years. It doesn’t take a prophet or a marriage counselor to look at this and say, this is, this is not going to end well. It didn’t begin well, for sure. And it’s definitely not going with a comment like Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. That is that is not a not a healthy comment, right? By any stretch of the imagination. And both girls are not going to do well. But Paula certainly gets the worst of this. I mean, it speaks to the reminder of the way God created us for one man and one woman, right? In Genesis 2224 it says, And God created two to become one flesh, not three to become one.
And it tells you in Deuteronomy 1717 that, um, a man should not marry more than one woman. If he does that, his heart will be tempted to stray from the Lord. Leviticus 17 or 1818 even says, um, that a man should certainly not marry two sisters. That’s a that’s a that’s a no no. Um, and then in first Timothy, chapter three and Titus chapter one, that even in the church it says, look for leaders that are a husband of one wife, meaning a one woman man. They’re dedicated to to their spouse, indicating the importance of the marital relationship between one man and one woman. But in reading the story, you not only do we see the brokenness of Laban, but my question is also why? Why would Leah be willing to go along with this? Why would she be an accomplice? Why would she participate? I think there’s a there’s a few possibilities for that. Um, one is she’s simply just obeying her father that was expected of her. So that’s what she does. Two is she she didn’t like being single. She found it as as difficult. And so rather than being single, she thought, you know, I’m I got a chance to be married, I’m going to be married.
And maybe she thought it would play out better, but she didn’t realize. You know, it takes two healthy people coming at this from a healthy perspective from for that to be worked out right, you got to want to be married between the two of you in order for that to be worked out. And and perhaps she thought to herself, you know what? If I can just get the opportunity, I can change him. Right? There’s a lot of people that think that sometimes I, I can change them. And let me just tell you, that does not work out right. All right. Ladies or guys, that that is not don’t expect that you’re going to change anybody. Um, who they are is who they’re going to be. And if the Lord’s going to do a changing work in them, do it before you get your emotions attached to the relationship. Let let God do that. You don’t want to be their their walk with Jesus for them. They need to have that walk with the Lord coming into the relationship, because then you know it’s genuine. If all they feel is the pressure to follow the Lord simply because you forced them to, or because you’ve obligated them, they need the opportunity to experience the freedom of what it is to walk with the Lord on their own. And for Leah, it could have been any of those things the text doesn’t tell us, but you start to see some brokenness in her heart and how the story then begins to unfold.
It says in verse 31, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And look at this. Now it starts to just reveal really the sorrow, the emptiness in Leah’s heart. It says, verse 32. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben. For he 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 the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon. And again she conceived and bore a son, and said, now, this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him a third son. Therefore his name shall be called Levi. What it’s saying about or excuse me, Leah, as as it’s telling her story, you see this deep longing in her heart, this brokenness, this, this wanting to be satisfied, this wanting for really intimacy. She’s saying, I just want to be seen. I just want to be heard. I just want to feel connected, loved and appreciated. That’s that’s what she’s longing for. And she’s looking for this in someone else. And really, what she’s doing, she’s hoping her achievements will be enough for someone to love her.
And Leah, she finds what we’re seeing in the story. She’s finding her identity in in wrong places. She thought to herself, well, if I have these kids, well then finally that will be enough and my husband will love me. So. So here’s the big question in this text. What do you do with this mess? You think about who Laban is. A deceiver focused on his identity in his possessions and his pleasures, only to realize it’s just destroyed relationship. And and then Jacob thought, happiness comes by by going to bed with Rachel, only to wake up with Leah. And then Leah thinks that she can impress others with these achievements even by having children, making her more lovable, only continuing to find herself empty. Counselors refer to this as the Crazy Cycle. The crazy cycle is where we we we want to feel respected and we want to feel valued. And so what we do is we end up taking advantage of each other to get what we want, because what we want is most important. And when you’re in a relationship between two people, that’s their worldview how to serve themselves, how to get what they want from you because, well, it’s all about them. What happens is this crazy cycle that just goes back and forth, where you’re just manipulating and using each other for your own purposes, never finding really true happiness and of yourself and completely isolating yourself from the relationship that you’re that you’re even engaged in to the point that it destroys it.
And it’s not until one person in that relationship is willing to humble themselves and rather, rather than seek their own desire, seek God’s desire that healing truly begins, that we would find the end of ourselves. It’s our tendency in reading stories like this. We look at these messy scenarios and we think, man like, let the pastor give us a few verses, apply it like we’re taking two pills and the next morning we’ll be okay, right? Like it just we just want to we just tell me what to do to fix this so I can be done with this and I can move on with my life. And here’s the problem with that. You can give a short, quick answer to the situation that you’re in, but you never truly learn to walk with God in it. And just because you might have learned an answer temporarily to one storm doesn’t provide you a solution to the struggle of storms that are before you. It’s important not only that, we see how God’s divine hand works in this moment, but how God wants to continue to work in my heart through everything that I’m about to go through. And finally, when Leah comes to the end of herself, this is where really a new opportunity and new life begins. And you see this in verse 35, let me let me just tell you the point, the last point here before I read verse 35, and it’s this the promises of God are not thwarted by the brokenness of man.
The promises of God are not thwarted by the brokenness of man. Uh, this is so important for us because our tendency as people is, you know, we might read about the grace of God and think, I’m so thankful God’s gracious and God’s kind to me. But we can make so many mistakes in life. Sometimes we get to the place where we’re like, well, I have finally crossed that point where God’s grace can’t reach me anymore, like I finally did it. I am, I am the forever lost child. I have messed up so many times, and now I know that I have gotten to the point of no return and that God mostly cares about everyone except for me now in this situation, because I’ve taken that last step where God’s just going to be fed up with me because I know it. But Genesis chapter verse 35, it really speaks to the opposite of that, that God works in our brokenness, that God is hand is there, and that you discover that hand when you come to the end of yourself looking to him. And this is what Leah does in verse 35. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, this time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah.
And then she ceased bearing, um. This becomes a picture where rather than let her life continue to be robbed by two men who devalue her, she turns to the Lord to discover who she really is. And it’s in this story that she gives birth to Judah. And it’s interesting that the beginning of Israel’s history comes out of this broken story. This is where the 12 tribes of Israel come from. But more specifically, what it wants to identify in this particular story is not just the 12 tribes, but the tribe of Judah. And what’s incredible about the Tribe of Judah is this is where Jesus comes from. God took the girl who was unlovable and loved her unconditionally, by extending his grace to her to bring about the the one Judah who would ultimately bring the greatest one, the Messiah, who would redeem all of us in our brokenness. Leah becomes a picture of the good hand of God that continues to work despite our sin, that there is a God who does not give up on us, a God who comes into our brokenness and and gives us opportunity for redemption and renewal in him, out of a broken relationship. What we find in this is a greater hope that is born. It’s God working despite our sin. It’s he who works in broken and humble places. It’s God’s mercy being known in our lives. And some of us may.
We may look at our families and our past and just see a trail of brokenness. But what’s important in this story is to understand that God can take what is broken and make something beautiful beyond our comprehension, and he does it over and over again. There is a I need to close with this. I’m going to use these couple of illustrations to close. But there was a man by the name of John of the cross who was alive in the 15th century, and he wrote a book called The Dark Night of the soul. And he recognized that there are places our human soul can go to in struggle that just it’s the pits of despair. But in that book, he made a couple of comments to encourage us. He said, in the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God. And that’s what Genesis 29 is. It’s in all this brokenness. The human nature is like, let’s just get past all that and give me a little verse to fix it and move on. But but rather what what God wants us to see is his good hand in the midst of all of that, that we would realize when we come to the end of ourselves in that brokenness, God is there. And John of the cross goes on and says, live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it. Then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.
I think that’s really where new life begins, and that’s where God gives you a radical opportunity to live for something greater. You know, I think about stories like this. I realize in our in our own lives, we come from brokenness. As a pastor, sometimes I getting to walk life with people. I see some things that that we come from, that it has the tendency to make our hearts callous and embittered, um, to to really run away from what God wants to do. And one of the people that I love in church history that really speaks to how God can take out of the ashes and make beauty is a man by the name of Saint Patrick. Just so you know, Saint Patrick stands for more than green beer. Um, I don’t know what you. When you think about Saint Patrick’s Day, I don’t know what you think the holiday represents, but for some people, it’s like cabbage, three leaf clovers, leprechauns, good luck. And green beer. Like, that’s. That’s as far as their understanding of Saint Patrick goes. But. But in a redemptive sense, Saint Patrick is a much greater story than that. Sorry, I just snorted. Then that holiday Saint Patrick in the in the fifth century. In the fifth century, Saint Patrick, at 16 years old, he was a part of Roman Britain. But he was kidnapped as a slave at 16 years old and taken to Ireland, and he served there as a slave for six years.
And finally, after six years, he found a way to escape. He ran to the to a harbor. He was able to jump on a ship. It took him back to his homeland and during his time in slavery, though when he was broken, it was during that time he came to know the Lord, and when he came back to his homeland, he then went on to seminary, and in studying in seminary he went on to become a pastor, and at 40 years old, he decides that the Lord wants him to go back to Ireland. He goes back and ministered to the very people that put him into slavery. How in the world does a person do that in the midst of brokenness, when your heart should be calloused towards any people group, it’s it’s that group. And yet he goes back and when he ministers there, the history tells us there’s 150 clans in Ireland. By the time of his death, over 40 of them, the majority of them have become Christian. Within 40 of those clans, there was over 700 churches started, thousands of pastors, tens of thousands of people that came to know the Lord. It was remarkable what God did, not only in him, but also through him. And people look at that and think, how could you do that? I think in your own lives the things that you’ve gone through, you could have been treated by a certain people group in a way that you didn’t like.
You could have been lied to, had a belief that, you know, you just feel so irritated that you embrace something. And now here you are trying to walk with the Lord and your heart can become calloused. How does it change? I think the answer is very simplistic. Not that the journey is easy, but the answer is simplistic. And it’s really when we start to come to the end of ourselves to see the goodness of who Christ is. In John 17, when Jesus high priestly prayer for us, he acknowledged in this high priestly prayer for you and for me at the end of verse 24, he talks about the love that the father has for him before the foundations of the world. Meaning the Trinity of God experienced this beautiful relationship in love before anything else existed. Now the love birthed all of creation before the foundation of the world, the Father and Son in perfect relationship with each other. And then Jesus says this at the end of John 26, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them. Meaning, what Jesus’s prayer is, is the love that Jesus experienced with the father would be the same love that you would experience in your relationship with God. Because when God sees you, he sees the perfection of Christ.
So, so for us, when we ask the question like, how does a heart not go callous? But I understand what what God desires to do as we come to the end of ourselves, when we we see the value of who we are from the Lord’s perspective, that he pursued us in our brokenness, that he loved us, that he gave his life for us. And in so doing, we begin to realize that we can respond by glorifying him, that not only do we receive his love, but it fills us up, and then we have the opportunity to return that love. And as we grow in that relationship with the Lord, we realize that that same brokenness that he redeemed us in is the same brokenness that he wants to redeem in everybody. He wants to renew and restore what’s broken in our lives. And it starts to make our hearts as we realize how much a holy God had to pursue to find us in our own brokenness. It starts to make our hearts sensitive to the brokenness of people around us in order that we may minister to them. But it all begins with this in Genesis 29, that in the midst of the mess, we find the end of ourselves so that we can find the beginning of a beautiful walk in the Lord.