(upbeat guitar music) ♪ I love growing in your grace ♪ ♪ You have your hand on me ♪ ♪ And all that I do wrong ♪ ♪ Love will keep me strong ♪ ♪ And I love growing in your grace ♪ - You haven't been with us just to catch you up last week in chapter 27 we spent the evening with Isaac and his dysfunctional family. Twins that were born Jacob and he saw 77 years earlier to their mother, Rebecca. And 77 years earlier the Lord had said to this excited group of parents at 60 years old, make sure that you know that Jacob the Younger will be taking that place of the firstborn even though he was not, that he would receive the rights of the firstborn that Esau would serve the younger Jacob. 77 years later in chapter 27 Isaac, the dad believes he's gonna die. He's blind, he feels old. We mentioned to you last week he'll live another 43 years. So he thought he was gone, but he wasn't. However, because he thought he was going in direct defiance to the Lord, he decided before I go I'm gonna bless my oldest and favorite son Esau who was a hunter and he took to him and he said go out and quickly and make me that great stew that I love for you to make and I'm gonna bless you before I die. Well, this dysfunctional family don't trust each other so Rebecca listening in the other room. Here's what Isaac plans to do with Esau and she says to her favorite son Jacob, let's beat him to the punch. I'll make some goat stew, it'll taste like the meat your brother makes, you dress up in goat skins. So your father will think your hairy brother Esau and will fool dad and get the blessing because after all that's what God wants, that's what God said to us that he would give us. So we talked a lot about how the Lord can rule over even when we try to help him out, he'll get his way but he doesn't hardly need our help. And when we go out of the way to do something wrong just for the Lord's sake, it's wrong either way. Well, she and her son Jacob makes this plot, the family deception and everyone kind of seeking their own will. So we outlined them last week as the unspiritual father, Isaac certainly knew the Lord. The mother was un surrendered, Jacob was just unscrupulous. He was just interested in what he could get for himself and not be found out. And I think Esau is probably the unsaved guy who really never does come around and you get this picture of quite a family. So the plot of Jacob, sorry, yes, Jacob and Rebecca worked. It barely fooled a very doubtful Isaac who conferred his blessings upon Jacob unwittingly. It was indeed what God wanted, just not the way God would have ever put this all together. About the same time that he said amen and conferred this patriarchal blessing upon his younger son, Esau comes in from the fields with the stew, the stew his dad loved. Immediately the ruse is kind of revealed and there's just anger. There's anger from Esau who does not care at all about the spiritual implications of what he'd taken from him, but just the financial ones, the power ones, if you will. He just begs his dad, just bless me too. Give me a little blessing. But I can't give you what I give to Jacob. There's only one blessing for the first one. Oh, but just bless me anyway. And we read there that Isaac finally realized he was fighting city hall. You know, the Lord had a will and he said, okay, I God caught me and I'm just gonna leave what I'd done. And that's exactly what you read about in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 20 that by faith Isaac blessed Jacob, but really, you know, it was only by faith that he left the blessing there. He didn't come to that point really on his own or on his own will, but he realized that God, he was fighting the Lord. And he's the only one that comes out of this chapter more spiritual than going in, right? The mom's still planning, Jacob's still hustling. Esau's just out off in left field. But here, you know, at left Esau hating his brother, swearing that when dad dies, 'cause everyone thought he was going, we're gonna go through the mourning period and then we're gonna kill Jacob. And Rebecca gets wind of that, goes to Isaac and said, please, please, let's send Jacob away. So he doesn't marry one of these Canaanite women like Esau had done twice now. And so Isaac agrees. And he said, it'll just be for a few days. We'll send you 500 miles away to Uncle Laban's house. Rebecca's brother in Heron. And then you can come back when the coast is clear. What he doesn't understand, it'll be 20 years before Jacob even heads back home. And even quite a few years more than that before he heads back to the place he was supposed to go. So this kind of sinful, conniving and helping God out, God rules. And that's certainly a lesson of chapter 27, but he doesn't need our help. So we left chapter 27, Jacob saying, "The vital is mother, bidding a kind of a sad farewell to his dad, happy to get away from his brother. And at 77 years old, he heads for the wilderness. He has an uncertain future, his life journey in the following chapters. And I'm glad that you're with us. I hope that you'll still with it through all of these chapters can really be described by what we call our radio program, Growing Through Grace. Because really, we're gonna talk a lot about grace in these next three or four weeks. And that's a subject I think everybody likes, that we can grow. And sometimes Jacob grows so slowly in God's grace, sometimes very quickly, God continues to work with him. And the work of God in bringing us like Jacob to the end of ourselves, that can be a long work. For some of us, it can be a short work for others. It can be mild or it can be severe. It just kind of depends on your response to the Lord. There's a last verse and I think chapter 10 of Hebrews that said it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God. Well, only if you're fighting with him, 'cause else it's a great place to be. If you belong to him, he desires all of you. God will save you, but also God will subdue you. And eventually God will get you to submit to him every step in the way. Eventually, Jacob will become Israel. The word Israel means governed by God. But it's gonna take a while. In the process, God continues to work in Jacob's life, helping him to grow by grace. A Gallipole last year said that America's favorite worship song was amazing grace. I don't know. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I can't see a lot of people in America singing that. But it's true. Amazing Grace was written by John Newton. You probably know a little bit about him. He grew up in a Christian family. His mother was a strong believer who taught him the scriptures. But she died fairly early. And so because John was still a young man, he was marched off to relatives. And he developed this tremendous bitterness against God for losing his mom so early. He eventually ran away from home. He joined the British Navy. He was known for how well he could drink and stand up and how he could swear with proficiency. That's the way it was written about him. He became a slave trader. His conscience was seared. He just didn't seem to care about what he did and how he did it. He lost his life almost three different times where he could have, you know, that was it, but he survived. God was gracious to him. Eventually, he was taken in battle, became a slave for a while himself. He thought of his mother's counsel about faith in Christ. And there, captured, he turned his life to Jesus. When he was released after the war and he went back to Britain, he joined the parliament. He became the chaplain. And then he wrote this book, The Song, Amazing Grace. Saved your wretch like me. Well, Jacob could have had this song written about him. You could have had this song written about you. I can certainly see it having been written about me. The grace of God for riches like us. And I think that's going to be our theme for the next, oh, maybe 10 chapters. The grace of God that brings us forward. Grace is a very difficult concept to grasp because we don't really know anything about grace from our natural way of life. To receive freely something that we don't deserve and then ask to be motivated by the receiving of that which we don't deserve. To then turn and live a godly, obedient life with thanksgiving before what God has given us that we don't deserve. That really becomes grace. Grace is God be selling freely his favor to the most undeserving people that you can think of. People like Jacob and like you and me. So we begin this love story of Jacob and Rachel. And then we see the love story between Jacob and the Lord. And Jacob will learn, but it took a long time to value the depth of God's care, to depend upon God's provision, to dedicate his life to the Lord. He was hardly, and he is hardly at this point, 77 years old running out the door, a spiritual person. In fact, we have no biblical record of him praying even once at 77 years old. His grandpa did, his dad had, but Jacob had not, at least not yet, but that's about to change. And starting tonight as Jacob runs down the road of growing through grace, Jacob will hit the ground running. But I want you to keep an eye on grace because it's something that certainly God has provided for us and it is something that we depend upon and we're gonna see it I think more and more as we go forward. So chapter 28 verse one, as he is now ready to leave his house after this big bruise. We read that his dad Isaac called Jacob, blessed him and charged him and said, "Look, you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan like your brother Esau. Arise and go to Pat and Aram to the house of Bethulil your mother's father and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Labe and your mother's brother. And may God almighty bless you, make you fruitful, multiply you, may you be an assembly of peoples to give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God has given to Abraham. And so Isaac sent Jacob away and he went towards Pat and Aram to lay them the son of Bethulil the Syrian, the mother of, sorry, the brother of Rebecca and the mother of Jacob and Esau. And Esau saw that Jacob had blessed, sorry that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Pat and Aram to take a wife for himself there and that he blessed him as he gave him a charge saying, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan." So Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and he had gone to Pat and Aram and Esau saw that it was the daughters of Canaan that did not please his father Isaac. And so Esau went to the descendants of Ishmael and took a daughter there, Abraham's son, to be his wife in addition to the wives that he already had. Isaac I think was sufficiently shook after the Lord kind of busted him that he wasn't about to defy God anymore. Being encouraged by his wife in the last chapter, he blesses Jacob, sends them forth, really gives him that patriarchal blessing of the inheritance of the land and of the people, the things that God had been saying to his grandpa and to his dad for years. I suspect it was a tearful goodbye for a dad with his son that he wasn't his favorite son, was his son. I don't think he expected to ever see him again, he would. And Esau watching this whole thing takes place, thinks, "Well, maybe dad would bless me if I married within the family." And so not going completely to the heat. And he just goes to Ishmael's family, takes a third wife from there, not exactly your godly line, but hey, a little closer to the family, you know? And so no repentance here, he's just trying to jockey for position. We read in verse 10 that Jacob went out from Beersheba and he began to head towards Aaron and he came to a certain place, stayed there all night because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of that place, put it under his head and he lay down in that place to sleep. Fun Beersheba to this place, Bethel, which means the house of God, it was called before lose. You can find that in verse 19, lose his almond tree. But anyway, from where Jacob left to this place one night, 40 miles, he traveled. So I have to believe he was running scared. Maybe he was riding a horse, I don't know, but he was moving. 40 miles is an awful long way to go. And so we assume he left early and he went until night, but I think his anxiety was driving him just to get away from what was certain death from his brother. So the long journey, the emotional kind of departure, the fear of his brother's reprisals, leaving his mother and his secure home behind, having an unknown future, he didn't know what late before him. He was gonna have to travel some 500 miles. And all of that stuff, he just wore him out, you know? Maybe his fear of the outdoors, he was kind of a mama's boy, this kid. Even at 77, so he was worn out. It's kind of the kind of stuff dreams are made of and God would speak to him here. I don't think that, I should say this way, no doubt the last thing on Jacob's mind was the Lord. Hasn't been a guy that was really interested much in the Lord, however, God had a tremendous plan for Jacob. Now I always like to see God's initiative on this side of these stories because it is certainly the Lord that wants to take this weary man and give him a dream and get his attention and God meets with him in the very same place, if you've been with us a while, where he had met with Abraham before he'd gone down to Egypt, running away from a famine, and the same place years or not years much later, Abraham returned to, to worship the Lord again. It is also the place Abraham and Lot split up, all in this same area. So the Lord meets him here in a dream, Jacob, you gotta be tired to sleep on a rock, I'm pretty sure. And verse 12 tells us that he dreamed and behold, or look carefully, a ladder was set up on the earth and it reached its top to heaven. And there were the angels of God that were ascending and they were descending upon it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and he declared, I am the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Jacob, and the land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south, and in you and in your seed, all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now we dream all the time. Sometimes we remember them, sometimes we don't. I took an interesting class and college years ago about that the average dream lasts 13 seconds, 13. I might seem to go on forever, I don't know. Some of them are from the Lord. Some of them are from your chili dog at 11 p.m. But this dream came directly from God to a, I want to call him a young man, he's not, but to Jacob on the run who had done everything but seek the Lord in his early years of life. He has shown a ladder between heaven and earth. This is the biblical stairway to heaven. Robert Plant probably read this. And the angels were ascending and they were descending into the year. Maybe Jacob caught a shift change. So some of the angels were going home and they were checking in to keep an eye on this, I don't know. The point is for Jacob and something he needed to learn and was beginning to learn. And that is that God was a fair involved in the affairs of man and even here in Bethel, which is a very rocky bear in place. I can go to Israel today, it's still a very rocky, barren place. But in this, God forsaken land or so it looked like, that God was there too. Jacob would have said to himself, I run from my family, I've lied to my father, with my mother, we've hustled, we've deceived, we've stolen from my brother, he says, I'm dead, I miss my mom, I just want to go home. And certainly God couldn't be with me in this place, but yet God is with him here. As Jacob goes to sleep, the Lord uses that opportunity to say to him, I'm here. Now here's what you don't hear, and maybe here's where grace starts. You don't hear from the Lord any reprimand. Kind of like, hey, you little lighter. Hey, how you doing buddy? Boy, you're a phony. Hey, your arms aren't as hairy as I saw them earlier tonight, you know? He could have come at him with all kinds of chastisements and reprimands, telling him what he should have done, calling him sneaky. I don't know, put yourself in God's shoes. What would have been your first words to Jacob? But God was very gracious. I want you to take note. God didn't reprimand this wayward soul that he was seeking to bring in to the fold. He blessed him. Now I want you to notice that not only the holy and the special are given dreams from the Lord. Jacob was just the opposite. In fact, it would appear the only way God was gonna get a word into this guy's edgeway, sideways, I should, edgwise, into his life, was if he got him when he was sleeping. So God begins to pronounce words of grace to him. He reiterates, for the unteenth time, a promise he had made to Abraham. He made to Isaac, promises of land, promises of descendants that you couldn't count. And promises of a Messiah, because the word seed in verse 14 is singular. And it speaks of a coming Messiah who would come from your lines. And through him, singular, all of the earth, would be blessed. Additionally, verse 15, God's grace, behold, I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you. No doubt Jacob had lots of reservations about the future. How would he be received by Laban, his uncle? A 500-mile trip down very dangerous roads by himself. What of the family he left behind? The angry brother, the sickly father, the loving mother who, by the way, would die before he got back. He would never see her again. At least not on this side of the grave. And yet God comes, he makes a promise of a land, promise of a descendants. And then if that isn't enough, that's future. He promises in the present tense, I'm with you. I'm not leaving you by yourself. I'm gonna stick while you. I'm gonna protect you. I'm gonna bring you back to this place. I'm gonna accomplish everything I promised to do in your life. And before those things get, I won't leave until all of those things, if you will, get done. What a great promise, a future hope in present care. By the way, God promises yet to you as well, doesn't he? It's gonna get you through tomorrow. And then when you're all done, he's gonna gather you where he is. Thank you, Jesus. That's a great promise. We read in verse 16 that Jacob then awoke from this sleep. And he said to nobody in particular, I guess, himself, surely the Lord is in this place. I didn't know it. He was afraid. He said, how is this place? This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose early in the morning. Took the stone that he had laid his head upon, set it up as a pillar, poured oil upon it, named the place of that place, name of the place, Bethel, House of God before the city used to be named Almon Tree. And so the night before Jacob arrived, no conscious awareness of God whatsoever. That night, God began his work in Jacob's life. And God began to draw his attention upward. The House of God as his eyes looked up. It's the first step in Jacob's long journey towards complete surrender. Small steps, he'd require a lot more, but he's on his way. He's met God's grace. God came to find him. And for the first time in Jacob's life, there's an awareness of who God is. It's a great way that the Lord works. This new awareness, no notice in verse 16 and in verse 17, left him afraid. And yet he also wanted to worship. He was scared and he wanted to worship. He took the stone that he was sleeping upon and he sets it up as a memorial or as a commemoration. Here where Abraham had built his altar. First one, when he arrived in the land, he now finds Jacob worshiping as well. The place that he would literally return to this altar when he come back from Egypt. He worshiped by commemoration. This is a place God had done a great work. Now we read in verse 20 and I want you to stay in context with this, that Jacob made a balance that if God will be with me and if he will keep me in the way that I'm going and give me bread to eat and clothing to her and so that I can come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my Lord. And this stone which I have said as a pillar shall be God's house and of all that you give me, I will certainly give you a tenth to you. In light of the fact that Jacob is on the run, 40 miles in a day terrified, never been out on his own like this, doesn't know where he's going, has had more than a little bit of emotional trauma. I think it is quite possible and not likely that Jacob now opens his mouth and begins to bargain with God. Almost reads very harshly doesn't it? All right, well if you'll do all that, hey you can be my God. Well, of course they could. You give me everything I want, you can be my God too. I don't see that as being very likely. It has always been Jacob's MO, at least it is what we have in the scriptures to be a deal maker, but like in the New Testament, the word if is sometimes translated since. Since, not if you're the son of God, since you're the son of God. We read that often in the New Testament and if that's the case, it would be Jacob's respond to a good word that the Lord had given him rather than a bargaining statement or a conditional kind of deal. I can't tell you that for sure. It just doesn't fit into the narrative to see this frightened, deceptive guy who finally realizes that God's in the place go all right I got a deal for you. It just doesn't fit. In fact, when I read it, you guys are like oh, I don't think you saw that either. It felt that that was the case. We do know from his response that Jacob was more than a little concerned for his well-being as he went forth, that he really did wanna come home with peace for Jacob had commemorated the place. He now commits himself to the Lord and then he volunteers to contribute or give back to the Lord 10% of what God had given him as an increase. By the way, this is years before tithing or giving was even established, but yet it was an acknowledgement of God's provision. So here's Jacob's spiritual journey. Here's the door through which he's gonna pass and he comes to know God's grace, at least at the beginning. He's given a lot that he doesn't deserve. It'll take the better part of 28 years, probably by the time he gets back here for Jacob to have a greater sense of surrender. He will never by the way fully surrender, but neither do we, do we? I hate the end of years because I look back to see if I'm making any progress. So I never liked what I see, but I always hope for better. So Jacob is kind of there as well. God will wait upon Jacob. He's not finished with him, he's not finished with you. He has no intention of forsaking his own. His commitment to us will carry us forward. So that's the first conversation that Jacob has with the Lord. And I'm honestly leaning towards him, not bargaining with the Lord, but really saying, you know, and I know this is your house. I know that this is you, and boy, if you're gonna do all those things for me, how can I not serve you? I really do believe that that's more the tenor of what we read. If you go to the New Testament, sometime in read chapter one, as Jesus is going through Galilee, he said to Philip, "Follow me," and Philip, who was from Andrew and Peter's hometown, went to get Nathaniel, and he said, "Look, we found the fellow who Moses in the law "I talked about, Jesus of Nazareth." And you remember, Nathaniel said, "Can anything come out of Nazareth?" And Philip said, "Well, come check it out." And so when Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, Jesus said, "Oh, here's Israelite "in who there is no guile." And Nathaniel said, "How do you know me?" And Jesus said, "Well, even before Philip called you, "I saw you sitting under the fig tree there. "I know you, as the Lord knows our hearts." And Nathaniel said, "If that's true, Rabbi, "then you're the Son of God and you're the King of Israel." And Jesus said, "Time up." Just because I said, "I saw you sitting under a fig tree, "you're gonna believe? "I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna see "greater things than that." And then Jesus said this, "Most assuredly I tell you, "hereafter you will see the heavens open "and the angels of God ascending and descending." It says, "I'm the Son of man." So that Jesus places himself there in John as the one to whom the Lord would make himself known. Or if you will, I'm the link between heaven and earth. I'm the way you get in. Wait till you see, if you haven't seen anything yet, it's great to study the Bible in context. But that was a quote directly from this passage. In chapter 29, Jacob, now the con man meets his match. Uncle Laban is as crooked as he is. His mother's brother, they would shake each other's hands and count their fingers. Okay, you give them all back. The rest of this 500 mile journey, except for the first 40 miles, from here, which is in Babylon today, a rough area, in Iraq today, pattern era means a table land or a plateau. But the rest of that 460 miles, the Bible has no comment on it. So we just assume nothing happened, no Bible commentary at all. But then we get to verse one of chapter 29. So Jacob went on his journey and he came to the land of the people of the east. And he looked and saw a well in the field and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well, they watered the flocks. And a large stone was on the well's mouth. Now all of the flocks would be gathered there and they would roll the stone away from the well's mouth. They would water the sheep and then put the stone back in place on the well's mouth. And Jacob said to them, my brethren, where are you from? And they said, we're from Heron, which is exactly where he was going. And he said to them, well, do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? And they go, yeah, we know him. Everyone know this crooked guy. And so, is he well? And they said he's well. And look, there's his daughter, Rachel, coming with the sheep. Jacob wasn't shy in approaching these strangers, tending the sheep. He asked questions. They seemed to be terse. He seems to be persistent. I suspect from verse five that everyone knew this family for what they had done, that this crooked hustler who'd always get the better part of the deal was there. So, you know him, is he well? Yes, he is, and there's his daughter. Now, if it was anything like we would read historically, his daughter would have come tremendously covered up. There would have been a veil, as was customary. You really wouldn't see much of her face. And Jacob sees all of these guys, three sets of shepherds, if you will, just kind of sitting around in the middle of the day. You know, yes, the time. And so, we read in verse seven that he said, well, look, it's a high day. It's not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep, go and feed them. In other words, what are you guys doing? Just sitting around. Before I continue, I just want to remind you, Jacob was 77 years old. I hope that doesn't ruin the love story. I think he wanted to move them along, to be honest with you. He wanted some time with the girl that he wasn't attractive. Yeah, anyway, verse eight. They said, well, we can't really, until all of the flocks have gathered here, and they've rolled away the stone and the well's mouth, and then we can water the sheep. So, they literally said, we're not lazy. We just have this agreement. You know, everybody uses the same well. The water is precious in the desert. We have a mutual agreement that we will use the well. But while they were still speaking with them, verse nine, Rachel, came with her father's sheep. She was a shepherdess. And it came to pass when Jacob saw the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother. Jacob went near, rolled away the stone from the well's mouth, and began to water the flocks of Laban, his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and he wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative, that he was Rebecca's son. So, she ran and went to tell her father. As Jacob saw Rachel coming closer, he got a good look at this beautiful girl. I think it was love at first sight. It was something at first sight. Though he had been told the custom of using the well, you know, like a young guy at 77 wanting to impress a girl, he with great bravado unseals the access to the well, begins to water her sheep. I don't know if it got a bunch of dirty looks on the other guys, but you know, young love, you don't know what's going on here. He greets her with a kiss, which was customary, certainly in those days. And then he began to weep, not exactly customary, but we, Jason, it's not a customary guy. He found his family, he found, you know, quickly the place that he was supposed to be. He tells her about, you know, the ant was his mother. And so she quickly goes to tell her dad, and Laban comes out quickly because if you'll remember the last time someone showed up here like this, they had a lot of gifts and jewelry with him. That was Eliezer coming to find a bride for Isaac, right? So, true to form, verse 13, he came to pass when Laban heard the report about Jacob, his sister's son. He came running out to me and embraced him and kissed him, brought me in the house, come on over. And he told Laban all of these things and Laban said, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh." And he stayed with him for a month. So Laban already, you know, keep an eye on Laban. Keep your wallet in your pockets, you know, he's mushy. He's a hustler. If Jacob had begun to learn what God was like in Bethel, he was about to learn what fallen man was like in here. Because as good as God had been, this guy was not good. By the time that Jacob is ready to live 20 years from now, it will be the Lord in his ways that Jacob prefers over the life that he lived with this guy. And, but it would take a lot of learning. Things had to change. So we read in verse 15 that Jacob was told by Laban a month later, "Because you are my relatives, "should you therefore serve me for nothing? "Tell me, what shall your wages be?" So apparently during the month, Jacob had begun to work. He wasn't idle, that wasn't his problem. Laban's students saw the benefits of a guy that could work so hard on the farm. So he wants to offer him some way. What should I pay you? Set your own price, you know? And Jacob, verse 16, Laban now had two daughters. The older one was named Rachel, the younger one was lame. Sorry, Leah, the youngest one was named Rachel. And Leah's eyes were delicate. It's a nice way of putting it. But Rachel was beautiful in form and in appearance. And Jacob loved Rachel. So he said, "I will serve you for seven years "for Rachel, your younger daughter." And Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you "than that I should give her to another man. "So stay with me." And Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed but a few days to him because of the love that he had for her, isn't that sweet? Well, Laban had two daughters, an older daughter named Leah. By the way, the name Leah means weary as in tired. And she had some eye problems. The Hebrew word for delicate means that you squint. She was tired and squinty. That's pretty much the way the poor thing. Rachel, on the other hand, was perfect. And she caught Jacob's eye immediately. You want to pay me? I don't have any money for a dowry but I will commit seven years of labor to purchase with a dowry the permission to marry your youngest daughter. And he did. I mean, he agreed. Well, he didn't really agree. He just, "Well, I should give her to you "not to somebody else." He didn't really make a deal. But Jacob took it as such, worked for seven years. It seemed to him, I liked verse one, just like a few days, you know. Isn't that the way love works? Love is the motivator to serve. By the time this is done, Jacob is 84 years old. Now, he's lived to be 165, so he's middle-aged. Almost right in the middle. Looking over the entire picture, you might conclude that Rebecca's plan to send him away and his son to run off and to avoid the anger of his brother. Like, all of this worked out like, "Hey, way to go, Rebecca, good plan, you know?" And you might think that initially, but scheming never helps God out. And Rachel loves him. Laban appreciates him like, "Oh, Jacob wins. "Everything seems to work out. "What happened to this lion-hustling guy? "How come everything's going in his direction?" Well, Galatians chapter, is it six or seven? It says, "Don't be deceived. "What a man sows that he'll also reap." Well, Jacob's at least gonna get a taste of deception here from an uncle. And you might, you know, sometimes people get away with murderers, so it seems. And yet, just wait, what is true physically about planting is certainly true spiritually if you sow to the flesh. The Bible says you'll reap corruption. You won't see it overnight. You won't see it over a week or over a month. But you can't get away from what you put in the ground is gonna grow spiritually. And so if you sow to the spirit, you get life. What we wanna be sure to be careful of is that we sow to the spirit because there's coming a day where, you know, the long term will show what we're planting. Unfortunately, sometimes we feel we're getting away with it because the immediate consequences of what we think is coming away doesn't. Because the Lord is more patient than all of that. In fact, there's that scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter eight, verse 11, which says, "Because a sentence is not executed "speedally against an evil work, "therefore the heart of the sons of man "is fully set in them to do evil." Translation, by the time God judges you, you'll have no excuse. Because you'll have had every opportunity to see the consequence, the difficulty. You keep making the same kind of pitch for yourself. God is slow to respond. That doesn't mean he approves, doesn't mean he's unable to act. It just means when he finally judges that you'll have no excuse. Jacob had sought the rights of the forest born with trickery. Even though the Lord had promised it to him, God would have given it to him in, I don't know how, 'cause we don't have that. But I know that God does what he says. So here Jacob wants this beautiful girl. He works for seven years, you know? And yeah, he's about to get hustled. Because here in this family, they respect the rights of the firstborn. Uh-oh, exactly in the area that Jacob had really not done too well in. So, we read in verse 20, that Jacob served for seven years. They just seemed for him just to be, you know, just a few days. You girls that are dating guys who wanna be intimate with you, say they can't wait, just punch 'em in the nose, and tell them true love waits. Jacob waited, he waited seven years. However, Jacob hadn't prayed. You don't still see him seeking the Lord after that one meeting, if you will. Not aware of the common practice of the land. Dealing with a con man, never really promised Rachel's hand at all. So we read in verse 21, that Jacob came to Blayman after these seven years and says, "Give me my wife. "For my days are fulfilled that I can go into her." So I can marry her, and Blayman gathered all of the men of the place made a feast. Came to pass in the evening that he took Leah, his squinting, weary daughter, and brought her into Jacob, and he went to be with her, and Laban gave his maid, Zilpa, to his daughter, Leah, as a maid. And so it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, "What is this that you've done to me?" Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me? And Laban says, "Well, we don't do it like that. "In our country to give the younger before the firstborn." So if you would like to fulfill her seven weeks of years or another seven years, we will give you this one also for the service, which you will serve me yet with another seven years. So Jacob comes into claim as bride by agreement. Dowries, by the way, were payments in advance in case of default, in case of divorce. It's kind of like alimony ahead of time. It's really the way it worked. He'd earned his place, he thought. He had nothing to offer but seven years of labor. The marriage party was planned, the wedding ceremony took place. A veiled bride in a dark of night, going into the marriage tent in poor Jacob in the morning. He's got a big shock. It's not beautiful Rachel. It's where he squinted. The old switcheroo. Old switcheroo. Now, I suspect the rivalry between Leah and Rachel was much like the rivalry between Esau and Jacob. This could not have taken place without Leah's involvement. And I think that she probably said, I like the plan. And finally, I get the guy, rather than the cute sister who always seemed to make out. And so, Jacob goes into layman crying foul. layman assures him that there's a custom to be followed. We respect the right of the first poem, which Jacob had not, if you will. And so, he offers Jacob another chance. I'll let you work for another week. The week in Hebrew is Shabua. Shabua means a week of years. You'll find that word used a lot of the prophecy from Daniel chapter nine that prophesies the very day that Jesus will ride into Jerusalem. But he uses this word Shabua a lot, the week of years or seven years, if you will. And then he, and it does seem like he got to marry Rachel at the same time as the other wife. But he was reaping what he'd sown. And like I said, in verse 30, Jacob went into Rachel and he also loved Rachel more than he loved Leah. And he served with labor yet another seven years. So, Jacob agreed, verse 28, to work for that week. He took Rachel as his wife. She was given a maid named Bill Ha to serve her. And Jacob went back to work for another, if you will, seven years. We do know from what we will read in the weeks to come that Leah was not treated with the same kind of love that Rachel was, that the division and the favoritism that you had fallen in. He found a neighbor hand's life, right? With his wife and their son. You find it in Isaac's life, and Rebecca's life. And now you're finding it here in Jacob's life. I've just kind of brought it to you. And now you're finding it here in Jacob's life. Just kind of continued on, doesn't it? And if Laban would seek to continue to hustle Jacob for the next 20 years, he would change his salary ten different times. He was, he got on him good. And yet I want to just say, you know, God continues to work on the life of the deceiver by having him take some of his own medicine. And Jacob is a slow learning how wicked man can be. But he's also learning how good God can be. Before we move on, I should address at least for a minute this issue of polygamy. And the anguish that comes with it in the Bible, God had ordained Adam and Eve. That Adam and Eve and whoever else. There's not a, you know, there's not a party here. This was a marriage to become one. Polygamy and the practice of it was constantly found amongst the heathen nations. And then it was picked up by Cain's family tree. And later accepted by many who knew the Lord. But even though the society or the culture bled into the lineage of Christ and into the lives of God's people, you will never find in the scriptures it being a good idea. It was always to the own herd of the people. It was never God's best and God never approved of that. The worst came in the days of Solomon, who we read in 1 Kings 11 had 700 wives. I don't know. He got hit in the head somewhere along the line. How in the world? And then he had 300 concubines. I don't know what to say about it. It was practiced extensively among pagan religions that worshiped a multiplicity of God. You find a lot of polygamy amongst the Romans, historically, and the Greeks as well. But you really can't ever find it in God's plans. It's tolerated because sin creeps in and God is really gracious. And he waits out and he works his best, even though we're not always willing to accept it. But even Jesus' word I think about serving two masters certainly applies here. Solomon, how can you serve 700 masters? How can you keep 700 women happy? I can do all I can to keep my wife happy. And I'm like 40%. You know what I mean? I know I'm bragging, but that's the way I am. [LAUGHTER] So because we run into it doesn't mean God approves of it or God ordained it or it's OK then, but it's not now. It was never OK. It never was-- is it finally God's plan? But again, there's this bleed over from culture into the family of God and it's never good. So I guess I'm saying to you, be careful that the culture that you live in doesn't bleed into your walk with God because there are still rights and wrongs. And we live in a very weird society today. I read a story today of a Philadelphia fliers hockey player who decided not to join the gay pride parade that his team in Philadelphia was asked to participate in. And he's just getting crucified. He's a Russian guy, but he's a Greek Orthodox guy. And he said, you know, I respect you, but you want to do, you just respect what I want to do. I don't want to do that. I'm doing it for the sake of the Lord. But he's just getting nailed. So I can't imagine, but if that continues for long, they'll come in after you next. And your stand for Jesus is going to be translated as hatred and bitterness and narrow-mindedness. Be careful that the Lord keeps you from the world that you're in the world. You're not out of it. And we need to stand for what Jesus would want to stand for. And certainly, this polygamy issue is a pretty interesting picture of how the world can work its way into the best of those that God would use. And doesn't mean you're eliminated. It just means it's a danger. It's certainly going to bring suffering. And it certainly is the case here. In fact, if you read there in verse 30, he loved Rachel more than he loved Leah. How does that work? Well, when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved-- don't see who the Lord stands with-- he opened up her womb, but Rachel was bearing. And Leah conceived, and she bore a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, the Lord has certainly looked on my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will love me. That's pathetic, right? Favouritism and disrespect, sin and competition, and all of it wrong, and it crops up, but not favored by her husband. I think, initially, for looks the way the Bible describes these two ladies, but certainly, you've got to get by that at some point. Leah instead finds God's favor in beginning to bear children. And from here through the next chapter or so, we're going to get an account of the birth of Jacob's sons, who will become the nation of Israel. Born to Leah, some born to Rachel, and some born to the two handmaidens who also now marry into the Jacob, Zilpa, and Bilhah. And they would be born these goods out of competition, out of bitterness, out of strife, with spiritual jargon, and through it all, God rules. And the mess that we make of our lives, God rules. That's how God's grace works. Note, and I love verse 31, I underlined into my Bible, God was moved with compassion for a girl that wasn't my own fire husband. That's amazing to me. The Lord steps up. He notably sets aside Jacob's favor of Rachel and blesses Leah. And Leah, poor thing. She has a son. She names him Reuben, which literally means see a son. See a son. In the hopes that now her husband would begin to love her. That's sad. But how often today do we, even in church counseling, find people have kids just to bring love back to a loveless son? Doesn't work. And Leah tried. Now you want to stay with me. Verse 33 tells us that she then conceived again, and she bore another son. And she said, because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has also given me this son also. And she named him Simeon. Simeon means God listens or God hears. Following her first son, it didn't turn the tide of love. So Leah now hopes maybe the second one will. It sounds like she'd been talking to the Lord about. Maybe he'll love me if you just give me another son. It didn't happen. It didn't help. Verse 34, and then she conceived again. She bore another son. And she said, now this time my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons. And she called the name of this third son, Levi. Levi means to join together. And she hoped that this would be a permanent blessing upon her in her marriage. And again, it wasn't so. And then we finally read verse 35, and she conceived again. And she-- well, this Rachel is being put in her place, isn't she? And she bore a son, and she said, now I will praise the Lord. She named him Judah, and then she stopped bearing. But the word Judah means praise. And perhaps, at least from all that we can gather, Leah quit trying to make her husband love her and just turn to the Lord and begin to love him. And so this word praise comes out. And she's no longer hoping the kids would turn the heart of Jacob towards her. But this competition, it never stops through chapter 30 if you read ahead for next time. It just doesn't stop. And then in chapter 31, Jacob will finally try to leave and go back home, but 20 years will have passed. So we're moving kind of quickly, but these are the things the Lord wants us to consider as we go. Where is-- let me ask you before we pray. Where's your Bethel? Where did you meet with the Lord that God began to just say, here I am. Here's what I want to do in your life. Here's what I promised to you if you will just look to me and depend upon me. If that place is foreign to you or you're a long way away from it, that's a good place to go back to. Because through all of this learning and striving, Jacob will eventually have to end up where he began, where he says, this is the house of God. And he's the one that I'm going to serve. I heard a story a couple of months ago of a man who was dreaming. And he thought he saw Jacob's ladder in his dream. And he said there was a chalk sitting at the bottom of the table. And he was told by the angel to take the chalk. And as you climbed up the ladder, to just on every rung right down the sins, that should have kept you from going up. And he said, he watched this man climb out of sight. And eventually he came back down the ladder. And he said, hey, where are you going? He said, I'm going to go get some more chalk. I think that's where you find the grace of God when you realize every step you take. God is able to bring you along, the grace of God. So Jacob was an interesting guy, because you just want to strangle him most of the time. But there is the Lord, just faithful. He's loving his other wife and treating the other one bad and hustling away. And yet he'd met the Lord on his way out. And maybe you've met the Lord on your way out. But God wants you to be a part of your life every day. And that's what grace does. And we're going to see a lot about grace in the next couple of weeks. Father, thank you tonight for this story that I think probably we're mostly familiar with. We certainly have sat and considered what it took to get Jacob this far along. And yet we see Isaac in his old age just doing one or two things that seem to really warrant saying, well, here's a man of faith. But Jacob spends a considerable time of his life, not at all walking with you. And yet you don't give up on him. And you continue to teach him and the circumstances of his life were designed so that he might learn that God you've taken care of him, you've watched over him, you've protected him. Even as you promised when he headed out, what was useful, what was normal for him, living by the seat of his pants and just being a little bit more conniving than the next, he would be brought back a man that was not able to even walk on his own very well and eating depend upon you. And even then, he would spend years just in the wrong place. But yet you didn't give up on him. And I would say to you, all of you tonight, if you really feel like you've gone so far that the Lord's given up on you, go read about Jacob's whole life because there's no way God would forsake you either. If you have a relationship with him, maybe you've moved way down the line. Maybe you've walked away for a long time. Maybe you're doing things that are involved with things that you should never have done, but here you are. If you, for one minute, wonder if God will take you back, let me just assure you, he is more than willing to restore, more than willing to forgive, more than willing to cleanse, more than willing to start again. He's a God of grace. Remember, you don't deserve him. That's what grace is, given to you, you don't deserve. It's a concept that's so foreign to us 'cause everything we're taught is you earn what you get, you get what you deserve, until you get to God, and you don't at all get what you deserve. That's mercy, you get what you don't deserve, that's grace. You don't deserve it, and yet every day he provides it for you. If you're far away, man, go back to that place where the Lord spoke to you for the first time, where you met the Lord and heard his promises and wanted to begin to walk with him. Don't spend 20 years out in the wilderness. Just get back there where you belong and let God begin to do a great work in your life. He will, he'll do it tonight. He'll start with you now, if you're willing. And then you can keep you from this wicked world in which we live, that we can shine as lights in dark places. Come back to the grace of God, that's where he'll meet. (gentle music) Well, thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and rating our podcast. You can visit us on the web at morningstarcc.org and on our YouTube channel at MorningstarCC. Again, that's at MorningstarCC. If you'd like to support this podcast, please look us up at patreon.com/morningstarcc. Again, that's patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/morningstarcc. (gentle music) (upbeat music)
