But the chapter before us today, 29, will be the first step towards that answer. So we'll begin to see the fulfillment of the promise made in the dream in this chapter. All right, we can divide it into three sections. First, the well, then Laban's house, and then the Lord's faithfulness at the end. So let's look at verses 1 and through 2b here. Jacob goes on his journey, and he came to the land of the people of the east. So where is this, the people of the east? Yeah, this is where Abraham's from, right? Where he's from. Usually it's not a good thing to be going off east in Genesis. Usually it's a sign of judgment. Remember Cain and Lot and the Tower of Babel, all these scenes when people go off east. But here we know that Rebekah has sent her son away to retrieve a wife. And it's important to remember what she said in verse 44 of 27. She said, stay with Laban. The ESV says a while, it's just a few days. And I think that'll be important when we get down to verse 20. and right before that, her direction was to go away, let Esau's anger abate, and then after a few days, we'll send for you and you'll come back. So a few days turned into 20 years. Go ahead, Jonathan. So is that, I'm just trying to understand correctly. So Rachel and Laban are brother and sister, but Abraham's family Does this signify, does it signify anywhere, when he got up, he left, he went to the land of Canaan, this was the family that he left behind, right? Is that? That's right, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So basically, so basically what, and I guess Sarah and Abraham were half-sister, half-brother, half-sister, so like, what relation would Laban be to, okay. I need to draw a picture, don't I? I'm just trying to understand what the interconnectedness is. Yeah, Jacob's uncle. It's Rebecca's... Yeah, that's right. Rebecca and Laban are brothers. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, well, draw a picture up for us. Somebody who's good with family trees. Yeah, it's hard because they're, you know, my half-sister and then my cousin, but now she's my wife. Yeah. And not just that, but we're going to have the Leviticus 18 incestuous, now we've got sisters as both of his wives. And I'm constantly getting Rebecca and Rachel mixed up. Yeah, that starts with R, it's so confusing, I know. If I say one or the other, you know what I mean. Alright, so, it starts here, the beginning to me when I read this the first several times, what is going on here? Why do I get these background details? And that's what I call it, So after he comes and he behold the well, he beholds the flocks lying beside it. The way I read it, y'all tell me if you see otherwise, but from the end of verse 2 and then verse 3, I see that as Moses is giving us these background details so that we know the custom, and it's details that we need to know to make sense of what comes next. So I'll read it again just to put it before us. So the end of verse 2 says, the stone on the well's mouth was large. So that's an important detail we need to know. This is a huge stone, and it's on top of the well, probably to keep the water clean, the people from falling in, the sheep from falling in. And when all the flocks were gathered there, so this is the background details we need to know. All the flocks were gathered, and the shepherds would come, plural shepherds, and they would come and roll the stone from the mouth of the well, water the sheep, and then take that huge stone and put it back on top of the well. So that's, apparently we need to know that. The first time I read that, I thought, what am I reading here? But the more I've read it, I think Moses wants to make sure we understand the custom and what, it's gonna become important in verses seven and eight. All right, so then the conversation starts in verse four. Jacob said to them, they kind of come out of nowhere too, it's interesting, to them, my brothers, where do you come from? And they said, we are from Haran. Now why should he just be stunned at that when they say we are from Haran? Right, this is exactly where his mom told him to go, right? In verse 27, 43, she told, therefore my son, obey my voice, this was after Esau planned to kill him, arise, flee to Laban, my brother in Haran. So the minute he hears that, you might think he would be overwhelmed with the providence of God. He has directed me to this place, like the servant was in chapter 24. And so he hears Haran, and he says, oh, do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? That would help us with our family tree, right, Nahor? If you go back to the end of chapter 11, Abram and Nahor took wives, so that's one of his brothers. Abram's brother. Yeah, his uncle. Yeah, either way. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So and we'll see that name again, I think in 3153, if I remember right. Yeah, 3153. This is when at the end when After many deceptions, remember Rachel with the household gods and all this, and Laban tries to find out who took them. And then at the end, they set up this pillar between them. And he says, the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father judged between us. Which is interesting because 3153 seems like Abraham's faith has gone to his father. It says the God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of their father. Which usually, I don't, you know, you don't usually think about that. Oh, you're testing my... I have such a hard time picturing this stuff in my head. I need to see it on paper. We'll draw it out. Yeah, that's right. There was one more that died. Yeah. Yeah, Haran. Yeah, that was his name. Yeah, remember, and that's where they are. So, yeah, I've forgotten that point. Thank you, Robert. Yeah, I'll just read the verse. These are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran fathered Lot, and then he dies. Yeah. We'll draw us a picture next week. I'll get it straight once and for all. It's like when you read the flood in chapters 6 and 7 and 8, you've got to really draw the timeline, right? It really helps to draw it out and see just how long was this going on. All right, so then back to the text. So once he says, Do you know Laban, the son of Nehor? They say, We know him. And he wants to know, Is it well with him? Literally, is it shalom, peace? And they say, Shalom. And then they add in 6b, I think this is so important, they say, behold, that's the third behold, the whale, the sheep, and now Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep. Now at this point, I would expect Jacob just to be stunned, right? Why would I say that? Why should he just be overwhelmed at this point? Yeah, God's providence, and they say Rachel, his daughter, Which at that point, you should think back to verse 28-2, when his dad told him, Isaac said, Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, there's another name, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. Laban, your mother's brother, right. So the family tie, I'm glad you're bringing it out, because it's really important. It seems like Jacob was missing it at this point, and I know he knows the family tree better than we do, But why do I say that? Why does Jacob seem to miss what they said? Rachel, his daughter, is coming. Why do I say that Jacob seems to kind of miss the point at this time? He's kind of ignorant of what's going on. Because of what he says in verse 7. Now this is the way I read it. You can read multiple commentaries and they'll make different opinions. I can just give you what I've come to. So verse 7, his response to that when they say, look, Rachel's there. That's his daughter. He should think, God has provided a wife, like the servant, when he sees Rebecca coming. But Jacob says, behold, it's still high day. It's not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go pasture them. What is that? I stared at that verse so long this week and thought, what? Yeah. Yeah, what's he saying there? What's he telling these, I mean, he just met these guys, and he's telling them how to do their job, it seems like. And he says, it's not time. I think that's crucial, because there's a lot about time in this chapter where he seems to have forgotten his mother's instruction about a few days. Because remember, he's going to, of his own accord, he's going to offer seven years. I asked Meredith, I said, I would never do that for you. Maybe seven days, seven, You know, seven years! I mean, Laban didn't give him multiple choice, he just offered seven years. But anyway, I'm bringing that point up to, at this point, I think he's ignorant of the time, the providence of God. All he's worried about is the mechanics of this operation, right? It's not time for the sheep to be gathered. He seems to me ignorant of what's happening. Now, I say that because I think Moses, in writing this, is contrasting him with the servant back in 24. So look back at chapter 24, when the servant went away. Remember, Isaac didn't have to go away. He wasn't exiled like Jacob was. He had a servant go on his behalf to get his wife. And remember, what was the servant's, what did he do when he got to the land? Remember what was his first? He prayed, yeah. And I know it's more of an argument from silence, which is not always the best argument, but I think the fact that we have here Jacob just seeming to miss the boat, and that's the way I read it, other people can disagree, you can disagree with me, but I think he's meant to be contrasted with the servant. In chapter 24, when he gets there, verse 12, 24-12, So he hasn't forgotten on his journey why he's going. He's there to look for a wife, get a wife, not stay very long, and get out of there. Not to mingle with the people in the East. And to me, Jacob is contrasted with that. He's confused about the time here. And then when he gets there, he stays, he lingers for about a month. And then when he's offered something, he says, how about seven years? And that turns into 20. So I think that's what's going on with Jacob, at least here at the beginning. Now, it's gonna change pretty quick when we get to verse 10. Any pushback on that? What do you think? I'm not in charge of that. Yeah? Yeah, I think that's a good application for us. To me, that's the way I read it. Right? Yeah, good. Yeah. Reality is setting in in this chapter for him. Yeah, he's got his way of doing things. Otherwise, I don't know what to make of these details. A.W. Pink, I know I picked on him last week, but he takes this as he was trying to deceive the Shepherds to get out of Dodge so that he could have Rachel by himself. He thought about that too, yeah. Well, if you and Pink, maybe that is right. I like Pink a lot. I know we picked on him the last two weeks. It's a book called Gleanings in Genesis. So that's what he thinks. I read it more as he's ignorant of the times and the providence of God. So if I had to conclude, that's what I would say. So anyway, verse 8, they say we can't do that until all the flocks are gathered together and they repeat what we read the details in verse 3. Now we know why we had to read those. We can't do it until all the flocks are gathered together and that huge stone, remember it's huge, is rolled away from the mouth of the well, then we water the sheep. And it's interesting because verse 9 says while they were still speaking. So it seems like Rachel was pretty close. So while they were still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. So now we move from the conversation with the shepherds to his interaction with the shepherdess, Rachel. All right, now what do you think, what do you recognize about verse 10? Just look at that, what phrase is repeated there three times in verse 10? I think it's very important. Yeah, Laban, his mother's brother. Now, why does Moses do that? All right, let's read it again. Now, as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob came near and he rolled the stone from the well's mouth, watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. I think it's interesting that Jonathan brought up the family tree. Now, why here is he repeating that three times? And in the middle of that, you have Jacob's just overwhelming reaction to where he doesn't seem so confused as he was in verse 7. What are we to make of that? Yeah, I think so, and he recognized just who she was, and I think that's the point. This is Rachel. The daughter, they said that earlier, Rachel, his daughter's coming, Laban, his mother's brother. And I think, I think that's, I think so. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you mentioned Samson earlier from Dan. I mean, this has got to be one amazing feat of strength here. I don't know what to make, I don't want to go overboard with allegorical interpretations, but he seems to me to have supernatural strength. It's an amazing feat of strength in front of Leah, I mean in front of Rachel. Yeah. The water, yeah. Yeah. Good, yeah, so there's probably something going on with Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. I've tried to piece it together, I'm not quite there. I don't like speculating on allegory, because I don't want to get it wrong. But definitely in John chapter 4, she even mentions Jacob's well was there. Now not this well, but a different well. there's a lot going on in that passage with the time, right? Also, Jesus, you know, the time has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father and Spirit and truth. So I'm still trying to piece that together. Yeah, Exodus 2, yeah. Yeah, exactly that, yeah, yeah. Since you mentioned it, just flip there. I think it's good for us to see that parallel as well. So Exodus 2, remember this is right before the first time we read the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is right after Moses Moses killed the Egyptian member and hit him in the sand. And then the next day or soon after it was the next day two Hebrews were fighting together and he had to flee because he knew the thing was known. And then verse 16 Exodus 2 16. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and they drew water and they filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses stood up and he saved them and he watered their flock when they came. home to their father, Ruel, he said, how is it that you have come home so soon today? And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and even he drew water for us and watered the flock. And he said to his daughters, then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter, Zipporah, and she has Gershom. And then right after that, God remembers the covenant. So yeah, I think there's definitely some parallels looking back to 24 and then ahead to this section. And maybe there's more going on, I just can't, I'm not confident enough to say there's a type, we need, where's Braylon, we need our typology expert. I can't move to Texas, we don't know who to call on anymore. But yeah, definitely when you see the stone being rolled away, and that it's him by himself. To me, what's going on is he's turned into kind of this magnanimous character of he's gone from confused about the time and the providence to God, providence to God, to it clicking and in this amazing feat of strength in front of his future wife. I think that's what's going on. And his reaction after that, he kisses her, he cries out loud, and then he reveals, after all that, she's wondering, what is he doing? Probably. And then he reveals, We do that for the women we love, right? We do these over-the-top things. And then he reveals who he is. I'm Jacob, Rebecca's son. And she hears that and she takes off, just like Rebecca did. She ran off to the mom. I don't know where the mom is here. Maybe she's passed away. So she goes off to Laban and he comes and he runs back to her, I mean to Jacob. And I mentioned earlier, we're a little suspicious of him. Why would we be suspicious at this point? Laban, sorry, I wasn't clear. He comes and he hugs him and kisses him. He says, come on to my house. When I read that, I think, oh no. They weren't too happy about the servant taking Rebecca. Remember, and this is another contrast, remember that servant, he was in, got his mission done, and got out very bold in front of her family. Remember, they said at the end of chapter 24, they said, why don't the next morning, remember they woke up and they said, why don't she stay with us maybe at least 10 days? And what does he say to that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, good. That's right, yeah. Shake him down? Yeah. Perhaps. Yeah. Yeah, Laban's got to be pretty old at the time that this is going on because, I mean, Jacob's not young right here, is he? So, yeah, Laban's impressive that he ran to Jacob. And they didn't have social media, so they didn't catch up with the statement back then, you know? They just knew what everybody was doing, they had to catch up. All right, so what I'm trying to get at, I didn't plan all those rabbit trails, but. is that Moses is contrasting Jacob, I think, with the servant who had the wife on his mind, he got in, got her, and when they said, stay here a little while, 10 days, his response in 24, 56, he said to them, do not delay me since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master. So whether or not he's the servant or the son, I think Jacob's, his direction from his mom Remember, she said, obey my voice, go there, stay for a few days. We'll see, I keep saying that, but we'll see why that's important here in verse 20. All right. But anyway, at the end of verse 13, it says, Jacob told Laban all these things. What things? Told Laban all these things? We don't know. I mean, my guess is he's told him why he's on the run. Maybe this is the deception, how it all went down in chapter 27. I don't think he, I don't think it's just the things that happened at the well, because Rachel probably had already told him that. And Laban's response is interesting. What is, what do you make of that? He just cries out, surely you're, you are my bone and my flesh. I think I, yeah. Yeah, the way you've been deceiving and all that, yeah. So I actually think more of that's going on. It's not just, because the first time I read this, I thought this is, is it Genesis 2, 23 with, this is Adam's response when he sees Eve, right? Bone and my bone, flesh and my flesh, which just means you're different than the animals, right? This is, you know, you're mine. This is my bone and my flesh. Literally. But I think Laban is saying something here that Jacob will not understand just how true the words are until the end of the chapter. He's saying, me and you are more alike than you realize at this point. I think that's what he's saying. I'm about to give you a taste of your own medicine. You are my bone and my flesh. I think that's what's going on. All right, and then verse four, don't miss the end of verse 14, one of the timestamps. He stayed with him a month. The first time you read that, you think, kind of a red flag goes, a month? I thought we were supposed to be here a few days, what are we doing? And then the next section, 15 through 20, is the wages section. So Laban said to Jacob, because you are my kinsmen, should you therefore serve me for nothing, tell me what shall your wages be? All right, and then before we get Jacob's response, why do we get this background material in verses 16 and 17? We get three details that we didn't know to this point. The first one is Laban doesn't have just Rachel. He's got another daughter. He's got two. What's the second detail? What did we also not know? All right, yeah, Rachel was good looking and Leah was not. There's debate on what that word means in the Hebrew. The ESV translates it weak. I think obviously she's being compared and contrasted with her sister. So whatever it is, I don't think it's a good quality. Leah's eyes were weak. Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. And then the third detail, maybe the most important, is what? Yes. Yes. We don't know the tradition yet. At least we don't have it straight from Laban's mouth. But now we know that not just one daughter, he's got two. Rachel is actually the younger one, and she is the good-looking one. So naturally, verse 18, Jacob loved Rachel, like any of us guys would. Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, and this is to me one of the strangest parts of the chapter, Laban just said, what's your wages gonna be? And Jacob, of his own accord, offers seven years. Why does he do that? So to me, the more I've read this chapter, I see he is the complete opposite of the servant who came in chapter 24. To use a word James used earlier, he's immature in his faith. He lacks the boldness, the courage to say what that servant said at the beginning, and he's going to really pay for it. No, not at this point. Yeah, that's possible, yeah. Yeah, and we mentioned earlier reaping what you sow, and it's not just Jacob in this chapter who's doing that. He is, for sure. He's being disciplined. Yeah. Yeah, but next time he sees Esau, Esau's got to know what to do with it. Right. Jacob's shocked by that. That'll be an interesting chapter when we get there. Thirty three. But yeah, he's been exiled from the home. So he's not only paying for his own sin, but it seems like he's also paying for the sin of of his dad, Isaac, who didn't really fill the shoes of Abraham. Remember, Abraham sent the servant to get a wife for Isaac. And then the older Isaac got, he was still so in love with Esau and his food that he didn't take charge in the family to go retrieve a wife for his son. And now we have Jacob paying for that sin and his own sin. He's in, I think he's, the picture is here, it's Israel. Remember we said this last time, it's Israel in exile, right? This is the 20 year exile foreshadowing what's to come later in their history. And he's gonna come out with a lot of stuff, right? He's gonna be prosperous, just like Abraham did in chapter 12 when he went down to Egypt. So we've seen these patterns. There's a lot of things that are exactly the same, like Isaac's life in chapter 26. It parallels Abraham in so many ways. But here, I think it's important that we see Jacob is being disciplined directly from the Lord in a new way. We haven't seen this before yet. All right, so Jacob loved Rachel, verse 18, and he says, I'll serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel. And I think we see the younger, now he said the younger, we're starting to get nervous. What is, why do we need to know this? The younger daughter, Rachel. And Laban's response is, all right, I guess it's better that you have her and I should give her to another man. Stay with me. And then verse 20, this is why I told Meredith, I know y'all just say aww when I say this to make me feel better. This is what I told Meredith when she moved to London before we got married, and she lived there two years. And I sent her this verse when she moved, and I said, they will seem to me but a few days. I know, that's so cute. Doug? It did work. It worked. It worked. Seven years, I don't know if I could have done. I would have been in my 30s by then. All right, so Jacob's served. Remember, that's important. We keep saying served. He's the one who's going to be served, right? But he's being brought low before he's raised up. And eventually, at the end of his life, doesn't he say, my days have been evil? So we'll have to work out kind of the details of how he turns out. But at least at this point, he serves. He's in the place of service, not the one being served. He serves seven years for Rachel. And they seem to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. I don't wanna make too much of this, but that is the exact same phrase. The ESV translates it differently. In 2744, when his mom said, stay with him a little while, it's the same two words, a few days. So to me, even though the seven years went by, to me, he seems to be justifying this as it just seems like a few days. So I know my mom told me to come right back or they would send for me, but it just seems like a few days. All right, so I think that's why Moses uses the same language there. All right, and then the time passes just as quick, maybe quicker for us than it did for Jacob. So then in the next verse, the seven years are over. And Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife that I may go into her for my time is completed. Now, that's interesting because he's so ignorant of the time and he's confused about the providence of God. The one thing he knows, the one date on his calendar is the wedding day, right? Laban seems to have forgotten, but he says, my time is completed. Seven years. Today's the day. So verse 22, Laban gathered together all the people of the place and he made a feast. So this is pretty elaborate what's going on. And this is when the questions start to come in my mind. What questions does this make you ask at this point? Laban gathers everybody, throwing a big party. How was that conversation between Laban and Leah? Okay, good, yeah. Yeah, because next verse we're going to That's when it goes downhill for Jacob. So, but at this point, we just have a picture. At this point, we would think, uh, everything's going great. Yeah. Uh, Jacob, seven years of service is going to now be rewarded with the beautiful daughter. Maybe she's even gotten more attractive in the last seven years. And you just think what a, what a happy ending to the chapter. And then you read verse 23, but in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob and he went into her. You think, Oh no, I know this is different cultures or worlds apart from this culture, but wow, the enmeshment, emotional abuse, manipulation of children... It is? Part of that's why the mother, she knew her brother, right? So she wanted him to come back in three days, not stay. That's a good, yeah. She's the one who, remember when they, remember she's the one that was consulted at the end of the chapter. The servant said, no, we're getting out of here. And they actually asked Rebecca, what do you want to do? She said, I'm getting out of here. Yeah. Yeah. If I were Moses writing a book about my religion, I would not include this stuff. As distant as he might seem, we know from the last chapter with the dream, the constant interaction between heaven and earth, right? So we may not see his name for a few verses or whole books like Esther or Song of Solomon, I think. But he's going to intervene here in verse 31. All right, so then, interesting, I don't know what to make of verse 24, why it's there. It's almost like it's there to slow down the narrative. So it just kind of lets it sit in. Whoa! But we learn about Zilpah, Laban's female servant that he gives to Leah on her wedding night. Yeah, good. She's introduced to us and then I think verses 29 we're going to be introduced to the other one, Bilhah. That's the full cast of characters that are going to start populating Israel in the next chapter. yeah good with Hagar and Keturah his concubine yeah from First Chronicles all right so did I not serve you remember he now he's whoa what happened what is this you have done to me did I not serve you for Rachel why then have you deceived me that's the key word because he's he's the deceiver and now he's been deceived I tried to write this out so it would be on the reaping what you sow part. All right, so I wonder at this point if I'm Jacob, I thought, you didn't think about telling me about this custom seven years ago? He says in verse 26, it's not done in our country. We never give the younger before the firstborn. Details would have been good for me to know seven years ago. So Jacob's deceptive ways have been turned around on him. He is now the recipient of what he dealt out in chapter 27. Remember, he deceived his father, but now he is being deceived by his father-in-law. He tricked Isaac, who had dim eyes, remember, and now he's tricked by Laban with a daughter whose eyes are weak. He, the younger son, used deception to get the older son's blessing, and now despite working so hard and honestly for his younger daughter's hand in marriage, he's now deceived into getting the older daughter instead. So you see that the poetic justice is what you might call it in the chapter, or the divine retribution. So I think we would probably be right in saying this section is a fitting discipline of the Lord, Hebrews 12, 5 through 17, whereas Galatians 6, 7 says, do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, he will also reap the same. We will not understand the divine retribution in many cases, definitely not, Exhaustively, in any case. And even here, where so many details seem to overlap, we can only note the parallels and offer the suggestion that the Lord is disciplining Jacob in the same way that corresponds to his own sin. And it makes me think of Hebrews 2, 2. I know the context is a little different, but remember, that verse says, for since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. I know that's more with Old Covenant breakers receiving the curses that were due to them. But here it's interesting that Jacob in the prior chapter had seen angels, a message declared by angels going up and down, and now he's receiving a just retribution. He's getting exactly what he gave his father. Anyways, that's where I see God's discipline, where the Lord begins to show up in the chapter at least He told him specifically that that's for your younger daughter, right? I mean, wasn't that... He agreed to it. Well, I guess it's better I give her to you. So, yeah, there was blatant deception there. Yeah. Alright, so then we'll pick up reading in verse, or Laban says in verse 27, complete the week of this one. Yeah, I think that's the marriage festival, yeah. So after the week, they're officially married. So I think he's saying complete the week of Leah, and we will give you. That's interesting, the plural. I hadn't caught on that. We will give you. So maybe his wife is still alive. Or maybe he means me and Leah. We will give you the other, he didn't even name her, just the other one also in return for serving me another seven years. You think, oh no. Yeah, some people, I think Josephus in his commentary takes the view that he had to work for seven more years and then Rachel. I think it's pretty conclusive in the text. Y'all tell me if I'm wrong, but I think he's just complete the week of Leah, and after those seven days, he gets Rachel. Yeah, same time, yeah. Which according to Leviticus 18 is not a good thing. It's very evil that they're now sisters married to the same man. All right, so then verse 28, we'll pick up reading there. Jacob did so and he completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Yeah, verse 28 to me is conclusive on the timeline of it. And then verse 29 is similar to what we read earlier. Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. So now we have the full cast of characters for the next chapter. So Jacob went into Rachel also, and he loved Rachel, right? We keep reading that. He loves Rachel more than Leah. And he served Laban for another seven years. Now I think it's important at this, we do include the next section. Some commentators leave it off just to kind of have a clean presentation of all 12 children, but I actually do like the chapter division here. On the one hand, it would make for a very clean, you know, set of all 12 sons, but on the other hand, if we include this in today's chapter, it shows just how the Lord at the top of the ladder in heaven last week is intimately involved in the mess that is this family, right? And James brought that up earlier. This is a mess, right? We would probably not want to get involved in this. Someone says, you know, could you counsel me in this situation? No. No, I don't even know what to do with two sisters being married to the same man. You got these other two women. What are they going to be doing? All right. So then but the Lord intervenes. And I think this is really important that we see this. When the Lord, verse 31, saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. All right. Now we've seen that every generation, right? 1130, Sarah was barren. Rebecca was barren in 2521. And now Rachel is barren in 2931. What's interesting is that Rachel is not going to be the one to continue the family tree towards the Christ. It's actually going to be Leah, the one who is despised and hated. So the Lord turns to her when he sees that she's hated, probably by Jacob, maybe Rachel as well. And he closes, I think it's implied that he closes Rachel's womb and he opens Leah's. And she has four sons in rapid succession. And what she names them at each point I think is important. So you probably have footnotes in the Bible, but the names sound like the Hebrew words for Reuben. She says, the Lord has looked upon my affliction. I think his name sounds like look a son or behold my son. And then second, she has Simeon and she says, the Lord has heard me. So it's similar to heard the sound of the word. Third, she has Levi, which sounds like the word attached. This time my husband will be attached to me. And fourth, she has Judah, which is Jesus's line. This time I will praise the Lord. So the son's names correspond to the Hebrew, the sounds of the words. Now, what do you think is going on here? What do you see any, um, similarities in what she says each time, any progression in what she says? I think so. I think so. I think so. I think we should take that from it, and it's specifically at that point when she comes to that conclusion, Lord be praised, that she's done bearing children at that point. Yeah. Yeah. If you notice each. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just want my sister's husband to love. I mean, my own husband. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. It was her husband first. Yeah. I mean, you can imagine the one who's probably not so attractive. She's hated. And she seems so into James's point. The first time with Ruben, she says, now my husband will love me. And then Simeon, I am hated. And then the third one with Levi, this time my husband will be attached to me. And then finally, she finally gets to this time, she says, I will praise the Lord. So I don't think it's a coincidence that the Lord Jesus does not come from Reuben or Simeon or Levi. He's descended from this tribe in honor of what she said, right? This time I will praise the Lord. Which we read about, where do we know for sure that he's gonna come? At least reading back through Genesis. But where should we, never forget this verse. Yes. Yeah, 49 verse 10. When we're going to get to Jacob, remember, that's who we're reading about. Jacob blessing his sons when he gets to Judah. Yeah, Judah is a lot or back up to verse eight. I'll just read this and we'll be done. Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub from the prey. My son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched like a lion. And as a lioness, who dares to rouse him? And then the most important verse, verse 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. All right, so that's Jacob, the same guy we're talking about today, his blessing over Judah, who will continue the line to the Christ. So, all right, I wanna be respectful of Todd's time, so let's end in prayer. Father, thank you for giving us this chapter of the Bible. Each week you give us just what we need, and we pray that we would take it to heart. The lessons that we learn from the New Testament about reaping what we sow, for example, help us to take stock of our own lives and the sin that we've committed, and have we actually dealt with it, or are we letting it linger? and literally lingering for months and years where we ought not to be. So help us to think about that and take leadership in our own family. Not to moralize it too much, but to be more like the servant in chapter 24 than at least Jacob in this chapter. We thank you that even after all that, you showed up in verse 31, and you continued the line. You were faithful to your promises to populate Israel so that the Christ would come. And we thank you for him, and we pray that now we would have more faith in him as we hear Todd preach from the book of Romans. We pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.