Please turn with me and your Bibles to the 29th chapter of Genesis. We are going to cover a large chunk of narrative this morning, and I'm not going to read the entirety of all of it to you. I'm going to read the entirety of chapter 29, and then I'm going to skim over some parts of chapter 30, because we're going to go all the way from Genesis 29, verse 1, all the way through chapter 30 and verse 24. I'm sure you're familiar with this text. You know, perhaps agree with me, that it is one of the saddest chapters in all Scripture, particularly when you get to the end of chapter 29 and then chapter 30. Begin the reading in Genesis 29 verse 1. So Jacob went on his journey and 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. A large stone was on the well's mouth. Now all the flocks would be gathered there, and they would roll the stone from the well's mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well's mouth. And Jacob said to them, My brethren, where are you from? And they said, We are from Haran. And then he said to them, Do you know Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said to them, Is he well? And they said, He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep. Then he said, look, it is still high day. It is not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go and feed them. But they said, we cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and they have rolled the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep. Now while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative and that he was Rebekah's son. So she ran and told her father. Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. So he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, Surely you are bone of my bone and of my flesh. And he stayed with him for a month. Then when Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be? Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance. Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter. And Laban said, it's better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled that I may go into her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. Now it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob, and he went into her. And Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. So it came to pass in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said, it must not be done so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years. And Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. And Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a maid. And Jacob also went into Rachel and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years. When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben. For she said, the Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will love me. Then she conceived again and bore a son. And said, because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon. She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name was called Levi. She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, Now I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah. And then she stopped bearing." Now I'm just going to skim over some of the points, hit some highlights of the next chapter. I'll tell you what, no I'm not. I'm going to go ahead and read this. How about that? Let's go ahead and read it. Chapter 30, verse 1. Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said to Jacob, Give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? So she said, Here is my maid Bilhah. Go unto her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her. And then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went into her, and Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, God has judged my case, and he has also heard my voice and given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan. And Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, with great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed. So she called his name Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob his wife. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, a troop comes. So she called his name Gad. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, I am happy for the daughters will call me blessed. So she called his name Asher. Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son's mandrakes. But she said to her, is it a small matter that you've taken away my husband? Will you take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, therefore, he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening. Leah went out to meet him and said, you must come into me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, God has given me my wages because I have given my maid to my husband. So she called his name Issachar. Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good endowment. Now my husband will dwell with me because I have born him six sons. So she called his name Zebulun. Afterwards, she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. So she called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another son." Let's pray. Father, what a sad story this is. And yet, Lord, while it's a story of the foibles and sins of many of your servants at the same time, it's also a story of your faithfulness. And we pray, oh Lord, you'll open our eyes to see how you take even the bad intentions of men and use them for their good and for your glory. And Lord, comfort us and encourage us because we too are fallen sinners who make many mistakes and many forebodes and many sins. And yet we thank you that you're a gracious God who loves us in spite of our faults. Bless us now we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. In our last chapter, Rebekah and Jacob were reaping the consequences of their deception of Isaac. It had provoked the impenitent Esau to murderous intentions. He intended to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac was dead. But in God's providence, God protected not only Jacob, but also the promise of seed, the promise of the coming Messiah. By preserving Jacob's life, Rebekah overheard of the conspiracy by Esau to kill his brother. And so she urged Jacob that he needed to flee 500 miles to the north to go to Haran, where her brother Laban was, to hide out as a refuge there. And then she approached Isaac, concealing from him what she knew of Esau's intentions, but instead talking about Esau's Canaanite wives and how they're driving me to madness. I'm going to die if I have to live with them much longer. Please do not let Jacob marry a Canaanite woman. Send him up north. And so he does, he gives him a charge. He says, you must not marry a Canaanite woman. Rather go to Paddan Aram, go to your grandfather's house, find Laban, your uncle, marry one of his daughters. And so Jacob left in obedience to his father's command. And as he goes away, here's Rebecca thinking that very, very soon her son is going to return after Esau's temper has cooled down. She had no idea. She watched him go. This was the last time she would ever see him in this present age, because it would be 20 long years before he came back. And by the time he did come back, Rebecca would be dead. Now, up to this point, we have not seen anything that commends Jacob to us at all. In fact, in the passage I've just read, it gets even worse, doesn't it, in a lot of ways, the way he treats his wives, the way he neglects Leah and shows favoritism. It's very, very sad. And yet, on the first leg of his journey, as he's sleeping out under the stars, outside the city of Luz, God suddenly appears to him in a dream and gives him a vision, a vision of a stairway that touches the ground on one part and touches heaven on the other. a link, a bridge between heaven and earth, between God and men. And we saw last week that we know from the New Testament what that means, because Jesus Himself identifies Himself as Jacob's ladder. The one who reconciles God to man because He is God and He is man. Together He reconciles them. He is the only mediator between God and men. And so He was giving him a vision of things to come, and then He speaks to him and He reiterates to Jacob the same promises and the same covenant that He made to Abraham, making it very clear that just as Isaac and not Ishmael, was the recipient of God's promises. Even so, Jacob, and not Esau, is the recipient of God's promises, the one through whom the Messiah is going to come. And he says to him, what he said to Abraham and what he said to Isaac, in your seed, all nations will be blessed. A portent of the coming Messiah. And that brings us to the passage that we're in, where he finally arrives in Paddan Aram. As I've already said to you, it's one of the saddest, in my opinion, one of the saddest chapters in all Scripture. When you begin to see the rivalries that take place between Leah and her sister Rachel, these two sisters who should have been the sweetest and dearest of friends become bitter rivals of one another, vying for their husbands' affections, and Jacob, is complicit with all of it, going along with it, even being the cause of some of the problem. He meets his father-in-law, Laban, and there's a kind of poetic justice that Laban should become his father-in-law because the truth is they're two men made of the same cloth, men who are going to out-deceive and outfox each other for the next 20 years. And yet, as we look at this text, There is another participant behind the scenes who continually reveals himself at different points. Did you hear it in the text? And then the Lord did this, and then the Lord did that. God is doing something here. There is a hero in the text, and I can tell you right now, it ain't Jacob. But there's a hero in the text, and that hero is God Himself. And He's there doing something marvelous. There's something wonderful going on, even despite you have this very dysfunctional, very sinful, very fallen family. Nonetheless, something incredible is going on here, and we want to see at the end what that incredible thing is. Basically, God is preparing to send his Messiah into the world through all the slop of what goes on in this text. The text is easy to summarize, even though it's a longer chunk of narrative. It's easy to summarize with three one-word headings. First of all, we see family. Secondly, we see wives, and that's wives plural, not wife singular. And then third, we see babies. So it's family, wives, and babies. So let's look at it together. First of all, family, and that's verses 1 through 14, chapter 29. Notice verse 1, Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. When it says he went on his journey, literally the text means Jacob lifted up his feet. There was a spring in his step for the last 450 miles of his journey. One commentator says this, quote, the phrase implies that he traveled on briskly and cheerfully being refreshed in his spirit by the recent manifestation of the divine favor." God has met him, and now he's coming in, skipping, as it were, into Padana Ram, and he walks in, of all places, into a field. A field with a well in it. Now I want you to see that there's parallels between Isaac's journey and Jacob's journey. He's come to a well in Paddan Aram where he's going to meet his wife, Rachel. Even as many decades earlier, Abraham's servant had come to a well, a different well in Paddan Aram, and had met the wife of Isaac, Rebekah. And Rebecca was Laban's sister. Rachel is Laban's daughter. So you see parallelism going on here. When he comes to the place, and he sees these shepherds that are already there waiting to get water from the well. There's three flocks present. There's more shepherds coming later in the day who are going to bring more flocks. And he asks them, he says, you guys are from Iran. Do you happen to know Laban? They say, yes, we know him. Is he doing well? Yes, he's doing well. He's prospering. In fact, see over there on the horizon? That's his daughter, Rachel, and she's bringing the sheep. Well, he apparently can't see her very close at this point. He's going to get a closer look at her in just a moment. But she's off in the distance, but he recognizes, here's my extended family and their sheep are going to need some watering. So he looks at the men in verse 8 and tells them, can we go ahead and open up take the stone off the top of the well, which was apparently very heavy, required several men to move it. Can we move that off and go ahead and water them? There's going to be more cattle here later. It's going to get real crowded. Let's go ahead and water people now." Well, here's a stranger asking these men to do this stuff. Verse 8 indicates they were union men. Because they say, we cannot until all the flocks are gathered together. We haven't received the official work verification yet telling us that we can do that. And when they have rolled the stone from the well's mouth, then we will water the sheep. We're a union, man. We don't move the rock. That's somebody else. So they're like, no, we're not going to do it. Well, then in verse 10, or by the time we get to verse 9, Rachel shows up. And we're going to learn later in the chapter she's very, very beautiful to behold. And he looks on her realizing that this is Laban's daughter and who did Isaac command him to marry? One of Laban's daughters. And here he's looking upon her and he realizes he's met his future wife. And you know what happens next? He runs to the nearest phone booth to exchange being mild-mannered Jacob to becoming Superman. He says, stand back citizens, I'll move the rock. And he moves this rock all by himself, which took several men to move. Now the reason I give some emphasis to that is why did he do it? There seems to be two motives. Number one, he sees Rachel. Ladies, you women have a lot of power over us men. I can tell you that if my wife said to me, I think that Stone Mountain, for my birthday, would you make Stone Mountain shift five feet to the west? Get outside and push it as hard as you can and move it five feet to the west. I know good and well I can't move Stone Mountain. But if Angela tells me she believes in me, I will bust a spleen trying. Because I think that highly of my wife, even so, here's Jacob obviously wanting to impress this young lady. He's like, I'll take care of that lady. I got it. And he goes over and moves this thing all by himself to water the flocks. The second thing in verse 10 that it tells us is he knew that she was a part of his extended family and watering the flocks was going to be a benefit to them. So he moves it, moves the rock, waters the sheep and takes care of them. But then notice in verse 11, that it says, Though the text doesn't say so explicitly, it's obvious what he's realizing is in God's mysterious providence, he's walked into this field and who should God bring into that field at this very moment but the daughter of his uncle Laban. He's met his future wife and doubtless his tears were tears of gratitude to God that indeed God had prospered his journey. And then Jacob tells Rachel, Who he is, he says, I'm basically your father's nephew. And she runs to her dad. Some strange guy just kissed me, dad. And he says that he's your nephew. Well, Laban then runs out when he hears the report, obviously hearing that he had been helpful and helped water the flocks. He runs out, embraces Jacob and kissed him as the custom of the time was. Again, notice the parallelism to what he had done with Abraham's servant. As soon as he heard that the servant was from Abraham's house, he came, he embraced him, he kissed him, he invited him into his house and showed hospitality to him. Now, everything we've learned about Laban to this point is very positive. is very, very good. He brings Jacob into his home and Jacob stays with him for an entire month. And as we're going to see in just a moment, he apparently worked very, very hard for that month because of what Laban offers him next. So we've seen in these first 14 verses, family. The second thing we see is wives. And again, it's not wife, it's wives. Because Jacob was about to get more than he bargained for. Verse 15, Jacob had been working hard for his father Laban, tending to his sheep, helping manage his household in any way that he could, so much so that Laban offers him wages. Now, there's something that I find interesting here, and that is when we first met Jacob, he's described as a mild man who was a dweller in tents as opposed to being an outdoorsman like his brother Esau was. Now, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I get the impression That Jacob was not a man who was necessarily a diligent man up until this point. That he loved to stay inside in the tents, he was not an outdoorsman, he didn't like to break a sweat. Now maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's the impression I'm left with as I look at the previous chapters. What's interesting is that for the next 20 years, he's going to make up for lost time. Because he's going to have to dwell outside in the rain, in the cold, in the heat, with the sheep, and dwell with them. He's going to make up for lost time. He's going to learn to be a diligent man. And I would submit to you that at the end of the day, God's providence meant this for his good. Because it made a man out of him, it toughened him up, taught him a good work ethic, and he's showing a good work ethic here to Laban. So Laban approaches him. He says, just because you're related to me, you shouldn't serve me for free. Name your wages, name your price, and I will give them to you." Now again, up to this point, everything about Laban tells us this is good stuff. Because he's saying, if you're an employee, what do you do? You give a service, you render a service to your employer in exchange for wages. And so that's what Laban's offering here. Well, we're told now, in verses 16 and 17, that Rachel was not Laban's only daughter. In fact, she was the younger of two daughters. He had two daughters, verse 16, the name of the elder was Leah, the name of the younger was Rachel. And then we're given a contrast in physical aspects of them. Verse 17, Leah's eyes were delicate, meaning they were poor. She didn't have good vision. Now think about if you lived in a day before they had invented glasses and before they invented contacts. and you have very poor eyesight, that would be a very serious handicap. I can tell you, if I did not have, my wife can tell you, if I didn't have contacts, I'd be blind as a bat. Because I can hardly see my hand in front of my face without my contacts. Now imagine not having any way to correct your vision and you have very, very poor vision. That was Leah. But then Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance. We shouldn't take that to mean that Leah was ugly or that she wasn't pretty, but rather that of the two sisters, Rachel really stood out as the beauty of the two. And verse 18 tells us that Jacob loved Rachel. So he said to Laban, here's my price. Here's what the wages all work for. I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter. You realize in those days, a man would give a bride price to a father for a bride. We get the impression that when Jacob came into Ron, all he had basically was the sandals on his feet, the staff in his hand, and the clothes on his back. He had no money, apparently, to pay Laban a bride price, but he says, I will work for you for seven years straight for your daughter Rachel, which tells you something about how highly he regarded Rachel and what he thought of her. Well, he agrees to that, says, better that she should marry you than some other man, so stay with me. And so verse 20 says, Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her. Now, when you compare verses 20 and 21, we find the first two virtuous things that are ever really said about Jacob. First of all, the fact that he really did love Rachel. that those seven years went by quickly because he loved her so much. And the second thing that's implied in verse 21 is the man was engaged to the same woman for seven years, and yet in those seven years he guarded her virginity. He guarded her moral purity. Now, whether you relegate that as an evidence or fruit of saving grace, or more in line with what I believe, I don't believe he was converted until he wrestles with God 20 years later, so that this was a sign of common grace. Either way you look at it, these virtues are worthy of our emulation, aren't they? Because they are the will of God. And so he guards her virginity. In verse 21, he says to her, Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go into her. He's being quite blunt here. He's saying, OK, I've been engaged for seven years. It's time for my honeymoon. It's better to marry than to burn. Time for me to get married. So he says, all right, it's time. Verse 22, Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. So they enter into this covenant in the presence of witnesses. And now it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah, his daughter, and brought her to Jacob, and he went into her. He brings the wrong bride to him, but doesn't bother to tell Jacob. And where Rachel was at this time, we're not told. But here's the thing. At the wedding ceremony, it's obvious she would have had a veil over her face that covered her face entirely, so that he didn't know he was exchanging oaths with a different woman. Then he takes her on his wedding night. There are no outside lights from the city lights and things like that. It was a dark tent. And it's in the morning. When the sun rises up, he looks over and realizes he's married to the wrong sister. He's married to Leah and not to Rachel. I hate to ever say that I see eye to eye with Jacob, but I see eye to eye with him next because he's incensed. He's angry with Laban and he goes and seeks him out. Verse 25, so it came to pass in the morning that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, what is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me? And then Laban comes up with a pretty lame excuse. It must not be done so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. That's not our custom. That's not what our culture does. Well, even if that's true, he'd had seven years to tell Jacob about it, and he's not told him. He's deceived him for a very specific reason. And as you continue listening to what Laban says, you find out what the reason really is. He says, fulfill her week. In other words, give her a honeymoon to Leah. And we'll give you this one also, that is Rachel, for the service with which you will serve me for still another seven years. You see, he had obviously profited from Jacob's work. And the idea that I have to let him go now after I let him marry my daughter, he didn't like. So he's worked this out because he's a lover of money. And he wants to find a way to keep Jacob under his thumb. And that's what was the issue behind all of this. His wickedness is coming to the surface. Now, before we go any further, let's note some things. There is a certain poetic justice that's happened to Jacob here. Matthew Henry says it this way. It is easy to observe here how Jacob was paid in his own coin. He had cheated his own father when he pretended to be Esau, and now his father-in-law cheated him. In other words, he tried to make him pass himself off as someone else, and now his father-in-law tries to pass off Leah as someone else. There's a certain turnabout in his fair play here. Laban and Jacob are cut from the same cloth in many ways. Matthew Henry goes on to say this, those that deal with treacherous men must expect to be dealt with treacherously. In other words, you walk around people like this who are deceivers, you're going to be deceived. I appreciate Derek Kidner's observation here. He says this, quote, in Laban, Jacob met his match and his means of discipline. Now, as God brought Laban into his life to chasten Jacob, he goes on to say this, 20 years of drudgery and friction were to weather his character. And then he adds this comment. And the reader can reflect that presumably Jacob is not the only person to have needed a Laban in his life." End of quote. Why do you have to go and say that? What he's getting at is this. Sometimes God brings difficult personalities into your life and mine that we don't particularly like. In fact, he brings them to all of our lives, doesn't he? And yet, what does God intend? he intends to make us more like Christ. Sometimes through comfort and sometimes through adversity, but he brings these people into our lives who are difficult people to make us more like Christ. Laban's response to Jacob's complaint may have been less than we would hope for. But nonetheless, Jacob has no choice. He's now married to Leah. He fulfills her week. Then at the end of that week, Laban gives his other daughter, Rachel, and he goes on his second honeymoon in as many weeks. And then after that, has to serve seven more years for her. Well, then we have some ominous words in verse 30. Jacob also went into Rachel. He's consummated his relationship with her, now that she's his wife as well. And he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years. And as we know, that's an ominous portent of what's about to happen next. So we've seen family, we've seen wives, and the next thing we see is babies. Look at verses 31 through 35. When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren." It's a very sad statement. The word unloved literally means hated. We saw that Leah was hated. But the nuance of the word doesn't mean that Jacob showed animosity towards Leah. It's just he had no affections for her whatsoever. There was no affection, no love in his heart for her. That was all for Rachel and none for Leah. So Leah winds up being neglected. She doesn't have Jacob's attention. She doesn't have his affection. And I don't mean to be crude, but it's very obvious he came by to her tent from time to time to have a conjugal visit because she gets pregnant over and over again. She'll wind up having seven children by him, six boys and one girl. But nonetheless, besides that, he neglects her. Doesn't pay her any attention so that she's left feeling lonely. And God's statement, here you realize verse 31 is the first time God has been mentioned in this entire chapter. But he sees what's going on, and the statement, when he saw she was unloved, he then opened Leah's womb, tells us something. It tells us God did not approve of Jacob's attitude. He did not approve of what he was doing, and he showed compassion to her. If she's going to be without the love of her husband, she will not be without love of a house full of children. And so he opens her womb to give her children, but Rachel is barren. God knew what was best for Rachel, and so he leaves her barren for many, many years. Verse 32, Leah conceives and bears her first son, and she calls his name Reuben. Do you know what the name Reuben means? It means, look, a son. And that's directed towards Jacob. Look, I've given you a son. Will you love me now? Did your heart not ache for Leah and grieve for Leah that she so neglected and left so alone? Therefore, now my husband will love me. How sad that a wife of a person connected to God's family would ever feel unloved. And yet that's exactly what happened. She conceived again and bore a son and said, because the Lord has heard that I'm unloved and has therefore given me this son. So the second son, the name is Simeon, which means heard. Verse 34, she conceives a third time. This is where she says, now this time my husband will become attached to me. Now he'll pay me attention. Now he'll invest time in me and show me he loves me. Because I've borne him three sons, and so she names him Levi, which means attached. Doesn't make you think very highly of Jacob, does it? Then she conceives a fourth time and gives birth to a son. And there's a change here, a significant change in the attitude. Notice what she says in verse 35, she conceived again and bore a son and what she say, now I'll praise the Lord. She's not looking at her husband anymore. I've wanted his love for me and I've waited in vain. But the Lord loves me and I'll praise him. And I will look to him for my security and I'll look to him for my love instead of looking to my husband. Now, this doesn't mean that she was completely given up all hope that Jacob was going to love her. You'll find that later in the text. But she's looking to the Lord alone, and she names him Judah. Praise. Now, do you see what's going on here? Do you see it? God chose that the Messiah would come not through Rachel, but through Leah. And I've already told you about the cave of Machpelah. Remember some chapters ago, some months back, we talked about the cave of Machpelah? Here's Abraham buying this cave. He's buried in it. Sarah's buried in it. Isaac's buried in it, along with Rebekah. And then Jacob will later be buried in it. But who will Jacob, by his own instruction, be buried beside? Not Rachel, but Leah. So even though all these things are going on, God is at work. And God was pleased that through this woman, Leah, this unloved woman, God would bring the promised Messiah. He's fulfilling the covenant commandment He gave to Abraham. What happens beginning in chapter 30 verse 1 is just pathetic. It's sad what happens next. We find in the very first verse, Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children. Rachel envied her sister and said to Jacob, give me children or else I die. What happens next? Basically, to give you a summary, you got Bilhah, Zilpah, Leah again, and then finally Rachel gets her day in the sun basically is what happens. Because of the scheming and plotting that goes on next, it's horrible. to contemplate and to think about. The Scriptures very often talk about when a wife goes through barrenness, she feels a sense of reproach among women, and we find Rachel using that very language at the end of our chapter, but she is envious and jealous of her sister when what she should have been is thankful that God had been so kind to her sister and given her children, but rather she envies her, she's resentful. And so she comes up with a great plan. Her plan is, let me take my maid Bilhah and give her to you as wife, and she'll conceive children, and then legally, they'll be considered my own children, just like Grandma Sarah did, with the whole Hagar thing. That turned out so well. As you know, that didn't turn out well. Jacob listens to his wife just like Abraham had listened to his wife, just like Adam had listened to his wife, and he takes Bilhah. And she conceives two different children. And it's sad, if you notice the names that Rachel gives, they're meant to stick her tongue out at her sister. She's expressing her bitterness towards her sister, her envy of her sister, and going, hmm. I mean, it's so pathetic, it's so childish. Verse 6, God has judged my case, and he's also heard my voice and given me a son. He's vindicated me in front of my sister, so I'm going to name him Dan, which means judgment. Then Rachel, Bilhah conceives again and gives birth. With great wrestlings I've wrestled with my sister and indeed I have prevailed and calls him Naphtali. I've prevailed, I've won against you. Isn't it pathetic that you name your children according to the own bitterness of your own heart? and to express your envy. Well, Leah, by this point, she stopped bearing. And so she says, well, two can play at this game, I'll give my mate to him as well. So it takes Zilpah, her mate, and gives Zilpah to Jacob. Zilpah gives birth to her firstborn son. They name him Gad, which means a troop. A troop, come see how many kids I've got. We've got a whole army over here, as opposed to what you've got, Rachel. And then she bores a second son. And they named him Asher, which means happy. I'm happy and the daughters will call me blessed. You see, it's all the rivalry. Then verses 14 and onward, it's kind of gross, really, to be honest with you. What happens next? Now Reuben went in the days, Reuben would have been a little boy at this time, he went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Now you say to yourself, what in the world are mandrakes? Well they were believed to be a love potion and a fertility drug that would make women more fertile. Literally in the days, I'm not making this up, it was called love apples. There are yellow fragrant fruits that were slightly smaller than a tomato and they were very rare. He finds some and he brings them to his mother. Well, when Rachel sees what's going on, because she still has not given birth to a child or conceived a child yet, she says, please give me some of your son's mandrakes. Give me some of these fertility drugs so I too can get pregnant basically. And she said to her, verse 15, Leah says, this is a small thing. You've taken away my husband. You've already got him. You've already got his affections and his love, and I have nothing in that sense. Would you take away my son's mandrakes as well? So Rachel makes a bargain. Our husband will get to sleep with you tonight, and I'll take your mandrakes. I mean, isn't that just sick? This is just disgusting. But she agrees to it. Here's Jacob coming in from the fields. He said, you've got to come sleep with me tonight because I've bought you for the night. She does, and the Lord opens her womb in the midst of all this mess. And she conceives and bores Jacob a fifth son, with whom she names Issachar. Leah conceives again, has a sixth son. God has endowed me with a good endowment. Now my husband will dwell with me because I have borne him six sons. That's verse 20. And so she names his name Zebulun for endowment. And then she bears one more child, a daughter, Dinah, whom we'll meet and encounter again in the coming chapters. Finally, in verse 22, and it's very sweet, then God remembered Rachel. God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb, and she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. She called his name Joseph, which is interesting. Another son will come, which her words would prove to be prophetic. She says, the Lord shall add to me another son. She would have another son. His name was Benjamin. Let me just note something here, that Joseph, for me, is my very favorite son of Jacob. We're going to get to know Joseph really, really well in the coming chapters. But he is my favorite of all the sons, and God gave him to Rachel. But what a mess. What a sad mess. Well, what in the world are we supposed to take away from this? What in the world should we apply to our lives? I have two applications this morning. The first is this, God is very gracious to very fallen sinners. Is that not what stands out in our text? I mean, if I may say so, in some ways, what a bunch of scumbags. I mean, really? I mean, just the rivalry? the contentions that are going on, the way that Jacob treats Leah and neglects her. Rachel despising Leah instead of rejoicing with her that God had given her children. Then naming the children of her maid Bilhah out of her bitterness to express her resentment for her sister. Leah responding to giving Zilpah, by giving Zilpah as well, so now this polygamist, who was a polygamist twice, is now a polygamist four times over, which is not the way God intends things to be. Rachel and Leah bartering for which of them gets to sleep with her husband that night. Jacob maintains some kind of physical relationship with Leah, even though he despised her. While on earth, with the thrice holy God, associate with people like this? You know what the answer is? For the same reason he'll associate with somebody like me. And for the same reason he'll associate with somebody like you. Because our most holy God is also most gracious and most loving. And he delights in pouring out blessings upon people who are undeserving. to take people who are His rebels. Jesus didn't die for His friends, He died for His enemies. He died for people who hated Him. He died for people who were not reconciled to His Father. He died for the scum of the earth to make us the salt of the earth. He died for people who are unworthy to make us worthy. He did for us that which we don't deserve. Mercy is God withholding from you what you do deserve, and grace is Him giving you what you don't deserve. And isn't that what God is all the time doing? Why would He be connected to these people? Why would He put His name upon a man like Jacob? Why on earth would He put His name upon a man like me? Why would He put His name upon a person like you? You know, there's so many things that we are all ashamed of. Things that we would not want anyone else to know about us that go on in the recesses of our hearts, but God knows it all. And as a friend said to me once, he said, you know, Jerry, as bad as you let yourself think you are, you're probably worse. And I said, thank you, you have the spiritual gift of encouragement. But he was right. He was right. My heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. That's why Paul can say, I don't even judge myself because my judgment is really not that important. The one who judges me is God. God knows it all. Every thought, every motive, every impure thing in you, every action, every word spoken out of turn, He knows it all and He loves you still. And don't you want to serve a God like that? A God who takes a wretch like Jacob and says, I will make you my son? A God who will wrestle with him all night and not only leave him limping, but give him a new heart? That's the kind of God we serve. And if you're here, and you're outside of Jesus Christ, and you think to yourself, I'm so unworthy, and there's so many things I've done, that if you knew what I've done, you wouldn't even talk to me. Perhaps there are some of you in this room who have murdered your own children through abortion, who've been involved in adultery, and fornication, and homosexuality, and all kinds of things. And you say, why on earth would God want to have anything to do with me? There's no possibility of me going to heaven. Let me tell you, you're just the sort Jesus came to save. He came to save rebels, and people who are blasphemers, and people who do stupid bad things, and hurt other people through their sin. That's whom Jesus came to save. So if you're here and you're outside of Christ, flee to Christ, trusting in Him to save you, to do for you what you can't do for yourself. The reality is, if you're righteous, Jesus has nothing to do with you. If you're a sinner, You're exactly the sort he came. What did he say? I didn't come here for the righteous. I came for sinners to call them to repentance. That's what Jesus said about himself. That's why he's called the friend of tax gatherers and drunkards and sinners. Come to Christ, believe on Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. The second application this morning is this. And I'll say this, Blessed is that expositor of historic narrative who has Del Ralph Davis on his shelf, okay? Because I'm going to read you a long Del Ralph Davis quote in just a minute, and I'm going to let him have the final word here this morning. But what men mean for evil, God means for good. The stories told here, how they testify to the authenticity of Holy Scripture, Because when men make up a false religion, and they look to their forefathers of their false religion, they're trying to proselytize you to their religion. What do they do? They glorify their forefathers. They endow them with almost near perfection, and say, look how great and mighty they were. Come and join us and be one of them, and maybe you too can become a demigod like they were. That's what the cults and that's what false religions do. What does our Bible do? It shows you all the warts and all the faults and all the follies and all the garbage of our heroes and says, come join us. I mean, that seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? But only because God speaks truth and says there's only one hero in the Bible. And that one hero is God himself. It's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He's the only hero of the Bible. The reality is there are great men and great women in the Bible, great men and women of faith, but really, in many ways, they're just small men and women who have a great big God. As one person has said, we're all nobodies telling everybody about somebody. He came to save people who are unclean, people who are unworthy. That's whom he came to save, and our heroes reflect that, don't they? Imperfect, and yet looking to a great and a perfect God who's gracious. What's going on in this text, though? Let me read to you from Delroth Davis, and forgive me, I'm going to give an extended quote from him, but I promise you at the end, you'll be glad that we did. He says, Note that theology wraps the narrative, chapter 29, verse 31, chapter 30, and verse 22. In other words, these reminders that God remembered Leah, God remembered Rachel, etc. He says, He says, these are the anchor points, the first points to Yahweh's justice towards those who are despised, and the latter two underscore his kindness in listening to our often twisted prayers. And yet there's more. Isn't the whole focus of the narrative on the births of Jacob's sons? That's the central point that we're hearing is now he has 11 sons and a daughter, right? Doesn't this pick up the seed or people aspect of Yahweh's promise? So isn't the emphasis on Yahweh's faithfulness, since we've now moved from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to 11 sons? Let's flesh that out a bit. Pregnancy seems to be such an easy thing for Leah, which drives Rachel nuts with envy. Rachel explodes at Jacob in exasperation and despair. All this leads to a baby race as Rachel, soon to be aped by Leah, becomes a disciple of Sarah and tries her own version of the Hagar method, only it's with Bilhah. Leah does the same with her Zilpah and has lucky and happy, Gad and Asher. It all gets quite earthy. Mandrakes were thought to be a kind of fertility drug and Rachel has the gall to ask Leah for some Reuben had secured for his mother. Neglected Leah assents to Rachel's bargain. Rachel gets mandrakes and Leah gets Jacobus stud for the night. Leah goes on producing until at last Rachel knows what it's like as well. It seems like sheer bedlam, conjugal arguments, mandrake madness, bedroom deals, the covenant family and all its dysfunctional splendor. Yet in spite of all the crabbing, strife, conflict, tensions, bickerings, hatreds, and miseries, God is faithful to his promise. Here, after all, are 11 sons. Does this mean that God approves of having four wives? Does he then justify the envy that keeps pushing for the most fertile female award? No. God's fidelity doesn't sanitize all the circumstances or twistedness of his people. But in all the slop, the seed is multiplying. It's not the dust of the earth yet, but it's a lot closer than Abraham and Isaac ever got to it. It's like Samson's hair. In all the noise and confusion, you can fail to notice it's been growing. Who would have ever guessed that a bizarre soap opera would proclaim the faithfulness of God? But that is clearly the case when you see Genesis 29-30 backed up against the people promise of Genesis 12, that is, as you were meant to see it. And instead of moaning about family breakdown, you'll proclaim the faithfulness of God from this text. The chemistry of divine providence takes the sludge and crud and confusion of our doings and makes it the soil that produces the fruit of His faithfulness. Don't ever be shocked at the human slop God will throw into his compost to serve his faithfulness. Aren't there some of us who look back on a slice of life full of our own rage and stupidity and lusts, and yet see now that God was there in all that gunk and quiet faithfulness? Which brings us to the place where all proper biblical interpretation should leave us, the adoration of God. That is, there where sin abounds, God's grace abounds even more. Is that not what this text is shouting at us? Look at all of it, but what's happening? Abraham's seed is beginning to multiply as great as the stars in the sky, as many as the dust on the earth. He's going to use these very flawed, very imperfect people to bring his Messiah, through whom you and I, Have reconciliation, forgiveness, hope that doesn't disappoint, and a home in heaven waiting for us. Isn't our God good to be able to do such a great thing? Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you use imperfect people to accomplish your purposes. That gives us hope for ourselves, that you can use us for the advancement of your kingdom. Help us, Lord, to see the sins that are set forth in this text and to avoid them in our own lives and to pursue holiness. But thank you that even when we fell, oh Lord, You are still gracious, and your purposes are steadfast and sure. Glorify yourself through us, O Lord. And over and over again, help us to see your grace and your mightiness through the scriptures as we read them. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.