Genesis 30 - 31

 

Genesis 30 – Jacob’s Family

There were a lot of conflicts and jealousy in Jacob’s family.  Rachel was jealous because she was not having children like Leah and probably a little afraid that Jacob would stop loving her.   Rachel blamed Jacob and confronted him with the problem.  Rather than being gentle and understanding like a husband should, he responded in anger.  He should have been the spiritual leader of his family and helped her to seek the wisdom and comfort of God in her pain.

Since Rachel wasn’t having children, she gave her maidservant to Jacob so she could build her family.  The maidservant bore 2 sons, Dan and Naphtali.  Again Jacob wasn’t a good family leader.  He should have suggested that taking her maid would bring all kinds of problems as it did for his grandfather by taking his wife’s maid, Hagar.  He should have helped her wait on the Lord for a child. 

Leah was jealous because Jacob only loved Rachel.  She desperately wanted Jacob’s love and thought she could get love by giving him more children.  When Leah stopped having children, she gave her maidservant to Jacob and she had 2 sons, Gad and Asher.  Then Leah had 2 more sons, Issachar and Zebulun.  Later Leah had a daughter, Dinah.  Then God remembered Rachel and she had a son and called him Joseph.  Then in chapter 35 Rachel died in childbirth with another son, Benjamin.  In all Jacob had 13 children.

I don’t mean to get off on a rabbit trail, but I have always wondered why so many men in the Bible had multiple partners with so many children and why God allowed it.  God intended for marriage to be between one man and one woman.  Monogamy was always God’s plan from the beginning.  If you study the biblical instances of polygamy in detail, you will see that none are condoned or portrayed in a positive light.  All had serious problems with strife, jealousy, distrust and some even led to idolatry.  They were all disastrous with a lot of heartbreak. 

I think one reason God allowed this is to protect women.  Women were often uneducated and relied on their fathers, brothers, and husbands for provision and protection.  Unmarried women were often subjected to prostitution and slavery.  Also this enabled a much faster expansion of humanity fulfilling God’s command to be fruitful and increase in number in  

Genesis 9:7. 

I guess we have to remember that we all have free choice and we don’t always make good decisions.  Maybe God only allowed polygamy to solve a problem, but it was not ideal.  Then when Jesus came, He made new provisions to protect women and raised their standing in society.  The New Testament speaks of the relationship between husbands and wives and reaffirms God’s plan in Genesis that marriage is to be between one man and one woman.  God restored marriage to His original intent. 

As for all the children in the Old Testament, Children are a blessing from God.  They are a gift from Him.  The Bible says that they are a reward.  Because of this, God cares about them and how they are raised and nurtured.

Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church.  Although the church isn’t always lovely, God loves her anyway.  Thank God for that.  A husband’s job is to love his wife with the view of her becoming all that God wants her to be.  It’s the same for a wife to her husband.  We should always show Christ-like love toward each family member.

Principle:  Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church.

Jacob was a good servant to Laban.  He respected his authority even when Laban was deceitful and unfair.  Jacob obeyed his rules and worked 14 years for Rachel and Leah.  There is a lesson for us in this story.  We as Christians are to be honest and should always work hard and obey the rules of those in charge even when they are not watching.  We are to work as if working for the Lord.  “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” – Col. 3:23.

Genesis 30:25-43 – Jacob’s Wealth

Jacob wanted to leave Laban and return home, but Laban persuaded him to wait.  Laban offered to pay Jacob for his work, but Jacob turned the tables on Laban.  He out-coned him by staying and offering to tend his flocks and removing the weakest for himself.  Laban agreed.  Jacob wasn’t being dishonest, but he was looking out for himself.  Laban continued to cheat Jacob, but God made Jacob wealthy.

God promised to bless Abraham and his descendants and that’s what He was doing.  Jacob was a good steward with what God had given him.  Through Jacob’s wisdom in taking care of the flocks, his flock grew large and he became prosperous with many maidservants, menservants, camels and donkeys.

Are you being a good steward with the wealth God has given you?

How are you squandering the prosperity God gives you?

Genesis 31 – Jacob Flees Laban

Finally God told Jacob to leave Laban and return to Canaan.  Jacob had stayed with Laban for a total of 2o years and he knew it wouldn’t be easy to leave.  If he told Laban he was leaving, Laban may have not let him take his wives with him or Laban may have talked him into staying like he had done in the past.  So out of fear, Jacob and his family left without telling Laban. 

Laban represents the world.  He’s crafty and tosses around spiritual language as if he believes in the Lord.  He is a hypocrite.  He was not the kind of guy that you say goodbye to.  He was a con artist.

Laban may have been a con artist, but so were Jacob and Rachel.  Rachael stole her father’s idols when she left.  Why would she do that?  Maybe she still mixed idolatry with her worship of the Lord.  Or maybe she was trying to secure an inheritance from her father that she was worried about in verse 14.  She was acting just like the world by trying to take the world’s security blanket along on the trip.  Jacob should have been more honorable when he left by stating his intentions and letting Laban say goodbye to his relatives.  He should have trusted God to protect him; instead he left by fear and deception.  He lacked confidence in God and His promise and relied more on his own wisdom and ability.

Three days later Laban heard Jacob had left.  He chased Jacob and caught up with him.  In spite of Rachel’s theft and Jacob’s schemes, God graciously protected them.  God intervened and warned Laban in a dream to not force Jacob to return.  Laban knew he could not win against God and that God would protect Jacob.  Laban and Jacob made a covenant together that they would stay apart and that their sons would not fight each other.  Laban knew that making a treaty with Jacob would protect him in the future because someday Jacob would be greater than him.

God had already told Jacob that He would be with him, but Jacob wasn’t totally trusting God.  He was attempting to trust by leaving the world of Laban and heading home.  He feared Laban, but now he would face his fear of Esau. 

Many Christians today never break away from the world.  They try to have to best of both worlds like Rachel.  They keep their stash of idols to pull out in case God doesn’t work.  They are following self, not Jesus.  A true follower of Christ breaks from the world, denies self daily and follows Jesus because He is the true and living God.

Principle:  God protects His people as they seek to live separately from the world.

Who are you like?

Laban – You use God to help you prosper, but if He doesn’t seem to be working you try something else.

Rachel – You know the true God, but you’re still carrying your idols.

Jacob – You’re seeking to obey God and trying to get away from the ways of the world.  You need to keep growing in God’s direction and not go back to your old ways.  You have the joy knowing that God is protecting you everywhere you go.

Join me here next week for the next chapter in Genesis.  -- I encourage you to trust in Jesus.

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Genesis 29

 

Genesis 29:1-30 – Jacob’s Love for Rachel

Isaac had sent Jacob away to escape the wrath of his brother and to find a wife among his mother’s people.  So Jacob left and came to the land of Paddan Aram.  He saw shepherds in the field watering their flocks from a well.  There he saw Rachel.  She was very beautiful and it seemed He loved her at first sight.  Remember in Genesis 24 Jacob’s mother, Rebekah was at a well where she gave water to Abraham’s servant and his camels; soon after Rebekah left with the servant to marry Isaac. 

Jacob was overcome with emotion and kissed Rachel and wept with tears of joy.  He had come to the end of his journey and found his mother’s family.  He told her he was a relative of her father and the son of Rebekah.  She ran and told her father Laban.  Laban probably remembered the wealth he received from Abraham’s servant when he let Rebekah be taken to be Isaac’s wife, but Jacob came with nothing.  He saw an opportunity to exploit Jacob, but knew he would inherit a great fortune.  So Laban invited Jacob to stay in his home probably hoping he would marry one of his daughters, Leah or Rachel.  Jacob asked to marry Rachel, but Laban took advantage of him and had him work for 7 years first.    

After the 7 years Laban arranged the wedding, but Laban was deceitful and gave him Leah, the oldest daughter instead.  The bride wore a veil as was the custom and Jacob didn’t realize that it was Leah he had married.  When he did realize it, he asked Laban why he had deceived him.  Laban explained that it was the custom for the oldest daughter to be given in marriage before the youngest.  Laban unfairly forced Jacob to continue working for him 7 more years for Rachel.  Jacob loved Rachel so much that he agreed.  When the time was up, Jacob married Rachel.  Now he had 2 wives and each wife had a maid.  Just because something is recorded in scripture doesn’t make it God’s will.  With many wives there is always conflict and jealousy.

I think Leah was probably in on the deception.  She was a plain woman and probably had no prospects for a husband.  She may have thought this was her only chance.  I’m sure it was not Rachel’s choice.  She had to go along with it, because Laban was her father and she had to obey.

Remember Jacob had deceived his father and cheated his brother.  Jacob reaped what he had sown.  He deceived Esau out of his birthright.  He deceived Isaac to receive his blessing.  Now he was getting a dose of his own medicine.  God can forgive sin, but sin still has consequences.  Our disobedience may not stop God’s plan but it will greatly affect how we end up experiencing it.  Working so long for someone like Laban will teach many lessons.  Through all this Jacob learned patience, discipline, responsibility, to endure hardship, and to wait on God’s timing.

Do you ever feel like Jacob? 

Do you feel stuck in your job or your marriage?

How have you seen the consequences of a past sin?

God was with Jacob the whole time.  God had a purpose for him and He has a purpose for you.  God is with you the whole time.  You may not have to wait 14 years or maybe you will wait even longer.  No matter how long it takes things will change.  God is with you.  Jacob’s self-sacrificing love for Rachel is an illustration of Jesus’ self-sacrificing for us.  We are his bride.

Principle:  God is always working to accomplish His will.

Genesis 29:31-35 – God’s Love for Leah

 God watched over Jacob and his family as He had promised.  Jacob never really loved Leah, but accepted her as his wife.  When God saw that Leah was unloved, He showed compassion and helped her to have several children.  She had 4 sons:  Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, Judah.  Leah grew in faith with the births of her sons.  God comforted her through her children.  She is known as the mother of Israel, because through her son Judah’s line would come Jesus.

If you are living unloved, God knows your pain.  God loves you no matter what.  Leah turned to God and found faith and praised God in her pain.  This is a lesson for you.  Are you turning to God, counting your blessing and praising Him in what you do have?

Principle:  God will develop our character through personal hardships as we trust in Him.

How is God disciplining you?

What longing would you be willing to surrender to God in your Pain?

Join me here next week for the next chapter in Genesis.  -- I encourage you to trust in Jesus.

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Genesis 28

Jacob Meets God at Bethel

Jacob had to leave home to escape the wrath of Esau.  Though Jacob didn’t deserve it, Isaac blessed Jacob before he left with the same blessing that God gave Abraham that his descendants would be numerous and they would receive the promised land of Canaan.  Isaac told him not to marry a Canaanite woman, but to go to Paddon Aram to the house of his mother’s brother, Laban and to take a wife there.

Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and was told not to take a Canaanite as a wife. Esau realized how displeasing the Canaanites were to Isaac so he tried to please his father by not marring a Canaanite.  Instead he married a woman from the family of his uncle Ishmael.  This was his second marriage.  He really didn’t understand God’s plan.  Maybe he didn’t want to understand.

Jacob probably felt guilty by cheating his brother.  He lied to his old blind father and used the name of God and even kissed him in his deception.  In spite of all that he was sent off with the true spiritual blessing from his grandfather, Abraham.  Now he is on his own facing an anxious and uncertain future.  God begins working on Jacob.

Are you at a place where you see your great need for God?

Are you like Jacob, out of schemes?

Are you feeling guilty about your past and uncertain about your future?

Jacob traveled east to the region where his mother Rebekah was raised.  He had no money and no friends.  He slept outside with no comforts of home and used a stone as his pillow.  During his journey he had a dream where God spoke to him.  This was a life-changing experience for Jacob.  In his dream he saw a latter going up to heaven with angels going up and down.  Above it stood the Lord, “I am the Lord, the God of your Abraham and the God of Isaac.  I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.  Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth…..All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.  I am with you and will watch over you where ever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.” – Gen. 28:13-15.

He understood this dream as God breaking into his life.  He saw there was access to heaven which made God closer than ever before.  In John 1:51, Jesus made it clear that He was the access to heaven.  “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  It’s through Him that heaven comes down to us and by which we can go to heaven.  Jesus is the ladder.  “I am they way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6.  God gave the same promises that He had given Abraham and Isaac.  Can you imagine how those words must have hit Jacob after all he had done? 

God always deals with us in grace.  When He breaks into your life, it’s not your doing, it’s His.  He is the initiator and comes to you.  He chose you.  It’s up to you to reject or accept Him.

God doesn’t say a word about Jacob’s failure.  Instead He assured him about his future.  Jacob promised that he, too, would serve God.  That’s why we call God the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”.  Jacob really wanted this blessing even though he used wrong methods to get it.  God gives His blessings where He wants and to whom He wants.  We cannot earn it.

Principle:  God meets us where we are and leads us to Himself.

Have you experienced God pursuing you as a sinner? 

How has He shown you love? 

Can you say I’ve been redeemed? 

What is God revealing to you about Himself? 

Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for Him? 

How do you feel about Jacob getting blessings after he lied 5 times?  He didn’t deserve the blessings, but none of us deserve the blessings we get either.

Jacob got up in the morning and took a pillar of stone and poured oil on it.  He worshipped God and called that place Bethel and then made a vow to God.  (Gen. 281:20-22)  Some think he didn’t really understand God’s grace and made a conditional vow to God in response when he said, “If God will be with me and will watch over me…” – Gen. 28:20.  Others say the “If” mean “Since” God is doing this for me, I will do this for Him.  God’s promises to Jacob were all unconditional.  Even if Jacob was making a conditional vow, God didn’t take His promises back.  God let His promises stand and kept working on Jacob.  Thank God He deals with us on unconditional terms.

Was Jacob acting immature?  Was he trying to bargain with God?  He doesn’t act like he’s aware of any of his sins, let alone confess them.  It almost sounds like his focus is on himself and not on God.  Maybe he’s bargaining like he did with Esau to get his birthright.   I think he should have responded with praise and thanksgiving.

Have you ever bargained with God?

Is your faith conditional on what God can do for you?

How is God calling you to fully trust Him?

Are you holding back?  If so, why?

Some say Jacob put too much emphasis on the particular place.  For God to fulfill His promises to Jacob and to us, God had to be in every place.

Jacob promised to tithe in Gen. 28:22.  Jacob’s offering to tithe is his way of accepting the Lord’s Kingship over him.  He had faith that God would supply and that he vowed to be loyal and submit to the Lord as his King and God.  Tithing of income for Christians is a way of demonstrating our allegiance, our love, and that we serve God rather than money (Matt. 6:24).  All we have is God’s anyway.  It’s an indicator that we trust God and are committed to Him.  So it was for Jacob.

How do you show God you are committed to Him?

Do you tithe part of your income?

What about tithing of your time?

Join me here next week for the next chapter in Genesis. -- I encourage you to trust in Jesus.

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