Book of Genesis - Ch. 29, Vs. 1-35 (04/10/2016)

Okay, we're ready to roll. This is one of those weeks that normally

I start preparing as soon as I get home from church on Sunday, I start going through what

I'm going to do next time. And I did, I did that, I brought that up and I loaded it down into my

Bible and I read it. And this is such an old story, we all know it so well.

And I read it, and I read it, and nothing ever kind of came into my mind, even in my searches, until probably

Thursday. So Thursday I was wondering what I was going to do today.

Now I think we'll probably be lucky if we get through. But there's some things that are not totally formed that I would like to address, but then some are.

Genesis 29, then Jacob went on his journey and he came to the land of the people of the east.

Now what I want to do is remind us that, if you remember, it was on the first day of his journey that Jacob has his dream.

And in that dream the blessings which were first promised to Abraham are passed on to Jacob.

And it was here that we were informed that Jacob recognized the presence of God.

Well that was the first thing that kind of popped into my mind. Jacob knew about God.

I mean, who could there be better, a better place to be put? Brother David's talked about this before.

Don't you think God puts his children in families where they can be taught by his people?

Who better, where better for a person to be born than his grandfather to be

Abraham? And him to have 25 years of Abraham's life to talk about God.

And then Isaac? Your teachers are Abraham and Isaac.

He knew about God. He knew there was a God, but it was here that Jacob recognized that the

God that Abraham talked about and that the God that Isaac talked about was also his

God. I think this is the first time that he recognized that. I think this is the time when we would talk in our vernacular about this is the time, as Brother Otis would say, when the

Lord informed him that Jacob belonged to him or that we would say in the

Southern Baptist Church we received God.

This was it. Until now he would have recognized that he was doing the will of his mother and his father.

He was on this journey. He was on the journey. Why? Because his mother and because his father told him to go there and to get a wife.

He was doing that at their behest. Now he recognizes that he's doing the will of God.

And with that awareness he goes on and he builds an altar and he worships God and he promises

God a tithe, not in order to establish or bargain with God to get some good fortune, but as recognition of the good fortune that he already has.

So this is where we are. And he looked and behold a well in the field and lo there were three flocks of sheep lying by it for out of that well they watered the flocks and a great stone was upon the well's mouth.

Now I found a little passage in Arthur Pink that I'm going to read to you and then

I'm going to violate his structure just a little bit.

Without doubt there is a spiritual meaning to each detail here. It cannot be without some good reason that the

Spirit of God has told us that this was in a field, that there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, and that there was a great stone upon the well's mouth.

But we confess that we discern not their significance. And where spiritual vision be dim, it is idle or worse to speculate.

Now that's what Arthur Pink said and I thoroughly, totally agree with that and I'm going to tell you right up front that this is totally, totally speculation and it's not well thought out.

But as I was thinking about this I got to thinking in terms of the availability of water.

Water was a scarce commodity there. Well we know physically the reason that they had the rock on the well is to keep control of who used it, how many people could get to it, and that it not evaporate or dust blow into it when it was there.

Those are the physical reasons. But why would the Lord have bothered to talk about that?

Here's what I think and Brother David I'm going to put you on the spot. There is available to a spiritual water.

The Lord says, I am the, how did he say it?

If you drink this water you'll never drink again. We're talking about a time when the water was not readily available to everyone.

It wasn't that every time you needed water it was there for you.

The Lord sometimes provided water, sometimes he provided spiritual water, sometimes he didn't.

And you know there's like three different dispensations. There was before the law.

Who had access to God's everlasting water before the law?

Who had access to the Lord's spiritual water before the law?

Adam and Eve? Abraham? Enoch? Isaac?

Isaac? Abraham? Isaac? Abraham? Isaac? Abraham? Isaac? Job? A lot of people, but then a lot of people didn't. It was limited.

Then we go to the law. Who had access to the living water under the law?

Well they thought they got access there by doing good things. They thought they got access to that water by being, what did the rich young ruler say?

All of these things that I'm supposed to do I've done. I've done them since my youth. What more is there for me to do?

And then we come to the woman at the well. And what did Jesus tell her? Drink this water and it was available to her.

Now is that water available to everyone that lives? I mean

Brother David has been doing this for weeks. There are groups of people that it's available to all the time, but there's some that it's not available to at all.

It is limited. There is a rock over it to keep, oh that's interesting too.

So Jesus is a rock. The rock that followed them through the desert provided their water.

Now see that is going a little bit further than I had processed through.

But I think there is something here. I think there is something here about the limitedness or the lack of availability of water to everyone.

But if we're his, we're different than Rachel was before Jacob came and rolled a rock away.

When Rachel came to water her sheep, she couldn't until he rolled the rock away.

I don't know. That is something that's kind of churning through my mind and I wanted some input from other people.

This is kind of like a coffee group, Brother David. And I did preface this by saying these are all speculations.

Don't make scripture out of any of them. All he said was we confess, we discern not their significance.

The fact that there was a field, three flocks of sheep, and the great stone on the mouth.

I don't have any idea about this. And he says where spiritual vision be dim, it is idle or worse to speculate.

So I kind of agree with that, but this is kind of like a coffee club so I'm going to speculate on it.

And to that extent I totally am aware of the issue of making scripture out of one or two sentences.

That we can't do. We can't make a whole structure. That's what cults do. Cults find something that they like and they latch onto it and then they build everything around it.

There is a quote in the scriptures, you can be Jesus's or you are

Jesus's one or the other. And the Mormon church takes that and makes the ten of their church becoming your own

Jesus. Well, we don't want to do that. I think that's all good.

And I can say that that curated a lot of people's minds. I think a little bit further, it had not occurred to me.

How can you not see something so obvious? It had not occurred to me that Jesus was the rock.

It reminds me of children. A lot of times they can see something, you know, that we just totally missed because we are making it too hard and looking for it.

I'm talking about everything, everything.

Show me where a fence post is like Jesus. And his point was

God put Jesus, examples of him everywhere in nature.

And, you know, you can always find examples of Jesus, but certainly a rock of all things and running water, living water, bubbling up out of it.

How can you not discuss that? So he missed that a little bit there. He was in too big of a hurry.

And the only one of those things that popped into my mind was limited access to it.

And he had to move aside, which witnessing someone to move some, try to remove some of the obstacles, keeping them from even being interested, perhaps, when they just didn't see the water.

They can see the water. He knows that they'll respond to it. He can't make them respond. Oh, that's good too.

All of that's pictured there. Well, there's a whole lot that could be done in verse 1.

And there's no goats there.

Okay, that's about all I've got here at that verse. And so we, for me, we need to go on.

The remainder of this long journey is about 500 miles. Now he made 50 miles on his first day.

So if he made 50 miles every day, it would take him 10 days. Pretty long trip on foot.

Seemed to have passed with no further incident. For the next thing we read of is

Jacob had actually come into the land which he had sought.

And now that he's in the land, what does he do? Now, here's where Arthur Pink was going.

I think it's one of the reasons he left so quickly. So what does he do?

Now remember, if we're right in speculating that the last thing he did at the end of day one was to recognize that God was his

God. If that's what happened there. And that he built an altar, he worshipped

God, he pledged some good doings.

Now he is finally at his journey. He does like so many of other new believers do.

He attempts to go it alone. And we shall soon see how well that went.

Here's what Arthur Pink says, But while we have called attention to God's faithfulness in guiding

Jacob to the well where he met Rachel, we must not ignore Jacob's personal failure.

A notable failure of a mission. As he had come so near to the end of his journey and had almost arrived at his destination, we would have thought that as he reached this well, that now was the time for him to very definitely commit himself into the hands of God, especially in view of the fact that he was engaged in the important and momentous undertaking of seeking a wife.

Years earlier, when the servant of Jacob was on a similar mission seeking a wife for Isaac, when he arrived at the well, we are told that he said,

O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day.

But here, in connection with Jacob, we read of no prayer for divine guidance.

It could be. It's in the same country. It probably is the same well. I hadn't thought about that.

It could be the same well. The well with Eleazar, when

Eleazar went to the well and Rebekah watered all of his camels, that well.

It probably, I would think it's the same well, but I don't know. I have not made any attempt to look.

But here, in conjunction with Jacob, we read of no prayer for divine guidance and blessing.

Instead, we find him interrogating the Haran shepherds.

So here we go. Verse 2, 3. And thither were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone.

This is how they watered. And they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep and put the stone back in place again at the well's mouth in its place.

And Jacob said unto them, My brother, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we.

Pause to consider the providence of God. Jacob did not stumble around looking for a future wife.

He found her like right away. He was still asking about the well when she showed up.

But he did stumble a bit in attempting to secure her. And you kind of think, might things have gone better if between the time he got to the well and started asking the shepherds if he had asked for divine guidance?

Well, that was Pink's point. And he said unto them,

Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them,

Is he well? And they said, He is well. And behold, Rachel, his daughter, cometh with the sheep.

Striking proof that God was with him indeed. For he guided him to the well, where he met none other than the daughter of the very man with which he was going to make his home for the next fourteen plus years.

It was not by chance that Jacob fled upon that well in the field, nor it was by accident that Rachel came to the well just when she did.

And he said, Lo, it is yet a high day. Neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together.

It's not time to water the cattle. It's time to water the sheep, Mrs. Mitchell. Water ye the sheep and go feed them.

Jacob knew what he was going, what he was there for. He was there to secure a wife. He is looking for the daughter of Laban.

And he wants to kind of clear the shepherds out so he can speak with Rachel alone.

And they said, We cannot until all the flocks be gathered together, until they roll the stone from the well's mouth when we water the sheep.

And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them.

Now whether he was trying to get rid of the shepherds or not doesn't really matter. If that's what his motive was, he was not successful.

She's there. The shepherds are there. Everybody's there. 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.

Well, there can make no shortage of identification of just who this

Laban was. This is the very Laban that they sent him to get a wife from his family.

What it said was, We can't water the sheep until they roll the stone away.

So apparently it took more than one person. It also says Jacob rolled it away.

That implies that Jacob did it by himself. So I think there may be something there too.

Maybe only those authorized to. And he's got 450 left to go.

If he does that every day, that means he has the sheep.

And this was a weakling. This was the weak one. This was not

Esau who you would have thought would roll the stone away. This was Jacob. Well, I think he could, but you wouldn't start with 50.

Well, every place they went, they either rode on a camel or a donkey or something.

And Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept.

That's interesting. I don't think that was an erotic type kiss.

I think that was a kiss of recognition, but I may be wrong because it does say that he was smitten with her, in other words.

I think it's just a simple kiss of recognition. What she did is she ran to tell her father, and what he did is he wept.

And Dr. MacArthur said he thinks it's because he was remembering all of the pleasantries about his mother, all of the aspects of his mother that he saw in this woman who was to be his wife.

And he knew that she was to be his wife. And Jacob told

Rachel that he was her father's brother and that he was Rebecca's son, and she ran and told her father.

And it came to pass that when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house and he told

Laban all these things. So he repeated his story to Laban.

Again, Arthur Pink. The plan of Jacob's mother seems to be working very well.

Everything appeared to be running smoothly. Esau had been left behind at a safe distance.

The long journey from Beersheba to Paradanimram had been covered without harm and with little or no difficulty had been experienced in locating his mother's brother.

Rachel had shown no resentment at Jacob's affectionate greeting, and now

Laban himself had accorded the fugitive a warm welcome, and for a whole month nothing seems to have broken their serenity.

Then he goes on to say this, But what about God? What of his moral government?

What about his law of retribution? Was Jacob to suffer nothing for his wrongdoing?

Was the deception that he had practiced on Isaac to escape unnoticed?

Would it in his case fail to appear that the way of the transgressor is hard?

Ah, be not deceived. God is not mocked. Sometimes the action of God's government may appear to move slowly, but sooner or later they are sure.

Oftentimes this is overlooked. Men take too short of a view. Because the sentence against evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

That's a quote from Ecclesiastes 8 .11. It is in sequel that God is vindicated.

History in fragments denies God, but history as a whole is seen to be his story.

Look at the cruel taskmasters of Egypt and at the hapless Hebrews. They cried to heaven, and for years it seemed as though heaven was deaf.

But the sequence showed that God had seen and heard, and in the sequel his righteous government was vindicated.

So, we look too rapidly for God's execution of his judgment to fall on the wicked.

And when it doesn't happen, we say, well, God has forgotten. He doesn't forget.

When the story is viewed in whole, judgment is always executed on the wicked.

Now, here's Jacob. As Jacob's viewing this developing situation, everything is working as planned.

But Laban apparently remembered the last trip by representative of one of Abraham's clan to obtain a bride.

And he saw an opportunity for profit. So here he goes.

And Laban said to him, Surely there are my bone and my flesh.

And he abode with him for a space of one month. Jacob stayed with the family of Laban for a month.

Tradition in that ancient area allowed a stranger to be cared for for three days.

And after three days, the stranger had to state his mission and give his name.

He had to tell who he was and tell why he was there. And on the fourth day, after the fourth day, he could remain if he worked in some agreed to manner.

So, they could work out a deal for him to stay longer if he wanted to stay longer and if he could be agreed to both.

Laban allowed Jacob more than three days. He allowed him a month. He allowed him to settle in, get to know the family, and then he set his plan in motion.

So Laban, after the month, says to Jacob, And Laban said unto

Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for naught, tell me what shall thy wages be?

That was Laban's query, Laban's lure. It reminded me of fly fishing.

You know, you go fly fishing and you get that pretty little fly and you put it on a line and you throw it out there and you let it drift by and it just looks so beautiful.

And the fish just can't resist grabbing it. And Laban had two daughters.

The name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender -eyed but Rachel was beautiful and well -favored.

The commentators say that she, Reuben, don't know where that came from,

Leah was probably blue -eyed and Rachel was of the more dominant dark -eyed

Semitic type person. So in any case, Rachel was considered beautiful and well -favored and Leah had a fault of some sort and it's referred to as being tender -eyed.

And then the question, who's trapping whom? Laban has two daughters. You've got to keep that in mind.

Jacob wants one of them. Jacob wants to make sure that Laban accepts his offer so he makes a very generous offer.

And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy youngest daughter.

So what happens? Jacob offers to work seven years for the hand of Rachel. That was the deal.

And Laban says, well it's better that I give her to you than to some stranger. He says, it is better that I give her to thee than I should give her to another man.

Abide with me. So I'll give her to you. That's better than giving her to a stranger.

And Laban agrees to the arrangement.

But either from the beginning, and I think it's from the beginning, but either from the beginning or at least at some time during the seven years,

Laban decides he can improve on the deal. Jacob, on the other hand, is smitten.

He sees nothing but Rachel. His eyes on the prize and the seven years seems like no time at all to him.

In fact, it says, and Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had for her.

So he completes his part of the task, no problems, and he informs

Laban that he's ready now to take his wife. And Jacob says to Laban, give me my wife for my days are fulfilled that I may go in unto her.

Everything is in order. The seven years is complete. The task has been done.

The agreement has been made. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast.

And it came to pass in the evening that he took

Leah, whoops, the wrong daughter, that he took

Leah, his daughter, and he brought her to him. And he went in unto her.

And Laban gave unto his daughter, Leah, Zilpah, his maid for a handmaid.

And it came to pass that in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, what is this that thou hast done to me?

Did I not serve with thee for Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?

So Jacob just experienced treachery from the other side. I'm not going to comment on that.

We'll lose our status. No, I don't know. I might can comment.

But Brother Dave can't. And Laban says, well, we don't do it that way in this country.

It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the daughter. Fulfill her week.

Give her this week. And we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve me yet another seven years.

So I've passed off the weak -eyed one and I've gotten rid of her.

You work seven more years and I'll give you the good one, the one you want.

So after tricking Jacob into serving for Leah, Laban offers Rachel on the promise of seven more years.

He'd probably been better off if he'd kept her away from him for seven years, but he didn't.

Just one week. And after a week, he got Rachel as well.

And so Jacob agrees to it. He said, and Jacob did so and he fulfilled her week.

That's Leah's week. And he gave him Rachel, his daughter, to wife also.

And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her maid.

Now we've got four women in the same tent and trouble is about to happen.

And he went also in unto Rachel and he loved also Rachel more than Leah.

And he served with him yet seven other years. So he fulfills his bargain.

And the Lord saw that Leah was hated and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

And Leah conceived, and Leah conceived and bare a son and she called his name

Reuben. For she said, surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction and now therefore my husband will love me.

So the one great thing that all Jewish men, all men of this time wanted was a male heir and right out of the box she gets

Reuben. And she conceived again and she bare a son and she said, because the

Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also.

And she called his name Simeon. And she conceived again.

You kind of think that, but I'm not sure.

And we're going to have two more people get involved in this situation also. And only one of the three is going to be loved.

Only Rachel is going to be loved. In spite of all these children that Leah is producing for him, that doesn't gain his love.

There might be something there too, but I don't know. And she conceived again and bare a son and she said, now this time my husband be joined unto me because I have borne him three sons.

And therefore she called his name Levi. So now she has given him three sons. That was like a, blessed is a mother of three sons.

My sister says, there's a special curse that goes with a mother of three sons. A blessing and a curse, special mercy should be given to a mother of three sons.

Well now she's got three. And she says, now this time will my husband be joined unto me because I have borne him three sons.

And therefore his name was Levi. And that's not it.

And she conceived again and she bare a son and she said, now

I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah and left off bearing.

That's the end of chapter 29. But I will tell you, she didn't leave off bearing forever.

Just for the time. So now she's got three sons. She has praised

God for them. You're right. She's got four sons. She's praised

God for them. And finally on the fourth one she says, it's not a matter of me and my husband anymore.

Now it's a matter of me and my God. And now she is satisfied, I think. Well we're certainly not going to go into the rest of chapter 30 today.

Are there any questions or any comments that you guys would like to make? I didn't find anything.

Nothing was revealed to me in these last four or five verses except the names and the attempt of Leah to gain favor with her husband through these children and her recognition that her favor needed to be with God.

It is. Judah.

Judah. Well it's not.

It was certainly not proof of man's love. Jacob never loved her.

I don't think Jacob loved her after the fourth one either. Well I'll save that.

There is going to be a passage later where Leah bribes

Jacob into having another sexual relation with her.

And she gets another child out of that and then she gets several more. But she had to acquire a reason for him to come into her.

If you trace down through the descendants to Jesus, we find some characters there.

We find Leah. We find the harlot at Jericho.

What was her name? Rahab. Rahab. Rahab is Jesus' in his line.

Ruth, the Moabitess is in Jesus' line. The daughter -in -law of Jacob that he had sexual relations with when he,

I think this is right, when he thought that she was a prostitute.

Perez I think was the offspring or was maybe the 13th down from that.

But there's a lot of, there's a lot of what we would not pick as the kind of person we want our

Savior to be derived from. But you know what?

He wasn't derived from any of those. He was from God.

And we have to keep that in mind. Anything else?

She was thinking the same thing that Sarah was. Why can't I have a child? And so she comes to the same decision that Sarah did.

We'll help him out. Yeah.

But there was no question, there was no question that Jacob was in love with Rachel.

And he was in love with her from the very beginning. He was in love with her from the time he saw her. That's why he was willing to, seven years is a long time.

What this was was basically a dowry. The last time he brought a couple of camel loads of stuff and gave to either

Laban or his father. Some people say the same Laban, some say the father. But whichever.

Not so much. Seven years is a long time to be in servitude for a wife.

Even in these days when they lived longer. When I say he had her, he had her the last seven.

He had her all of the last seven except for the seven days. And that's when the hatred started building.

He has two wives. One he's having children with, and one he's not.

And that in their world was a mark of inferiority.

If you could not have a wife, there was something wrong with you. Something was out of whack about the relationship.

And in fact she scolds him. And he says, who do you think I am? You think I'm God? I can't make you have a child.

What he could do, he was doing. Anyhow, it's interesting.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for all our many blessings. Bless us and keep us.

Lead us to the messages that you have in store for us. Go through the services today.

Give Brother David the message that each of us needs to hear. And make sure that we hear it.