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Bro. Bill Nichols
I thought everybody was here. Oh yeah, there's your wife. I guess everybody is here. Okay. Yeah, so she's over here where she can get recorded better. Well, we're going to back up just a little bit in chapter 29 and 30 of Genesis to start with the to start with the first of the births of Jacob's sons.
This 29th and 30th chapter of Genesis is not really pleasant reading for a Christian. When you read that, you're kind of repelled. But like every other section of the Bible, it's recorded for our learning.
So there's something for us in every one of these. Every passage we get to, no matter how it inspires us or how it repels us, every one of them has something available for us for our learning. Paul told Timothy that early on in one of his letters.
He said in the second letter of Timothy, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given for inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that a man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works.
Now, Paul was talking primarily to Timothy in his role as a pastor of a church. But there's something for us too, just for all of us Christians, all of us believers. There are at least three roles that the Scripture has in the life of a Christian.
I said at least three. I know there's a lot more than that. But I don't want to dwell on three for a second. One is to inform us just how much in need of salvation we are. That's the first thing it does.
It tells us just how much we need salvation. The second thing it does is it informs us how we obtain that salvation. And we've been talking, Brother David, and dealing with this subject for, I started to say months, but I'm going to say ever since I started attending this church.
This has been one of the main themes of Brother David's messages and hopefully of my lessons. How it is that we obtain our salvation. John, what do you do to obtain your salvation? We don't do anything.
But there is one other thing that the Scripture, how it deals with the life of a Christian. And that's to instruct us how to live after we know that we do have this salvation. It's not just a rule book, but it is a rule book.
And it's not just a rule book for Christians. It's a rule book for everybody. And I think that's something that we don't pay enough attention to. These three roles are mirrored in the life of a non-Christian.
Both those that are, as we sometimes refer to as, lost sheep and goats. The Scripture has something to tell everybody. The goats, the lost sheep, and the saved sheep. These three roles are mirrored. We all need, everybody needs salvation.
So, first the item that I mentioned, everybody needs it. And the Scripture tells everybody how much they need it. As I was on the way to church this morning, the guy north of, no, at Dallas. He's the one I always listen to on the way to church.
And he's the one I always hear half a sermon. Because when I get here, he is still going on. But, you know, I forgot what I was talking about. Yeah. I thought you were going to save me and tell me what we were talking about.
The need for salvation. He was talking about the passage in, I think it's Romans, early on in Romans, where it talks about you are without excuse. Everybody knows there's a God. Everybody's told there's a God.
The sinners are told there's a God. The atheists are told there's a God. The Christians are, everybody's told there is a God and we are without excuse. So that's one of the, that's the first role. The goats, the goats hear it and reject it.
The lost sheep hear it and reject it until they don't. And the saved sheep have heard it and have rejected it until they did. And they can't figure out how everybody doesn't receive it. And the lost, and the goat, he looks at it and he says, Nobody can get that.
I can't get it and he's right. And that saddens us. And then there is this instruction on how to live. Do the non-Christians, do the non-saved, do the goats, do the goats get any instruction on how to live out of the scripture?
Well, they do hear it. And at times they understand it. Eventually they will reject it when it becomes convenient for them to do that. But there are times when society is blessed because of the fact that they're living in a world that a large number of people, Yes.
He got some relief while he was waiting to go after them. Our laws are based on it. And if we didn't have the Christian traditions that we have, you can imagine what our laws would be. And we're going to look at one aspect today of a changing law and how it is changing family life, how it's changing Christian life, how it's changing the governmental life, if I can say it that way.
Okay, I want to begin, that's kind of a pre-beginning, with an observation from Arthur Pink. Now remember where we are. We are in the last of chapter 28 of Genesis. And then we're going to roll on into chapter 30.
And here's what he says. Yeah, 29 and then we're going to roll into 30. So here's what Arthur Pink says. And I could not come close to doing this. No reflecting Christian mind can read through these chapters, that's 29 and 30, without being disgusted with the consequences of polygamy.
The domestic discourses and envies and jealousies between Jacob's several wives forcibly illustrate and demonstrate the wisdom and goodness of God's law that each man should have his own wife, as well as each woman her own husband.
Example is better than precept. And in Genesis 30, the Holy Spirit sets before us an example of what a plurality of wives must necessarily result in. Discourse, jealousy, and hatred. Let us thank God then for giving us His written precepts to regulate the marriage relationship, the observation of which is necessary not only for the protection of the purity of the home, but for its peace and happiness as well.
So that's what he said. Now here is the observation I'd like to make. Right now, there is an even greater motivation for us to thank God for these precepts. Now, perhaps greater than at any other time in history, there is an assault on the sanctity of marriage.
And I'm afraid that as God's precepts are ignored, the peace and happiness of the home will be forfeited. And as surely as the sunrise is followed by the sunset, the peace and happiness of the nation will follow the way of the family.
And what temporal blessings the non-Christians may have in living in this Christian environment will be lost as well. The only thing that's immune from loss is the one thing that we have no input in, and that's our salvation.
That's not immune to loss, but everything else is. I'll say that again. The only thing immune to loss is the salvation of the Christian, because it doesn't depend upon us in the first place. Alright, I would like just to have an open discussion for a few minutes about the role of the precepts of God, Christian precepts, in the life of the Christian or even the non-Christian.
What do you think?
I think you see that as well. And maybe this isn't where you're going, but I find it funny that in human nature, in all of us, there's a need for a, or this desire, for a king, or a person to, that everybody looks to.
So what I'm saying is there's that fingerprint in all of us to look towards, like Messiah. Of course, ghosts are going to make up their own messiah, but yet it's in every one of us. So I don't know. Mm-hmm.
Well, of course, not all of them. But there seems to be a preponderance of young people that have rejected not just biblical precepts, but all instruments of authority, because in the end, there are two striving forces.
The desire for a God to control your life, and the desire for you to be that God. And so I like the way you brought that in. Adam and Eve were in the garden, but they had a desire for a God. But when Satan suggested to them that they could become their own God, and that's what he did, you can be like God.
They jumped right on it. And that is in our... I don't know whether that's built into us like the desire for a Messiah is, or desire for a God is, but that is certainly in there somewhere. I think it came into man when Satan brought it.
But I don't know when he came into Satan, anyhow. So it was in there prior to the fall, wasn't it? Now see, that's what John was saying. Brother Otis, when I made that comment, would have said, you don't really believe that, do you?
And you're right. I don't really believe that. I believe you too, guys. That's exactly what he would have said. Okay, and if you want to soften that by saying not that they had a sin nature, but they had a...
How did he say it? Created within them a... Subject to vanity. They were certainly subject to vanity. And if you don't want to call that a sin nature, you can probably call it being subject to vanity.
But it's the same thing. So that the willingness of God to show his grace, because if he hadn't created a subject to vanity and put us in the Garden of Eden, he would never have had an opportunity to show his grace because we would never have needed it.
That's kind of the... When they fell? Or did they not know about it? Did he remove it before they could find it? Now, that part is clear. The first part is not clear to me. Whether they were eating of the Garden of...
Do you have to eat it every day? I don't know. I mean, it's... It'd be kind of interesting from a... Just a... A learning point of view to say which one would they have chosen to eat of if they knew that one led to life and the other led to knowledge and death.
Okay, let's... Is that... Are we good? Let's drop into Genesis 29 verse 25. And we're picking up the morning after. And it came to pass that in the morning, and that's the morning after Jacob was to have wed Rachel, behold, it was Leah.
And he said to Laban, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Did I not serve with thee for Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban said, You can lie to the infidel. I made that up. But that's kind of what's going on now.
And Laban said, It must not be so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Why do you think he didn't tell him that to start with? He knew he could for sure get him to work seven years for the substitute wife.
And then he might get him to work seven more years for the other one. It is not so. It must not be so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week. Now, what he's saying to her is, You spend the week with her.
And after the week with her, we'll give you Rachel. And then for that, you're going to work another seven years for me. So there they are, seven years together. One week of wedding with Leah. And then the new wife comes into the situation.
And then they're together for seven years before there's an out. Fulfill her a week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve me for yet seven other years. Well, that's not the plan that God had in mind.
That's not God's will. It is not God's will to live in a polygamist situation. He told us clearly in chapter 2 what His will was. When He said, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cling to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
So Jacob had this. Rachel had this information. Even Laban had this information. The Mosaic Law later on, and of course, Jacob would not have had this. It says in Leviticus 18 .18, Neither shall thou take a wife to thy sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her lifetime.
So it has a specific instruction that a man should not marry his wife's sister until after the wife had died. So it was not an injunction that you couldn't marry your sister-in-law, but you just couldn't marry your sister-in-law while your wife was still alive.
I was having trouble getting the right words out. Polygamy always brings grief, and it did for Jacob. And Jacob did so, and he fulfilled her week, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. And Laban gave Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaiden, to be her maid.
And he went unto her also, and he went also unto Rachel. And he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet another seven years. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
And Leah conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben. For she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction, therefore will my husband love me. Now, as we go through this, and we're going to go through this part reasonably fast until we reach a stall point, we're going to look at the meaning of each of the names.
And then I'm going to go back to Arthur Pink for a minute. Reuben means behold a son. And she conceived again, and she bare a son. Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also.
And she called his name Simeon. Simeon means heard. And she conceived again, and she bare a son. And said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore was his name Levi.
Levi means joined to. 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. Judah means praised. Now before I go to what Arthur Pink has to say, I want to mention one thing.
We've gone through a list of sons. Which son did we stop on? We stopped on Judah. What's the significance of Judah? The Lion of Christ. And it's interesting, one, that the Lion of Christ came not through the wife that Jacob favored, but the one that he hated.
The one he was tricked into. Who tricked him into it? Well, we want to say Laban, and we want to criticize him for it, don't we? Well, yes, and if there was only one part to be played, it would have had to have been Leah.
Leah had to be his wife. He only wanted Rachel to be his wife. Because Judah is the one we had to have. Now that's from humanly speaking, but I can't remember. I can't remember this much. Leah was the wife that Jacob had to have.
We often describe his obtaining of Leah by the treachery and the deception of Laban. But it was not. It was by the direct will of God. Rachel was only the one that Jacob wanted. We could have gotten along without Rachel's sons.
Oh, and that's going to happen a little bit later in this passage as well, if we get that far. Now here's what author Pink says, and he actually is setting up to do a thing that I really didn't go into.
But here's what he says. Others before us have written much on the twelve patriarchs and the typical significance of their names and the order in which they are mentioned. It has been pointed out how that the gospel and the history of the sinner, saved by grace, is found here in veiled form.
And that's what I'm going to go into. He's setting up to go into the line of the patriarchs being some sort of representation of the deliverance of the children of Israel from the bondage in Egypt. And I could have gone there, but I decided not to.
His stuff is all online. You can pick it up if you want to. Reuben, for example, Jacob's firstborn, means see a son. See a son. This is just what God says to us through the gospel. To the son of his love we are invited to look.
Behold the Lamb of God. That's what John said at the baptism. Then of course, then comes Simeon, whose name signifies hearing. This points to the reception of the gospel by faith. For by faith, for faith cometh by hearing.
The promise is, hear and your soul shall be saved. Next in order is Levi. And his name means joined, telling us of the blessed union by which the Holy Scripture makes us one with the Son through the hearing of his word.
And in Judah, which means praise, we have manifested the divine life in the believer, expressed in the joyous gratitude for the riches of grace which are now his in Christ. Now, that is expressed much better than I could ever do.
In his interpretation of what the earlier writers had been talking about, the meaning and the order of the names of the patriarchs. Behold the Lamb of God that you hear. And by hearing you acquire a faith.
And having acquired that faith, you are joined as one with Christ. And then, as a believer, you live in joyous gratitude for the riches of faith. That is a powerful statement. Isn't that amazing? Okay.
Chapter 30, verse 1. And when Rachel saw that she bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said unto Jacob, Give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said, Am I in God's stead who withholdeth from thee the fruit of thy womb?
He's kind of frustrated with Rachel. He says, It's not my fault. I mean, I've got four sons. He didn't say that. But it is spoken in a moment of frustration. And even though he is angry, his words do indicate that he had an understanding of who it was that was ultimately responsible for the opening and closing of the womb.
That it was God. It wasn't him. It was God. And she should have known that, too. And so she, like her grandmother, said, Behold my maid Bilhah. Go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees that I may have children by her.
And she gave him Bilhah, her handmaiden, to wife. And Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived and bared Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son.
Therefore she called his name Dan. Dan means to execute judgment. Or to vindicate. So she now thinks she has been vindicated because God gave her a son through her handmaiden. Well, I'm not sure that that's the case.
Dan means judgment. And this tells of how the believer uncompromisingly passes sentence upon himself. Not only for what he has done, but because of what he is. And thus he reckons himself to have died unto sin.
And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived again and bared Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed. And she called his name Namphitahel.
Which means to wrestle. When Leah saw that she had left off bearing, she took Zippiah, her maid, and gave her to Jacob to wife. And Zippiah, Leah's maid, bared Jacob a son. And Leah said, A troop cometh.
And she called his name Gad. Which means troop. And Zippiah, Leah's maid, bared Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I. For the daughters will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher. Because Asher means happy.
Well, Leah may have thought that this son would bring happiness. That's why she named him. But the bitter and fierce rivalry between the sisters. Even though they occupied different dwellings with their children, as was customary.
Shows that the evil lay in the system itself, bigamy. Which is a violation of God's ordinance. Could not yield happiness. So even though she thought this son was going to bring her happiness. It's not going to because nothing that's done in opposition to the ordinances of God can bring happiness.
Okay, so that's happening now. She thinks happiness has arrived and now we're going to have another big blow up. And Reuben went into the fields in the days of the wheat harvest. And found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother, Leah.
Then Rachel said unto Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? And wouldst thou take away my son's mandrakes also?
And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening. And Leah went out to meet him and said, Thou must come in unto me. For surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes.
And he lay with her that night and God hearkened unto Leah. And she conceived and bared Jacob a son. I'm just going to go to a thing I found in Ligonier Ministries. If you are not familiar with what that is, that is a ministry that's headed by R .C. Sproul.
And here's what he says. I'm just going to read it and let you comment on it. The tension that has been present for years in Jacob's family due to the matter in which his wives envied each other comes to a boiling point after the birth of Asher to Leah's maidservant.
Though doubtlessly well known, the unspoken hostility between Rachel and her sister finds expression publicly in today's passage. Verse 14 begins with a record of the time that Rachel requested the mandrakes.
Reuben found for his mother Leah during the wheat harvest. The mandrake is a Mediterranean plant with blue flowers in the winter and yellow plum-like fruit in the summer. It has been desired in many cultures because of a belief that it is an aphrodisiac and promotes fertility.
These qualities coupled with the fact that it was only rarely found in the Paduan-Andrean area where they lived explains why both Rachel and Leah desired the plant. Rachel herself has not borne any children.
She is childless. And Leah has become temporarily infertile. Remember, her last son was Jacob, not Jacob, her husband. Her last son was Judah, thank you. Her last son was Judah and that was several sons ago.
She is infertile. Both of them are seeking a cure for their infertility. Now, Leah probably has not had any more children because Jacob has been ignoring his husbandly duties. But in any case, they are both desiring a cure for their infertility.
And he goes on to say, again, the primary players in this chapter do not come off all that positively. Rachel and Leah are both showing superstition by putting their hope in a plant without asking God's blessing on the potential medicine.
It is no wonder that Leah accuses Rachel of stealing her husband since Jacob's profound and sinful neglect of Leah is evident in her willingness to trade the rare mandrakes for just one night with him.
Rachel, in a sense, prostitutes Jacob by offering him to Leah for the desired fruit. And is plainly more concerned with her ability to bear children than she is of her sister's welfare. Both women are willing to barter for relational and sexual intimacy, things that should never be so grossly traded.
Moses tells us that God listened to Leah and gave her a son even though her prayer is not recorded. And here is the reason I wanted to read this. Ironically, the blessing of fertility comes not to the one that ate the magical food, but to the one that gave it away.
By these two facts, the Lord shows His people, they're both His people, that their superstitions are worthless. For He is sovereign over procreation. Still, Leah shows us how God often compassionately blesses us even when we act manipulatively to get our way.
And then their lesson for the day out of this passage was, many passages of the scripture warn God's people against sorcery, astrology, and other similar practices. Most of us probably do not engage in such things, but superstitions remain part of the life of many Christians.
For example, some people believe that by praying the same prayer every day will guarantee a certain result. Take care to cast all superstitions from your life and trust in the Lord's sovereign will that is working for your good.
That's where I want to stop and I want to let you do whatever you want to do or say whatever you want to say.
For example, Pastor David teaches business out of the Bible. What we're looking at here is a code. And if you have decipher, meaning new, the Hebrew language, and someone happened to say Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, that's the code that we just said in the Gospel.
That is absolutely mind-blowing. And so we may or may not do exact things like that, that if you have a group or a category of words, you know where to look to decipher those words. And to the person that doesn't know decipher, you know, there's a big word of the same.
It means something, but I don't know what it's saying.
And that is amazing. And to think that the Gospel is hidden in the Old Testament and is not seen by the people that gave it to us. You know, there's several instances of this. Did you know that as the children of Israel wandered around in the desert in their 40 years of wandering, their formation was in a cross?
If you lay it out and do the arithmetic on it, they marched around with a cross. And it's no wonder that Balaam looked out. Was it Balaam? Balaam was the prophet, right? It's no wonder that Balaam looked out and said, uh-uh, I'm not going to curse this group.
You can go through the names of the children of Adam. Not the children of Adam, the children of everybody from Adam, man, all the named members, until the flood. And look up those words. And that will chill you also, if you haven't done it.
Well, man, I can almost do it. Man appointed to sorrow until the blessed Lord came down teaching that his death would bring the suffering comfort. Those are the approximate meanings of the names of the listed personages from Adam to Noah.
Noah, remember, means comforting, means comfort. Well, he named some of them. He named some of them. He named his own son, Jesus, Savior. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for all of our many blessings.
Thank you for giving us a place to come and study your word. Thank you for giving us a cipher that we can read and understand what you're telling us. Thank you for giving us a teacher that will tell us those things that we need to know.
Without the Holy Spirit, we could read the scripture and not understand. But with the Holy Spirit, we can read and you will give us the message that we need to hear. Bless us, keep us, protect us. In Jesus' name we pray.