Mountains and Valleys in the Life of Faith

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I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 29 and hold your place at verse 1.
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Now it has been my tradition over the many years that on the Sunday prior to New Year's I will preach a special New Year's themed message.
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Typically I discuss some form of goal or theme for the New Year.
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Well, my goal and theme for next year is to get through Genesis, so we're going to keep going in Genesis this morning.
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We've been in Genesis for a while, and as you've probably noticed I've started taking bigger sections, which would mean my sermons have been a little longer, and I'm working on that.
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But as far as length, I want us to start looking at these narratives in their fullness rather than picking them apart to the point of just being too nitpicky.
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I want us to see how the whole thing works as a whole.
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And over the next several weeks we're going to be looking at the life of Jacob.
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We're going to be looking at what happens to him under his father-in-law in Paddan Aram there, where he's headed.
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And you'll remember last Sunday evening, if you were here, I preached on the end of Chapter 28, and the section where Jacob sees that tower that goes up to heaven, which some translate as ladder, some translate as stairwell.
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But I said I believed it was more akin to like the Tower of Babel.
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It was something that made its way to the heavens, and the angels were having their circuit up and down, going up and down.
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And what we learned from that text, in case you weren't here, I know some of you weren't, what we learned from that text is that he met the God of his fathers there.
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He met the God of Abraham and Isaac there.
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And he received the promise of his fathers.
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He received the same covenant promise that God had given to Abraham and that God had given to his father Isaac.
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Jacob received there when God said to him, Through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
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That is the gospel.
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That is the promise that holds the whole Old Testament together because that's the promise that points to Jesus Christ.
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Because the Bible tells us in the book of Galatians, when God said that to Abraham, God gave Abraham the gospel.
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When he said, Through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed, because he was pointing him to his seed, his ultimate offspring, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And then we see Jacob respond in faith.
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Now, if you look, you're in Genesis 29, so just for a second look at verses 22 and 23, the verses before.
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You'll notice that it says in verse 20, it says, Jacob made a vow saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I should go and will give me the bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.
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A lot of people take great issue with that.
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Because of the construction of the words, as if Jacob was saying, well, I'll do this if God does that.
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And it was sort of transactionary in nature, as if as if Jacob didn't really have faith.
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He was having a wait and see faith.
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Well, if God does this, this and this, then he gets to be my God.
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However, I want to to propose to you that that may not be the spirit with which Jacob is speaking.
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In fact, several commentators have made note that the construction here is is though it is in the if and then since it is it or if and then construction, it's it's more in the idea of since God is doing these things and since God will do these things, then he will be my God rather than if he does, then he will.
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It's it's more the idea that and we see him proposing a vow of trust because what does he end it with? And I'm going to give a tenth of everything I have to God, which is an which is an exercise of faith.
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We just did that.
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We just gave our offerings, which is an exercise of faith.
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So so my point is only this.
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Let us not let us not think for a moment that that Jacob has a an unreal faith.
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But he does have an immature faith.
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Because he has just met his God.
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And so this is new.
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And yet what it does is it produces in him a renewed vim and vigor by which he will now move to the next part of his life.
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Remember, he's on the run.
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He's on the run from his brother who wants to kill him because he stole his birthright or at least his brother conceives it as him having stolen or his blessing rather.
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And so now he's on the way to Padana Ram, which is where his uncle Laban lives.
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And as he's traveling through there, he he puts his head on a rock.
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God shows himself to him in this great scene of this wonderful tower.
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God gives him these promises.
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He responds with a vow of faith.
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And then in verse one of the next chapter, it says, and then Jacob went on his journey.
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And what's interesting, we don't see this in English.
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You would only see this in Hebrew.
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Is it that word when it says he went on his journey? It's actually a Hebrew idiom, which means that he lifted up his feet.
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That's actually the translation.
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He lifted up his feet or, as we might say, he skipped.
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He moved quickly to where he was going.
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He now have the energy and the motivation of having been in the presence of God.
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The New Living Translation actually says he hurried along.
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Jameson Fawcett Brown says this.
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He resumed his way the next morning with a light heart and an elastic step.
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I love that term, an elastic step.
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He was ready to go.
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He had met God.
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He'd received a promise.
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He'd made a vow.
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Now we go.
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In a sense, my friends, he was on the mountain.
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He was on a spiritual high.
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Well, that mountaintop experience would not last very long because he is now going to move into a season of drudgery likened to very few others.
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He is going to spend the next 14 years in indentured servitude to a very ungrateful and dubious father in law.
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So he's going to go straight from the mountain to the valley.
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And that's where we are today.
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So let's stand and read the text.
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We're going to read only to verse 30.
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We're not going to do the whole chapter, but we're going to do the big part of it, because next week we'll we'll move on to verse 31 and into chapter 30.
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It says, Then Jacob went on his journey and he came to the land of the people of the east.
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And as he looked, he saw a well in the field and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it.
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For out of that well, the flocks were watered.
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The stone in the well's mouth was large.
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And when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.
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Jacob said to them, My brothers, where do you come from? They said, We are from Haran.
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He said to them, Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? They said, We know him.
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And he said to them, Is it well with him? They said, It is well.
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And see, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.
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He said, Behold, it is still high day.
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It is not time for the livestock to be gathered together.
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Water the sheep and go pasture them.
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But they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well.
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Then we water the sheep.
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While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
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And now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother.
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Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.
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And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman and that he was Rebecca's son.
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And she ran and told her father.
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As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him into his house.
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Jacob told Laban all these things.
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And Laban said to him, Surely you are bone or excuse me, you are my bone and my flesh.
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And he stayed with him a month.
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Then Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be? Now Laban had two daughters.
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The name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel.
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Leah's eyes were weak.
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But Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
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Jacob loved Rachel and he said, I will serve you seven years for your daughter, Rachel.
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Laban said, It is better that I give her to you than I should give her to any other man.
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Stay with me.
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So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him.
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But a few days because of the love that he had for her.
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Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife that I may go into her for my time is completed.
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So Laban gathered together all the people, the place and made a feast.
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But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob and he went into her.
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Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.
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And in the morning, behold, it was Leah.
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And Jacob said to Laban, What is it that you have done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said, It is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn.
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I'm sorry, I was just what a sneaky guy.
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Sorry.
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Complete the week of this one and we will give you the other one also in return for serving me another seven years.
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Jacob did so and completed her week.
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Then Laban gave his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
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Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.
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So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah and served Laban for another seven years.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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And I pray, Lord, now that as I seek to preach it, I pray that you keep me from error.
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For Lord God, your word is worthy of.
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Of being proclaimed in truth and not to be obscured.
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I pray, Lord, that you would open the hearts of the people to hear your word.
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And Lord, if there are those here who do not know you.
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If there are those here who are suffering, hurting, grieving and in pain.
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Lord, that the words of your word might be an encouragement that you, oh God, are the God who is with us when we are on the mountaintop.
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And yet you are still the God who is with us in the valley.
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You never leave us nor forsake us.
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Help us to be reminded of that truth today in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Jacob is high footing it.
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Toward his uncle's property.
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While on the way.
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He comes upon a well.
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With a group of men.
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Who are waiting for something.
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And as I've been, I sometimes have to remind myself that we don't spend the whole week together.
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We only get to see each other a few days in the week and on Sunday.
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So you probably don't look at the text the same way I do.
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Just because I've been thinking about it this week a lot.
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And I do want to encourage you, though, especially this year.
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Here's here's a theme for the year.
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Read ahead.
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Be ahead with me as we go through the text and come with questions in your heart.
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Email me questions.
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I'd love to know what your thoughts and your questions are so that if I if I don't want to overlook anything, especially something that's concerning.
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But as I said, as I'm spending the week with, I basically just spend the week with these guys and I'm reading and thinking and I've been thinking about Jacob a lot.
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I'm thinking about this moment in his life where he comes upon the shepherds who are over this this watering hole, which is covered with a rock.
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And it says it says Jacob came to the to this place and he saw the well in the field.
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Behold, three flocks of sheep were lying beside it.
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And the stone of the well's mouth was large.
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Now, just sort of get the picture here.
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This this this stone over the well's mouth has a purpose.
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It doesn't tell us what the purpose is.
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And I tell you what, commentators love to comment on things that don't seem to matter.
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But but if you read the commentaries, everybody's got a different idea.
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Whether the stone was there to keep the water from evaporating, whether the stone was there to keep somebody from falling in, whether the stone was there to keep people from stealing the water, all these different reasons.
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But apparently it was a very large stone which sort of covered this well area.
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And the men are there and it doesn't say it in the text, but the insinuation is they're sort of lounging.
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They're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, because we see this in a moment.
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Jacob's going to say to them, why aren't you out pasturing? Why are you here? You're here at the wrong time and you ain't doing nothing.
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And their answer was, well, we got to wait for everybody to get here so we move the stone.
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So it's I mean, I don't know if you ever worked with anybody like this.
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You ever work with guys who try to find every way they can to get out of the work? Because and the idea is, well, we got to wait for everybody else to get here.
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So we're just going to sit here and chill until everybody else.
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And then we'll all get together.
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We'll all remove the stone.
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We'll all water the flocks.
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And and Jacob seems a bit indignant in the idea of this happening.
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And we're going to see why, I think, in a moment.
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Because actually, what we find about Jacob, he's actually an excellent worker.
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Now, for all the negative things we could say, he was dubious, he was very sneaky.
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He had some he had some bad traits.
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But one of the things he did not do poorly is he were he did not work poorly.
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He worked well.
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In fact, his father in law had him for a month in his home and was willing to pay him whatever he wanted to keep him there.
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So this gives you an idea of something about his work ethic.
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And he comes up on these men and he says, hey, do you know Levin, the son of Nahor? And by the way, that's an interesting statement, because Levin is not the son of Nahor.
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Levin is the son of Bethuel.
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Bethuel is the son of Nahor.
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But in that time, it was not uncommon to reference the patriarch of the family in the same way that we might say Jacob is the son of Abraham.
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He's not.
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He's the son of Isaac.
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But in a sense, he's the son of Abraham by lineage.
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He is the offspring of Abraham.
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Well, Nahor is Abraham's brother.
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And he probably had a very high influence, may have still even been alive.
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And so he's he's calling to the patriarch.
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Or do you know Levin, the what would have been the grandson of Nahor? But he just says the son of Nahor.
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Well, sure, we know it.
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Guys, you know, pretty important around here.
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OK, is it well with him? Yes, it is well with him.
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In fact, his daughter is on the way here.
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And what's interesting about that moment is there's a providence in that moment.
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Because this daughter is going to be the one that Jacob is going to fall in love with.
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It's not like Cinderella where he's going to meet a litany of women to finally come across the beautiful stepsister.
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No, it's the one.
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She's the one he loves.
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And she's going to come out.
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And we don't know much about her from this, but we do know this.
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She was a she was a shepherdess, which tells us that she likely had a strong physique and ability to get out and work with the animals.
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She wasn't a little a little dainty person, but she was a woman of the field.
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She'd get out there and get after it.
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You know what I'm saying, right? Right.
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So so so Jacob sees her coming.
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And immediately.
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He goes over and he picks up that rock and he moves it.
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Now, again, if you look to the text, what is the reason why those guys haven't already done this? This takes a group of men.
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We've got to wait till everybody gets here to move this rock.
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Now, we could say that they were just being lazy or finding a reason not to work, or we could say this a heavy rock.
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But Jacob sees the woman of his dreams.
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He knows she fits the category of being a member of his uncle's family, which was the whole reason he came was to take a wife from his uncle's family.
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He sees the woman of his dreams, this woman of the field, this beautiful, gorgeous woman who we're going to find out later was the exceedingly beautiful one.
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And he reaches down and he takes this rock.
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You guys ever been to the fair and you see one of the things that you hit? And it goes, ding! Now, again, I may be using a little sanctified imagination, but you guys know that when your lady's with you, you want to make sure you ring that bell.
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You don't want to go halfway up.
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You don't want to go three.
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You don't win.
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You certainly don't want to miss when you swing.
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You want to show yourself a man.
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So Jacob sees the woman coming.
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He is fascinated with her beauty.
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He's excited that she's the right woman.
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What's interesting is she was coming at the wrong time for the wrong reason.
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This isn't the time to water.
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And this isn't the right.
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This is when I said the wrong reason, it's not the time to water.
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But yet God has her in this place for him to see her.
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So Jacob, he-man as he is, reaches down and he moves the rock all by himself.
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And he says, you guys get back.
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She gets to water first.
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And he brings the animals in to water.
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So this sort of takes us right here to verse 8.
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When it says, excuse me, rather down to verse 12.
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And it says, or verse 11, I'm sorry.
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Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.
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Now I want you to think from Rachel's perspective.
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Just for a minute.
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Rachel is coming to do what she does.
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She's coming to water the flock.
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And as she comes up, there's a dude she ain't never seen before talking to the guys that she knows.
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He sees her.
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He gets all excited.
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He grabs the rock, moves the rock, which to her is probably a little odd.
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Maybe a little impressive, but still a little odd.
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And then he walks over to her and in a crying fit, kisses her.
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Now understand the culture of the day was not odd for people to kiss one another.
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The Bible even talks about in the New Testament that as Christians we're to greet each other with a holy kiss.
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We're going to hold off.
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We have changed to the holy high five.
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But at that time in culture of the day, greeting one another with a kiss was not uncommon.
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But still you have to understand she does not know him.
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It's not as if she's meeting a person that she's well acquainted with and they do the kiss on the cheek as a greeting.
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No, he comes to her weeping, knowing this is it.
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And he grabs her, embraces her, kisses her.
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She's got to be very confused.
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And so verse 12 and Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman.
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Notice that's after the kiss.
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He tells her that he is the father's kinsman.
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He is Rebecca's son, which makes him her cousin.
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And she read and told her father.
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As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him, embrace him and kiss him again.
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That's why we know we don't think it was a romantic kiss.
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It was a kiss of greeting, even though romance may have been in the mind of Jacob because he did find her quite attractive.
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But the kiss wasn't him.
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You know, it wasn't too weird disappointment.
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But he ran and kissed him and he brought him into his house.
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Now, I want you to notice something in verse 13.
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This part has really, really gripped me this week as I was studying.
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It says Jacob told Laban all these things.
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Now, all these things, we don't know what all these things are.
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But in my mind, I've been thinking, what do you think the conversation was like between Jacob and Laban when they sat down together and Jacob began to explain to him why he's there? Now, remember, Laban's been through this before.
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Laban, only a few, well, several decades earlier, had his sister, Rebekah, a servant of Abraham had come to take Rebekah for Isaac.
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You remember this? And so Laban's been through this before.
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But this one's different because when the servant came to get Rebekah for Isaac, the servant came with an entourage of money and property.
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He brought camels full of of gifts to give for his sister.
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But now here comes this young man who is supposed to be the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac.
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He's coming in and he ain't got two nickels to rub together.
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He doesn't have anything.
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So they sit down to have a conversation.
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And it says he tells him all these things, all what things? What do you think Jacob is telling Laban? You think Jacob told Laban about what he did to Esau? Now, see, I do.
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I think he told him everything.
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In fact, I'm not even certain that Laban doesn't get the idea for Leah and Rachel from Jacob himself.
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Because what we're going to see in a few few verses is exactly what happened to Jacob.
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Well, excuse me, exactly what happened to Isaac by Jacob fooling Isaac by dressing up as his brother.
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This is what's going to happen with Leah.
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Perhaps, perhaps in that conversation, as Jacob was saying, yeah, your sister, man, she's she had an idea.
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And dad was going to bless my brother and she knew God wanted the blessing to come to me.
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So let me tell you what she did.
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She dressed me up like I'm in Laban's glass.
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That sounds like her.
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You know, we grew up together.
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She's a smart lady.
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She she you know, and they're having this conversation again.
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I'm a little imagination, you know, but the thing about this is he told him all these things.
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You think he told him about the stairway to heaven? We don't know.
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It doesn't say.
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But again, he's recounting to him why he's there.
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He's having this conversation with Laban.
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Certainly he tells him the reason that he's there.
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He tells him he's there to get a wife.
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And so Laban embraces him.
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You are bone and you are my bone and my flesh.
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And he stayed with him a month and doesn't say what he did during that month or what it does say in the next verse.
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Verse 15, it says, then Laban said to Jacob, because you are my kinsman, should you work? Should you serve me for nothing? Tell me then what shall your wages be? This is why I think Jacob is a strong, good worker, because the father in law, he's he's you're you're going to get hired.
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You write the paycheck.
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I want to hire you and you tell me what you want.
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What shall your wages be? And the wages that Jacob provides is not the wage of $20 an hour plus a bonus.
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No, he says, I want your daughter.
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Verse 16.
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Now, Laban had two daughters.
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I'm sorry, I have to I breathe out.
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Because this verse, it says now the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel.
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Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
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OK, well.
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That word weak is translated in the King James Version, tender.
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Her eyes were tender.
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The New Living Translation tries to give a dynamic translation and it says her eyes had no sparkle.
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That's actually the Hebrew idiom that's being used here is that her eyes were dim or without a sparkle.
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The Hebrew word Rahat is the is the word here, and it's literally the word for being weak or sick.
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And when the Septuagint translates this into Greek from the Hebrew, it trans translates it with the word asthenes.
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And the word asthenes is where we get the word sick.
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So if you translate the word into Greek from the New Testament, it's sick.
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So her eyes had something that were unappealing.
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But it could be that this was a euphemism for her overall appearance.
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Leah was not the beautiful sister.
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There was something about her appearance that made her unappealing, particularly to Jacob.
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But and then and we know that because of the sometimes you can translate or understand a phrase by the juxtaposition, the next phrase that comes after it.
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And when we have the adversative conjunction, but in a sentence, it's usually providing a parallel and it's an adversative parallel.
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So what we see, it says her eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful.
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So now we we know what it's saying.
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It's saying Leah was not beautiful.
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Unfortunately, and it says Jacob loved Rachel and he says, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter.
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Seven years, y'all.
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For a moment, if I might digress.
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I don't even know.
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I have to be careful.
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This we live in a day where sexual immorality is rampant outside the church and even within.
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And the ability and willingness to stay separate.
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Is almost jettisoned, you know.
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Seven years.
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Trust me, they were not fornicating.
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He was working and waiting.
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I only point that out because he was a man like any of the rest of us men.
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Who sometimes feel like we just, you know, have to give in to our worldly flesh.
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Now, he worked seven years waiting for his, but he was counting the days.
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Because when it was time for the days to be up.
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He knew.
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I don't know how he knew.
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I don't they didn't have like calendars like we do.
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Maybe he had a big stone wall with a piece of flint that he would go in and mark every day.
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One, two, three, slash one.
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Slash marks going and he was ready to go.
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Verse 21.
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Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife that I may go into her.
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Young men, not the way you ask.
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Just saying, don't have that conversation with your father-in-law.
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But that's what he said.
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I'm ready.
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I'm ready for the marriage ceremony.
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I'm ready for this to happen.
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And by the way, seven years, just I don't want to miss this.
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Seven years was actually more than the amount necessary.
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If you look at the culture of the day and you study some of the extra biblical writings, you'll actually find that a dowry price was usually demanded, but it was a lot less than seven years.
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Remember, he doesn't have two nickels to rub together, so he couldn't offer money.
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He didn't have camels filled with stuff to offer.
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So he had to offer something.
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Why did he offer seven years when it was more? And one commentator, I think this is this is likely the truth, said he didn't want to be.
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He didn't want to lose the opportunity.
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He said, I'm going to give the highest price.
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And the idea was there's usually about three years.
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So he had double it.
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I'll do seven years.
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So he is he wants this young lady.
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So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.
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But in the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob.
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And he went in to her.
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OK, that's all we get from the text.
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It doesn't tell us how he didn't know who she was.
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But there is a little bit in the text that we can pull from the Hebrew, a little bit of extra.
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The idea of when it says here that he gathered together for a feast, the feast actually is more of the idea of a party or revelry.
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So there's likely some alcohol being introduced, whether it be through wine or even beer they had at that particular time in history.
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Beer is very old to know that it's very old.
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So they had they had ability to make all those things.
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And so they were having a a time of revelry.
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So how is it that Jacob doesn't know that this is not the beautiful woman of form and appearance that he is now going to marry and have their have their consummation? Well, maybe he was drunk.
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I mean, just straight up, maybe he was drunk.
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And it is a tradition, was a tradition and was still a tradition today that perhaps she was veiled.
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In fact, veils in our modern day are almost like a just like a costume that, you know, just a little thing.
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But the veils of the ancient world would have been very long, would have covered everything.
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And therefore, if he had this woman who was veiled completely and he is a little tipsy and they are then walked over to the darkened tent to go in and consummate, perhaps all of this was just enough to pull the wool over his eyes, just long enough for him to take Leah as his wife.
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One of the questions that I've had this week, and I'll admit it was actually, I think it was Brian Borgman who mentioned it.
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It really caught my attention.
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What was Rachel doing? She had to have known, but she's not mentioned.
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So perhaps mom has her back in her tent, you know, hold her down.
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Or perhaps she's been taken away for a few days so as to not get involved.
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Doesn't say maybe she's in on the ruse.
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We don't know.
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But certainly Leah knows that she ain't Rachel.
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And as as Jacob had been called by the name of Esau by his father and knew it was a lie, Leah is now being called by the name of her sister, Rachel, and knows it's a lie.
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Verse 24 says that Laban gave the female servant Zilpah to Leah as a servant.
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Now that doesn't seem very important now, but we're going to see next week that that becomes important because she becomes a handmaiden like Hagar who takes, who has children on behalf of Jacob.
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Verse 25.
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And in the morning, behold, it was Leah.
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The ESV has an exclamation point.
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There's no there are no exclamation points in the Bible and the original language, but I think they're right because the idea, behold, it was Leah.
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And Jacob said to Laban, what is it that you've done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said, it is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn.
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And you got to imagine Jacob was going, well, why didn't you tell me that? You picked a fine time to share with me the customs.
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Now, verse 27 is debated as to the meaning.
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So I want to give you the two possible meanings and then tell you why I think which one is correct.
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In verse 27, it says that Laban responding to him says, complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.
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Some people may think that that means that he was married to Leah and then went seven more years before he got to marry Rachel.
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However, if you read on in the text, it actually seems to indicate that he went a week, a literal week, because that was the marriage week.
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There was a ceremony that lasted seven days.
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And what Laban was saying was finish the ceremony for Leah.
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Then you can have Rachel, but you've got to work another seven years.
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I think that's more in line with the text, because what we're going to see next week is they actually begin to compete over children.
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And even though Leah does get a head start, it isn't because she's seven years prior.
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It's because Rachel is barren.
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And so in my mind, I think this is what happened.
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Laban goes to him and he says, what have you done to me? He says, listen, you can't have one without the other.
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But here's the deal.
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You go through the seven day ceremony for this one.
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Now you know who it is.
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No more veils, no more trickery.
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You're going to go through the seven days.
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You're going to you're going to be a good boy.
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You're not going to be a jerk.
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You're going to be good for seven days.
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Then I'll give you this one.
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But you're going to work for her as well.
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Another seven years.
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Now, I want you to be reminded of something.
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Go back up to verse 20.
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When Jacob was serving his first seven years, he was serving in his mind for Rachel, the woman that he loved.
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And notice what the text says in verse 20.
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Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love that he had for her.
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Just think about that for a minute.
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He served seven years, but it seemed to him as a few days.
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I was thinking about this this morning as I drove in when I met Jennifer.
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We're 17 years old.
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Her parents would only let us see each other once a week.
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It was very regimented.
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We were allowed to see each other from 6 o'clock on Friday till 10 o'clock on Friday.
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Couldn't pick her up a minute early.
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Couldn't drop her off a minute late.
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Am I lying? Am I lying? I'm dying.
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She's right there.
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She'd tell you.
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It was once a week for seven days.
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I'm sorry.
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Once a week for four hours and then seven days, and it was again.
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I'm going to tell you something.
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That was the highlight of my week.
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Every week.
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I looked forward to that 6 o'clock, getting to get to her house in my little Dodge Daytona and pick up my date and have our time and bring her home.
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We did that for over a year.
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Every week, nothing else mattered.
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I was in the band.
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Didn't care.
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I was in school.
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Didn't matter.
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What mattered was 6 o'clock Friday night.
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That's what mattered.
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And the worst day of the week or the worst time of the week was 10 o'clock Friday night because I didn't get to see her again.
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Y'all had a beeper.
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Y'all know what a beeper was? We didn't have a cell phone.
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That was the only way we really communicated through the week.
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We'd send each other messages.
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That was it.
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So I get it when it says he it was like no time at all because he was just looking.
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It was nothing else that mattered.
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All the sheep he raised, all the things he did.
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It didn't matter.
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He was going towards his goal.
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And now he wakes up and Leah's there.
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Don't you think the next seven years were terrible? It does not say they were as a few days.
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The next seven years were drudgery because he has now he's become a polygamist.
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Didn't want to be far as we know.
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We're going to find out next week.
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By the way, title of next week's sermon, Drama Mamas, because we're going to find four ladies all giving him babies and just really just back and forth with one another, Rachel and Leah.
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Here's how we have this moment.
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Jacob is now back where he has to essentially start over to have the woman that he loves.
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And what I want to as I draw to a close, what I want to point to, because I'm going to end at verse 30 so we can start verse 31.
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Verse 31 is when he starts having kids.
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And that actually gives gives the 12 tribes of Israel are going to come into view at the end of this chapter in the beginning of next chapter.
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So I want to look at that as a whole.
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But as we draw to a close, I just want to remind you, all of this is happening after Jacob has this tremendous mountaintop experience.
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He has this tremendous vision from God in a dream where he actually gets to meet with God.
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He actually gets to fellowship with God and have a conversation with God.
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And now he is an indentured servant working for an unscrupulous man and having to essentially be a slave to his father in law simply to be able to marry the woman that he loves.
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He's gone from the mountain to the valley pretty quickly.
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And that should remind us of something.
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And I want you to hear this.
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Very clearly, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are saved, if you've come into a saving relationship with God through the Savior, you will not always be on the mountaintop.
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There are going to be a lot of valleys that you walk through in this life.
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Some people will tell you that if you become a Christian, all things will be good.
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You're going to have help, wealth, and prosperity.
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As long as you believe enough, you're going to have all those things.
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That is not so.
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Sometimes you will experience pain.
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Sometimes you will experience setbacks.
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Sometimes you will experience loss and failure.
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And some preachers would tell me, Don't say that because you're speaking those things into your life.
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Name it, claim it, garbage is just that.
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It's garbage.
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God is sovereign over our lives.
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And the Bible says that he brings us into trials because those trials produce within us patience.
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And patience brings about our maturity.
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Sometimes we will be the victims of an uncaring and selfish world.
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Jacob was the victim of his father in law.
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Sometimes we will be the victims.
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Sometimes our past sins will come in and bring consequences into our life.
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Think about Jacob.
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He fooled his father and his father in law fooled him.
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The trickster became the tricked.
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The fox got out foxed.
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Don't ever believe that becoming a Christian makes all your problems go away.
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It is just not true.
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In fact, I'll say this.
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Sometimes becoming a Christian brings more problems.
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Jesus said, I did not come into this world to bring peace, but a sword.
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And the gospel will divide families.
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That will divide fathers from sons and mothers from daughters.
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I don't know about you, but I know that there are family members I have that I'm divided from because of the gospel.
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I mean, we just celebrated Christmas yesterday, and I know that there there are places and people with which I am not welcome because I represent a worldview that they cannot receive.
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You understand that does divide and it does hurt.
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Christianity doesn't always make your life better.
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It doesn't always mean you don't fight battles.
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Doesn't mean you don't have struggles.
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In fact, just the opposite.
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But here's what we have to understand.
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Even in our difficulties.
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God is still working.
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Jacob didn't just happen upon that sister.
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Jacob didn't just happen to be standing right where Rachel would come in and bring him back to her father's house.
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And I want to mention something else, and we'll talk about this more next week.
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But it didn't just so happen that all these events took place, that Jacob would marry Leah, because Leah, not Rachel, is the ancestor of Jesus Christ.
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Leah gives birth to Judah.
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And Judah is the ancestor of Jesus.
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One thing we notice in this story.
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Not once does Jacob call upon the name of the Lord.
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Not once does he stop and pray.
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Not that we know of.
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It's not in the text.
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I mean, it could have happened, but it wasn't in the text.
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And so I leave you with this.
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If we go from the mountaintop to the valley, don't turn our hearts from God, but turn our hearts to God.
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Know that he is working in your life in the valley as much as he's working in the mountaintop.
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God is as much with Jacob when he's at the stairwell as he is when he is in Laban's home.
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Here's a song.
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And I decided not to sing it today.
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Instead, I said I would use it just as sort of a poem to end the sermon.
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But it's an old southern gospel song.
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My mom used to sing it when I was a kid, and so I learned it there, going to church with her.
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But the song is called God on the Mountain.
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And the verses are up here.
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You don't have to sing it.
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I'm not going to sing it, but I want you to hear what it says.
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It says, Life is easy when you're up on the mountain and you've got peace of mind like you've never known.
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But when things change and you're down in the valley, don't lose faith because you're never alone.
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For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley.
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When things go wrong, he will make them right.
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And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times.
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And the God of the day is still God in the night.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you that we can serve you when things are plenty and we can serve you when things are lacking.
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We can serve you when times are good and we can serve you when times are bad.
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Because you are the God who is constant in a world that is up and down.
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You are the God on the mountain, but you are still God in the valley.
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Lord, give us peace of mind to know that you are there.
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And father, I do pray.
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I pray, Lord, if there are those here who don't know you, who don't know you of the God of the mountain or the valley because they've never met you through your son, Jesus Christ, that they would understand that all of these stories of the Old Testament point forward to one story.
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And that is the story of Jesus, who came through the seed of the woman, who came as the son of Judah from the line of the line of the tribe of Judah, who came to save those who believe on his name.
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Lord, if there are those here who don't believe or draw them to yourself today, that they may know the God of the mountain and the God of the valley in Jesus name.
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Amen.