Laban and Leah

Well this morning, we're not quite finishing chapter 29. We'll we'll go up to verse 30 and then we'll take verses 31 through 35 into chapter 30. Next week, so we're going to be introduced of course to the marriage between both Jacob and Leah as well as Jacob and Rachel and then we'll meet the offspring of Jacob and Leah next week heading into the conflict that arises in chapter 30.

Jacob, Leah, and Rachel in Haran

But this morning we want to focus on verses 21 through 30. Last week we considered Jacob's arrival at Haran. Remember he had been sent there by his father really at his mother's insistence and He of course encountered God along the way at Bethel the place that to him seemed like the gate of heaven.

He called it the house of God. And it was at Bethel that he had God's assurance that he would be with him that he would go before him. That he would protect him and provide for him and we saw Jacob our twisting Manipulating very self-willed and selfish friend.

Counter with God and say if you're willing to do this and provide for my daily needs then indeed you will be my God. And he continued on in his journey and arrived at Haran and last week We read of his encounter with Rachel the shepherdess at the well and the excitement and the joy as she rushed back to introduce Jacob to Laban and then we begin really in chapter 29 verse 18 and following the sort of Negotiations with Laban we read this is going back to last week verse 18 Jacob loved Rachel.

That's setting up a contrast that we'll see in verse 31 next week. So keep that as a banner. Jacob loved Rachel. He did not love Leah. Jacob loved Rachel so he said I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter and Laban said it is better that I give her to you than that.

I should give her to another man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her. Now this is not the first time we've encountered Laban.

We encountered him back in chapter 24. When Abraham arranged the servant to go perhaps it was Eliezer and to fetch Rebecca for Isaac and of course Laban at the time we didn't necessarily see it. But he seemed to be extremely interested in the wealth that this servant brought with him and of course these chapters later Laban wouldn't have forgotten that Abraham's grandson was part of this wealthy family.

Although Jacob appeared and there's no indication that he brought much wealth with him. There's no camel train. He's not bringing gold chests out from under the saddles. He's on the run and that doesn't mean he came only with a backpack and you know Cargo pants, but it probably does mean that he didn't have this very Extravagant train of wealth that Laban could attach himself to but what he did notice about Jacob was his strength.

Who but a Highland Scotsman could move a stone like that as we read last week and he's on the run now. And of course, there's this question of the murder plot hanging over everything. Jacob's not exactly the best prospect for marriage.

So you're the heir and what brings you here? You're the heir and what's the family situation? How did you become heir by the way and What of your older brother Esau? What of the firstborn of your family?

So the fact that Jacob is on the run introduces some uncertainty into the prospect of marriage. Laban doesn't really seem that concerned. He's mostly interested in what Jake we can offer him and of course in the background.

We need to remember be reminded of the fact God had assured Jacob that he was with him and he was going to bring him Back into the land. He didn't say when he would do it. He just said that he would do it now for Laban.

He clearly wants to marry off his daughters, but he's not down with Jacob of sconding back to Canaan. He wants Jacob to stay with him in her on he wants Jacob to be a laborer. And so Laban just like Jacob is constantly trying to manipulate things to his own benefit.

And that's really important. Laban is constantly trying to manipulate things to his own benefit even his nephew even his own daughters. All his relationships are means by which he can get ahead he can provide for himself.

Have more comfort in life have more ease. Laban is a twister as we said of Jacob his own daughters most likely named after one of the greatest prizes in his life. His prowess at Raising cattle will will be seeing that in chapters 30 and 31, but of course He named his children probably an honorary name.

Leia means cow. Rachel means you if you're looking for you know Good names there most likely this was meant to be sort of a symbol of prosperity or blessing or abundance. He had been blessed with all this great cattle and sort of as a tribute He named his daughters.

But that becomes ironic in its own regard as he now in this chapter will Sell his daughters for his own gain just like he might sell cattle for his own gain. In fact when the time finally comes for Jacob to leave Laban's house.

Even his own daughters realized just what kind of man their father is. We read in Genesis 31 14 Jacob had brought them out into the field and told both Rachel and Leia His plan to leave and this is their reply.

Is there any portion or inheritance left in our father's house? He sold us and indeed he's devoured all of our money meaning the dowry. So this was not a father that was interested in his daughter's well-being.

This was not a daughter who was very carefully and cautiously arranging a marriage. This was a cattle trader. This was a man who had consumed their own livelihood for his gain and even they recognized what's left for us in our father's house.

He's devoured it all. Laban is a deceiver. Laban is a twister. Laban is a master manipulator and it comes as zero surprise That God in his providence has placed Jacob the twister the deceiver the master manipulator right at this man's disposal.

Jacob of course is on the run from Esau and Esau. According to God's prophecy is supposed to be serving Jacob the older shall serve the younger and indeed that was part of the blessing. Your brethren shall serve you but now Jacob is the one serving Laban rather than being served by his elder brother.

He is serving his deceitful twisting uncle. Greedy Jacob now has met his match in greedy Laban. It means they're cut from the same cloth and perhaps now we look at verse 14 with new eyes Laban saying surely you are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone and we're saying Oh more than you realize.

And so when we're reading chapter 29 We're seeing God moving forward in Jacob's life from the call what we would call perhaps the effectual call at Bethel where he becomes the god of Jacob where Jacob owns him and worships him as his own God.

Not by the hearing of the ear as it would have been at Beersheba, but by his own sight. He now worships the Lord. But if that was his calling there's so much work to be done and in chapter 29 what we really have is Sanctification the beginning of God untwisting the twister.

The beginning of God taking Jacob as he had called him out of Beersheba and making him into a man who walks before him in righteousness and holiness and that's the difference really between Not just Beersheba and Haran, but even Bethel and Haran between the calling and the encounter the experience of God and then the grace that God is going to work in and work through like Leaven in a dough slowly, but surely Captivating and saturating the life of Jacob chapter 29 beginning in verse 21.

God is sanctifying Jacob. So we read beginning in verse 21 Jacob says to Laban give me my wife now that already tells us something of the The way that this conversation and the way that the feelings are when I approached My father-in-law to marry Elisha.

I did not say that. Give me your daughter that I might marry her.

Hey.

And you want to smooth things over. So what kind of relationship has it been for seven years if there's this kind of conversation? All right, listen sit down. Give me my wife. He was counting the days.

He didn't want any games. We almost get the sense that there's no love lost between these two men and here's the deal. Give me my wife. Stop playing games. Stop putting things off. My days have been fulfilled.

Give her to me that I may go into her. Now, of course Laban would have been the type of guy that you needed to remind. Laban was not counting down the days in the same way that Jacob was. Laban wasn't said isn't this wonderful.

Aren't you so excited Rachel? We've been preparing all these years and it's gonna be the most momentous wonderful thing. Aren't you excited? I'm so excited for you. Come give me a hug. Rather Laban is trying to push off.

And so Jacob has to come in and demand Rachel's hand. When we read verse 22 Laban gathered together all the men of the place Made a feast and it came to pass in the evening. The darkness here is significant that he took Leah, uh-oh already a problem not Rachel but Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob and He went in to her.

So you have the feast you have what would have been the celebration would have lasted a week. According to Judges 14 this great feast is great Celebration and of course in that evening when they were finally married one to the other They went in into the bridal chamber and as part of the gift.

We read verse 24 Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. That's setting up in the next chapter part of the progeny of Jacob. But this would have been really part of the bridal price part of the gift.

Zilpah the handmaiden to Leah. Now ordinarily as we said a wedding in those times would have involved a large feast and you can imagine a feast would have wine. And it would have been very long even I Had a relatively short wedding but it was pretty exhausting so I can only imagine a week of celebration and festivity just how exhausting that would be and No doubt there was wine being passed around and it was evening and all of these things perhaps.

Can explain how Jacob could not understand that? Leo was standing before him behind that veil. It would have been common for the bride to be veil. We already got a sense of that veil. Though it was not a marriage so many at the time when his father Isaac met Rebecca and she covered herself with a veil.

Of course Jacob was there alone. He didn't have any family. He didn't have any sisters or any servants that were putting some detective work together. Wait a minute. Something's not adding up here. Rachel's over there.

And so he has no help here. He's just being pulled around in the dancing as the wine goblets are being passed around and the evening is setting in as late Laban Is constantly hovering and ensuring that Jacob's not able to uncover unveil the plot of who's actually behind the wedding veil.

We remember that Leia had been described as dull of eyes an idiom. That's very hard to explain and the fact that it's an idiom That's hard to explain most likely means it was there for this ironic parallel to Jacob who is now dull of eyes.

He's not able to discern that the woman he's about to take into the bride chamber is in fact Leia and not the love of his heart Rachel and so the whole idea of the veil is Really at play. There's an unveiling of the bride, which is the unveiling of Laban's plot.

We read that in verse 25 it came to pass in the morning and Behold it was Leia behold there in Hebrew. You could translate it 20 different ways, but it's an exclamation. So often in the Psalms. Oh. You know, let us praise the Lord or in narrative often behold as we have it translated here.

But sometimes it's just sort of an exclamation and where I think we're meant to read it that way it came to pass in the morning. And ah, it was Leia. That's how he would have reacted. When his senses had returned to him and light was now flooding into the bridal chamber and he could actually see.

No longer being dull of eyes that he had spent that night with who he thought was Rachel. And in fact, it was Leia. And what does he do? He says.

To Laban.

What have you done to me? What is this that you've done to me? Esau said the exact same thing Jacob. Perhaps ignorant of the irony at this very moment in the split-second reaction. But it's the same words with the same tone in light of the same sudden shock.

What have you done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you why have you deceived me. And it wasn't just the ironic echo of Esau's Grievous complaint that we have on Jacob's tongue. We also recognize the significance of Laban exchanging daughters that one might be blessed in marriage in The same way that Isaac had received swapped sons so that one might be blessed.

Why have you deceived me in other words is a question that Jacob could sympathize with. Why have you deceived me? Laban's answer to that question if it wasn't rhetorical Would have been the exact same answer that Jacob would have given when he deceived his own father and his own brother.

Why did I deceive you? Laban would say but behind the excuse if he was being honest because Laban lives for Laban. Laban lives for Laban. Why did you deceive me? Jacob lives for Jacob. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there.

You got to provide for yourself.

No one's gonna help you along. No one's gonna do things for you. You gotta you gotta make it. And you got to do whatever is necessary to get ahead. Why have you deceived me? Laban of course says well, it's because of my daughter the the custom of having the elders.

But the answer is really Laban lives for Laban. He doesn't live for his daughters. He has no real concern for them for his nephew. He's only concerned about himself, but he gives this excuse in verse 26.

Oh, it must not be done in our country. Should I have mentioned this seven years ago? Maybe well anyways just so you know. This is not done in our country to give the younger. Before the firstborn. I just wonder hearing these terms if Jacob's complaint all of a sudden was muted the younger the firstborn this deception this scandal.

Now what was meant to be? For the younger has been given to the firstborn. But Jacob, of course Received what was meant to be for the firstborn as the younger so there's this ironic reversal that's taken place at the wedding and I wonder if Jacob could begin to see the Providential rebuke of God upon all that he had done to obtain the blessing in this marriage.

And so he says nothing. Fulfill her week and we will give you this one also for the service, which you will serve me still another seven years. It must have struck Jacob. He must have seen God's fingerprints upon this Providence.

He of course begins to react like he saw but he never quite follows it through and Even when Laban all of a sudden adds another seven years of service to him. To gain the bride that he originally was seeking.

We don't read of Jacob's complaint. We don't read of him Hatching this counter plot to run away. We don't read of him having this murderous rage. He doesn't howl like a lion like Esau did. He doesn't tremble violently like his father Isaac if anything Jacob submits to this providential unfolding of God.

You can imagine what it would have been like To give Laban credit at least he doesn't make him wait to have Rachel after that second set of seven years. They they end up fulfilling that week of the marriage ceremony and now he has Rachel.

The woman that he sought the woman that he loved so dearly. But he has to stay around in Haran for another seven years and we read verse 29 that Laban gave Bilhah. So here again We have this aspect of the bride price Bilhah.

Setting up the genealogy in the next chapter is given to Rachel as a maid and we read that Jacob went into Rachel an idiom for the fact he took her into the bride chamber consummated the marriage and Then setting us up for next week.

He loved Rachel more than Leah. We have that again just as a statement. It's about to be repeated two verses down. And so we think of how Leah Must feel in light of this whole week. Maybe there was a part of her deep down in her heart that Maybe he will love me when he sees me when he's with me.

Maybe somehow. Somehow he will love me. We're gonna see it tragically in the rest of chapter 29. Every time she names a child the child is not is not enough for her. Her heart is longing for her husband's affection her husband's desire.

Maybe now maybe now.

Surely now and.

So she's going to have to submit to the providence of God and trust God. In light of this destructive week think of Jacob and Rachel. For seven years. He had daydreamed of what it would be like to be at this place.

It seemed like a few days to him and now what a complete mess. And all the joy of that anticipation between Rachel and Jacob, it's it's completely spoiled. Think of how this destroyed the way that Rachel and layer viewed Laban their father.

Surely they were in on the plot. They were forced not to not to reveal it too soon not to do anything. They had to submit to it and we're gonna see that it's not only Jacob submitting to the providence and leadership of God.

But it's also.

Leia and Rachel who submit to the providence in the leading of God. And now Laban not only Begins these marriages in the most difficult places imaginable. But he he creates for Jacob a household that's already in conflict.

And the rivalry between these two sisters Will carry through not only the next chapter but down through Israelite history as in Leviticus 18. It's forbidden for a man to marry two sisters. Well, they're both alive and it seems to be a lesson learned from this very episode.

So the the banner the the big idea the big point of everything that we've read from verses 21 through 30 is simply this. In order to untwist Jacob in order to begin to work into Jacob's life that the grace and the holiness that God requires of him.

He introduces Laban the twister. The tables in other words are completely turned on Jacob. You could put it and this is perhaps reductive he gets a taste of his own medicine. You know what goes around comes around all these little sayings we have but it's so much more profound so much more poetic than that.

It's providential. It's sovereign. It's part of God's good design. It flows out of his love for Jacob out of all that He had promised Jacob the Laban the Haran all of it is necessary for God to cause Jacob to walk before him in uprightness and.

So Jacob Who had deceived his brother his poor old blind father? Who got the blessing instead of Esau? Now begins to see the mirror of that before him in this episode. Now Laban is the one who's deceived blind Jacob in the evening when he cannot see the unveiling of the deception comes through the unveiling of Leia and.

He gives Leia.

Who gets the blessing instead of her sibling. All of these things would have been like daggers to Jacob's conscience recognizing God's handiwork. Jacob has been Jacob as one preacher said. But of course Jacob is not like Esau and Jacob is not like Laban.

He does not react. And he does not think or plot in the way that he himself had once done. He submits to the providence of God and so we begin to see the impact of God's presence in Jacob's life even in this short time between his calling and Seven years of hard work under an unjust and manipulating man.

We find Jacob to have a certain patience and resolve. He had already worked harder than he needed to to obtain Rachel and even now that he does not have Rachel in the way that he expected he submits to work an additional seven years.

That's like well you work seven years for her. You're gonna work seven years for Rachel again, and he submits to that now. Sort of double the injustice. The generosity of Jacob's obedience is taken and manipulated against him by Laban and yet even there Jacob submits and he's not submitting to Laban.

He's submitting to the discipline and the providence of God in his life very important point in The Christian life. It's not so much that we submit to the circumstances of Haran. We submit to a very difficult person like Laban.

Maybe you have a Laban in your life. It's not that you're submitting to them so much as you're submitting to God's providence of having them in your life. And so the comparison between Jacob and Laban at one point in Jacob's life that would have been identical.

But already they're so far apart. And it's simply because of God's grace to Jacob. We remember the echo of God's promise at Bethel. I'm going to be with you. I'm gonna prosper you. You don't have to fend for yourself anymore.

You don't have to lie and cheat and steal manipulate deceive to get ahead. I'm gonna provide for you. I'm gonna be with you and Jacob puts faith in that promise of God. Even when he knows He's at the hands of Laban and he's completely vulnerable to more manipulation and abuse and he's probably thinking What's the surprise gonna be seven years from now?

What's waiting for me then but he submits in faith to the providence of God. So both Jacob and Laban are sinners and they're sinners with almost the same sins. They have the same sinful desires and they have the same sinful means they use to get them but now there's this difference between them and the difference is simply that the grace of God came to Jacob and took Jacob in.

Providentially guided Jacob and gave Jacob a spirit and a faith and a willingness. To trust God in the midst of this discipline in this difficulty in the midst of trial. So if I could reduce everything down to a sentence, it would be this.

God keeps his promise but God keeps his promise through the trials of sanctification. God keeps his promise. But it's not like tada here I am at Bethel now go on back home. Everything's been done for you.

Isn't that great? You know, I wanted you to come out here. So, you know that I'm your God and I'm with you now. Go ahead back home and take ownership of everything. Isn't that great that you know me now?

It's here. I am Jacob and I'm gonna be with you and I've got work to do in your life.

And.

Now here you are in Haran and it's gonna be a long stretch. But I've given you something to work for. And as Jacob is working toward Rachel He's also growing in this grace for seven years and and when this whole plot is unveiled Jacob is not ruined.

He's not thrown about by every wind of doctrine. He's contented. There's a certain resolve that he has. He does not object. He does not counter plot.

He submits.

God is keeping his promise to Jacob. Jacob knows that he is but he's keeping his promise through the trial of sanctification. And so this passage is really calling our attention to God's work in us. God's work in Jacob.

God's work in Jacob through being in Haran. God's work in Jacob as a result of being under Laban. And this is all part of how God works in his people. I don't know what your Haran is meaning your setting your situation the circumstances that are pinching you.

Making life difficult more difficult than it should be more difficult than it is for others. We all have a Haran at one point or another. Or maybe on top of that. It's not just the Haran, but it's the Laban some difficult person some difficult relationship.

You're getting a raw deal in the world's eyes. It shouldn't be this way. It wasn't meant to be this way and you recognize in this passage that God God's grace God's providence has designed you to encounter this setting and this relationship for his work in you.

This is his design. This is how he's building grace into your life how he's conforming you to be able to walk with him in an upright way. I was reading an excerpt from a sort of moral philosopher contemporary to Paul Plutarch and He raised this point the book was on the progress of virtue.

He was a sort of a stoic philosopher and So the point he raised was how do you progress in virtue? What do you need in order to progress to grow in virtue? And he says well you need to have some kind assistance in your life kind assistance.

That will that will overlook your faults and carry you forward. You need kind assistance. But then you also need challenges to overcome that that will cause you to be Aware and always pressing forward you need some obstacles some grist for the mill so to speak.

And so he said therefore if anyone wants to progress in virtue, they must have a close friend and a sworn enemy. It's very wise and Jacob has that he has a kind friend in the presence of God. In the love he has for Rachel in the love of his mother who'd sent him to her on he has all sorts of kind assistance in his life.

Then he also has this this treacherous man and God is using both of these both of these things to to grow Jacob in his grace in Sanctification in the Christians life has both blessing and trial both kind assistance and difficult opposition.

But God keeps his promise and he keeps it through the trials of sanctification. So what is sanctification? We're going to be returning here a few weeks from now. This is sort of a larger theme for this part of Jacob's life all the way up to chapter 32.

What is sanctification to set some things out?

Well.

Sanctification according to the shorter Catechism is the work of God's free grace. Whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God. Now, let's pause there. Please notice the agent of all this activity of sanctification.

Sanctification is the work of who. Not us not Jacob not Laban. Sanctification is the work of God. It's a work of his free grace. The free grace that bestows itself at Bethel. The free grace that's not as of evident or apparent or Experiential.

But it's very much there and at work and active even in Haran. Whereby we are renewed. Notice that's passive. We are renewed in the whole man after the image of God. So we are renewed by God. Sanctification is the work of God, but then notice this.

We are enabled. That's an interesting word, isn't it? We are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. Shorter catechism that word enabled all the sudden says. Yes, sanctification is a work of God if you don't have God's free grace.

You won't have sanctification. It's a work that God is doing and he's doing it so that you might be renewed. But he's also doing it to enable you. That's an interesting word. Because it implies that you are responsible for your sanctification.

It does not give you the credit for your sanctification. It is a work of God's free grace. But that free grace enables you to walk in sanctification and. So you have to walk in sanctification and. What does that walk in sanctification look like for you?

You're enabled more and more and more and more to die to sin and.

And.

Coupled with that simultaneous to that the other side of that coin more and more and more to live. You can't pull those apart right. If you take dying unto sin and turn it over it's living unto holiness.

That's what it looks like. And so God his free grace Poured out upon Jacob throughout his whole life even before he was born. God's grace was being poured out upon Jacob. It was said before the twins were even born Romans 9 the older shall serve the younger.

God's free grace bestowed upon Jacob. But Jacob this man who walks in deceitfulness and manipulation the selfish self-willed Laban like man Has now encountered God's grace his effectual calling at Bethel and God now as a result of that grace is is actively renewing Jacob according to his own image and With Haran with Laban not just with the blessings, but with the trials.

He's enabling Jacob to walk with him by faith putting sin to death and living unto righteousness. So God is the worker of our sanctification. God is at work actively in the life of a Christian to bring about sanctification and Yet this is not some passive event for the Christian.

It wasn't passive for Jacob every time he picked up the plow or tied up the hay bales. Or ran after the lost sheep every time he moved the well stones and somehow that became his job. Why am I the only guy all of a sudden that's dragging the well stone?

Every time he did anything He was recognizing that he was walking by faith in the work that God had begun in his life. He recognized that he was not preserving providing preparing himself. God was preserving him.

God was providing for him. God was preparing him for all that he had promised and so what is his part? It's to recognize that that grace has enabled him and every day. It's enabling him to press on another day to deal with that difficult laban to put up with all the injustice at Haran.

Every day, he recognized that God would give him the strength that was sufficient just for that day the bread that was sufficient for that Day, and he could let tomorrow's troubles worry about themselves.

It's an enabling grace. When we talk about sanctification. So Jacob could not fall into the old Keswick error. The Keswick error came out of what we call sometimes the higher life movement or the holiness restoration it was a huge part of Wesleyan Methodism about a century and a half to two centuries ago and especially in the in the 19th century in both England and America this higher life teaching this holiness teaching was widespread.

The idea was you can be fully sanctified in this life. If you've been a Christian for any length of time I hope you've never been deceived at that kind of thought. But you had these teachers that would go around and they wouldn't necessarily claim to have arrived.

You'd really want to walk with them closely if anyone claimed that can I you know, can we spend some time together this week? I have a feeling I could catch you out. But you had these people claiming no, no, no, not that we've arrived but it is possible.

It's fully attainable in this life. To never sin again and JC Raul wrote his book holiness against in part against this very false understanding of holiness and sanctification. The famous phrase that came out of the Keswick conferences where this teaching was promoted was let go and let God.

Let go and let God. And when you take that phrase and you apply it to sanctification. It sounds very pious and very holy it sounds somewhat like the shorter catechism, doesn't it? It's it's a work of God a work of his free grace.

So let go and let God. It's actually a very dangerous unbiblical phrase. Sanctification is a work that begins by God that's actively worked by God. That's maintained that every at every turn by the grace of God through his indwelling spirit.

And so it's never something passive. It's something that we're actually called to participate with to enact to live out to walk out to work out even with fear and trembling. And so you never let go and let God passively as though there's some sanctification zap.

When scripture describes the process of sanctification in the Christians life. It looks a lot like Jacob's sweating it out for seven years in Iran. It looks like a marathon where you're running to win the prize and you're casting off every entangling weight that clings to you.

It looks like a wrestling match where you're beating your body into submission so that you can be a little stronger than you were last Season, it looks like a hunt. It looks like a battle. It looks like warfare or even a crucifixion.

These are the images of a Christians life being made holy. And so we emphasize especially. We are enabled More and more to die unto sin. We're enabled God's grace enables and Then we pluck out the eye and we lop off the arm and we repent on our knees for all the things that that grace Was spurned for was resisted reacted against wasn't held on to wasn't sought.

Wasn't thanked. We're enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. Another thing we see here is simply this God is all and this is a point we've made elsewhere. I think we've made it with Abraham probably made it with Isaac, too.

We always think that God is at work most specifically most uniquely perhaps only in those nights of Bethel. Like there he is.

Right.

His presence his power. His work in my life. I Trace it all back to that night at Bethel. I've been living off the vapors of that ever since. He filled up my tank that night at Bethel and I'm just driving and waiting for another night of Bethel to come.

That's how we think of the Christian life. So often that he's doing his work in that Bethel night. And what we see is no. If anything that's the preparation for the work God is doing his work in the long long long years at Haran.

Where Jacob's not having these night visions of God, but he's nevertheless seeing God's active work in his life.

And.

So after the night of Bethel comes the long Years of Haran where your faith is being tested and when your faith is tested it produces all of these fruits of righteousness.

Brief.

Mountaintop. Experiences in other words are always followed in the Christian life by long years of valleys. And it's in the long years of valley that the real test of our faith is tried and and the real Fruitfulness of our faith is produced.

Jacob perhaps would have thought he's the most fruitful at Bethel when he's floored and just Receiving God's presence in his life. This is amazing. And he probably doesn't feel that way when he's working it out day by day.

Seeing all of his failures and stumblings that gritting his teeth hating Laban like an enemy. All of these things unfolding over the long years of Haran, but that is where God is doing his work in Jacob's life.