Sunday Night, June 2, 2019 PM

Leah’s Unloved Condition and the Birth of Her Sons

Forged ahead a little bit in the story, in Genesis 29 last time, and we had heard about how Laban had deceived Jacob. The deceiver was deceived, the supplanter was supplanted, and he got a taste of what it was like to be lied to and tricked, and instead of Jacob working seven years for Rachel, he ended up working seven years for Leah, and then he had to work another seven years for Rachel.

And so he ended up marrying these two sisters, and the strife began almost immediately. And to remind us of that, I want to start reading in verse 31 of chapter 29. Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Leah conceived, and bore a son, and named him Reuben, for she said, Because the Lord has seen my affliction, surely now my husband will love me. Then she conceived again, and bore a son, and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he is therefore given to me this son also.

And so she named him Simeon. She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore he was named Levi. And she conceived again, and bore a son, and said, This time I will praise the Lord.

Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing. Okay, so as Leah finds herself in the situation where she knows Jacob wanted to marry Rachel, she knows what his preference was, and this would be obvious to her and to Rachel both.

And the Lord looked upon Leah's condition and saw that she was unloved, and he had mercy upon her. In his compassion, he allowed her to bear children. We are reminded that God is sovereign over that, and God is sovereign over having children or not having children.

We are just reminded in this instance of who's running the whole thing. And we see that, we hear the conflict in Leah, the struggle she has, by the way she names her children. And so she names Reuben, that because it basically means, See a son.

Look here, here I have a son. And it's kind of, Will you love me now, husband, and firstborn son, that's a pretty good deal. But when she has the next son, Simeon, meaning one who hears, and then she's saying, The Lord has heard my affliction, because her affliction was continuing.

So she had another son, so she still feels unloved, she still feels second class. And so when she has this son, she names him Simeon as an expression of that ongoing turmoil in her heart. And then she has a son named Levi, Levi means to be joined to, and that's why she's hoping that my husband will be attached to me, at least attached, that he will, he will show that kind of interest and attention that I'm so desiring, as she continues to struggle through this.

And then she has her fourth born son Judah, which means praise. And she says she will praise the Lord. And we talked about how often that is the way in our Christian lives, we will go through several trials, we may keep a record of them in a journal, maybe our record is more in conversations with a deep and personal friend about how things are going and our struggles.

But the Lord wants to bring us to a point where we're praising him and glorifying him and recognizing his work in our lives through whatever that trial or tribulation is. And we see the Lord, accordingly, a wonderful blessing in that she was the mother of Judah through who comes the Messiah.

And so through the trials of this unloved woman, this unwanted woman, we have her story is part of the story of the lineage of the Messiah. How often do we find that as we trace the coming of the seed, as we as we look at the different women who were involved, let's think about that for just for a moment, who are the women that we know of in the lineage of the Messiah that maybe stand out to us.

So we have Leah as one of them, Rahab is one I heard someone say Rahab, Rahab the harlot of Jericho. So we have Ruth, there's Bathsheba, Tamar, that's funny guys. So okay, missing anybody, I don't know, Sarah, okay.

So we have, when we think about, we have Ruth and Rahab who were, she was from Moab, Rahab was a Canaanite from Jericho. So we have women who were outside of the family line of Abraham and Sarah, think about Sarah and Rebecca were both barren for a time before God opened their wombs, okay, they struggled with barrenness.

We have Leah who was unloved, we think of Tamar and her situation, she was unwanted as well and she resorted to sin and deception to have a child and God still worked through that situation. We have Bathsheba who was involved in adultery with King David and then we have the story of Mary and her particular situation.

So we think about, each one of these names brings to mind a particular story and I think those stories are usually, I think I'm just looking at all these, each one of these stories has a lot of turmoil, a lot of challenges, a lot of pain, concern, danger even involved in each one of these and yet God worked through every single one of those perilous situations to bring about the birth of Jesus Christ and that's a good moment to stop and reflect about God being the one who's in charge of everything and how he brings good out of what is meant for evil, God means for good, brings about good.

Rachel, Bilhah, and the Rivalry Over Children

We need to remember that especially as we go through chapter 30 and we hear the rivalry between Rachel and Leah continuing. Verse 1 of chapter 30 in Genesis, now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister and she said to Jacob, give me children or else I die.

So Jacob's thinking about those options. Actually Jacob's anger burned against Rachel and he said, am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? And so this is not a quiet conversation and I guess if you live in tents, you know, a lot of arguments are going to be semi-public.

So they're having an argument, a bit of a yelling match here. It's not a very happy time in the family. Leah has been jealous of Rachel all this time and now Rachel is jealous of Leah and she says, give me children or else I die and Jacob's like, it's not my fault.

God is the one who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb. And so she says, here's a solution. Here is my maid Bilhah. Go unto her that she may bear on my knees that through her I too may have children.

Now for us, that sounds like a pretty odd plan. We don't think in terms of somebody else being the representative head of somebody else and then somehow this works out. But basically, Rachel owned Bilhah.

Bilhah's identity was wrapped up in who Rachel was. When Rachel married Jacob, Laban gave Bilhah to her as her handmaiden. And so she was basically an extension of Rachel in that mindset, in that culture.

But Bilhah was her own woman and that's the truth. She was someone created in God's image. And yet in her life, she was basically the extension of Rachel in doing the things that Rachel needed to be done.

And in this case, bearing children in Rachel's point of view. This was a bad idea. This is the same thing that Sarah had suggested about Hagar. Hagar's my slave. She's an extension of my identity. Therefore, this is how we're going to have a child.

And they end up having Ishmael. So Rachel tries this as well. So she gave him her maid, Bilhah, as a wife and Jacob went into her. Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. So it works, so it must be right.

Then Rachel said, God has vindicated me and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son. Therefore, she named him Dan, which means judgment or judged. So basically, she finally has a son that she can claim as her own by extension through Bilhah and she says, vindicated.

Basically what she names him because she's jealous of her sister and in competition with her. So Rachel's maid, Bilhah, conceived and bore Jacob a second son. So Rachel said, with mighty wrestlings, I have wrestled with my sister and I have indeed prevailed.

So she named him Naphtali. So somehow she believes that she's prevailed by having two sons over her sister who had four and she had them through her maid. But nonetheless, she names him Naphtali, which means struggle.

In any case, it's just indicating all the struggles that she's having with her sister and so she names her child after that rivalry. Now when Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Leah's maid, Zilpah, bore Jacob a son and Leah said, how fortunate. So she's using this language to name her children. And then, I'm sorry, Zilpah's name was Gad, I'm sorry. Leah's maid, Zilpah, bore Jacob a son and Leah said, how fortunate.

So she named him Gad and that Gad just means fortunate, good things happening. And then a second son, Asher, which means happy, good situation. So she's got, for counting, six sons to her name versus two sons to her sister's name.

Right? I'm trying to keep track. Okay, so we have all this competition between the two wives. Is it to prove themselves, which one is the better wife to the husband? And so Jacob ends up the husband of four wives, which makes him the loser in this whole situation.

No man should be married to four wives, he should be married to one wife. And that is a blessing. Now in the days of wheat harvest, verse 14, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother, Leah.

Then Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son's mandrakes. But she said to her, is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son's mandrakes also? So Rachel said, therefore, he may lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes.

So basically, they're resorting to an in-house form of prostitution. Okay, you can pay for the husband tonight. When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then Leah went out to meet him and said, you must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes.

So he laid with her that night, and God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband. Do you think that's an accurate assessment?

So she named him Issachar, which means hired. How'd you like, why are you named Issachar? Okay, this is an example. This is an example of the danger of doing theology by experience. Okay, just because you're doing things, and you think that these are good ideas, and you can even spiritualize them.

And they're intensely personal to you because you're caught up in these trials and tribulations, that when things happen a certain way, you begin to assign theological ideas to them. Well, God did this because I said this and did this in this way.

And all of a sudden, you're creating your idea of God based upon your experiences. And the problem with that is that that particular God that you create based out of your experiences, he just keeps changing all the time.

Well, I used to think of God like this, but now I think, and it's not because I'm repenting of bad beliefs and confessing the truths of scripture, it's my situation keeps changing, and so my understanding of God keeps changing.

And this is just not a good, so what's going on here? Well, God, again, this is one of the themes of Genesis, that things that are not done right, sin occurs. God is so sovereign that he brings about his will either irrespective of what man is doing or through what man is doing to bring about what is good and righteous and holy, despite the failings of men.

And we just hear this time and time again in the book of Genesis. I mean, think about how messy it's been so far. Cain and Abel, I mean, Adam and Eve first, but Cain and Abel, Noah's excess, Ham's disrespect, Sarah's impatience, Abraham's apathy, the mess of Hagar and Ishmael, Isaac's favoritism, Rebecca's favoritism, Esau's hatred, Jacob's deception, what a mess.

And it's one thing after another, and God just keeps on being faithful to his promises, and that's good news. And that's not warrant for us to go out and live however we want to, because God's gonna do what he wants.

We see the pain and the sorrow that sin causes, okay? So Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. And then Leah said, God has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband will dwell with me because I have borne him six sons.

And he's gonna stay in my tent instead of Rachel's. So she named him Zebulun, Zebulun. And then she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. So in this sense, Leah thinks it's the last word. So she basically, you remember Dan?

Dinah is the female version of Dan. So her firstborn son, through her maid Bilhah, she said Dan. And at the end, Leah says, Dinah, I'm vindicated. So there, so they're still always in conflict. And this is, again, a signal of the misery of naming all your children based on your fight with your sister because you live in a polygamous marriage.

It's evidence of how bad of an idea this is. So if you hear someone objecting to the Bible because it promotes polygamy, it's like, well, you should probably read the Bible. Ah, Zebulun, let me see, will honor.

It means honor. So she was basically saying, since I've given him half a dozen sons, he'll honor me. He'll honor me and he'll stay with me. And then God remembered Rachel and God gave heed to her and opened her womb, so she conceived and bore a son.

And said, God has taken away my reproach. So she named him Joseph, saying, may the Lord give me another son. So she named her actual firstborn son another. It's like, I want another one. It's like, why is your name Joseph?

Well, it means that she wanted more than me. So she's like, hey, these are great names. It has the idea of, and all these names can actually mean something good. But in the context, we see actually why they were named what they were named.

And later on, when Jacob is blessing all of his sons near the end of Genesis, we're gonna see more about how each one of these names ends up being folded into his prophecies and blessings over these sons and their futures.

It's pretty interesting. So we have this series of all of these names, and what do we think about this? But here we have Jacob with 12 sons and a daughter, 12 sons and a daughter. Now, what was the promise that God gave to Abraham concerning his descendants?

Like it mentions the dust of the earth, sands on the seashore, stars in the sky, you're gonna have a lot of descendants. That's what God said. You're gonna have a multitude of descendants. You're gonna have a lot of people come forth from you.

And in fact, you're not just gonna be Abraham, great father, you're gonna be Abraham, father of a multitude of nations. And so the idea, that was the promise. And so here we have Jacob having 12 sons.

Well, that's a great start. I mean, all of a sudden you move from having one child and one child to 12, 12 sons. And we read at the end that there were 70 persons that moved down to Egypt as these sons got married and had children and so on.

So Jacob's 12 sons. How Jacob ended up having 12 sons is not a pretty story, is it? It's full of sin. It's full of problems. It looks like one really messy family. I would not want to have Jacob as my neighbor, I just wouldn't.

I didn't want to hear those angry fights next door and all the rivalries going on next door and all the mess. And what a crazy bunch of neighbors Jacob and his four wives and 12 sons and a daughter would be.

I mean, we're 11 at this point, Benjamin hasn't been born. But what a mess. I mean, what a mess this would be. And yet God still uses it for his purposes. This confluence of God's perfect plan and man's commission of evil is a paradox at the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God's Sovereignty Over Human Evil

What happened in the illegal arrest of Jesus Christ and his betrayal by one of his own disciples, the illegal series of trials that occurred against all the laws of the land, the blatant scheming against him, the successful attempt to not only mock him and scourge him, but also to murder him.

And then to try to paint it all in a certain picture, and it's all full of deception. Everything that was done was incredibly sinful. In fact, it was the greatest crime ever committed on the face of the planet in the history of all humanity.

Is there any other crime greater than the murder of Jesus Christ, God the Son? How could there be? It's the greatest evil ever perpetrated. And the people and many of the people involved said something like this, may his blood be upon us and our children.

We'll accept responsibility. And yet in all of that mess, and all of that evil, and all of that dark, awful mess, what do we learn? When Peter preached his Pentecost sermon, he said this in Acts 2 .23.

He said, this man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.

Yeah, you are responsible, and God is the one who was in charge of the whole thing. All right, evil was done, and God was the one making sure that it all came about in the way that he desired. You can hear it again when the church gathers after a point of persecution.

And in Acts 4, praying through Psalm 2, and again, it's a bad time and it's a mess. Let's look at that, verse 23, Acts 4. And when they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them, because they were persecuting Peter and John and the church.

When they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, Lord, it is you who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Okay, so the first thing you do, you get persecuted.

The ruling authorities are trying to basically shut your message down or you're gonna be imprisoned. And the first thing the church does is pray, God, you made everything. So we know who's in charge. That's how you start.

Then who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said, and now I quote Psalm 2. Why did the Gentiles rage and the people devise futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.

The scriptures, to understand what's going on, they make a proper assessment. It says, for truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur.

So Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and the Jews, who conspired to murder the son of God, they actually ended up doing whatever God's hand and purpose predestined to occur. Because what God was doing was taking the worst evil ever committed on the face of the planet to accomplish the greatest good in the history of mankind, which was the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world.

So the kind of God that we read about in Genesis is the same God we read about in Acts and the Gospels. He's the kind of God who, though these things are meant for evil by sinners, God takes it and works it for good.

And there's no greater expression of that than what we find here in the person and work of Jesus Christ. All right, any questions or thoughts as we close? Well, let's close by singing the doxology together.