Genesis 29 God Kharma and Uncle Dads

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service.

This message is by Lead Pastor Don Filsack and is a part of the series Beginning with God, Walking Through the

Book of Genesis. If you would like to contact us, please visit us on the web at recastchurch .com

Here's Pastor Don. Hey, welcome to church! Is this crazy or what?

I'm feeling good. This is crazy good. I'm seeing a lot of people here, man.

We got the whole family together. Again. Man, we are so excited guys, and thank you for coming out.

You are the smart ones because you can set your clocks the right way. So good job, and be gracious to those who come a little bit later.

Just smile. Give them a hug, right? But we really are glad that you guys are here, and as we kick off this very first Sunday in Madawan El, we have some business to take care of.

We have some people to thank, and as you can see, you know, maybe you just came in and it's like, oh chairs.

Oh, the doughnuts made it over. Look at the stuff on the stage. That's great. All of this stuff was put here by people, right?

People who had to plan, and think, and come up with schedules, all that good stuff, and the first thing

I want to do is just acknowledge all of the effort, and the work, and the time, and the energy that has been spent in getting this transition to happen, and I think we just need a big round of applause.

And I only have 10 minutes here, so there's no way that I can get through a whole list of names, but we just have some crews.

Jeremy Thompson and the setup crew has just been busting tail making this happen, and Jeremy's even like design like schematics, right?

I mean, he like did CAD drawings for like where tables go, and it's been incredible, so Jeremy thank you for all your work.

We have the recast kids, which we're going to get to here as well. I'm Kerry Canold, and just a whole bunch of people making that happen.

Who else? Hospitality, Craig and Janae, Mitchell making that happen.

Thank you, and Coffee and Donuts. We can't, just can't do church without that, so. And then in the back there, we have these guys, these humble servants, the tech team.

Marty Russon has helped with the transition. Brian Frank's been on the sound tech, and just a whole bunch of guys.

Nate Gamble has been helping out, and they've put in a lot of time, technical work, making this happen, even like making their own cables.

That's how legit they are. And then of course the band, not there, they disappeared, but Josh back there, just making this happen, having to figure out new places to practice, so anyway.

And then obviously Don and the crew in the office, just a whole bunch of people making things happen.

So how about another round of applause? Just thank you. Yep. Now we also have someone, a special guest here this morning, that we just want to give a huge thank you to.

Joanna Tullis, if you could kind of come up with Carrie, make your way up here. If you don't know

Joanna, Joanna is the owner of Kitty U, and if you guys don't know, since Recast got in the

Red Arrow facility, we have been using Kitty U free of charge. Recast could not, for five years, which is simply out of love and grace of Joanna here to help us grow as a church, and we could not have grown to this size to make this transition without a space for kids like we've had, and she has just opened, she's been so pleasant to work with, and it's like we,

I wish we could do more for you, but you don't take it, so it's like, well, thank you so very much, and we do have a small token for you, just to say thank you for the five years.

We have gift cards for you and all of your staff, and we just want to thank you again, and we are going to miss getting in there and seeing all the stuff every week, but really, thank you for all the blessings that you've given us for these past five years, so yeah.

Awesome, and then speaking of Recast kids,

Kitty U is where we hold our kids program, and Carrie Canold here, come on over,

Carrie, Carrie also has been director for five plus years, and she, that's worth an applause.

She has labored tirelessly coordinating volunteers, making sure supplies have been there, loving on kids, set up dealing with me and registration ideas, right, just all these kinds of things, and she has just been wonderful and faithful, and we want to celebrate her today.

It's also, today is her transition, the beginning of your transition, because I'm sure we're going to need your help for a little bit, but she is officially done as Recast kids director.

That's a little bit sad. But, not going anywhere, and she serves a ton of people all over our church, and she's going to keep serving, but she's just making a transition, and we want to thank you,

Carrie, for all of the work that you've put in, and for the example that you've set for all of us as volunteers and staff and leaders, and we really do appreciate it, and and we have, we have a little gift here.

Krista, would you like to say something to your friend, Carrie? I'm overwhelmed this morning looking through this book before we brought it up to you, and I looked up meeting minutes last night, and from 2008, you started researching curriculum, and from the very beginning,

I thought you had the hardest job of any of us. You've been a tireless leader.

I have always seen a smile on your face, and it's not an easy job what she does, and just want to thank you from everybody at Recast, and thank you for taking care of me at my

Recast from the beginning. So here's a scrapbook of some thank -you mementos from our kids and from our parents, and then a token of our appreciation from Recast Church to her favorite restaurant here in Mattawan.

So we love you, and we know you'll continue to bless and serve our church in different ways, okay?

In Carrie stepping down, we just want to give you a heads up on how we're going to move forward with Recast Kids, and as you can see,

I'm wearing the green, all right? So actually, I'm going to be the elder who's overseeing Recast Kids.

I am not going to be a director like Carrie was. She was doing a ton, and Don has said for a while now, it's taking us five people to replace her, and so that's what we're doing.

We're forming a team, a Recast Kids team with head teachers and people over registration department and in each of the different age groups, and I will be overseeing that team and working with them, but that's how we're going to move forward, and we're excited.

It's a great point to transition. Things are looking a little bit differently because we're in the school, and we'll be able to do some new things there.

If you have questions or are looking to volunteer, Linda is our recruiter, and she will be hounding you to help out in Recast Kids, and feel free to say yes to her.

All right, let's pray, and then we'll hand it over to Don. Heavenly Father, we come here today so grateful for the way that you've provided for us,

Father, and man, this church has grown, and people have come to Christ through Recast, and people are growing growing in faith and community and service, and Father, there's a lot of work that people have put into this, and we thank you for them, but we acknowledge

God that our very breath comes from you. Our very life is from you. Our strength and our energy and all of these pieces that are falling into place to make this happen is from you, and so we show up here today happy and excited and just full of fellowship and love for one another as we do this thing together,

God, but we we acknowledge you first and foremost that this is your party, that this is your church, that we exist because of you and by you.

Father, we pray that you would get glory today, and that you'd be pleased with the worship that's going to happen and with Don's sermon, and God, we're just going to keep going.

We're going to keep faithfully preaching the word. We're going to keep communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we're going to sing your praises loud and bold, and we're going to lift you up,

Father, and we pray for your help, and we pray that you would bless this next venture, that you would lead us into this next phase of Recast, not for our glory and not so that we can get bigger signs, but so that we can continue to reach people for you, so that they would know your love, they would know your grace, they would be excited to live their lives for you,

God. So be with us now as we continue, God, and as we get back to church, and again, we thank you for Jesus making this all possible, his death on the cross, his grace that he has extended to us through the work that he did here on planet

Earth, and it's all for you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks a lot to Kyle for leading us in that.

Wow. Take a look around. I want you to just kind of turn around, feel free to look at each other. This is

Recast Church. We're here. Praise God with me for that. We're in a new venue, but we are the same church, and we have the same

God. I'm also grateful for everybody who's put time and energy into the new setup and all this transition, and one person didn't get thanked in that process.

I don't know if you noticed that, but it was Kyle, and so let's give Kyle a hand for his project management over this program and the transition.

He's done a great job. He really has been the point man that everybody's kind of been reporting to and filtering everything through to the board, and I'm very appreciative of you, so thank you,

Kyle. Please continue to be patient, though, and I would ask for this, as we continue to make this school fit our needs, there's going to be adjustment.

There's going to be things that need to happen. I hope that you'll take advantage of the connection cards over the next, I hope we get a lot of those over the next couple of months.

There's a place for you to put comments, suggestions. There might be things that we've overlooked, but I'd also love it if you would use that as an opportunity to encourage those and say what is working as well as what's not working, and to be honest, we've put things together in a way that we thought was best, but there might be something that we've overlooked, and so feel free to communicate with us.

The black box is still back there. If you would turn any cards in there, any connection cards that you fill out, and if it's your first time here this morning with us, that means awesome to you, because you navigated the time change, you navigated our location, and you found us, and so if it's your first time here, and you turn in one of those connection cards, we have a free coffee mug for you as well, and then there's a place to recycle any offering envelopes.

Offerings still go in that same black box back there, everything just like normal there. We're going to be continuing on in the book of Genesis, so we're carrying right forward with the series where we left off, and this morning we come across a pretty well -known story, a story that probably many of us are familiar with to some degree, and one of the problems that I find with well -known stories, if you were raised in the church, or you've been kicking it around church for a while, then you're familiar with this, maybe you remember the flannel graphs or something to that effect, and one of the issues with that is that with these stories that we know, we can sometimes lose a little bit of the awe, we can lose a little bit of the wonder, a little bit of the surprise, a little bit of the emotion of the text, are you getting what

I'm saying? And so you read about David killing Goliath, you go like, who doesn't know that story? Or, you know, and you can miss a little bit of the awe and the inspiration of that, and I'm hoping that we actually see that this morning, because we're going to be following, once again, the life of Jacob, and continuing forward in Genesis chapter 29 with his life, and I want you to remember that this is a guy who swindled and cheated his brother out of his birthright by deceiving and lying to his father.

Sound like a good guy? What do you think? Good guy? Thumbs up, thumbs down to what he did and how he acted.

Pretty rough guy. He had tricked his father into passing along the family blessing to him, tricked this blind old man.

But last week we saw that God met with Jacob in a dream and confirmed that he would honor that blessing and follow

Jacob wherever he goes. That even though he had deceived and swindled his father out of the blessing, that God was saying,

I was in all of that, and I am blessing you, and you will be blessed indeed, and I will follow you wherever you go.

And so we get the privilege now, moving forward in the book of Genesis, to see what a life looks like that God is following, a life with God in it.

And it might look a little different than some of us assume. What does a life look like when God is in it, when

God is following you, when God pledges to be with you wherever you go? What does that imply for our lives?

Some might think that being blessed by God means a nice warm beach house with everything provided for us.

How many of you that sounds good about right now? A beach house? Does that sound good? Has this been a long winter? This has been a super long winter for all of us.

But Jacob, as God's chosen dude, finds a life of toil. He finds a life of work.

He finds a life that incorporates hardships, a life that incorporates discipline, and even some measures in our text this morning of an ironic payback.

So let's open to Genesis chapter 29, and read about the crazy twists and turns of a life lived with God.

I encourage you, by the way, to all bring your own Bibles. There is, there are Bibles on the table back there. So if you don't bring your own

Bible, you can grab one of those off the table. We don't have them anymore. Obviously, there's no seat backs. But I would encourage you all to bring your own

Bible or use an app or whatever you can. And if you don't own a Bible, you can take one of those and use it.

If you use it during the service and you and you already have one, you can just return it over there and we'll use them week in and week out.

But if you don't own one yourself, take it home with you. Genesis chapter 29, we'll read in its entirety.

Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it.

For out of that well, the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large. 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.

Jacob said to them, my brothers, where do you come from? They said, we're from Haran. He said to them, do you know

Laban, the son of Nahor? They said, we know him. He said to them, is it well with him? They said, it is well and see,

Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep. He said, behold, it is still high day. It is not time for the livestock to be gathered together.

Water the sheep and then go pasture them. But they said, we cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well.

Then we water the sheep. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

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.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman and that he was

Rebekah's son. And she ran and told her father. 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 to his house.

And Jacob told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, surely you are my bone and my flesh.

And he stayed with him a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing?

Tell me what your wages will be. Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was

Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved

Rachel and he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel. Laban said, it is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man.

Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife that I may go into her for my time is completed. So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.

But in the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob and he went into her.

Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant. And in the morning, behold, it was

Leah. And Jacob said to Laban, what is this you have done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?

Laban said, it is not done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.

Jacob did so and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.

Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. So Jacob went into Rachel also and he loved

Rachel more than Leah. And served Laban for another seven years. When the

Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son and she called his name

Reuben. For she said, because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love me.

She conceived again and bore a son and said, because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.

And she called his name Simeon. Again, she conceived and bore a son and said, now this time my husband will be attached to me.

Because I have borne him three sons, therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, this time

I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

Let's pray. Father, I rejoice in this, uh, this transition in this new place and just to see all of the faces gathered together and the people that you have brought here to this place and to gather together as your church as a whole again is a beautiful thing.

Father, I recognize that there's many potential distractions. There's a new building. There's writing on the wall.

This is a school cafeteria. There's all kinds of potential and the the nuances of the sound and the echo and all those kinds of things that could become a distraction for us.

But Father, I pray this morning that you would let all those distractions melt away and that we would genuinely come before your throne in worship of you.

You are indeed the God who sees. You indeed are the God who hears. And you are indeed the

God who is worthy of our praise. And so Father, I pray that we would lift up our worship to you as those who are redeemed by the blood of your son

Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thanks a lot to the band for leading us in worship.

Awesome to hear voices singing out to God here in this place. I encourage you to get as comfortable as possible and recognize that you can get up at any time.

I mention this all the time to get up get more coffee or donuts. I know we just took a break. But also if these chairs get uncomfortable which is possible, you can stand up in the back and stretch out if that helps you to keep focus.

I'm guessing that maybe by the end there's going to be a couple of people standing back in the corners just kind of getting your back stretched out or whatever. But don't hesitate to do that.

I don't want you sitting there uncomfortable with your lower back giving you problems. I'm just trying to grit through. So I'm feeling free to get up at any time.

But let's dive into this text and I remind you where we were before. There was an encounter last week with God at Bethel.

Jacob continued from that place though on his journey towards the people of the east. And that's what we see in our very first verse.

Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. Now remember that Jacob hasn't had a chance to email ahead or to call and let his family know that they're coming to let it particular his mom's family know that he's on the way.

Not only that but he doesn't really have directions. Okay, so his iPhone was out of signal probably.

Or he might have downloaded and been trying to use the Apple Maps app instead of Google Maps, which some of you know exactly what

I'm talking about. But either way he's undertaking a journey of 550 miles to get to his mom's family looking for her her brother

Laban. So that's the that's the direction he's going. He's actually heading a little bit north and a little bit east from the area of Bethel and there is nothing that I can relate this to in the sense of any type of modern travel or any type of travel that you've ever undertaken.

Now some of you have been like stuck at the airport for a while and it's felt a little bit like you were trying to travel 550 miles on foot.

But nothing really compares to the undertaking that this would have been over a month -long journey at least.

To say he's on foot might be a stretch. Maybe he's got some camels or something like that. But regardless this is not a comfortable way to travel.

And as he's as he's going so he's got he's on this 550 mile journey and somewhere just off the path he sees some flocks.

There's three flocks and there's a well and some shepherds standing off there. And so he takes an exit and goes over to check it out what's going on over here.

He's been he's been traveling for days and days and days with his entourage. They pull over go and interact with these shepherds.

Jacob's first concern as you might imagine is like hey, where am I? And so he asks the question and he finds out he is close to Haran his destination where his uncle is supposed to be residing.

In this conversation he also finds out that these shepherds know his uncle Laban. And many scholars were pointing out as I was reading this week that the conversation is kind of stilted between him and do you notice that in the text?

He has to keep kind of pulling stuff out of the shepherds. It's not like they want to really divulge much information.

And so he keeps asking questions to kind of keep them engaged and answering what he wants to know.

But he finds out that they do indeed know his uncle Laban. Then he's still got to ask well, how is he? Like do you know do you know

Laban? Yeah. How is he? And so he asks that and finds out that he is well.

And then not only that but in the conversation culminates in the recognition that Rachel, his cousin,

Laban's daughter, is coming across the field. The shepherds point out hey, there she is right there. She's on her way with the with the sheep right now.

And we find out that Rachel is indeed a shepherdess. And so she's on her way.

Now it's not wrong for our minds to turn to the idea of the providence of God, God's guiding hand.

God is working in the circumstances of everyday life, a routine trip across the desert here, and he is working so that Jacob shows up at a well just a little while before Rachel, his cousin, shows up.

Now he's been on a month -long journey and he spies this well off to the side of the road, shows up there, and who comes next?

His future wife, which is also his cousin, I know. I mentioned that last week.

We're not going to go there again. God has guided Jacob to the right place and the right time.

Now how many of you have had times where you could identify the timing of God in an event or circumstance in your life?

Go ahead and raise your hand high. If you've been there where you've been able to look back and say I see how God orchestrated events, most of us, if we're honest, you can just think back to a decision or two that would have meant not meeting your spouse, right?

For those of you that are married here, can you relate to that? One decision, I remember making a decision one weekend to go be a counselor at Camp Barachel.

One of my best friends was kind of trying to get me to go up there and that's where I met my wife. If I had just said no,

I'm going to, I really have to work at a factory for the summer or I have to make ends meet or I have to do this or that, I don't know that we would have met.

And so you can look back at your life and can you see the providence of God? You can see his hand.

You can see the things that he has done to lead you to significant decisions. But the problem with understanding the providence of God, I think for many of us, is trying to make it happen in advance.

So how many of you would admit that you've got a bunch of doors open in front of you right now? There's all different kinds of things that you could do with your week.

Do you have a lot of different things you could be doing? And so now the question comes down to which one do

I do, God? Which one is the choice of you for me? And have you ever been like stymied with those kinds of decisions?

Whether it's going to college or which classes to take or what to study or what to do in life or what occupation?

Should I stay in this one? Should I move on? You know, there's all different kinds of decisions and all different kinds of open doors in front of us.

And the question that presses in on us is, God, which one is yours? And as if there is only one that God could bless, could

God bless you wherever you go to college? If you're walking with him, if you love him, if you're honoring him, does it, do you see what

I'm saying? I mean, is it really that big of a deal? And I mean, I would suggest that you give that over to God and you talk with him about it.

But then there comes a decision point, right, where we have to make some decisions and move forward. As cheesy as this sounds, the providence of God is best seen in the rearview mirror.

That's where we encounter the majority of the providence of God in our lives where we can actually see it and make sense of it.

So if you're tooling around, just picture yourself driving in the car, you're out, you're on your way, you're moving through life. Sometimes you take a glance in the rearview mirror, you see what's already going on behind you, and that's the place where you see the hand of God orchestrating these events, right?

Would you agree with me on that? You see the providence of God in the rearview mirror, you see his hand, you see the way that he has worked and the things that he has done.

But his providence, his providential guidance is something that we do indeed keep looking out the windshield for as we're moving through life.

And let me explain this to you real quick. I would call this forward look. When you are in essence looking forward out the windshield, moving, looking for the providence of God, there's a word

I want to call that. It's trust. Trust in God.

That is what the forward look of providence, when we understand that God is indeed in our every day, then the thing for us moving forward is trust.

And then there's another word that I'd like to apply to that look in the rearview mirror. When we look backwards, I would like to call that gratitude.

Thankfulness in looking back and seeing the past and the way that God has indeed worked in our history.

And how many of you can identify that not everything that you see in the rearview mirror that has been beneficial to you felt good at the time?

Would you agree with me on that? Some of the things that you look back in that rearview mirror and you say, God was in this, but man,

I don't want to do that again. I don't want to have to go through that again, God, but it's gratitude nonetheless.

Thank you for bringing hardship to my life. Thank you for bringing difficulty that has made me a stronger person as a result.

And I can see your hand in it now in the rearview mirror. When I was driving through that mess, I didn't know where I was going.

I didn't know what was happening. All I could do is, it was all the work I could do to just try to keep steering and keeping things moving forward.

But then we look back and we see God's hand. Rachel arrives with her father's flock. We discover that she is indeed a shepherdess, as I mentioned before, in verse 7.

Jacob proves that he has some insight in tending flocks. This is going to be significant moving forward in his life.

He obviously already has some experience in this. These shepherds, they're waiting, by the way. You got to have the picture in your mind.

She's across the field. She's on her way with the flocks. It's been identified, but he's just chewing the fat with these shepherds.

And I think in part he wants to get them out of the way. So he basically is giving them some instructions in verse 7.

The shepherds are not efficient. And here at a time when the flock should be lazily sitting in the shade grazing in the heat of the day, they are sitting around the well out in the open in the heat of the day waiting for a drink of water.

Not a very healthy place for sheep and goats to be at the high point of the sun in the middle of the day.

And so Jacob says, dudes, just water them and get them out of here. It's not time for them to be gathered near the sheep yet.

So what are you doing? Now some have indicated that it was usually youths and less skilled, think less buff individuals who were shepherds.

And so you get a case where Samuel comes to anoint one of Jesse's sons to be king and one of the youngest one isn't even there because what's he doing?

He's out tending the sheep. His name is David, but he's a shepherd. Well, he's the youngest. It's a sign to him.

And so even here with Rachel, you see a woman that is a shepherdess. You would have a lot of youths, individuals who are not quite as skilled.

And so the implication is they've gone over the top to explain that there is this huge rock that is over the mouth of this well that is there.

And so he is working to, I mean they were waiting, these shepherds are there waiting to remove the rock.

Why would they be waiting? Because not a single one of them is strong enough in and of themselves to remove the rock. And so they need help.

They wait for all the shepherds to show up and remove that rock.

It's interesting to note how at the first meeting of the beautiful Rachel, Jacob mentions nothing about her beauty.

There's not really much talk about her at all in this initial meeting. We don't get any pickup lines here at the well.

Nothing like come here often or wow, nice sheep or hey, hey, we're cousins.

Let's get married. No real catchy pickup lines at all in the text. Just instead verse 10 goes into an over -the -top talk about her father

Laban. There has been one name on the mind of Jacob his entire journey for over a month.

He has been going to where? Laban's house. That's what his mom told him to do. Mommy said go to Laban's house.

He's been trying to find Laban. That's been his goal. That's been his destination. And so with that one name

Rachel is identified as not beautiful. Nothing is really said about her except that she is Laban's daughter.

The sheep are Laban's in the text. And so Jacob in a feat of strength that some have equated to Samson, he single -handedly rolls the heavy stone from the mouth of the well and waters

Laban's flocks. There is no question that the Hebrew language in this text is trying to point to this as a show of impressive strength.

Okay, it is impressive strength that these shepherds have to all gather together to stand around this rock and lift it and pull it off and then put it back on again and he just does it himself.

And not only that but he actually breaks with their social convention. He's showing himself to be a doer and he's going to get things taken care of.

These sheep shouldn't be sitting out in the sun anyways. He's going to take care of his uncle's flock for him.

And so he removes the rock. This is not a move of impressive love for Rachel yet. This is not

Jacob flexing for the ladies, you know and picking up the rock and throwing it on his shoulder and hey, which way's the gun show or something like that, you know, it's um

It's an it's a dramatic act of service To Laban that he is doing here

This is about his uncle about impressing his uncle with his labor and about doing a favor for him and getting himself in the good graces of his uncle

Now you might remember some of you were have been through this series and you've seen somebody meeting a wife

At a well before it may very well be this same Well, his grandfather had sent a servant to find a wife for his father

Isaac and abraham's servant brought with him a lot of wealth You guys remember the nose ring that the servant brought along and he brought along gold and bracelets and all kinds of wealth

In order to press impress laban's family But here it appears that jacob has nothing to offer

There's no indication that he brings wealth. There's no Indication that he's got gold or silver or any significant things of value to offer except for one thing

What does jacob bring to offer? His labor his work his muscles his back and so he

Shows himself in this in this text in this part of of watering laban's sheep

He shows himself powerful to work and that's the start of a theme that we're going to see is the guiding principle between Jacob and laban what is their relationship like it's based on jacob's work ethic

He gives rachel a family kiss of greeting He weeps for joy at the completion of his um, very tough very tough journey

He is exhausted from the road and after explaining things to rachel, by the way, I think that's probably why he weeps

It's it's been a significant ordeal to get to this location. I don't think again I think we can't just compare it to any kind of transportation you've undertaken, but it's been a huge ordeal

He's just delighted elated in the providence of god and leading him to the right place at the right time and all of that and Rachel runs to greet her basically to get her father.

He comes back and greets jacob and welcomes him into the family Laban's welcome of jacob into the family is actually one of flesh and bone relative

You see that in the text that he actually says you're you're you're my flesh and bone. You're you're one of my kin You're you're one of you're you're with me

And so laban invites jacob to live there with him for a month. He stays there. He works

And he he proves to be a great worker for laban And so because he's been such a good worker laban drives to make the relationship more formal

Having someone like jacob work working for him could be very beneficial to him

And despite calling him family. I want to point out that laban wants to drive this into more of an employer employee relationship

He says name your wages. I want you to work for me As kind as things sound if you look at verse 15

Go ahead and look down at the text with me Then laban said to jacob because you are my kinsman should you therefore serve me for nothing?

Tell me what your wages will be now To our ears. Does that sound kind of like laban's being kind?

He's like, why would you work for nothing? I'll pay you i'll pay you for this. Does that sound kind to you? Well, there's a little bit of nuance and what he's saying here in hebrew that implies that what he wants from jacob

Is that he become a commercial asset? He said you're bone and flesh. You're my kin I mean, you should just be allowed to stay there.

But now he says well, let's let's formalize this It's not as much that laban here is saying man. I feel bad

You're working for me and i'm not paying you as much as man I need a formal arrangement so that I can hold you to it and keep you around as long as I contract for it

And we'll see that laban's got some dicey motives here in just a minute. Anyways, jacob isn't interested in wages

Why did he come here in the first place? To find a wife To find a wife and in a short period of time.

He has fallen head over heels for rachel Some of you maybe maybe you knew like I did within just a few weeks of meeting the one that you're married to now

That you were going to marry that one or at least ask or whatever But you you like had that desire and I mean here one month and he has fallen head over heels for rachel

Rachel, remember the text goes on to tell us was the younger of laban's two daughters leah identified as uh, a

Woman having soft or weak eyes But rachel was beautiful in form and appearance

Scholars struggle by the way with the mention of the word that is used for leah's eyes For two primary reasons.

There's two reasons that scholars struggle with. What did this mean about leah? What was it about leah that they they're calling her eyes soft or weak?

It depends on your translation um, the first problem with this Is the word soft or weak throughout scripture and throughout documents from that ancient time when applied to Feminine features is a positive thing

So to say that a woman had weak or soft eyes was actually a good thing In that culture.

So what we're left with is some level of contrast It's just hard to figure out what the contrast is intended to be

Many people how many of you have just heard people say flat out leah was ugly and rachel was beautiful Have you heard people say that it's a little bit hard to get quite to that level

From this text the other struggle is that beauty is so culturally driven and fluid that it's hard to pinpoint

What's meant by the contrast? You know, I mean in the 80s anybody remember big bangs A sign of beauty right?

There's a beauty how high could you get your bangs? Okay Guys, don't laugh you had the mullet some of you some of you know exactly you were rocking a mullet thinking you looked good

By the way, that was never fashionable. Um But you're getting what I mean, do you recognize what

I mean when I say beauty is fluid It's something that changes from decade to decade culture to culture.

You go to different places it's beautiful to have a long neck you go to other places and they're like this and um, It's all different kinds of things that that people designate as beauty and so that makes it hard to figure out

What is it? What is it about them? It could just simply be she had green eyes I mean think about this

It could be something as simple as she had green eyes and green eyes weren't in favor that In that culture at that time and so everybody loved brown eyes.

She had green eyes tough Um, but whatever it is It's it's clear That leah was not as attractive as rachel

Most scholars are not willing to say recent scholars are not willing to say that leah was ugly But it's very clear from the text that rachel was a bombshell compared to leah

But the main point stands either way Regardless of how we land on whether what leah looked like jacob was in love with rachel

And was willing to pay a crazy exorbitant high Bride price for her that was a common culture at the time that you would pay the father a certain amount

Average bride prices. We actually have some documents that record some bride prices from this era in this time

And uh dating to this era about four to five years of average wages would have been a reasonable to high bride price

How many years is he willing to work for rachel? seven and it's going to turn out to be

Some of you know how the rest of the story I'm, pretty confident though that in this negotiating, you know laban is like well, she's worth a lot

She's worth a lot, you know, look at her. She's great. She's beautiful I'm, not confident that laban's care and concern was for his daughters

In this negotiation as a matter of fact, i'm convinced it was far from his mind as we're going to see here in a moment

To laban he declares this as a win -win situation He keeps his daughter in the family and gets a hard worker to boot

And really basically guarantees that that jacob's gonna be around for a while But notice that laban never formally uses the name of rachel in his bargaining in his agreement look at verse 19

Laban said it is better that I give her to you than that. I should give her to any other man

Stay with me now the implication ought to be that when you see the pronoun there that you would reflect back on Rachel right that would be the expectation, but he intentionally does not use her name

He puts a pronoun in there and only ever calls her her I think something is going on there.

What do you think? One of the most romantic statements in the bible, uh aside from poetry

One of the most romantic statements that we have in a narrative portion of scripture is found in verse 20 You can um, ooh and ah over it in verse verse 20 there look down at it.

So jacob served seven years for rachel And they seemed to him

But a few days because of the love he had For her did

I hear an awe? Everybody say it together with me. One, two, three. Oh Oh, isn't that beautiful?

That's just so so adorable. He he he loved her To jacob she was worth the weight and worth the work

The intensity of this love is building to a moment Can you just feel the intensity of his love for her?

It's building up and it's it's just like he's just just so in love with her and seven years of hard labor for her

And it's building up to a moment But it's a moment of broken hearts So verse 20 brushes over seven years

Verse 20 covers seven years of waiting and working for jacob So it's not surprising that in verse 21, there is no polite request by the time we get down to verse 21

It's not please laban Set up the banquet. It's time for uh the wedding

Please It's give me my wife I've worked for seven years. Give me my wife

It's not polite. It's demanding shows something about jacob shows a little bit about his dealings with laban It's no wonder though that It's no wonder that jacob is keeping track

But laban isn't And it's like oh, has it really been are you sure it's been seven years? I think it's been six.

We're gonna have to go back and look um But he does drop a wedding feast And the word used for feast by the way like it or not regardless of how comfortable or uncomfortable

The hebrew language has a word for a drinking party And that's what this word is.

There are different words for feasts laban throws a drinking party A traditional ancient wedding lasted seven days with feasting every evening and drinking and all kinds of partying and the formal consummation of the marriage

Was a part of that ceremony on the first night Obviously in the privacy of the tent um, but without much drama, uh, the text tells us that laban pulls a switcheroo

And he gave a veiled leah in the dark of the evening to jacob For the consummation and by the way, the the wedding feast lasts seven days

Most people, uh in ancient times or well in modern scholars looking back at ancient times say that the seven nights

Were hopeful that they would conceive in that first week of marriage They were intentionally trying to have a baby that first week of their wedding and so it was a seven -day celebration and all of that Um Most scholars would say, um, technically that beer goggles played a role in this text.

Okay Doesn't use that phrase But I think you know where i'm going with that. Um As difficult as this deception is to imagine is it hard for you to imagine how this deception takes place?

And I'm not even like going there in my mind Um, but as as difficult as this deception is to imagine it happened in history

So let me encourage you to stop getting drunk or you might accidentally wake up married to the wrong person End of sermon, okay, not really but uh, some of you were hopeful you're getting ready to put your bibles away and you're like Okay, he wrapped it up.

Um This is not worth kidding about i'm praying that I don't get overly emotional in this but uh

Leah was a person Leah was a real person just like you or me

She had hopes hopes for love Hopes for life

She had hopes that her prince charming would come in and rescue her someday Can you feel that?

Something the flannel graph doesn't show that Right, and we we do you feel

Where she is? a real person And daddy is cruel to her

Laban pawns her off in the secret of darkness To be assigned to a life as a second

To be assigned to a life Unloved to be assigned to a life virtually

Unnoticed by the people that she longs to love her the most Do you feel the weight of that?

We ought not to casually Brush over what scripture intends to cut us to the heart

Feel this and to think through what was life for leah?

Laban gave leah an amazing gift As a matter of fact people go over the top to say this is an exorbitant gift

To give her a maidservant. That was not common. That was not necessary He is giving her a significant gift.

Maybe he thought he could buy away his cruelty This seems like the only thing laban speaks is commerce

Anyways, the only thing that ever really grabs his attention is monetary gain or putting himself ahead

And so maybe he just thought and my daughter's probably just like me. I'll just give her something good And so from leah's perspective, we will find more and more of the heartache that's going to draw her close to god

But verse 25 shifts us back to jacob's perspective There's two people that are being deceived here.

I I count myself blessed and this is not an arrogant statement This is not looking down my nose at anybody, but I count myself blessed to have never woke up next to somebody.

I didn't know I'm grateful for that I'm, not judging anybody that has had that happen to you because god is gracious to bring us together from a variety of backgrounds

And a variety of histories to cover us in the blood of christ But I cannot imagine how devastating that must feel

To wake up and not recognize the person next to you But jacob doesn't wake up to a sinful one -night stand

But he wakes up to his wife and behold the text says It was leah

Verse 25. You think there's a little bit of shock and surprise in the verse? Absolutely A lot of shock and surprise he goes to laban and calls him out on this unfair and cruel threat cruel trick

Do you see the irony by the way? Have you caught it yet? Do you see the irony in jacob the cheater who deceived his father in the darkness?

Calling out laban saying how dare you cheat me and deceive me in the darkness Is there irony in this statement?

Is does it feel a little bit like retribution? Does it feel a little bit like what goes around comes around the cheater being cheated the deceiver being deceived?

Yeah I put the I put the word karma in this sermon to grab your attention

Karma is not reality I do not believe for a second that there is an impersonal force of retribution

Operating what I believe Is that there is a personal god? Which makes sense of the concept that what goes around comes around?

Because there is a personal god who is watching who sees who is orchestrating who is indeed providentially working in the affairs of mankind

He fairly warns us to treat others the way we would want to be treated does he tell us that often yeah

He is a god who declares that we reap what we sow anybody ever heard that before You reap what you sow

And even for those called out to follow him. He is not above measuring out to us the way that we measure out to others

What other cultures have chalked up to karma some kind of an impersonal law of retribution

I chalk up to the personal god orchestrating the irony that the deceiver gets deceived

He doesn't have to he doesn't have to make that happen every single time But when it happens, you can be sure his hand is in it

Laban is brash So how many of you would not want to be in laban's shoes? You've just deceived your

Your daughter and your new son -in -law you've tricked him. How many of you are looking forward to that conversation? Just the way your personality is made up.

You're like, I like conflict. I'm looking for you know, you're laban You're like i'm looking forward to him the next morning coming to me and having this out laban is equal to the task

Laban is a piece of work But what he says is the most crazy irony in this entire text within Several verses

I mean several chapters either direction. He says this Among my people it is not done that the younger is honored above the older Among my people we don't roll that way around here

Maybe where you come from jacob Maybe where you're raised the younger gets honored above the older but not around here

Does that echo? Can you think of a scenario? you've read about where A younger was honored above an older Can you can you can you think of that like like jacob stealing?

His birthright stealing the blessing from his older brother Do you see the irony in laban's comment around here?

We don't roll that way Maybe where you come from the younger gets away with that kind of thing But not here It's pretty cool

Some of you're laughing Jacob's world is turned upside down. What's the one thing that he wants?

There's only one thing he wants rachel Laban has him right where he wants him

He knows Laban knows the only thing he wants is rachel and he will do anything for her and laban offers rachel

After the wedding of leah is finished in exchange for seven more years now

Don't some of you maybe have it backwards in your mind He has to work another seven years and then gets rachel Now he has a wedding with leah the next week

He has a wedding with rachel and he is mandated to then in turn work another seven years for Laban after the marriage and so laban gives bilha again gives a good gift to rachel at her wedding

And they settle into seven years as one big happy family Can you imagine?

The pain and the anguish experienced in such short sentences That are found in scripture can be hard to connect with at times because they just brush over our minds

But let it sink in this phrase it that you find in verse 30 Jacob loved rachel more than Leah anybody who thinks that the bible endorses polygamy

Needs to read the text with a sense of the pain and anguish that it records about it

The the bible records all kinds of sinful behavior And it doesn't always make a judgment call on it.

It records murders. It records lying. It records thefts it records

Adultery it records polygamy Are you getting what i'm saying?

And it's not a pretty picture It does not paint it as a good thing And so the young woman leah is forsaken

She is alone. She is unloved She is unwanted Leah is assigned indefinitely to live in the shadow of her beautiful younger sister rachel

Sound like a consignment to a painful life Sound difficult But leah is not

Leah is not alone when the lord saw that leah was hated it says in the text

What did you hear what I just said when the lord saw? She has the lord's attention

The almighty the creator the god over the universe is paying attention to her when the lord saw

That leah was hated he opened her womb When the world is caved in around us when our hopes and dreams have been dashed by cruel people

When life seems to have boxed us into pain and misery God is there working his plan to make beautiful things out of the ash heaps around us leah conceives four times and she names

The names of her first four sons reflect a progress of growth in her relationship to the lord

Her first she names ruben Because the lord has seen ruben meaning the lord has seen

But we see her hope is not placed squarely in the lord But in the hope that she goes on further to say the hope for a specific outcome

She is not satisfied merely with the fact that the lord has seen her But she is still hoping that the birth of ruben will make her husband love her

That is still At the birth of their first child that is her hope. Maybe if I have a son, maybe then jacob will love me

The second son she named simeon because the lord has heard her. He has heard that she is hated

Still hated And so obviously the birth of ruben had changed nothing and so now simeon comes along And she is still holding out hope for love as indicated by the naming of her third son levi

After three sons surely her husband will become attached to her attached is the meaning of the word levi by the way

He the lord has heard is the meaning of the the word simeon She thinks after three sons her husband will become attached to her

What leah leah wants more than anything is the love of her husband But what she is experiencing in her life?

Is the love of god almighty? She has god's attention

And in the birth of her fourth son There seems to be an indication that leah the unloved is coming to realize that she is indeed immaculately loved

By the one who matters most And so she names her fourth son judah

Which means I will praise the lord this time. I will praise the lord

I will lift my eyes up from my circumstances I will lift up my eyes from my unloved state from my misery from my suffering and I will lift my eyes up and I will praise

The lord the name of her fourth son

She just flat out praises the one who has paid attention to her There is one who has shown kindness

There is one who has shown her love. There is one who has shown her acceptance There is one who has indeed shown mercy and grace to this forlorn woman

And in this fourth blessing this fourth child fourth child We find the member of the next generation that is going to be the one who's going to carry forward the promises

We don't know it yet and the text doesn't reveal it. I'm spoiling it for you But from this family line through judah will spring king david

And not just king david but the majority of the royal line of israel is going to flow through judah

And the ultimate king over all kings The lion of the tribe of judah the son of god jesus christ himself our lord and savior

Springs from the line of judah the one who leah names. I will praise the lord a bit of a tough story here

And again, just trying to dig into the emotion of it a bit But how do we apply this? So what do we do with this probably not many of us are in the exact situation of jacob being swindled or tricked into marrying

Somebody and this whole family dynamic is a little bit hard for us to relate to at one level I'm, particularly just having the two wives and going back and forth and the unloved and all that Although some it might not be that far off to know what it feels like to be unloved to be forlorn to feel like Your life is misery and you feel boxed in And so there are three things that I want to draw out of this text

And there may be things that god has impressed on your heart as you've been listening And I don't want to I don't want to go over the top of those

But at the same time listen in and see if any of these reflect your heart and what you need to hear And the first is that a life lived with god is one of recognizing god's hand in our every day observing his providence

We are to live a life with expectant trust in god That he has our future in his hands

His hand is revealed in the challenges the hardships the joys the promotions the layoffs the dark days

And a life lived with god doesn't mean that we won't run into some labens Some of you right now when

I said that you can think of your labens, you know who they are But if we run into labens It means that laben was exactly what we needed

To accomplish god's will in us and through us You ever thought that you just needed some more challenges in your life

If god brings them, that's exactly what you needed That's hard Not suggesting that you go out and pray god.

Please just break me over your knee this week. Okay But when that happens

God doesn't do that on accident He does that because that's what we need And that that's hard to say

So the first thing trust god In the dark days trust in him in the good days trust in him

The second thing is that we do not base our lives on karma But we do recognize the reality of an ethic in which we do to others what we would want them to do to us

We also recognize the true principle that we reap what we sow If we if we're sowing seeds of corn

What do you expect to harvest? Corn thank you

Not a trick question If you so let's try it again if you sow seeds of wheat Thank you somebody somebody back there getting after it if you sow seeds of deceit

Deceit yes now we're now we're now we're tracking if you sow seeds to lust You expect to reap sexual deviancy if you sow seeds to Cheating you expect to get cheated all different kinds of Things that when you think about in your life your your actions your behaviors

We are sowing seeds Well God's not going to be mocked

You will reap what you sow But I fear in saying this I fear in saying this that some are going to ignore my last point and go home with number two on your mind and As if i'm telling you to just go out and be kind and then

God will be kind to you And is that the way that life really works? Just go be kind to go be kind to others and you'll get into heaven and boy

If you just treat everybody good, then he's going to give you good things and everything's going to work out So please listen carefully to this my last point

My last point is that God has already been kind to you And the basis upon which we can do anything kind in this world

The basis on which we can do anything good is strictly because of his love and kindness towards us

It's not that you can buy his kindness with your kindness Any true kindness that we do comes from a place of god's first kindness to us.

He initiated it He has brought kindness to us through the cross And you must accept that kindness to come into his forgiveness

You see god's kindness to leah Didn't just benefit her But this fourth child that she praises god for would eventually produce jesus christ our savior and our lord

He is the culmination of all history and everything in the old testament is pointing Towards the revelation of jesus christ as the sacrifice that takes away our sins

Anyone who would come to god in their misery and humility and say god, please hear me

Please see me in my plight forgive me and grant me a fresh start based on what comes before And what jesus christ has done.

He will be there It already is And you can be saved from your sin and promised eternal life with god

Through in your misery crying out to him and saying save me save me And that's what we celebrate in communion

There are tables set up in the four corners And so you'll see a table set up over here

There's one back there and one back here and one over here and and uh, We're gonna take communion like we used to in the old days

Some of you you've never been here when we've done this and so we're gonna just open up the tables The band is gonna come and play a song

And as they're playing you can feel free at any time to get up and take a a cup of juice and a cracker

The reason that we and you maybe heard me say this before is that we really want you to do So if you're a follower of jesus christ if you recognize what he's done for you on the cross

Then we want you to get up and take that cracker and that juice to remember And to reflect on this awesome sacrifice that he's done for you

But if you're sitting back and you're kind of going i'm not sure if that's for me I'm, not sure what the sacrifice is. I'm, not sure about the cross

I'd encourage you to come and talk with me But just to refrain from taking that because it's primarily remembering what he's done for you

And it doesn't make sense for you to get up and try to remember something that you don't really believe he did for you Does that make sense? And so we would just uh ask you to just remain seated

Nobody's going to be paying attention and counting who's up and who's down You can take the the juice and the cracker at the table and there's there's a place to throw the cups away over there

Or you can take it back to your seat and just have a reflective time and take it on your own there But the point of this this is not just some ceremony that we do

It's not just some way to end the service because we need some filler or something Or it's just a habit that we've gotten into But this is about you reflecting and remembering on what your lord and savior has done for you

It cost him a lot To bring me into the kingdom It wasn't a it wasn't a simple just easy sacrifice.

It was the son of god the almighty coming in flesh and dying For me, that's what my sins required so let's pray as the band leads us or maybe it's just They're there and we'll pray and as they get ready to play a song for us and um

Let's pray Father I thank you so much As we look at the life of leah

Uh, father certainly a story that is close to my heart as I named my daughter leah knowing full well this story and What a delight and a joy to see uh this woman

Who yes indeed suffered and went through difficulty and travail, but in the end said I will praise the lord

She had your attention in her suffering Father you indeed are a god who pays special attention to the downhearted and the downtrodden the cast out and the marginalized in the seconds and even in the ministry of jesus christ, we we see that reflected in the way that he rolled and hanging out with those who we would have called losers and those who were on the margins of society and the tax collectors and the the drunkards and the prostitutes and Father, I pray that you would bring more in that you would bring more and give us a give us a vision in a in a

In eyes to serve those in need in our community and father as we come to this

Awesome awesome table of remembrance May we never come and take communion in an arrogant fashion thinking we are worthy

But that this would be a humbling event in our week every week week in and week out coming humbly again before the cross and saying

I'm, not worthy, but i'm deeply loved I don't deserve this But you have seen me and you have heard me