(Genesis) - Part 24 — Zac Poonen

Chapter 28, we finished considering how Jacob deceived Isaac, his father, in order to get the birthright. And then he saw, he was very upset and wanted to kill him. We read in chapter 28, verse 1,. So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him and said to him, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan?

Arise, go to Adoniram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. And may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of people.

May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of which God gave to Abraham. And Isaac sent Jacob away to his brother-in-law's house.

It says here, when Esau, verse 6, saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, he told him to take a wife from his relatives, and that Jacob had obeyed. And Esau saw, verse 8, that his own wives were not pleasing to his father.

And Esau went to Ishmael and married a third time, besides the wives that he had. Mahalak, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Levioth. You see here, Esau, a person without any conviction.

If it was venison that pleased his father, he'd get him that. If it was another type of wife, he'd get him that. Esau is the head of all those who marry the type of wives that their fathers want. And there are a lot of believers like that, who have no conviction.

Jacob’s Twenty Years of Discipline

They just choose the type of wives their fathers recommend. Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Herod. And he came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set. And there we see, of course, it's only a geographical fact that the sun had set, but it is also true of Jacob's life in one sense, that the sun had set over his life.

He was going into a period of discipline for the next twenty years. It was like a period of darkness that he was going to face. And it's very significant that at the end of this period, he comes out of it, after twenty long years.

And when he comes out of it, it's very interesting that it says in Genesis 32, after his name has been changed to Israel, in Genesis 32, verse 28, verse 31, it says,. Then the sun rose upon him. Here was the sun setting, and there was the sun rising.

And that was not without purpose that the Holy Spirit recorded it, because it was something that was true in his life. Isaac had blessed him, laid his hands on him and blessed him. But there was still so much in Jacob which was contrary to what God wanted him to be, that he had to go through twenty years of discipline before God could make him what he wanted him to be.

And that teaches us something. It's possible for some man of God to lay his hands on us, and we can receive the Holy Spirit, perhaps, or some gift. And it can be just like Isaac laying his hands on Jacob.

Of course, Jacob received a blessing. There's no doubt about it. And people do receive an anointing. But yet the sun can set. And if a person's not willing to be disciplined by God, he can never come through to becoming an Israel, even if some man of God has laid hands on his head.

God’s Grace in Jacob’s Calling

Well, that's one thing we learned. The wonderful thing here we see is God's grace, that while he was sleeping there on his journey to Baden-Aram, he had a dream, verse 12, when the ladder was set up on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and, behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father, Abraham, the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie. I'll give it to you, to your descendants. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth.

You'll spread out to the west, to the east, to the north, and south. And you and your descendants, all the families of the earth, will be blessed. And I am with you, and I'll keep you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I've done what I promised for you, what I promised you.

See, there we see how God's nature is so different from ours. If we saw the type of person Jacob was, we'd just give up on him. We'd say, he's such a crook, he's such a deceiver, someone who can't trust me.

I'd have given him the birthright, and he has to go into all that deception in order to get it. But here we see something of the sovereignty of God when he chooses someone, that he doesn't let him go.

He works on him. He had a purpose for Jacob. And even though Jacob was not yet all that he was to be, yet God had hope for him. That's a tremendous encouragement to us. As we saw in an earlier study, God calls himself the God of Jacob.

Finally, God's work on him succeeded. That's a great encouragement to us, that what God has begun, like Paul tells the Philippians, I am sure that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it.

It's a wonderful thing to be chosen by God. That's why the word of God says, first of all, brothers and sisters, make your calling and election sure. That's what the New Testament exhorts us to do. In other words, make sure that you're really one of God's chosen ones.

Remember what Jesus told his disciples? You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And if we can have that certainty that God has chosen me, many, many problems in life are solved. Many people, the only assurance they have is that I have chosen the Lord.

That's good that you chose the Lord. But it says, make your calling sure. Make your election sure that God has chosen you. You say, how can I be sure of that? The Holy Spirit will witness with our spirit that we are God's chosen ones.

And I really come to see that that's the reason why many people never seem to make much progress, never seem to make much headway in their life. One of the reasons that they are not too sure that God's chosen them, God's elected them.

It doesn't matter what our weaknesses are. If God's chosen us, he'll work on us. Esau had weaknesses, but God never bothered about him. Jacob had weaknesses, but it was different. He was chosen. And God was going to work on him, work on him, work on him.

And one day he was transformed into an Israel. And that's the hope we have. Not everyone, but those who are diligent to make their calling and election sure. Let's turn back to the epistle of Peter in the New Testament, 2 Peter 1, verse 10.

Therefore, brethren, 2 Peter 1, 10, be all the more diligent, be all the more diligent. That means zealous, wholehearted. To make certain. To make certain about what? Not that you've chosen the Lord, but that he has called and chosen you.

Very important. Are you diligent? To make certain without a shadow of doubt. That's the meaning of make certain. That God Almighty has called and chosen me. Because if you're not sure about that, you're going to stumble.

As long as you practice these things, you'll never stumble. In this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. And he says, I'm always ready to remind you of these things.

Always ready to remind you. Make certain that he has called you and chosen you. See, Peter could say that because he was also a failure like Jacob at one time in his life, but because it was not just he who had chosen the Lord, but the Lord had chosen him.

God made sure that Peter came out all right as an apostle. It's a wonderful thing. Jacob and Esau may both be put underwater, but Jacob will come out. He won't drown. Why? Esau drowns. Because one's called.

Like Israel and the Israelites and the Egyptians went through the Red Sea. The Israelites came out, and the Egyptians were drowned. Why? Because the Israelites were called. That's the thing. Makes a tremendous difference if God's called you.

But those who take the Christian life casually and play the fool with God and take it so lightly, I really feel they can just drift along, drift along, drift along, and waste their whole life and miss God's purpose completely.

Make certain that God's called you. I want to ask everyone here. Are you sure God's called you? That God's chosen you? If you're not, obey that exhortation in 2 Peter 1 .10. It can make a world of difference in your life.

That's the thing that made a world of difference in Jacob's life. It's the thing that made the difference between Jacob and Esau. If in the scriptures we had seen Jacob as a very God-fearing, upright man and Esau as a downright crook, we could have said, well, that was the reason for the difference.

But we don't see Jacob like that. In fact, we don't see Esau deceiving Jacob. Is there any instance where Esau deceived Jacob? No. It was Jacob who deceived Esau. And yet think that God's hand was upon Jacob.

It's amazing. The important thing is God's calling. Make sure that He's called you. And so even though this man who has deceived his brother and deceived his father and goes down, God doesn't let him go.

Because He sees in him, there's a lot of guile in him, a lot of deception in him. God says, I've chosen him and I'm going to do something in him. And so He says, I'll bless you. And He gives him this vision of this ladder when he was asleep.

It's almost as though God were saying to him, I'm going to do this for you and you won't have to worry about it. I will work on you. I'll break you when the time comes. And I will accomplish what I have planned for your life.

Christ as Jacob’s Ladder

When you turn to John's Gospel chapter 1, you see that Jesus spoke about this incident. It's very interesting to see that passage in John chapter 1. We read when Nathanael was told by Philip that they had found the Messiah.

John 1 .45, Philip found Nathanael and said, We have found Him, of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael was a skeptic. He couldn't believe. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

Philip said, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, said to him, Behold, we can say a descendant of Jacob, but one in whom there is no guile like there was in Jacob. This is a true Israel, not a Jacob.

Behold an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob. We can read it like that. Behold an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob. And Nathanael said, How do you know me? He said, I saw you under the fig tree. The rabbi, you are the son of God.

And Jesus answered and said, Because I said I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe you shall see greater things than these? What are you going to see? I say to you, you shall see the heavens open, this is what Jacob saw, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

That's what Jacob saw in Genesis 28 .12, this ladder going up to heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending on him and concerning Nathanael. Jesus says, Here is an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob.

He is being transformed, there is no guile in him. And you will see that ladder, which is Jesus. Jesus Himself explained there that that ladder was a picture of Himself. Then we turn back to Genesis 28 and we understand this.

It says here in Genesis 28 .12, it was a ladder that was set on the earth. Genesis 28 .12. It wasn't a ladder that came sort of six feet above the earth and the people had to jump on it to climb. That's how I thought for many years that Jesus had come from heaven, but He hadn't come right down to the level of my flesh.

He sort of came with a flesh slightly superior to mine. He wasn't really able to even get to the bottom rung of that ladder. But we praise God that that ladder was set on right on the earth, right down to the bottom level.

He came in a flesh just like ours so that the first rung of the ladder wouldn't be above us, that we couldn't get on to it. And the top of that ladder was reaching heaven and the Lord, verse 13, stood above it.

Here is the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The man Christ Jesus. People call Him the God-man. Very interesting. The Holy Spirit never thought of that clever title that many believers have thought of.

The clever believers cannot understand the truth. 1 Timothy 2 .5 says, 4 and 5. One mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He's become a man completely. The foot of the ladder is on the earth, the top is up in heaven, and that's the only way that we can reach God.

Only one ladder. He is the way to the Father. And further, we read here in verse 17, where Jacob woke up, verse 16, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. He was afraid and said, How awesome is this place!

This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. He didn't realize how true it was that that ladder was really the gate of heaven. Like Jesus said, I am the way, no man comes to the Father but by me.

But also, he says, this is the house of God, the church where Christ is seen in the flesh. And Jacob rose early in the morning and took a stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on its top, and he called the name of that place Bethel.

Bethel means the house of God. The first picture that we have in the Old Testament of the church as God's house. We saw the ark as the picture of the church, but here's the first time that we read of the house of God, God's dwelling place.

Jacob’s Earthly Response to a Heavenly Promise

And that is the place where he saw the ladder with its feet down to the earth. Then Jacob made a vow, and it's very interesting to see what Jacob says in response to this fantastic revelation of God and the promise God made.

Of course, he says these wonderful things about this being God's house and the gate of heaven. And God had told him that I will, all the families of the earth, verse 14, will be blessed through you, and I will keep you and I will bless you.

But Jacob responds to that in this way, and it's very interesting to see and compare. If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God, and the stone which I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that thou hast given me, I will surely give a tenth to thee.

Notice what Jacob is asking for. He says, Lord, give me food to eat, give me clothes to wear, protect me on my journey, and bring me back to my father's house safely, and I won't ask for anything else.

And it's typical of multitudes of believers to whom God says, I'll bless you with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places and drive Jesus. The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly, and you can be partakers of the divine nature, and all they pray is, Lord, just make sure I can make both ends meet this month, make my finances sufficient, help me to get that increment, and Lord, help my children to get their promotion in the classes, and Lord, a house to live in, and good marriage partners for my children.

Exactly like Jacob. God calls them for something heavenly, and they are only thinking in terms of the earth. And if God will do that, yeah, I'll give my tithe. The first time that the tithe is mentioned in the Bible, and it's very significant that it is mentioned by a man who made a business transaction with God.

If God will bless me, I'll pay you my tithe. I've come across people like that today. If God will bless my fields, I'll pay him one-tenth of what I earn. If all my fields prosper, I'll give ten percent to God.

So Lord bless me. And there are stupid preachers who are willing to pray for such people, that God will bless their fields so that they'll give ten percent of their income to God. The tithing as a business transaction, Jacob was the first person who indulged in that.

If God will do this for me, I'll give my tithe to God. But there's a warning there for us, that when God calls us to something high, we respond with something so low. We must keep this in mind, because when we come to that other place in Genesis chapter 32, where we can say this is Jacob's first meeting with God, and Genesis 32 was his second meeting with God, and in between those two meetings lay twenty years.

And in those twenty years of discipline, God broke him and humbled him, and at the end of it, that man comes out in Genesis 32. It's very interesting when we come to that chapter to see what he's asking God for there.

He's not asking for food, he's not asking for clothing, he's not asking for protection. You know what he says in Genesis 32? Lord, bless me. I don't want anything else, I want your blessing. I want your power in my life.

And then you know that God has accomplished a work in this man. But he had to break him, that's the time when he dislocated his hip socket, so that he had to limp forever. And we can see that Jacob was a contrast to Isaac.

Isaac began so well, and ended up as we saw in a pretty pathetic spiritual condition. Jacob was the opposite. Jacob began so badly, but God did such a work of breaking in him, that that work was successful, and he came out as an Israel.

Abram's name was changed to Abraham, Jacob's name was changed to Israel, when God finally broke him. And that is how we must look at the next three chapters, three, four chapters, that we are going to study.

It's going to be a study of how God broke this deceiver, this schemer, this man who thought, now my father has put his latest hands on my head, and I'll be all right, and the sun had only set on his life.

He was going through a period of darkness, discipline, and because he humbled himself under God's mighty hand during those 20 years, he came out as a man of God. And as we look at the circumstances he went through, we can see that this is the way God seeks to deal with us too, to discipline us, so that we can come out finally as Israel, so that the sun which has set over our life can finally rise.

Jacob Meets Rachel at Paddan-Aram

And so we read in Genesis 29, verse 1, Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the sons of the east, and he saw a well in the field, he finally reached Paddan Aram, Mesopotamia. And there the stone of the mouth of the well was large, and all the flocks were gathered there.

They would then roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep. They had a custom there that they wouldn't water the sheep till all the flock of all the shepherds had gathered together, so that nobody monopolized the place.

They would leave the well covered with the stone until everybody's sheep had come. And Jacob said to them, My brothers, where are you from? We are from Haran. Do you know Laban? And they said, We know him.

And he said to them, Is it well with him? They said, It is well, and behold, Rachel, his daughter is coming with the sheep. You see, this reminds us of the time when Abraham's servant also went to the same place, Mesopotamia, looking for a bride for Isaac.

Now Jacob is also going to the same place, looking for a bride for Isaac. But notice the different way these two people went. When Abraham's servant went, he went with prayer. He said, Lord, guide me.

I want to meet the right person. He sought for a sign from God. He sought for the leading of God. And when he got the answer, he worshiped God. We don't see anything of that in Jacob. That was not even a descendant of Abraham.

He was Abraham's servant. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham. But see how he behaved. He's not seeking God. He saw Rachel, and he got all excited because she was good looking. And she was charming. And that's what happens to a lot of believers.

I can say we're children of Abraham. But they behave worse than Abraham's servant when they see a good looking girl or a charming one. It says that Rachel was good looking and charming as we read in verse 17.

Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance, charming and attractive. And as soon as he saw her, he didn't need to pray about it. He knew straight away, this is it. You see, this is Jacob. Very, very ordinary believer.

And he said, verse 7, it is still high day. Isn't it time for the flock to be gathered, water the sheep and go and pasture them? They said, we cannot until all the flocks are gathered. That's our custom here.

After all the flocks are gathered, then we roll the stone from the mouth of the well and we water the sheep. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came, for she was a shepherdess and came about when Jacob saw Rachel, a sheep of Laban and his mother's, that Jacob went up and he forgot all about the rules and regulations of that place and just rolled away the stone and watered the flock of Laban and his mother's brother.

This is 100 like believers. That we forget about all rules and regulations when it's a matter of our own convenience and our relatives. All principles are abandoned when it comes to something that affects our convenience.

I've seen that believers who are so sticky about rules and regulations for other people, but when it touches them, they are not so particular about the same rules and regulations. This is the guile and deception that there is in the flesh.

Strict, very strictly strict towards other people, according to the letter of the law. But when it comes to themselves, can be modified. We say we follow the spirit of the law now. This is Jacob. Never mind what the rules and regulations are.

Here it's, I've got to impress this girl and I've got to do something about it and he rolls the stone away and waters the flock and got all excited about her and he kissed Rachel, lifted up his voice and wept.

And Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father. He was Rebecca's son and she ran and told her father. So it came about when Laban heard the news, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to the house and Laban said, surely you're my bone and my flesh and he stayed with him for a month.

And then Laban said to Jacob, because you're my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing, tell me what shall your wages be? And 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 of form and face. There was something unattractive about Leah's appearance. Maybe she had a squint or something ugly about her eyes anyway. And Jacob loved Rachel because she was good looking.

So he said, I'll serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel. And Laban said, it's better that I give her to you than I should give her to another man. Stay with me. It says here, Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

There's a beautiful verse that tells us how love can make drudgery light. And if a man can love a girl so much that seven years, you multiply that by 365 and 2 ,500 days was just like a few days. It was just like about seven or eight days.

Seven years were like seven days, just as though it were a few days because he loved her. That's how it is when we serve the Lord out of love. Anything that we do for him is never a drudgery. His commandments are not burdensome.

His service is never a drudgery. No sacrifice will ever be considered a sacrifice when we love the Lord. No service will be inconvenient. Nothing that we give, we will, will we ever feel will be too much.

And we will not even remember what we have done for the Lord where there is love. But when love disappears, seven days of work can be like seven years we serve one another. I've come to see one thing.

If you serve your brothers just as brothers, you'll always look for gratitude and after some time it will become a drudgery. You can never endure for seven years serving a brother. But if you do your service as unto the Lord and not as unto a brother, that everything, even if it's done to a brother, you say, that's not for him.

I'm doing it as unto the Lord. Then there's never looking for gratitude and it's never drudgery. It does not depend on how that brother or sister behaves. It only depends on whether we love the Lord or not.

And seven years will be like a few days. Beautiful words. And we can understand why the Lord told the church in Ephesus, I have something against you because you left your first love. You still labor for me, but it's not with that devotion, like it was in those days.

Then Jacob said to Laban after seven years, give me my wife for my time is completed, that I may go to her. And Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast and came about in the evening. This is a beautiful incident.

It's the one crook meeting with another crook. We reap what we sow. There's a beautiful verse in Proverbs 27, which says, iron sharpens iron. So does one man sharpen another. And here was the man who thought he was the greatest crook in the world.

He discovered when he came to Mesopotamia, there's one greater than him. And God in his discipline puts a Jacob with a Laban. One sharp fellow being put with another sharp fellow. That's how it is. And if you find something peculiar about your wife, remember, Jacob and Laban, God has given you a wife because you were also that type of person.

He has given you one like that to sharpen you. Of course, you don't think that. You think you deserve somebody much better because you are so spiritual, et cetera, et cetera. But God didn't think so. God thought you were pretty carnal.

And that's why he gave you a carnal wife, not to leave you in your carnality. If you both humble yourselves, you can both become spiritual, but you've got to get rid of those high thoughts about yourself first.

You can say, well, I'm the descendant of the promises of Abraham and all that garbage. God says, I'm not surprised. I'm not interested in all that high talk. I'll put you with someone who will really sharpen you now.

And so what a lesson he learned and what a hard lesson that was. It was pretty smart of Laban to have the marriage feast late at night without any lights so that finally when he went home with his bride, he didn't even know who she was.

Well, they didn't have a marriage like we have these days. They just had a feast. And then that was it. And in the evening, after the feast was all over, he took his daughter Leah, and Jacob was probably so tired that he just went to sleep and woke up in the morning to discover that it was not Rachel, it was Leah who had been given to him as a wife in the dark.

And it came about in the morning, verse 25, he discovers that it was Leah. And he said, what is this you have done to me? Why have you deceived me? And those words would ring in his ear. His father asking him, why have you deceived me?

His brother asking him, why have you deceived me? And now he has to ask somebody else, why have you deceived me? It's amazing how God arranges that we reap what we sow. People who are evil to others, one day somebody is evil to them.

And they question why. They just got to look back and think. Children treat you badly. Just look back and think how you treated your parents. You don't have to ask anything. Don't complain against your children and all that.

Don't complain against your daughter-in-law. Just ask yourself how you treated your mother-in-law many years ago when you were a daughter-in-law. Don't complain against daughters-in-law. It's easy to complain.

Easy to complain. Jacob could have thought, I am so spiritual. Why was he deceived? Why are other people treating you that way? You're reaping what you have sown. Maybe you sowed it 30 years ago. You're reaping it now.

You thought you were very smart, Jacob? Now God has put you with somebody smarter than you. Fooled you. Yeah, that's painful when we have to be paid back in the same coin with which we cheated others.

That is the discipline of God. And at that time, instead of rebelling, saying, why has God allowed this to happen to me? Humble yourself. Say, Lord, I am pretty carnal. That's why You see that You need to put me into such a situation to sharpen me and discipline me and humble me, and I will just humble myself under Your hand.

I will not think that I deserve something better. And the same question I'm asking somebody else today, why is he treating me like this? Why is she treating me like this? Let me just look back in time a few years, and I'll find somebody else maybe asking that question.

Why did I treat that person like this? It's the same thing being reaped against. And then all I need to do is humble myself. That is why I say, be kind to others. Be good to others. Don't deceive others.

In your younger days, humble yourself. Honor your parents. Respect them. Put God first, and then you'll reap that. Because if you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption. If you sow to the spirit, you reap eternal life.

It works the other way too. If you sow good, you reap good as well. And so we see, in verse 26, Laban says, it's not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the first born. He could have told him that seven years earlier.

I mean, it's very easy to justify our deception by saying, you know, we just discovered that there's a new rule which doesn't permit that sort of thing. And it's so easy to justify the wrong that we do with some rule or regulation that we say we have discovered.

Very easy. Laban, just as smart as Jeju. However, he says, complete the bridal week. It means after one week, you can marry Rachel also. But you'll have to serve me for another seven years after that for her.

So he, after one week, he married Rachel. And now he had to work for seven years again after that for her. And it says here that, of course, it is obvious that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. In verse 31, when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved or hated, the Lord opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

A very interesting verse, a very interesting principle in life, that God is usually on the side of the underdog. God is on the side of the person who is despised and hated. Here God was watching. This man is, he's married two wives and he's showing so much partiality to the second one, despising and hating the first one.

God says, all right, I'll bless her and I'll teach him a lesson. And Leah conceived and bore a son, named him Reuben. But she said, the Lord's seen my affliction. It's wonderful, brothers and sisters, when you are despised and rejected by men and hated.

If it is for the Lord's sake, if you've not done anything wrong, Leah didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't good looking. It wasn't her fault that she had squint eyes or some problem with her eyes.

She hadn't done anything wrong. God saw that. If you're despised and rejected because nothing wrong with you, you can be sure that God will come down on your side one day. Be very careful of taking sides with the ones who are popular.

God is on the side of the one who is criticised and despised and backbitten against. And when you take sides with a backbiter, you're usually taking sides against God. Then she conceived again. So the Lord's heard that I'm unloved and he's therefore given me another son, Simeon.

She conceived a third son. So now my husband will be attached to me. And he was called Levi. And she conceived and bore a third fourth son. She said, now I will praise the Lord. And she named him Judah.

Judah means praise. You know, that's wonderful how God blessed her with four sons. And with each son, you can imagine how Rachel became more and more envious. It says in verse chapter 30, verse 1, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous.

She said to Jacob, give me children or else I die. It's very difficult for two blood sisters to get along together. Very difficult. One really needs to be highly spiritual because there's always the possibility of envy and jealousy of one sister to the other sister.

All of us can also be in the church, particularly if you're blood sisters. She has got more than me. Whether it's children or property or gifts or X, Y or Z. Always is the same story from the beginning of time.