Sunday Night, October 20, 2019 PM

Continue our reading of verses 9 through 28, as we consider the covenant journeys of Jacob as he makes his way from Padan Aram to Bethel, where he has prepared his family to worship God and God alone.

They have gotten prepared for this. They put away their idols. They have focused themselves on worshiping God. And we've talked about the grace of God in this passage, where he appears to Jacob yet again.

Every time God appears to Jacob, it is a matter of grace. Not only does, is there a special revelation there, but there's also a special resource as God blesses Jacob. And any time God blesses his people, it's to give them resources.

He favors his people to fulfill his purpose for them. And then we thought about the special relationship there, as God reminds Jacob of his new name, Israel, that his name is now changed. And in response to all of this grace that God has shown to Jacob, he commemorates the time.

He makes a landmark. He anoints this altar. He names the place Bethel. Of course, he had done that before, but he's doing so again a second time. An exclamation point on the first encounter he had with God when God appeared to him from the heavens, when he was leaving and on the run from Esau.

And now he's back in the land. So we've been thinking about this, and how God is reminding Jacob of who he is, as his man, as the leader of this people that God has called to be his own, God's people.

He has told Jacob that he is to follow his instructions, to be fruitful, multiply, to live in this land. And he also has told Jacob that, as he is his people, to live in his land, to be blessed under his rule.

So we have all the ingredients of the covenant here that's being stressed. Now we're going to move on from these basic ingredients and these reminders of God's grace to how it all shakes out in Jacob's life.

We have the affirmations. We have the promises. We have the instructions. But then what begins to happen in Jacob's life? And as so often is the case, as we know, we come to church on Sundays, and we hear a sermon, and we go to Sunday school lessons, and we sing these hymns, and everything seems to be nicely arranged.

And then we go live life. And it just doesn't seem as neatly squared away as our Sundays. And we'll have the same point of view here with Jacob and in his life. So if you'll follow along with me, I'm going to read beginning in verse 16.

Verse 16. Then they journeyed from Bethel, and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and she suffered severe labor. When she was in severe labor, the midwife said to her, do not fear, for now you have another son.

It came about as her soul was departing, for she died, that she named him Ben-Oni, but his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar over her grave, that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Adar. It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it.

Now there were twelve sons of Jacob, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, then Simeon and Levi, and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun, the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin, and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid, Dan and Naphtali, and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid, Gad and Asher.

These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram. Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kerioth Arvah, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.

Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, an old man of ripe age, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. Right off the bat, as soon as Jacob leaves Bethel, he has gathered his family to worship God at Bethel.

They have a remarkable time where God himself appears to Jacob, speaks these covenant promises to him, and then ascends. Jacob then makes this altar, this pillar, this stone, anoints it, calls by the name Bethel, house of God, and then when his family leaves the house of God, all sorts of things start happening that do not seem so wonderful.

First we have suffering, in that Rachel begins to suffer. They travel south out of Bethel, heading towards Bethlehem, and Rachel suffers in her childbirth, and the midwife tries to encourage Rachel in this tragic time, saying, do not fear, for now you have another son.

And there's a sense of triumph here for Rachel, but it's a empty one. It's a bitter kind of victory. We remember that she was in competition with her sister, and having all of these children. We have the list of the sons born to Leah, six, and of course she had a daughter, Dinah, as well.

And then we have the sons born to Rachel, just two, and the second one was the one that accompanied her death. We have the sons born to the two concubines, the handmaidens, for Jacob had four wives. But back in chapter 30, we have this competition between Rachel and Leah, and when Rachel realized that she was having no children, she was very angry, and ordered her husband around, and then gave her handmaiden Bilhah to her husband as a wife.

And then when Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son, verse 6, then Rachel said, God has vindicated me, and in fact the term is judged in my favor. He has ruled in my favor, because I'm, you know, she's in this, and indeed has heard my voice, and has given me a son, therefore she named him Dan, which is the idea of judgment, the idea that God has judged.

Well, so she is in competition. Well, God is on my side. See, I have had this son through my handmaiden. But then later on, Rachel herself has a son, which she has been aiming at all along. She's wanting children.

She has desperately been negotiating, and trying to force the issue. Well, verse 22 of chapter 30, then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her, and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son, and said, God has taken away my reproach.

She named him Joseph, the name which means, add to me. And she said, may the Lord give me another son. So as soon as she has her first son, her ardent wish is another one, because she's still in this this bitter competition with her sister.

And because this was her lasting desire, when she is giving birth to her second son, which she said, may the Lord give me another one. She was very insistent on that, and the Lord has given her another one.

But she dies giving birth to him. She knows she is dying. And this second son did not bring to her this vindication, this satisfaction, this resolution that she so desired. And so she names the son Ben-Oni.

For any chess aficionados, the Benoni defense was named by a chess master who was going through depression, and he invented this. Anyway, so he called Benoni. Time of Sorrow. It's known as a very sorrowful name.

Son of Sorrow. But his father called him Benjamin, son of my right hand. Changed his name. Of course, it was his prerogative to do that. Let's think about this for a moment. God had just said to Jacob, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply.

I nation and a company of nations shall come forth from you. Kings shall come forth from you. God had just said this, and Jacob in his family, he is following through on what God has said. His family, they are being fruitful.

They are multiplying. Indeed, king, one king in particular, King Saul, came from this son Benjamin. All of this is in line with what God had instructed him. All of it's in line with God's covenant plan that Jacob and his family should be fruitful and multiply.

And yet, sorrow comes through it. Suffering comes through it. Jacob is following along what God told him to do, and suffering and sorrow come. I mean, that happens, right? When we're called to do what God has commanded us, this doesn't mean that everything's going to go smoothly.

That everything's going to work out just right. That we'll have nothing but open doors and easy paths to do what God has commanded us. But Jacob responds to the sorrow of losing his wife, his favorite wife.

Later on, we'll see his favoritism towards Benjamin and Joseph as of his favoritism towards Rachel. So we know that he greatly loved Rachel, and that he is greatly sorrowful. But he responds by renaming Ben-Oni Benjamin, son of my right hand.

And this is a name full of hope. This is a name anticipating great things. And what does he do in the loss of his wife? He renames his son in terms of hope, and then he buries Rachel. Notice how he buries her.

Jacob set up a pillar over her grave. That is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day. And then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Adar. So Rachel was died and was buried on the way to Ephrath.

And verse 14, after the worship service, Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. In the same sense, he sets up a pillar over the grave of Rachel. He does the exact same thing, not because he's worshipping his dead wife, but just as he worshipped the Lord at Bethel, he reconstructs that where Rachel dies.

This is a picture of him placing a godly landmark. This death, this sorrow, this suffering that he has endured, he places under the same shape, in the same pattern of what happened at Bethel. So in a sense, it's what Job said, Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

That God is still God, and he is still good, and the covenant promises remain, and all of it is still true, he says, even though my wife died. And so this is a recognition of God's covenant goodness. And so there's suffering, they leave church, and they go on, and here comes the suffering, here comes sorrow, and here comes sin, here comes sin.

Verse 22, it came about while Israel was dwelling in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. And so Reuben commits incest. This sin, they have to understand that in the rebel heart, in the throne of every rebel heart, is enthroned a lie.

It's enthroned a lie, and this is what sin is. Sin is a phantom parasite. It doesn't really exist. What sin is, is a perversion, a twisting of the good that God has made. Every kind of sin is a taking of what God has commanded us to be and to do as the image of God, and taking it and then twisting it somehow.

Reuben is the firstborn. Reuben seeks to lay extra claim to the fact that he would be honored as the next made in the image of God, and he too is called to be fruitful and to multiply, to exercise, does it in all the wrong way.

The counterfeit move by Reuben ends up in a curse, which we can read about, Genesis 49. Reuben's attempt to to grab this in Jacob's last prophecy concerning his sons. This is what he has to say about Reuben in verse...

Reuben, you are my firstborn, in the beginning of my strength, eminent in dignity, and preeminent in power. Sounds good. Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went to up to your father's bed.

Filed it. He went up to my couch. And so the sin of Reuben in trying to exercise dominion in sinful ways, it has an impact on his status as a leader. It actually backfires, and so he is cursed, and he is not allowed to be the leader.

He does not receive a blessing from his father. Well, as we move forward, we have the genealogy, the full list of the family, in verse 22, the second part of the verse, it says, now there were twelve sons of Jacob.

Sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid, Dan, and Nephi, and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid, Gad, and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

So here's his twelve sons, and his four wives, and his big family, and of course this is going to turn into about 70 persons when they finally do move down to Egypt to escape the famine, by God's good grace.

So the people of God are growing in number. Remember that Abraham's major concern was when he came out of the land of Ur, and God had made these promises to him of an heir. He says, I have no heir. You know, a servant of mine is the heir to my household, and God took him outside and showed him the stars.

Count the stars if you can, so shall your descendants be. And so Abraham believed God. He believed that promise of his offspring of the seed, and then he had one legitimate heir, and then that son had two legitimate heirs, but one of those, the blessed one, now he has twelve sons.

He has twelve sons, and the nation begins to grow much more rapidly from this point. But notice there's a reunion of those who have been given these covenant promises. Jacob, verse 27, came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kerioth Arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.

So where Abraham sojourned, Isaac sojourned. Where Isaac sojourned, now Jacob sojourns. So there's this sense of a completion of Jacob's father and his father's father, and they all have this in common, that God has made these promises to them about them being God's people, about them living in God's place, blessed under God's rule.

Isaac. In the days of Isaac were 180 years. Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, an old man of ripe age, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. What do we think of this expression?

He breathed his last and died. We understand that. He was a man of ripe age. The idea is he was satisfied with days. There comes a point in time where we'll say, I don't need days to live. I've lived as many days as I desire to.

Of course, it's all up to God, but really, what more days do I need? He's full of days. He's satisfied with days. He's years. We can understand that, even. We can understand his sons Esau and Jacob burying him, as would befit sons honoring their father.

We can understand that. What does this mean, though, that he was gathered to his people? He was gathered to his people. Jacob, we can understand Jacob being gathered to his people. He came back to Hebron, the place where his father was sojourned, a place where his family had sojourned for two generations.

He came back home, so to speak. But what does it mean that Isaac died, was buried, and was gathered to his people? Who are his people? People of faith. Jesus pointed this out to the Sadducees who didn't believe in life after death.

God says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not, I was. I am. Because they still live. They have eternal life in God. So who was Isaac gathered to? He was gathered to Abraham. He was gathered to Eber.

He was gathered to Shem, and Noah, and Lamech, and Enosh, and into eternity, from his family to his people, Isaac was gathered. This is the hope of every believer. This is the hope of every believer, that we have a reunion ahead of us.

That we had God's good days, satisfied with days, and have no sense that we need anymore. That we would breathe our last and die in God's good timing, and even our children would honor the mercies of God.

The best part of all those lines there, in verse 29, was this. That as a believer, Isaac was gathered to his people. We have a reunion ahead of us. We'll be gathered to our people. And, you know, when Isaac was gathered to his people, there weren't a whole lot of them up there.

When we get gathered to our people, it's gonna be a whole lot of us up there. The choir has gotten rather large, and I'm looking forward to it. Yes, ma 'am? About something that happened, if I'm doing my math correctly, about 450 years earlier.

So Moses is still there, okay? So that it remains, it remains Rachel's pillar to this day. So it's important to remember that there were certain things that were built and constructed throughout the land of promise, throughout Canaan, by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

They made altars. They constructed things. They basically, through architecture, very simple, but they declared the gospel for three generations in the land of Canaan, and left those silent witnesses there for hundreds of years.

Now Moses is telling his audience, Rachel's pillar is still there. Now, this may be a little bit too simple, but if I was about to go out on a tour of some ancient land, and the tour guide said the night before, now, by the way, I want to tell you a story, and somewhere, well, I'm looking forward to seeing that.

And the Israelites, they're about to go into the land. They're about to go conquer the promised land, and they're gonna run into all sorts of things. And based on the scriptures, you know, Joshua, or a Levite, a scribe, or someone's like, hey, it's still there, you know, from your forefathers.

Look, it's still there. So I think that's the idea. When they get to the promised land, and they're somewhere in between Bethel and Bethlehem, they're gonna be looking for Rachel's pillar. Yes, sir. Oh, no, I don't know if it's still there today, but it was there when Moses was writing it.

So if it was Moses, you know, 1400 BC, and in that day, whatever he's writing about is still there. Or if it's Samuel writing, you know, for a second, Samuel, or the prophet Nathan, or the prophet Gad, who was writing the histories of Israel.

If it was Ezra writing the histories of Israel, they say it's still there to this day. Then the times in which they lived, those things were.

Still to be gathered to our people. When we die, we'll be with Christ. To be.

Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. All right, let's close in doxology.