August 11, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: 2 Thessalonians

Weekly Memory Verse: Romans 8:1

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Genesis 29:1-15 (NASB95)
¹ Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the sons of the east. ² He looked, and saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for from that well they watered the flocks. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, they would then roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well. ⁴ Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” ⁵ He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” ⁶ And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well, and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.” ⁷ He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.” ⁸ But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.” ⁹ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept. ¹² Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. ¹³ So when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he related to Laban all these things. ¹⁴ Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month. ¹⁵ Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” ^[1]

An interesting observation, "Jacob went", this literally says that "Jacob lifted up his feet".  This is the only place in the Bible that this phrase is used.  What did it mean?  As a runner, when I hit the "second wind", my pace will pick up a bit, things flow easier, I pick up my feet.  Perhaps when Jacob received the vision, God removed the original reason for the journey from his life. 

The original reasons, rejection by his father, being ostracized from his family, and running from the wrath of his brother, the goal of getting a wife probably sounded like an excuse in light of the deception that had taken place.  You can almost see Jacob running from home dejected and depressed, knowing that when his grandfather had sent for a wife, a servant went, loaded with riches.  Yet he was basically kicked out of the house, he had committed the unpardonable sin and was kicked out because his father decided to side with his wife on sending him to get a wife.   

Look at what God did, he gave him a reason for the journey, all the negative stuff was quickly thrown off because God had personally commissioned him and given him direction.  Jacob had a reason for his journey, now he was excited and motivated.

Jacob completed his journey safely.  The first people that he hear him speaking with are servants of Laban.  This is significant, God protected him through his journey, and when he arrived, God made sure that he was in God's will.  As an added blessing, he met Rachel his future wife. 

One thing that stood out to me as I read through this passage was that after meeting Rachel, and being around her for one month, he was ready to sacrifice seven years of his  to work for her hand in marriage.  This further demonstrates that he had arrived empty handed.  The only thing that he had to offer was the work of his hands.  Remember, Rebekah left almost immediately after Abraham's servant found her.  That was because he had brought great riches with him.  Isaac was required to wait for the bride to be brought back to him.  This story throws quite a contrast to the one with Isaac.  Jacob was treated much worse than his father was, he was placed in a situation where he was left with his own resources, and no help. 

Yet, he was commissioned to go to this specific family to find a bride.  Think about that for a moment, God commissioned him to go to this family and to find a bride to marry.  He didn't have any money, no resources, and no family backing.  He didn't stand a chance of accomplishing this mission, his only hope was in his heritage.  Women of wealthy landowners came at a very high price, the dowry had to be enormous.  The only thing that he had to offer for this tremendous prize was the sweat of his brow.  In a word, he had an impossible task, but he did not let that stop him.  He stepped forward in faith, believing that God had ordained this mission, and did not stop at worrying about his resources.  He worked with what he had.

Consider the stone for a moment, Jacob is painted in previous chapters to be a wimp.  Here he sounds like a mans man, one who is buffed out and extremely strong.  His demeanor is that of a leader, not a follower, the wimpy picture that was painted before is eliminated.  Also consider that being a farmer and a herdsman was much harder work than being a hunter like his brother Esau.  He was probably buffed out due to the manual labor that he had been doing for years.  Remember, everything had to be done by hand, all the cultivation and preparation of the soil, as well as the harvesting.  God's vision had given him a life-changing attitude, and an assertiveness that was not present before.

There was a couple of reasons that the well was covered.  First, the stone kept out sand and debris from contaminating and filling up the well.  Second, this was a control that the shepherds had over the people using the water in the well.  All the flocks would join together at one time to insure fairness in the sharing of the water.  It insured that no one tribe would get an unfair share of water leaving another tribe without water.

Genesis 29:16-35 (NASB95)
¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷ And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face. ¹⁸ Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” ¹⁹ Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. ²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.” ²² Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. ²³ Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her. ²⁴ Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. ²⁵ So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” ²⁶ But Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn. ²⁷ “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.” ²⁸ Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. ²⁹ Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid. ³⁰ So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years. ³¹ Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. ³² Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” ³³ Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. ³⁴ She conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi. ³⁵ And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.^[2]

God has a sense of humor.  Consider this, Jacob lived a deceptive life up to this point.  He had deceived his brother twice, and had seriously deceived his father.  Laban had dealt fairly with Abraham's servant when he dealt with him, but when Jacob showed up, he turned coat, it is as if he were a different person.  One reason for this was that he was loosing his shepherdess.  I believe that God allowed Laban to take an attitude toward Jacob, and he saw him as one that he could take advantage of. 

Jacob worked the seven years which was agreed upon for the dowry for Rachel.  At the end of the seven years, the price had been paid, and the marriage was legal.  There wasn't a ceremony, there was a consummation of the marriage by taking the woman to the marriage bed.  Jacob woke the next morning to find that the woman in his bed was not Rachel, it was Leah!  This raised a problem because if it were argued that the contract was null, then there was a penalty for taking a woman’s virginity, it was the price of that woman’s dowry.  As a result of this, Jacob understood that he had to serve another seven years for Leah who he had defiled.  That is the reason that he waited another seven years for Rachel, the dowry had already been spent on Leah. 

Galatians 6:7 (NASB95)
⁷ Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. ^[3]

The deception that he had gotten away with came back on him, many times over.  This is one lesson that we can learn from Jacob's life at this point.  The sins that we commit carry penalties with them, God forgives us of the sin, but doesn't always remove the penalty of the sin.  Take Paul for instance, before his conversion he was extremely zealous in persecuting the church.  One of the interesting things about his life is the prediction that he would suffer greatly for the sins of his past.  If you look at his life, it is loaded with persecutions, beatings, and tremendous grief, just like he had issued to the church.  God does not always let us suffer for the sins of our past, but it does happen.  Perhaps the reason is that we learn from getting a taste of our own medicine.  Laban had deceitfully substituted Leah, just like he had deceitfully taken Esau's blessing.  He was reminded of the privilege of being first born.

A closing note, Leah bore four sons for Jacob.  That means that even though Jacob did not "love" her, he still treated her as his wife.  It is interesting that this is not noticed, Leah may not have been the wife that he chose, yet he made sure that he fulfilled his duty as a husband.  It would be good for us to notice that even though Leah was given to him by deception, the Lord blessed her.  God saw her affliction. As she stood in the role as a wife, she knew that her husband did not love her with his heart, yet she continued to walk in faith believing that he would love her.

There is a lesson in the names of her sons:

"Rueben means look or see, a son. When Leah’s next son was born she named him Simeon, which means hearing, “Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too” (Genesis 29:33). When her third son was born she named him Levi, which means attachment, saying, ““Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons” (Genesis 29:34). And when her fourth son was born, she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah” (Genesis 29:35), which means praise. It is from the royal line of Judah that King David and Jesus were born (see Matthew 1:1–16).

The scriptural custom of naming a child came from the ancient world’s belief that a name expressed the basic character of the person. As in Leah’s case, the name sometimes expressed what they believed was the purpose or reason for the birth of the child. This often involved what they felt was their relationship to God, or God’s intervention into their lives through the child. Sometimes the child’s name expressed what they hoped was the future of the child."^[4]

There is a lot in this chapter, and I am going to close here.  If you want to add your comments be sure to write in.

Questions for thought:

1. Outside of traditional reasons, was there any spiritual reasons that Leah took Rachel’s place?
2. What does Leah teach us about faith?

Father, as we consider Your words today, enable each one of us to understand and to apply the principles to our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.