Will you turn with me to Genesis chapter
29 and I want to read the entire
chapter for the scripture reading.
Now just by way of review remember after
the blessing had been obtained by Jacob in
chapter 27 because of the threats that Esau
made against the life of Jacob.
Rebecca was very much disturbed and suggested to
Jacob that he go.
She said that she was tired of living
because of the daughters of Heth that is
Ishmael's pagan wives and therefore Isaac called Jacob
to himself and charged him that he should
not take a wife from the daughters of
Canaan but rather should go to Paddan Aram
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.
Now these were cousins of Jacob.
Rebecca was the sister of Laban they both
were the children of Bethuel and so Jacob
is now charged to go to the east
in order to obtain a wife.
Along the way Jacob a fugitive from justice
really has this great experience in which at
Bethel the latter appears in a dream to
him.
This latter has it has its top reaching
to heaven and its bottom upon the earth
and the angels of God were ascending and
descending upon it and then God stood by
the side of it and said I am
the Lord the God of your father Abraham
and the God of Isaac and then after
saying this he introduced Jacob not only to
the promises that had been given to Abraham
and Isaac but also added some special words
for him.
He said that he would be with him
and he would keep him wherever he would
go and he would bring him back to
the land and that he would not leave
Jacob until he had done what he had
promised him.
And so that is something of a blank
check for the care of God over Jacob's
life and therefore from that point Bethel Bethel
from Bethel we pick up the story in
Genesis chapter 29.
Then Jacob went on his journey and came
to the land of the sons of the
east and 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.
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.
And Jacob said to them my brothers evidently
calls them brothers because they were fellow shepherds
my brothers where are you from and they
said we are from Haran and he said
to them do you know Laban the son
of Nahor and they said we know him
and he said to them is it well
with him and they said it is well
and behold Rachel his daughter is coming with
the sheep and 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.
It's quite obvious he wants to be alone
with Rachel.
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.
While he was still speaking with them Rachel
came with her father's sheep for she was
a shepherdess and it came about when Jacob
saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's
brother and the sheep of Laban his mother's
brother that Jacob went up and rolled the
stone from the mouth of the well and
watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
You'll notice that's mentioned three times so this
relationship is evidently important to the author of
Genesis Laban is uncle Laban Rebecca's sister and
therefore Rachel who is the daughter of Laban
is his first cousin.
I guess we could say they were kissing
cousins we we do we do say that
in South Carolina anyway and that stretches to
about the third or fifth degree.
So verse 11 then Jacob kissed Rachel and
lifted his voice and wept and Jacob told
Rachel that he was a relative of her
father and that he was Rebecca's son and
she ran and told her father.
So it came about when Laban heard the
news of Jacob his sister's son that 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
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 relative should you therefore serve me for
nothing tell me what shall your wages be.
Now Laban had two daughters the name of
the older was Leah and the name of
the younger was Rachel and Leah's eyes were
weak.
Now I think that the authorized version has
perhaps tender but it means weak.
Leah's eyes were weak but Rachel was beautiful
of form and face.
Now Jacob loved Rachel so he said I
will serve you seven years for your younger
daughter Rachel and Laban said it is better
that I give it to you than that
I should give her to another man stay
with me.
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and
they seemed to him but a few days
because of his love for her.
Then Jacob said to Laban give me my
wife for my time is completed that I
may go into her and Laban gathered all
the men of the place and made a
feast.
This was the marriage feast usually lasted about
a week.
Now it came about in the evening that
he took his daughter Leah and brought her
to him and Jacob went into her and
Laban also gave his maid Zopa to his
daughter Leah as a maid.
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?
But Laban said it is not the practice
in our place to marry off the younger
before the firstborn.
That certainly was a strange time for Jacob
to learn of that practice custom.
But Laban goes on he says complete the
bridal week of this one that is finished
the week of the feast and we will
give you the other also for the service
which you shall serve with me for another
seven years.
But now he's going to give Jacob Rachel
now but Jacob is to serve another seven
years that makes fourteen in all.
And Jacob did so and completed her week
and he gave him his daughter Rachel as
his wife.
Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his
daughter Rachel as her maid.
So Jacob went into Rachel also and indeed
he loved Rachel more than Leah and he
served with Laban for another seven years.
Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved
and he opened her womb but Rachel was
barren.
There's an interesting thing here that bears on
one of the strange texts in the Bible
in the minds of some people.
And that's the text Jacob have I loved
Esau have I hated.
Now as Bible expositors we usually explain well
of course that does not mean that God
has personal animosity toward Esau.
Jacob have I loved Esau have I hated
means simply that to love is to be
the object of his redeeming electing love.
To hate is to reject in the purpose
and plan of God.
And thus to be hated by God is
not to be the object of personal animosity
but simply a recognition of the fact that
he does not belong to the Lord as
the elect and redeemed children do.
And it's often been said that to hate
in a situation like that means simply to
love less.
And to love Jacob have I love means
to love more.
Well you can see that that is precisely
what is meant in this instance.
Because we read in verse thirty one now
the Lord saw that Leah was unloved.
But if you have a Bible with a
marginal note you'll notice it is the word
hated.
Leah was hated.
But in verse thirty we've just read so
Jacob went into Rachel also and indeed he
loved Rachel more than Leah.
So that to be hated is to be
loved less.
To be loved is to be loved more.
That's what is meant.
In the New Testament if I had time
we can show the same illustration of this
identical thing in our Lord's comments about one
must hate father and mother in order to
be a disciple.
It means to love them less than the
will of God.
Verse thirty two and Leah conceived and bore
a son and named him Reuben for she
said because the Lord has seen my affliction
surely now my husband will love me.
Then she conceived again and bore a son
and said because the Lord has heard that
I am unloved hated.
He has therefore given me this son also.
So she named him Simeon.
And she conceived again and bore a son
and said now this time my husband will
become attached to me because I've borne him
three sons.
Therefore he was named Levi.
And she conceived again and bore a son
and said this time well I will praise
the Lord.
Therefore she named him Judah.
Then she stopped bearing.
Now of course it's important to notice that
it is Leah who is the mother of
the promised seeds.
Ancestor Judah and not Rachel.
May the Lord bless this reading of his
word.
The subject this morning as we turn again
to Genesis is the deceiver deceived or Jacob
learning the justice of God.
Bethel was a high point in the education
of Jacob.
Chapter twenty eight is the latter chapter and
it taught Jacob some very important lessons.
It taught him first of all that earth
and heaven are linked everywhere.
And that was a great consolation for fallible
erring Jacob.
He had been forced to leave because of
the threats of Esau.
And as a result of that he had
to make his way into the far country.
And out in the midst of the desert
like country in which he perhaps was.
It might have been a question in his
mind.
Is this really the area of the Lord
God Jehovah or have we passed beyond his
territory.
And he learns from the experience of the
dream and the voice of the Lord and
the reaffirmation of the promises and the addition
of other promises that no place is to
man deserted for the Lord.
And then he also learned the awe that
every believer should manifest in the presence of
the Lord God.
Jacob you'll remember when he was getting the
venison with the help of Rebecca for Isaac.
When asked about this venison where did you
get it had said the Lord your God
caused it to happen to me and so
he had flippantly used the name of the
Lord.
But now as a result of the experience
at Bethel Jacob is frightened by the sense
of the majesty of God.
We read in verse 16 of chapter 28
then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said
surely the Lord is in this place and
I did not know it.
And he was afraid and said how awesome
is this place.
And so Jacob learned something of the awe.
That every Christian should have in the presence
of the Lord God.
But he learned something else that was no
doubt in the later years even more significant
for him.
He learned that the God of Bethel is
the God of pursuing grace.
And even though he was a fugitive and
even though he may have done some things
that were contrary to the will of God
nevertheless he couldn't really put any distance between
himself and the Lord God.
And so the experience at Bethel of the
latter vision God coming to him God speaking
to him and God telling him that unworthy
creature that he was nevertheless he was going
to make his seed like the dust of
the earth.
And he was not going to be satisfied
with Jacob until he had accomplished everything that
he had said that he would accomplish.
Now you know we often cite Philippians chapter
one and verse six it's one of my
favorite verses and when people ask me to
sign their Bibles as they frequently do and
churches after I've preached there I usually sign
my name and then put Philippians 1 6
in which the Apostle writes being confident of
this very thing which he that he which
hath begun a good work and you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
That's not simply an old a New Testament
blessing but we have it right here for
I will not leave you until I have
done what I have promised you.
And so the God of Bethel is the
God of infinite love and mercy.
He is the God of grace forgiving mercy
too.
He is the God who comes to this
sinful disobedient wanderer and ministers us to him.
He is the one who seeks us when
we're not seeking him and he's the one
who takes the initiative in all of his
dealings with us.
He is the one who answers before we
call as we read in the Old Testament.
He is the man who came to Moses
in the midst of the burning bush and
revealed himself to Moses as the great I
am.
He is the God who called Abraham out
of Ur of the Chaldees coming to him
at his own initiative and bringing Abraham out
of his heathen surroundings.
He's the God who came to Isaiah when
he went up to worship in the temple
and revealed himself there as the Lord God
Jehovah.
Holy holy holy.
So the seraphim said concerning this Lord God
of the hosts and of course he's the
God of Jeremiah to whom he said before
I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee.
And so the God of Bethel is the
God of pursuing grace and Jacob learns that.
Now of course if he has promised to
direct Jacob in his life then it's clear
that one of the first steps is marriage.
Now the psalmist says that the steps of
the saints are ordered of the Lord.
And so we should expect that the steps
of the believing Jacob should be ordered of
the Lord in this most solemn of all
allowances.
And that is exactly what we find.
Marriage is not something to be left to
the whim and fancy of an individual.
It's not something to be left to our
friends.
It's not something to be left even to
the brethren in Christ.
It's something that is the Lord's responsibility and
it should be left to the Lord.
The scriptures make very interesting statements about this.
A prudent wife is from the Lord.
And it was God who taught us right
in the second chapter of the book of
Genesis that it is he who institutes marriage
and it is he who should have the
say so in the persons to whom we
unite ourselves in this most solemn of allowances.
Now in this case Jacob's marriage comes before
us in chapter 29 and we notice that
his steps are ordered of the Lord.
Now Jacob must also discover something else though.
He must discover the justice of God.
Because after all he's been a deceiver.
Now the Lord, I'm going to put this
in human language.
Now the Lord said I've got to teach
Jacob that the man who deceives is a
man who is sinning against me.
So what I need to do is to
send him to school so he can learn
the sinfulness of deceit.
Now let me see where on the face
of the earth can Jacob best learn about
deceit.
Now speaking humanly he says ah what better
place than the place where Bethuel and Laban
live.
Because there is no better deceiver than Laban.
And furthermore Laban is the brother of Jacob's
mother.
And that's where Jacob learned a lot of
his deceit.
He learned it from Rebekah.
And Rebekah's brother Laban is the match of
Rebekah.
What better place than to send him to
the school from which all of his powers
of deceit originated.
Back there in Haran from Bethuel and Laban
and Rebekah.
And so Jacob's going to discover that Laban
is the equal of his clever sister Rebekah
his mother.
And so Jacob is to be paid back
as we say with the family coin.
He's going to get his own medicine from
his own family.
And how interesting it is.
Now the Bible says in one place Genesis
chapter 22 that God did prove Abraham.
That's very suggestive.
It doesn't say that he proved Lot.
Sodom proved Lot.
Sodom proved that Lot was a very worldly
man.
But it was God who proved Abraham.
You know it's really a position of honor
to be proven by God.
And so God proved Abraham when he had
him offer up Isaac because he knew what
was in Abraham since he had put in
Abraham what was there.
And so he felt confident that Abraham through
that experience would manifest what he had put
within him.
The trust in the Lord God.
And so God now proves Jacob.
Doesn't say that here but you can sense
that this is part of Jacob's proof.
He's going to prove Jacob just like he
proved Abraham.
Men seldom drift to their desired haven.
They usually sail and they sail against it
against the most contrary winds.
And in Jacob's case now we're going to
discover that this man going to the school
of the Lord is going to sail to
the port that God desires for him against
a great deal of opposition from the experiences
of life from his own flesh and from
other sources of difficulty.
Now we look at the first part of
the chapter which we could entitle Jacob at
the well or love at first sight.
It's a beautiful story of the providence of
God.
The Lord guides the steps of the saints
and it's such a comforting thing to know
that all of our steps are ordered by
the Lord.
Incidentally they're great.
There's great virtue in asking questions.
You'll notice that Jacob's just full of questions
but they get him to what he's interested
in and so it's all right to ask
the questions.
Now the first few verses here describe the
meeting with the shepherds.
We read then Jacob went on his journey
and did you notice in the margin that
that is literally then Jacob lifted up his
feet.
You can sense that there is a new
spring in the step of Jacob because of
the experience at Bethel.
God has appeared to him and God has
strengthened him and encouraged him and now he
has hope with reference to the future and
so with a light springing step he makes
his way to the east and comes the
450 miles finally to the area of Haran.
Well when he arrives he sees a well
in the midst of the field.
That's a very insignificant thing something very common
no doubt.
He saw some flocks lying about and a
few men who were shepherds and since he
was a shepherd himself he went over to
them and he said my brothers where are
you from and they said we're from Haran.
You can sense that in Jacob's heart there
must have been at that point he began
to beat faster because that's where he was
going.
He was going to Haran.
It just so happened so my Arminian friends
would say it just so happened that there
were some people there who were from Haran
and he said to them do you know
Laban the son of Nahor and they said
we know him and he said is it
well with him and they said it's well
and look Rachel his daughter is coming with
the sheep and by this time you can
just imagine how Jacob felt.
All of these days and days that he
had spent thinking about this wife that he
had been urged to take and Isaac had
said to him don't take one from the
daughters of Haran of Canaan but go to
Bethuel to his house and from there take
to yourself a wife from the daughters of
Laban your mother's brother.
And here is Rachel and she's coming with
the sheep and as he looks out there
she is with all of the flock and
here are these shepherds around the well.
I know that in his heart there just
must have leapt up the conviction that God
is really directing my steps.
This is the first installment of the promise
of his presence with me that he gave
me back at Bethel and incidentally my dear
Christian friends it is very important that we
as Christians practice the art of discerning the
movement of God's finger in the most minute
experiences of our lives because that is exactly
what is taking place.
Jacob is no different from you and me.
We are directed by the providence of God
our steps are ordered by him and we
should learn to recognize him in the commonness
of events just as happens in this case.
Now the shepherds are lying around and the
water is there the well has the large
stone upon it and Rachel is coming.
What would you do young men?
Well you would think of some way to
get those other shepherds out of the way
wouldn't you?
Well that is exactly what Jacob did.
He thought about that.
So he said behold it is still high
day it is still noon it is not
the time for the livestock to be gathered.
Water the sheep and go and pasture them
get away.
He wanted Rachel to himself.
He did not want any double dating.
Now Jacob is a man of maybe 57
to 77 years of age.
He is quite old but he is wise.
The Lord Jesus said that we should be
wise as serpents and harmless as doves and
in this case Jacob is wise.
He wants Rachel to himself.
This is forethought wise forethought but of course
it fails.
They did not go.
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 and while he
was still talking with them Rachel came with
a father sheep for she was a shepherdess.
Now of course Jacob has been brought to
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that
is the greatest of God's gifts faith in
Christ.
Who cannot who is a Christian who cannot
put first in his life that moment when
by the grace of God we came to
the trust in the Lord Jesus that means
the forgiveness of sins.
That is the greatest of blessings.
If you are in the audience and you
have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ
then you are lost.
You are guilty under the condemnation of your
sin and you are headed for a Christless
eternity.
Now many in this audience know the experience
of seeing the Lord Jesus as the sacrifice
for sin.
Realizing that the blood that was shed there
is sufficient for the sins of the whole
human race and by the grace of God
the Holy Spirit you have come to faith
in Christ and you have come to know
the forgiveness of sins and you know the
joy and rejoicing that comes to the believer
who knows that he is justified before the
Lord.
But now the second best of God's gifts
may be a woman's love and Jacob is
now going to experience the second of these.
Well when Rachel arrives Jacob has been taught
properly he is not gallant he is gallant.
Now there is a difference.
Now a gallant man is a man who
is very courageous in battle but a man
who is gallant is a man who knows
how to treat a woman.
He is courteous.
He has been trained properly.
In Charleston we have gallant men.
Not as courageous as they ought to be
but some gallant men.
Well anyway Jacob is gallant and so he
rushes to remove this large stone.
It said it was a large stone.
So he rolled the stone from the mouth
of the well and he watered the flock
of Laban his mother's brother.
Now you can say this about Jacob he
had an eye for Rachel but he also
had something else.
He had an eye for Laban's sheep.
Did you notice that?
That's what it says.
When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban
his mother's brother and the sheep of Laban
his mother's brother.
So he had an eye for the girl
and he had an eye for the sheep
because he knew that if he married this
girl it just might be that he might
get some of those sheep too.
Now this man he is some man.
I'll say this and he takes particular notice
of the letter.
The text of scripture lays a great deal
of stress on it and later on we're
going to see that a large part of
Jacob's life is built up is built around
the sheep of Laban.
Now in the 11th verse I imagine he
offered a word of thanksgiving to the Lord.
Rachel is a kissing cousin.
So he's we read then Jacob kissed Rachel
and lifted his voice and wept.
I said in Charleston it was a custom
to kiss cousins.
We used to talk as kids about kissing
cousins down to the third or fourth or
if they happen to be one sixth or
seventh degree that appeared to be it might
be advantageous to apply the apply the the
tradition of kissing cousin you might kiss to
the seventh degree.
But in Charleston everybody knew who your cousins
were first second third fourth fifth.
Now we're living out in the West and
we don't know things like that but there
was some value in that there was some
benefit in it.
So Jacob kisses Rachel it's a kiss of
greeting and he lifted up his voice and
wept.
No he didn't say after he had kissed
her why have I waited so long to
do that.
That was probably not the reason.
Do you know why he wept?
I think he wept because he was so
filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit
over the providence of God in bringing him
to this place and then bringing him to
the very person that he might marry.
And he was so pleased with what he
saw and with what God had done that
he was so over and so overjoyed with
it that a lump came in his heart
and he began to weep.
He's an emotional man and he appreciates the
great providence of God.
You know you have to be a very
very poor Christian if there have not been
times in your life when you felt just
as Jacob has felt.
The experiences of life have been so wonderful
that you cannot do anything but weep over
the things that God has brought into your
life.
You know it was a very ordinary kind
of experience a journey on the road meeting
some shepherds near a well a young woman
coming up a shepherdess an act of courtesy
removing the stone.
And these great and far-reaching results that
came from it because the God of heaven
was interested in every little thing that was
transpiring there in fact had arranged it.
There is nothing really small in the life
of a Christian.
A chance meeting a receipt of a letter
some experience in the supermarket some providential meeting
of a friend on the street.
All of these things are important for the
Christian believer.
It is true that these are the experiences
of ordinary life.
But do you know what ordinary means?
It really comes from ordered.
Our ordinary life is the ordered part of
our life.
And so here we have the harmonious beneficent
combination of circumstances that guided and directed Jacob
by the overruling wisdom of God to this
woman that was to share his life.
Now he meets Laban.
I'll pass that by for the sake of
time and say a word about the next
section which could be entitled Jacob and Laban
the deceiver deceived.
God chooses in his instruments not for their
sakes but for his.
Leah is unloved but she is the one
who bore the sons.
Rachel is loved but she is the one
that was barren.
This is an evidence of the independence of
the grace of God.
Now Laban after Jacob has been there for
a little while has a proposition and so
there is a contract that is drawn up
between Laban and Jacob.
Laban said to him you are my relative
therefore should you serve me for nothing tell
me what shall your wages be.
Was he generous?
Well yes in some ways Laban was a
generous man.
Was he greedy?
Yes he was very greedy.
Was he sagacious?
Yes he was very wise because he wanted
another hand on the ranch and Jacob evidently
was a useful hand.
And so he offered him this proposition and
Jacob is said or is asked what shall
your wages be.
Now Laban had two daughters the name of
the older was Leah the name of the
younger was Rachel.
Leah's eyes were weak.
Now I don't know what exactly what that
means the commentators are divided in their interpretations.
It does not mean that she needed glasses
evidently it means that she had eyes that
were not as sparkling as say Rachel's evidently.
There are eyes like that.
You know there are eyes that when you
go to write down on your driver's license
the color of the eye it's difficult to
do it like mine.
So they put down hazel whatever that means.
Then there are some eyes that just don't
sparkle and then there's some that sparkle.
There are those beautiful brown eyes there are
beautiful blue eyes there are beautiful green eyes
and Leah just had weak eyes.
That was that was it.
But Rachel Rachel she was beautiful of form
and face.
Female loveliness does not render the loving heart
less pure.
The man who loves a beautiful woman is
not less holy than the man who loves
one who is not so beautiful.
And we're not suggesting of course that because
one is beautiful one is therefore more likely
to be the object of the grace of
God.
That of course is not true.
But Jacob loved Rachel.
Now we read in the 18th verse now
Jacob loved Rachel and he said I will
serve you seven years for your younger daughter
Rachel.
Labor said it's better that I give it
to you than that I should give it
to another man.
Stay with me.
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and
they seemed to him but a few days
because of his love for her.
This was love at first sight.
Now someone might say well it doesn't quite
say that.
No it doesn't say that.
It says that they were there that Jacob
was there for a month.
But it would seem from reading the account
and most of the commentators pedantic though they
be agree that this was likely love at
first sight and it certainly was love after
only a month of relationship.
For we read in verse 18 now Jacob
loved Rachel.
He had been there one month and he
was ready to marry her.
Now he had no dowry.
He had no property and so he was
going to serve seven years and in that
statement in verse 20 we have one of
the most beautiful statements about love found in
all of literature.
Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they
seemed to him but a few days because
of his love for her.
Those words express the purest tenderness and express
more emphatically than the flowery excesses of language
of romantic phraseology the deep attachment that this
man had developed for Rachel.
There is nothing more beautiful in any romantic
literature than that statement.
They seem to him but a few days
because of his love for her.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge said no man could be
a bad man who loved as Jacob loved
Rachel.
Well in one sense that would be true.
All men are bad but this was one
of the great things about Jacob.
He did love Rachel in that way.
And incidentally this is an illustration of the
love that Jesus Christ has for the church
of Jesus Christ.
Almost all the commentators comment upon that fact
because here is Jacob who is illustrative of
the Lord Jesus Christ serving because he loved
Rachel.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ the servant
of God has carried out his work of
atonement because of his love for the church.
He loved the church and gave himself for
her.
And Jacob is a person who served that
he might be united with Rachel in that
deepest of human unions, marriage.
And the Lord Jesus Christ served that he
might unite us to himself in an even
deeper union.
For they that are joined to the Lord
are one spirit.
And of course Jacob served that we might
have the confidence that Rachel might have the
confidence of his love.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ has carried
out his work of atonement that we might
have the confidence and security of the love
of God.
If you want security, if you want the
sense of truly belonging then to know Christ
and to know his love for us and
to have by the grace of God through
the Holy Spirit to have responded is to
know true security.
What a magnificent really picture.
Now of course Laban comes into the story
and Laban's quite a different character.
After the end of the seven years Jacob
said to Laban give me my wife for
my time is completed that I may go
into her.
That was incidentally evidence that his love for
Rachel was pure and true.
Give me my wife that I may go
into her.
And so they had the marriage feast and
Jacob was anticipating being married to Rachel.
This was a seven day feast as a
rule.
They had a large party and sometimes they
had a few alcoholic beverages.
It's possible that that may have accounted for
some of the difficulty but the other is
this that in those days it was custom
for the customary for the wife to be
brought to her bridegroom with a veil that
covered not only her face but also her
body.
And so there would have been no way
for Jacob to know definitely it was night
time.
There were a lot of festivities with the
veil over this woman.
There was no way for him to know
that it was not Rachel but Leah.
And so Jacob's chickens now come home to
roost.
He's the deceiver.
He's the deceiver and he's going to be
deceived by the master craftsman of deceit Laban
himself.
The brother of his mother who taught him
what he knew.
But he's going to get another lesson right
now.
Now of course the next morning he took
the veil aside and instead of Rachel it
was Leah.
And you can sense the spirit of the
statement in verse 25 that came about in
the morning that behold it was Leah.
And he said to Laban what is this
that you've done to me was it not
for Rachel that I served with you.
Why then have you deceived me.
Well we could have answered that this way
you would deceive Jacob because God is reminding
you in this way of your own deceit.
But that's on the divine side.
Well Laban has another proposition for him.
Just go ahead and finish out the week
of festivities and I'll give you Rachel at
the end of the week and you'll have
two.
But of course you'll have to serve another
seven years.
Well Jacob is so much in love with
Rachel that he's going to do it.
And so that's exactly what happened.
The feast was finished.
He was given Rachel.
And so now at the end of the
one week when he should have had one
bride Rachel he has two.
Rachel and Leah.
You wonder about Leah.
Was she herself deceived?
Is it possible that Laban said to her
now we've arranged a little different situation here.
Jacob's willing.
It's obvious Leah loved him.
Leah loved him.
Maybe Laban did deceive Leah and that accounted
for the fact that she participated in this.
On the other hand so far as the
record is concerned she herself was involved and
she loved him enough and wanted him so
much that she was willing to be a
part of the deceit.
And after all she was part of the
family too.
And this family they are experts in deceit.
So the last part of the chapter I
won't say anything about.
It's the story of how God blesses Leah
with children and Rachel is barren.
You can see the party in the midst
of this situation though because Leah names her
children in ways that reflect the glory of
God and finally when Judah is born she
says I will praise the Lord and she
named him Judah which means praise.
So she's a pious woman and it is
from Leah of course and the tribe of
Judah that the Lord Jesus shall eventually come.
Well let me just say one or two
things in conclusion.
The twenty-ninth chapter then makes some very
important lessons or points.
And the first is the inevitability of the
divine judgment.
When I was in Basel lecturing on the
Greek text of the epistle to the Galatians
in the Freie Evangelische Theologische Akademie I came
to the sixth chapter of the book of
Galatians where we have that text about sowing
and reaping.
Whatsoever a man soweth this shall he also
reap.
What a great statement that is.
That does not say whatsoever a man soweth
well he shall reap what he thinks or
what he thinks he shall reap.
What he wants to he shall reap.
What he would like to.
But it says whatsoever a man soweth this
this very thing this very thing that he
has sown that shall he reap.
Or as it is put in one of
the prophets if we sow to the wind
we shall reap the whirlwind.
And so Jacob has been a deceiver.
He's participated in deceit and now he is
the object of that deceit.
He sowed to the wind and he reaps
the whirlwind.
The Greeks felt that Nemesis was the goddess
of retributive justice.
And all of Greek tragedy is just a
comment on a sentence the doer shall suffer.
And here Jacob must suffer.
And so all of his misdeeds come home
to roost.
But of course there is another lesson here
too.
It's the compensations of life.
Leah talks about affliction but that's often by
the noble family of sons that God gave
her.
He tempers our sorrow with joy.
But most of all here in this chapter
we have evidence of the unchanging presence of
the God of Bethel.
He's always faithful to his promises.
He guarantees that whatever he has said with
reference to us he will accomplish.
He will give Jacob in spite of his
deceit a noble destiny and a noble family.
And even in the midst of these experiences
in which he is training him in the
school of Jesus Christ, Jacob is accumulating the
family that from which is to come the
great blessing that God has promised.
Because of his seed shall come one who
shall be the means whereby the whole of
this earth shall be blessed.
Oh God of Bethel by whose hand thy
people still are fed, who through this weary
pilgrimage hast all our fathers led.
Isn't it great to know that the God
of Bethel is the God who leads and
guides his saints today.
That same God who put Jacob in the
school of Laban in order to learn the
consequences of deceit is the God who guides
and directs us.
So I say to you as I close
today, if you do not know the Lord
Jesus as your Savior you're not enrolled in
the right school.
The school of Christ is where we learn
the lessons of life.
And the great thing about the school of
Christ is that there is no tuition.
There is no registration fee.
It's free.
And when by the grace of God we've
recognized the Lord Jesus as the one who
has suffered and died on the cross of
Calvary, as the one who shed the blood
for sins, and that we by the grace
of God may receive as a free gift
everlasting life, when the Holy Spirit has brought
home to us the conviction of our sin
and of our judgment, our condemnation, and by
the grace of God we've been led to
hold out our hands for the gift of
eternal life, we pass into the school of
Christ.
We are enrolled in that school.
We become a new student, first grade, elementary.
And in our Christian life we are educated
in that school.
Jacob's being educated.
The magnificent thing about it of course is
that God is the teacher.
God is the instructor.
He's the one who keeps us and he's
the one who guarantees ultimately to graduate us
with honors.
Isn't it great to be in the school
of Christ?
So we urge you this morning to put
your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus
by the grace of God and be enrolled
in the school of eternal life.
For you who are Christians, all of the
ordinary experiences of life are the experiences through
which the God of Bethel passes us.
Recognize his presence.
Respond to him and learn of him.
May we stand for the benediction.
We are grateful to thee Lord for the
blessings that are ours through the Lord Jesus
Christ.
We thank thee that by thy grace we
have been enrolled in the school of Christ.
There is so much that we need to
know.
We're in such a low grade, O God.
Enable us to grow.
Enable us to advance.
Enable us to come to the high school
and the university of the grace of God.
And in the experiences of life, enable us
Lord to see thy hand.
Guide and direct us.
Glorify thy name through us.
Deliver us from the perils of sin.
Give us a love for holiness and righteousness.
Give us a love for thyself, for thy
word.
Deepen us Lord.
Take us out of elementary education into higher
education.
We look forward to the future and we
give thee praise and thanksgiving.
May grace, mercy, and peace be our experience
from now and forever.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.