Deception and Treachery

Transcript

GRS 8
3/9/1986
Deception and Treachery
Old Testament Survey
Genesis 26-30
Gil Rugh

The book of Genesis together in our study and we are at the twenty-sixth chapter of the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter twenty-six. What God has been doing through the book of Genesis is unfolding His plan for a people that will belong to Him. He has selected a nation and He is about the business, if you will, of producing that nation. Starting from scratch, He selects the man Abraham. And then, through Abraham, He is going to develop and build a people that will become a nation through which He will magnify and honor Himself.

In chapter twenty-five of Genesis, Abraham died. In verse eight, “Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age...’’ So the line of succession now has passed from Abraham, the man called by God, the one with whom God established His covenant. Now, the blessing is picked up on Isaac, and in verse eleven of chapter twenty-five we read, “It came about after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac...” So now, Isaac is the recipient of the blessings promised to his father Abraham. And the line come from Abraham through Isaac. In chapter twenty-five, in the last part of the chapter, Isaac fathered twins, Esau and Jacob and God's blessing is to fall on the younger. He has chosen Jacob to be the recipient of His blessings and thus, the order is reversed. Esau at the end of that chapter sells his birthright for a bowl of soup and that is in accord with God's plan. God had said the elder shall serve the younger. Now, that blessing is to be realized even as Esau voluntarily sells his birthright. You want to see here in a whole series of events that happens through Genesis, that even though we say God is sovereignly in control in
bringing about His purposes. That does not mean that He is using people as pawns who have no say, or no opportunity, to exercise their will. Here, we see this with Esau. He is a godless man and of his own free choice, if you will, he chooses to give his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup.

Now, chapter twenty-six is going to focus attention relatively briefly on Isaac. Isaac lives the longest of the patriarchs--a hundred and eighty years. But, there is only one chapter given in its entirety to the life of Isaac and that’s chapter twenty-six of Genesis. It's going to begin in an unfortunate way. It's going to talk about deception, and a deception that Isaac was involved in. Then, we'll see something of the wealth that God is showering upon Isaac as the recipient of His blessing. God's going to confirm His covenant to Isaac. Isaac's going to enter into an earthly agreement with the king, Abimelech. And then, we're going to see something about his daughters-in-law, which are going to be a problem to Isaac and to his wife as well.

The first eleven verses talk about deception on Isaac's part. Now, again there's a famine in the land. Famines were causes of great concern in those days. We saw Abraham leave the land and go to Egypt in the face of a famine. Now, Isaac moves into the realm or the region where Abimelech is king. He's king of the Philistines according to verse one. God warns him in verse two, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you." Then, God reiterates the blessing for Isaac. "Sojourn in this land, I will be with you and bless you for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, will give your descendants all these lands; by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." So, a reconfirmation of the covenant given to Abraham, the first time in Genesis chapter twelve; reiterated several times since then. Now, again to Isaac, a reminder, I promised this land to you, I promised you many descendants, I promised you’ll be a blessing to all nations and that is going to come about. So, Isaac in verse six, lived in Gerar. He obeys the word of God.

You know, there’s that contradiction in life that we see in some of these great men of God. And it’s a reminder to us of our inconsistencies and failures, and it's an encouragement in its own way that God didn’t choose people that were perfect. Now, here we see Isaac has just been talked to by God. God ha3 reconfirmed His promises to Isaac and what He’s going to do in Isaac’s life. You know what Isaac turns around and does? Out of fear for his life, he lies about his wife. Verse seven, "When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister, for he was afraid to say, "She's my wife" thinking "the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful." Both his father and he had beautiful wives and both of them were afraid that they might lose their lives over their beautiful wives. Where did Isaac ever learn such a tactic? Well, if you read Genesis chapter twenty, you get some idea of where he learned this. In Genesis chapter twenty, Abraham did the same thing with Abimelech. Now, this may be a different Abimelech, because we are ninety or so years later in time. So a good probability that this is a different Abimelech. Abimelech may be a title like pharaoh or the title of president, so, Abimelech would pass on to whoever was ruling the region at the time. That may be the explanation here. At any rate, the same kind of deception. The king didn't take Rebekah into his harem, but one day he looks out his window and there he sees Isaac and Rebekah just having a great time. And he realizes brothers and sisters don't carry on like that. So, he calls Isaac on the carpet and says, What have you done? You know, we could have created, committed a great sin here by taking your wife! And it amazes me that here you have a relatively godless person and fearful of the wrath of God over Isaac's s life. Now, part of it is that he has recognized the hand of God on Isaac and perhaps he's familiar with the account of Abraham even if this is not the same Abimelech. So, Abimelech gives warning to all of his people, keep your hands off Rebekah. She belongs to Isaac. Now, Isaac really had nothing to worry about, did he? Hadn't God promised him that He would take care of him in verse three? "I will be with you and bless you." Why did Isaac have to resort to lies and deception out of fear for his life? Couldn't God protect him? What it comes down to is God's got to protect him anyway, doesn't He? Yet, he'll suffer for the inconsistencies in his life. Now, one of the amazing things is that we see, even as you see God's hand in controlling the situation, verse eleven concludes that account with Abimelech. Verse twelve, "Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him." So, the chapter opens up with God blessing Isaac and promising to bless him. Then, you have a break with Isaac becoming a lying deceiver. Then, you pick up again with God blessing Isaac. And you see that Isaac is in the position of blessing, because God's chosen him. And He's not blessing him primarily because Isaac is necessarily of admirable character.

You know, sometimes we delight in pointing out the weaknesses in even other saints. A good reminder here. You could have spent your life in pointing out the weaknesses in Isaac. But one thing you should never lose sight of, Isaac is the chosen of God. And the chosen of God will be the recipient of the blessings of God. And he has to be seen in that light even though, he has his share of short comings. So, God blesses Isaac. His wealth is described in verses twelve to twenty-two. And there are conflicts there over wells. Wells were exceedingly important. You had to have water in that desert region. What happened is the servants of Abimelech would fill up the wells of Isaac and that was a way of driving Isaac out of the area. So, there is conflict there even in the face of God's blessing.

Verse twenty-three, God's going to reconfirm the covenant to Isaac. Isaac "went up from there to Beersheba. The Lord appeared to him the same night and said, 'I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of My servant Abraham.'" So, God says, in effect, I'm obligated to do this, because I promised it to Abraham. So, I'm going to be with you, I'm going to bless you. In effect, I have to because I promised I would to your father Abraham. Isaac builds an altar and pitches his tent there. Ought to note here, this is the second time God appears to Isaac. Earlier in chapter twenty-six verses three, four and five, God spoke to Isaac. Now, again in verses twenty-three and verse twenty-four, God speaks to Isaac. That's the second time and that's the last time as far as the scripture record is concerned that God appears to Isaac. If God appears to Isaac again the Scripture does not record it. These are the only two times that we're told that God appeared to Isaac. That's in contrast to his son Jacob, who is blessed with seven theophanies in his life. Seven appearances of God to the son of Isaac. Remember we said that Isaac comes across in Scripture as somewhat of a weak person and you’re not greatly impressed by his dynamic spiritual character. He's sandwiched between a great father and a great son. But what we do have portrayed of Isaac does not set him in a very admirable light.

Isaac then enters in to an agreement with Abimelech. Abimelech has in effect, chased Isaac out of that region. But, then he comes seeking Isaac, because Abimelech is afraid of Isaac. And he tells Isaac that I recognize that God has blessed you and so I want you to make an agreement with me that you won't come back and harm us. You see, they've pushed Isaac out of the land, but he realizes that if God is with Isaac and he is afraid Isaac might decide to come back and seek revenge on him. So, there's a covenant established between them which really confirms the covenant which Abraham had established with Abimelech.

The chapter closes on a sad, but important note. Really the character of Esau is coming through again. Esau, the man who had no more spiritual character than to sell the birthright with the position of blessing before God and sell it for a bowl of soup. Now, he marries two women. Verses thirty-four and thirty-five, when he's forty years old he married Judith, and he married Basemath. And these are Hittite women, Canaanites. And verse thirty-five, they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah. This will become an important factor in securing a wife for Jacob. It's going to be a burden of Rebekah that he not get a wife from the Canaanites. God is going to use this to assure that Jacob will get a wife from his own family; the family of his heritage, not from the Canaanites of the region.

Chapter twenty-seven is a well-known chapter. It's the blessing of Jacob. And here you're going to have the passing on of the blessing from Isaac. Isaac got it from Abraham. Now, Isaac will pass it on to his son and it will be to Jacob. That's going to involve a whole scheme of events. In the first seventeen verses, we have Rebekah's scheme, and we see that she is quite a woman. Then, you're going to have Jacob's blessing. He receives the blessing from Isaac in verses eighteen to twenty- nine. And then, in verses thirty to forty-six, you're going to see Esau's response which becomes key in what's going to happen to Jacob.

The occasion the chapter opens up in setting the frame work. "It came about when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." He said, "Here I am." Isaac said, "Behold now, I am old, I do not know the day of my death...Go out and hunt game..., verses 1-3. Isaac loved Esau because Esau was a hunter and hunted the kind of food that Isaac liked. "Prepare me a moo, a moo, Ha! prepare me a meal, verse four, a savory dish for me such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die." Isaac is about a hundred and thirty-seven years old. Now, his brother Ishmael had died fourteen years earlier at a hundred and thirty-seven. Isaac's eyesight has failed him, in fact as you read the account, you recognize Isaac, for all intents and purposes is blind. So, with this kind of failing physical condition, being at the same age that his brother was when he died, Isaac thinks I should get my house in order, because death can't be too far away. In reality, Isaac's going to live forty-three more years. So, he's got quite a ways to go, but right now, he thinks he ought to get his house in order.

Now, he calls Esau, his eldest son, and the one that he favored and says, I want to get things in order to prepare my death. I want to pass the blessing on to you. Now, Esau says good idea and gets ready to receive the blessing. Now, there's a problem here. Esau has sold his right to the blessing. Remember? He gave it up for a bowl of soup. The right of the first born which is the right to receive the blessing and be in the line of promise. He sold that with his birthright. But, now, he wants to pass over that and take the blessing. Isaac manifests no spiritual perception here at all. His basis is simply that he likes Esau. He's not taking into account the fact that Esau sold the birthright. And we get the idea from the occasion here, and what Esau says when he talks to his father later in the chapter, that this wasn't uncommon knowledge that Isaac probably knew that Esau had sold the birthright. The fact that Esau manifests a godless character in the wives which he took that were such a heart ache to Isaac and Rebekah, these things don't influence Isaac at this point. He loves Esau. Esau's my kind of man. He goes out and hunts. He's a rugged man. He brings in the kind of meat that I enjoy. I want to bless him and make sure that he gets the blessing. Perhaps, Isaac is even here moving things up a little bit to guarantee that he can, that Esau will get the blessing in spite of what Esau has done to this point.

Well, Isaac hasn't counted on Rebekah. Rebekah listens and hears Isaac telling Esau, "Go prepare the kind of food I like and I'll bless you." So, as soon as Esau goes out to do the hunting, Rebekah puts her plan in motion. What she does is tell Jacob to go get from the flock the kids and she'll prepare them like Isaac likes. Esau could prepare it. Esau was evidently a good cook as well as a good hunter. But, Rebekah could prepare it like Isaac liked as well. Now, you see the scheming of Rebekah through all of this, and what she does succeeds. It's an elaborate plan and you should have read the account. She prepares the meal. She puts the skin of the animal on the back of the hands of Jacob. You get some idea how hairy Esau really was. I mean you’ve got to put animal skins on him and also on his neck. She thinks of everything. She also gets some of Esau's clothes and dresses Jacob. So, he's going to feel and smell like Esau. And poor old Isaac. He can't see anyway.

So, when Jacob comes in, Esau says, How’d you get back so quickly? Jacob the deceiver, says, Oh, your God provided the animal for me quickly. And Isaac, said you know, it’s the voice of Jacob. Come on over here son. Feels his hand. Hmm? Voice of Jacob, hands of Esau. Let's eat. It sure is the food of Esau too. Isaac's still a little bit nervous. So, he says, come on over let me give you a hug and a kiss. He gives him a hug and a kiss. Rebekah thought of everything. Isaac gives Jacob a big ole' hug and you know what he does? He puts his nose down in his clothes. Sniff, hmm? It's the voice of Jacob, but it's the smell of Esau. And you know, in those days they didn't have dry cleaners, so the clothes had plenty of time to pick up the smell. Esau's a hunter, so his clothes smell like the field from his hunting excursions. And so in verse twenty-seven, "He came close, kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, "See the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed; now may God give you of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine; may peoples serve you, nations bow down to you; be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, blessed be those who bless you." And the blessing was passed on to Jacob. It's almost like a mystery story here.

Verse thirty, "...it came about as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of his father Isaac,..." and in comes Esau. And of course, Esau says, Here I am. We're ready for dinner. And Isaac trembles greatly. Who are you? Well, I'm Esau. Well then, who came? And it comes out. It was Jacob. I thought I recognized that voice. Think there might have been a family fight here? There may have been, but by the grace of God, it's not recorded. And he tells Esau, verse thirty-four, Esau when he heard, back up into verse thirty-three, just the last statement, "Yes, and he shall be blessed." Isaac recognizes that the blessing he has given to Jacob is irrevocable. That God's hand has sovereignly moved in this and controlled who would get the blessing. That perhaps give you some idea that this doesn't come as a total surprise to Isaac. Perhaps, Rebekah had shared with him that God had told her before the twins were born, "the elder shall serve the younger." Perhaps Isaac knew of the sale of the birthright. At any rate, he understands there is no taking back the blessing here.

"When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, 0 my father!" This is developed in the book of Hebrews. Why don't you turn back there? Hebrews chapter twelve, you get God's commentary on this cry baby Esau. We ought to take note of this. God takes Esau as a warning to us and says, you better watch out. The danger of coming short in Hebrews, chapter twelve and verse fifteen of the grace of God, "...that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person..." And you see here, Esau has no spiritual character, no spiritual relationship with God. From
God's perspective, Esau is a godless man—spiritually immoral, " this Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

You know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place of repentance, though he sought for it with tears." He could not undo what he had done. The place of repentance there is to change things. You see, he doesn’t repent here that I have been such a spiritually destitute person, that I should not have sold the birthright. May God have mercy on me. No, he just wants to cry and have Isaac change what he has done. He wants the place of blessing. But, he hasn't really changed his character. That's going to come out more clearly as the chapter unfolds.

Verse thirty-five, "Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing." That's Isaac's statement. "Then he said, 'Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright.’" Isn't that the way the godless person functions? Always somebody else is to blame.

Now, who made Esau sell the birthright for a bowl of soup? You know, you don't find Jacob on top of Esau the hunter-- and I think he was probably the strongest of the two--with a sword to the throat of Esau saying, Sell me your birthright. Esau voluntarily said, for a bowl of soup? Sure. What good’s a birthright when you're hungry? I will sell. But, now, it's Jacob's fault. He took away my birthright. And now he's taken away my blessing. Well, when he sold the birthright, he sold the blessing. So, Esau has no one to blame but himself and that's why the book of Hebrews says he's a godless man, his character from God's perspective. He is not a child of God. And now he wants to blame Jacob. Jacob is a deceiver. Tragedy.
Jacob didn't have to resort to deception to get the blessings of God. God promised him those blessings before he was born. But he wasn't willing to trust God and allow God to do it His way. The result is going to be years of turmoil and heartache in the life of Jacob. He's going to pay for his deception. How much better if he had just sat back and allowed God to accomplish His purposes according to His own patterns. God didn't need Jacob to help Him out, but God will even use the scheming and conniving of Jacob to bring about His purposes.

Esau wants a blessing. Isaac gives him a blessing of sorts. Almost comes out to be a curse. Verse thirty-nine, "Isaac his father answered and said to him, "Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling..." You know what? You're not going to get the fertile part of the earth. You'll live by your sword. You'll serve your brother. But you will break off his bond after a certain time. So, it's a blessing, but not much of one. It's really a reiteration of his position now, subservient to his brother, which is what he chose when he sold the birthright.

Now, you see Esau's character come out in verse forty-one. Has this brought about a spiritual change in his life? Godly repentance before God? No. "He bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; Esau said to himself, "the days of mourning for my father are near then I'll kill Jacob." He’s a godless man. He had tears. He had sorrow. He had no change of character.

Now, Rebekah hears that Esau wants to kill Jacob. And she comes up with another plan. I've got to get Jacob out of here. Over time, Esau will cool off. So, the two wives of Esau become the occasion. Verse forty-six, "Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth..." The daughters of Heth are the wives of Esau, "...if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land..." if Jacob marries a Canaanite woman "what good will my life be to me?" I couldn’t even bear to live any longer if Jacob marries the same kind of woman from among the Canaanites as Esau did. Now, God is using this because it is not His intention that Jacob marry from among the daughters of the land. But He handled that all right, didn't He, finding a wife for Isaac? He could take care of it. But you know what? Rebekah's scheming is going to come back on her as well. She's going to say up in verse forty-three, "Now therefore my son, obey my voice and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban! Stay with him a few days until your brother's fury subsides...". That few days is going to be twenty years. She'll never see Jacob again. When Jacob returns from her brother's house, Rebekah will have died. So, she's going to pay for her scheming too. The son that she loves so dearly, now she's going to lose through her part in the deception as well. And it amazes me through all the scheming, through all the deception, God's sovereign hand is in control. Does that make Him responsible for the deception? No. God has promised the outcome. Jacob will be the recipient of the blessing. Did He need the deceitful scheming of Jacob and Rebekah to accomplish that? No. But can their deceitful scheming frustrate His plan? No. His plan will be accomplished, but their deceitful scheming will bring heartache into their land. You know it interests me. They are going to send Jacob back to Haran to get a wife. That’s in contrast, remember when Abraham wanted to get a wife for Isaac? He told his servant under no circumstances do I want you to take my son out of the land that God has promised us. But here Isaac is going to send his son back to Haran.

So chapter twenty-eight, if I was going to title the chapter, it’s Jacob’s Ladder. That’s how we usually think of it, because of the song, because that’s the focal point in the chapter. From chapters twenty-eight to thirty-six, we have unfolded the life of Jacob. So you see, Isaac has held a key spot, but it's been a relatively minor spot as well as the as far as the attention of Scripture goes. He's had his chapter. But chapters twenty-eight to thirty-six are going to be taken up with the development of the life of Jacob and what happens to him. At times he's going to be seen as a man of strong faith, a man powerful in prayer. At other times, he's going to see a man of deceitfulness and selfishness. A strange person. A paradox in many ways. Times he seems to come to the heights as a man of God. And other times, he’s a man that you almost despise by the kind of character that he manifests. Through it all though remember he is the chosen of God. So he becomes the recipient of the blessings of God.

The first nine verses unfold his trip. Isaac agrees with Rebekah--we ought to send Jacob back to Haran to get a wife. They’re going to send him on a trip of four hundred, four or five hundred miles to secure a wife. And you'll note in verses two and three, three and four--verse three, "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful, multiply you that you may become a company of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with; that you may possess the land of your sojourning’s, which God gave to Abraham." Isaac recognizes the blessing rests on Jacob. Even though he loves Esau, he recognizes the hand of God has passed the blessing from him to Jacob.
Verses six to nine, you just have a little insight into Esau's character. He sees that they send Isaac, Isaac sends Jacob back to Haran to get a wife who is not a Canaanite. So he says, oh they don't like my wives. Alright. Maybe I ought to marry somebody else. So, he takes a third wife, a daughter of Ishmael. So, in verse nine we're told, "Esau went to Ishmael" or the family of Ishmael really and married. So now, you have the unchosen son of Isaac marrying into the unchosen line of Ishmael. Still no difference from what he is doing.

Jacob's dream is recorded in verses ten to twenty-two. We call it Jacob's ladder, because Jacob laid down, props his head up on a stone to get comfortable and as he's sleeping he had a dream. And verse twelve, "...and behold a ladder" or a stairway "...was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. The Lord stood above it and said, 'I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, you shall spread out to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south; in you and all your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you," now note this "...will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." A reiteration of the covenant to Abraham. It was told to Abraham. It was reiterated to Isaac. Now, it’s reiterated to Jacob, because the line goes Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So, even as Jacob is ready to leave the land of promise, God assures him, I'm going to give you this land, I'm going to be with you as you leave the land, I'm going bring you back to this land. There's no chance that I will leave you until I fulfilled My promises. Remarkable. How true God is to His word even to a man like Jacob.

The ladder pictures the fellowship that Jacob and his descendants will have with God. They are people in communion with God. The angels of God go back and forth on this stairway or this ladder picturing the fact that these are a people in communion with God, who have the privilege of access to God, fellowship with God. God is at the top of the ladder. Jacob's at the bottom. The angels are going back and forth. And God would be with him wherever he goes.

Verses eighteen to twenty-two, Jacob responds in worship and faith. He makes a vow of commitment to God and promises to honor God with a tenth of all that he has when he returns to the land. And that’s at the end of verse twenty-two. In giving a tenth he acknowledges that God was his God and he was a worshiper and a servant of that God. So, here you see, Jacob, as a man of faith. Certainly a key person. Keep this event in mind as you get into some of the sections where Jacob’s character is a little less admirable. He is the chosen of God. I say that because, we need to be reminded of what great privilege we have. You know we are the chosen of God today. In the Old Testament, Scripture constantly points to Israel as the chosen of God and you know it’s you and I as believers, who receive that emphasis as the chosen of God today. What an honored position. And Jacob could do nothing to lose that position, just as Isaac couldn't, nor could Abraham. And I take it you and I are just as secure. Does that make me want to then do the ugly things that I see in these men's lives? No. It seems that those inconsistencies ought to be done away with, because one of such honored position, privileged position, ought to be living in accord with what he is as the chosen of God.

Chapter twenty-nine’s taken up with the marriages of Jacob and you have to say marriages in the plural. And the whole chapter’s taken up with the marriages of Jacob and the problems he has with his father-in-law. And when he goes back to Haran and he meets Laban, his wife's brother, he has met his match in a deceiver. And it's only the hand of God that sees Jacob through.

The first twenty verses, Jacob and Rachel. Verses twenty-one to thirty-five, Jacob and Leah. So, just think of the chapter, the two women in his life, Rachel and Leah. First twelve verses in chapter twenty-nine unfold the meeting of Jacob and Rachel. Again, it happens at the well, where the sheep were to be watered. And a shepherdess comes. The shepherdess is Rachel. You know, I’ve always wondered, you think, here’s a woman being a shepherdess out in the fields. I think boy, she'd really be at the mercy of some strange characters. But when we were over in Palestine, we saw these little girls out in the field with sheep and asked our guide, aren't they afraid to let little girls like that out? No. We're afraid to let them go to the store in our own country and here they are wandering around the fields way off from nowhere. Our guide told us a little bit about the system of honor in that part of the world, that no one would think of harming one of these women in the field. You'd have no place to go. Even his own family would turn against him if he was guilty of such a thing. So, even though we think strange that this would be going on, that's what Rachel, a shepherdess, was out in the fields, watching the sheep. And Jacob meets her.

Verse eleven, "He kissed her, wept" Someone, some commentator said they were kissing cousins, because they are cousins. Seems like Jacob gets right you know to the point, you're my cousin. Give me a kiss and weeps. And that was common in that day. Still strikes me as strange. Here's this grown man kissing and crying. You wonder what did Rachel think? But this would have been a normal setting in that day. She runs and tells her father. I've met your sister's son. Can you believe that? Laban comes and embraces him, takes him into his home and they hit it off, seemingly well. As you might think. Here you have two master deceivers and their initial contact. We like each other. Well, they are of the same character. But they're going to go to work on each other pretty quickly.

Now, Jacob loves Rachel. Rachel has a sister named Leah. Verse seventeen tells us, "Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face." And the idea of Leah's eyes being weak, it may mean that she had poor vision or may mean that they lack the glow and the sparkle that is considered to be such a necessary aspect of beauty in that part of the world. At any rate, she's weak eyed--either vision or just doesn't have the sparkle that was necessary to be considered beautiful. Rachel's the younger. Jacob makes an agreement with Laban. Verse eighteen, "Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, 'I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.'" Now, I got to admit, admire something about Jacob here. He's not lazy. You may keep in mind; he's got a wealthy father back home. And that father has sent him off to get a wife and told him that he is the recipient of the blessings. If that had been me, I would have said, I've got a wealthy father. If you give me, send some of your servants with me, send Rachel back and we'll send you a good payment. Jacob has set in to stay. Now, maybe he's afraid to go back because of Esau. He says I'll work for seven years for Rachel. And he does. Seven years. Doesn't get her as wife until he's worked seven years.

Scripture tells us in verse twenty, "Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her." Then it comes time. The seven years are up. Jacob says to Laban, it’s time to get married. Give me my wife. Laban arranges the feast. And you’re aware of the story. He replaces Rachel with Leah. You say, how could that happen? I mean, I’m sure, on my wedding night, I would know who I was with. Well? Maybe so. Maybe Jacob was so much in the stars that he just wasn't paying much attention. But you keep in mind today as well. They didn't have a lot of electric lights to turn on in the tent. So, after celebrating the feast and all of that and then going out into the dark tent and the woman would be veiled and covered head to toe, so they go into the tent together; Jacob doesn’t know what happened until morning. I mean you really aren't thinking, I better check to for sure and make sure this is my wife to be. But it’s Leah in the morning. And Jacob is shocked.

Verse twenty-five, "It came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, ' What is this that you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?’” And here the one who deceived his brother, who deceived his father, is now deceived by his mother's brother. Remember Galatians chapter six and verse seven? "Whatever a man sows that shall he also reap." And the deceiver has been deceived. Laban says, well it’s not our custom to marry off the younger daughter before the older daughter. I mean that was in the face of custom here. Leah's the oldest. She has to get married first. You see what a deceiver Laban is. He never told Jacob this, because being weak eyed, Leah wouldn't be very marriageable. So, Laban has arranged to get it done by deceit. But, Laban says, no problem. Work for another seven years and I’ll give you Rachel. Now, he doesn’t have to wait seven years. He says, fulfill the week of Leah. It’s a seven-day feast. After the end of the seven day feast, I’ll give you Rachel as a wife as well. And then you work for seven more years and that will be the pay off. Jacob says, Okay. But you really have now the makings of quite a house. You’re going to have Jacob married to two sisters. The law is going to forbid this as God gives the law later to Moses. And you can appreciate the grace of God in forbidding it after you read this story, because these two sisters are going to be mortal enemies from the beginning. Can you imagine? I mean I don’t want to read too much into this, but you can imagine on the wedding night Jacob here saying, Oh Rachel. How much I love you. How quickly the years have gone as I've worked for you. And it's Leah listening to all this, and you wonder how they even go through this. Now, Rachel comes. Now, Jacob's got two wives and he never did want Leah. And Rachel’s got to be filled with jealousy over Leah, because she's not exactly happy that her husband's sleeping with her sister. So, you really have a household that can hardly be believed.

Verse thirty-one, the intervention of God. "The Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren." Can you see here, isn’t God merciful? He's looking out for Leah. He closes the womb of Rachel for in that part of the world to be barren was a curse. And the more children you could produce, especially male children for your husband, the better wife you were, the more important to him. So, here is a way for Leah to be honored. She is going to be fathering the sons of Jacob. So, Jacob won’t be able to take Leah too lightly. And Rachel will not be able to have children.

So, verses thirty-two to the end of the chapter, four sons. And you ought to note something. We go through these children and in chapters twenty-nine and thirty, there's going to be eleven kids, twelve counting the daughter. And all the names are going to have to do with the conflict going on in the family. That tells you something about the family life here. Every time there’s a child born, it's named in light of the conflict that exists between Leah and Rachel. So, her first son, Reuben. And what she names him.
Why? "Because the Lord has seen my affliction," verse thirty- two, "surely now my husband will love me." Calls him, see a son or behold a son, drawing attention to this. Producing a son will bring my husband's love to me.

She conceived again, because the Lord has heard that I am unloved. She still recognizes that Jacob does not love her. He has given me this son. She named him Simeon, hearing or God hears, is the point. In other words, God has heard me in my cry of despair in giving me a son. My husband doesn't love me. The second son will surely, now have an effect.

Then, a third son conceived again. "Now, this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore, she named him Levi, attachment. You see it all has to do with the conflict going on. My husband will become attached to me now. So, surely this third son. I'll name him and honor the fact now my husband is going to begin to love me.

Then, a fourth son. This time I will praise the Lord. She named him Judah. It means to pray. You see Leah is mindful that God is being merciful to her to produce sons so that she can have some of Jacob's attention.

Well, chapter thirty. And this chapter's about Jacob's children and his wealth. The account goes on. Now, Rachel's barren. She sees that she can't bear any children. She becomes jealous of her sister. The first twenty-four verses are going to talk about the sons of Jacob, and one daughter. She became jealous of her sister. Now, Leah's been jealous of Rachel, because Jacob loves Rachel. But now, Rachel's jealous of Leah, because Leah has children and Rachel doesn't. So, mutual jealousy. "...she said to Jacob, give me children, or else I die." Lest you think Jacob's just having a fine ole' time, he's caught in the middle. Now, Jacob's angry with Rachel. What are you angry with me for? I'm not God. I can't open your womb. It's God who's done this. Interesting that Jacob realizes that God is in control of this matter. She comes up with a scheme just like Sarah did. Take my maid Bilhah. Have children through her. Again the practice. The children of the maid will be counted as the children of the wife. So, Jacob takes Bilhah and Bilhah bears children, a couple of sons. First is Dan. And in verse six, "Rachel said, "God has vindicated me, had heard my voice,...she named him Dan." Dan means God has vindicated me. See? It's still in that sense of the conflict. God has vindicated me now. What context? Leah! Now, I have a son that I can call my own, so I don't have to be jealous of Leah. Jacob fathers another son through Bilhah. This is Naphtali. And verse eight, "Rachel said, 'with mighty wrestling’s I have wrestled with my sister and I have prevailed.'" So, she calls him Naphtali. That means a great struggle or wrestle. Isn't It something here? All these kids, every times one’s born, you name it in honor of the battle. And every time you call these kids to come in, you can be reminded of the struggle that's going on.

Well, Leah's not been having any kids lately. But, she's learned something from Rachel--use your hand maid. And of course, Leah has a hand maid. So, she gave her to Jacob. And Jacob has children by Zilpah. First, Gad. This is number seven if you're keeping track in the sons. And verse eleven, "Leah said, 'How fortunate!' So she named him Gad." Which means fortune or blessing. And God has looked on my situation. Then, Jacob fathers another son. Verse thirteen, "Leah said, 'Happy am I! For women will call me happy.' She named him Asher." Which means happy or blessing. Well, now you've got this going on. You've got the maids involved. Now, they've had sons.

Then, verse fourteen, "In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, 'Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.'" And mandrakes were thought to have some power of fertility in biblical times. Well, Leah "...said to her, 'Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you also take my mandrakes too?" Now, this is really giving, being ridiculous. It's not enough to you take my husband. Now you want my mandrakes. Well, Rachel says, we'll strike a bargain. "Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes." I mean can you believe this family? Leah has just purchased Jacob for the night for some mandrakes. It's funny, but I've got to admit, my heart goes out to Jacob. I got to say it serves him right deceiver that he is, because you can see that God doesn’t let anybody get away with anything.

Now, here comes Jacob in from a hard day at the office. Now, he's got this constant battle going on any time any one of the kids comes into the tent, it's a reminder of the battle, because it's either Struggle through the door or Vindication just came through the door. Now, he comes home and all he wants to do is prop up and watch the sheep out the tent flap. Leah comes running out and what does she say? I hired you for the night. Oh, no! I've had a hard day. Verse sixteen, that's what she said. I'm not making this up. We think soap operas are new. "When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then Leah went out to meet him and said, 'You must come into me"...Jacob has no say in this matter. "...I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes." I'm sure that made him feel great. "...So he laid with her that night." Boy. She conceives again by the grace of God.
And bears another son. You have to commemorate the event. You know what she names him? My hire. Didn't she hire Jacob for the night? So she names him Issachar, which means 'my hire'. Constantly be reminded that this is the night I hired you Jacob.

And she has another son. And a sixth son, verse twenty, "...God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell with me..." She hasn't given up. You see how this struggle has gone on for years? She's had six sons. Her maid has born two sons. We are years and years down the road and she is still battling for some of Jacob' affection. Can you imagine what that home was like? So, she named him Zebulum. Zebulum meaning gift for honor. Then she bore him a daughter in verse twenty-one, named her Dinah, and Dinah means vindication. She's going to become important when you get over to chapter thirty-four. There's going to be a major battle over Dinah and the way she is treated by the people in the land when they go back to Canaan.

Then God intervenes on Rachel's behalf, verses twenty-two to twenty-four. Rachel conceives, bears a son. That son is Joseph. And isn't it amazing to see Joseph come out of all of this. The child of Rachel. The eleventh son. The twelfth child, but the eleventh son. And one more child. What we are doing is building the patriarchs—the twelve patriarchs of Israel. The twelve sons of Jacob out of which will come the twelve tribes of Israel, and Joseph means to add or to take away. It can mean either. It may mean in light of verse twenty-four, "May the Lord give me another son." that she's looking for God to add to Jacob or it may mean according to verse twenty-three, "God has taken away my reproach." So, she names him Joseph, which can mean both to take away and to add.

The chapter closes with a note on Jacob's prosperity. Jacob chooses to leave, wants to leave Laban. Laban talks him into staying, saying, I know I'm blessed because God is with you. Verse twenty-seven, "...I have divined that the Lord has blessed me on your account." We are going to find out as we move through the next chapter or so that Laban really didn't have much materially until Jacob, then Laban begins to prosper and he recognizes it's because of his association with Jacob. So he says, Stay with me. You name your price.

Now, when you read chapter thirty-one, you’ll find out that Laban has been really dealing deceitfully with Jacob. He changed his wages ten times. So, Jacob says, alright. I'll make a deal. I'll watch the herds and all the speckled and spotted ones out of the herd will be mine and all the white ones will be yours. Laban says, Sounds like a good deal to me. Besides it's more normal to have plain, unspotted animals. So, it looks like I'll come out best. But just in case Laban pulls off another trick. "So he", Laban, "removed on that day, the striped, the spotted and all the speckled and spotted female and male, everyone with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons." And "put a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob...". Laban says, that's good deal, Jacob. You get all the speckled and spotted ones. Then he says to his sons, go out there in the herds and pick out every one that has a speck or a spot, any black in it and that will leave Jacob with all these white animals and of course, white animals produce white animals. So, Jacob will build my herds and he'll get nothing.

But, Jacob is a pretty good deceiver himself. Jacob through the grace of God ends up with a herd that is all speckled and spotted and black and white. And his herds get stronger and Laban's get weaker. Now, you ought to note here that Jacob does something. He takes some branches of trees and he peels the bark off so that there's stripes around them and he puts them in front of the animals as they mate. And this was supposed to make them mate with stripes. I don't know much about farming, but I didn't know this would work. What really happens? That may have just been superstition on Jacob's part or perhaps God gave him in a vision, a perspective of what he is to do that God is going to use. At any rate, in chapter thirty-one, verses nine, ten, eleven and twelve, Jacob will acknowledge that God showed me that He was producing the kind of flock that would belong to me. So, at the end of chapter thirty and verse forty-three, "...the man became exceedingly prosperous and had large flocks, female and male servants, camels and donkeys." God's at work on Jacob's behalf. Why? He's the chosen.