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All right, it’s 9:00 a.m. So, uh, let’s get started. Welcome back to Sunday school, um, to our 16-p part series, Patriarchs of the Promise. And today we we’re on lesson 10 of our series. Uh, and the lesson title is Jacob’s family grows. And this comes from Genesis 27:46 to 29:30. And we’ll look at a parallel passage from John 1 as well.
And so before we start, let me show a brief recap of what we’ve learned last week and how that connects with what we’re going to hear about today. So, in last week’s lesson, we heard from Pastor Dave about how Jacob stole the blessing from Esau and he had help from his mother Rebecca and together they helped uh to deceive their father um Isaac and into giving the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau even though Esau was the firstborn child of Isaac. And as a result of that, Esau was trying to find a way to kill Jacob out of anger. And that’s where we pick up in uh that story. Yeah. So, in this week’s lesson, we’ll see how God’s covenant with Abraham would continue through Jacob in spite of his uh deception and sinful behavior. And we’ll see how Jacob worked for Laban in order to take uh Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, as his wives. So, before we continue, let me pray for us.
Um, Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for um showing your faithfulness to the patriarchs despite their sinful behavior. Help us to learn more about your character and your um truth, Lord, as we continue to study your word and help us to understand uh in Christ’s name I pray. Amen. Amen.
All right. So, today this is the lesson outline for today. First we’ll look at um how Jacob flees to Haran to escape his brother Esau. And this is from Genesis 27 46 to uh 289. And then in the second part of the lesson we’ll look at uh Jacob’s dream. So this is the famous dream where we see a letter coming from heaven. And the last part of the lesson we’ll look at the interaction between Jacob and Laban and how he tried to obtain his wives in Haran.
So, and in today’s lesson, we’ll be following the inductive Bible study method as we have for the the course that you’ve seen before. And so, the first step is observation. Um because there is a lot of um biblical text to go through today. I’ll flash the text on the slide as we go and just cover verse by verse on on the screen. So, please turn your Bibles and to Genesis 27:46 and uh follow along with me.
Right. So, the first thing we see in uh verse 46 of chapter 47 is Rebecca complaining to Isaac. And what she complains about is the possibility of Jacob taking a wife from the daughters of Hath. She says to Isaac, “I’m tired of leaving because of the daughters of Hath. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of half like these from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me? And we know that um Esau has himself taken two uh Canaanite wives. And this was exactly the fear that Rebecca had of Jacob doing this the same thing. And as a result, um, Jacob responds and charges Isaac to not take a Canaanite wife. He said, um, so Isaac called to Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, but instead you shall take a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.” So within the the family and after he has done this sorry it’s Yeah.
Yeah, sorry for the technical difficulty. This one better. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so um so we talked about how uh Isaac charges Jacob not to take a Canaanite wife but instead to take a wife from the daughters of Laban and then he proceeds to bless Jacob and we see here uh the blessing that Isaac gives to Jacob. So may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of peoples. May he also give you the blessing of Abraham to you and to your descendants with you that you may possess the land of your sjournings which God gave to Abraham. So this is the Abrahamic blessing that we’ve heard about um given to Abraham and then to Isaac and now um Isaac pronounces this blessing to Jacob. So we have not heard God himself pronouncing this blessing but we will learn about this later on in the text and then uh as reacting to this Esau chooses to marry Mahal who is the daughter of Ishmael. So we read here that Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan to his wives displeased his father Isaac and Esau went to Ishmael and married besides the wife that he had Mahal the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son the sister of Nabov. So now we’ve looked at uh this portion of scripture um and made some observations that we find in the text.
The next step of our Bible study method is to now interpret the text to ask meaningful questions about what the text says, what the text means, and do some cross references with other parts of scripture to have a better deeper understanding of what the text says. So the first question is um we heard about how Rebecca was complaining to Isaac about um Jacob potentially taking wives from the Canaanites. And was this the only issue that Rebecca was concerned about? If you go back to a couple of verses before this passage, we read that uh Rebecca speaks to Jacob in this manner. He says, “Behold, your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.” So at least part of the reason why Rebecca wants Isaac to flee from where he was Behiba to go to Haran was that Esau was angry with him for stealing the blessing and was trying to kill him. So Rebecca did not want Isaac to be killed by Esau and hence he wanted uh Jacob to flee as far as he could even to Haran.
So, and because of this complaint, Isaac uh charged and blesses Jacob and asks him to leave to find a wife in Haran. And we see uh that Isaac agrees to Rebecca and uh charges Jacob not to take a Canaanite wife.
So why were they opposed to this um the potential the the the possibility of Jacob taking a Canaanite wife? If you look back in chapter 26 when Esau himself took Canaanite wives. So he says when Esau was 40 years old he married Judith the daughter of Barry the Hitittite and Bas Basamoth the daughter of Elon the Hitittite and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebecca. So, we’re not given additional information as to why um these wives of Esau brought grief to his family, but we know that the Canaanites were um idolattors. They were pagan worshippers. So, it was it’s possible that because of their religious practices, it led to tension between um Isaac and Rebecca’s family and the daughters-in-law, the daughter-in-laws that um they had. And it’s very interesting here in the text that um after charging um Jacob with not not not to take a Canaanite wife and instead to take a wife from the daughters of Laban that Isaac willingly bless Jacob. So this stands in contrast with what happens in last week’s lesson, right? where we saw how Jacob and Rebecca conspired to deceive Isaac and unknowingly Isaac blesses Jacob thinking that he was Esau. But in today’s text, we see that Isaac willingly blesses Jacob even with the Abrahamic blessings.
And reacting to that, the brother Esau chooses to now marry uh Mahalov who was the who was the daughter of uh Ishmael. And the reason why he did so was because he saw that his own wives, the Canaanite wives, displeased his father Isaac. And at this point, I think it’s interesting to ask if Esau truly was grieved about his behavior towards his parents. He knew that his um choice to marry Canaanite wives did not please his parents and brought grief to his parents. and the choice that he made here to marry a wife who was the daughter of Ishmael in order to garner or curry the favor of his father. Do you think that this was a move of true repentance, true um godly sorrow or was it something else? What do you think?
Something else. So yeah, Mike, you said it was something else. So yeah, so it’s it keep coming with the mic. It’s okay.
Seemsful. Yeah. So you say it seems spiteful. Why? Why do you say so? Saw that his first move displeasure his pleasure, double the pain of his parents, right? Yeah. So yeah, and it’s interesting that his choice of of his this new wife, right?
So we know that Ishmael was not and and his descendants are not part of the promise. And yet in order to please his father, he chose to marry uh the daughter of Ishmael who is not part of the the covenantal pro the blessings the line the line of Abraham. Right? So it’s interesting the choice that he made here as well.
Um right so then we’ll move on to um the second passage which talks about uh Jacob’s dream. So this dream that I’m sure many of us uh have read about. But let’s look at make some observations in the text. So the first thing we see is that um Jacob leaves Bashiba and then he sleeps. He rests during his journey towards Haran and receives a dream from God. And this is what the text says from verse 10. Then Jacob departed from Behiba and went to his Haran. He came to a certain place and spent a night there because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream. And behold, a ladder was set on the earth with his top reaching to the heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. So this is amazing dream that Jacob receives and it’s a very timely one as as well which we will look at as we interpret the text. So Jacob is fleeing from his brother Esau who was trying to take his life and this was in fact the first time that Jacob encounters God that God meets him personally. So it’s important to look at the details here and to understand the significance of this dream. But we’ll do so as we go into interpretation. And what happens in the dream is that Jacob sees a ladder. So he had a dream and behold a ladder was set on earth with his top reaching to heaven. So there’s a ladder between heaven and earth as I have in this small picture on the screen. And behold, angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
So this is a all inspiring dream right and on top of that once Jacob um saw this um magnificent site the Lord proceeds to bless Jacob and behold the Lord stood above it and it being the letter 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 will also be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to to the to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and in you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So here we see the Lord uh identifying himself as the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. And it implies that the blessings would continue through the line of Jacob. And here we see that the promise includes uh multiplication of um Jacob’s descendants. This was the same thing mentioned to Isaac and Abraham. and also that his descendants would spread across the world from west to east, north and south. And that through the descendants of Jacob will all the families of the earth be blessed. And furthermore, God says that I will be with you and will keep you wherever you go. And this is important to note because of the specific situation that Jacob was in. He was fearing for his life. And this was definitely a comforting truth that Jacob had to receive at this time. And the and the Lord knew that it was perfect timing for Jacob to hear that he would be sustaining him and preserving him even as he travels towards Haran and and beyond.
And once Jacob saw the dream, heard the blessings from God, he awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.” So he was all struck by the magnificent dream that the Lord has given him and proclaimed that this is the house of God because this is where he first meets with God. And yeah, so and what he did next was to set up a pillar to commemorate this site that he first encounters God and sees this dream, pour oil upon it. So he worshiped and then he made a vow, a very interesting vow. He says, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take and will give me food to eat and garments to wear and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.
This stone which I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house and all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you.” So we see a conditional vow. if God will be with me and then I’ll do this and that and he would tithe to God.
So he would give a tenth to to God in uh response to um God being with him and blessing him and sustaining him.
So now that we have made some observations about this text that contains Jacob’s dream and how he reacted to it, let’s now interpret and to ask uh what the text means. So the first question is what is the significance of this dream?
So we talked about how um the con what the context of uh this incident was right um Jacob is running away from Esau going towards Haran to find a wife for himself and then God gives him this particular dream where he sees a ladder coming between heaven and earth and angels going up and down this ladder. So based on the details that we see in this text what what does this dream mean?
What was God trying to communicate to Jacob through this dream?
Glenda, he’s showing I can see he’s showing the relationship between heaven and earth and their affairs especially dealing with the covenant that Jacob had. So I give him that dream to tell him I will be with you.
Heaven is heaven is is in heaven is concerned about the affairs of men especially that covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So he’s he’s in in other words he is reinforcing the covenant that God will be with him.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Exactly. So, as Glender mentioned, um the point of the dream was that God was telling Jacob, even as you are running for your life, even as you have all these fears and possibly worries, I am actively at work in the affairs of this world. And note that this was the first time that Jacob encounters the Lord, right? So it was um God showing him that I am involved and I I’m at work. Even though you don’t see uh you might not see my hand at work, I am still actively involved and there is a connection between heaven and earth and there is like the angels are known to be messengers of God, right? So there is even communication between heaven and earth and uh because there’s a ladder which is a way of access between heaven and earth.
We could also think of this as um access to God. And now at this point we want to look at a parallel passage from John 1.
So verses 49 to 51. It says Nathaniel answered him and him being Jesus rabbi you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?
You will see greater things than this.
He said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. So, we see here that this is um parallel to what we’ve seen in Jacob’s dream where we have the angels of God ascending and descending. But there is a clear difference here in this text compared to what we saw before. There is no letter right. So what is taking the place of letter of the letter here in uh what Jesus says the son of man which is Christ himself. So what is the significance of this? How how should we see um how how should we understand what Jesus meant by this? Uh, Eric, it’s Christ being the uh instead of a ladder, he’s the way to get to heaven, from earth to heaven. So, it opens it up for man to get there.
Yeah. So, Eric said that um Jesus is the way. Yeah. Is the only way to to the father. No. Yeah. We cannot go to the father in through any other way. And also connected to what we saw before um God was trying to communicate to Jacob that um he was actively involved in the affairs of this world. He was not a God who is just far removed from what was happening in creation. He cares about the affairs of the world even the life of Jacob as he flees from Esau. And in a similar way during the incarnation, God was telling the world that I care about you even to the point of sending my son to save humanity from sin and to free us from the bondage of sin. So this is um illustrates to us and shows us the character of God and how he’s faithful to accomplish his purposes that he ordained from before the foundation of the of the world to save us and save us in this very particular way by sending his son to live and to die for for us.
And then once Jacob wakes up from his dream, we hear about um how he um talks about how all inspiring this is and then he set up a pillar to commemorate the spot where um he meets God and then he makes a vow. Right? So what does all these say about Jacob’s faith?
Leela that this is the time when his faith is developing that it’s coming into play because he’s on his own now. Maybe he’s frightened and uh and God reveals himself to him directly and so now it’s becoming his own. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Leah said that um Jacob’s faith is developing is finally becoming his own.
This is when Jacob meets the Lord. Yeah.
And it’s interesting how um he makes this particular vow, right? He says if God will be with me, then I would yeah in a way give back to God and give a tenth to God. So it was clear that he did have some uh amount of faith but yet um the faith seems conditional on what God did for him. Uh so some people see this in a negative light like he may possibly not even have faith but I tend to see this in uh in a positive light because of how God speaks about the the vow later on in Genesis 31. So in Genesis 31 it says um this is God speaking. He says I’m God I’m the God of battle where you anointed a pillar where you made a vow to me. Now arise, leave this land and return to your land of birth. So God references this vow that Jacob makes to him. But there was no rebuke of uh the vow and how it was conditional. So I I agree that um Jacob had a a degree of faith at this point, but yet his faith was growing. And as we continue reading about the life of Jacob, we see how God matures this faith into one that um yeah is just more mature than the one that he has here. All right. So now that we have looked um take a deeper dive into the text, let’s look at some uh application questions that we can consider uh about the first half of this passage that we looked at. So we saw how the letter and the dream was pointing towards how God is intimately connected with the affairs of the world, how he’s not removed from creation, how he interacts and even cares for his own. So how does knowing that God does that help us trust him more? How does it have a impact in the way you view your life?
How you interact with people in your life? You view your jobs and Mike.
Well, it’s ju it’s just everything, you know, when you know Christ and you know that he is that he did uh fulfill his father’s love for the world by uh being obedient to his father and dying on the cross for our sins. Uh and and you receive that that grace that that atonement for your sin. It’s everything.
It’s everything in a Christian’s life.
And uh help him trust trust him more. It it u Yeah. Even though we can sway from it at times, we can always come back to him. We know we can always come back when in our in our wandering. Yeah.
Oh, Magna, I was just going to say God is involved in the details. Yeah. And um when you when you witness him uh delicately taking care of every detail, it’s impossible not to trust him. Yeah.
Thank you, Pastor Dave.
It’s I think another great reminder from the scriptures, this whole vision of the ladder or the staircase that even though you can’t see it, God is at work.
Because how many times in our lives we’re seeing things not line up or things seeming to go badly and we say, “Where is God?” But it’s like God shows us with Jacob and even in a greater way in Christ, look what I’m been doing.
I’ve been working all along. I’m still working. Don’t worry. Yeah, I I’m working all of this out for your good and my glory. It’s another It certainly was a reminder to Israel, but it is a reminder to us that even though we can’t see it, we can trust God. We can uh we can know that he’s working for good.
Yeah. Tina.
Oh, also too, um, it just helps you to just know once you know the truth and know what God is doing, you see how God is working in your life, you hope and pray that there’s that rest, that peace in your spirit because you know God is completely in control of every affairs of life. You know, I mean, I think about my own experience just um going through a layoff and um not ever having to have gone through such a thing before, but what sustained me and kept me is that my mind was in the word of God and um I kept was the spirit of God was bringing me back to be anxious for nothing. I mean, and I keep saying nothing. And what does nothing mean to zero nothing, you know? So that’s how my my mindset went, you know, is just to have that rest and peace because what could we do as you and I were speaking earlier and um we have no no we’re we’re useless useless worthless without him you know so we have to rest and trust in knowing that he’s doing what he promised that he would do. Amen. So just to echo what has said it’s just solidifying that trust in him that even when it seems like he’s far far away or not even there. You know it just confirms those scriptures that his hand is not short that he cannot help. He’s as close as the mention of his name that he is intimately involved. You know, the psalmist say, “What is man?” That you’re so mindful of us. But then he gives you all these little clues just for you to see that, yeah, you might not feel that I’m here or you might not think that I’m here, but I am doing my purpose. So, Yeah. The the way that um I I try to help myself to understand what’s happening here uh between Isaac and Jacob and Esau and and uh their mother is that I I I took the letters gospel. I uh I’m working on a book and I’m using the letters of gospel to write the book and here I I if I were to give it a heading is I would say God’s plans cannot be thwarted by evil because here when when when um Rebecca was experiencing the disturbance in her womb, she sought God and and God laid out his plan to her before we knew what Isaac what the character of Esau and um Isaac was going to be. So in spite of the fact that we see Isaac as this deceiver and and uh he takes advantage of the weak. I mean those are pretty bad characteristics.
But yet when you go to um Hebrews, it describes um Isaac as a man of faith. It doesn’t say Esau as a man of faith. Um but it describes um Isaac as as a man of faith.
So it seems like in spite of our shortcomings, in spite of our weaknesses, shortcomings, um if God um whatever God’s plans are for us, those plans are going to be accomplished.
Amen. Thank you. Yeah. And I think that connects um with our second question as well, right? So, we saw how Jesus himself, Christ was the ultimate fulfillment of Jacob’s letter. And um he’s the true bridge between God and man. And God came down to earth um took on human flesh and to fulfill the will of the father and to save us from our sins. Right? So, and even in our salvation, we had no part to play. It was all God taking initiative, coming down to us to uh reveal himself to us to soft to give us a heart of flesh, remove our heart of stone. And like Jacob um he was deceiving and scheming and trying to find a way to obtain blessings for himself and things like that. But um and there was a lot going on before uh God met him. And it’s interesting to see how God met Jacob when he was sleeping. He wasn’t doing anything. and God came and met him where he was and revealed himself to Jacob. So I think this should give us confidence uh as we go about our lives as well that we are saved only by grace through faith in Jesus and and even when we fail Christ and we we are unfaithful God remains faithful and would sustain us. So that should give us confidence. All right. So with that, let’s go to the second part of the lesson. Um, so this is from Genesis 29 verse 1-30. So yeah, uh, open your Bibles to Genesis 29. Yeah. So uh, let’s proceed to make observations about the text. Uh so the first thing we see is that um now Jacob arrives in Haran and he meets with some shepherds of Haran at a well. So Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” 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 here is Rachel, his daughter, coming with the sheep.” So, u Jacob asked if the shepherds at the well knew about uh Laban and knew who he was. And they they knew Laban and they said that his daughter Rachel will be coming very soon to the well to feed the flock and soon enough Rachel arrives at the well and in order to water her flock and Jacob waters uh Rachel’s flock. So it says when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother Jacob went and roll up rolled up the stone from the mouth to the well and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. So there is a stone that covered the opening of the well. So in order to access the water that was in the well you had to roll away this massive stone to um yeah have access to the water. So this is exactly what Jacob does. He rolled the stone away so that um and watered uh Rebecc Rachel’s flock. And what he did next was to kiss Rachel and lifted his voice and wept. So we know that this is a cry of joy because he found a woman who he desired to marry. And in the next part of the text, we see how um this plays out. So Rachel tells Laban about who Jacob was. And Jacob was received by Laban. So first 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. And how Laban reacted was as follows. He 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 Lab Laban all these things.
Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month. So we see here that Laban welcomed u Jacob very enthusiastically. He knew that this was um a family member, my bone and my flesh. And that’s what it means. And then Jacob stayed and worked with Laban for a month. And after the month was over, Jacob wanted Rachel as his wife.
So, and this is what happens. So, Laban said to Jacob, “Because you of you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing?” So, this was a rhetorical question. He assumed that Jacob was going to be paid for what the work that he did. So, tell me what your wages shall be. And Jacob loved Rachel.
So, he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better for me that I give her to you than to give her to another man. Stay with me.” So, Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him by a few days because of his love for her. So, we see here that Jacob desired to marry Rachel and Laban agreed to give Rachel to Jacob as his wife uh for Jacob’s service of of seven years. And because of how much Jacob loved Rachel, it seems like it seemed to him that the seven years was just nothing. It just disappeared like that. And after seven years he wanted to take Rachel as his wife. And this part of the story we hear about the two daughters of Laban. So there is Leah who is the older daughter and Rachel. And there is a contrast between the two. So it says here that Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah’s eyes was weak but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.
So, we do not have a clear indication as to what exactly this saying about weak eyes actually means. But because it’s contrast here between uh Rachel’s beauty or form and face versus uh Leah, we can assume that this had this was referring to Leah not being as beautiful as Rachel, at least in the eyes of of Jacob. And after 7 years, J Laban prepares a feast for Jacob in order to um give his daughter to Jacob as his wife. So this is what happens. J then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife for my time is completed that I may go in to her.” Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. So this was an elaborate feast that uh Laban prepared for Jacob and and his wife. And um at the end of this night, Laban deceived Jacob. So it says in now in the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him and Jacob went into her. So notice that this is Leah and not Rachel. And it’s interesting that it appears that Jacob did not know that uh he has been deceived and he only found out about the deception in the next morning.
So yeah, so 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 you? Why then have you deceived me?” Notice that uh Laban agreed to give Rachel to Jacob as his wife for the seven years of service. But here um Laban knowingly deceived Jacob and Jacob only found out the next morning. And Laban’s response was as follow. He says it is not in our practice to marry off the younger before the firstborn as though Jacob should have known that this is the custom of of the of the place that he should have known that he would have been given Leah and not Rachel. And additionally, Lean consoles Jacob and gives um Rachel to him after a week. So this is what he says. Complete the week of this one being uh Leah, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve me another seven years.
Jacob did so and completed her week and gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. So this one week is some sort of a honeymoon period between for Jacob and Leah. And this was uh Laban’s um what Laban agrees with with him. So finish this week with Leah and then we’ll give you Rachel as your wife. So Jacob takes two wives from himself and because of that he has to work for Laban additional seven years on top of the seven years that he has already worked for Laban. And at the end of our passage so verse 30 we see that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah as he always had. So he says, “So Jacob went into Rachel also and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah and he served with Laban another seven years.” So we’ve made observations about our text. Now let’s um take a deeper dive and interpret what we’ve seen. So the first um thing we we see in this passage is that Jacob is at a well.
And this seems like a familiar scene based on what we’ve read before with uh Eleazar, Abraham’s servant, right? He was also at a well looking for a wife.
So there are clearly some similarities between that encounter and the one we see here. So here are some similarities.
There was an immediate encounter at a well with a woman who would eventually become the wife and also both men. So in the case of Eleaser and um now with Jacob, both men were gladly received into the home of the patriarch. But also there’s a there are differences between these two encounters. And what are some differences that you note?
I think one difference is that Jacob did not come with servants and gifts.
Whereas if you remember from the lessons that we saw before, Eleazar came with servants and came with gifts and these gifts were presented to the wise family.
And also previously with Eleazar, Rebecca watered Eleazar’s camels whereas uh now Jacob was the one who rolled away the stone and watered all of Jake uh Rachel’s flocks. And this is the first difference is important in understanding why Jacob had to work for Laban. Right? So previously we saw with Alazer he gave gifts to the wise family.
So this was dowy. He was giving the wife family gifts. In order to obtain a wife for Isaac but in this case, Jacob came with nothing. So in order to obtain a wife for himself, he had to work for for Laban. And because of this uh working and waiting for for his wife, it led to this opportunity for Laban to finally deceive and and trick Jacob.
And it’s it’s interesting to to read later on in this text that um Jacob was given Leah instead of Rachel. And yet he did not know it was Leah till the next morning. So what clues in the text uh do do we have that might possibly explain why he didn’t realize that it was Leah? Uh Glenda, I think um because they had a feast and that feast will always have, you know, wine. So then maybe it might have been dark, he just believed that Ra Laban must give him the one he wanted. But it’s only in the morning when it was bright and he saw her. Then he believe then he saw that he was deceived. But at that time maybe he he didn’t take any note of it because it was feast and everybody was having a good time. So he didn’t take notes. So in the morning when everything was cleared then he saw he had the wrong wife. Right. Yeah. So Glendon mentioned that they had a feast.
So it’s a possibility that there was alcohol involved and hence Jacob uh was not in Yeah. He did not have a clear mind to identify his wife. We are not given addition additional information but like some yeah so that the the timing is matters as well right so it happened in the evening so it was probably dark and hence easier to deceive Jacob and on top of that um like like Rebecca when she came to meet Isaac she was wearing a veil so it was seemed like it was a custom of that time where the bride was wearing a veil and hence the identity might have also been concealed but for whatever reason we know that Jacob only found out about the deception in the morning. Um, yeah. So, do we know if Leah was aware of this plan to deceive Jacob? What can we say about that?
I think uh we have no indication whether she knew or not, but uh I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Laban and Leah would have talked about it before trying to deceive uh Jacob. And as a result of of of this deception, Jacob marries two wives, right? And if you continue reading on in the text, we see how this favoritism where Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah led to a lot of striving between these two wives about how they were trying to have children of their own. And uh initially Leah was uh having children whereas Rachel was barren and then this led to jealousy between the uh Rachel being jealous of Leah and then there was this back and forth between the their the two wives and then they gave their servants to Jacob in order to have more children for themselves and this led to a lot of uh negative and tension between within the within the family.
So at at this point is it’s important to ask this question is was it wrong for Jacob to take two wives? So from from the start we we know that Jacob desired to have Rachel as his wife yet he was deceived and instead was given Leah as his wife. So now Leah was his uh legal spouse, right? And and in order to fix this, Jacob requested for Leah to be for Rachel to be given to him as his wife as well. So was it wrong for Jacob to have done that?
Yolanda, I think he was working for the one he wanted.
So given the first one which is Leah Mhm. he wanted the second one which is Rachel. So I believe that in his eyes whatever is going on with them I know who I want. So that was the reason why he took her he took Rachel because he really wanted Rachel. So, I believe that uh Cheryl, there’s so many things wrong in this story and everybody’s doing so many wrong things, but you know, like like we’re just sitting right in the middle of it, we could try to justify anybody’s actions. But what I think is really awesome is that since we already know the end of the story, we see how God was working through all their deceitful scheming um to bring about his ultimate will. But yeah, like you could say Laban was really looking out for his older daughter or Jacob was only trying to get what was, you know, fair. Um, and Leah, I’m obeying her father, but it’s all, you know, it’s just a lot of scheming repeating itself through generations.
Yeah.
Also, you can look at it as a fact that, you know, back then how culture and tradition really influenced the behavior of people because that was the norm for them.
So even though um as Cheryl said, you know, Laban was looking out for his daughter Leia, but it was accepted.
Nobody else rebelled. All of those people in the feasts, they knew probably knew what was going on and nobody said anything because it was culture he was doing. I mean, I’m sure Jacob was elated and and he was excited working for Rachel. He could not wait to marry her.
So I’m quite sure he made that known.
And yet it was like a big deception.
Everybody covered it up. But the culture and the tradition back then I think had a lot of influence. Yeah. So yeah, it was mentioned that yeah uh the culture had a part to play as well. And I think some things that I noted was that at this point no prohibition to polygamy was explicitly given and uh it’s only in the mosaic law that the prohibition to polygamy was given. Yet, it’s important to note that polygamy was never God’s intent from creation. Right? If you look back at Genesis 2, um marriage was supposed to be between one man and one woman. So, this even though there were cultural um expectations as to how you would go about this, God’s design has never been polygamy, right? So, I would say that it was wrong for Jacob to have taken two wives. Sure, he was deceived.
He was given Leah as his wife. And so what should Jacob have done at this point? I think what he should have done it was to trust God to be with him to to guide him to preserve him and to bring about the blessings that he has been promised even through uh Leah even though this was not his plan not his desire from the very start even though he was being sin against in the in the process because we know that God can bring about good even through the sinful acts of man right And as a result of his um um yeah can we come back to that soon? Yeah. So as a result of that there was uh a lot of conflict between um Jacob’s wives right so he multiplied wives and as a result of his sinful behavior this led to a lot of negative consequences and striving.
We know from um scripture and from our own lives as well when we disobey God we go against God’s design there are a lot of negative and sinful consequences that we have to bear and but yet we have the comfort that even when we sin even when we fail God still brings about uh our good and his glory through all the all the scheming all the deception all the yeah the sinful behaviors that that that we have.
So this is a picture of Jacob’s family and the children that he would have through his two wives and also the servants of the wives. So uh connected to what we’ve seen in the text uh I want to look at some application questions as well. So um um first we saw how Jacob did not trust God with his spouse Leah and resorted to marrying two wives even though that was against God’s design. So I have two questions. If if you’re married, can you how can you trust God with the spouse that he’s given you? So sometimes you married someone who is not I guess who you thought you would you would end up marrying. How can you trust God in such a situation? And if you’re single, how can you trust God with the lot that he’s given you right now? And then um the second question uh is how would you respond to someone who cites Jacob to argue that marriage is not limited to one man and one woman here it’s polygamy but someone could use it to uh justify homosexual quote unquote marriages and things like like that. How would you respond to someone like that?
So yeah open it to everyone and other I know you had a comment as well. Yeah. So yeah, now will be a good time.
Yeah. What what I wanted to say is that and I think it’s clearly being pointed out um by the responses that we’re getting from the brethren um to realize that um what started all this and brought death into the world was a lie that was told. And it seems like that theme continues to be woven into mankind’s history. Lying lying. And we can see that there’s an acceleration of consequences that come from lying. Here we have Abraham uh even though he’s fearful of um of of being killed uh because of his wife Sarah.
Um yet uh he tells a lie rather than turning to God. the idea of turning to God, praying and and asking God for guidance and direction. So, we see that in in these incidents where lies are being told, we’re not told that our patriarchs are turning to God. It seems like God is always turning to them.
Yeah. you know. Um but then to answer the other question about uh the the argument that might come up um about marriage and what would be um um a godly marriage or or how to defend the argument against um what’s happening in our culture today. uh where you know men or women feel like you know they can marry same-sex partners. I I think the the real issue is is that um the reason why I believe it’s so difficult to get to get this understanding um to people is because we live in a culture where there’s just so much lying. There’s just so much deceit that um trying to get someone to recognize um the importance of uh living a life that would be pleasing to God. It it becomes more difficult to be able to do that. Yeah.
Thanks, Cheryl.
of Mike.
So, everybody’s making great points and and and it’s all part of it. But it goes back to the first question you asked about how how can we take comfort that God is intimately involved with our affairs. But in the end, I I view the Bible as the revelation of God of his son Jesus Christ. And I see through the Bible, we see we’re just getting started in the history of mankind right now. Uh but we’re already seeing how we sin against God. And uh but the Bible comforts us in telling us that God’s will despite our sin will be accomplished. So in this particular example, um Jacob wanted Rachel, but God gave the child of of promise through uh through Leah, you know, because Judah is the seed of Christ. And so God will work out his plan despite our deception, our sin, and our lies.
Thank you.
The microphone here. Okay. Um, when Arthur was saying about the the exponential nature of how, you know, starts out I because I was also thinking about the parallels at the well and Isaac and Rebecca’s story that there was just Isaac, there was just Rebecca, but in this story there’s Jacob and Esau.
There’s Rebecca and Leia. And then I was also thinking about how at the well the women are there bringing the camels and doing a lot of hard work. And um why wasn’t Leia the one bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bringing the camels to the well and having to water them it’s a curiosity so um you know it’s really tricky to take this Old Testament example and and sit with it today and go how can I answer that but I feel Like what was lost for the people in the time is they were just looking at how can I take care of the things I think are really important that I need and uh what nobody was thinking of at the time is you know what would be God’s purpose for my life. Yeah. And I mean I think that happens today too right? you know, like, well, it’s important that um I have a good home, I have property, I have security, I have all this. Those kinds of things still rule us. And I think when how to trust God with a spouse he’s given you is you have to look the big long, you know, the longhaul picture of like what is God’s ultimate goal for my life is to glorify him.
God probably who knows all things will use this spouse to help glorify himself in your life. And likewise for a single person, you know, God will glorify himself in your life whether with a spouse or without a spouse. Right? So, and I’m not going to tackle the last one. Thank you.
kind of along I think what Cheryl was saying um and I had mentioned this once before like even weak faith is faith but there are degrees of faith in our walk and I think I was listening to Martin Lloyd Jones or somebody but they they said that when Abraham was focusing on fixing his problems, Sarah was lying about Sarah, that’s when his faith was weak.
But when he focused on God said this with Isaac and raising, then he was strong.
And I was thinking about that with Christ today. You know, sometimes we want Jesus is our greatest need, right? But he’s not just our greatest need at the beginning of our walk and the end of our walk. And sometimes we’re doing what we want in the middle. We just want the beginning and the end. But if he’s our greatest need, I think of the song I need the every minute, which I would say I need the every second. But we get into trouble. We all do it. But it’s remembering that I don’t have to fix uh needs in the sense of every person you point them to Christ. You point yourself to Christ.
You battle with yourself. We need him all the time. The greatest need is going deeper with him. Yeah. And then it kind of works itself out to whatever his end is. And then we have the we have a quiet confidence in him. And it is that peace that transcends understand. It’s coming from him. It’s not coming from us. And we don’t have faith in our faith. It it keeps going back to the cross. If he did all that and left heaven, condescended down to us, that should motivate us. Um, and I I just had to remind one of my kids recently that, you know, I said, “How old was Jesus when he left home?” And I I I I didn’t mean it it like and but I thought I said so here’s the king of the universe the creator that submitted to a fallible mother and father and then went on to do the work.
I just saw something significant where we kind of judge things by the culture of what is submission? I’m 18. I’m done.
uh to just bring God’s principles back to what does God say no matter what our culture says. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for your interactions and yeah, we’ve learned about how we are prone to to sin yet how faithful God is and how he is faithful to accomplish his will.
And there’s promises that are clearly stated in his word and therefore we can have confidence. So let me close in prayer. Father, thank you for you giving us your word, helping us to understand what’s in your word to learn more about who you are and how we can trust you each day because you are faithful to accomplish all that you have promised uh in your word, Lord. And for those of us who are in Christ, Lord, help us to have confidence that you love us and that you will keep us till the end. So I pray all this in Christ’s name. Amen. Amen.