Reaping What You Sowed - Genesis 29:20-30
INTRODUCTION:
As a kid growing up I remember hearing the statement: “Be sure your sins will find you out!” And as I have grown older I have found this statement to be true, if we as Christians are harboring some sin in our life God will bring about the circumstances that will cause us to confront that sin and deal with it. It is that concept mentioned in our Scripture reading this morning from Galatians 6, sowing and reaping. This morning we are going to find God bringing about events in Jacob’s life that will cause him to confront the sin in his life. Often God does this by making us face the same circumstances that those whom we have sinned against faced, feeling the same emotions and pain. God’s goal in this is to bring us to repentance and to seek His forgiveness and to restore a right relationship with Him.
This morning we will see this take place in Jacob’s life as he tries to forget what he did in the past and finishes out his seven years of service for Rachel. Let’s pray and ask God to minister to us this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 29 and we are going to pick up this event in Jacob’s life beginning in verse 20, the last verse we looked at last week. Please stand as I read God’s Word and follow along.
Genesis 29:20-30,
“So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.’ Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her. Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?’ But Laban said, ‘It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.’ Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.” (Genesis 29:20–30, NASB95)[1]
JACOB’S WEDDING (Genesis 29:21-24)
Last week we learned how Jacob agreed to serve Laban for seven years as the dowry for Rachel, Jacob loved Rachel and desired her for a wife because she was beautiful in form and figure. We read last week and this morning that the seven years seemed but a few days to Jacob because he loved Rachel so much. Things are going well for Jacob, he is going to get married and have a family. He hasn’t had to think about what he did back in Canaan; deceiving his blind father, cheating his older brother out of his inheritance and blessing. It is as though the past never happened. But in the midst of this, the Bible gives us a little clue that God has not forgotten the past or Jacob’s sin. So in the midst of what seems good there is a phrase to let us know that God is going to force Jacob to come to grips with his past and his sin. In verse 20 the phrase is “but a few days.” We have heard this phrase before, this is the same phrase Jacob’s mother used when she told him to flee to Haran seven years earlier. She told him to stay with Laban a few days until Esau’s anger subsides. The seven years, which seemed “but a few days” to Jacob was enough time for Esau’s anger to pass. As far as Esau and Jacob’s parents are concerned it is okay for Jacob to return home, and this may very well have been Jacob’s plan once he had married Rachel. Jacob was not ready to have God work His good promises in him. God needed to keep Jacob right there in Haran until he faces his sin and acknowledges it and repents and seeks God’s forgiveness. Jacob had never learned to wait on God, but God is going to teach him to wait. God is unwavering in His commitment to be good to us. His intention to bless us is unchanging. But first He will address whatever sin there is in our life. He will confront us with it, and wait until we deal with it, before He carries out His good purposes for us.
The seven years had come to an end and Jacob reminds Laban that he wants his wife so that he can begin a family. Laban wants to do this right so he throws a week long wedding feast. I want to read you a description of what that feast may have looked like from a book called Invitation to the Life of Jacob: Winning through Losing. (Page 88-89) Jacob consummates his marriage with his bride that night. When he awakes in the early morning he is shocked to find that his wife is not Rachel, but Leah. Jacob is furious and goes to find Laban who has deceived him.
Listen to Jacob’s words as he confronts Laban, “And he said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?’” (Genesis 29:25b, NASB95)[2] In pain and anguish Jacob is looking for some answer, some explanation for this horrible trick that has destroyed his plans and hopes for the future. As he stands there dazed and confused before Laban, God begins to quietly talk to Jacob, God is saying, “Jacob, do you now see your sin? Jacob you must look at your sin, acknowledge it, you must admit it, deal with it, so that we can move forward to the good plans I have for you. God’s voice comes through in two ways, first in Jacob’s cry, “Why have you deceived me?” This is exactly what Jacob had done to his father and Esau, he had deceived them. When Esau had returned with the venison that Isaac had requested he found that Jacob had already been there, concealing his identity, and deceiving his father in the darkness of his blind eyes. God’s voice is saying to Jacob, “Do you hear what you are saying, accusing Laban of deceiving you? Do you hear the words you are using? Laban concealed an identity to deceive you in the darkness. Jacob you did the same thing, you concealed your identity to deceive your father in his darkness.
LABAN’S DECEPTION (Genesis 29:25-27)
The second way that God speaks to Jacob is in Laban’s answer. When Jacob wants to know why Laban has done this, why he has deceived him? Laban answers, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.” (Genesis 29:26, NASB95)[3] We do not do something for the younger ahead of the older. The younger does not come ahead of the firstborn. In Laban’s words, Jacob hears his sin—he the younger has gone ahead of his older brother. Up to this point Jacob only thought in view of God’s promise, never in terms of older and younger, he was the promised son, the covenant child. He had never confronted the fact that Esau was the older and that he should have waited on God.
God is confronting Jacob with his sin. Isaac could not see, he did not know that the younger was being substituted for the firstborn. You took advantage of the darkness of your father’s sight to conceal your identity and deceive him. And now when Jacob could not see, he did not know that the firstborn was being substituted for the younger. Another took advantage of the darkness of your night, Jacob, to conceal an identity and deceive you. Jacob, do you see your sin?
God will speak to us, confront us with our sin. Sometimes it is through pain, through anguish when it feels like our whole world is falling apart. The question is: Will we listen, will we repent and allow God to begin the healing process? Jacob needed some more time and God gives it to him through Laban’s proposal. Finish the wedding week with Leah, and I’ll give you Rachel as your wife for another seven years of service. God is allowing this to happen to refine Jacob, to bring him to that place where he sees that he cannot do it on his own, but must allow God to be his God and trust in him and wait.
JACOB’S SURRENDER (Genesis 29:28-30)
Jacob I do not believe as yet surrendered his life to God, but he has been confronted with his sin and surely recognized that God was disciplining him for his sin, it may take him sometime to admit it and deal with it. He does surrender to Laban and finishes out the wedding week with Leah and then Laban gives him Rachel. Two wives in a week’s time. This was certainly not God’s intention, again we see Jacob choosing his own way, he wanted the beautiful wife and we will see in the weeks ahead the sorrows, disgrace, and trials that this double union creates. Laban gave as a wedding gift to each of his daughters a hand maiden that became the property of the daughter, much like Hagar was to Sarah. We will see how these sisters use these handmaids to try and garner Jacob’s favor.
Verse 30 tells us that Jacob consummated his marriage to Rachel and that he loved her more than Leah. Leah becomes the unloved wife and we will talk more about this in the weeks to come.
CONCLUSION:
Paul in our Scripture reading from Galatians 6 this morning used the metaphor of sowing and reaping in regards to how God confronts us with our sin. If we sow to the flesh, which in Jacob’s case was deception, then as Jacob we will reap what we have sown which for him was being deceived. This sowing and reaping is more than just irony or poetic justice; it is divine retribution in which there is often a measure-for-measure turn of affairs. God is sovereign and orders the affairs of people to confront us to set things right and to cause us to look at our sin and own up to it, repent of it and move forward sowing that seed that will reap blessing instead of retribution.
With Jacob the deception by Laban was perfectly fitted, it was divine punishment to bring his own craftiness, his own devious ways before his eyes. Whatsoever you sow that shall you also reap. What are you sowing? Are you sowing to the flesh? Then be sure that God will bring about a harvest that will cause you to confront that sin. Sow in the Spirit and you will reap the goodness of God in the many blessings He has in store for you.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995