God at Work - Genesis 29:31-30:24
INTRODUCTION:
There are times in our lives when we are going through a sorrowful time, maybe we have just lost a loved one or a dear friend, or we just feel that we are not loved by anyone or we are going through a time of strife, maybe with a co-worker or friend or family member and we just cannot imagine that God is there during those times and working to fulfill His promises to us. We might imagine it is only during those times when we are being obedient and seeking His best for our lives that He is working. Last week we looked at how the Lord was working in Jacob’s life to confront him with his sin, God wants His best for our lives and often that requires that God discipline us and make us look at our sin and deal with it. Jacob certainly had to look at his sin when he was deceived the same way he had deceived his father and brother. Jacob should have taken the hint, dealt with the sin and accepted Leah as his wife and moved on, this would have been God’s best for his life, but He had to get what he wanted and that was Rachel, but in getting Rachel he brought sorrow and strife into his home. God would work through the sorrow, through the strife to bring about His promises, but Jacob’s wives would fine that God’s blessing are best when they begin to obey Him. Let’s pray and then get into our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 29:31-30:24. It is a long passage so I am not going to ask you to stand, but if you would like to stand while I read it you can.
Genesis 29:31-30:24,
“Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, ‘Because the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.’ Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, ‘Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.’ So she named him Simeon. She conceived again and bore a son and said, ‘Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.’ Therefore he was named Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.’ Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing. Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die.’ Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’ She said, ‘Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children.’ So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, ‘God has vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.’ Therefore she named him Dan. Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. So Rachel said, ‘With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.’ And she named him Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, ‘How fortunate!’ So she named him Gad. Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, ‘Happy am I! For women will call me happy.’ So she named him Asher. Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.’ But she said to her, ‘Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?’ So Rachel said, ‘Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.’ When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then Leah went out to meet him and said, ‘You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.’ So he lay with her that night. God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, ‘God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband.’ So she named him Issachar. Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. Then Leah said, ‘God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.’ So she named him Zebulun. Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son and said, ‘God has taken away my reproach.’ She named him Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord give me another son.’” (Genesis 29:31–30:24, NASB95)[1]
GOD WORKS HIS PLAN DESPITE… (Genesis 29:31-30:24)
God had promised to make Jacob a great nation, had promised that his descendants would be like the dust of the earth. In this passage of Scripture we see God making good on His promises to Jacob as child after child after child is born. Everything that has happened in Jacob’s life has been moving toward the birth of these children and everything that happens after flows from the birth of these children. This is the center point of Jacob’s life as seen from God’s stand point. These children are God’s promise all over the place.
The purpose of this passage is to see that God has a plan for our lives as well and He has made promises that He will keep because His love for us is so great and His promises are so sure. Just as our Scripture Reading this morning pointed out, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
As we look at these births in sequence we will see that God will fulfill His promises despite the sorrows we’ve experienced, sorrows of loneliness, sorrows of being unappreciated, resented, unfairly treated, made to feel that you do not fit in.
We will see God fulfill His promises despite the strife we face in our life. The times when we have been attacked and have lashed back. He will work despite the anger and frustration that we have felt, despite the bickering, jealousy, conflict we have endured and participated in.
Finally, we will see God fulfilling His promises when our obedience is small, an obedience that is so imperfect, so faulty, so feeble that it is almost nonexistant. But nothing can separate us from God’s love and His commitment to us never wavers. God is constantly at work putting together the pieces of His plan for our life.
The events of this passage are messy, there is bickering, fighting, jealousy, fault finding, envy, favoritism and all of this shows up in the names of the children. Through it all and despite it all God is building the family that will become the 12 tribes of Israel, the nation that will bless the world.
GOD WORKS HIS PLAN DESPITE OUR SORROW (Genesis 29:31-35)
God is at work fulfilling His promises even in the midst of sorrow. This passage opened telling us of a woman who was sorrowful. She was unloved and lived with loneliness and heaviness every day. Through no fault of her own she finds herself resented and treated unfairly. She knows that Jacob does not love here, that Jacob never wanted to marry her, she knows that Jacob is in love with her beautiful younger sister. There was someone else that saw her sorrow, that knew she was unloved and because of this God began fulfilling His promise of a family through her. We are told that God opened Leah’s womb, but Rachel was barren.
Even though Jacob was tricked into taking her as a wife, Jacob knows that he has certain duties or responsibilities that he owes her, so he fulfills them. But he takes no pleasure in her company. Apart from fulfilling his duties he spends almost no time with her. She is alone, unappreciated and isolated. But God opens her womb and one of those times with Jacob she conceives and gives Jacob his firstborn son. In her sorrow she names him Reuben which means, “Look, a son!” The name also sounds like the Hebrew for “misery or affliction.” Leah says, “The Lord has seen my affliction, perhaps now my husband will love me since I have given him a son.
But it doesn’t happen, there is still no love from Jacob. Her sorrow continues and God again causes her to conceive and she bares Jacob another son. She names him “Simeon” which means “One who hears.” She proclaims, “The Lord has heard that I am unloved, and he has given me another son. Maybe now my husband will love me.
But again it makes no difference in their relationship, Leah is still in her sorrow and God opens her womb again and she conceives and gives birth to a third son. Surely three sons will cause her husband to attach himself to her. She names her son Levi which sounds like the Hebrew word for “attached.”
Three sons does not change anything, Leah is still unloved and it seems that she resigns herself to her sorrow. She realizes that nothing is going to cause her husband to love her. Her only comfort is in the Lord. The Lord has been good to her and has loved her by giving her sons. Somehow God is working good in her life apart from her sorrow and loneliness. She will praise the Lord for what He is doing. She conceives again and gives birth to a fourth son and she names him Judah which means, “Jehovah is praised.”
Maybe you feel like Leah, you feel like you are unloved, that you live your life in sorrow and loneliness. Learn what Leah learned that God’s love is so great and His promises are so sure that in spite of your sorrow He is working His plan in your life, that even in this God is bringing the pieces of His plan for you together.
GOD WORKS HIS PLAN DESPITE OUR STRIFE (Genesis 30:1-13)
God also works His plan despite our strife. Despite the times we have been attached and lashed back. Despite the bickering, jealousy, and conflict we have endured and taken part in. Despite our anger and frustration, God is working to fulfill His promises in us.
As we move into chapter 30 we are entering into a hornet’s nest of strife. Rachel’s sees Leah conceive and bare four sons for Jacob and she cannot give him one son. She is jealous and angry and frustrated. Rachel is ready to do anything to force things to go her way, to gain the upper hand. Rachel and Leah become so bitter against one another that they shut God out of the picture. In the previous section when Leah was baring children God was very prominent. Three times she acknowledges “The Lord” as being involved in giving her children. This title “Lord” is the intimate, personal name of God with His people. It is the Hebrew name Yahweh.
As we come into chapter 30 with its strife, conflict, and competition we see God referred to by the Hebrew name Elohim a more impersonal word for a distant Deity. We do not see the people in these verses any longer calling on the name of a loving, personal, intimate God. Instead they want Him to just be a powerful ally who will serve their vengeful purposes.
Despite all this, the Lord is working His plan, is fulfilling His promises, and more children are born and we see the strife in the names they are given.
Rachel, jealous Rachel tells Jacob to give her children or she will die. There was nothing worse in that culture then to be barren, to be unable to bear children. The woman who could not bear children felt shame and disgrace because she could not produce an heir for her husband. Jacob instead of praying for Rachel as his father had for Rebekah, became angry with Rachel and said, “Who do you think I am, I’m not God (Elohim) who causes you to bear children.
But Rachel is not about to be outdone by her sister, so she comes up with a plan. She wants to do the same thing that Sarah had done when she could not have children. Rachel gave her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, have children by her and they will be my children. This certainly was not God’s best for Jacob, but Jacob wants to appease Rachel and so he sleeps with Bilhah and she conceives and gives Jacob a son. Rachel took the child and named him Dan which means “vindicated.” She said, “God has vindicated me.” Again she did not use the personal name of God, but the impersonal Elohim. She was saying God has brought justice to me by giving me this son. Leah is not the only one. Then we read that Bilhah conceived again and brought forth another son and Rachel named him Naphtali which means “an all out struggle.” She describes this strife with her sister a struggle and her determination has paid off and she has won.
Well, not to be outdone, Leah lashes back with two can play at this game and she gives her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob as a wife and he sleeps with her and she conceives and bears a son for Jacob. Leah claims him and names him Gad which means either “good fortune” or “a troop is coming.” Leah says that she has had good fortune and watch me now produce children through my maid. Zilpah does conceive again and bears a son and Leah names him Asher which means “happy.” I am happy she says and the women will call me happy.
You see all through these verses the names of the children reflect the strife and competition, the friction and the conflict. Sometimes we go through times of strife in our homes, our marriages, with our children, or at work with co-workers or with friends or relatives. We become frustrated, angry, we try to come up with ways to get revenge. And if ever God should give up on us it should be during those times, but His love is so great for us and His promises so sure that even during these times He is working in us to fulfill His promises and to carry out His plan in our lives. He may bring about the circumstances needed to confront us with our sin, but His promises to us do not change and He will carry them out in His time.
GOD WORKS HIS PLAN DESPITE OUR SMALL OBEDIENCE (Genesis 30:14-24)
In this final set of verses we see Leah and Rachel move from sorrow, from strife, to beginning to obey God’s leading, it is small obedience, but they begin to talk, to hear each other, to see each other’s hurts and needs. They begin to move towards peace in small and imperfect ways.
Verse 14 tells us that Reuben, Leah and Jacob’s firstborn and the oldest was out in the field during wheat harvest and he found some mandrakes and brought them to his mother. Mandrakes are a leafy plant that have large yellow berries, about the size of small plums, they were widely viewed as an aid to fertility. Rachel is there and she sees the mandrakes and wants to try some to see if she can get pregnant. She with a pleading voice asks her sister if she can have some of the mandrakes. I’ve never been able to have a child. Please help me.
Leah answers back in her sorrow. You already have my husband’s heart, now you want this too. Rachel hears Leah’s pain and they come to a compromise, a little step toward peace. Leah gets Jacob for the night, Rachel gets some mandrakes. The result of this step in the right direction is that both Leah and Rachel conceive. And the personal, intimate name Yahweh comes back into the home. The names of the children reflect the small halting steps of obedience. Leah names her fifth child Issachar which means “reward.” Jacob was her reward for compromising with Rachel and God rewarded her with another son. Then she conceived again and named that son Zebulun which means “honor.” My honor is returning, surely my husband will see my value in bearing him six sons. Then she had a daughter and named her Dinah.
God remembered Rachel and opened her womb, it was not the mandrakes it was God, and she bore a son and named him Joseph which means “Yahweh will add.” At last God has given me a child, may this not be the last, may Yahweh add another.
Twelve children in seven years. I want you to notice that from the unloved wife come two important families, the tribe of Levi who would become the spiritual leaders in the family and the kingly tribe of Judah through whom the one would come who would be a blessing to all peoples of the earth, the Savior Jesus Christ.
God is working at all times and in all circumstances to fulfill His promises to work His good plan in your life.
CONCLUSION:
What can we take away from this passage of Scripture? First, we can take away a better understanding of how great God’s love for us truly is. Even in our times of sorrow, even in our times of strife, even when our obedience is feeble God is working. God is keeping His promises. Jacob’s family was a mess because Jacob had not sought God’s best for his life, instead he did what he wanted to get what he wanted. God’s best would have been one wife, because that was how God made it in the beginning. God’s best would have been to build Jacob’s family through Leah, but God’s love for Jacob was so great and His promises so sure that despite Jacob not seeking God’s best God fulfilled His promises to Jacob, by giving him a family that would spread out and be as numerous as the dust of the earth and through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
God’s love for you is so great that He sent His only Son to pay the penalty for your sin by dying on the cross and shedding His blood. God’s promises to you are so sure that He will work His plan and fulfill His promises through whatever circumstances you may be going through, through whatever stage of life you are in. God shows through this passage that He is faithful to do what He has promised. Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995