WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.940 Jacob is very clear what he wants. And the reason is this. It says in verse 17, Leah had weak eyes, 00:00:06.060 --> 00:00:12.220 right? So in the inch near east, having sparkle in your eyes was prized as a sign of beauty. So 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:16.859 the fact that she has weak eyes is really, it's basically saying that she's not, you know, very 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:21.359 beautiful. She's not pretty. And you could see that from the contrast that is made with Rachel 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:26.320 because he says, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. So by implication, 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:32.539 Leah was not beautiful in form and appearance. And so for that reason, Jacob asked to marry 00:00:32.539 --> 00:00:40.039 Rachel, not Leah. Now, seven years of labor for her is actually a very handsome, you know, 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:45.280 marriage present, a bright price, because Deuteronomy 22, 29 would later stipulate that a 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:50.100 maximum marriage present given to a family's household should be 50 shekels, which is about 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:55.439 four years worth of wages. But Jacob's offering to work for seven years. So he's almost doubling 00:00:55.439 --> 00:01:00.899 the price. That's how much he loves Rachel. He's infatuated with her. And given the generous 00:01:00.899 --> 00:01:04.859 offer and knowing that, knowing what we know about Laban, he's greedy and grasping. Of course, 00:01:04.939 --> 00:01:10.980 he agrees. And he says, it says in verse 20, Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:17.159 seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Remember, Rebecca, it said 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:22.459 in Genesis 27, 14, told his son to go stay a few days. But now it turns out that he's staying 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:28.159 for seven years. But even that seven years felt to him like a few days because of his... This 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:34.359 is a very rosy picture of the two couples' romance. Now, at the end of the seven years, 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:40.000 you can hear Jacob's impatience and presumption. In fact, Will came up earlier to ask me, is 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:45.459 this really what it says here? Because he approaches in verse 21. He says to his potential father-in-law, 00:01:45.459 --> 00:01:52.939 give me my wife that I may go into her for my time is completed. Okay, it sounds really rude and it is. 00:01:52.979 --> 00:01:58.879 It's meant to be rude. This is very rude and very abrupt. There's no pleas at all in this interaction. 00:01:59.539 --> 00:02:04.399 And notwithstanding his rudeness, Laban knows that he has to fulfill his obligation. 00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:09.900 And so he gathers the people together for a wedding feast. But then it says this, verse 23, 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:17.040 he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob and he went into her. Now, you might be wondering, 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:25.240 how in the world did Jacob miss that? Right? I mean, right? Seven years you've been working for her, 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:29.719 how did you miss that? Right? I mean, that's the... So first, during the first day of the wedding 00:02:29.719 --> 00:02:34.900 celebration, the wife is veiled the whole time. Okay? So he will not be able to see her face. 00:02:34.900 --> 00:02:40.800 And then secondly, it says that in the physical consummation at night, right, that would take 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:46.819 place in the cover of darkness. And so that's why he says in verses 23 and 25, in the evening, 00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:52.620 Laban took Leah and brought her to Jacob. And then he says in verse 25, in the morning, Jacob discovered 00:02:52.620 --> 00:02:56.560 the deception. So it seems to be highlighting the fact that he couldn't really probably see 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:01.980 what's going on. So whatever the case, we know that Jacob was completely duped because you could see 00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:09.379 it in his response. Verse 25, and in the morning, behold, it was Leah. The panic and the dismay that 00:03:09.379 --> 00:03:14.579 must have come over him, right, for the seven years that he has been, now lying next to him is his new 00:03:14.579 --> 00:03:21.879 wife, ugly Leah. Now he storms out to Laban's quarters and then he says, what is this you have 00:03:21.879 --> 00:03:28.859 done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? And then Laban replies in 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:34.920 verses 26 to 27. Read along with me. It is not done in our country to give the younger before the 00:03:34.920 --> 00:03:41.120 firstborn. Complete the week of this one and we will give you the other also in return for serving 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:49.520 me another seven years. We should be already indignant at Laban's exploitation of his nephew. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:55.780 And he's asking for another seven years to work for a wife that he did not ask for and for a second 00:03:55.780 --> 00:04:03.000 wife that Genesis chapter 2 explicitly forbids and says you shouldn't have. So it says, notice the 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:09.680 description, and obviously this leads to a tragic marriage. Verse 30, Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:17.439 and served Laban for another seven years. Notice how he does not say that these seven years seem to him 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:27.300 like a few days. These are grueling, joyless, sad seven years that he labors. And note the great irony 00:04:27.300 --> 00:04:33.379 of Jacob being deceived by Laban because Jacob asks Laban, why have you deceived me? And this is really 00:04:33.379 --> 00:04:39.220 an indictment against himself because just a few chapters earlier in chapter 27 verse 35, Isaac had 00:04:39.220 --> 00:04:45.879 said to Esau, your brother Jacob came deceitfully and he has taken away your blessing. Right? So in doing 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:51.879 so, Jacob, the younger son is basically, he stole the rights of the firstborn and here he is deceived 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:57.360 by Laban and lectured by Laban saying, and by the rights of the firstborn. It's a poetic justice 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:02.379 happening exactly what he did to his father, his brother. Now it's happening to him. Right? Jacob stole 00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:08.040 the rights of the firstborn by deceiving his father who had dim eyes. Now he is here, his rights, the 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:13.060 firstborn is, is, is, he's stolen, right? Jacob himself is stolen here by the rights of the firstborn 00:05:13.060 --> 00:05:18.879 who had weak eyes. I mean, the parallels are very clear here to see. So it doesn't matter that God 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:25.079 had promised that Jacob would rule over his older brother Esau. Jacob was still wrong, we find in 00:05:25.079 --> 00:05:30.100 this scene, that what wrong to presume upon that and to take advantage of his brother. So this, you see 00:05:30.100 --> 00:05:35.639 here in the beginning that justice, God's justice is coming to him. So God disciplines Jacob here because 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:41.639 he loves him. Now we're not off to a great start in this marriage. I think, I hope, pray most of us have a 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:47.500 better start. And not surprisingly, what ensues is a heartbreaking story of a broken marriage. 00:05:47.979 --> 00:05:53.779 And there's an unhappy tug of war between Leah and Rachel, you know, vying for supremacy and for the 00:05:53.779 --> 00:06:00.639 affection of, of their husband. So Leah, on the one hand, longs for Jacob's affection, but doesn't get it, 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:06.439 even though she could have children. Rachel, on the other hand, has Jacob's affection, but she cannot have 00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:14.060 children. And first, so God intervenes and God sees, it says, first verse 31, Leah. He says, 00:06:14.139 --> 00:06:22.139 when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Whenever God sees, 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:26.180 in Old Testament narratives, he's always intervening on behalf of the weak and the marginalized. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:32.639 So here he sees that Leah is hated by his, by her own husband, and he intervenes on her behalf. 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:38.439 He sees her plight. But it's really sad. I mean, as you're reading, if you get verses 31 to 35, 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:43.779 when Leah's having these series of children and she's speaking to God, normally in Hebrew narratives, 00:06:43.919 --> 00:06:48.919 there's always two characters. It's dialogue between two characters. But in this, this is a 00:06:48.919 --> 00:06:55.639 soliloquy. Like, there's no one else, Leah, by herself, speaking, no one to listen to her except for God. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:02.419 It's a really sad tale because she talks about it. It's a picture of her isolation and unrequited love. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:08.659 Now, in their struggle against each other, both Rachel and Leah take things into their own hands, 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:12.919 presumptuously, and sin against the Lord and do things that are contrary to his will. 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:20.519 Verse 1, chapter 30, it says that when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:27.219 sister. She said to Jacob, give me children or I shall die. That sounds a lot like what Jacob said to 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:33.620 his father-in-law, right? And their romance has been integrated terribly by this point. And in fact, 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:39.340 these are the very first words you hear from their marriage between Jacob and Rachel. 00:07:39.860 --> 00:07:44.940 Give me children or I shall die. And not only is this extremely selfish and presumptuous because 00:07:44.940 --> 00:07:50.620 Rachel's here blaming Jacob for her infantility, it's also positively impious because the Bible teaches 00:07:50.620 --> 00:07:55.480 clearly that it's the Lord who gives children to bear a woman. So she, her posture should have been to 00:07:55.480 --> 00:08:00.780 pray to him and to seek him, but instead she blames him and her husband. This is, give me children or I 00:08:00.780 --> 00:08:06.500 shall die. So, so Jacob rightfully puts her back in her place in verse 2. Am I in the place of God 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:13.259 who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? But Rachel is unyielding and rather than repenting, 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:21.100 she decides to take her maidservant Bilhah and give her to her husband, Jacob, as a surrogate wife 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:26.700 so that she could have children through her. And this is not a good thing. We've seen this happen, 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.920 we saw this happen earlier with Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and that was condemned in that narrative. 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:37.720 So this is again, not a good thing that they are doing. And, and after Bilhah gives birth to two sons, 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:43.759 Rachel, you know, kind of exalts and gloats and over, over them and over her sister and names them. 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:49.019 And last son, she names Natalie, which means divine struggle or struggle against God. So basically, 00:08:49.019 --> 00:08:53.600 she's saying, you know what? I wrestled against you. I wrestled against God and I have won. That's 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:58.720 kind of, that's her name. That's the name that she gives her. And Leah is not to be outdone by her 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:04.039 younger sister. It says in verse 9, when Leah saw that she had seized bearing children, she took her 00:09:04.039 --> 00:09:10.279 servant Zophah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. So Leah, likewise, takes things into her own hands and 00:09:10.279 --> 00:09:16.699 through her maidservant has two more sons. And notice how each of these paragraphs begin. This is really 00:09:16.700 --> 00:09:22.700 cool how this is set up because in 29, 31, it began with when the Lord saw, he intervened for Leah. 00:09:22.940 --> 00:09:29.080 And then in 30, chapter 30, verse 1, it begins with when Rachel saw. And then chapter 30, verse 9, 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:34.879 it says when Leah saw, right? So it's intentionally framed this way to show that when God sees, 00:09:35.020 --> 00:09:40.780 he intervenes and he makes things right. But when they, when Leah and Rachel see, rather they sin 00:09:40.779 --> 00:09:45.539 presumptuously and they make mistakes and they take things into their own hands rather than trusting 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:53.959 God. Now, it's a very bad marriage. And all of this comes to, you know, a haltering stop in chapter 30, 00:09:54.600 --> 00:10:01.079 verses 14 to 21. Leah's eldest son, Reuben, finds some mandrakes in the field and brings them in 00:10:01.079 --> 00:10:06.019 to Leah. And mandrakes are a Mediterranean perennial for their soul. You can still find them in the 00:10:06.019 --> 00:10:12.740 Mediterranean world and the region. And they were believed to be aphrodisiacs, to, to the aroused 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:17.759 sexual desire. And they were also thought to actually help women who were infertile. So when 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:22.740 Reuben finds them, this is a great boon, right? And of course, Rachel, who is still infertile, wants a 00:10:22.740 --> 00:10:28.939 piece of that mandrake, right? So she says to Leah in verse 14, please give me some of your son's 00:10:28.939 --> 00:10:34.720 mandrakes. But then Rachel, but, but Leah responds bitterly in verse 15. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:42.000 Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.480 also? So it appears that Jacob's, because of Jacob's preferential treatment of Rachel, 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:53.019 he's been exclusively sleeping with Rachel and not with Leah. So Leah can't even have a night with 00:10:53.019 --> 00:10:58.100 her husband. So she says, you've stolen my husband from me. Would you steal my son's mandrakes 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:05.159 also? And then Rachel says this, she knows that she has, she has a right, she has a grievance. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:10.879 And she says, then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes. And then Leah 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:17.820 consents to that offer. And she tells Jacob in verse 16, you must come into me for I have hired you 00:11:17.820 --> 00:11:23.600 with my son's mandrakes. Again, the word hire, wages, these are key words. It's the same words that 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:29.040 that Laban used of Laban to describe her. They're his exploitation of Jacob. So even the relationship 00:11:29.040 --> 00:11:34.540 between the husband and wife here has been reduced to commercial bargaining. It's just the lowest of 00:11:34.540 --> 00:11:40.500 lows. And I hope you see how broken and messed up this family is right now. I mean, it's really, 00:11:40.680 --> 00:11:45.620 really bad. And they've made many mistakes and they've sinned in many ways. Now Jacob is not only 00:11:45.620 --> 00:11:51.399 alienated from his family and he's an outcast, he's also exploited by his uncle like a slave. 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:56.699 And now he's stuck in a broken polygamous marriage. And then Leah and Rachel hurt one 00:11:56.699 --> 00:12:02.519 another and try to one-up one another, tit for tat. And just, it comes to this. Rachel's 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:07.100 so desperate for children, she barters away the conjugal rights. And Leah is so desperate 00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:11.459 for Jacob's affections, she gives away that, that the mandrake, precious mandrake she found 00:12:11.459 --> 00:12:17.360 for one night, one night, not even several nights, one night to spend with her own husband. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:23.019 Maybe you can relate to this. Maybe you have a broken marriage. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:30.620 A few nights go by without heated conflicts, blaming one another, hurting one another with 00:12:30.620 --> 00:12:37.860 harsh words. Maybe you have a broken family. Your children are not following you, obeying 00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:49.060 you. And you are at your wit's end. Maybe you sinned egregiously and you feel that God can never 00:12:49.060 --> 00:12:56.860 take you back or use you again. Maybe you feel stuck, trapped, and you're frantically seeking to 00:12:56.860 --> 00:13:03.220 regain control of your life like Rachel, Leah, and Jacob. But things seem to be spiraling down. Well then, 00:13:03.220 --> 00:13:07.399 that's you, there's hope for you in this passage. Because it tells us that we can entrust ourselves 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:14.960 to God because God's mercy triumphs over our mistakes. Now look at verses 17 to 21. It says, 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:23.139 and God listened to Leah and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. It says, God enables Leah to 00:13:23.139 --> 00:13:28.980 conceive from that one night she spends with Jacob. Not just that, it seems that he also restores her to 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:34.019 Jacob, the conjugal relations so that she's able to have two more kids after that, right? And then 00:13:34.019 --> 00:13:39.960 similarly in verses 22 to 24, it tells us, then God remembered Rachel and God listened to her and 00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:45.399 opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. And she called 00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:52.480 his name Joseph saying, may the Lord add to me another son. Finally, God listens to Rachel, gives her a son. 00:13:52.659 --> 00:13:57.860 And she will listen to her prayer also and give her another son, Benjamin, later. So one passage after 00:13:57.860 --> 00:14:02.779 another, Leah and Rachel had sought to get their own way to no avail. But in these two passages, 00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:08.580 it begins, God listened to Leah. And then God listened to Rachel. And when God listens and acts 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:15.100 and intervenes, he makes things right. He redeems broken situations. He acts on behalf of his people. 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:21.379 And if you recall in chapter 28 to the four, Isaac had sent Jacob away with the blessings of Abraham, 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:27.820 the promise of progeny and a place for them to dwell, a place and a people. And here you see the 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:33.740 promise of the people being fulfilled because now Jacob has eight sons through Leah and her maid, 00:14:33.900 --> 00:14:39.920 Zilpah, and three sons through Rachel and her maid, Bilhah, right? And that's 11 of the upcoming 12 00:14:39.920 --> 00:14:45.460 tribes of Israel. Notwithstanding all the mistakes that they have made, all the ways in which they've 00:14:45.460 --> 00:14:51.480 sinned and presumptuously taken things into their own hands, God's mercy triumphs in their lives. 00:14:51.480 --> 00:15:00.460 And you see this. And just marvel at how God weaves sovereignly in the history in this passage because 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:06.860 who gives birth to Joseph here, right? Rachel. And if you know, later in Genesis, there's a famine that 00:15:06.860 --> 00:15:13.700 threatens to wipe out the entire household of Jacob. And who delivers them? Joseph does. So God's already 00:15:13.700 --> 00:15:19.480 weaving that story together. And who gives birth to Judah here? It says Leah gives birth to Judah and 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:25.220 praises God. Judah is the one later Jacob says of him. The scepter will not depart from Judah. Why? 00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:31.560 Because it's from the line of Judah that the king, the Messiah will come, Jesus Christ. So here, God, 00:15:31.800 --> 00:15:38.659 through these broken relationships, people who really mucked it all up, and God raises redeemers, 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:44.460 deliverers for his people for to temporarily deliver them from famine and to spiritually deliver them from 00:15:44.460 --> 00:15:51.639 eternal death, separation from God. God is amazing. God's mercy triumphs over our mistakes. 00:15:53.720 --> 00:16:00.820 But not just our mistakes. God's mercy triumphs over others' mischiefs as well. To see this, let's return to the 00:16:00.820 --> 00:16:06.780 promise that God had made to Jacob. Because the promise of progeny is ostensibly fulfilled, is being fulfilled 00:16:06.780 --> 00:16:12.460 here, but the promise of a place is still yet to be fulfilled. And God had promised Jacob, you will return to this 00:16:12.460 --> 00:16:18.360 land, the land of Canaan. But he's not in land of Canaan. And so that's why as soon as Joseph is born, 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:24.300 the narrative almost, it pivots, and Jacob's focus is exclusively on returning to his land, to the promised land. 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:31.900 Verses 25, 26. As soon as Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, send me away that I may go to my 00:16:31.900 --> 00:16:38.300 own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go for you know 00:16:38.299 --> 00:16:45.199 the service that I have given you. But just as Laban sought to detain Abraham's servant when he tried 00:16:45.199 --> 00:16:51.159 to take Rebekah for Isaac, to marry Isaac, here he tries to detain Jacob when he tries to leave with 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:57.899 his wives and children. And Laban is reluctant, not just because he's going to be, lose that closeness 00:16:57.899 --> 00:17:04.440 he has right now with his family, daughters and grandchildren, but it says explicitly in verse 27, 00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:10.980 he has learned by divination that the Lord has blessed him because of Jacob. In other words, 00:17:11.340 --> 00:17:16.840 Laban is saying to Jacob, I really can't afford to let you go. I mean, it's, you're the reason why I'm 00:17:16.840 --> 00:17:21.980 rich. And I know that because of this divination, I'm not letting you go. So he's again grasping and 00:17:21.980 --> 00:17:28.900 greedy. And so he offers Jacob, name your wages again, and I will give it. When he should be speaking 00:17:28.900 --> 00:17:35.420 of a parting gift, he speaks again of wages. And this, this puts Jacob in a difficult place because 00:17:35.420 --> 00:17:40.040 Jacob has no choice now because he's already received the wages that he had agreed upon. He 00:17:40.040 --> 00:17:45.560 received his two wives. And so in order to receive any more wages, it's implying he has to work more 00:17:45.560 --> 00:17:51.360 for, for Laban. So he, Laban's again trying to reduce him to servitude. This is his mischief. He's 00:17:51.360 --> 00:17:56.019 trying to derail the fulfillment of God's promises to Jacob, whether knowingly or not. 00:17:56.019 --> 00:18:02.240 And Laban's intention is all the more wicked. If you compare this to the later commands in the, 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:08.980 in the, in the Mosaic law, because according to Leviticus 25, 39 to 41, whenever a fellow Israelite 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:14.039 was became impoverished, you were, the Israelites were commanded to take them in and to hire them, 00:18:14.180 --> 00:18:19.579 not as slaves, but as employees so that they could have a means of living. And then at the end of six 00:18:19.579 --> 00:18:25.339 years, on the seventh year, the year of Jubilee, they were supposed to let them go for free with 00:18:25.339 --> 00:18:30.199 their children, with their family members. And then a similar passage in Deuteronomy 15, 20, 00:18:30.339 --> 00:18:35.799 12 to 14 specifies even further that when they are let go, they are not supposed to be sent off 00:18:35.799 --> 00:18:43.079 empty handed, but they were supposed to be furnished liberally out of your own flock. So Laban, notice 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:48.339 what he's doing here. Not only did he work in for more than the six years, he worked in for seven years. 00:18:48.379 --> 00:18:52.279 You're supposed to let him go for the seven years. Not only did he do that once, he did it twice. 00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:56.920 And now he's going to make him work for another six years. And even then he's not going to let 00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:02.379 Jacob go voluntarily, but make him work for the flock. And he's going to force Jacob to abscond 00:19:02.379 --> 00:19:07.759 without his permission. So Jacob knows all of this. He knows this is unfair. He protests to Laban. 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:14.680 And then Laban replies, okay, what shall I give you? Now in verse 31, but Jacob knows he's disingenuous 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:19.440 because he doesn't even ask for a gift. He says, don't give me anything. If you do this for me, 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:23.299 then I will keep working for you by tending your flock. That's basically what Jacob tells me. 00:19:23.900 --> 00:19:29.720 And then Jacob names his wages in verses 32 to 33. Very curious. He says, let me pass through all 00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:35.600 your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the 00:19:35.600 --> 00:19:41.259 spotted and speckled among the goats and they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later 00:19:41.259 --> 00:19:46.120 when you come to look into my wages with you. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:51.639 goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen. So in order to understand 00:19:51.639 --> 00:19:55.939 what's going on, we need to know the typical colors of the sheep and the goats in this time, 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:01.019 in this culture, right? Sheep are white mostly and goats are mostly black. They're dark colored, 00:20:01.179 --> 00:20:05.939 right? So what Jacob is saying is I'll take the black sheep, right? The known, I mean, they're 00:20:05.939 --> 00:20:10.379 deviants, right? So it's, and I'll take the white goats or the ones that have speckles in them. 00:20:10.380 --> 00:20:14.160 So he's basically saying, you know what? You take all the flock. I'll take all the deviants, 00:20:14.260 --> 00:20:19.580 the rare, you know, genetic, the ones with the genetic deviants. So then basically this is a 00:20:19.580 --> 00:20:24.640 really cheap price because normally a shepherd who was put in charge of a flock was entitled to 20% 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:29.680 of the young that they produced. So this would result in far less than 20%. So Jacob is giving Laban 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:36.280 a discount and knowing, knowing Laban, of course, I mean, he's going to get to take the discounted offer, 00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:41.740 right? So he takes them up on it and then, but then Laban goes one step further because it says 00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:49.779 in verses 35 and 36, but that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted and all 00:20:49.779 --> 00:20:55.259 the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it and every lamb that 00:20:55.259 --> 00:21:00.879 was black and put them in charge of his sons. And he said, a distance of three days journey between 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:06.880 himself and Jacob and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock, right? So Jacob asked for the 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:13.440 multicolored animals and Laban takes them all aside and gives them to his sons and then gives 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:18.540 Jacob only the rest of the flock with only the white sheep and black goats, right? So he's just 00:21:18.540 --> 00:21:25.740 robbing him of all his wages. And now Jacob, his only hope of acquiring flock is the few rare deviants 00:21:25.740 --> 00:21:31.279 that's going to come from maybe the recessive genes of these flocks. So that's really, really sad. And 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:36.660 there's a word here too, Laban means white, the name, and striped, the word striped sounds very much 00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:41.559 like the name of Jacob. So all the white ones will go to Laban, the white one, and then the stripe will 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:48.799 go to Jacob. So you can see what the bear is doing here. And of course, Jacob resorts to a ruse, 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:55.380 right? He's going to make strict trees and have his goats made in front of those trees. 00:21:55.740 --> 00:22:00.420 And then they're going to be, they turn out to be speckled. And then he puts his sheep so that 00:22:00.420 --> 00:22:05.579 they're always looking at the black goats in Laban's flock, and then they produce a black and 00:22:05.579 --> 00:22:14.960 spotted sheep. Now, of course, this is a questionable breeding technique. Literally, it's not something 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:19.859 that you would expect to work. So what is actually happening here, right? And this is where we see God's 00:22:19.859 --> 00:22:25.599 mercy triumphing over Laban's mischief. Because Jacob reveals to his wives in chapter 31, 00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:32.099 verses 6 to 12, that God himself has shown him in a dream that the flock would bear spotted 00:22:32.099 --> 00:22:40.559 sheep and goats, speckled goats. So it's not because Jacob somehow mastered this brilliant 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:45.140 technique that no one in the modern world knows about. It's that God intervened on his behalf, 00:22:45.259 --> 00:22:49.880 even with his questionable practices. God intervened because he's on Jacob's side. 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:57.240 And that's why the summary is so apt in verse 43. Thus, the man increased greatly and had large 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:02.860 flocks, female servants and male servants and camels and donkeys. This description intentionally 00:23:02.860 --> 00:23:08.560 parallels the description of Abraham and Isaac's wealth in previous chapters. And he increased 00:23:08.560 --> 00:23:13.380 greatly is the exact word that God had used to make his promise to Jacob. So his promise is being 00:23:13.380 --> 00:23:21.180 fulfilled. Now, the fact that God himself is contending on behalf of Jacob and against Laban, 00:23:21.320 --> 00:23:27.940 we see that very clearly in chapter 31, verses 5 to 11. Because it says three times he contrasts 00:23:27.940 --> 00:23:32.600 Laban's oppression with God's intervention. So read this with me. I'm going to kind of skip to some 00:23:32.600 --> 00:23:38.960 parts where he says, I see that your father does not regard me with favor, but the God of my father has 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:45.340 been with me. Your father has cheated me and changed my wages 10 times, but God did not permit him to harm 00:23:45.340 --> 00:23:51.319 me. If he said the spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock were spotted. Thus, God has taken away 00:23:51.319 --> 00:23:56.740 the livestock of your father and given them to me. So what the narrator is telling us is the main 00:23:56.740 --> 00:24:02.740 difference between Jacob and Laban is not that Jacob is better at making money and producing wealth. 00:24:02.740 --> 00:24:10.920 No, it's that God's on Jacob's side. And we know this even more clearly in the ensuing narrative 00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:15.440 because we had already kind of had a hint of it because it said that Laban practiced divination, 00:24:15.620 --> 00:24:22.480 which is forbidden. But he also pursues them because Rachel had stolen his household gods, 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:27.019 which are basically idols, the little figurines of the household gods that they worship. So he's 00:24:27.019 --> 00:24:31.200 devoted to the household gods. And you just see this finally when they're making the covenant, 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:37.580 when Jacob swears and makes the covenant in verses 44, 54, he swears by the fear of Isaac, 00:24:37.580 --> 00:24:42.380 which is short form for the full name for the one God, the God of my father, the God of Abraham, 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:47.680 and the fear of Isaac. But then Laban swears by a plurality of gods, right? Even though it's 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:53.340 translated the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judged between us. That's 00:24:53.340 --> 00:24:59.120 what Laban says. But that should actually probably should be translated the gods of Abraham and the gods of 00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:05.439 Nahor and the gods of their father because the verb judge is plural. So Laban is a polytheist. 00:25:05.639 --> 00:25:10.739 He's not just worshiping the true God. He acknowledges the true God, but he also is a 00:25:10.739 --> 00:25:18.000 syncretist. He's mixing that religion with other false religions. And because of that, right, so Jacob, 00:25:18.500 --> 00:25:25.639 God has blessed Jacob and he's advocating on his behalf. And so finally, he is sent off after 20 years 00:25:25.640 --> 00:25:31.800 of labor, right? 776, right? And he's with his wives and children, all his accumulated property. 00:25:33.140 --> 00:25:40.020 Maybe there's, for you, a Laban in your life, someone that really seems out to get you. Maybe 00:25:40.020 --> 00:25:46.460 someone that you think you feel like has messed up your life. Maybe it was your parents who neglected 00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:54.259 you or mistreated you. Maybe it was your ex-girlfriend or boyfriend who used you. Or your ex-wife or 00:25:54.259 --> 00:26:00.160 husband who cheated on you and abandoned you. Maybe it was your former best friend who betrayed you. 00:26:01.660 --> 00:26:08.140 Maybe it was your relative who molested you and abused you. Maybe it was your boss or supervisor who 00:26:08.140 --> 00:26:17.500 sabotaged your career. As Christians, we can move on from these things and we can forgive and stop 00:26:17.500 --> 00:26:25.799 letting our unforgivingness, anger, and bitterness from holding us hostage. Why? How? Because we know that 00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:38.220 God's mercy triumphs over others' mischiefs. No human being, however sinister and unrepentant, can ever thwart 00:26:38.220 --> 00:26:46.640 God's mercy for you if you are one of his chosen people. Do you really believe that? Because that 00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:52.319 would give us an unshakable peace. It would give us a glimpse of that undeniable love of God. 00:26:52.680 --> 00:26:59.720 Neither our mistakes nor others' mischiefs can thwart God's plans for us. Yes, mistakes are real. Yes, 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:05.039 sin is real. Yes, mischiefs are real and there are real consequences for all those things. But in the 00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:12.559 end, over and through it, all God's mercy triumphs for the people of God. And we haven't even gotten 00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:19.039 to the ultimate proof of this truth that's hidden in this passage. Look at chapter 31, verse 42, one last 00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:24.379 time with me. It's an apt, satisfying summary of Jacob's entire career up to this point. Chapter 31, 00:27:24.500 --> 00:27:32.119 verse 42. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, 00:27:32.119 --> 00:27:39.519 surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:46.939 rebuked you last night. Jacob's statement will echo through the ages of Israel's history because the 00:27:46.939 --> 00:27:53.159 words that are used here will be used in the book of Exodus to refer to Israel's plight. Jacob increased 00:27:53.159 --> 00:28:00.239 and spread abroad, it says. And in the same words are used in Exodus 1.12 to say that Israel multiplied 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:06.839 and they spread abroad in Egypt. Jacob here says, God saw my affliction. In Exodus 3.7, God says, 00:28:07.059 --> 00:28:12.539 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. Jacob says that Laban sought to send 00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:19.319 him away empty-handed. And Moses says to Israel in Exodus 3.21 that they would not leave Egypt empty-handed. 00:28:19.940 --> 00:28:25.880 The word send away that used here is also the same word that Pharaoh uses of letting Israel go. 00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:34.280 In Exodus 3.20 and other places. So then Jacob's release from Laban's slavery is a type. It prefigures 00:28:34.280 --> 00:28:41.180 and foreshadows Israel's delivery from their slavery in Egypt. And what does that in turn point to? The 00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:48.500 Exodus in turn points to the deliverance of God's people. Their exodus from their slavery to sin and 00:28:48.500 --> 00:28:53.140 death. And that deliverance comes through Jesus. And that's what all of these things, the history of 00:28:53.140 --> 00:28:58.480 Jacob and the history of Israel they're ultimately pointing to. And what is that good news? Why is 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:03.780 Jesus good news? Because he's the exodus, his Passover lamb. He dies for the sins of the people. 00:29:04.259 --> 00:29:08.580 And this happens. So everyone that knew Jesus was expecting him to deliver them from the oppression 00:29:08.580 --> 00:29:14.520 of the Roman Empire. And this happens in Acts 2.23 to 24. He says, Jesus delivered up according to the 00:29:14.520 --> 00:29:21.300 definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised 00:29:21.299 --> 00:29:29.839 him up losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. The savior of 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:39.500 the world, the son of God that came to save humanity. We killed him. Lawless men killed him, crucified him. 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:45.559 It's on the cross and it might as well be our own hands because he died thereof on behalf of our sins, 00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:51.099 for us, for sinners. So then on the cross we see the worst of the spiritual forces of evil 00:29:51.099 --> 00:29:58.679 collude with the worst and the basis of the human inclination towards sin, right? This is the greatest 00:29:58.679 --> 00:30:04.819 single human mistake in the history of the world and the greatest single human mischief in the history 00:30:04.819 --> 00:30:11.159 of the world. And we see what? Why did that happen? Because it says, right, Jesus delivered up according 00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:18.400 to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. And it results in what? Not the death of the Messiah, 00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:24.220 but the death and resurrection of the Messiah so that through his death and resurrection, eternal life, 00:30:24.940 --> 00:30:29.779 communion with God, freedom and joy become our possession. 00:30:29.779 --> 00:30:41.879 God's mercy triumphs over our mistakes and others' mischiefs. I plead with you, let that truth fortify 00:30:41.879 --> 00:30:50.220 your mind this morning because then you become impervious to fear and anxiety. Let that truth guard 00:30:50.220 --> 00:30:58.759 your heart so that you become immune to insecurity and doubts. We can entrust ourselves to God completely 00:30:58.759 --> 00:31:03.180 because God's mercy triumphs over mistakes and mischiefs. Let's pray together. 00:31:08.180 --> 00:31:17.700 God, you are so good. You're wonderful. You're gracious. You're merciful. 00:31:17.700 --> 00:31:29.319 God, you're merciful. We cannot heap enough praises on you because of your mercy toward us. 00:31:31.980 --> 00:31:38.559 Help us to live in the good of that truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.