[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”“Jacob, ‘The Justified’ Is Disciplined for Divine Purpose” (Gen. 29: 1-30) January 21 2018″ _builder_version=”3.0.92″ background_layout=”light”]
(1) Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 29: 1-5(ESV)
(Jacob Completes the 450 Mile, 15 – 20 Day, Trip To Haran)
1Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. 2As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well. 4Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” 5He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.”
(2) Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 29: 6-10 (ESV)
(Jacob Meets Rachael)
6He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!” 7He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.” 8But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.” 9While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
(3) Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 29: 11-15 (ESV)
(Jacob Meets Laban)
11Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.
13As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.
15Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
(4) Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 29: 16-20 (ESV)
(Jacob Works 7 Years for Rachel)
16Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
17Leah’s eyes were weak,a but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
18Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.”
20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
(5) Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 29: 21-25 (ESV)
(Laban Jives Jacob With Leah)
21Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.
23But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. 24(Laban gaveb his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) 25And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
(6) Walk Thru The Word for Today: Genesis 29: 26-30 (ESV)
(Jacob Completes His Week With Leah & Gets Rachael But Must Serve 7 More Years)
26Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
27Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” 28Jacob did so, and completed her week.
Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
29(Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.) 30So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.
(7) Message map: Genesis 29: 1 – 30
“Jacob, The Justified, Is Disciplined for Divine Purpose”
- Jacob’s Life is a battle from Birth to bethel Where HIs walk with god Begins)
- Jacob Learns To Walk With God from The Ladder (Stairway) through His Laban Experiences.
- Jacob’s Family Life Reaps the same Rivalry He Sowed and Engaged in with Esau.
- Like Jacob, Each of us Is called To Be Disciplined for Divine Purpose”.
- God’s Discipline Includes Reaping What We Sow
- Discipline =’s Discipleship, which Requires our cooperation to trust God is working on our behalf to provide good in our lives
- Reaping Righteousness Requires Our Cooperation To Participate In God’s Discipleship Plan for Our individual lives.
(8) Genesis 25: 23 & 27: 1- 46
Jacob’s Life is a Battle from Birth to Bethel
Background on Issac, Rebecca, Esau & Jacob
Gen 25: 22-23 Esau & Jacob represent the duo aspects of our human nature. Esau = our pre-saved nature & Jacob = post salvation nature, which must grow in Christ.
Gen 25: 23 God ordained “The older shall serve the younger.” Metaphorically – 1 Corinthians 15:46 is true: “What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.” And the LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
Jacob flees with a guilty conscience having lost everything by ruining his family life by committing the 3 C’s that ruin human relationships: a) coveting his brother’s birthright, b) opportunistically compelling a bad deal to get Esau to sell it; c) conniving his father by deception to secure it.
Jacob was willing to barter for God’s will, rather than rest in the Holy Spirit and trust God to give him the inheritance.
Jacob ran away to Laban where God built up his wealth. He did not have to connive in the flesh to become prosperous. Many families are raptured because one child will not trust God and do right by his/her brothers and sisters.
(9) Genesis 27: 10–22 Jesus Justifies Jacob at Bethel
- Gen 28: 10-22 Jesus reaches Jacob while he is at rest through the Ladder experience at Bethel.
- Jesus Justifies Jacob and assures Jacob of his future— provides assurance for His future.
- Jacob is awakened to God’s Will & Spiritual things and is in awe of God! (Meaning he becomes “cautiously & prudently circumspect about his behavior before God, so he carefully seeks to avoid evils by attentively examining the probable effects and consequences of his actions!).
- God grows Jacob in Godliness thru Laban the Liar!
Note the map that shows there’s about a 450 mile distance between Beersheba, from where Jacob starts, to Haran, in Syria, where Rachael’s family, and particularly Laban, Leah and Rebekah live. Bethel, the site of Jacob’s Ladder, is about 35% of the way or about 135-150 miles or so into his journey.
Provocative Questions:
Did Jacob obtained the blessing by being clothed in the garments, and operating in the name of the firstborn? (Yes)
Do we obtain the blessing of our Heavenly birthright, being clothed in the garments, and operating in the name of Him Who Is The firstborn of those resurrected to never will die again?
Do we undeservedly obtain the blessing of our Heavenly birthright, by being clothed in the garments, and operating in the name of the Christ, the firstborn from the dead, who never will die again? (You betcha!)
(10) Gen 29:6-10
Jacob Jumps Local Custom & Protocol
Jacob may brashly have been cocky, overbearing and rude, and jumped local custom and protocol and prematurely watered sheep.
The key word may be “soon.” The locals told Jacob the stone protecting the well doesn’t get moved until all the sheep herds arrive — perhaps to ensure no water needlessly evaporates, while waiting for the herds to arrive. But as “soon” as a pretty girl arrives with sheep, Jacob springs into action.
Note the discussion in Gen 29: 6 – 10. “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.” 8But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”
Jacob is from 450 miles away. Where he comes from the sun may be higher at a different time than it is here. So perhaps he is being brash and cocky, and completely ignores the local customs and still is rushing headlong to do what he wants to do, despite what others think.
Jacob weeped at meeting Rachael because he
- is feigning humility as a ploy to seek sympathy and acceptance
- is making advances on the attractive girl
- is humbled and relieved over having made it through the lonely and treacherous journey.
- releases tear of joy over having his guilt relieved that God saw him through to find his family.
(11) Gen 29:13-15
Jacob Receives A Warm Welcome – but I Bet there’s dubious dinner discussion
13As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.
Note this phrase at the end of vs 13: “Jacob told Laban all these things,” but Jacob did not tell Laban the full reason why he left home — perhaps only that Laban’s sister, Rachael, wants him to obtain a wife from amongst their own people — of which Laban’s offspring are the only ones available.
Laban warmly welcomes Jacob, and at dinner the dubious discussion (meaning it is not with complete openness and candor nor characterized by full disclosure) may have involved …
- Jacob telling them the whole story about how he tricked his father and defrauded his brother and has run for his life. (Nah)
- Jacob telling them he has come to seek a wife, (Yup!)
- Jacob telling them he can’t take a wife home because his life is danger from his brother who seeks vengeance on him. (Nah)
- Laban appearing to be open, but secretly hatching the plan to get his older daughter married. (Perhaps this is likely)
Laban takes a full month to size up Jacob, and figure out what he wants — which is Rachael, and they agree on a seven (7) year deal! 7 being the number of completion or fulfillment.
But Laban shrewdly knows he’s got to get Leah a husband too.
As Jacob offered seven years’ service for Rachel, and gave a second seven years’ service for her after he had been tricked into taking Leah, we may conclude that the length of time was not unreasonable.
(12) Gen 29:16-20 # 2 Jacob Learns To Walk With God from The Ladder (Stairway) through His Laban Experiences.
Jacob’s 1st redeeming quality is his love for Rachel
God uses Jacob’s love for Rachel as a motivator for him to be willing to change his ways to have her as his wife and constant companion.
I believe when Moses meets Zipporah, that God uses the marriage to temper Moses’s hot headed ways, as he gets domesticated under the roof of her tent, and begins his transformation from the brash Prince of Egypt who felt he could take matters into his own hands and kill a man in Exodus 2:12. Later in we read in Numbers 12: 3 that Moses was the meekest man on earth. “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.”
Jacob has no money to pay the customary dowry for a wife, so for the first time he selflessly must — and wants to — work for what he wants.
This is Jacob’s first act of selfless devotion.
19 Laban’s ambiguous and crafty answer is, “It is better that I should give her to thee than to another — does not directly grant Jacob’s desire, but only insinuates consent to it. (Benson)
20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” — The 7 years seemed to him but a few days. Because Jacob held Rachel in such high regard.
A Hebrew adage is “an excellent wife is far more precious than riches.” Both Leah and Rachel seem to have admirable character traits a wise man would want in a wife.
Do we love God enough, so that our time, laboring for and serving the Lord seems to fly by?
Barnes Commentary:
Jacob is betrayed into marrying Leah, and on consenting to serve other seven years obtains Rachel also.
He claims his expected reward when due. “Made a feast.” The feast in the house of the bride’s father seems to have lasted seven days, at the close of which the marriage was completed. But the custom seems to have varied according to the circumstances of the bridegroom. Jacob had no house of his own to which to conduct the bride. In the evening: when it was dark. The bride was also closely veiled, so that it was easy for Laban to practice this piece of deceit.
“A handmaid.” It was customary to give the bride a handmaid, who became her confidential servant Genesis 24:59, Genesis 24:61. In the morning Jacob discovers that Laban had defrauded him. This is the first retribution Jacob experiences for the deceitful practices of his former days. Laban deflects Jacob’s dismay by saying, “It’s the custom of the country that the older daughter gets wed first.
“Fulfill the week of this.” If this was the second day of the feast celebrating the nuptials of Leah, Laban requests him to complete the week, and then he will give him Rachel also.
So it appears the marriage of Rachel is only a week after that of Leah. Rather than lose Rachel altogether, Jacob consents to comply with Laban’s terms.
Rachel was the wife of Jacob’s affections and intentions, “And he loved also Rachel more than
Leah,” which proves that Leah was not altogether unloved.
At the time of his marriage Jacob is approximated to be eighty-four years of age; which was about half the average of life expectancy at that time.
God’s amazing discipline is “punishment tempered with mercy. This is what the Cross has done for us; it prevents penalty from being simply penalty; it leaves us not alone to punishment, but mingles all with blessing and forgiveness.”
Calvin’s Commentaries:
The polygamy Laban unleashes pollutes both Jacob and his own daughters. If by any means a wife is not loved by her husband, it is better to repudiate her than that she should be retained as a captive, and consumed with grief by the introduction of a second wife. Therefore the Lord, by Malachi, pronounces divorce to be more tolerable than polygamy. (Malachi 2:14.) Laban, blinded by avarice, so sets his daughters together, that they spend their whole lives in mutual hostility. He also perverts all the laws of nature by casting two sisters into one marriage so one is the competitor of the other.
(13) Yellow — Laban Defrauds Jacob with Leah
# 3 — Jacob’s Family Life Reaps The Rivalry He Engaged in with Esau.
Laban gives Jacob Leah because she …
- is a party to the fraud – which makes it understandable that Jacob did not love her as much,
- has to obey her father, and does not have much choice in the matter.
- secretly loved Jacob, and was glad to marry him.
- she understands that she gets to get married first as the older daughter, and Jacob and Rachael should have known better than to try to work around the customary system.
(14) Key Verse Comparison:
Colossians 3:25
(The Reciprocity of Reaping What We Sow)
ESV — For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
KJV — But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has done: and there is no respect of persons.
NAS — For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.
NIV — Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
NLT — But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.
(15) Yellow — the reciprocity of reaping what we sow
Gen 29 Jacob meets Laban and we see the first Scriptural instance of reaping what you sow.
- Pharaoh drowned Israel’s sons, and so God kills his son, and drowns his army in the Red Sea
- In Judges 1: 4-7 Adoni-bezek’s thumbs and big toes are cut off, as he had done to 70 kings before.
- Ahab killed Naiboth and the God saw that Ahab was killed and his blood was licked up by the dogs
- David had Bathsheba’s husband killed, and David’s son tries to kill him.
- Herod receives the worship due God and worms eat him
- Paul participated in Stephen’s stoning, and Paul later was stoned.
- Jacob the younger deceived his father by pretending to be the elder brother, and Laban deceives Jacob by having the older daughter pretend to be the younger sister.
# 4 — Like Jacob, Each of us Is called To Be Disciplined for Divine Purpose.
(16) Gen 27 – 29
Like Jacob, Each of us must Receive & Respond to God’s Call To Discipline & Complete Us!
In each of us is there a bit of Jacob who wrangles (engages in long and complicated disputes) to fulfill our ambitions, rather than resting and trusting in the Lord for His blessings? .
Jacob must be willing to leave carnal bartering and battling to achieve God’s plan and must learn to rest in the Holy Spirit and trust God to give him the inheritance.
God disciples and disciplines us through “The Reciprocity of Our Redemption.” Reciprocity is the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit. Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, says Reciprocity is the obligation or right; equal mutual rights or benefits to be yielded or enjoyed.
Col 3:25 KJV – But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
(17) Romans 8:28 & the reciprocity of our redemptive relationship with god
Romans 8: 28 ESV And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
- 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
- 12:10 he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
- 12: 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
- 12:15 a wrong response to God’s discipline is one “fails to obtain the grace of God;… [and] “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
In other words, if we respond inappropriately to God’s discipline we grow bitter, and we do things that will challenge other people to become angry and bitter too!
The root of bitterness that Heb 12: 15 refers to results from us blaming and attacking other people, rather than looking to God to work in us to help us handle our negative feelings about what is going on around us.
(19) Christ brings his disciples to good end!
Like Jacob, Each of us must Receive & Respond to God’s Call To Discipline & Complete Us!
Jacob’s Ladder Experience communicates to give us confidence in Christ, Who never will leave us nor forsake us, Who will as Matthew 28:20 Jesus says — “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Christ sticks with us because He intends to see us through to a good ending.
Phil 1:6 says, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
(20) Let’s Respond to God Who Disciplines Us for Our Good! !
Let’s Pray Trusting He Who Began A Good Work In Us Will Complete It To Conform Us
To Christ’s Will For Our Lives! [email-download-link namefield=”YES” id=”229″]
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