Jacob's Family Part 1

If you have your Bible, I would invite you to open up with me to Genesis chapter 29 and Genesis chapter 30. We're studying Jacob's family. After Jacob's marriages, he would hope things would get better, but instead, they get worse, for he's married to two women, Leah and Rachel. His home is a war zone, bitterness, jealousy, rivalry take the foremost seat in Jacob's home. We will begin where we left off last time, Genesis chapter 29, verse number 31, Genesis 29. Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

And 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. And 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? And she said, here is my maid Bilhah. Go into 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 into her.

And 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. And 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. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, how fortunate. So she named him Gad. And 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 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, and God gave heed to Leah. 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, and afterwards 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. And she named him Joseph, saying, may the Lord give me another son. Quite a story, huh? Unbelievable. The more I read this thing, the more bewildered I become at what people do. And the more bewildered I become at what God does to overrule all that they do. Our God is a great God. And here Jacob, finding himself embattled in his own home, a war zone between two women, Rachel and Leah. The one he loved dearly, that was Rachel.

We saw last week where three times it talks about how much he loved her. But Leah? No. She was the unloved one. Now put yourself in Leah's shoes. Here she is, the ugly duckling of the family. She knows she's unloved, text says. Now my husband will love me, because I am so unloved. God saw that she was unloved. Jacob had no concern for Leah, why? Because Leah reminded Jacob of his devious past. How deceptive he was. How he tricked his own father into giving him the blessing. And so Leah would always remind him of his past.

He would do the dutiful thing, but he had no affection for her. What does she do? She offers herself up to him. She tries to do all she can for him, but she receives nothing in return. And God looks upon her, the text says, and he opens her womb. But Rachel was barren. Isn't it interesting? That Sarah was barren, Rebecca was barren, and now Rachel is barren. That was quite a stigma for women in those days to overcome. Because the key to the family was bearing children. And the key to a good family was having lots of boys in the family to carry on the name.

That's why Psalm 127 speaks about how children are a gift from the Lord. So God would look upon her, that is Leah, and he would open her womb. And she would have some children. And through these children, she would try to express her agony. And so I want to look at two points with you this morning.

The children of the brides, that is Leah and Rachel, as well as Bilhah and Zilpah. And the boys they produce. Because those boys become the 12 tribes of Israel. And then we will look at the challenge for the believer.

Because there's a great challenge for you and me. And you're going to be so glad you came today. We'll begin with Leah, because God opens her womb first.

The boy's name is Reuben. Reuben's name means, look, a son. Look, a son. In naming him, she was saying something to Jacob. Jacob, look what God has given to me. He has seen my affliction. Now Jacob's affection will be toward me. But it wasn't. So she conceived and bore a second son.

And this boy's name is Simeon. And Simeon's name means, heard or to hear. Not only has God seen my affliction, Jacob, and rewarded me with a son, but God has heard my desperate cries, Jacob, and given me another son, Jacob. Then she had a third son.

His name was Levi. His name means to be joined to or to attach. Now, she says, my third son will cause Jacob to attach himself to me.

Listen, if your husband doesn't love you, you can have as many children as you want. It's not going to change his affection for you. She thought it would, but it didn't. Let me stop right here for a moment.

Isn't it true, ladies, that if you want your husband's affection, you will do whatever you can to try to win him over, to get from him what you so desperately need? And so what you find yourselves doing is not ministering to your husband, but manipulating your husband. And Leah's whole life was one of manipulation. Trying to get a response from Jacob and doing all she could to gain approval from him. You ever been there? That's where Leah was, how painful it was for her. Only God can change your husband.

You can do anything you want. You can dress differently. You can look differently. You can buy things for him. You can do things for him. You can do whatever you want. It's not going to change your husband. Only God can change a man. And maybe instead of praying for another son, maybe she should have prayed for her husband, that God would do a work in his life. But she gets a fourth son. And you know what? Maybe now Leah realized. I mean, there's nine months here between each of these births. It doesn't happen, you know, one day, the next day, then the next day.

There's nine months, a little bit of time, nine months, a little bit of time, nine months, a little bit of time. And now you had the fourth son, another nine months. And I believe that somehow God is working in Leah's life. She names him Judah, which means praise. Now I will praise the Lord. Now I'm going to praise the Lord. Instead of complaining to God about an unresponsive husband, what does she do? She praises the Lord. And is that not where God wants us to be? In spite of the negative things round about us, God wants us to praise him.

And now Leah's eyes are finally opened. And it would be through that son, Judah, that the Messiah would come. Isn't that good? God is so, so good at what he does. And the text says, it was here she stopped bearing children. And maybe for a while, Leah's relationship with the Lord was really good. And she had begun to praise his name in spite of all the negative things round about her, in spite of the fact that her family situation was bad, in spite of the fact that her husband didn't love her, in spite of the fact that her sister, who was more beautiful than she was, had his affection.

She began to praise the Lord. Which leads us to chapter 30 in a very sad scenario. Now, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister. Now, isn't this interesting? Here's the woman who has everything. She has all the looks. She has the man. But the one thing she doesn't have, she fixates on, that is children. And so she looks at Leah and she becomes embittered. She becomes jealous and the rivalry intensifies. Listen to what James says in James three, verse number 16.

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. And sure enough, in Genesis 30, you have all kinds of evil. And so what does she do? She goes to her husband. She should have went to God, but she went to Jacob. Give me children or else I die. Isn't it interesting that up on the birth of her second son, she dies.

You see, instead of thanking God for what she did have, she complained about what she didn't have. Does that hit home with you or what? Sure it does. So what does she do? She devises a plan. Well, like you and me, we figure out how we can get what we don't have, right? So that's what she did. I got a plan. So skip down to point B under your outline and we're gonna go to Bill Hall because Rachel is gonna offer her maid that was given to her by her father to Jacob to bear children. Here is my maid, Bill Hall.

Go into her, verse number three, that she may bear on my knees that through her I too may have children.

Listen, she wanted children so bad. This is what she would do. She would send her maid servant into Jacob. She would get pregnant. And then when she was about to deliver that baby, she would lie down on the bed and Bill Hall would lie on top of her. And as Bill Hall would deliver that child, she was underneath her feeling the agony and the intensity of Bill Hall's body upon herself so that when that baby came out, it was as if she delivered that baby. That's where she was. So she gave him her maid, Bill Hall's wife, and Jacob went into her.

She conceived and bore Jacob's son. Listen to what Rachel did. She named him Dan, which means judgment. Here she says, God has judged me and God has judged what I have done. And God has blessed me because of what I have done. Listen, God never blesses polygamy. God never blesses immorality. And even though it was legally acceptable in that day to send your maid servant into your husband said she might bear children and you claim them as your own, it was morally wrong. But God would use his decreed plan to bring about his sovereign purpose.

But Rachel would say, look what God has done. But it was a perverse attitude. You see, we kind of judge success as God's blessing, right? If it turns out the way I want it to turn out, it must be God. Not necessarily so, but that's the way she perceived it. And Bill Hall then has another son and his name is Naphtali. His name means to wrestle and it typifies her wrestling match with her sister Leah. Now we're gonna skip over to point number C and look at Zilpah.

Leah has been watching all this and she is not going to be beat again by the beautiful younger sister. No, Leah saw verse number nine that she had stopped bearing and she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. And she bore a son. She named him Gad, which means good fortune. Oh yes, she says. There was good fortune with me. Look what I have done. I did the same thing Rachel did and I have great fortune in my life. But there was no good fortune whenever you engage evil to accomplish your purposes.

And Zilpah has another son. His name is Asher. His name means happy. Now I'm gonna be happy and everyone will see that I'm happy. After all, other people need to know that I'm the winner here and the winner is always the happiest person. But now everybody will see she's happy and count her as a blessed one. But she was anything but happy. And now the story becomes very perverted. 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.

Now listen, you gotta know what mandrakes are. Mandrakes were an erotic fruit in that day. And they were believed to cause you to become fertile. And so Rachel saw that Reuben had these mandrakes. And she went up to Leah and said, give me some of that. Listen ladies, you can do anything you want. You can eat the right foods. You can drink the right drinks. You can do whatever you want. But the Bible says God opens and God closes the womb.

Nobody, listen very carefully, nobody gets pregnant unless God ordains it. Nobody. God's in control, see. That's why abortion is the biggest blow to the sovereignty of God in the human race. Because abortion says no to God's sovereign plan. God opens, God closes the womb. And so Leah says in verse number 15, is it a small matter to you to take my husband? Time out. Who took whose husband? Is it a small matter to you, Rachel, that you already have him? You have everything I want anyway. And so Rachel said, therefore, I tell you what I'm gonna do.

If you give me the mandrakes, you can have Jacob this evening. He'll lie with you this evening. You pay to sleep with my husband. That's where we're at. Leah's thinking, it's a good deal. Here, take this mandrake. Take them all, have them all. I want Jacob tonight. So she does. And she has three more children, two more boys. The first one is Issachar.

His name means to hire or to pay. And then she had another boy named Zebulun, meaning dwelling or habitation. Now, six sons later, I am for certain that Jacob is gonna dwell now with me. But he didn't. She conceives and she has a daughter. Her name is Dinah. Her name means vindication. God has vindicated me. Which leads us to our fourth point, our fourth bride, and that is Rachel. And it says very clearly in verse number 22, then God remembered Rachel. Oh, that's such a good, good thing. God sees her affliction.

God understands her pain. And God remembers her. And God gave heed to her and opened her womb. Now, how do we know that the mandrakes did not cause her to be fertile? Because there were three children born in between the time she received the mandrakes and the time she conceived. Nine times three is 27. That's 27 months. Mandrakes don't take that long to work, do they? I mean, for crying out loud, it's ridiculous. So we know it's not the mandrakes. It's God who opens and closes the womb. God remembered her.

God opened her womb. That's why the Bible calls children gifts from God. They're gifts. And blessed is the man whose quiver is full of all those wonderful gifts that God gives to him. Psalm 127. God remembered. He gave heed to her and opened her womb. It says in verse number 23, so she conceived and bore a son. He said, God has taken away my reproach. And she named him Joseph, saying, may the Lord give me another son. She named him Joseph. And Joseph has two meanings. Number one, to add.

Number two, to take away. God had taken away her reproach. And every time she looked at Joseph, she would be reminded of what God had taken away. The stigma, the embarrassment of not having any children. God had taken it all away. And she realized finally that God was in control.

And she says, God will add to me another son. Rachel now begins to trust God for another son. She has a son. She dies in childbearing. His name is Benjamin. She wants to name him Ben-Oni, which means son of my sorrow. And Jacob says, no, he will be called Benjamin, son of my right hand. And do you know where Benjamin is born? He's born in a place called Bethlehem. There you have the children of the brides. What's the challenge for the believer today? Two things you need to get from this story. Number one, God remembers.

If you leave with one thing, leave with this. God remembers. Many months ago, when we were in Genesis chapter eight, there was a phrase that came up and it said, and God remembered Noah. In Genesis chapter 19, we saw upon the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that God remembered Abraham and saved Lot. When it talks about God remembering something, it doesn't mean that God has forgotten something. It was another thing that God forgets. And God wakes up one day and says, oh, I forgot, I'm sorry. I remember now what I said.

That's not the way God operates. So when it speaks of God remembering, it speaks of God's faithfulness to fulfill his word to you and to keep his commitment to you as one of his own. And God remembered Rachel. God is faithful to his word, to keep his word. This morning, I wanna let you know something. In case you forgot, God remembers you. He remembers you amidst your barrenness. He remembers you amidst your bondage. He remembers you amidst your bereavement. He remembers you amidst all of your battles.

He always remembers and fulfills his word to his children. Did God forget about the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? No. But they were in bondage for some 400 years. And they cried out to God, and God remembered his word, and God delivered them out of their bondage. God wants to deliver you out of your barrenness, out of your bondage, out of your brokenness. It says in Psalm 103, verse number 14, that God remembers we are but dust. As God remembered Rachel, so God remembers you. Isn't it good?

The Bible says that God remembers our iniquities no more. Isn't that good? That's so good, so much so he separates them as far as the east is from the west. Has God forgotten that you were a sinner? No, no, but God's faithful to his word. Not to bring that charge of sinning up against you because you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He remembers your sin no more. God not only remembers, God rules. That's point number two.

God rules. Again, we will emphasize God's sovereignty. We will do that through the rest of our time in Genesis. God rules over all their sin, all their immorality, all their jealousy, all their bitterness, all their vengefulness, all their rivalry. God rules over it all and brings about his sovereign purpose to accomplish his own glory through the boys that are born in Genesis 29 and Genesis 30. Can you believe that God would use this to bring about a nation of people that he says that he loves and would use to represent him to a pagan world?

But he does. It says over in Psalm 103, verse number 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all. God is always on the throne. He's never off the throne. Psalm 66, verse number seven says he rules by his might forever. Daniel 2.25 says the most high is the ruler. Daniel 2.26 says that heaven, heaven rules. Rachel realized that God rules. God gave her a son. God has taken away my reproach. God rules over all and he is so sovereign, I believe and trust him to give me another son because he rules over everything.

He opens and closes the womb. He's in complete control of all things. If he's not in control of everything, he is not God. He is in control of every situation because he will get his glory. He will not give his glory to another. Having said all that, I must tell you this. If you are an unbeliever, the Bible says in Revelation 19, when Christ returns, he will rule with a rod of iron.

Christ gave a parable in Luke 19, emphasizing the fact that there are people who don't believe on him. And they said, we will not have this man rule over us. If you are here today and have never given your life to Christ, that is your statement. We don't want this one to rule over us. I don't want this Messiah, this Jesus, this king to rule my life. And if that's what you believe today, as those in the time of Christ signified by their hanging them on a tree, I want you to recall the words of Revelation 18.

And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues. For her sins have piled up as high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. If you will not have this king rule over you, God will remember your iniquities. That is, God will be faithful to do exactly what he said. Listen to what he says in Revelation 18. Pay her back, even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds.

In the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her to the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously to the same degree, give her torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen and I am not a widow and will never see mourning. For this reason, in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning, famine, and she will be burned with fire for the Lord God who judges her is strong. It speaks of Babylon during the time of Revelation when God will destroy her because of her iniquities, because of her arrogance and her pride.

Her unwillingness to submit to him as ruler. God says, I will remember her iniquities and I will pay her double portion for her sin.

That's the unbeliever and God will do that if you will not have this king rule over you. The challenge for the believer is that God remembers. God remembers, he releases you from your sin, he restores your soul, he renews your life, and he will one day return again. But if you're an unbeliever, he will remember your sin and he will render to every man according to his deeds and bring about his retribution upon your life for your unwillingness to submit to his rulership in your life. Let's pray.