Sermon Tone Analysis

!!!!!! Genesis 29-30

 

Jacob has been guilty of a very common mistake that we often make and that is of trying to help God out.

Believing in the purposes of God, knowing that God is desiring to accomplish certain things, we somehow develop a complex that God can not do His work unless we help Him out.

Surely the work of God will fail unless we step in and take charge.

It was God's will that Jacob receive the blessing of Isaac.

Before he was born, Rebekah was praying about her problem pregnancy and God told her that there were two nations within her womb that were diverse from each other and that the elder would serve the younger.

Isaac was seeking to reverse that and give the blessing to Esau.

Rebekah, knowing that Isaac was planning to bless Esau, had Jacob disguise himself and take in goat meat prepared to taste like the venison that Isaac loved.

So, Jacob disguised as Esau deceived his father and claimed to be Esau.

Isaac ate of the meat and blessed Jacob with the blessing he had prepared to bless Esau.

When Esau came in with the venison afterward, Isaac, trembling, knew that his plan to cross the plan of God had been thwarted.

Although Esau wept, it was for the blessing and not out of repentance.

He comforted himself with thinking Isaac would die soon and then he would kill Jacob.

Evidently he had voiced his intentions to some of the servants who told Rebekah and she called Jacob and told him to go to her brothers house in Haran until she notified him to come back home, because, Esau was planning to kill him.

Jacob fled from that place, near Beer-sheba, five hundred miles to the area of Babylon.

In Chapter 29, we find Jacob at the conclusion of his journey and arriving in Haran.

"Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east.

And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks; and a great stone was upon the well's mouth.

And thither were all the flocks gathered; and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place.

And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye?

And they said, of Haran are we.

And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor?

And they said, We know him.

And he said unto them, Is he well?

And they said, He is well; and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep.

And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together; water ye the sheep, and go and feed them."

(Gen.29:1-7).

Evidently, Jacob wanted to get rid of these little guys, with their sheep, so that when Rachel arrived he would be alone with her.

It is interesting that God led Jacob to the well, even as Abraham's servant earlier had been led by the LORD and had come to the place where Rebekah came out to get water.

It was a different type of well and not the usual type where you are dipping a bucket in for the water.

It was closed by a rock and when the rock was rolled back the water would flow out and water the sheep.

The stone was probably too heavy for these small boys to roll so they would wait until a group would arrive and then the stronger ones would roll the stone back.

They were gathering early, probably to get in line for the water.

Rachel was a shepherdess which wasn't unusual for girls in that culture.

Even today in Israel you will see small girls tending the sheep.

"And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then we water the sheep.

And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she kept them.

And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother."

(Gen.29:8-10).

Jacob was probably showing off a bit for Rachel as it usually took several men to roll the stone from the mouth of the well.

"And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.

And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son; and she ran and told her father."

(Gen.29:11-12).

It may not have happened in that order, but Rachel was taken aback by the whole scene.

No doubt, she had heard the story of her Aunt Rebekah, who was taken, by the servant of Abraham, to be the wife of Abraham's son.

How the story had involved the well and how Rebekah had been prosperous as the wife of Isaac.

There were already some romantic connotations in regards to the family of Nahor and the family of Abraham.

Now here is Jacob kissing his cousin, overcome with emotion and thanksgiving to God.

"And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him and brought him to his house.

And he told Laban all these things."

(Gen.

29:13).

This was a typical oriental greeting.

"And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh, And he abode with him the space of a month.

And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought?

tell me, what shall thy wages be?" (Gen.29:14-15).

Jacob, during the month he was there, had pitched in and helped with the chores.

He was a very industrious person.

So, Laban offered to pay him wages and asked him what he wanted.

"And Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured."

(Gen.29:16-17).Tender eyed or delicate means weak-eyed.

Some say it meant that they were blue and that blue eyes were a sign of weakness in that culture.

Of course, we don't know this to be true as the scripture doesn't say.

Rachel, the youngest daughter, was beautiful of form and appearance.

"And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.

And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man; abide with me." (Gen.29:18-19).

And so, the deal was made between Laban and Jacob.

"And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." (Gen.29:20).

Not to take away from the romance of this passage, but Jacob, at this time, was over seventy years old.

He lived to be a hundred and sixty-five; so, he is really still a kid.

Considering the virility and longevity of those days, he was not too old to be romantic.

Jacob had such a great love for Rachel that seven years seemed but a few days to him.

"And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her.

And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.

And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her." (Gen.29:21-23).

"And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid.

And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah; and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel?

wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?" (Gen.29:24-25).

It is interesting that Jacob asked Laban why he had deceived him; when "he" was there running from his brother Esau, because he had deceived Isaac, his father.

Now Jacob is being deceived by his father-in-law.

It says in Galatians 6:7, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Adoni-bezek, when he was captured and they cut off his thumbs and his great toes, said, "Three score and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table; as I have done, so God hath requited me..." (Judges 1:7).

This is a law that God has established within nature.

Whatever a man sows, that he also reaps.

It is a necessary law in order to keep order in nature.

Life would be almost impossible, chaotic at the least, if this were not a law of nature.

If you did not reap what you sowed, the whole agriculture industry would be chaotic.

The law of sowing and reaping is not just valid in the physical universe, but the bible declares it is also valid in the spiritual realm.

Watch what you sow into your mind, because you become what you have planted in your mind!

Jacob has deceived and so he is being deceived by Laban.

"And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.

Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years."

(Gen.29:26-27).

What a rip-off!

Laban is a crook.

Later on, in the story, Jacob accuses Laban of changing his wages ten different times in the years he worked for him.

Laban is a despicable kind of a person, but Jacob always got the best of him on every turn.

It was the custom of the time when you got married to spend the first week with your wife.

"And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week; and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also."

(Gen.29:28).