Let's begin chapter 29 with verse
31 and read down through verse 24 of chapter 30. When the Lord
saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
And Leah conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben.
For she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction.
Now therefore my husband will love me. And she conceived again
and bare a son and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was
hated, he hath therefore given me this son also. She called
his name Simeon. She conceived again and bare
a son and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto
me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore was his
name called Levi. She conceived again and bare
a son. She said, Now will I praise the
Lord. Therefore she called his name
Judah and left And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children,
Rachel envied her sister and said unto Jacob, Give me children
or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled
against Rachel. And he said, Am I in God's stead
who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Rachel said,
Behold, my maid Bilhah go in unto her, and she shall bear
upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. She gave
him Bilhah her handmaid to wife. Jacob went in unto her, and Bilhah
conceived and bared Jacob a son. Rachel said, God hath judged
me, and hath also heard my voice, hath given me a son. Therefore
call she his name Dan. and build how Rachel's maid conceived
again, and bear Jacob a second son. Rachel said, With great
wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed. And she called his name Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her
maid and gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bear
Jacob a son. And Leah said, A troop cometh. She called his name Gad. And
Shilpa, Leah's mage, bared Jacob a second son. And Leah said,
Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. And she
called his name Asher. Reuben went in the days of wheat
harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them unto
his mother, Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, Give
me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. She said unto her,
Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? Wouldst
thou take away my son's mandrakes also? Rachel said, Therefore
Jacob shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrake. Jacob
came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to
meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me, for surely I
have hired thee with my son's mandrake. He lay with her that
night, and God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived in Bear
Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, God hath given me
my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, and
she called his name Issachar. Leah conceived again in Bear
Jacob a sixth son. Leah said, God hath endued me
with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with
me, because I have borne him six sons. She called his name
Zebulun. And afterwards she bare a daughter
and called her name Dinah. And then God remembered Rachel. God hearkened to her and opened
her womb and she conceived and bare a son and said, God hath
taken away my reproach. She called his name Joseph and
said, the Lord shall add to me another son. We'll stop there.
Whatever is written, Scripture says, is written for our learning
that we, through patience and comfort of Scriptures, might
have hope. This is another story of a bunch
of sinners, and it tells us again the wonderful gospel story that
where sin abounds. where sin abounds, grace doth
much more abound. That's what this is all about.
This tells us again, it resounds with the truth again, that all
things work together for good to God's people according to
his purpose. Even the sins of men, the wrath
of man shall praise him, the remainder he shall restrain.
The lot is cast into the lap. People do what they want to do,
do what they decide to do, do what they think they need to
do. And the whole disposing is up to the Lord. Aren't you glad?
Aren't you glad? The story of Jacob is the story
of every son of Jacob. He's a sinner through and through.
And his family is. Everybody in his family. You
might call this what we would call today a dysfunctional family,
wouldn't you? Because every one of them were
a bunch of sinners. They were shapen in iniquity. In sin did
my mother conceive me. All of these children were born
in sin. They were sons of Jacob, and
they came out of the womb just like Jacob. Didn't they? Every one of them. His wives,
his children, every one of them. But God loved Jacob. God chose Jacob. God called Jacob. God blessed Jacob. God assured
Jacob, promised Jacob. It's all going to be good. It
sure looks bad, doesn't it? All of this. All these sorry
sons of Jacob. We're going to have to wait,
aren't we? We're going to have to get to
the end of the story, aren't we? To see what happens to these
sorry sons of Jacob. And the last, Joseph. God's going
to make him first. Now, to be sure, this is a story
of divine retribution. That is, God chastens his people
for their sin. The father is not going to let
his children get by with anything. That's because he's faithful.
Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. Jacob was a deceiver, so God
let him be deceived. God let his father-in-law deceive
him. God let Leah deceive him. Now, they did what their evil
hearts wanted to do, but God, the whole disposing, was of the
Lord. He's teaching Jacob a lesson. Don't you know that when these
things happened, it smote his conscience and he began to think
I'm getting what I deserve, don't you? God's not punishing it. God doesn't punish in the sense
of, you're going to pay for your sins. No, no, no, no, no. Chase
them. They're lessons learned. They're
hard lessons, to be sure, but they're lessons we learn. We
don't learn lessons unless they're pretty hard ones, do we? Jacob
married two women. That's not of the Lord. The Lord never did sanction polygamy. And Arthur Pink brings out very
clearly how David, Jacob, so many, Abraham, whoever married
more than one woman got in trouble, brought great troubles upon themselves.
Our Lord said in the garden, a man and a woman These two become
one. And that's it. That's it. But
Jacob, as we noted, was so overcome with desire. I guess 70 years
old, he wanted to be married, wanted a wife. And he didn't
enter marriage with his eyes open, did he? He wouldn't have. That wouldn't have happened with
Leah if he had his eyes open, would it? Brother Chapman brought
that out very clearly in a message he brought on this, that if we
walk in the light, we won't stumble. We won't stumble. But it was
all done in darkness, and Leah came in in darkness, and he didn't
have his eyes open. He didn't approach marriage with
his eyes wide open. And what a lesson this is for
the unmarried here, to approach this thing with all seriousness
and sobriety, with your eyes wide open. in knowing what you're
entered into. Take a good look at the one you
think you're attracted to. If it's merely physical or outward,
that's no reason to get married. Take a good look. Let me go on. This is the story
of a sinful family full of trouble because of their sins. You could
really blame it all on Jacob. Jacob. He's supposed to be seeking
the Lord. Did you hear him anywhere that
I was reading that Jacob's seeking the Lord, like Jacob's calling
on the Lord? He's supposed to be walking in
his truth. He's supposed to be leading his family. I don't see
him leading his family at all. He's following. Rachel or Leah
says, here, I can't help you here, have my maiden. And he
does that. What's wrong with this man? Well, he's a sinner. That's what's wrong with him.
He's teaching us that every man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Jacob was a deceiver, and Jacob
was deceived. Jacob was deceived by many. Listen to this. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves. What sin? All sin. And we're capable of any and
every sin. If we say we don't, we deceive ourselves. That's
the worst type of deception, isn't it? To deceive yourself,
to fool yourself. We say we have not sinned. What
sin? Any and every sin. Everybody. We make God a liar. His Word
is not in Him. Jacob. Blame it on Jacob. Blame
it on Jacob. Yet, the whole disposing. It's up
and over. Stay with me now. I told you,
this is the gospel. The gospel has to end with good
news, doesn't it? But it's not good news if it's
not bad news. It's only good news to sinners. There's only
hope for the hopeless. This is only for dysfunctional
families, this gospel. The truth is for those that realize
they've deceived themselves. and are under the power of the
great deceiver. Jacob and his wives. He ends up with four women
and nothing but trouble. Four wives. Strife and division. His wives, all of them, were
sinners and the children were sinners. Look back at chapter
29, verse 31. Look at it. When the Lord saw
that Leah was hated. There's hatred. Chapter 30, verse
1. Rachel saw she bare Jacob no
children, she envied her sister." There's hatred, there's envy.
Verse 2, Jacob is angry against Rachel. Hatred, envy, anger. Verse 8, Rachel, with great wrestlings,
I've wrestled with my sister, strivings. Verse 15, She said,
are you going to take away my husband too? Accusations, envy,
jealousy, wrath, division. These are the works of the flesh,
and this is what we're full of. Listen to this. I was going to
have you turn, but for the sake of time, I'll just read it for
you. Now, the works of the flesh are manifest. Where are they
manifest? Make clear. In us. In us, all the sons of Jacob.
The flesh lusteth against spirit. Our flesh lusts, fights against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Contrary one to the
other, you cannot do the things that you would. Isn't that what
Paul said? The things that I would, I do
not. How to perform, I don't know. But if you be led of the
spirit, you're not under the law, the works of the flesh are
thee, the doctrine. That's what this story is all
about. Fornication, wrath, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, immolation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresy,
murder, drunkenness, reverence, and so on and so forth. You remember
the scripture I quoted to you that our Lord, about Satan, said,
Get behind me, Satan, thou saviour, not the things that be of God.
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
sobriety, cleanliness, purity. Let the things that be of man,
and this is what he uses on us. This is what we're full of. But,
he said, they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with
affections and love. And so he goes on to tell us
Let us not be desirous of vain glory and provoking one another.
Listen to this. Ephesians 4. I was going to have
you turn here, but time doesn't allow it. But he says things
like this in Ephesians 4. You haven't learned Christ. If you haven't learned anything,
you've been taught to put off concerning the old man, the corrupt
nature according to the deceitful love. Be renewed in the spirit
of your mind. Put on the new man which is created
in righteousness and holiness. Put away lying. Speak truth with
his neighbor. Be ye angry and sin not. That
is, don't go to bed angry. Reconcile. Let not the sun go
down on your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let no corrupt communication,
evil speaking, come out of your mouth. Grieve not the Holy Spirit.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, put it
away with all malice. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another. Why? Even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. Be followers of God as dear children. Jacob wasn't acting like a follower
of God, was he? Neither were these women, but
God. It's going to end up good. going
to end up good. But they brought a lot of trouble
on themselves. There was nothing but strife
and division and anger and hatred and wrath and sin and lust for
the flesh and lust for the eyes, pride of life and all this going
on. How's any good going to come
out of this? Because God's in it. God's in it. In all this sin,
we see the marvelous, amazing, sovereign mercy and grace of
our Lord, His purpose being fulfilled. Jacob and these sinful women
conceive a bunch of sinful children. These are the sons of Jacob.
But, bless God, they're the chosen ones. They're the children of
Israel. Every one of them. Dan and Levi and Reuben and Simeon. And later on, Jacob was blessing
his sons, and he didn't have much good to say about any of
it. They were all sinners, but they were chosen. They were all
born in sin, but they were redeemed by blood in God's sovereign purpose. Listen to this. If Leah hadn't
deceived Jacob into marrying her, Levi wouldn't have been
born. Her son was Levi. There'd be no priesthood. She had Judah. Oh my, that's
the tribe of Christ. If Rachel hadn't been barren
and bitter and given Bilhah to Jacob, her handmaiden Bilhah,
Dan hadn't been born. If two sinful people hadn't got
together, Dan hadn't been born. Son of a sinful woman. And on
and on the story goes, right up until now. The story of how
God reigns and rules, works all things according to His purpose,
His will, doeth all things, how God hath made all things for
Himself, even the wicked, for the day of evil. And there's
no greater proof of this, how that God reigns and rules even
over evil and somehow uses it to accomplish His divine purpose
for His glory and the good of His people. And there's no greater
proof of that than Calvary. You with wicked hands, Peter
preached. All of you did what your wicked
hearts wanted to do and decided to do and willed to do. You with
wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory. Now, was the
Lord in that? Yes, they did what God determined
before to be done. And their great wickedness, through
that God brought about his greatest goodness. Christ and Him crucified. Yes, the lot is cast into the
lap, and our choices most of the time are bad ones. But God. And there's so much more. Man,
I rushed through that, and now I've got time. That's all right. There's historical
significance here too, wonderful and amazing historical significance
in the story of Israel, the history of Israel, their times, the times
of the Jews, which who represent us, God's people, all these names. Now, we give names to our children
and we don't think much about it. We just like the name, you
know, we give them names because we like it. Maybe we might name
after someone we love, Joseph. But most of the time, we just
like the name that we give them. Not these women. These women
gave these names because they meant something. Each child that
was born, a period in their life, and it meant something to them,
and they gave this child the name. That's amazing, God's sovereign
providence. And these women were coming up
with a name, and they went through these things. So I'll just name
him Reuben, because the Lord has looked upon my affliction.
And the next one, I'll name him Simeon, because the Lord has
heard me. And on and on it goes. This is amazing. This is amazing. Every name clearly gives us a
period in the time of the Jews throughout the history of the
Jews. And us. The first child born was named
Reuben, which means the Lord hath looked upon mine affliction.
When the Lord came to the Jews, they were in Egypt, and he said,
he looked down upon their affliction. When he first came to them, he
looked upon their affliction. He saw them. There the next child,
named Simeon, the Lord hath heard. Exodus, he says, I have heard
their affliction by reason of their testimony, and I have come
down to bring them out, to bring them up. The next child born
was Levi, joined, the Lord hath joined me. Israel was joined
to the Lord at the Passover. where the lamb was killed. He
said, I've known you. Here, I've revealed to you, myself,
your salvation. He was joined to the Lord. The
next child born was Judah. Praise. When the Lord brought
them out of Egypt, it says they were brought out with a high
hand and the praises of God in their mouth. And this is us. The Lord looks upon us. hears
us when we call. The Lord joins Himself to us.
And we praise the Lord. The next child born was Dan,
judged. The children of Israel went through
the wilderness, didn't they? And they sinned. They murmured.
They complained. They sinned against the Lord.
So what did the Lord do? He judged them. He judged them. The next child born was Nephila,
wrestling. Wrestling. Israel wrestled with
every single... the Amalekites, and all these
people they ran into were their relatives. They were their relatives,
their long-lost relatives, the Amalekites and so forth, and
they wrestled with them. Our Lord said, walking through
this world, sojourning through this world, you're going to wrestle,
you're going to be hated, there's going to be a battle, a struggle,
walking through this world. The next child born was Gad,
a true comic. A troop. Israel looked, and seven
nations were coming against them. Oh, no. Everybody is against
us, Israel thought. It's true. But if God be born. A troop coming. And over the
whole world, David said, be against me. I will not fear. Thou art
with me. The next child born was Asher.
It means happy, blessed. When the Lord delivered them
from their enemies, they were happy. They were so happy. So are we, blessed to the Lord.
The next child born was named Issachar, my higher reward. Did they deserve a reward, Israel? My, my. But the Lord gave them
the promised land. My, my. Not due to anything they
did, but due to his promise, his covenant, his oath, his blood. Zebulon was the next one. A good
dowry. A good dowry. A goodly inheritance. Give me a goodly inheritance.
A land that floweth with milk and honey. Joseph. Joseph. Name added. Another son. Rachel said, The Lord hath added
or given me another son. Well, she actually named him
Joseph, added. And she anticipated having another
one. Isn't that amazing? She hadn't had one yet. She had
one by the servant. But this was Rachel's first son.
But she made him add him. Well, this was a promise of the
Gentiles. Our Lord said, Jacob is my son. Ephraim is my son. But other
sheep I have that are not of this foal. Him I must bring.
The Lord shall add another one. And when they went out, the last
son Rachel died giving birth to her last son, the last son
of Jacob. His name was Benjamin. Sorrow,
son of sorrow. Well, does the story end in sorrow?
The story of the sons of Jacob, sorry, sinful sons that they
be. Jacob's story, does it end bad?
Uh-uh. We're going to get to it. where
they're all brought to where Joseph, their brother, is on
the throne. And he said in conclusion of
their whole story, their life story, he said about them all,
you meant it for evil. Everything you did was wrong,
but the judge of the earth does right. You meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. And he sent me, Joseph said,
who's a picture of pride. He sent me this day to preserve
your life. All this evil that you brought
upon yourself, God took care of it. Do you have a dysfunctional family?
Do you have sinful children, wives? Do you? Are you a sinner? I've got good
news for you. Cheer up. It's all good, according
to his goodness. And he's going to make someday
all his goodness cast before him. Someday. Show us. Look.
Look what I did. Look what you did. Look how I did this. This was of the Lord. This thing
was of me. Or else this wouldn't have happened.
This wouldn't have happened.