The Messiness of Mankind & The Goodness of God.

Intro: Have you ever found yourself in a scenario where you felt trapped by someone else’s deceit or the consequences of it? We increasingly see where truth has become optional for some people. If you have ever been a scenario where you are bound by the truth but the people in your conflict are not. It feels a bit like playing game where the rules change always to the advantage of the other person.

It can be intimidating. It can be frustrating and you feel trapped by a situation that seems out of your control.

We start wondering, how can God work through even this?

In today’s text we are going to see a scenario of deceit. We are going to see how Jacob the deceiver was deceived.

Now an easy way to approach a text like this would for me to preach a sermon on the dangers of deception. What goes around comes around. No doubt, living in deception is dangerous. It warps both the deceiver and the deceived’s world view. Those who deceive become self-deceived and struggle to recognize truth themselves, But the text really isn’t about deceit although we will certainly see the effects of it.

So then what is this passage about?

As I have made mention a few times before. Understanding why the book of Genesis was written will help us flush out the big ideas from the text. So what do we know so far?

We know that Genesis was written to correct the narrative of a people leaving a polytheistic culture and make them aware of there true history. Now, with that in mind. We must ask this question of the text.

What message was the author trying to communicate to the original audience, The newly formed nation of Israel? What did Moses want Israel to know about Yahweh, God and there history?

So with this question mind, we approach this passage today.

Big Idea: Isreal would go through times of disobedience resulting in major consequences yet God would use even these consequences for his purpose.

We are going to see God’s power on display to continue his promises and blessing even in the midst of Human deception and the mess it creates.

I. Jacob was trapped by deception but God had a plan.

About a month had passed between the time Jacob fled from Esau until the time he found himself near the public well in the land of his mother. There is no indication that Jacob was at this particular well with the intent to find a wife. Yet here came Rachael. Jacob saw Rachael and it seems it was love at first sight. Jacob told his uncle Laban all that had happened. So Laban hears how Jacob cheats Esau out of both his blessing and birthright and makes this statement in verse 14

Genesis 29:14 (CSB)

14 Laban said to him, “Yes, you are my own flesh and blood.” ...

Now in many cultures shrewdness is consider an admirable attribute. It seems like that is going on here. After hearing all that Jacob did it was like Laban was saying ahh…your a chip off the old block. your definitely my relative. We call this type of statement foreshadowing. For in just a moment we will see the shrewdness of Laban in how he deals with Jacob.

So as we mentioned Jacob fell head over heals for Rachael. But Jacob has a problem. He is a penniless fugitive. He has not money for a dowry or even a place to live. How could he marry Rachael? So he offers up this plan. I will work for you, Laban for seven years. Laban no doubt being a shrewd business man. Thought hey this sounds like a good deal. I get to keep my daughter employed as a shepherd and I get the free labor of Jacob for seven years. Its a win - win.

Now from Jacobs’s point of view, it was great.

Genesis 29:20 CSB

20 So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

I mean this was no passing infatuation. He worked for seven years to be able to marry his bride. While one day stands to inherit from Isaac right now he is a penniless nobody yet he will get to marry his dream girl.

Now it seems like things are going so well for Laban that he kind of wanted to keep things as they are. In verse Gen 29:21

Genesis 29:21 CSB

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Since my time is complete, give me my wife, so I can sleep with her.” This verse

Well Laban, not wanting to give up his free labor force. Comes up with a plan.

Genesis 29:22–27 CSB

22 So Laban invited all the men of the place and sponsored a feast. 23 That evening, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her. 24 And Laban gave his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave. 25 When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What have you done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?” 26 Laban answered, “It is not the custom in our country to give the younger daughter in marriage before the firstborn. 27 Complete this week of wedding celebration, and we will also give you this younger one in return for working yet another seven years for me.”

I mean this Laban guy is a real piece of work. I mean he uses his daughters as a means of financial gain. He forces poor Leah into a loveless marriage and then uses Rachael as bait to make certain Jacob stays on a cheap labor. While Jacob was willing to deceive his father at the advice of his mother. This type of behavior seems to be a new low. You think your family is messy read the bible.

So Jacob owns nothing. He’s married to a wife he doesn’t want. Now to get the woman he loves he must work another seven years. How can Jacob be the heir of the blessing. How can God overcome the deception of the wicked who seem to mess everything up. How can God’s plan still be accomplished through the brokenness of human actions? We will see that God still has a plan.

Well as time went on we see the heartache caused on her because of her fathers deception.

Genesis 29:30 CSB

30 Jacob slept with Rachel also, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

II. Leah felt trapped and neglected by Jacob yet God had a Plan.

Genesis 29:31–35 CSB

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was neglected, he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive. 32 Leah conceived, gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has seen my affliction; surely my husband will love me now.” 33 She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “The Lord heard that I am neglected and has given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. 34 She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “At last, my husband will become attached to me because I have borne three sons for him.” Therefore he was named Levi. 35 And she conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.

Leah was trapped in a marriage she didn’t ask for. Leah falsely believed that with each son she would eventually earn the favor of Jacob. Each time she had a son, she thought surely not he will love me as much as Rachel. So much so the names even reflect that wish. However, Jacob’s feelings never changed.

So then the very names probably became a reminder that Jacob didn’t love her, but each son was a reminder that God did.

Sometimes we falsely think that God doesn’t love us or that God doesn’t notice us if he doesn’t remove the trial or change or circumstances

but here we see that Leah circumstances did not change yet God’s love and concern for her was evident. He did not remove the mess she was in. A mess God did not create. A mess that she didn’t choose for herself, but he made it clear that he loved her even in the mess. He showed her that He was with her in it all.

How many of us have been at times guilty of judging God’s goodness and love by our circumstances and not by his actions toward us in the circumstances.

God if you loved me you would change (fill in the blank). When we set these type of parameters around the love of God we will miss seeing him loving us through the mess. You see God doesn’t always change our circumstances but he always loves you through them, but sometimes we can become so focused on the thing we want to God to do that we lose sight of God’s love in the circumstance. We forget to look for God’s sustaining love.

While Jacob did not honor and love his wife God did.

If you look at the names of her sons a little closer you will notice something.

God made Leah the mother of Kings and Priest of Isreal. Judah was the royal line from which David would come and eventually Christ himself. Levi is the priestly line from which Moses and Aaron would come from. While by human standards Leah was not honored or cherished ,God honored her and cherished her by make her in the image of Eve. The mother of the messianic and priestly lines.

If we were to keep reading through the end of chapter 32 you would see that the messiness of it all only increases. We see jealousy, deceit, idolatry, theft, envy and distrust. throughout this account.

Leah and Racheal continue this bitter feud even giving there handmaids to Jacob as wives in order to keep the tally mark of children on their side going up.

Then as God continues to bless Jacob, Laban becomes envious of Jacob’s increasing wealth and prosperity so much so that Jacob feels the need to leave and Laban pursued him. The relationship that began as a result of deceit between Jacob and Laban ended with them having to make a treaty. Each promising to not cross a property boundary.

Genesis 31:36–55 CSB

36 Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime?” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me? 37 You’ve searched all my possessions! Have you found anything of yours? Put it here before my relatives and yours, and let them decide between the two of us. 38 I’ve been with you these twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams from your flock. 39 I did not bring you any of the flock torn by wild beasts; I myself bore the loss. You demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or by night. 40 There I was—the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 For twenty years in your household I served you—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times! 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work, and he issued his verdict last night.” 43 Then Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters; the children, my children; and the flocks, my flocks! Everything you see is mine! But what can I do today for these daughters of mine or for the children they have borne? 44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between the two of us.” 45 So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a marker. 46 Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a mound, then ate there by the mound. 47 Laban named the mound Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed. 48 Then Laban said, “This mound is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore the place was called Galeed 49 and also Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight. 50 If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, though no one is with us, understand that God will be a witness between you and me.” 51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Look at this mound and the marker I have set up between you and me. 52 This mound is a witness and the marker is a witness that I will not pass beyond this mound to you, and you will not pass beyond this mound and this marker to do me harm. 53 The God of Abraham, and the gods of Nahor—the gods of their father—will judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. So they ate a meal and spent the night on the mountain. 55 Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.

So then as I mentioned before the low hanging fruit would be for me to preach a sermon like “3 reasons why you should always be honest.” And while there would be truth to it. We must come back full circle and ask the question What aspect of God was the author trying to relay to the nation of Isreal?

I believe the big idea is this.

III. Big Idea: Even in the messiness of mans actions, God has a plan.

Why does the nation of Isreal need to know this? Why do we need to know this? Because the nation of Israel would go on to do many dumb things. Because we do dumb things. Then as we feel the consequences of our sin, we are tempted to believe that God has abandoned us or that we have ruined God’s plan. In this we can feel despair and hopelessness. It isn’t as if Man’s sins and decisions do not have real life consequences but God’s plan cannot be thwarted by any of it.

Moses is showing the people that God’s plan cannot be thwarted by the stupid decisions of mankind. In this their is hope. There is hope for us dumb people....That even in the midst of consequence God is there and will accomplish all that he has set out to do.