Genesis 29:1-35 - God uses the mess.

Most of the time, my house looks like it was raided by vikings.

I’m a macro cleaner. I like things to look nice—Just don’t open that closet.

Crisis cleaning on Wednesdays.

To my community group… It’s all fake.

The other night I was sitting there surveying my house and the profound mess that it was.

No room in the house was clean.

There’s a little boy who plays in that room.

There’s clothes that have been washed

There’s dishes because we’ve had people over for dinner.

The house is a mess, but there’s so many good things happening here.

The mess means so many wonderful things.

My son will never wonder if his parents loved him.

People who come into our home will hopefully never feel unwelcomed.

The mess isn’t for nothing.

Even when there’s a major mess or life seems absolutely chaotic, uncertain—The Lord is still good.

Amen?

Big Idea: God uses the mess

Context

Isaac sent Jacob to back to his kindred to retrieve a wife from Laban.

He makes it to the country and he saw a well there.

Stand to read

Genesis 29:10–20 ESV

10 Now 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. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. 13 As 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, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month. 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

Leader: This is God’s Word

Everyone: Thanks be to God

Everything seems to be going according to plan.

Isaac sends Jacob, he finds the right well and the right family.

God is truly going with Jacob just as He promised.

But there are some clear issues that are unresolved here.

Abraham wanted to secure a wife for Isaac.

He sent a servant back to his home country entirely dependent on the Lord.

The servant goes, prays to the Lord, and asks for the Lord to reveal Rebekah.

In His providence, God leads the servant to Isaac’s wife.

Where is the Lord in Jacob’s marriage narrative?

He never prays for guidance. He never thanks God for leading him there. His faith is never mentioned.

Is he trying to fulfill God’s promise on his own power?

Jacob is known to be a trickster.

In this case, he is less of a deceiver and more of a heartthrob.

We learn of two sisters

Leah—who has “weak eyes” (v. 17)

Socially, her blurred vision was seen as a major defect.

Hilary’s sight?

I got the best of both worlds. Can’t see and gorgeous.

He is captivated by Rachel’s beauty to the point that his response to her is to kiss her and give 7 years of his life to make her his wife!

At the end of 7 years, he tells Laban, “Come on, man. Give me my wife.”

Laban throws a reception, where Jacob gets plastered.

Instead of sending Rachel in, he sends his oldest daughter, Leah in.

Genesis 29:25–30 ESV

25 And 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?” 26 Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” 28 Jacob 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.) 30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.

What a dirty, rotten trick!

Don’t you hate when that happens?

Jacob gets plastered, the room was dark, and she was wearing a veil!

Laban saw Jacob’s interest in Rachel, but he also saw that he didn’t have a penny to his name.

Laban used that to his advantage and simply didn’t tell Jacob that it wasn’t apart of their culture to marry off the younger daughter before the older.

Jacob and Laban are cut from the same cloth. Deceivers/traitors.

Laban is giving Jacob a taste of his own medicine and revealing his sin to him!

So Jacob ends up working for Laban 14 years for the wife he wants.

God is fulfilling His promise to Jacob to provide him descendents, but its coming through this broken story.

While Jacob’s sin is exposed and judged, and while Laban is God’s instrument for punishment, the end result is two wives who will bear Jacob the twelve tribes of Israel.

God continues to fulfill His promise to multiply Abraham’s offspring.

Moses writes this to the people of Israel, but he’s not trying to reveal what Jacob learned.

He’s communicating what the people of Israel, and we the church needs to learn.

We need to know and trust that our God is sovereign and will fulfill His promises even through human deceit.

Church,

The Lord works through broken people.

The Lord is able to take deep and dark circumstances and turn them on their head and use them for His glory.

I was in Govan, Scotland

We went to this church building that had sense been turned into a museum for relics that were found on the grounds.

Photo of Govan Church

It was breathtaking.

The windows were made of stained glass and told prominent stories throughout Scripture.

I spent the majority of my time looking at these windows.

Photo of Moses/Aaron windows

These windows are telling an amazing story.

But if you look close enough, it’s simply made up of broken shards of glass.

If you just look at one small shard, it tells you nothing but a broken piece of glass that we’d pick up and throw away.

But an artist took a broken piece of glass and uses it to tell a story every time sunlight shines through.

God had made His people a promise, that He was going to restore broken humanity back to Himself.

He uses broken people, just like you and me, to accomplish His plan to restore all things to Himself.

He used Laban to trick the trickster, to use Leah to fulfill His promise.

Transition

The Lord was going to show compassion to Leah, who was less than in her husbands eyes, to make her the mother of many.

Genesis 29:31–32 ESV

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”

Leah is one of the heaviest and most sympathetic stories in the Bible.

Her heart breaks because she just wants to be loved by her husband.

“I just want to be loved…”

Even though she was barren, Jacob loved Rachel.

Jacob neglected and rejected Leah.

Her husband didn’t love her.

Some of you have struggled with this type of weight in relationships.

The Lord shows compassion toward Leah and opens her womb.

She’s hoping that if she gives Jacob children, he might love her.

She simply wants his approval, but she doesn’t get it.

“If I could just be enough, maybe he’ll love me.”

You hear the desperation in her voice.

Genesis 29:33–34 ESV

33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. 34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.

These men would grow up to be priests and kings.

God blesses her with many children.

Although she was despised by her husband, she becomes a spiritual mother to believers.

God blesses her by making her a new kind of Eve.

But there’s a turning point in Leah’s heart through so much of the brokenness she sees.

Genesis 29:35 ESV

35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

“This time…I will praise the Lord.”

She had tried and tried to gain the love of her husband, then she turned her attention to the Lord.

What He is showing Leah is that He can reach down into some of the biggest messes and wrench out healing and goodness.

Church,

We can praise the Lord through broken hearts.

Through the rejection of Jacob, the Lord draws Leah to Himself.

He reveals Himself to be the true treasure who has loved her.

Jacob might not have loved Leah, but the Lord has.

God used her broken heart to draw her to see God as worthy of praise.

Though her husband rejects her, God uses Jacob’s brokenness to show Leah: “I see you, I know, and I love you.

Perhaps you’ve come into this place today and you can sympathize.

You share the guilt of sin like Laban and Jacob

Though your heart may be broken like Leah’s, you can still praise the Lord because of who He is.

Gospel presentation

God sent His Son, Jesus, to be with us.

Although we are as guilty in sin as Jacob and Laban, Jesus came to die for our sins on the cross so that we can be set free from sin forever.

The death of Jesus on the cross provided a way for us to be brought back into God’s presence through faith.

God raised Him to life to show His victory over sin and the grave.

Although you had nothing going for you, the Lord sent His Son to die and demonstrate His love for you.

Despite what is going on in your life, the Lord has given us this amazing news.

We can be freed from sin and raised to a new life in Christ.

This reality gives us hope in the mess.

God will not give you satisfaction and happiness apart from Himself. It doesn’t exist.

In 1873, two years after the Great Chicago Fire, Horacio Spafford put his put his wife and his four daughters on a ship to sail for England, while he remained behind to settle up some business ventures.

The ship runs into another ship and begins to sink quickly.

His four daughters died.

His wife barely escapes.

He receives a telegram from his wife: “Saved. Alone.”

He gets on a ship to join his wife in England

As he sails over the location in the ocean where their ship went down, he wrote: “When peace like a river attendeth my way, or sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, you have taught me to say, ‘It is well; it is well with my soul.”

How can this be well?!

“My sin, O the bliss, of this glorious thought! My sin not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more! Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul!”

Here in a moment, we’re going to sing.

I want to give you the opportunity to lay your mess at the feet of Jesus.

Take the Next Step

Ask the Lord to show you how He will use the mess you’re in.

Receive God’s love for you.

Share God’s love through your mess.

Invitation to repent, receive, and respond.