Mandrakes, Marriages, Matings

Genesis 30 ESV

1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher. 14 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.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!” 25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Good morning Northvale family, I hope that all of you had a wonderful 4th of July: enjoyed some family time, maybe some vacation time, maybe some fireworks and food time. Nothing says the 4th of July quite like eating a hot dog. On the fourth, of course, the big ESPN event is not a basketball game, or a football game, or a soccer game: it’s a hot dog eating contest. This year’s victor was 11 time victor Joey Chestnut who ate 71 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Every fourth Americans eat over 150 million hot dogs: that is 14,000 miles of hot dogs. We could stretch that line of hot dogs from here to Australia one and half times. We like our hot dogs. What’s my point focusing on hot dogs? Well, as I’ve quoted before JD Greear said once: that for many Americans we have a faith that is processed like our hot dogs. Because we all know hot dogs are a bit mysterious, a bit mystery meat. We love hot dogs: but when you look at the packaging: one ingredient you’ll find is “mechanically separated turkey”. The USDA defines mechanically separated turkey as a “paste or batter like poultry product manufactured by forcing turkey bones with attached edible tissue through a sieve under high pressure: it’s a process called advanced meat recovery. Nothing will keep your stomach growling in church like advanced meat recovery. Other ingredients include corn syrup, beef, salt, sodium phosphate, sodium erythrobate, sodium nitrate, and maltodextrin. Makes my mouth water just thinking of maltodextrin. Greear’s point is that for many believers: their faith is like a hot dog: a little bit of true meat, a little bit of sodium nitrate, a little bit of maltodextrin. it’s a concoction of a little bit passed down, mixed in with a little of culture, a little of comfort, and a little maltodextrin. They’ve got a little of the firsthand Christian meat, but also a whole lot of the sodium nitrates: mixing together for a spiritually toxic diet.

Good morning Northvale family, I hope that all of you had a wonderful 4th of July: enjoyed some family time, maybe some vacation time, maybe some fireworks and food time. Nothing says the 4th of July quite like eating a hot dog. On the fourth, of course, the big ESPN event is not a basketball game, or a football game, or a soccer game: it’s a hot dog eating contest. This year’s victor was 11 time victor Joey Chestnut who ate 71 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Every fourth Americans eat over 150 million hot dogs: that is 14,000 miles of hot dogs. We could stretch that line of hot dogs from here to Australia one and half times. We like our hot dogs. What’s my point focusing on hot dogs? Well, as I’ve quoted before JD Greear said once: that for many Americans we have a faith that is processed like our hot dogs. Because we all know hot dogs are a bit mysterious, a bit mystery meat. We love hot dogs: but when you look at the packaging: one ingredient you’ll find is “mechanically separated turkey”. The USDA defines mechanically separated turkey as a “paste or batter like poultry product manufactured by forcing turkey bones with attached edible tissue through a sieve under high pressure: it’s a process called advanced meat recovery. Nothing will keep your stomach growling in church like advanced meat recovery. Other ingredients include corn syrup, beef, salt, sodium phosphate, sodium erythrobate, sodium nitrate, and maltodextrin. Makes my mouth water just thinking of maltodextrin. Greear’s point is that for many believers: their faith is like a hot dog: a little bit of true meat, a little bit of sodium nitrate, a little bit of maltodextrin. it’s a concoction of a little bit passed down, mixed in with a little of culture, a little of comfort, and a little maltodextrin. They’ve got a little of the firsthand Christian meat, but also a whole lot of the sodium nitrates: mixing together for a spiritually toxic diet.

As we go back to Genesis today we see throughout chapter 30: this example of hot dog faith: for Leah, Laban, Jacob and Rachel: they have a little bit of God, with some sodium nitrates and maltodextrins thrown in. And just like an all hot dog diet would be pretty toxic and lead to a pretty dysfunctional digestion: a hot dog faith is toxic and dysfunctional. This is a very dysfunctional family, dysfunctional marriage, dysfunctional relationships all stemming from a dysfunctional faith and relationship with God. Dysfunctional: meaning: we have a function we are supposed to be doing, but we’re not quite doing it: and so what happens: life is messy, we get hurt, we hurt others, we disciple others in our dysfunction even. ILL: Shannon has a cycle of buying treadmills: we buy one, it sits in our house for a while and then we eventually get rid of it because it takes up too much space and we don’t use it. Our boys liked playing with the treadmill: turning it up real fast and putting a stuffed animal on it and watch it go flying. And then Jake tried to hop on it one time when it was probably a speed of 7 or so: that’s a running speed and ended up getting covered with treadmill burns. We had to tell him: that’s not what the treadmill is for, the treadmill is not a toy......it’s a coat hanger. But, now it’s gone again. The treadmill has a function if you try to use the treadmill for a different function: it’s not good. It’s a bad toy, it’s good for hanging laundry. It’s dysfunctional as a toy, it’s functional as a closet.

We are dysfunctional perhaps: because we are striving for a function we were not created for. Some of you have a dysfunctional work environment, some of you a dysfunctional energy level, some of you dysfunctional relationships, dysfunctional families: why because: you’re trying to get your relationship to function differently than what it was designed to function. Example and one I see too often: parents who try to be best friends with their kids. That’s not how your relationship was designed. Another example: husbands who sit on the sidelines of leading their homes: dysfunctional. Another example: friends who are only friends for what they can get out of each other: dysfunctional. We, because of the fall, because of sin, because of rebellion all struggle with dysfunction, and struggle to find our function, to find our purpose, to find our identity, to find true blessing. What a great example we have here in chapter 30 of Genesis with what is probably one of the weirdest chapters in all of the Bible.

At this point Jacob betrayed his brother and father: got the spiritual blessing of his father, fell in love with the attractiveness of Rachel, but Rachel’s father is Jacob’s match as far as deceiving goes: he pulls the ol switcheroo on Jacob’s night so that Jacob actually marries and sleeps with Leah instead of Rachel: he had already served 7 years for the first wife, he serves another 7 for the second wife, at any point we think Jerry Springer is going to pop out and give his final thoughts, but the story just gets weirder, this family even more dysfunctional. Read with me chapter 30: beginning in verse 1:

30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” You can tell Rachel’s struggle for identity for purpose is completely wrapped up in child bearing so much so: she says if I can’t have children: what good is life: I should just die! 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name  Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali. Rachel gives up on God, what does she do: more marriages: I’m going to give my maidservant to Jacob: whatever children she has: will be mine. And realize this was acceptable practice in the culture, the law of Hammurabi in fact commissioned it, plus grandpa Abe and grandma Sarah did it: so no big deal for Jacob. And so Rachel orchestrates this plan, Jacob goes along with it, yet you continue to see her struggle even in the naming of her children: Dan means judgement: she sees herself as judged by God, Naphtali: struggle: she has struggled and she sees herself as struggling with God.

2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name  Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher. Now, in chapter 29: we saw Leah’s struggle to feel love and to be blessed, we noticed her progression of having one son: thinking now my husband will love me, next son: now my husband will love me: then, finally with Judah: she says: I will praise God. In chapter 29 it seems like Leah has discovered the love of the gospel, but chapter 30: she’s right back where she was: she’s back down on Rachel’s level and the two are creating the first baby boom, competing against each other to have kids. Before we judge Rachel and Leah: maybe we should look at ourselves: sure you’re not trying to be one up on those around you on how many carseats you have to pack into the minivan, but that’s just because for our culture: the number of kids we have is not the current idol of choice. Probably, for many of us: our story looks almost exactly like Rachel and Leah: we just need to substitute what it is we are envying, what it is we are so desperately trying to get and doing no matter what it takes to get it. For some of us it’s not the quantity of kids we have, it’s the quality of our kids lives: we’ll fight for, we’ll do anything to get, anything to protect: commit any necessary sin as we see it to get, for others it might be money or possessions, for others reputation: we’ll tear down others to lift ourselves up, for others it’s sex, for others it’s possessions, for others it’s entertainment or pleasure, for others it’s physical beauty and having the right body. We’re really not that much different from Rachel and Leah: there’s just seems weirder to us because it’s the quantity of kids is not our current idol of choice.

14 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.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.

I told you this is a weird chapter. You can tell Rachel is currently dictating the family situation: she is in charge of where Jacob sleeps: not Jacob. Jacob, here, is not just a slave to Laban, he’s a slave to his wives in many ways. When you are after an idol: that’s what people and God become to you: a slave, an object, a stepping stone for you to get what it is you really want, and what really matters to your life. When you get the gospel though: you begin to understand: the whole purpose of life: can be summed up: love God and love people. But, in this hotdog faith, in this idolatry: people and God just become a step we step on: to get what we really want. That is what Jacob is: for Laban, what he is for Rachel and what he is for Leah. So, Leah does business with her sister: she buys her husband for some mandrakes. Mandrakes are part of the nightshade, potato and tomato family, the Greeks nicknamed mandrakes the love apple. It was believed that mandrakes were an an aphrodisiac, but it was also believed that the mandrake would enhance a woman’s fertility. And so Rachel in her desperation to have children: says well God’s not doing anything: I’ll get some mandrakes. I have some faith in God mixed with some mandrakes: hot dog faith.

19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. Again, Leah found love, found purpose in chapter 29: but has reverted back: now my husband will count me worthy, now my husband will love me: look I have six sons for him, it has to be this one, but then verse 21: she had a daughter and she named her Dinah: this is interesting because normally daughters are not reported in the narrative, but Dinah is, and her name stems from the same root as Dan: which means judgment. Leah is not feeling worthy, she’s not feeling loved, she’s not feeling blessed: she’s feeling judged.

22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!” Finally, Rachel has a son: why? Not because of mandrakes: but because God opened her womb. She says God has taken away my reproach or it could be translated God has taken away my disgrace. What is she saying? She’s saying from the culture, from the community, from the family: I have been humiliated, I have been disgraced, I have been reproached because I have not had a son. How some cultures view poor people, how some cultures view prostitutes, how some cultures viewed lepers, how some cultures viewed handicapped: that’s how this culture viewed women such as Rachel who were barren, but even though she has a son: it’s not enough: that’s why she names him Joseph: I need another one!

Jacob’s Prosperity

25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. So, Jacob is ready to go home, he’s ready to go back to his parents, we know from the next chapter God actually calls him to go back, but here he’s ready to go back by his own will. He has served Laban year after year, eventually is Laban’s slave for about 20 years and now ready to go back home. His parents haven’t met his wife yet, or his other wife, or his other wife, or his other wife. Send me away.

26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Notice, Laban’s hotdog faith: so casual: God has blessed me because of you: I know this because of divination. I know this because of witchcraft, sorcery, I’ve been communicating with the demons and the demons tell me God has blessed me because of you. Laban so casually combines his idolatry with the true God. Apparently, he disciples his family in this because when Jacob does leave Rachel steals some of the family gods out of the home. Which, if your god can be stolen: its time to find a new god I would think.

28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages.

33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” So, Jacob suggests a plan to Laban that Laban likes: let me just have the rare ones. Laban by word agrees, but by action doesn’t because notice what he does:

35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. So, Laban took out the striped, speckled, spotted and then because he doesn’t trust Jacob: put three days journey between the flocks so that way the herds could not mate and could not, should not result in any striped, speckled, or spotted. Well, then this weird chapter gets weirder....

37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.  You say what happened here? I don’t really know. There are few commentators who say: Jacob is setting up some advanced selective breeding techniques here: using the branches as indicators, but I don’t believe that’s at all what Jacob is doing. Jacob, like Leah, like Rachel, like Laban: has a little faith in God mixed with a little maltodextrin, mixed with some superstition. He has some belief that God will provide, but at the same time some belief that he’s gotta take it on himself: he’s got to deceive his dad to get blessed, he’s gotta use some superstitious branches to get blessed and be prosperous, chapter 32: he has to wrestle God down and hold on to him to make him bless him. Throughout this chapter: is this theme: there’s hotdog faith, and though I know our time is almost up: let me highlight four truths that stand out through all of this function.

1. The Failures of Hot Dog Faith. First, the failures of hot dog faith. In all of these examples: their faith, their spirituality is not working: their combining God with culture, with self works, with idols: just doesn’t work. For Leah: she keeps thinking one more baby will do the trick: then she’ll be satisfied: 11 kids later: still ain’t got no satisfaction. Rachel thinks: I’ll give my maid to have kids: then I’ll be satisfied: didn’t work, then she had a son, Joseph, still not satisfied so she even names him: may God give me another. Laban has been greatly blessed because Jacob, God’s instrument of His blessing is with Laban, and who God blesses becomes a blessing to those around him, but that blessing is not enough for Laban, he wants more. And certainly we have seen this in Jacob’s life: he though if I could just get my father’s blessing: I’ll do anything to get it: he gets it: nothing. Oh if I could just get Rachel: I’ll do anything to get Rachel, he gets Rachel: look at himself now. Oh if I could just get rich and get out of here. In chapter 32: he’s still wrestling with God, hanging on saying give me more, bless me, give me more.

Main Theme: Dysfunction of our lives when we marry idolatry with God, trusting in God rather than our works, our superstitions, patience

So, what do we learn about hot dog faith? We learn it never stratifies. It always promises to satisfy, but it never satisfies. You’re never content: you’re always struggling; you’re always spinning; always toiling; always wanting more. That’s why they say the average American claims that they would be content financially if they made around 15,000 dollars more per year. You might say: yea that sounds pretty good: guess what someone who makes 15,000 more than you thinks though? They think I’d be happy if I had 15,000 more, and people who make 15,000 more think: oh if I just had 15,000 more. Approval, acceptance, compliments from people: it never satisfies: it doesn’t last, academic, athletic, career accomplishments: they don’t really satisfy, they don’t last: you always want more. And yet likely many of us in this room are still wrestling, still trusting, still hoping and laying ourselves out for something that will only fail us.

The Failures of Hot Dog Faith

2. The Burdens of Hot Dog Faith: Secondly, we see not only the failure of the hot dog faith: we see the burden of the hot dog faith. With any idolatry and any religion outside of Christ; the responsibility is not on God: it’s on you. And so life: the purpose of life, the pleasure of life, the joy of life, who you are, what you get and so on: it’s an adventure, it’s a search for mandrakes and if you work hard enough and search long enough, struggle enduring enough: then it’ll work out. So you better get to work: because it’s on you. You better find the mandrakes, you better turn to polygamy and give up a maidservant, you better cut some branches and stripe the things, you better talk to the demons: you better deceive who you need to deceive because it’s all on you. You wait on God: nothings going to happen: that’s the teaching of a hot dog philosophy. A hot dog way of thinking puts the burden on you, the responsibility on you, the work on you and you do it even if it means a necessary sin along the way. A hot dog way of thinking is to say what needs to be said even if it is slander, even if it is hateful, even if it is gossip: well it’s said. In other words: God’s not doing anything, God’s not bringing justice, God’s not working so someone needs to say something super offensive to get things moving. That’s a hot dog philosophy. A hot dog way of thinking is saying I know God ordained sex for marriage, but I want pleasure and I want it know: so I’ll sleep with my girlfriend or I’ll watch pornography: God’s not doing anything for my sexual pleasure: so I’ll take it in my own hand. A hot dog way of thinking is saying I want my kids to know Jesus but at the same time: I really want them in athletics, in a good school program, I want them to be able to have all these opportunities, I really want them to be successful so I’ll hyperstructure our lives to get them there to success, because it’s not like God would do anything. Hot dog faith puts all the burden on you.

3. We See the War of Hot Dog Faith. With hot dog faith there is never unity, there is only conflict, there is war. Don’t you see it’s tearing this family apart? Hot dog faith already tore Isaac’s family apart, now Jacob’s, Laban’s. It’s Leah vs. Rachel, it’s Laban vs. Jacob, it’s Rebekkah vs. Isaac, it’s Jacob vs. Esau. When the gods are plural: they’re always at war. And so there’s always conflict, there’s always jealousy and envy, there’s always bickering and back stabbing. A house divided cannot stand. And that’s true for your home: there can only be one on the throne of the home. If you have one career on the throne and one person on the throne and one child on the throne it can’t stand. You see marriages where the children are on the throne and so the home is all about the children and then the children leave what happens? It’s a battle for the throne and the house cannot stand. That’s why I said Wednesday talking about our nation: we will never see unity in our nation until all knees bow at the feet of Jesus Christ. Divisiveness, disunity shouldn’t surprise us, but it should shock us within the church.

And though I’ve only been a pastor for about 7 years now: I have seen a great many of Christians in a great many of conflicts, bickering, even backstabbing with words. tells us where that comes from: only by pride comes contention. All contention, God’s word says, stems from pride: every war, every divorce, every fight, every battle: it all starts from pride. So, sure people who say I believe in God still get divorced, still fight, still conflict because you can have a little bit of God mixed with a little of maltodextrin, a little bit of God on this side of the throne, a little bit of the junk of the world on this side. The gods are at war.

4. The Blessing Despite Hot Dog Faith. But, here is what is I believe the most shocking point, number 4: the blessing despite hot dog faith. What is most shocking to me in this chapter is not the failure of the people, but instead the grace and blessing of God. God does not bless Laban, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel because of their disbelief, he doesn’t bless them because of their sin, because of their failures, because of their superstitions, because of their idols: no he blesses them despite their failures. And so as I said a few weeks ago: the moral of this story is that morals will never get you into God’s story. God is a God of grace. It is amazing that a man who does his worst: Jacob deceiving his family to get his father’s blessing: God would be doing his best to Jacob: meeting him at Bethel to reveal himself and promise his blessing. You and I know: if we could speak into Laban’s, Rachel’s, Jacob’s, Leah’s life: what are they really looking for? We as the philosopher Pascal said: we each of us have a God shaped whole: they’re trying to fill it with a hot dog: a little bit of God, the real meat, and a little bit of junk. Why is it we can tell them that so easily, but yet you’re here today not completely convinced the gospel is all you really need? Why is it that you would look at Leah and say Leah you don’t need another kid, you need the gospel, but you’re not really convinced that’s all you really need? Why is it we look at celebrities who had everything money could buy them and yet commit suicide and say you know I know what they were missing: they were missing the gospel. Yet when it comes to ourselves we just don’t agree. You think I need more money, or I need more support, or I need my spouse to change, or I need a different job, or I need a different schedule, or I need more people to like me, or I need to be better looking, or I need to perform better. No, what you need is just like Leah, Rachel, Laban, Jacob: you need the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t care if you’ve know Christ for 30 years: you still need the power of the gospel.

You need the know the love of God, the grace of God, the Sovereignty of God, you need to know that God before the foundation of the world chose you, loved you: not because you less sinful than others, not because you scored As through high school, not because you drove the right kind of car, not because you went to church on Sundays, no he loved you as His son and daughter. He loved you despite your failures, despite your rebellion against him, despite your selfishness, despite of your lack of love for him, he loved you so much that even though your sin deserved his wrath, deserved his abandonment, deserved his judgment, deserved his separation, deserved Hell: he sent His only Son to take that sin, that wrath, that abandonment, that judgment, that seperation, that Hell: to cry out My God My God why have you forsaken me? He came and lived the life, the law, the righteousness that we could never achieve, and give it, deposit it to our account. Why don’t we get it? The gospel means the Creator God, the One who can speak stars into existence, the One who can raise the dead, the one who can walk on water, the one who can feed thousands with a little boys lunchable, the one who would live for us, die for us, be abandoned for us: the gospel means He loves us unconditionally, He accepts us unconditionally, he find us beautiful, he finds us righteous, he calls us son, daughter. Yes, the gospel does not mean that cute boy at school will find you beautiful, the gospel does not mean for the Leah’s the Jacob’s will ever come around, the gospel does not mean it your culture’s eyes the Rachels will be counted successful, the gospel does not mean that your boss and your step father will be generous to you, but who cares when the Creator loves you so!

Love is here Love is now Love is pouring from his hands, from his brows Love is near, it satisfies Streams of mercy flowing from his side,

The Struggles of Hot Dog Faith

The Blessing Despite Hot Dog Faith

30:1: Rachel saw, Lord saw (29:31)

Give me children (v. 1), blunt request: give me my wife (29:21)

Marriage is not enough in Rachel’s eyes

Contrast to Hannah ()

Vs. 3: like grandpa Abe: sleep w/ my maindservant

laid upon Rachel’s knees: welcomed as her own

Dan: God has judged me

Naphtali: I have struggled

Rachel viewed herself as struggling against God

9-11: Leah had already borne plenty of sons, but did not want Rachel to think she had triumphed

14-16: Mandrakes: parth of the nightshade, potato and tomato family, Greeks nicknamed it the love apple: reputation of an aphrodisiac, also believed that the mandrake would enhance a woman’s fertility.

Leah says no: Rachel has taken away her husband. Rachel proposes a business arrangement: Rachel controls where Jacob sleeps, not Jacob. Jacob extremely passive, Leah: extremely aggressive.

Leah has hired Jacob: wages: see in the context of the Jacob-Laban struggle.

17-18: Issachar: God gave her child, not mandrakes. Leah says: God blesses me because I gave another wife to Jacob. Giving to Jacob was sacrifice, it was hard: she assumes: it is one that the Lord desired. Issachar: is a pun on my hire has rewarded me. God uses flawed human instruments, even superstition to achieve his purposes.

19-20: Zebulun: probably another deal made: endowment, child was a gift from God, Zebulun: “treat me with honor, exalt, honor.

21: Dinah: only daughter named, her inclusion: preferred count of 12 members. Dinah like Dan: derived from din to judge.

22-24: Rachel: 7 years of strife and dissapointment: the Lord opened her womb. Disgrace: social stigma of barrenness, public humiliation.

25-43: beginning of passage: penniless, by the end: immensely rich. He has been a slave to Laban for 14 years: now he’ll work for himself.

Laban is blessed through Jacob: 27, 30.

Jacob only asks for his family. Laban’s hardness is for Jacob’s blessing.

Laban admits his dependence on Jacob. He knows by divination? Laban has a casual connection of divination with the Lord: divination: sorcerer’s arts strictly forbidden in the law.

Laban’s offer: 31-34: conniving, will actually give the animals to his sons (30:35)

Jacob answers, 31: don’t give me anything. He will trust in the Lord.

32-33: separate all speckled and spotted sheep. Typical appearance were white sheep and black or brown goats. Jacob is saying just give me the uncommon ones. Laban agreeed: these births would be extremely rare.

34: Laban accepts

35: Laban takes away all chances, cheats, removes all spotted, and puts a 3 day buffer zone around the herds

37-42: folk custom, branches: multicolored appearance: dark and white colors. In the water troughs: flocks would view them: the visual resulted in the offspring? How? Ancient Jews: ministering angels: transported from Laban’s flock to Jacob’s. We believe that Jacob’s folk methods corresponded to Rachel and Leah’s use of mandrakes in their competition for children (30:14–16). Although the women believed that the mandrakes somehow conveyed potency, they also understood that ultimately pregnancy was the result of God’s gracious favor (e.g., 30:17–18, 22–23).Furthermore, it appears he attributes the idea to a divine revelation (31:10–13). Modern eugenics can explain technically how he succeeded by breeding animals that possessed the desired, recessive genes and further by selective breeding to multiply the stronger animals; but Jacob’s knowledge would have been dependent on learned experience as a seasoned herdsman, or possibly by divine instruction in his dream (31:10). Whatever the precise explanation for his success, the passage shows that Jacob relied on the visual aids, as did the women on the mandrakes, but ultimately he credited God with the prosperity of his herds (31:10–13). The Lord tolerated Jacob’s imaginative devices and transcended them. God was pleased to bless despite whatever erroneous notions Jacob may have had about animal husbandry.