God is faithful through it all.

1. Jacob and the Promise

The passage we have before us is not just a story, this is your story. This story is a part of why we are seated here as the church. This is a part of our very own redemptive history and we are connected with it in profound ways.

My grandfather’s brother spent years tracing my family history and he eventually wrote a book that shows the family tree going back from South Africa to England and he has descriptions of all the different people and what they did. It is a fun thing to see where your family comes from and who they were.

What we have in Genesis and today in our passage chapter 29, is our story, this is where we come from as the church of Jesus. This is not just some story that has nothing to do with you. This chapter has everything to do with you and we didn’t have to go and do the hard work of finding out the road we have been on as the church.

Rather God has given us Genesis so that we as the children of Abraham through faith in Christ can see our family history.

In chapter 27 Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, and he called Esau and told him that he didn’t know the day of his death and so Esau should go out and hunt and prepare a delicious meal for him and then Isaac would bless him which would mean that the blessing of Abraham would continue with Esau BUT Rebekah hears this conversation and she tells Jacob to listen to her commands and she made a delicious meal and Jacob masterfully deceives his father and gets the blessing! and what a blessing it was.

As soon as Isaac blessed him and he had gone out Esau walks in with a delicious meal and when Isaac realizes he was deceived he shook violently but maintained that Jacob shall be blessed.

Jacob ends up having to flee for his life because Esau wants to take him out! Before he leaves Isaac sends him off saying, “

May God almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a multitude of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, so that you may possess the land where you live as a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.”

And so Jacob gets on the road and he spends the night at a particular place and that night Jacob had a dream, and in the dream a ladder was set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” God introduces Himself to Jacob and said:

English Standard Version (Chapter 28)

“I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

And God promised Jacob offspring like the dust of the earth!

If there is going to be offspring, and if through Jacob’s offspring, the nations (you) are to be blessed then it depends on God fulfilling His promise through Jacob. But at this point in our church family history story, things were on very thin, thin ice. Jacob is on the run with the threat of being killed. Everything depends on whatever was going to take place. It is our lives at stake here.

2. The Promise Being Fulfilled

So Jacob comes to Haran, the land of these people of the east who were known for having many sheep. And here is this well in the field and there lying beside the well are three flocks of sheep. This is where the sheep drank water. Once all of the sheep had gathered, this large stone covering the well would be rolled from the mouth of the well and they would give water to the sheep.

Jacob says to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?”

They said, “We are from Haran.” He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” Jacob says, “Is it well with him?” “It is well; and look, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!”

Jacob says, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them (let them eat.”

But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”

Jacob is thinking this is a huge waste of time v7. He would love how things work in South Korea. Everything is nice and fast-paced.

If you want to see people work hard and get stuff done go to Korea. If your phone breaks, you walk into a repair shop, it is like Santa’s workshop, you sit behind a desk and someone fixes your phone in front of you and off you go. But here, these Shepherds are not in a hurry at all. Things move at a slow pace but it was actually for good reason because they didn’t like to open the well a lot to prevent the well from filling with sand.

So here Jacob is chatting to these Shepherds

And all of a sudden Rachel comes with her sheep. Even though it doesn’t say it here, a few verses later we see that “Rachel was beautiful of form and face.” This is a gorgeous girl at the well, a hottie at the well.

and Jacob gets down to business and rolls the stone away all by himself, and gives the sheep water.

and Then Jacob kisses Rachel and weeps out loud. I don’t recommend doing this if you want a second date. It is rare in the Bible to see a guy kiss a girl but this was probably a custom. Also if you have been on a long trip and you finally arrive and find your people it can be emotional. Airports are emotional places.

And Jacob goes on to tell her who he is, “I am your father’s kinsman, I am Rebekah’s son!

and Rachel starts running to tell her dad and in no time in the same way that we saw Laban running to meet Abraham’s servant in chapter 24, here he comes running to meet Jacob with dollar signs in his eyes, and he embraces him and kisses him and off they go to his house. This whole scene is so full of joy!

But there are some differences to what we saw in chapter 24- Abraham’s servant was full of prayer and he went loaded with all sorts of choice gifts, gold and silver, and clothing,

all to convince the bride’s family that Rebekah would be marrying into prosperity.

But here in our passage Jacob doesn’t pray, he takes matters into his own hands and he comes with nothing. His wallet is empty. Laban’s run did not end in prize money. And this is probably why Jacob ends up telling Laban everything that had happened.

(At the house Jacob is updating Laban with all the news ) Jacob told Laban all these things (everything that had happened),

and Laban says, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” “Jacob, we are cut from the same cloth.”

And Jacob stayed with him for a month.

At this point, it seems that Laban has been coming up with a plan.

Laban is thinking, I need to come up with something where I will benefit from having Jacob here, and so Laban says,

vs 15 “Because you are my kinsman, should you, therefore, serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”

So Jacob is going to start working for him now.

Laban has two daughters, we have already met the younger daughter Rachel and now we are introduced to the older whose name was Leah.

We read that Leah’s eyes were weak, a lot has been said about this but it means that she wasn’t attractive.

but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.

So here we have Rachel the beauty queen and not so pretty Leah and

Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Jacob offers Laban almost twice the going rate at that time,

he probably wants to make sure that his offer can’t be refused, and Laban immediately agrees to it.

Now notice Laban’s response, notice what he doesn’t say,

“It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” What is significant is that he doesn’t say who “her” is. And so Laban has a plan.

So Jacob did what he said,

he served seven years for Rachel,

And this is beautiful, vs 20- and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

Jacob's mom had said before he left “43 Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran 44 and stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away.”

He has been here for a lot longer than his mom imagined but these 7 years seemed to Jacob like the few days his mom said he would be gone because of the love he had for Rachel.

Jacob says to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go into her, for my time is completed.”

So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.

feasting was an important part of Ancient Near Eastern weddings.

There would have been not only food but drink too, and this would have been a lively party.

And so now it is evening, it is dark and the feast would have been going on for a while. Jacob had probably had some fermented drink.

And Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.

Now of course these brides were veiled, as was the custom in that day and it is possible that all of Jacob’s senses were not 100%, no artificial lighting and so it could have been pitch-black, and keep in mind that Jacob has not laid a hand on Rachel in these 7 years.

And amid this intensity, we read (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.)

(make ppl feel the delay) do you want the outcome? that’s the narrator’s intention.

vs 25

You can just imagine Jacob laying there next to the woman that he is head over hills in love with, the woman that holds the key to his heart, he loves her enough to have worked 7 years for her, this is his girl, he is laying there, starts waking up…stretch -7 years Rachel…looks over and

“Behold, it was Leah!

Leah! Shocked, heart racing, so confused!

How Leah got into this situation, I don’t know but this must have been horrible for her. And how Rachel allowed this to happen is also incredible. This is the greatest deception! This is not a good romantic ending!

And Jacob says to Laban, “What is this you have done to me?

Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you.........deceived me?”

here we go, “the deceiver is deceived.” He had deceived his brother, deceived his father, he had stolen the birthright, dressed up like he was somebody else and lied to his father saying that he was Esau, all this to get what he wanted…now the tables have turned. The deceiver has been deceived. The same trick he used on his father who was blind and had drunk wine has happened to him in the dark night with wine involved.

Laban responds, and his response seems almost stoic,

“It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. This is not done in our country- giving the younger before the firstborn.

These are such piercing words, Jacob had deceived the firstborn son and deceived his father to get the firstborn blessing and now he has been deceived with the firstborn daughter. You know a lot about firstborn stuff Jacob. Why are you so upset?

Jacob has met his match in his uncle Laban.

He is pierced.

I’ll tell you what,

Complete the week of this one (Leah), and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.”

Laban has this all figured out, he is a plotter, he gets both of his daughters married off right after each other.

Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. (Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.) So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.

and he loved Rachel more than Leah - we can see from these words that despite everything that happened Jacob still loved Rachel

and the fact that he did so more than Leah will mean a lot of future strife. The next seven years do not fly by like a few days for Jacob, they are long and difficult years. His father-in-law is an adversary, and with two wives and their maids, there is going to be a lot of tension in the house.

Jacob was taught a real lesson in this passage but he hasn’t completely learned his lesson because we will see more deception in Jacob later on. But God is working on Jacob. We are God’s people and have His promises and He is working on us too.

3. The Promise Today

Incredibly, the Lord ends up working through Laban’s deception to bring about His promises, and this happens not through Rachel but unloved Leah. It is Leah’s son Judah who will ultimately be the ancestor of Jesus Christ. When everything looked like a mess, God was still fulfilling His promises.

As Israel would have read the story of Laban’s deception and Jacob’s choices they would have been aware of how the Lord can fulfill His promises even through human scheming and deception.

In today’s passage, God used Laban’s deception of switching Leah for Rachel which resulted in Jacob marrying both sisters who ended up giving birth to Israel’s tribal heads. Later God used the deception of Jacob’s sons in their selling of Joseph to save Jacob’s family from famine. God used David’s deception and murder of Uriah to bring about his marriage to Bathsheba and the crowning of Solomon.

In the crucifixion of Jesus God used human deception to fulfill his promises. Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed him with a kiss. “The chief priests and the whole council looked for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death.” They knew Jesus was innocent but handed him over to be crucified. Matt 27:26

But God used all these deceptions to fulfill his promise that Jacob’s descendants would be numerous “like the dust of the earth.”

The promise comes to final fulfillment only through Jesus Christ, who sends out us today to “make disciples of all nations.” Through faith in Jesus Christ, many have become and are becoming “descendants of Abraham” and inherit “the blessing of Abraham” Gal 3:7,14. God’s promise to Jacob of offspring like the dust of the earth is being fulfilled in and through us, the church.

But our going out is often filled with strife, hard work, deception, romantic stories that don’t end well. In this world full of deception, mundane jobs, the tables of our own sin turning on us,

God is faithful and He is working in us, and He is working out His plan despite anything that seems to say otherwise!

Through it all God is faithful and He is watching you carefully and working in your life in every detail even when it doesn’t seem like it at all! Even when for the last number of years you have done nothing but work and work and work, God is with you.

In God’s promise to Jacob, He said, I will be with you and watch over you wherever you go, the same is true for us. How are things going for God’s people? Think about God’s people, because Jacob represents not only the individual believer but God’s people.

We are often discouraged by the lies and deception that we see and experience as the church...but know that God is faithful through it all. Even though there is great hostility towards the church, even though the numbers are not looking good and fewer and fewer people seem to be going to church, even though apostasy is rife,

God is at work and no amount of hatred, lies, or deception, can stop His plans.

Whether things are going well or whether they are not, this story of Jacob shows us that God is totally committed to His promises and He will fulfill them. He will give us a land, He will give us descendants, and He will bless us. He guarentees it.

I am with you, and I will watch over you, wherever you go.

Revelation 7:9 says,

On the last day, there will be a great multitude that no one can count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.”

It is Jesus working through us his church that Jacob’s offspring is becoming “like the dust of the earth.” This is our story.