God’s Gift of Love

God grants His creatures the gift of love, but Himself has a love that far exceeds that of His creation, even including love for the unloved and unlovable.

Main Passage: Genesis 29:13-35

What are some great love story movies you can think of?

We all suffer from the faults, twisted desires, and selfishness of others as well as of ourselves. Yet even in the midst of all the distortions of love in this life and the countless times our hearts have been broken, there is something driving us on to love and to be loved; that something is God Himself, who is love (1 John 4:8). The true power of stories about love and our own experiences of love, then, is that they point us to the fact that there is a real love, a pure love, that is grounded in the very real God who created all things.

Group Time

Outline of this lesson:

God gave Jacob a gift of love (Gen. 29:13-20)

++God’s love persists even through trials (Gen. 21:21-30)

++God’s love persists even to the unloved (Gen. 29:31-35).

Point 1: God gave Jacob a gift of love (Gen. 29:13-20).

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.

God providentially brought about the “chance encounter” between Jacob and Rachel. The world might view it as luck, but the people of God know better. Jacob did not just find love; it was provided to him by His loving Father. And his love for Rachel sustained him through seven years of work to marry her.

We live in such an instant culture…it is not popular in today’s day and age to wait for anything. Yet, the love that God gave Jacob for Rachel overcame the time and labor that stood in the way of them being married. True love overcomes any length of time or obstacles that stand in its way. That is not only true in the relationships between people, but is most true in the relationship between God and man.

No obstacle or length of time can separate God’s love from those that are the object of His love.

++In the same way, no obstacle or length of time can separate man’s true love from the God he claims to love.

How might these principles apply to everyday life experiences?

Why do people so often resort to “luck” as the “reason” certain circumstances happen at just the right time?

In a greater way than with Jacob, love motivated the Son of God to take on flesh, endure suffering and shame, and lay down His life at Calvary (John 15:13; 1 John 3:16). Remember, no obstacle or length of time can separate God’s love from those that are the object of His love, even if it means surrendering His only Son to accomplish it. And it is love that carries us as we seek to follow Him (John 14:15). Our love of Christ is imperfect, but we know that we are loved by God with a perfect love because that is who He is (1 John 4:7-11).

How have you seen God develop, deepen, and purify your love for Him and others?

Voices from Church History

“The only ground of God’s love is his grace. The ground of God’s love is only and wholly in himself. There is neither portion nor proportion in us to draw his love. There is no love nor loveliness in us that should cause a beam of his love to shine upon us.” 1 –Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)

Point 2: God’s love persists even through trials (Gen. 29:21-30).

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. 24 (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) 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.

God used Laban’s trickery to teach Jacob a lesson he needed to learn, to discipline him. Not because He was fed up with Jacob but because He loved him.

Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary Jacob and the Daughters of Laban (29:1–30)

story reveals that God, not Laban, had the last word. The deceiver Jacob was deceived, and the despised Leah was exalted to become the mother of, among others, the priestly and kingly tribes of Levi and Judah.

God disciplines the ones He loves, which produces the fruit of peace and righteousness in those trained by it (Heb. 12:6,11). As sinners ourselves, we are also in need of God’s loving discipline. In spite of our evil, our Father does not turn away from us or leave us to our demise. Rather, God loves and disciplines us so that we might become a blessing to others.

Remember the scenario from the narrative of Jacob and Esau, the deception of Jacob for answering, “Here I am,” when Isaac cried out for Esau. Now the same has been done to him. This situation for Jacob is no punitive, it is meant to teach him who is truly in control, who is absolute master of his life.

Through a new arrangement with Laban, Jacob received his beloved Rachel as his wife, though he would work for Laban for another seven years—fourteen years in total. Such was the persistent love of Jacob for Rachel, but the same could not be said for his wife Leah. This situation helps us see the even greater, more persistent love of God, who used Jacob, Rachel, and Leah as part of His salvation history, even through their sins and wrong choices. It was through this family line that Jesus would be born.

Point 3: God’s love persists even to the unloved (Gen. 29:31-35).

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.” 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. 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.

God showed love to unloved Leah and blessed her in her time of distress. To say Leah was merely unloved doesn’t communicate enough. The Hebrew word used here can also connote hatred. Jacob wasn’t just apathetic toward Leah—he despised her, perhaps because she reminded him of how he had been beaten at his own game of deception. But the Lord had compassion for her and opened her womb to have four sons.

How has God demonstrated His love for you while in the midst of difficult circumstances?

God Is Love: The greatest act of love by God toward humans isn’t the giving of earthly goods but the giving of Himself in Christ so that we might become reconciled to Him.

Leah was not the last person to be unloved and despised. There are people all over the world hungering for the love of a human being, and even deeper, hungering for the love of God. Those in Christ have been given the opportunity to reflect God’s love to others: to family, to friends, to outcasts, to enemies, and to the unknowns in the world.

Application: We love others because God first loved us while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:19). This kind of love is unique to the Christian faith. In Buddhism and atheism, there is no God to love us in our failures. In Islam, “Allah does not love the unbelievers.” 2

We have the one God by whom we know what love is, due to the reality that He first loved us. So we can confidently proclaim the truth of the gospel to those around us that they too may experience what they long for, what they feel is so distant and unattainable yet is truly closer and greater than they can fathom.

Isn’t it a comfort to know that God uses both the loved and the unloved, the lovable and the unlovable to accomplish His will.

My Mission

Because God has extended His unconditional love to us, we are to share God’s love with everyone, even those whom the world would consider unlovable.

· How will you respond to the gift of God’s love in Christ?

· How can we better demonstrate before the world God’s love as we love one another?

· Whom do you know who may feel unloved or be considered unlovable? How can you show them Jesus’ love this week?

References

1. Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth (CreateSpace Publishing Platform, 2014), 64.

2. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis, 54:18, quoted in Genesis 12–50, ed. Mark Sheridan, vol. II in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament (Downers Grove: IVP, 2002), 191.

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