Genesis 29.25-30-The Lord Trains Jacob Through Discipline for Leadership
Wednesday June 28, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 29:25-30-The Lord Trains Jacob Through Discipline for Leadership
Lesson # 170
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 29:15.
This evening we will continue with our studies of Genesis 29.
Thus far in our studies we have noted the following:
In Genesis 29:1-12, we saw Jacob finally arriving in Paddan Aram and meeting the shepherds from Haran and the daughter of his uncle Laban and future wife, Rachel.
In Genesis 29:13-14, we have the record of Jacob meeting Laban for the first time and staying with Laban for a month.
Then, in Genesis 29:15-20, we studied where Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years in exchange for being betrothed to Rachel.
On Sunday morning we noted Genesis 29:21-24 where we saw Laban deceiving Jacob on his wedding night by sending into his tent Leah and not Rachel whom he desired to marry.
Last evening, we studied Genesis 29:25-30, which records Jacob discovering the next morning that he has been deceived by Laban and is trapped by him into agreeing to another seven years of service as the bride-price for marrying Rachel.
The fact that Jacob is trapped into another seven years of service was a manifestation of divine discipline in the life of Jacob for his deception of his father Isaac and cheating Esau.
This evening we will note that this divine discipline in the form of service to a tyrant such as Laban was to prepare Jacob to be a leader of God’s people.
Genesis 29:15, “Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?’”
Genesis 29:16, “Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.”
Genesis 29:17, “And Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.”
Genesis 29:17, “And Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.”
Genesis 29:18, “Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’”
Genesis 29:19, “Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.’”
Genesis 29:20, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.”
Genesis 29:21, “Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.’”
Genesis 29:22, “Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast.”
Genesis 29:23, “Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her.”
Genesis 29:24, “Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid.”
Genesis 29:25, “So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?’”
Genesis 29:26, “But Laban said, ‘It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.’”
Genesis 29:27, “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.”
Genesis 29:28, “Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.”
Genesis 29:29, “Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.”
Genesis 29:30, “So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.”
The terms “younger” and “firstborn” are unknowingly employed by Laban under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to remind Jacob of the deception of his older brother Esau and stunned Jacob into silence so that he does not reprove Laban for not having informed him of the local custom in the first place.
Jacob knows now first hand what it feels like to be deceived and cheated.
Here we see that the Holy Spirit is convicting Jacob that the end, does “not” justify the means and is sin!
Now, through Laban’s deception, Jacob knows how his brother Esau and his father Isaac felt.
God the Holy Spirit has rebuked and disciplined Jacob for deceiving his father Isaac and cheating his brother Esau in order to advance him to further spiritual growth.
This discipline was a demonstration of the Lord’s love for Jacob and was also used to train Jacob and prepare him to be a leader of God’s people.
God’s purpose for disciplining Jacob through another seven years of hard labor for his uncle Laban was to prepare Jacob to be a leader of His people.
In Genesis 25:23, the Lord prophesied that Esau’s descendants, the Edomites would serve Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites and then Genesis 27:29, Isaac under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit prophesied that the Gentile nations would serve Jacob’s descendants the Israelites.
But in Genesis 29:30, we see no one serving Jacob but rather Jacob serving others, which would prepare him to occupy a position of spiritual leadership as the head of twelve tribes that would be named after him.
Oswald Sanders, in his classic book on leader¬ship entitled Spiritual Leader¬ship, has some fitting remarks: “The true spiritual leader is concerned infinitely more with the service he can render God and his fellowmen than with the benefits and pleasures he can extract from life. He aims to put more into life than he takes out of it.” (Spiritual Leadership, page 20).
Through this adversity with Laban, the Lord is going to teach Jacob how to be a true spiritual leader of His people.
But at this point in his life, Jacob is more concerned about the benefits and pleasures he can extract from life rather than the service he can render God and his fellowmen.
At this point in his life, Jacob aims to take more out of life than aims to put into it.
The Lord prophesied that Jacob would be the leader of His people but the Lord is going to teach him through this adversity with Laban that leadership in His kingdom is based upon love and humility and putting others ahead of oneself and not hate, and arrogance and selfishness.
The Lord Jesus taught His disciples that in the kingdom of God, those who are great and occupy positions of spiritual leadership serve others rather than be served.
Matthew 20:20, “Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him.”
Matthew 20:21, “And He said to her, ‘What do you wish?’ She said to Him, ‘Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.’”
Matthew 20:22, “But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able.’”
Matthew 20:23, “He said to them, ‘My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.’”
Matthew 20:24, “And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers.”
Matthew 20:25, “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.’”
Matthew 20:26-28, “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
The Lord Jesus Christ provided His disciples with a visual illustration concerning the spiritual principle that leadership in the kingdom of God is based upon love and humility and putting others ahead of oneself and not hate, and arrogance and selfishness.
John 13:1, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
John 13:2, “During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him.”
John 13:3-4, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.”
John 13:5, “Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”
John 13:6, “So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, ‘Lord, do You wash my feet?’”
John 13:7, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.’”
John 13:8, “Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’”
John 13:9, “Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.’”
John 13:10, “Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’”
John 13:11, “For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’”
John 13:12, “So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you?’”
John 13:13, “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.”
John 13:14, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.”
John 13:15, “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”
John 13:16, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.”
John 13:17, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Paul commanded the Philippians to put each other ahead of themselves as Christ did.
Philippians 2:3, “All of you continue thinking the one thing. Never (thinking) according to inordinate ambition nor according to self-deception but with humility. All of you continue regarding each other as better than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:4, “Each stop being occupied with your own interests but rather the interests of others.”
Philippians 2:5-6, “Everyone continue thinking this (according to humility) within yourselves, which was also in (the mind of) Christ Jesus, Who although existing from eternity past in the essence of God, He never regarded existing equally in essence with God an exploitable asset.”
Philippians 2:7, “On the contrary, He denied Himself of the independent function of His deity by having assumed the essence of a slave when He was born in the likeness of men.”
Philippians 2:8, “In fact, although He was discovered in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by having entered into obedience to the point of spiritual death even death on a Cross.”
The Lord Jesus Christ was rewarded for His service at the Cross, which He accomplished by humble obedience to the Father’s will and which obedience was motivated by His love for the Father.
Philippians 2:9, “For this very reason in fact God the Father has promoted Him to the highest-ranking position and has awarded to Him the rank, which is superior to every rank.”
Philippians 2:10, “In order that in the sphere of this rank possessed by Jesus every person must bow, celestials and terrestrials and sub-terrestrials.”
Philippians 2:11, “Also, every person must publicly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord for the glory of God the Father.”
In the same way that our Lord Jesus Christ was rewarded for His service so too will our Christian service be rewarded by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church if it has been properly motivated by our love for the Lord, which expresses itself in obedience to His command to love one another as He has loved (1 Cor. 3:11-14; 2 Cor. 5:10).
Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.”
Colossians 3:24, “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”
Colossians 3:25, “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”
The believer must obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love one another as He has loved in order for his Christian service to be productive and rewarded by the Lord at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church.
John 13:34, “A new commandment in character and quality and example I give to all of you, that all of you divinely love one another, even as I have divinely loved all of you, that all of you also divinely love one another.”
Obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another as He has loved us is the response in our soul to the self-sacrificial manner in which the Lord loved us at the Cross.
1 John 3:16, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
The believer’s faith in the Spirit’s revelation of the Lord’s love and service for him, which expresses itself in obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another as He has loved, produces humility in the believer, which expresses itself in putting others ahead of yourself.
1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”
Therefore, productive Christian service is motivated by our love for the Lord and our love for the Lord is the response of our entire being to the self-sacrificial manner in which He loved us and is expressed by our obedience to His command to love one another as He has loved us at the Cross.
Deuteronomy 10:12, “Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Productive Christian service demands proper motivation.
Motivation is that which prompts a person to act in a certain way, the goal of one’s actions.
Motivation for Christian service begins with the believer prayerfully meditating upon the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God of the Lord Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificial love and service for him at the Cross.
Then the believer must accept by faith the Spirit’s revelation of the Lord’s self-sacrificial love and service for him, and which faith expresses itself in obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another as He has loved him.
This acceptance by faith of the Spirit’s revelation of the Lord’s love, which expresses itself in obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another as He has loved, constitutes serving by means of the Spirit.
Philippians 3:2-3, “Beware of those dogs, beware of those evil workers, beware of the mutilation because we are the circumcision, those who are serving (God the Father) by means of the Spirit of God, who are priding themselves in the nature and doctrine of Christ Jesus, who have no confidence in the flesh.”
Service for the Lord and other believers is inextricably tied together since we love the Lord who we can’t see in our fellow believer who we can see.
1 John 4:20, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
1 John 4:21, “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”
So it is through love that we are to serve one another, which Paul taught to the Galatians.
Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”