Genesis 8/12/2017

GENESIS

August 12, 2017

By Pastor Kim Hickcox

(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)

In chapter 29, Jacob starts a rollercoaster ride that will take him 14 years to leave! And this is a prime example of when, if the Lord told us everything that was entailed in His plan for us, we might very well have second thoughts. Has He ever done that to you? My life is full of those examples!

So Jacob continues his journey and meets some shepherds who are watering their sheep at a well. Jacob meets them, finds out they are from Haran, know Laban and so he starts asking about him. “And while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her fathers’ sheep for she was a shepherdess.¹⁰And it happened, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. ¹¹And Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. ¹²And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman and that he was Rebeccah’s son. Then she ran and told her father.” (Genesis 29:9-12)

Jacob’s kiss was one of greeting, as was custom, as opposed to romantic (as we can sometimes assume according to our western custom), but there was no doubt that he was smitten – love at first sight.

“And it was when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister’s son that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to the house. And he told Laban all these things.” (Genesis 29:13) I’m sure his deception for his father’s blessing wasn’t included in that, but as it had been 40 years since Laban had seen or heard from his sister, I’m sure Jacob caught him up on the family news in general, ending with his coming back to family for a bride, as his father did.

“And Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh.’ And he stayed with him the space of a month.

“¹⁵And Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me what your wages will be.’ ¹⁶And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷And Leah’s eyes were tender and Rachel was beautiful and well favored. ¹⁸And Jacob loved Rachel and said, ‘I shall serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.’ ¹⁹And Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man: stay with me.’

“²⁰And Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days, because of the love he had for her. ²¹And Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, so I may go in to her.’ ²²And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast.” (Genesis 29:14-22)

This is TRULY a story of love!! How many people can say that the years fly by simply due to love? You have to admire that. But this is far from the end of the story:

Seems that Laban revered tradition over honesty and in Genesis 29:23-29 we see that he tricked Jacob (with darkness and heavy veils, I would assume) and gave him his oldest daughter Leah as a bride instead of Rachel, the love of his life. Jacob was, of course very upset in the morning when he discovered the deceit.

“And it was in the evening that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him, and he went in to her. ²⁴And Laban gave Zilpah his maid for a handmaid to his daughter Leah. ²⁵And it happened in the morning, behold! It was Leah! And he said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you tricked me?’ ²⁶And Laban said, ‘It must not be done this way in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week and we will give you this one also for the service, which you will serve with me yet another seven years.’” (Genesis 29:23-27)

We will see more and more that Laban is not to be trusted at all. In fact, Genesis 31:19 tells us that he didn’t even worship YHWH (the One True God: Yah Weh, Jehovah), but had the multiple idols of the Arameans, as that was his tribal nationality.

This explains how parts of the Old Testament was originally written in Aramaic as opposed to totally in Hebrew, mostly found in the Book of Daniel, as the Hebrew nation was originally half Hebrew and half Aramaic. However, if we want to delve deeper than that, we will see that although Abraham was called a Hebrew once it was established by the people that he lived in Hebron (see Genesis 14:13), he originally hailed from Syria, as did most Arameans.

And although Ur was a city in the Babylonian kingdom, as most of civilization was at the time Abraham left, ancient maps include the city of Ur as part of the nation of Aram or Syria after the fall of the first Babylonian empire under Nimrod.

The Arameans were a nomadic tribe who never really established a territory or kingdom, so to speak travelling from Syria and spread out as far as modern day Turkey. Although there is still a small remnant who speaks a dialect of Aramaic, they mostly absorbed into the nations they lived in rather early on in history: Syria, Assyria, Canaan, etc. and are mostly (but not 100%) now part of the Islamic population.

Getting back to Jacob: although he was extremely distressed about being given the wrong wife, his love for Rachel obviously superseded his frustration, as he agreed to work for her another seven years, even though he was given Rachel after the wedding week of he and Leah was completed. “And Jacob did so and fulfilled her week, then he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. ²⁹And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. ³⁰And he went in also to Rachel and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.” (Genesis 29:28-30)  

We don’t know what function Leah had in the family, but it is no coincidence that Rachel was a shepherdess. And that she was the mother of Joseph (Genesis 30:22-24), who is a great OT picture of Y’shua.

So today we saw plainly the integrity of Jacob, after he put his trust in the Lord, which he didn’t have before. We also saw the seeming ease at which Laban turned all circumstances to his advantage, when integrity was not an issue.

I’m reminded of the Animaniacs, one of my very favorite cartoon shows. At the end of their shows they had the Wheel of Morality. They would spin it and say Wheel of Morality, turn, turn, turn. Show us the lesson that we should learn.

Today’s lesson brothers and sisters is: Doing what is honest, upright and moral is not always easy and not always popular but it is always right.

When we do what is right, because of the righteousness of the One Who lives in us, you can rest in the Truth that even when circumstances may not line up with your expectations of what should have happened – God is pleased, you did not act in vain and your reward will come.

Have a blessed week! Because “The LORD will bless you and He will keep you.²⁵The LORD will make His face to shine upon you and He will be gracious to you. ²⁶The LORD will lift His countenance to you and He will establish Shalom for you.” (Numbers 6:24-26) “On this account I bend my knees to the Father, ¹⁵from Whom every family in the heavens and on the earth receives its name, ¹⁶so that He would give to you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened in power by His Spirit working in your inner man, ¹⁷to make the Messiah live in your hearts through faith, when you have been rooted and established in love, ¹⁸so that you would be able to seize with all the consecrated ones, what is the breadth and length and height and depth,¹⁹and to know the love of the Messiah that surpasses our knowledge, so that you would be filled with all the fullness of God.

“²⁰Now to the One Who is able to do beyond measure far more than we ask or we imagine according to the power which works in us for our benefit, ²¹to Him be the glory in the congregation and in Messiah Y’shua for all generations forever and ever, amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21) And again I say AMEN.

SHALOM & REJOICE! “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) The answer? NO ONE! “‘No weapon that is formed against you will succeed. You will condemn every tongue that will rise up against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their acts of loving kindness are of Me,’ says the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:17) “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they are following Me, ²⁸and I am giving them eternal life, and they would not ever die and no one is able to seize them from My hand.²⁹My Father Who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to seize them from the hand of the Father. ³⁰We, the Father and I, are One.”(John 10:27-30) So rest assured – we are safe in our Father’s, our Savior’s arms!

SHALOM & AMEN!