*Below is Pastor Andrew’s teaching outline from Sunday’s sermon, not a word for word manuscript. This is meant as aid in seeing the thought and direction of the sermon.
Intro: Family History
Overview of how we got here:
Transition: As Jacob arrives in Haran God seems to be distant, yet as we move forward in the text, we see the very real presence of God in the midst of all the family chaos. In the midst of the schemes and multiple weddings we see God show up in the lives of these women freeing them from their distress, and task that comes at different times and in different ways, and one that we see isn’t always the easiest to rest upon.
SO, the first thing we see in our text is the Kindness of God
I. The Kindness of God (29:31-35)
Genesis 29:31 ESV
When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
Our text opens up with the eyes of God being upon Leah.
-She is said in our text to be hated or unloved.
3 mixed & Saddening response
Genesis 29:32 ESV
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.”
Genesis 29:33 ESV
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.
Genesis 29:34 ESV
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.
-The line of Priests (Moses & Arron)
1 Praise of Contentment
Genesis 29:35 ESV
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.
-The Line of Kings and Ultimately Christ
Why She no longer bears children has been a question for many either the Lord closed here womb, she no longer had a desire to be her unloving husband, or Her husband no longer felt obligated to her. We do not know.
The text sets up for us though the
II. The Folly of Man (30:1-21)
Chapter 29 ends with Leah content with God’s gracious blessing of 4 sons in spite of the fact that her husband has not seemed to grow any more connected to her, but she rests in the grace of God and the gift of her 4 sons, what then is going on in the mind of her sister Rachel who the text has told us is barren. What is transpiring among the “Happy couple”?
Genesis 30:1–2 ESV
When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 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?”
This is a rough transition of a text from the praise and contentment found in God to the envy and bitterness of man, yet everything about this text simply feels real. Into a chaotic comes chaos.
So, while Leah longed for the Love of her husband which Rachel possessed, Rachel longs for the children that Leah has, both were being drawn by envy and discontentment.
-Leah seems to have found a brief reprieve form this jealously in chapter 29, but we will see how the actions of others will drive her back to her initial thoughts:
Yet back to the moment at hand we have the recording conversation between just Rachel and Jacob in their whole narrative and it is one of anger and bitterness, and a sad foreshadowing.
-Rachel demands children from Jacob as if he is withholding something from her. Her sister has no issues having children and yet here she is loved and yet barren.
Jacob responds in Anger in that her issue is with God not Him.
-Correct statement in the wrong Tone.
There is a wonderful picture her of what could be: Jacob correctly evaluates that Rachel’s infertility is a work of God, but he offers no biblical or lasting solution. He is not like his father who saw the distress of his wife’s barrenness and prayed diligently for it to be reprieved. Here he simply scolds her and tells her it’s not his problem.
As we tend to see in Jacob’s marriage, he makes it the problem:
Rachel then we see will respond to Jacob’s words not with a prayer to God or seeking him to give her the children she longs for but rather will turn to societal conventions and do as Sarah did and offer to Jacob her servant: Bilhah.
2 wives become 3.
Genesis 30:3–8 ESV
Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go into her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” So, she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went into her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore, she called his name Dan. Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So, she called his name Naphtali.
So just as his grandfather Abraham took Hagar now Jacob takes Bilhah. This time though the outcome is quite different.
-The promise of the land and a future as we will see is not to one of Jacob’s sons, but it will be given to the whole of his household. That will include the Children of the servants who will be given equal rights in the home.
So, two sons will be born to her servant and adopted into the primary household:
Dan & Naphtali
But their name as we read strikes a different chord than the Leah’s:
Dan: God has judged and heard (While Leah’s prayers feature the divine name Rachel’s uses the generic)
Naphtali: with “Divine wrestling” I have prevailed over my sister. (Some will highlight this could reference her own struggles with God)
These names are not encouraging to hear but again a rather sad reality.
These Children are still being seen as simple pawns to Beat her sister (who at this point still has 2 more sons)
Now we return to Leah in light of her current situation and her sister’s rivalry she joins the game once again:
And 3 will become 4:
Genesis 30:9–13 ESV
When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So, she called his name Asher.
Leah will follow Sarah and her sister in giving Zilpah to Jacob and she too conceives and bears two sons:
And Jacob just keeps going along with the plan (In the end its builds up his name)
Both given names reflecting a happy occasion
Gad: Luck
Asher: Happy
Refrain:
We will hear her words over Asher echoed many generations later in the mouth of Mary over the gift of Christ:
Luke 1:48 ESV
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
While only the women of Leah’s day would call her blessed Mary echoes her refrain that all the nations shall call her blessed for, she has carried the messiah who would bring life to all nations, and free the broken from their distress.
So now at this point God has given to Jacob 4 wives and 8 children.
But the ends are still yet to come: For as we will see Rachel is still after that allusive child of her own:
Genesis 30:14–15 ESV
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.” 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.”
Jacobs’s oldest son has begun to work in the fields.
Mandrakes were seen as an Aphrodisiac and fertility cure.
Rachel longs for the mandrakes to “cure her.”
This story mirrors Jacob and Esau
-Leah leads Rachel to offer a trade. She will not simply give her the opportunity to have children it must come at a cost.
-This also mirror that Rachel trying to accomplish the task of having a son by any means necessary.
-So, she trades her husband for the right for a chance that these mandrakes will be the cure:
-But rather than bringing her children it seems to restore Jacob to Leah and brings her 3 more children to Rachel’s 0.
Genesis 30:16–21 ESV
When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come into me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So, he lay with her that night. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So, she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 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. Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
God heard her plea.
-Issachar: God rewarded her
-Zebulun: She will be honored by Jacob.
Dinah is believed to be the twin of Zebulun.
6 sons and a daughter the perfect 7. (Seven years of service to her father Laban has granted him 7 children)
God was kind to Leah and as the text her wraps up there does seem to be a restoration of some form of a relationship with Leah and Jacob. She seeks to be honored not loved. She has shifted her aim.
What a mess, and yet the end of this pursuit of children has yet to find its fruition.
Rachel remains Barren so as the text turns, we see that now she appears to turn to the one who can free her from this distress:
III. The Mercy of God (30:22-25)
Genesis 30:22–25 ESV
Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!” As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.
A. God remembers her: Echoes of Noah (God remembered Noah)
Foretaste of Israel
Exodus 2:24–25 ESV
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
-The text alludes to the fact that along the way Rachel prays for the Lord to give her a child.
-At the conclusion to our text we see God intervening again to open her womb and give her the son she has longed these many years for, the one whom she has struggled and fought to obtain.
-She has been no longer the outcaste in her own mind, God has freed her from her bareness
-Just as he did to Sarah & Rebekah
Closing Illustration: Taking stock of what God has done over 14 years (The joyous and the hard)
Conclusion & Application:
– From this text we are reminded that God’s love for us is not based on our external situation for both Leah and Rachel will receive the children and the loving kindness of God toward them. One in here desperate state and one through her desperate prayers.
-The text also is a quick reminder of how easy it is for us to lose sight of the gracious mercy of God in the everyday moving on of life.
