A Complicated Love Story

Well, for this morning, let's advance through Genesis. So let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis 29 for our time of study in God's word. this morning, As we continue in our series through the book of Genesis, we come to Genesis 29, and my goal today is to cover the entire chapter verses 1 through 35, and I can't think of any other title to give this chapter than A Complicated Love Story. And it really, really is.

What we find in Genesis 29 is one of the strangest love stories in ancient literature. It is a tale of a man and two women and a crafty brother or father-in-law. It is a story of unbelievable intrigue and the cruelest of schemes or pranks. which will lead to a man sleeping with a woman on his wedding night, whom he thinks is the bride that he wanted, but he discovers in the morning that it was the less attractive sister of the bride that he wanted.

In his commentary on this chapter, R. Kent Hughes describes this story in Genesis 29 as soap opera ugly. And we'll see that's indeed true. But it is a love story by any measure as indicated by the language of love that we find throughout the length of the chapter as you see on the screen, behind me.

In verse 11, we read that Jacob kissed Rachel. In verse 17, we read that Jacob loved Rachel. In verse 20, we read of his love for her. In verse 30, we read that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.

In verse 31, we're told that the Lord saw that Leah was unloved. In verse 32, we hear Leah saying, surely now my husband will love me. In verse 33, she says, the Lord has heard that I am unloved. And in verse 34, she wishfully says, this time my husband will become attached.

To me This is a story of love and longing. Genesis 29 is literature at its finest. And it hits us with a miraculous moment of insight from the unloved bride in the final line of the chapter, basically, where we hear her saying this time, I will praise the Lord. Imagine that, a bride who lives for years unloved by her husband experiencing enormous pain, and she says this time.

I will praise the Lord. If your family situation this morning is full of brokenness and disappointment and pain and unfulfilled longing, You will find much encouragement. Here in Genesis 29, and you will learn why you too can praise the Lord in the midst of your circumstances. So the way we're gonna break down our study of the passage this morning is we're going to observe 6 developments in the story of how Jacob became married to Leah and Rachel and began to have children.

And the first development in this story is number one, that Jacob meets Rachel and her father, Laban, and he stays with them for a month. In Genesis 28, Isaac sends Jacob. From Beersheba to Haran with a specific instruction to take for himself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. That's his assignment in going to Harran.

So Jacob, we've seen heads north from Beersheba toward Harran for that purpose, and we saw last Sunday how about 3 days into that 500 mile plus journey, Jacob came to A place that ended up being named Bethel, where God appears to him in a dream, and we call this Jacob's ladder, angels ascending and descending on a ladder that appeared to Jacob in a dream and God spoke to Jacob in that vision. And made promises to him. He promises that he's going to be with Jacob, and he promises that he will give Jacob descendants as plentiful as the dust of the earth.

And Jacob, just think about it, if you were Jacob as a single guy, you would hear those promises and you would easily infer from such a promise that you're going to experience success on this journey of going to Iran to find a wife.

And that you will have children through her. We saw last Sunday how Jacob responds to this encounter with God by Vowing to make God his God. And vowing to give a tithe to the Lord from all that God will give to him on the road ahead. So observe what happens next, and this brings us into our chapter today.

Verse one begins with these words, then Jacob went on his journey, which is a really boring way of translating the Hebrew here. Literally, the Hebrew says, then Jacob lifted up his feet. It's as if he now feels the wind at his back and he continues on his journey toward Haran, now with fresh enthusiasm, looking forward to the fulfillment of God's promises on the road ahead. Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the sons of the east, that would be Huron and the surrounding regions, and he looked and saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for from that well they watered the flocks.

Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large. When all the flocks were gathered there, they would then roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. And put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well. You and I don't think anything about this particular scene that's being described for us, but seeing sheep lying around a well like this in the middle of the day, and they're not drinking is wasted time.

For the sheep when they could either be drinking or out pasturing and eating. With the sharp eye of a skillful shepherd, Jacob immediately notices this. But that aside, he puts first things first and he greets these shepherds. Observe what he does in verse 4.

Jacob said to the shepherds, my brothers, where are you from? And they said, we are from Huan. And now Jacob realizes that he is very, very close to the destination that he has been traveling toward for over 500 miles in many, many days. Jacob speaks in verse 5.

He said to them, do Laban, the son or the grandson of Nehor? And they said, we know him. And he said to them, Is it well with him? And they said it is well.

And here is Rachel, his daughter coming with the sheep. And if this were a movie, guys, dramatic music would start right here. As Jacob turns his head and sees Rachel coming toward the well. This is a stunning development.

Surely God has directed Jacob's steps, and we, the readers are supposed to be thrilled at the divine providence that has Rachel approaching the well. At the very moment that Jacob arrives there too. This is fate. This is destiny.

But for the moment, Jacob is bothered by seeing sheep lying around, doing nothing in the middle of the day, neither drinking nor pasturing. So observe what he does in verse 7 as he speaks to the shepherds. He said, Behold, it is still high day. It is not time for the livestock to be gathered.

Water the sheep and go pasture them. This is a brazen thing for Jacob to say to shepherds that he's just met. He just met these men and he's already telling them how to do their job. Which I'm sure they did not appreciate.

Imagine a stranger showing up at your workplace and telling you how to do your job. That's what Jacob is doing here and telling them to water the sheep and get them back out to pasture. Observe the shepherd's response verse 8, but they said we cannot until all the flocks are gathered and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well, then we water the sheep. You can almost feel the laziness of these men and these words as they speak them.

These men are lazy shepherds with no initiative. It seems evident that the stone, we're told that it's large, and it's evident that the stone is large enough. To require several men to move it from the mouth of the well, and the shepherds are waiting for other shepherds to arrive with their flocks so that they together can move this stone from the mouth of the well. When Jacob tells them to water the sheep now, they're the men who say, well, we can't do that.

We got to wait for Others to arrive and then they're gonna move the stone for us so that we can water the sheep. Regardless what Observe what happens in verse 9, while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. And look at Jacob's response, verse 10. And when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother.

From what the shepherds of the three flocks that have already gathered have said, we would surmise that it may take 4 or more men to move the stone from the mouth of the well, but Jacob applies himself and rolls this stone away from the mouth of the well himself and immediately sets about to watering the flock of Laban that Rachel had just brought in. Clearly, Jacob, is a strong man. And I think the commentator Leopold is almost certainly right when he says that Jacob's joy at finding such a pretty daughter of Laban stirs him greatly and makes him strong.

We guys, us guys get that.

And Jacob doesn't mind showing off his strengths, just like we men like to display our strength before the women. In our lives. In fact, just this past week, my wife brought to me 2 jars of spaghetti sauce. And asked me if I would open them for her because she wasn't able to.

And so with great fanfare, I was very Jacob-like in Removing the stone from the top of the jars of spaghetti sauce so that my wife could get to that sauce. The only difference was I'm sure Rachel was impressed with Jacob's feet. My wife just rolled her eyes. But this is what Jacob is doing for Rachel here in this verse.

And this is a thoughtful thing for him to do, to remove the stone. And tend to watering her sheep like this, and it would have endeared her or him to her right away. Look at what Jacob does then in verse 11 after he's done watering the sheep. Then Jacob kissed Rachel.

Man, this is a great love story. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept. Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father. And that he was Rebecca's son and she ran and told.

Her father Kissing was actually a common form of greeting. In this day, but a strange man kissing a woman that he has just met was not normal at all. But Jacob would have kissed her and immediately said, I'm a relative. And then Rachel would have understood the kiss.

And she, upon finding out who this is, she takes off running to her father to go and tell him that One of Rebecca's sons has arrived. Look at verse 13. So when Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he, Jacob, related to Laban all these things.

Observe Laban's response to Jacob in verse 14. Laban said to him, surely you are bone of my bone, or you are my bone and my flesh, and he, Jacob, stayed with him for a month. And based on what happens in the coming verses, it's clear that Jacob is doing more than just staying here for a month and Sitting in Laban's basement playing video games. if you look at verse 15, it's evident that Jacob is making himself a part of Laban's household, and he's serving.

Lab and in whatever ways are needful, probably helping to take care of the sheep together with Rachel. So, so far, this is a great story, right? We're dying to know how this is going to turn out. God has done some amazing things for Jacob.

He's appeared to him in Bethel with a ladder and a vision and wonderful promises of many, many descendants. And God has been with Jacob on the rest of the journey, and here these things have just happened when he arrives in Iran. So he's made it to his destination, he's met up with Laban, and Jacob notices that Laban has a beautiful daughter named Rachel, whom he now gets to work with. Jacob now has a family again, living for a month in this home.

Isn't God good? Everything is working out so wonderfully and perfectly. And this brings us to the next development in this complicated love story. Number 2, Jacob asked Laban for Rachel as a wife in exchange for 7 years' work.

Observe what Laban does in verse 15 after Jacob had been at his house for a month. Verse 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? And before we're told of Jacob's answer to Laban's question, the narrator of Genesis wants to pause and fill us in on a few important details that serve as a context for Jacob's answer.

Every Hallmark movie features a crisis of competition. Between two potential mates and we see a foreshadowing of that competition here. In verse 16 and 17. In fact, look at verse 16.

Says now Laban had 2 daughters. The name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. And that's not all. In verse 17, the narrator adds, and Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.

It's hard to know exactly what is meant by the description of Leah's eyes. As being weak. Literally, the Hebrew says that Leah's eyes were tender, soft, delicate. sensitive, any of those English words.

together with the word weak are, could work as a translation of this Hebrew word that is used here. Some commentators look at the language here and take it to mean that Leah had eyes that were so sensitive to sunlight that she had to squint all the time and pretty much stay indoors. Many suggest that her eyes lacked a certain Appearance, a certain brilliance that was so highly valued in this part of the world. Timothy Keller suggests that this expression probably meant that Leah was cross-eyed or literally unsightly in Some way and all of that is quite possible.

It's probably worth noting though that it's actually in the realm of possibility that this description of Leah's eyes might be a positive description. It could be that the narrator is complimenting Leah and telling us that she had delicate or tender eyes, meaning that her eyes were refined and attractive. And if that's the case, then the narrator is simply telling us that her eyes were her most attractive feature, but there was really nothing else about her to brag about. So I'll leave that to you to figure out what is being meant.

Probably more likely it's a criticism. of, of her appearance, as it were, something was defective with her eyes and the appearance of Them. As for her younger sister, Rachel, though, we're told that Rachel was beautiful of form and face, and everyone is clear on what that means. Rachel had a beautiful face and a beautiful figure.

She was beautiful all around from head to toe. There was nothing about her that was not physically stunning. So not surprisingly, Jacob sizes up these two sisters and he makes his pick. Look at verse 18.

Now, Jacob loved Rachel. And keep in mind that Laban had asked him, tell me, what shall your wages be in verse 15, and in verse 18, the text says, now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, I will serve you 7 years for your younger daughter, Rachel. This is an amazing offer that Jacob. is making to Laban.

One year. Of labor. would have been a sufficient offer from Jacob. 3 to 4 years' wages would have been extremely generous.

7 years of wages clearly reveals the depth. of Jacob's infatuation with Rachel. Think about how much money you make in a year and then multiply. That by 7.

That's how much Jacob is essentially offering. For Rachel. This is the deal of a lifetime. Some commentators say that what Jacob is offering.

Amounts to almost 4 times as much. What would normally go for the purchase of a bride, and Jacob is offering 7 years of devoted service to Laban for his daughter, Rachel. This is a deal of a lifetime for Laban, but Laban, we're gonna learn a lot about Laban, and he's a slick character, and he plays it cool. Look at verse 19, Laban said, it is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man.

Stay with me. Notice that Laban does not exactly promise to give Rachel. To Jacob for 7 years labor. He just says it's better that I give her to you than give her to some other man.

There's no promise here, he's just stating an observation and the only instruction he gives to Jacob is stay with me. There's no promise in Laban's words at all, but Jacob is a man in love. He hears what he wants to hear, and in his mind, the deal is done. So observe what is said in verse 20.

So Jacob served 7 years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. In our modern era, we would have expected the text to say the opposite. Of what it says here We would have expected the text to read, so Jacob served 7 years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like 100 years. Because of his love.

For her, but that's not the way the text reads. Jacob, it is said, so loved Rachel, and he so wanted her to be his wife, that the seven year price that he was paying for her seemed like nothing to him. In fact, he came to love the work that was now occupying his time because he was doing it all for her, and that gave meaning to his work, and the time passed because of his love for her. But eventually the 7 years come to an end, and Jacob has paid his dues to Laban, and now it's time for him to get his wife and this leads us to The 3rd development in this complicated story of love and longing.

Number 3, Laban gives Leah as a wife to Jacob at the end of the 7 years. He doesn't give Jacob Rachel, as we're gonna see, he gives Jacob Leah. Laban may not have been counting the days and the years, but we can bet that Jacob was as he served these 7 years, and he comes to Laban. When these 7 years of service are completed, and he makes his demand, and look at the demand in verse 21, then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for my time is completed.

And then comes the first Freudian slip in the Bible. That I may go into her. Regarding Jacob's language here, Timothy Keller says that Jacob's language is unusually bald, graphic, and sexual for ordinarily reticent ancient discourse. Imagine saying to a father, even today, I can't wait to have sex with your daughter.

Give her to me now. The narrator of Genesis is showing us a man overwhelmed with emotional and sexual longing for the woman. Give to me your daughter. So that I can go into her.

Also notice in verse 21 that Jacob never names Rachel. Because he didn't feel he needed to. He just says, give me my wife. Laban's going to give him a wife, just not in the way that Jacob anticipates.

Observe how Laban responds in verse 22. So, Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. The Hebrew word that is translated feast is the word for drinking. which makes it certain that the party, the feast that is being described here is a drinking fest.

Of course, Laban would have reason to want to get Jacob as drunk as possible so that he would be more easily fooled by the scheme that is about to be implemented. As the party, this drinking fest went on during the day and the darkness of the evening came, observe what Laban does in verse 23. Now, in the evening, he, Laban, took his daughter Leah and brought her to him, to Jacob, and Jacob went in to her. Laban also gave his maid Zilpa to his daughter Leah, as a maid, which was a very common thing.

For families to do. So Laban would have presented a fully veiled Leah to Jacob. Jacob would have pledged himself to her and received her as his wife, and then we're told at the end of verse 23 that Jacob went into her consummating. The marital union through physical intimacy, all the while, amazingly, Jacob doesn't realize that it's Leah.

There's a lot of discussion of this in the commentaries. We can certainly fault Laban absolutely for his deception here, but there's no way that this deception could have been pulled off without Leah's cooperation. So she is probably just as guilty as Laban is. In fact, we can say that Leah is just as guilty of her part in this deception orchestrated by her father as Jacob was.

In his part of the deception of Genesis 27 orchestrated by his mother. But with the help of the darkness of the evening and the fact that Leah was veiled when she was presented to Jacob, and the fact that Jacob was almost certainly intoxicated to some degree, along with Leah's cooperation with this scheme. The whole scheme amazingly works and Jacob doesn't have a clue. Until the next morning arrives.

When the sun comes up the next morning, Jacob no doubt would have awakened a happy man, so happy to have the woman of his, of his dreams to live out the rest of his life with. But at some point, he would have turned to look at his beautiful bride for whom he has labored for 7 years, and in the growing daylight, as he looked upon His bride, he could see what he could not see or did not see the night before. Look at verse 25, and this is one of the most astonishing verses. In all of the Bible.

Verse 25, so it came about in the morning that behold, It was Leah. Can any of us begin to imagine Jacob's dismay? Laban has played about as mean of a trick. On Jacob as anyone could ever play, and the irony of it all, guys, is just absolutely stunning.

Back in Genesis 27, Jacob had deceived his father into thinking that he, Jacob, was his older brother Esau, and he got his father to give him the blessing that his dad had intended to give to Esau. And here Jacob is deceived into thinking, That Leah is her younger sister, and he pledges his life to her and gives himself to her sexually on his wedding night. And in the morning, he discovers the deception and what jarring words these are in verse 25. It came about in the morning that behold, It was Leah Jacob sees Leah in the light of a new day and realizes that he married the wrong woman.

As we can imagine, his disappointment and his anger just one day into his marriage is unspeakable. I think there is a slice. of Jacob's disappointment here that I think all of us can Resonate with. Most of us, in fact, most of us who are married for any length of time would Maybe not all, but most of us would confess that there have been moments when we thought we married the wrong person.

I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands. But I think if we're honest, most of us would say yes, there have been moments where I thought I might have married the wrong person. We thought we had married one particular person, but at some point thereafter we found ourselves wondering where that person went. And we're shocked and saddened to discover that the person we married was not everything we thought they were.

We discovered that they're more broken than we had imagined. And I think we can say that Jacob's experience here is true, not just in marriage, but it's true, guys, of almost anything we put our hope and our confidence in, whether it's a spouse or, or something else. And his commentary on Genesis, Derek Kidner enshrines the words of verse 25. As everyone's testimony to one degree or another.

Speaking of these words, Derek Kidner says, this is a miniature of our disillusionment, experience from Eden onward. And that's so true. As Timothy Keller says in his book, Counterfeit Gods, no matter what we put our hopes in, in the morning, it's always Leah. Never, Rachel.

Keller then gives this word of counsel to men going into marriage, and this would apply to women as well. He says, no person, not even the best one can give your soul all it needs. You're going to think you have gone to bed with Rachel and you will get up and it will always be Leah. This cosmic disappointment and disillusionment is there in all of life, but we especially feel it in the things upon which we must set our hopes.

And that's precisely what's happening to Jacob. In the most painful of ways. No man ever wanted a woman. Or longed for a woman.

More than Jacob did Rachel, and he discovers in the morning after his wedding that Rachel is not what he got. He got someone else. What would you do? If you were Jacob What does Jacob do?

This brings us to the next development in this complicated story of love and longing. Number 4, Laban gives Rachel as a wife to Jacob in exchange for 7 more years' labor. Look at what Jacob does in verse 25. And, and Jacob 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? You might want to underline that word deceived because we've seen that word before in Genesis. Jacob is morally outraged by what Laban has done, and we all understand his outrage, but how can Jacob be morally outraged when he engaged In a very similar deception.

With his own father. In close proximity. In Genesis 27. What is this you have done to me?

he asked Laban in righteous indignation. He then says, why then have you deceived me? And the very word that Jacob uses to speak of Laban's deception is the word that Isaac used in Genesis 27:35 to describe Jacob's deception of him. The irony It's so powerful here.

As Jacob is receiving. The very deception. That he had rendered and foisted upon his dad. Look at Laban's response, this guy's such a rascal.

But Laban said it is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the first born. OK, fair enough, but if that's truly the custom of the place, don't you think that would have been good to let Jacob know prior to his wedding night? But ever the wheeler and dealer, Laban offers a solution. Hey, I, I think I got a way we can move forward from what's happened here, verse 27, he says, 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 7 years.

Back in this day when a bride and a groom got married, there were 7 days of feasting and celebration, a week of feasting and celebration. So when Laban says complete the week of this when he's saying, let's finish off this week of celebration for you and for Leah, and then after that, on the 8th day, I will give you Rachel in exchange for you right now agreeing to serve me for another 7 years after that. Well, Jacob had offered 7 years of labor for Rachel and that was amazingly generous.

But now Laban is adding 7 more years to that.

And amazingly, Jacob complies rather than insisting that he's already served his time for Rachel, which he could have done. Look at verse 28. Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave Hi, his daughter Rachel as his wife. So Jacob went with Laban's plan.

He completed the week of celebrations with Leah, and then Laban gave to Jacob his daughter Rachel as his wife. Laban also gave his maid Bilha to his daughter Rachel. As her maid. It's actually amazing and commentators talk about this, how compliant.

Jacob is. It seems that Jacob knows that this is the disciplining hand of God upon him for his former deception of his father. And so he goes along with Laban's demand and submits to this. The commentator Leopold says it this way, for one who has been so grievously wronged, Jacob submits rather tamely after all.

One cannot help but feel that the memory of the treachery he practiced on his brother and his father was being refreshed strongly and sealed his lips from making further accusations. The justice of God's retributions seems to have overwhelmed Jacob. And made him very docile on this occasion. Now Jacob felt.

What it meant to have deceit practiced on one in reference to things that are especially prized. OK. So lesson learned. Jacob submits, goes with the plan, but now he has to live with this reality day by day.

He now has 2 wives in 8 days, a less attractive one that he didn't even want and a beautiful one that he did want. And they're sisters. And this sets things up for a very painful chemistry in Jacob's household from the very outset, which brings us to the 5th development in this complicated love story. Number 5, Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah.

Look at what the text says in verse 30. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban for another 7 years. Notice the word indeed.

Which could be translated surely. Jacob didn't just love Rachel more than Leah, he surely loved Rachel more than Leah. His preference for Rachel over Leah was a very strong preference in this chasm of difference in his love for Rachel compared to his love for Leah was obvious. To both Rachel and Talia.

Guys, from the beginning, God intended marriage to be the union of one man to one woman for life. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. That's God's design from the very outset of the Bible and throughout the Old Testament, God allowed for the practice of polygamy, a man having more than one wife, but almost always as you read through the Old Testament, these kinds of marriages created household problems that would blow our minds today.

You think family life is complicated.

try living in a household like this. There are problems that are created, conflicts that help to illustrate why this was never God's ideal from the beginning. And actually, Jacob's circumstances are even worse than polygamy. In fact, later on in Israel's history, the Old Testament law will forbid a man from having sisters as his wives.

And we can imagine why a man being married to two sisters and bringing sibling rivalry into the marriage is about as toxic of a family situation as a person could ever find themselves in. But this is now Jacob's daily reality. And it leaves us asking what R. Kent Hughes asked, where is the angel freighted ladder now?

And the answer, guys, is that that ladder that Jacob saw in Genesis 28 is still there. In his life God had promised to be with Jacob, and God's not bailing out on Jacob now. God doesn't say this is too complicated for me. I can't do anything with this.

God is still with Jacob. He's still with Jacob in this dysfunctional family situation. God had also promised Jacob that his descendants would be like the dust of the earth and that coming forth from Jacob would be a company of peoples. And God stays true to those promises, and we see the beginnings of that in The next few verses, and this leads us to the final development in this story.

Of love and longing. Number 6, Jehovah gives the unloved Leah 4 sons. Look at what God does in verse 31 and following. Now the Lord or Jehovah saw that Leah was unloved.

He saw this. And he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Literally, the Hebrew reads, now the Lord saw that Leah was hated. And he opened her womb The use of the word hated doesn't mean that Jacob detested Leah.

It just means that his greater love for Rachel made Leah seem unloved and perhaps even hated by comparison. But we see here that God saw this. You may find yourself This morning in a marriage where you're not being loved by your spouse the way That you long to be. You may even say, I think I'm hated by my husband, by my wife.

God sees you. And he sees exactly what's going on. Leah was seen by God. And he saw that Leah was hated and he opened her womb, but Rachel was left barren, verse 32, and Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, which means see.

A son Meaning God saw me. And gave me a son For she said, because the Lord has seen my affliction. Notice the word she's using there to describe her life, it's a life of affliction. But then she says, surely now my husband will love me.

She's revealing so much here. she, she views her life clearly as one of affliction. It's an affliction for her to live in a home where her husband loves another woman a lot more than he loves her. But she recognizes that God has seen her in her affliction.

She feels noticed by God, she feels loved by God, and her thinking is, is wonderful here. Yet her orientation is still very much around her husband. She's looking to the birth of this first child to cause her husband to love her like he should. Surely now my husband is going to love me, she says.

She's now excited about the future, thinking that this new child will change things and that she will now get the love from her husband that she craves. But time goes by and her hopes become dashed. Observe what happens in verse 33, then she conceived again and bore a son and said, because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son also, so she named him Simeon, which means heard. Again, the Hebrew word translated unloved is actually the Hebrew word for hate.

Leah is literally saying the Lord has heard that I am hated. And she concludes that God has given her this second son as compensation for the fact that she is hated by her husband. So think about what's happening. She's had two sons.

She's basically named her first son Sean. And her second son, Heard. Memorializing the fact that God has seen her affliction and heard that she is hated. Imagine meeting a woman who's given her sons names for that reason.

You come up to such a woman and say, wow, Ruben, Simeon, those are cute little boy names. Why did you give them? Those names. And imagine the wife saying I gave them those names to represent the fact that God sees and hears that my husband hates me.

And I'm hoping that my husband will start loving me now that I've had them. That's exactly what's happening here. Anyway, even after the 2nd son is born, nothing changes and Leah's and Jacob's relationship. Jacob is still not loving her like he does Rachel.

So look at what happens in verse 34. She conceived again and bore a son and said, now this time my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him 3 sons, therefore, he, this 3rd son was named Levi. Leah is likely at a very low point here. In great pain.

She isn't even mentioning the Lord at all now. Her only thought is that now that she has 3 sons, my husband will become attached to me. So literally, she named her son Attachment. That's what the name Levi means, enshrining her hope that her husband will now be more attached to her because she has given him 3 sons.

But then observe what happens in verse 35. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord. And therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

You notice anything different? About what she says after the birth of Judah compared to what she says after the birth of her 1st 3 sons. It's clear here that Leah has experienced something of a breakthrough in connection with the birth of Judah. Something wonderful has happened in her heart.

This is the first child born to her in which she has nothing to say about her husband, Jacob. His lack of love for her or her longing for him to love her. As he should, her focus is now only on God, and she says this time. I'm just gonna praise Jehovah.

And so she named her son Judah. Or Yehuda. And the four consonants in the name Yehuda. Are in the name Yahweh or Jehovah.

And the root of this word means praise. And it's at this point that Leah stopped bearing sons for the time being. It seems that Leah is in a good place spiritually when Judah is born. Perhaps she intuitively knows that there's something special.

About this son that God has given to her. Perhaps she's now focused on the bigger picture of what God might be doing through her circumstances. Perhaps it is not coincidental at all. That Leah is completely focused on Jehovah and praising him when this 4th son is born, because it is from this son, Judah, Yehuda, that the Messiah.

Will come into the world. We'll stop here for Today, but let me just talk about Leah for a few minutes as we wrap things up. when Leah first shows up in the storyline, She's actually an unwanted character. If this were a Hallmark movie, we all would have been rooting for Rachel.

And we would have viewed Leah as an unwanted intrusion in the storyline, but she ends up in God's providence being married to Jacob and the story of chapter 29 ends up being more about Leah than it is about Rachel and more about Leah than even Jacob. She steals The show, as it were. And it turns out there's real substance to this woman. Yes, she's in a mess of her own making, but she knows Jehovah and believes in Jehovah, and she recognizes that Jehovah sees her and hears her in her pain.

And she's not perfect in her orientation, but she's honest about where her heart is, and she allows God to take her from a place of being obsessed with getting love from her husband to simply resting in Jehovah. And praising Jehovah for his goodness to her. Leah's circumstances are enough to break any Any woman's heart. And break their spirit as well.

And maybe some of you ladies resonate with Leah in this chapter. She was mistreated by her father. who forced her into a marriage to a man who didn't want her. She's unloved by Jacob and has to live with watching her husband adore another woman day after day.

And every day Leah has to look in the mirror and be faced with a reminder that she's not. And never will be as attractive physically as her sister is. She gives her son or her husband 3 sons, and all of them fail to convince her husband to love her. Yet, these being her circumstances, after her 4th son, she says, this time, I will praise Jehovah.

What a warrior. A woman of valor, this woman is. What in the world does Leah have to praise the Lord for? Well, for one, she has A God who sees her, she is a God who hears her.

She is a God who loves her, even though her husband doesn't. She has a son named Levi and hopes that Levi will help her husband become attached to her, but little realizing that the descendants of Levi would function as priests who would be nurturing. The attachment of the people of God to God Himself. And she has Judah, from whom will come the Messiah, who is, guys, the Messiah, Jesus Christ is the ultimate groom, who will always treat us right and he will always love us as he should.

And his love will always make up for any ways that anyone else in our life fails us. Leah's circumstances were painful. And guys, she didn't know a fraction of what you and I know today of Jesus Christ, yet she was able to say with her limited knowledge, this time. I will praise Jehovah.

And more. than Leah did. So whatever your circumstances are today, please know that God sees you, that God hears you, that God loves you, and that he gives you the perfect groom in Jesus Christ. Find your reason for praise in Him.

We can also learn here from our story this morning, just from the fact that God would choose Leah to be the mother. The ancestral mother of the Messiah. God does not see and he does not choose as man sees and chooses. Leah did not have the physical assets that her sister had, but she's the one that God chose to be the ancestral mother.

Of the Messiah And I wanna encourage you girls with this physical beauty. is overrated The fact that you are not as physically attractive as some other person that you're comparing yourself to is absolutely no hindrance to God using you. In powerful ways. You may find yourself thinking if I can, if I can't be beautiful like so and so then I'm a nobody.

That's not true. That's a lie from hell. It wasn't true for Leah and it doesn't have to be true for you. God delights to use those who are deemed less beautiful in the eyes of the world and use them for his mighty redemptive purposes.

And you should be asking what good might God want to do in me and through me to further his redemptive plan for the ages. That's true, beauty. Speaking of Jesus, he was the son of Leah. Ultimately, and he was a lot like her.

In Isaiah 53:2-3, we learned that Jesus had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. There's nothing physically about Jesus. That would have caused people to be attracted to him like they might be attracted to someone who physically is more beautiful. He was despised and rejected of men.

When the Jews were given the choice between Barabbas and Jesus, they said we want Barabbas. He came into his own people and his own people did not receive him and love him as they should have. Jesus knew what it was like to be unloved by those who should have loved him, but he embraced all of that. He was the ultimate son of Leah, and it was through his affliction, through his suffering, and the rejection that he experienced at the cross.

That he thereby provided for us atonement. For our sins and salvation. If we'll believe in Him and let ourselves be embraced and loved by Him, and God has exalted this one to his own right hand to the highest position of honor and authority. And all of the universe.

Will you look to this son of Leah and believe in him? For those of you that are God's children, will you put your trust in Jehovah, who delights to use the broken and the unloved. And even the unattractive and do wonderful things to them. May, may we just become consumed with Jehovah, this wonderful God, as Leah is and say, what, these are my circumstances right now and they hurt and they haven't changed.

Like I've been longing for them to change and I don't see them changing, but this time, I will praise Jehovah. May that be your response and my response. Let's pray together. Lord, this story that we've seen today is so crazy, and yet it is so true to life.

And we resonate on many levels with the different twists and turns of what we see in this chapter. More than anything else, Lord, I just pray that you would remove the scales from all of our eyes, whatever our circumstances may be and help us to behold you and all of your beauty and all of your glory, and may we find rest, may we find hope, may we find joy in your arms alone. May your beauty and your love for us be such that We're actually OK if we don't get the love and the honor.

And respect that we wish we could receive from those who are called to actually give that to us.

Whatever our circumstances, Lord, may we join this amazing woman, Leah, in an awful situation and say this time. I will praise Jehovah if I never praise Him again this time today, right now in these circumstances of longing. and despair and pain and affliction. I will praise Jehovah.

We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, and we ask, Lord, that you would receive. What we give in this offering and do much with all that is given for the, the glory and the fame of Jesus Christ here in this community, through this local church and around the world to the missionaries that we support. It's in his name that we pray, and all God's people said,