Jacob's Final Stretch Home

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis 35, Genesis chapter 35 for our time of study and God's word this morning. We're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Genesis, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Genesis 35. Verse 16 and my goal today is to cover verses 16 through 29 and the title of the message is Jacob's Final stretch Home. Jacob's final stretch home.

Our passage today. Reminds us that sometimes the scriptures And the scripture is, sometimes raw and untamed. It is not domesticated, it speaks of things that disturb us and unsettle us, and it tells us the unvarnished truth about things that happened in the lives of its greatest characters and our passage today does exactly that. Yet we're told by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 15, verse 4 that all such passages such as we will look at today.

were written for our instruction that through the perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. And may God help us to find hope in our text, today. Many of you have probably heard something along the lines of the statistics that I am going to share here the statistic that 30% of automobile accidents that you will get into will happen within a mile of your home. 52% of car accidents happen within a five-mile radius of your home and 70%.

Of accidents happen within a 10 mile radius of your home. These statistics cause one person to ask the question, if 70% of all accidents will happen within 10 miles of your home, why not just move to another house? Might be good advice there. But seriously, I think about those statistics on the screen behind me whenever we are returning from a long road trip.

Like our return from a family reunion that happened in Albuquerque a few months ago. The last thing I would want to happen is to make it 720 miles from Albuquerque to Riverside and then do something careless. In the last mile or two that causes us to get into an accident when we are so close to home. So I always, I think about the stats and I try to be extra alert in the final stretch toward home.

I found myself thinking about the statistics as I studied our text for today and our passage that we're gonna look at today. We're gonna find Jacob coming to the end of what was probably about a 570 mile journey from Pedaram. To what will be his home at his father's house. And in the final 15 mile stretch of that journey, There are 2 tragedies that will strike in our passage today.

A beloved wife is going to die. And Jacob's oldest son Ruben is going to commit a terrible immoral act. That will leave another one of Jacob's wives defiled. Jacob's final stretch to his father's house in Hebron will be marred by tragedy, but he will make it.

To his destination as God. had promised. To appreciate what happens in our passage today, we should go back in time a few decades to a vow that Jacob had made. During his first stop at Bethel, about 30 years prior to our passage today, you guys will recall that Jacob is on the run from Esau and heading up to Pedaram and God appears to him at Bethel and makes some promises to him.

And among his promises are is this promise, he says, I will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. And in response to God's promises, Jacob makes a vow to God and listen to the vow that he makes to God in Genesis 28:20. He says, if God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, And I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be. My God.

Not one of the conditions of Jacob's vow. His vow is premised on him returning to his father's house in safety. So Jacob goes on from there up to Pedaram and after being there for 20 years, God speaks to Jacob, and in Genesis 31:3, he says to Jacob, return to the land of your fathers and return to your relatives, and I will be with you. Ultimately, the call.

From God to Jacob to return to his relatives is a call to return ultimately to His father's house. So in both Jacob's thinking and in God's thinking, the finish line of Jacob's journey back to Canaan was his father's house, which we will find today is in Hebron at this point. And Jacob's return to the land of Canaan. We have seen Jacob meet up with Esau just south of the Jabok River, and reconcile with him.

We saw him turn north from there and settle in Sucoth for a while and then we saw him move from there and settle in Shechem for a time. Then last week we saw Jacob make a move to Bethel and we saw him carry out An important element of his vow to God there. And there is now yet one more leg in Jacob's journey from Paaram, and that is the final stretch from Bethel. To his father's house in Hebron, which we will look at today.

This is the home stretch, a home stretch that will not be without its blessings, but a home stretch that will have its share of heartrending pain as well. The way we'll break down our study of this passage is we'll look at 4 events connected to the final stretch of Jacob's journey. Home to his father's house. And the first event that we encounter in this passage is, let's put it this way, Rachel dies.

And is buried after delivering Benjamin. Observe what happens in verse. 16 So then they journeyed from Bethel, and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor. As every woman knows, all labor is bad.

Amen. But what Rachel is experiencing is more than labor. She's experiencing severe labor. And we're told that this severe labor is happening when they had some distance to go to Ephrath, which we learned later is another name for Bethlehem.

You get the impression that Jacob and everyone would have preferred to have reached Bethlehem before Rachel went into labor, but things did not turn out as they probably would have wished. The labor was severe enough that Rachel and her midwife began to fear that the child would be lost, but eventually, the baby is born. Observe what the midwife says to Rachel in verse 17. The text says when she, Rachel, was in severe labor, the midwife said to her, do not fear, for now, you have another son.

That's the good news. The child lives, and it is a son. And the fact that Rachel's midwife would say this to assure Rachel is because Rachel's fears evidently were not for her own well-being, but Her concerns were regarding the life of the child that was being born. Though they are having this son.

On the road under conditions of severe labor, the baby survives and now Rachel has another son. That's good news. The other reason that Rachel's midwife would speak this way to Rachel is that this gift of another son is actually an answer to prayer that Rachel had prayed over a decade prior to this moment. You will recall that when Rachel had given birth to her first son, Joseph, the text says in Genesis 30:24, she named him Joseph saying, May the Lord give me another son.

Literally, the Hebrew text could be rendered in this way, she named him Ad, ADD. It just hit me, not because he had ADD but She named him Ad as in addition, saying, may the Lord add to me another son. The very name that Rachel gives to her first son, Joseph was in itself a prayer request for one more son and now Rachel's midwife is telling Rachel that her prayer has been answered. That's the good news.

The bad news though is that Rachel is dying. Observe what happens in verse 18. The text says, and it came about. As her soul was departing, for she died.

That she named him Ben O'Keee, Ben O'Kee. With her dying breasts, Rachel gives her son a very sad name. The name Ben Oni means son of my affliction, son of my sorrow. And it's understandable that Rachel would give her son this name.

Given the severe labor and the fact that she is dying from it all, but this is actually a morbid name. To give to a son and for that son to have to live with for the rest of his life. Basically, such a name means I am the son who afflicted my mother to death. Henry Morris, the commentator is right, I think, when he says, quote, that Jacob realized it would be an unhealthy burden for his son to carry such a name through life.

So he gives his son a different name, a better name. Rachel named her son Ben Ani, but in verse 18, the text says, but his father called him Benjamin. Ben Yamin. Meaning son of right.

Or son of the right side, son of my right hand. According to the Jewish Hamash, the name means Son of Power. or Son of strength since the right hand is the symbol of strength. Jacob clearly is wanting to get Benjamin a name that would encourage him, a name that he can live up to.

But observe what happens in verse 19. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. You will recall that in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve had sinned, That God told Eve that in pain she would bring forth children. And here we see for the first time in scripture, a woman actually dying while giving birth to a child.

Rachel is the wife whom Jacob loved, the wife he labored 14 years to have, she was precious to him. The wife who had given him Joseph, and now, again, another son, and she dies. And the fact that she dies on this journey means that Jacob's family will not be intact when he reaches his father's house. His beloved wife, Rachel will be missing from the family photo.

When they arrive There's actually a few sad ironies regarding Rachel's death that are worth pondering briefly here. Let me give you 4. Sad ironies. to ponder for a few moments.

The first is that as we've already seen, Rachel prayed for another son after Joseph was born, and God answered her prayer. And her answered prayer is what brings about. Her death The second irony is that about 15 years prior to this moment, Rachel saw that Leah was having children and, and Rachel was so frustrated with her own barrenness that she came to Jacob one day and said, Give me children or else I die. In Genesis 30:1.

Rachel's pain of childlessness was such that she felt like childlessness was killing her. Yet here she is in our passage today actually giving birth to a son, and it's the birthing of a son. That kills her So childlessness was so painful to her that she felt like it was killing her and having a child actually did. Kill her.

And all of this is evidently in God's sovereign plan, but it does serve as a reminder to All of us to humbly trust God's providence when he withholds something from us that we may want really bad. A third irony. In Rachel's death is that in Genesis 31:32, Jacob had unwittingly uttered an oath. To Laban regarding Rachel.

Rachel had stolen her father's household idols when they had left Param. And started heading for Canaan and Laban caught up to Jacob, you will recall, and he said to Jacob, why did you steal my gods? And Jacob responded by saying, the one with whom you find your God shall not live. Well, Rachel is the one who had those gods in her possession, and though she never got found out on that occasion, there are writers out there who suggest that here in Genesis 35, Jacob's curse came true.

With Rachel's premature death. I'm not saying I agree with that. But it's worth pondering, and I have to wonder if Jacob ever pondered. That himself.

A final irony. Here in Rachel's death. While delivering a child is that God had told Jacob earlier in this very chapter to be fruitful and multiply. And in obedience to that call, Jacob causes Rachel to conceive and give birth to yet one more son, yet giving birth to that son.

Kills her. So the result we end up with is that Jacob's obedience to God's command to be fruitful and multiply ends up bringing about the death of his beloved wife. This is a sad twist of Providence that we have no choice but to just simply trust God with. We'll come back to this particular point at the end of our message this morning.

Nonetheless, after Rachel's death, we're told at the end of verse 19 that she was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. And then we're told in verse 20 that Jacob set up a pillar over her grave, that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day, Moses says. So Moses is writing over 400 years after Rachel's death and burial, yet here he is telling the Israelites that they're is at the present time, a pillar over Rachel's grave, all the way up to the day in which the sons of Israel are hearing this story being read to them.

This tells us, this means that Jacob would have deliberately built this structure to last intentionally for a long time, not simply for his own benefit, but for the benefit of his descendants hundreds of years down the line.

It makes you wonder if he intentionally built such an enduring monument with an eye of faith toward the future. Knowing that his descendants will receive encouragement from it when they return. To the promised land in a future day. You'll be interested to know that Rachel's tomb still stands today just north of the modern day city of Bethlehem.

Not every scholar out there agrees that this is actually the site where Rachel was buried, but there are solid scholars. Who suggests that Rachel's burial place is undoubtedly on the very spot that tradition. has assigned to it. Rachel's tomb is actually the 3rd holiest site in the land of Israel today, and it's a place full of pathos.

Many women and men who are unable to have children will go to this site and they will weep and they will pray and ask God to give them the gift of children. Jacob here in our passage today has lost his wife and He has sought to honor her with a very visible grave and a pillar over that grave. Then observe what the text says in verse 21. The text reads, then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Edder.

If I had a bell up here to ring, I would ring that bell right now. Do you notice anything different? About verse 21. Anything at all This is the first time that the narrator of Genesis.

Calls Jacob Israel. And the flow of the narrative as it's unfolding here. You'll note that after God named Jacob Israel back in chapter 32, the narrator of Genesis still kept calling him Jacob. Even after God reminded Jacob of his new name earlier in this chapter, Genesis 35, the narrator still continues calling him Jacob.

But here after the death of Rachel, the narrator says, then Israel journeyed on. It is significant that Jacob is called Israel. At this point, for the first time by the narrator of Genesis, it tells us something about Jacob's state of mind as a man of faith behaving in this moment of sorrow in a way that is befitting to his new name that God had given to him. There's no doubt that Jacob's heart is broken over the loss of his wife, Rachel.

But if anything, he seems to grow stronger in faith through this loss, not weaker. He lets it make him better. Not bitter. As one writer says, Jacob bore his grief as his newer, better nature helped him to do, and he moved on a chastened but a more seasoned saint of God.

Jacob does not lose his faith. Because of this tragedy, he grows deeper in his faith and he journeys on as Israel. But how hard that had to be for Jacob to, to journey on. And with each passing step grow further and further and further away from The buried body of his beloved Rachel.

But that's what all of us must do when a loved one passes away, right? We have no choice but to journey on. Even though the world is a less interesting place because of the absence of that loved one. But Jacob does that.

He travels as far as the Tower of Adair and he sets up camp. There several miles away from. The burial place of Rachel. We actually don't know where the tower of Eder is.

The expression literally means tower of the flock, which means that this was a shepherd's tower used by shepherds to look out for their sheep. The area surrounding Bethlehem was an area that was rich in pasture for sheep, so Jacob probably was not too much further south of Bethlehem. In the direction of Hebron where his father lived and was waiting for him. All we're told here is that Jacob ended up setting up camp somewhere beyond the tower of Edder.

Jacob settles here for a time. Right now he is anywhere from 5 to 10 miles from his father's house in Hebron and while living in this location. With his heart still feeling sorrow over the passing of his wife, another painful thing happens. Where sin raises its ugly head and Jacob's family.

And this brings us to the 2nd event connected to Jacob's final stretch home. Number 2, The 2nd event, Ruben, Jacob's son, lies with Jacob's concubine, Bilha. Reuben, Jacob's son, lies with Jacob's concubine, Bilha. Observe what happens in verse 22.

It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilha, his father's concubine. And Israel heard. Of it This verse is the only thing found in this chapter about this incident and the brevity of this account is revealing in itself. As one writer says, the extreme brevity with which this episode is related reflects the writer's horror at it.

As bizarre and as sinful and as disgusting as this incident is, it is actually not without its own sinister rhyme. And reason, and it has everything to do with the fact that Rachel just died. In the previous verses. As the commentator Bruce Walke says, Ruben's shameful act is motivated more by politics than by lust.

And the politics that he's talking about is family politics. And let me try to unpack this for you as best I can. Keep in mind that Jacob had 4 wives through whom he had sired children. He had Leah and then Leah's maidservant, Zilpa, and then Rachel and her maidservant, Bilha.

This is not God's plan. To have multiple wives, but this is what Jacob and his brokenness did. Of these four women, Rachel, we've learned already is the one that Jacob loved most of all, and this favoritism of Jacob toward Rachel was a source of constant pain to, to Leah, and no doubt to Leah's children as well. Leah's children would have remembered very well.

How Jacob lined up the family back in Genesis 33 when Esau and his 400 men were approaching. Jacob put Zilpa and Bilha and their children in the front and then Leah and her children behind them, and then Rachel and Joseph, Jacob put in the very back, to guarantee that Rachel and Joseph would be the most protected and have the best chance of escape. So Leah and her children would have known very clearly how they rate. With Jacob compared to Rachel and Her son Joseph at the time.

Well, Rachel's death, Rachel was Jacob's favorite wife, the one he loved. Her death now puts the family in flux. And it sets in motion the question about who is going to be Jacob's primary wife and most beloved wife going forward. In the mind of Ruben, Rachel is gone.

And now the only threat to Leah becoming Jacob's primary wife is Bilha, who was Rachel's servant maid, and there's a reason Ruben would especially fear her. Given Rachel's death, It almost certainly now would fall to Bilha to be the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, the baby. So chances are pretty high that Jacob might grow more attached to Bilha. And make her his primary wife in the days ahead, adding further insult to Leah and to her children.

And Ruben is not allowed, not about to let that happen. In fact, in the Jewish Talmud, Ruben is represented as saying at this moment, if my mother's sister was a rival to my mother, must the maid of my mother's sister be a rival to my mother? So in a calculated move, it seems, Ruben lays with Bilha and he defiles her. Knowing that it would ruin her as a wife for Jacob and guarantee that Jacob would never have relations with her again.

Some of you guys know that later in the Old Testament, when Absalom is seeking to gain the throne from his father David, Absalom will have relations with each of David's concubines. And after David prevails over Absalom and his victorious, we're told that David took those concubines whom Absalom had violated, and according to 2 Samuel 20:3, We're told that David provided these concubines. sustenance, but did not go into them, so they were shut up until the day of their death, living as widows.

Jacob probably would have done something very similar with Bilha after what Ruben had done to her.

At the very least, Jacob would never elevate Bilha. To the status of his primary wife after Ruben defiled her in this way. And thus, Ruben's mother, Leah would be left with no real rivals. From a selfish perspective, as the first born son of Leah.

Ruben wants Leah to be Jacob's primary wife because there were certain benefits that would accrue to him. And being the first born son of his primary, of the primary wife of his Father, namely, it would serve to enhance Ruben's own preeminence in the family. And Ruben may have justified his sin by saying that, hey, I'm just looking out for my mother. But he's really just looking out for himself.

Well, how does Jacob respond to this terrible sin, this crime that Ruben commits against his father? All we're told in verse 22 is that Israel heard of it. That's it. And then the verse ends.

We're told nothing about. Jacob's reaction. In verse 22. But we do guys see his reaction later in the text of Genesis.

In fact, years go by and in Genesis 49, Jacob is on his deathbed and he speaks to each of his children, and he begins with Reuben. And listen to what Jacob says to Ruben before he dies. He says, Ruben, you are my first born. And by the way, this is the time to bless your sons with the final parting word.

He says, Ruben, you are my first born, my might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. So far, so good. Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. These were Jacob's final words to Ruben before he breathed his last.

Imagine that. Listen to what is said in later in the Old Testament in 1 Chronicles chapter 5 verse 1, explaining how Reuben lost the birthright that should have gone to him as the first born son of Jacob. In 1 Chronicles 5:1, the text says Reuben was the firstborn of Israel, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel. So that he, Ruben, is not enrolled in the genealogy according To the birthright So Ruben's firstborn privileges.

Went to the two sons of Joseph, who were Ephraim. And Manassa. You even see this, by the way, when you look at a map of the 12 tribes. Of Israel.

Normally the first born back in this day would receive the largest portion of the father's inheritance, but if you look at a map of Israel, After all of the land was allotted when the children of Israel came into the promised land, you see that the land belonging to Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are the largest of all. And significantly larger than what The tribe of Reuben ends up getting, as for the sons of Leah, it's Judah, the 4th born son of Leah that ends up getting the largest share.

But what a mess. What a mess here in Genesis 35.

And this is all happening in Jacob's family while Jacob is on the home stretch toward his father's house in Hebron. With a doubly broken heart. And broken family, Jacob continues on his journey toward his father's house in Hebron. All of us are rooting for Jacob.

And his family to get to his father's house in one piece. Yet last week we saw that Deborah dies in Bethel. Then we see today that Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin on the way to Bethlehem, and now this happens with Ruben and Bilha. This all leads to A third event that is connected to Jacob's home stretch.

His final stretch home. To his father's house. Let's word it this way, with his 12 sons, Jacob comes to his father. In Hebron At this point, the narrator of Genesis takes the opportunity to take stock of Jacob's.

Family as it stands at this point. Basically, verses 22 through 26 are a photo of Jacob and his 12 sons who will be the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel. Observe what the text says. In verses 22 through 26, it says now there were 12 sons of Jacob, the sons of Leah.

Who were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issakar and Zebulon. The sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, and the sons of Bilha, Rachel's maid, Dan and Naftali. And the sons of Zilpa, Leah's maid, Gad. And Asher.

These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paaram Now we know that the 1st 11 sons of Jacob were born to him in Pedarim, but we were just told that Benjamin was clearly born in the land of Canaan. So it may seem weird that we're being told that these are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Param, but understand that Jacob does not at this point view his journey from Padaram complete until he arrives at his father's house in Hebron. So we can paraphrase the last part of verse 26 in this way, these are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in connection with his Param sojourn.

Or before his pedanaam sojourn was completed.

Finally, observe how Jacob's journey. Comes to a climax in verse 27. Jacob came to his father, Isaac at Memra of Cioth Arba. That is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.

It is now and only now that it can be said that Jacob has returned to his father's house, his home. At Bethel, Jacob had said in his vow, if I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God and it is here that God clearly has shown himself faithful to bring Jacob home. To his father, Isaac. When scholars put the pieces of the timeline of Jacob and Isaac's life together, they figure that Jacob is arriving in Hebron about a decade or so before Isaac passes away.

So Jacob would have arrived home at a good time. Giving him more than several years, 10 to 15 years back home with his dad before his dad would breathe his last. I'm sure Isaac was happy to have his son home with grandsons and a granddaughter to dote on. And I am sure that Isaac was happy to know now that when he dies, all of the wealth And all of his full legacy as the promised son of Abraham could now safely pass.

To Jacob And this brings us to the 4th and final event that we'll look at today connected to Jacob's final stretch toward his father's house. Number 4, Jacob. Or Isaac dies and is buried by Esau and Jacob. Isaac dies and is buried by His sons, Esau and Jacob, observe what is said in verse 28, says now the days of Isaac were 180 years.

Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, an old man of ripe age. This actually means that Isaac lived longer than Abraham, who died at the age of 175, and we're told that he died, an old man of ripe age. Literally the Hebrew reads, an old man and satisfied with days, telling us that Isaac died a satisfied and a happy man. Notice the language of verse 29.

Also, the text says, Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people. Notice that expression, he was gathered to his people and notice the sequence of events in the passage. Isaac breathes his last, and he dies, and then he was gathered to his people, and then in the next verse, he's buried. So whatever it means to be gathered to his people, It is something that happens to Isaac after he dies and before he was buried.

Language like this from the narrator of Genesis actually indicates that the narrator believed that there was a life after death for Isaac and for the people whom Isaac is now joining on the other side of death. Martin Luther says, if now there is another people apart from those among whom we live, there must be a resurrection from the dead. Another commentator says that this expression used here by the narrator denotes the reunion with friends who have gone before and therefore presupposes the personal continuance of men.

After death.

Isn't that encouraging to see that at this point of Genesis? Clearly the language of Isaac being gathered to his people after death assumes that there is life after death, there is community after death with people. And the afterlife beyond death, this is a doctrine that clearly gets more developed in the New Testament, but we're blessed to see indications of this doctrine here in the Genesis account. Anyway, the chapter ends on a note of wonderful unity between Esau and Jacob.

At the end of verse 29, the text says, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried. Hi. Esau and Jacob have had a stormy history that ended wonderfully in reconciliation a decade or so prior. And, and here, we find them unified in their grief and in their mutual effort to honor.

Their father We're not told this in our passage this morning, but we find out in Genesis 49:31 that Jacob and Esau buried Isaac in the cave of Machpela, where Abraham and Sarah were buried. Which is also in Hebron. You'll be interested to know that this burial place still stands to this day. It's one of the holiest sites in all of Israel.

You see the picture of it on the screen behind me. And it holds the bodies of Abraham. And Sarah The bodies of Isaac and Rebecca. And the bodies of Jacob and Leah.

Keep in mind that Isaac's death is recorded here simply because Isaac. No longer figures into the story of Genesis as it will continue to unfold when you put the timeline. Together, you realize that Isaac is actually going to still be alive during the events of some of the upcoming chapters. In fact, he will live up until the events of Genesis 41.

Isaac is going to be alive when Jacob's sons lie to their dad and tell them that Joseph was killed by a wild beast. And sell him into slavery down in Egypt. Isaac will die right around the time that Joseph is rising to 2nd in command over all the land of Egypt. Isaac will not know that though, when he breathes his last.

He will die about 10 years before everyone in the family discovers the wonderful news that Joseph is still alive and ruling in Egypt. But here in our passage today, Isaac dies in faith. With the story of redemption, far from finished, as all the patriarchs did, but you and I today, we live in the fulfillment. That they never got to see with their own eyes.

With the death of Isaac now, all that was Isaac's now becomes Jacob's. Or Israel's. Israel's wealth combined with the wealth he now inherits from his father makes him an extravagantly wealthy man, a true prince of God. And it's at this moment in the narrative of Genesis that Jacob now comes into his own as the only standing patriarch facing toward the future that God has for him and his descendants as the patriarch of the nation of Israel from whom our Messiah is going to come.

It's been an amazing journey for Jacob to get to this point here at the end of Genesis 35. His heart has been broken along the way many times. His failures have been many. But God has stayed true to every one of his promises.

Just as God will stay true to his promises to you and to me. As we wrap things up today, let me just ponder a few things that we can learn from the heartbreaks of our passage. Today and even some of the ones that preceded this passage. One of the things we learn in our passage today is that evidently a person who is genuinely blessed of God can also experience heartrending pain in his life.

God had promised to bless Jacob. We've seen many indications of God's clear blessing upon Jacob, yet we also see great heartache coming to Jacob as well. He gets lied to by Laban and gets tricked on his wedding night into marrying a woman that he didn't want. Jacob experienced hardship under Laban's hand for a number of years.

Jacob's daughter Dinah experiences rape, his sons commit mass murder. Ja Jacob experiences the loss of Deborah. At Bethel, he loses his beloved wife, Rachel during childbirth and his son Ruben sleeps with one of his wives. causing Jacob to lose her as a wife as well.

And all of these painful things happen in the life of a man upon whom the blessing of God rested. My point Here is that the presence of God's blessing on your life does not mean, and it should not be taken to mean that God will never allow you to experience heartache and pain. We live in a broken and a fallen world. We are broken and fallen ourselves.

Even with the grace of God at work in us. So even the most blessed among us will taste our share of heartache in this world. Heartache that only serves to make us long for the consummation of history and the glories. Of heaven Another thing we can learn from our passage today, and this is the flip side of what I just shared, is that the presence of heartache and pain in your life does not mean nor should it be taken to mean that you must not be genuinely blessed of God.

Sometimes when we experience pain, we allow ourselves to be deceived into thinking that the presence of this heartache in our life. Must mean that Evidently we're not blessed of God at all. But that's not true. Even if you are reeling from heartache.

And pain, there are genuine blessings of God that you can look to and thank God for if you belong to Christ. This is true for Jacob as well, even as Jacob is grieving Rachel's death. Even as Jacob is grieving what Reuben did to Bilha, even as he grieves his father's passing, he can, even in those moments of grief, fall back on the promises that God had spoken to him on a handful of occasions. He can remind himself of how God appeared to him at Bethel twice and at Peniel when he wrestled with him and blessed him there.

He can thank God for delivering him from Laban. And delivering him from the hand of Esau, and delivering him from the hand of the Canaanites, and he can thank God for the 13 children that God had given to him and for the grace that God showed to him and to his whole family at Bethel. And he can thank God for the fact that God is going to use him somehow, as broken as they are as a family, that God is going to use him and his descendants to bring blessing to all the families of the earth, extending to us here in this room today.

If you're a believer in Christ, you are a blessed one.

Even if you're being slammed with painful circumstances and losses in your life right now, even through those hardships, God is working all things together. For good and for His glory. And for your eternal good. Coming back to the matter of Rachel's death while delivering Benjamin, I would ask you, does it, does it seem offensive to you?

That God commands Jacob to be fruitful and multiply and then in obedience to that command, Jacob causes Rachel to conceive a child that ends up killing her. While she was delivering him. Does it bother you that Jacob's obedience to God's will results in the death of the wife whom he loved most of all? On one level, it should bother all of us.

It should sadden us deeply. But we should also realize that And God accomplishing his plan to bring salvation to us in this room. The accomplishing of that plan resulted in the death of his own beloved Son Jesus. And God was willing for that to happen.

Realize that Jesus knew that his own obedience to his father's call to bring salvation to the world would result in his own death. Yet Jesus was willing to undergo that death so that through his death we might be saved. Jesus prays for us in John 17. Yet the fulfillment of his prayers for us in John 17.

will result in him dying in order to be fulfilled. And Jesus prayed for it anyway, and he was OK with that. And Isaiah 53:4, we're told that Jesus was smitten and afflicted. In Isaiah 53:7, we're told that he was oppressed and he was afflicted.

And the Hebrew word for afflicted in both of those verses is the very word that Rachel put on the back end of her son's name, Ben Ani. If there ever was a bend a knee. A son of affliction, it was Jesus. Who endured the ultimate affliction at the cross so that we might be saved.

Through him. He's really the only one worthy. Of that name Greater love has no one than this. Jesus says that a man laid down his life for his friends.

And that's what Jesus has done for you and for me. And if you have never If you have never called upon his name for salvation, please respond to his love and call on his name. Today And lastly, one more point. Can we close the sermon this morning by taking a moment to thank God for Benjamin?

The son whom Rachel died delivering. Were it not for Benjamin. Our New Testaments would not have the book of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and about half of the Book of Acts. If it weren't for this final birth of Jacob's last child, Benjamin, whom Rachel died delivering, there would have never been a Saul of Tarsus, of the tribe of Benjamin, who would be converted by Christ on the road to Damascus and become Christ's apostle named Paul.

Who ended up authoring 25%. Of our New Testament So the story we've studied today is actually our story. It's the story of the unfolding of God's plan of redemption that all of us are benefiting from today. Of how a nation will arise from Jacob's 12 sons, and from that nation will come a Messiah who will bring us salvation.

Our passage today is a small part of a long story of how something like even the Book of Romans came about. And how it came to us through the hand of the apostle Paul. who himself points us back to passages just like what we've studied today. And he says to us that whatever was written in earlier times.

was written for our instruction that through the perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. It's Romans 15:4. Hope as we walk through this broken world with frequently broken hearts, hope as we walk that final stretch towards our Father's house. The house that he has promised that he will bring us safely to.

Let's bow our heads together. Lord, none of us knows where we are in the journey that we are on. There may be some in this room, Lord, have one day of life left. They may not live to see the sun set today.

Some in this room may have many, many more years. We are thankful, Lord, that you are a promise keeper. And that where you guide, you provide, and you called Jacob back to his father's house and you brought him. To his father's house and you kept every promise.

But Jacob's heart was broken and busted into 1000 pieces along the way, not just in the last leg of the journey, but all along the way. And he himself stumbled and failed and brought various hardships on himself. And what a mess if all we did was look at Jacob. What a mess his whole journey has been.

And yet he ends up at the destination that you had determined. Through all the ups and downs. And wavering to the right and to the left. The times of coasting.

The times of growing stagnant, the times of sin, deception, failure, through all of that mess, Lord, there is the bright red line of your faithfulness in his life. Which not only shows your great love for him and for his family, but your great love for all of us because you were moving history forward. With a long term plan, transcending centuries and millennia to bring salvation to the world through Jesus Christ and to save us in this room. And so many others.

Whose lives we can touch with the gospel. So we thank you for Passages like this today, Lord, that remind us. Of these things. And thank you for your goodness.

Your commitment to your aim. To bring salvation to sinners like us. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to give our offerings to you at this point of our service. We ask that you would receive the offering that we give to you and do much with all that is given for the glory of Jesus Christ and the spread of the news.

The gospel news of salvation through Him and empower our witness as we seek to deliver that message to many. We surrender ourselves to you in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said,