Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're in Genesis chapter 29. Have your Bible ready if you can. reading in Genesis chapter 29 says Jacob went on his journey he's on his journey and he came into the land of the people of the east and he looked and behold a well in the field And, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well they watered the flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. Verse 3 says, And thither were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we? And he said unto them, Know ye Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well. And behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. And he said, Lo, is it yet high day? Neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together. Water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth, then we water the sheep. And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son. And she ran and told her father. Well, like all the Bible, I guess we have a very interesting portion of scripture here. We got some sheep. They're lying by the well, verse two. Verse three, they're waiting for the stone to be removed. In verse 6, Rachel comes along with some more sheep. In verse 7, Jacob says, let's water these sheep. And in verse 8, they say, no, it's not time to water the sheep. Well, verse 9, again, it focuses on the fact that Rachel's coming with her father's sheep. So Jacob just goes ahead and takes over and rolls away the stone and waters her sheep. Interesting. Now, sheep. Sheep take a daily requirement of water. An adult sheep will drink about one to two gallons of water a day or about four liters. And one thing about the water for the sheep, the water is vital. They have to have it. And one of the things a shepherd has to be very careful of is that he is continuously observing the water, that it is not going to be contaminated or it's not going to hurt the sheep. Tremendous lesson here. Well, it's kind of interesting here that the first thing that Jacob does is he takes control. He says here in verse number 7, hey, it is yet high day, neither is it time for the cattle should be gathered together. Water the sheep and then go feed them. I think that's kind of brazen that he walks in here. Nobody knows really who he is. He doesn't really know them and he's already taking over. Water the sheep. Why is he so concerned about getting these sheep watered? Well, look at verse number eight. It says, and they said, we cannot until all the flocks be gathered together. until they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, then we water the sheep. And while he yet spake, here's the secret here, while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. Oh, right away, he's got an eye on this young lady. And so he goes over when he saw Rachel, it says in verse number 10, It came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled a stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. And the next thing you know, we find in verse number 11, I don't understand this, it says that he kissed her. Now, here's this stranger coming along. Now, it does explain here in the next verse, 12, that Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father. So I think it's obvious here that she understood that this was family relationship here. And so in any event, the thing is, the reason he was so concerned, I think, about getting these sheep watered was the fact that he was going to go over there and be the macho man here, And he's going to roll away the stone because he is trying to impress Rachel. Well, as you read down through verses 11 through 14, you have details of a family reunion. They get together here and they're talking about things. And it's an interesting little portion of scripture where Jacob tells them all the things that have been going on in his life. And then when you get down into verse number 15, what happens here is Laban says basically, well, let's get down to business. It says here that in 14, that Laban said unto him, surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month. So they've been just reminiscing and having a good friendly time and visit. For about a month now that's not going to continue laban said unto jacob Because thou art my brother shouldest thou therefore serve me for not tell me what shall thy wages be so right away we saw way back in a previous broadcast that laban has a focus on business. He's a businessman. He likes to make money. Well, it says here, what are we going to do? What shall your wages be? Let's talk about it. Let's get down to business here. And it says in verse 16 that Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Now, it says that Leah, verse 17, was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. Now, this word tender-eyed is interesting. In 2 Samuel 3 and verse 39, it has been translated weak. And so some, some eyes, you know, especially young ladies, uh, so they have very beautiful eyes and some they're just kind of dead. This is what we're looking at here. So quite frankly, we're looking at a very, very beautiful sister and a not so beautiful, uh, sister. We got two girls here. One is, is just, you know, I guess they come to phrase the ugly sister. I think that's kind of mean. But in any event, Leah was not pretty and Rachel was beautiful and well favored. Well, it says in verse 18 that Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve these seven years for Rachel, the younger daughter. Now keep in mind, they've been together here for about a month. And so it wasn't that he just, you know, fell in love with her. I think he, I think he obviously was attracted to her when he went and watered her sheep. In any event, he said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Laban said, it is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed unto him, but a few days for the love he had to her. Jacob said unto Laban give me thy wife for my days are fulfilled that I may go in under her it's interesting that Jacob had tell Laban I think he would have let him work for eight years if he hadn't noticed the time but oh yeah he's noticing the time and he said now it is time I want my bride and so again we read in 21 and Jacob said unto Laban give me my wife for my days are fulfilled that I may go in under her and And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. Now that's what they did in those days. Going to have a big party here, going to have a wedding. And it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him and he went in under her. Now they came, and they were, in those days, they were all veiled, and so you couldn't really see, and he had no idea that he was getting the not-so-pretty sister here. And so, and said, and Laban gave unto his daughter Leah, Zilpha, his maid, for a handmaid, And it came to pass that in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And he said unto Laban, What is this that thou hast done unto me? did not I serve thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? Well, you know what the Bible says? It says, if you reap what you sow, if you sow deceit, you're going to reap deceit. What did he do? We have here the younger and the older. Listen to what he says in verse 26. Laban said, it must not be so done in our country. to give the younger before the firstborn fulfill her week and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve me yet another seven years well you said yeah i forgot to tell you about this part but but we don't marry the younger sister first we got to marry the older one first that's i should have told you that but yeah yeah what is he he is a deceiver Well, what happened here was we got the older and the younger. Now, if we rewind back a few chapters here and look at what had happened and what Jacob did, he was deceiving the older and the younger brother. You remember this story. Now, the Bible says, Whatsoever man sow, that shall he also reap. If you're going to sow deception, you're going to reap deception. And it doesn't matter who we are. God is no respecter of persons in this area. You look at Paul the Apostle. He was a great man of God. He gave his life totally, 100%, consecrated to the will of God, consecrated to the Lord himself. He gave his life. He's out there serving. Now, one day we find that he goes into one city, and what did they do? They stoned him, and they left him on the side of the road for dead. Well, that's not very nice. No, I'll tell you what it is, though. It's reaping what he had sown. He stood there, and he held the clothes while they stoned Stephen. Well, whatsoever you sow, you're going to reap. It doesn't make much difference whether you call yourself a schemer by the name of Jacob, or whether you call yourself Paul the Apostle, who was used to God to write two-thirds of the New Testament. Whatsoever you sow, you reap. That is a Bible principle. Well, we mentioned earlier that Jacob is on a 20-year learning process here. And he's going to learn that once you, well, the chickens come home to roost here. He gets a lot of deceit in the next 20 years. So he says in 27, fulfill her week and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve for me. yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. And he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren." Now, you know, we're looking at this, we say, well, you know, he's got two wives, and we read all that through the Bible, people having more than one wife. And this and that and the other thing, God must put a stamp of approval on that. No, all he's doing is giving us some history here. This is history. The Bible tells us what happened and what didn't happen. The Bible didn't condone it when they lied about who Esau was and who Jacob was. God didn't condone that. He just told us what they did. And God never condoned multiple wives, ever. All he did was tell us what they were doing back there. It's just giving us the history. of the whole thing. Well, we see here that the Lord saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren, and Leah conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction, now therefore my husband will love me. Can you imagine being that kind of a wife, living in that situation? And so she said, well, now my husband will care. And she conceived again, and bare a son, and said, because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon. And she conceived again, and bare a son, and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore was his name called Levi. And she conceived again, it says in verse number 35, and this son she called Judah, and there she left off bearing. Well, then we can see in the next chapter Rachel gets upset, but we're out of time, so we'll have to take it up in our next broadcast. Be sure and tune in. We'll try to make it plain, and we will try to make it simple.