Well, if you have a copy of the scriptures this morning, let me invite you to take your Bible and turn to Genesis chapter 29. Genesis 29. And if you've been worshiping with us, you know that we're in a series on these Lord's Day mornings through Genesis. We've been doing this for quite a while. We looked at the opening 11 chapters and we took a little bit of a break. And then we came back a few months ago and started in Genesis 12. And we've been looking at the inspired account of the so-called patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And at present, we're in the account of the life of Jacob. And so we're going to look at the entirety of Genesis 29. I'm going to read just a small portion of it. I'm going to read verses 1 and 2, and then verses 15 through 20. but we will, God willing, look at the entirety of this chapter in our message. But let me invite you, as you're able, let's stand in honor of the reading and hearing of God's Word. Again, I'm reading from Genesis 29, wherein Moses writes in verse 1, Then Jacob went on his journey, and 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. And then verse 15, And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou therefore serve me for naught, tell me, what shall thy wages be? And Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. And Jacob loved Rachel and 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. May God bless today the reading and the hearing of his word, and let us join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, once again, as we stand before the open Bible, And we stand before Thy Word written. We ask that You would give us the illumination of the Holy Spirit. That we would understand from this not merely a secular record of history, but we would see the Word of God as it speaks unto us today and directs and shapes our lives. Give us light. Open our eyes. Open our ears. Open our hearts. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. And you may be seated. Again, we've looked at Abraham. We've looked at Isaac. We've looked now at Jacob, among the three patriarchs that are described as God entered into a covenant with men through the seed of Abraham. And Abraham was the chosen man. And then his son Isaac carried forward the blessing. And then we got to the third generation There were twins, Esau and Jacob, in the womb of Rebekah, but it was Jacob, the younger, upon whom the blessing of this covenant rested. And we hear it described back in Genesis 28 and verse 4 as the blessing of Abraham, the promise made to Abraham will be fulfilled through the line of Isaac and then through Jacob, and then it will go many generations until the fullness of time. From that line will come the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, if Jacob is going to fulfill these covenant promises that were made to Abraham, that from Abraham there would arise a great nation that would be a blessing to many people, to many families of the earth, then that means that Jacob must have children, right? The line must be perpetuated. And so in every generation there was a crisis as to whether or not this promise was going to be fulfilled. And so what we see in Genesis 29 is that Jacob must have a wife and he must produce children. if this promise is going to be fulfilled. Much as we saw it with Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was barren. How would she have a child? Then they conceived Isaac in their old age. But Isaac and Rebekah, they were also barren. And there was a threat to the fulfillment of the promise. Here, is Jacob going to have a wife? Is he going to have children? Is the promise going to continue through this line? Is God going to keep his word? And you remember that when Isaac was a young man after the death of Sarah, Abraham was worried about getting him a wife, not just that he would have a wife, not just any wife, but that he would have a wife who was a godly woman, a woman who knew the one true God of the scriptures. And that's the Christian standard, that we not be unequally yoked, that the first test of finding a mate, does that person share with you a like precious faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? And so you'll remember in the days of Abraham, Abraham had sent his servant to the land of Haran to people from his own family group who knew Jehovah to find a wife for Isaac. And now Isaac sends his son. He doesn't send a servant this time. He sends his son. Why? Because Esau was threatening Jacob's life. You remember back in chapter 28, verse 1, Isaac had given this command to Jacob. And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said unto him, thou shalt not take a wife. of the daughters of Canaan, arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother." And so Isaac had commissioned Jacob to do this. And so Jacob now is setting out on this journey. And God had also promised Jacob. Remember back in chapter 28, verse 15, the Immanuel principle or promise. And behold, I am with thee, the Lord had said to Jacob, and will keep thee in all the places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. So the Lord had promised. Jacob, that he would be with him. And so we're seeing lots of things, obviously, in this account, this inspired account of the patriarchs. One of the great themes we're seeing is that of election, God's sovereign choosing. God chose not Esau, but he chose Jacob. And so there's the theme of God's sovereign choosing. How is it that we come to know the Lord? We think usually in the beginning it's that we found God. And then at some point it dawns upon us, usually when we read through the scriptures, that we love him, as John said, because he first loved us. We thought we found him, but he found us. And so God has chosen Jacob. And then another one of the great themes we've come back to, we were talking about this last week, I'm sure we'll talk about it again, is the doctrine of providence. And the word providence, the English word providence has within it also that English word provide. God chooses men for salvation, but he also provides for them. Christ said to his disciples, I will not leave you as orphans. I will be with you. And so God chooses. whom he pleases for salvation, brings men to the faith, changes their hearts, takes away their hearts of stone, gives them hearts of flesh. And then he provides for them. Sometimes we may be thinking, God, you're not providing what I really want. And sometimes the answer to us is, yes, you're right. You don't know what you really need. I'm providing you what is according to my will. Sometimes your wants are wrong. He must be chastened, corrected. But He provides everything that we need to give Him glory and to be a blessing to man. I suggested as a title for Genesis 29 for this message, The Lord's Provision for Fallen Saints in a Fallen World. We live in a post-Genesis 3 world. Genesis 1 and 2 describes the pre-fall Edenic perfection. Genesis 3, a man and a woman eat of the forbidden fruit, and the fall begins. Sin begins to warp things. We live in a fallen world. And Jacob, though he is God's chosen, though he is a believer, he's a fallen saint. He's a fallen believer. That is, in this world, even as believers, we have remaining corruptions within us. If the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 could say, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Don't you think that we non-apostolic ordinary Christians will also find the rub in our lives of remaining corruptions? We have been saved by Christ on the cross, we are being saved, and we will be saved. God is doing the work he saves, he provides for us, he is sanctifying us, but we are not now what we one day will be. We are fallen saints living in a fallen world. And in this fallen world, there are other people who will sometimes make mischief for us. We're going to see a man named Laban who will make a lot of mischief for Jacob. God allows Labans to make mischief for us. He will allow us sometimes to be buffeted by the sins of others. It'd be enough if He just let us be buffeted by our own sins. But He also lets us be buffeted by the sins of others. But He always does so with a good purpose, the purpose of bringing Him glory and, in the end, giving us more of a blessing than otherwise we would experience. Some of the things in Genesis 29, for example, fall short of God's glory. For example, God's design in the pre-fallen world, Genesis 1 and 2, in Edenic perfection, was that there would be one man and one woman in a one-flesh union. Genesis 1.24, a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. In Genesis 29, though, we're going to see Jacob take two wives, sisters, Leah and Rachel. And he'll also have two concubines, the maids of these respective wives. And this is one of those points where, we've made this point before, it's an important part of what's called hermeneutics, which is the ability properly to interpret the scriptures, to rightly divide the word of truth, is that we must understand we're reading some passages in the Bible, like this one. We must understand the distinction between what is descriptive and what is prescriptive. There are lots of things in the Bible that describe sinful behaviors and actions, but the purpose is not to promote that. There's a difference between what is descriptive and what is prescriptive. Prescriptive is when the scriptures are telling us this is how you ought to live. And there are plenty of places where there is prescriptive instruction. But we need to understand sometimes this is a scribe for us not to say, oh, it's good to go out and marry a couple of sisters and then have a couple of handmaids as well. And no, that's what happens in a fallen world. And God is still at work in that fallen world to work out his purposes. The moralist will have a hard time with Genesis 29. The person who reads the Bible and every story and passage and narrative within it as though it's some sort of simplistic moral story in which the protagonist always behaves in a moral manner. No. Jacob is a fallen saint in a fallen world. And the overarching point is that God has chosen him and God is providing for him, and God is sanctifying him, and most importantly, God is working out a plan of salvation through the seed of Abraham across many generations that will only come to flower when the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes from this line, will be born in Bethlehem with the mission to go to the cross and to leave an empty tomb and to ascend to the Father's right hand with the promise that He will come again. God has the long view. See, we have the short view. We see only what happens in our lives. We're like somebody on the ground who sees all the trees, and we're not in the plane seeing the forest and the land and all the prospect. We're seeing only a limited way. So the things that happen to us, we're like, oh, why did God let this happen to me or that? We don't see the bigger picture. God is always looking at the bigger picture. If anything, we are meant to ponder the sovereignty of God. But as we'll see also his mercy and compassion on fallen saints in a fallen world. Well, let's turn and let's see if we can walk through the passage. And if we look at this chapter in the authorized version, I know there are different printed editions of the authorized version, but most of the ones that follow what's called the Blaney revision, they have what are paragraph divisions. They were put there by the original translators. Now, they weren't part of the original text. If you had this text in Hebrew, you wouldn't see those. But those godly Protestant men who translated the Bible into English They tried to give the reader some help and they divided this long chapter into parts. And if you have an authorized version, they would put these, they're black, look like peas, paragraph markers. And they divided this chapter into five parts. And I don't know if you've noticed this as we've been preaching this thing chapter by chapter, a lot of these chapters are divided into five parts. And I don't know why they did that. Maybe they were thinking, hey, there, there's the five books of Moses in the Old Testament. And we're going to divide this into five parts. Sometimes it'll be four parts, sometimes three, but they divide this into five parts. And so, uh, versus one through eight is the first part versus nine through 14, the second, um, 15 through 20. And now I've misstated it, haven't I? There, there are, there are, yeah, that's five. There's 21 through 30 and 31 through 25. And the story is going to continue. God willing, next Sunday, we'll go on to Genesis 30, and you'll see how the story will continue. But for today, let's see if we can walk through Genesis 29 and pick up on this theme, especially of God's providential care for fallen saints in a fallen world. So let's start with verses 1 through 8. And I describe this as Jacob arrives in the land of his people. And so it starts off, sounds like a travelogue, just a simple description. Verse one, then Jacob went on his journey and came into the land of the people of the east. So he goes on his journey, he sets out But God is at work. God is orchestrating the circumstances so that Jacob will gain a wife from his homeland who knows the Lord. There's a proverb that I think has a lot of meaning. It's Proverbs 16, 9. It says, a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. We go through our lives. It seems that we are autonomous, and we are. We exercise our wills. We make decisions and so forth. But the believer recognizes, as Solomon did, that while a man's heart deviseth his way, the Lord is directing his steps. And so this is not a coincidence. This is not an accident of history. Jacob arrives at this place because God is orchestrating a provision for him. And in verse two, we learn that he comes to a place where there was a well in a field and there were three flocks of sheep by it. For out of that well, they watered the flocks and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. Now, if we go back and look at Genesis 24, Abraham's servant had found a wife for Isaac at a well. Remember, it was Rebecca who came out and said, can I water your camels? Draw water for you and your camels. And that was the sign that this was the person that God had chosen. Here, it simply says he comes to a well. But we're anticipating, ah, maybe a wife is going to be found here. And it's interesting how Even this makes me think about the New Testament, because what happens in John chapter 4? Christ goes to a well and meets the Samaritan woman. And so it's a place of divine appointing for something significant to happen at this well. And there's a stone upon it. Having water was a precious commodity. Why'd they put the big stone on it? Maybe so that it couldn't be adulterated or poisoned. but also maybe so that people who didn't belong to couldn't come and sneak and take it. And so there was this stone upon it. And we read then in verse 3, 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. Verse 3 is basically what I would call a procedural, giving us procedural information. What happened at this well? They would bring the flocks, they would remove the heavy stone, roll it away, and then they would feed the flock. And there are already some men there. There are three flocks of sheep there. And Jacob begins to speak to them in verse 4. He says, my brethren, whence be ye? In other words, where are you coming from? And they said, of Haran are we. Well, Haran was the land that Abraham had left to go to the land of promise. We could meditate a little bit on that question. My brethren, whence be ye? My brothers, where do you come from? Jacob is testing or discerning to see if these men be of his kin. And it's a mark, somewhat, I think, at least, of Jacob's godliness that he knows that it's proper to express discernment. You know, there are a lot of things in this world that run under the cover of Christian. that run under the cover of biblical. And one of the first things we have to do if we meet somebody who says, hey, come to the Bible study is, oh, whence be ye? From what perspective are you coming? What are your theological beliefs? Are you really part of my true kin or false brethren? But he, in this case, is approaching this on a very practical level. And when they say they're from Haran, that's his homeland. So in verse 5, he investigates further. Know ye Laban, the son of Nahor? Son here is used loosely because Laban was actually the son of Bethuel, who was the son of Nahor. But Nahor was the patriarch of that Haran family. And they respond, we know him. And so he knows that these are people who are are the very ones that his father wanted him to choose a wife from. He's in his homeland. God has providentially directed him. And he goes through the pleasantries in verse 6. He asks, is he well? Meaning, is the patriarch of the household well? At this point, it was Bethuel or even Laban, right? He's asking about Laban. And they say, he is well. And behold, Rachel, his daughter, cometh with the sheep. God is orchestrating a meeting here between Jacob and Rachel. The name Rachel, interestingly enough, in Hebrew means you, a female sheep. And so Rachel, the shepherdess, means a female sheep is coming to bring the flock to water them. Verse 7 says, And he said, lo, it is yet high day. Neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together. Water ye the sheep and go and feed them. So he asked these guys, well, why haven't you already watered your animals? And in verse 8, they respond, we cannot until all the flocks be gathered together till they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep. And that's actually the protocol that was described in verse 3. So they say, this is our practice, we wait. When the stone is removed, then we will water the flock. By the way, think New Testament for a minute. Can you think of a situation where there were people who said, we can't go there till the stone is rolled away? The women at the tomb. We can't go there till the stone is rolled away. The second part of our passage, then, is verses 9 through 14. And we'll describe this as Jacob in the providence of God meets Rachel, his beloved. Even as they're speaking, in verse 9 we read, And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. What a woman this is. She's a beautiful woman, as we'll see, but man, she can go out there and take care of the sheep. She's sort of ideal wife here. Ideal wife material. Verse 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's interesting. He saw her and he also saw the sheep. She comes from a prosperous family. So she's kind of got everything going for her. That Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. Now remember, these guys with three flocks there, they had not yet removed the stone because they were waiting for help to get it done. And this is sort of a flex by Jacob. I see him walking toward the well with a little bit of swagger. And he says, I'll take care of that for you, little lady. And he removes the stone. This stone, it's a feat of strength and prowess. He's like Samson. And whereas in Genesis 24, Rebecca was shown to be the woman who would be the wife of Isaac because she watered, gave water to Abraham's servant and to the camels. Here, Jacob takes care of watering. the sheep of Laban and Rachel. And so in verse 11, we read, and Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. Now, this verse could be misunderstood because I think the kiss that he gave to Rachel was most likely not a romantic gesture, but it was a greeting. If you've ever, you know this, in many Middle Eastern cultures to this day, when you meet someone, you give them a kiss on the cheek sometimes. I've told that before when we lived in Hungary, that was the practice there, still is. You meet someone and they have a saying in Hungarian, I kiss your hand when you meet someone, because it was the way you greeted someone sometimes, it was by giving a kiss, sometimes to the shoulder, sometimes to the hand, or to the face. And so I don't think it was a romantic gesture, but it is interesting after she comes. In addition to that, we're told that he cried out even with tears. Why is that? Because I think it dawned on Jacob that God had directed him there to this woman who would become his wife. He saw the Lord's hand in this, and he's marveling and exulting in this. He had not yet been schooled in Reformed Stoicism. And so he can respond with a cry and tears as he sees God's hand. In verse 12 we read, 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, so he lets her know the family connection. They are part of the same kin, and they share a common faith in God. And she understands, I think, what his purpose is, that he's there to find a wife. But she runs to tell her father, Laban. Verse 13, And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him, We don't think that has a romantic connotation, does it? This backs up my interpretation of verse 11, that this was simply a greeting. And brought him to his house, and he told Laban all these things. What did he tell him? He probably told him, I have left. I've been sent here by my father Isaac to find a bride. Verse 14, and Laban said to him, surely thou art my bone and my flesh. Laban recognizes the kinship that they have. He says, we are the same bone and flesh, and you extend hospitality to him. And we're told that he abode with him the space of a month. It's interesting that, you know, although this in some ways happens quickly, it also happens slowly. that Jacob is there for a month. And I've said before that young people here that you're going to make a lot of important decisions in life about a lot of things. Us adults too. And in most cases, it never hurts to take your time. To take your time and to consider it, pray about it, think about it. And for a month, he's there. This takes us to the third part of our passage, which is verses 15 through 20, the part I read at the start of the message. And this describes how Jacob served Laban for seven years to gain the hand of Rachel. And so he's explained to Laban what he's there for. He stayed there a month. And then finally, Jacob and Laban have this sort of a father and a quarter conversation. Verse 15, and Laban said unto Jacob, because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for naught, tell me what shall thy wages be. So he says, you've been here with me for a month. You've been working for me. What wages do you need? And I think he understands well that the wages he wants is the hand of Rachel. In verse 16, we learn, however, that Laban has not one but two daughters. And Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. The elder was Leah, the younger was Rachel. And there's a theme in Genesis. We've seen it before. It was there with Esau and Jacob. And sometimes it's called the blessing of the second born. Esau was the first born, but Jacob was the one who was chosen to bear the promise of the blessing of Abraham. Leah is the older, but it's Rachel who is the one upon whom Jacob has set his affections. It's interesting also that whereas Rachel means you, Leah means in Hebrew cow, female cow. In verse 17, we have a description of Leah. It says, Leah was tender-eyed. That's the authorized version translation. Some modern translations say that she was weak in her eyes. Interpretation of this is that perhaps she had some sort of vision impairment. She may have been blind. I've heard it suggested that she was cross-eyed. There wasn't modern eye care, and so sometimes people could get eye diseases. It was a very common thing of all the people that Christ meets and heals of blindness in his public ministry. However, there are some modern interpreters who have suggested that the word here should be rendered as soft, indicating that her eyes were delicate, dainty, or pretty. In other words, she had nice eyes, which may have been a way of saying she had a nice personality. But Rachel, oh my, hubba hubba. She had everything. She had everything. Look at verse 17. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. I can hear Leah now around the house. Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. Everyone's always talking about Rachel. And of course, we read in verse 18, And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. He offers to serve Laban without wages for seven years of his life. That's a big chunk of a man's life. For seven years to obtain Rachel. And in verse 19 we read, and Laban said, it is better that I give her to thee then that I should give her to another man abide with me. In other words, he accepts the offer. And that's really striking. I read a commentator pointed this out because Laban was always driving a bargain. You know, in this, in this world, you, you were always haggling over the price. You offer a price and he gives, he says, I'll give you seven years. Laban says, you got a deal. So He thought it was a great deal. Didn't even need to give a counter offer. The negotiation was over. In fact, how would you like if a man came and worked for you seven years for free? Came to your house every day for seven years and you just gave him things to do? And he took no wages for it? You just had to have your daughter marry him at the end of those seven years. That was the sort of arrangement that they worked out. And indeed, in verse 20, it says, and Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days. It's a Hallmark movie, isn't it? It's just seven years seemed just like a couple of days to get the lovely Rachel. And this was so for the love, end of verse 20, he had to her. But as we will see, this isn't a Hallmark movie. because Laban is deceptive. And this takes us to the fourth part of this chapter, verses 21 through 30. Laban deceives Jacob. In verse 21, Jacob comes to ask for his wages. He said to Laban, give me my wife. Notice he says, my wife. But notice also, although he meant Rachel, he didn't give her name, did he? Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled that I may go in unto her, that I may have her and live with her as my wife. And in verse 22, we read, and Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. And so he begins the preparations for the wedding celebration, the wedding feast. And in verse 23, read, and it came to pass in the evening when it was dark, and after Jacob had been feasting, which included probably drinking all day, and he took Leah, his daughter, probably veiled, and brought her to him, and he went in unto her. And so now we see that Laban is crafty and he deceives Jacob. There's a bait and switch that takes place. And if we've been following along, we know that perhaps we could say there is some justice in this because Jacob had also deceived his father. Remember? He deceived his father. He had taken the birthright and blessing of Esau. So he had been a deceiver. And now there seems to be a sort of what goes around comes around as he is also being deceived. We read in verse 24, yes, verse 24, that Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid. So not only did he give his daughter Leah, but he also gave her handmaid, her servant, to the household of Jacob. And this is important because she, too, will bear two sons for Jacob. We'll see this in Shetler 30 verses 9 through 12. They will be Gad and Asher. But then in verse 25, in the morning, everything comes into the light of day. And it came to pass that in the morning, I love the description. Moses didn't have to say a lot. It came to pass in the morning, behold, it was Leah. Not Rachel, not beautiful Rachel, but it was tender-eyed Leah that Jacob discovered that he had married. And he said to Laban, verse 25, what is this thou hast done unto me? Did I not serve thee for Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? Some of the same language that's used here in his protest were the same protest that was given by Isaac and Esau. But Laban is the sort of fellow who always has an answer. And so he's got some self-justification for his action. He explains in verse 26, it must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. And so he fills himself with righteousness, justification. What I did was totally proper because in this land, young man, we don't let the younger daughter marry before the older. And so that's why I gave to Leah first. And then he's got a follow-up deal for Jacob. Verse 27, fulfill her week, that of Leah's wedding week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me, yet seven other years. Oh, yeah, well, that's fine. You've got Leah. You had to marry her first. Just give me seven more years. And what did Jacob do? Verse 28, and Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. And at the least, though, after the bridal week, he did give Rachel, his daughter, to wife also. And just as he gave a handmaid of Leah to Jacob, he also gave the handmaid of Rachel unto him. And Laban, verse 29, gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her maid. And so this woman also, in the providence of God, will bear two more sons for Jacob. We read about this in chapter 30, verses 3 through 8, Dan and Naphtali. And then finally, Jacob has Rachel. Verse 30, and he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. Again, it's kind of silly for anybody to read this chapter and say that this chapter is promoting plural marriage, for example, because everything about the description is distorted. And it's going to set these two women up to be in contest with one another and disorder. And so it'll illustrate that Jacob is indeed, again, a fallen saint and a fallen world. Let's look at the last part of the passage. And this is the part, really, that'll continue on into chapter 30 as we have the description of the children that come from Jacob. And they will be the leaders of the tribes of Israel. God is expanding the promise, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham. Verse 31 in this last part, which I'll describe as the Lord opens the womb of Leah, verses 31 through 35. Verse 31 is an important verse with respect to theology. Theology is the doctrine of God. Because up to this point, God, it seems, has not been explicitly mentioned. In Genesis 24, when Abraham's servant goes to find a wife for Isaac, remember, he's praying all the time, and he's worshiping. And there's not one mention here of Jacob praying or worshiping up to this point, not one mention of God's explicit activity, although he has been at work quietly. But here, theology comes up. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Notice two things about this. First of all, God alone is the one who opens and closes the womb. We talked about this when we were discussing the barrenness of both Sarah and Rebecca. Isaiah 66 verse 9 says, has the Lord saying, shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord, shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb, saith thy God. God is the one who opens and closes the womb. We sang Psalm 113, the beginning of the service. Did you notice verse nine? He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. God is sovereign over fertility and infertility. But then second, second thing I would notice about this is notice that God has compassion on Leah. It says, he saw that Leah was hated. There's a lot of discussion about what that term means here. Some say it means something more like neglected. Because Jacob loved Rachel and tender-eyed Leah was hated or neglected. And we learn something here about God. Learn something here about theology. And that is that God, the God of the Bible, has compassion on the hated, the weak, the powerless. He is the God of widows, orphans, and strangers. Think of a father who has two daughters. One has everything, good health, a ready mind, a winning personality, while another daughter is handicapped. maybe physically or mentally. And the father loves both those daughters. But towards which might his heart be inclined to pity? The one who's struggling. And so if a human father acts like that, Might we imagine that our heavenly father sometimes acts like that. And so God, because he's God, he intervenes. And he blessed, hated, neglected Leah by opening her womb and closing Rachel's. John Calvin, in his commentary on this passage, says that God did this in part To chastise Jacob for his extravagant or excessive love for Rachel, he had made an idol of Rachel. And so to chasten him, he closed her womb and opened the womb of Leah. He's sovereign. He does as he pleases. And so we have recorded here a series of sons that she has. Tender-eyed Leah is fertile. Verse 32, and Leah conceived a barest son, and she called his name Reuben. Notice the last three letters there, Ben. And a lot of men's names with Ben, like Benjamin, Benjamin. Ben means son. Ru means see. So she has a son. She says, let's call him Ruben. See? See, Jacob? I have a son. I've born a son for you. Surely you'll have affection for me. She said, in fact, surely the Lord hath looked on my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will love me. Verse 33 says, and she conceived again a bare 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 this comes from the Hebrew word for hearing. Like the name Samuel means God hears. And so Simeon is hearing. God saw. God heard that I was hated. Verse 34, and she conceived again and bear a son and said, now this time will my husband be joined unto me. He's married to me, but he's really not connected to me. If I could just have a third son, he'll appreciate me and be joined to me. Therefore was his name called Levi. And the word Levi comes from the Hebrew word meaning to be joined. Of course, from Levi will come eventually, in God's providence, the priestly line in Israel. The priests, the servants of the Lord, will come from this child. Then finally in verse 35 it says, And she conceived again and bare a son. And she said, Now will I praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah, which comes from the Hebrew word that means to praise. He will be, from this line will come the kings, the royal line. From him will come David. And from David will come whom? Christ. And then it says, she left bearing. Now, she's going to have two more sons we'll see later. But this may mean that despite the fact that God had had compassion upon her, opened her womb, she had conceived, had four sons, probably means that Jacob nevertheless left off intimacy with her. And so the love was unrequited, even after God had given all this to her. Well, friends, we've worked through the passage. What do we learn here? What do we learn from Genesis 29? I suggested, again, we put this label over Genesis 29. The Lord provides for fallen saints in a fallen world. The Lord provided for Jacob, allowing him to have two wives and two concubines so that the Abrahamic blessing might be extended through him. It's a fallen world. God's design wasn't for a man to have plurality of wives. And yet God worked in these fallen circumstances to work out his will and to bring about the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that through him a great nation would be raised up and through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. God provides for his saints beyond all that they could ever ask or imagine. And it all came about from Jacob's stopping at a well. A man conceives his actions in his heart, but God directs his steps. It all happened from him stopping at a well. One commentator made this observation. He said, we are too apt to forget our actual dependence on providence for the circumstances of every instant. The most trivial events may determine our state in the world. Turning up one street instead of another may bring us in company with a person whom we should not otherwise have met, and this may lead to a train of other events which may determine the happiness or misery of our lives. One of the old Puritans, John Flavel, wrote a book on Providence. He said, Some providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backwards. Have you ever read Hebrew? Whereas in English, we write from left to right. In Hebrew, they write from right to left. And Flavel said, sometimes when we look at our lives, we only understand it when we read it backwards. When we look back, oh, wow, it's when I turned down that street I met her. It's when I took that job that this circumstance came about. It's when I went to that church that this happened. Sometimes Providence is best read backwards to forwards. That's when we see his hand, his work. We notice also that God will even allow the actions of a deceiver, like Laban, in one's life to further his causes and purposes. I mentioned that at the beginning. Have you had one or more Labans in your life who did bait and switches with you? Who didn't tell you the truth? Who misled you? And you say, why did God allow that? Well, we're fallen saints in a fallen world. And sometimes God will allow a Laban to get the upper hand on us. But what's Romans 8, 28? He works all things together for good. All things together for good to those who are called according to his purpose. We learn here of God's power. He alone opens and closes wombs, and we learn of his compassion, his mercy, especially extended to those who are hated. weak, neglected. If we feel hated, neglected, barren, it might just be at this very point that like Leah, we will experience the Lord's pity and compassion. The Lord provides for fallen saints in a fallen world. Maybe through this passage today, the Lord Jesus is saying to us, as he did during his ministry on earth, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How did he give us the ultimate rest? He went to a cross, laid down his life for our sins, In three days, he took it up again and has now ascended to the right hand of the Father with a promise that he will come again with power and glory. He is our blessed hope. And so let us come to him and he will give us rest. Amen? Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we give thee thanks for thy word and for this inspired account. We know that it's true, that thy word is inerrant, that there is no error in it. It is pure. Thy words are like silver refined in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. And so everything about it is true. with regard to the historical details, but we also know it has a heavy spiritual truth in it too. So help us to receive that today and apply it appropriately to our lives. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.