I want you to take your Bible and stand with me just for a moment. I'm interested in the book of Genesis chapter number 30. Chapter number 30, and I'm interested in two verses, actually three verses. In the middle of the genealogy that's being given, the Bible says that God remembered Rachel. Now the interesting thing about Rachel's name is that Rachel, the word Rachel means a journey. A journey. And the Bible says, and God remembered Rachel. And God hearkened to her and opened her womb, and she conceived and bare a son and said, God hath taken away my reproach. Verse number 24, and she called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another son. Now the significance of this is she's been barren. She is Jacob's first love. They are related. But he's gone home to his wife's people. He's gone to Syria to run from his brother in the wrath of Esau for stealing his birthright. He comes there and he meets Rebecca by the well, and he falls in love instantly. And he worked seven years for her, but instead of getting her on the wedding night, apparently they were veiled, and he got her sister, her older sister Leah. So it worked seven more years to get the bride of his dreams, and then that's where it came from. But the whole polygamy thing was Syrian in nature. It wasn't from Israel, but it was from Syria. And so time goes on. The women have made servants, and Rachel cannot bear. And because of that, Jacob is urged to have children by these maidservants. And so here's poor Rachel by herself, and she has no children, even though her maidservant has children, she has no children. And so it's a significant thing that after 10 children have been born to these other women, to the two concubines and to the other wife, Finally, that wife that he loved, the wife of his youth, she conceives. And that's what this story is about. And it's about her journey, Rachel and her journey. And this morning, I would like to preach to you for just a few minutes on the journey of Rachel from Padanerim to the palace and beyond. Let's bow our heads. Father, help us now for this all to come together and for it to make sense. And Lord, may our attention be focused for the time we have. And Lord, may you get glory in Christ's name. Amen and amen. Thank you very much. And please be seated. So where are they, preacher? They're up in Syria at a place called Padan Aram. And the Bible says that they had the child, they had the baby there, and so they set out. They were gonna leave, but the problem is he decided to leave secretly and silently and take the two daughters of Haran and slip off quietly while he was gone away shearing sheep And so they took off. It took a week for him to catch them. But when he caught them, they had a showdown. It wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. But God had told him in Genesis 31.3, the Lord said unto Jacob, return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee. And so Bible says in Genesis 31.18, and he carried all his cattle and all his goods, which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten and paid an Aram for to go to Isaac, his father in the land of Canaan. But he's overtaken by his father-in-law. And his father-in-law said, whoa, wait a minute. Now he's not telling the truth. He says, oh, we'd have had a big going away party for you. not so. He had already asked permission to leave and was denied. And by the words that Haran spoke, there's a pretty good indication that he wouldn't have been good with this one either. I mean, he wouldn't have been good if he'd have done it that way. Because he makes the statement, Laban said, these daughters are my daughters. These children are my children. And I'll keep saying Haran, I don't know why I'm saying it, it's Laban, Laban. The daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, these cattle are my cattle, all that thou seest is mine, and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have borne unto us? Or unto which they have borne. So in other words, he says, look, you're a thief, everybody here is mine, all the children are mine, everybody's mine. and you stole them. But God spoke to him in a dream. God spoke to Laban and God said to Laban, don't you touch him, don't you do anything good or bad, just don't you touch him. And so Laban comes and he says, God told me in a dream not to touch you, let you go. I tell you what, let's do, let's make a place, let's make a league, let's make an agreement, let's make a covenant. And so in verse number 45 of the book of Genesis, chapter number 31, the Bible says that there they started to make this league. Chapter 31, verse number 35 doesn't read the way I just said it did, so let me see if I can figure out where I'm at here. Here we go, verse 43, there it is, okay. So chapter number 31 and verse number 43. And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, these daughters are my daughters, drop down. The Bible says, let's make a covenant, verse 44. Verse 45, Jacob took a stone, set it up for a pillar, said to the brethren, gather stones. They took stones, made a heap, and they did eat there upon the heap. And Laban named it, but then Jacob called it Galid. And the word Galid, it means a pile or a heap. And then he said this in the next verse, he said, and Mishpah, for he said, the Lord watched between me and thee. And the word Mishpah means a watchtower. And so he said that this pile of stones that they piled up, it's a watchtower, and it's gonna be a marker between me and you. And this thing gets serious. This is what Laban said. He said, this heap be witness and this pillar be witness, verse 52, that I will not pass over this heap unto thee and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, look what he says, for harm. In other words, this is the boundary and we're not going to cross it. In other words, Laban, if you will, cuts the family ties. There's no, I want to see the grandkids. There's no, I want you to come back for Christmas and Easter. There's no, none of those things. He said, this is the boundary and don't you cross it for harm. Don't you cross it. This is the boundary. What are you, where are you going preacher? What are you trying to do? What are you trying to say? Well, I can simply say it this way. Rachel is on a journey and the word Rachel means journey. And the journey begins, of course, when she marries Jacob. And then the journey really begins when she has Joseph, the firstborn son. But apparently she's got pretty close family ties, apparently pretty tied to this Gentile Syrian family. And it seems that the Lord, the first thing that happens in her life that separates her from all that is the cutting of the ties with that whole Syrian genealogy. You see, she's no longer going to be a part of that Gentile Syrian family. She has been grafted in, and now she's going to become a part of the Hebrew family. And she's going to be one of the mothers that's going to be one of the matriarchs of the Hebrew race. And so that had to happen. There had to be a cutting of the ties with that Syrian genealogy. And think of this. I don't know exactly how old he was. The Bible doesn't tell us. But somewhere hanging on to her apron strings is a little boy by the name of Joseph. Don't know how old he was, I don't know how much he saw. Fact of the matter is, he didn't have his mama for a very long time. It's a sad story that Joseph's mama died when he was still young. I don't know how long that they had together, the Bible doesn't say. And the Bible doesn't tell us any specifics that Rachel told Joseph this, this, and this. Doesn't say anything about that. Doesn't tell us any of those details. Somebody said, well, what makes you think that she did? By how he turned out. Somebody did some intense training because of how he turned out. The old saying is the proof's in the pudding. You ever seen anybody make pudding from scratch? Especially like my grandma used to do. She'd take a pinch of this and a bit of that. She didn't have nothing to measure with. She knew. And you say, well, she's not measuring it. She's not going according to the recipe. She's not doing anything like she ought to. What's going on? Well, the test is the proof's in the pudding. If she got it wrong, you'll know when you taste it. Well, can I tell you, the proof was in the pudding. The proof was in the prince. The proof was in Joseph and the palace. I'm talking about a journey from Padan Aram all the way to the palace of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the steps along the way. And so, even though her life seemingly is cut short, She's investing in the life of another, and her motherhood meant more to her than anything in this world, because she had prayed for that more than anything else, was to be a mother. And God granted her that, but she only got to raise one of the two children that was born unto her, and that one was Joseph. I don't understand all I know about this, but apparently somewhere in there, Joseph saw Rachel surrender her family ties at a place that he called Galid. Galid. That was the place that I surrendered a heap of witness. I surrendered at Galid. You say, why is that important preacher? Because at the age of 17, violently and suddenly, the family ties of Joseph are going to be severed. He's going to be suddenly separated from his family. He's going to finish growing up and spend his young adult life with zero contact. They don't even know he's alive. As a matter of fact, the boys maybe do, but the dad thinks that he's dead because of the lie they did with the coat and the blood that they put on it. So Joseph, he saw his mom have to cut ties with family, and now he has learned the very same thing. If you're gonna walk with God, can I just say this, folks? Sometimes, if you're gonna walk with God, you gotta do it. Wonderful thing, greatest thing in the world is when you can walk with God with your family. But listen to me. But a walk with God's more important because it lasts longer than it does your walk with your family. And whether you get to walk with your family or whether you have to walk without them, your walk with God is the most important thing there is on this planet, above family. I have people on Mother's Day that go, oh, my kids are the most important thing there is in the universe. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop, stop, stop, stop. Don't say that. Don't do that. God said, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Don't you dare. You remember the barley field? Remember Joab's barley field? Absalom called him. He wouldn't come. He set his barley fields on fire. Well, the Maze Jackson used to preach a message. He'll set your fields on fire. And he had illustrations that he would use of things that got people's attention, and oftentimes it was the death of a child or a severe sickness of a child. I want you to understand you'll walk with God's paramount first, and the kids ought to know that. And then let me say this, your kids aren't second. Preacher, it's Mother's Day. I know, but you need to get this in order. You need to get this down, okay? Your kids aren't second. Husband and wife are second. Your husband and wife's above the kids. Someone said, no way. Yes, absolutely. And your kids need to know that. And your kids need to see that. And mom and dad need to take, listen, if you don't take up for one another, your kids will run all over you. You gotta have somebody taking up for it. That's why single parenting is so difficult, because there's nobody to take up for you. When somebody says something smart to you, it's hard for you to rebuke them, but that's when your mate speaks up and gets on to them and back and forth, and you got each other's back. And then finally, thirdly, that child comes into play. The child is third on the list. God, the spouse, and the child. Well, she saw that. She saw mom and dad. She saw all of those things, brothers and sisters. She saw all of those other things. Those ties had to be cut. And it's a part of that surrender. It's a part of that path that she's on. She saw her family ties cut there at Galilee. I want you to look in Genesis chapter number 32. Genesis chapter number 32. And I'd like for you to look what the Bible says in verse 22. Just for context, I'll pick up. So Jacob is leaving, he's had his issues with Laban, and they've started back home toward the promised land. But now he's got another problem. You see, he left in a very, very bad way. Remember the pottage? Remember the whole thing that poor old Isaac was two-thirds blind? and Jacob and his mother Rebekah they schemed to switch it out and it was supposed to have been Esau the firstborn get the blessings but instead she slipped Jacob in there and Jacob got the blessing and Esau sought to kill him and so when he went to Uncle Laban's he did so in exile and he fled there but as he fled he had only his staff with him And God spoke to him as he went, and the whole time he was there, there's not a whole lot that we know of that God has said to him until God says for him to go home. And as he comes home, he has got a multitude. He's got cattle, he's got flocks, he's got wives, he's got children, and he starts across the book, Jabok. And he sends everybody else across the book and apparently the Bible says in verse 24 that Jacob was left alone. And this is the famous passage about the wrestling with the angel. The Bible tells us that Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Verse 25, the Bible says that when he saw that he prevailed not, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, and he wrestled with him, and he said, let me go for the daybreaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto them, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask my name? And he blessed them there. And Jacob called the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. The word Peniel, it means to turn and to turn about face and to see face to face. And so that wrestling match on this side of the brook was a turning point in the life of Jacob. It's a great turning point because it was there that Jacob, the word Jacob means supplanter and the word supplanter means trickster. Jacob had played tricks on his brother. He had gotten for that bowl of pottage and then he tricked for the venison and tricked his dad. He was a trickster. Went in and of course, now the shoe's on the other foot. Now he's being tricked by Laban. Good surprise, happy wedding. Surprise, wakes up the next morning, wrong girl. Seven more years and then won't let him leave. But old Trickster, he shaves the bark and he puts the things in, and so he gathers a great number. And the Lord let it happen. The Lord saw how he had been treated. But when he come out, my friend, he was a wealthy man. And he was all about his flocks and his herds and his family and all that he had. But his name was Jacob the Trickster. He even tried to trick his brother Esau. He took the family of his concubines. Now how would you like to be in the sons by the concubines? And Jacob says, look, y'all so important to me, I want you to go first. Y'all go first. And then my other concubine, you go second. Y'all right behind her. And then he says, Leah, oh, I love you so much. Leah, I want you third. You and your family, you cross third. And then he says to his wife, he said, honey, you lay back, all right? You stay way back here, and you let them out there in front of you, and if anything, you come back across that river, okay? He's afraid he's gonna, hey, he's still scheming and tricking, and he's still, he's even putting his children by the concubine out there as bait almost, as they're going to see Esau. He's still up to his same old tricks, but God changed that. God changed that dramatically. What happened? Well, I'm going to drop back. Look back in Genesis 32. Look in verse number 1 and verse number 2 in Genesis chapter number 32. The Bible says, And Jacob went on his way, and the angel of God met him. The scripture says in verse 2, and when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's host, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. And the word Mahanaim, it means camp, it means two camps, or the idea of camp, camp. And the only thing I could think of would be the camp of camps. In other words, when he saw those angels lit up, he named it, he said, this is a camp like no other camp. Think about what took place there. Up until this time, Rachel, the only religion she's known about the Hebrew religion and about the God of heaven, the only thing she's known about has been what she's seen in Jacob, and it's not been that great. Now he may have relayed the history of the family and maybe all the other things from Adam on down, and possibly he did, and hopefully that he did. But when they left there, they were still two young people on the run, and she had to cut those family ties. Can you imagine? You know how it is. Regret, you wonder is the right thing to do and are we doing right? Maybe we should just go back to daddy's and just stay there the rest of our lives and just work for him. I don't like this conflict. I don't like everything that's going on. Jacob, are you sure, honey, that we're going the right direction? You say, did she say that in the Bible? No, but she was a woman and she had every right to say it. How you like the way out of that one, boys? That's a slick way out, right? Understand what took place. If he's there, they're camped and he's there and all of a sudden he sees the angels of God, there's a good chance she saw them too. And even if she didn't see them with her physical eyes, she saw them in his eye. And she realized, man, Our gods of stone and wood and our idols. Man, I've done stuff with them and prayed to them. Matter of fact, even stole one of them and had it in a saddle. That's what Laban got Mabit Samad come looking for it. That was his excuse. She still had it, by the way. But all the times she had prayed to it and all the times she had given stuff to it and all the other things, it had never said a thing to her. She had never seen a thing out of it. But this God of Jacob's, wow, what a difference. So I think Joseph saw, Rachel see, the futility of those teraphims. A teraphim is a term for an idol. In other words, this was confirmation of the trip from this scene from glory. And so as they start out, there is the cutting of the ties with their Syrian genealogy. And now there's the confirmation of the trip from this scene from glory. And then, now we're at the place of the coronation of a fellow whose name means trickster and he is coronated. What do you mean preacher? God named him, but not only did God name him, but if we had a scepter that I could show you, it was as if the angel of God in a wrestling match took that scepter, tapped him on one shoulder, took that scepter and tapped him on the other shoulder and said, you are now a prince. You are now a royal line because you have power with God, but he didn't stop there. He said, and power with men. The mightiest man in the whole world, Pharaoh, is in his palace of glory. And here comes this old cripple man, dragging that leg in from where he had wrestled with God. And you know what took place? The Bible says Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh was on the short end of the stick. He was the mightiest man in the world at the time, and yet he was in the presence of royalty, because he wasn't Jacob anymore. He was Israel, and Israel means the Prince of God. And he had power, the power of God, with God and with man. She saw her husband's title change. He said, no more Jacob, but Israel. But also, I would say that I believe this, that she also saw her husband's testimony changed. How do you know, preacher? Look in Genesis chapter 33. Look what the Bible says in verse number 19. The Bible says that he bought a parcel of a field. And when he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money. And the Bible says that he erected there an altar, verse number 20 of Genesis chapter 33, and he called the name of it El Elohi Israel. And that simply means, and this is the literal translation would mean God rule God. And that's how oftentimes the Hebrew is. It doesn't conjugate like we would think it would. And so what do you get out of that, preacher? Well, I would say that it basically turns this. The God of gods will rule. The God of gods. Now, he doesn't know there's a teraphim under the saddle, but there is. And there's those liturgy gods that his daddy-in-law had and that that whole crowd worshiped. But he is acknowledging on his own. He bought a piece of ground to put up a monument. Has there been a change in his life? Apparently, because he says the God of gods will rule. Listen to me. Up until this point in time, Jacob ruled. The trickster ruled. The supplanter ruled. But God broke His will. There by the side of that brook. And because His will was changed, because His title had changed and signifying that His will had changed, I believe that also she saw how her husband's testimony changed. It's no longer that Jacob will rule, but rather that God will rule. The God of God WILL rule! And can I tell you, till you come to that place, this whole thing is vanity. to you, come to the place that they came to, come to the place that he came to in his life. My friend, there's a serious, listen, serving God whether anybody else or not. James saw Rachel surrender her family to Isaac at Galilee. Joseph saw Rachel see her futility of those terrafims there at Manahem. And then the Bible teaches us that Joseph saw Rachel see her family transformed at Peniel, at Peniel. He saw that something changed. Dad changed. Everything changed. Dad and Mom's relationship changed. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 35, the Bible says that God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. And in preparation for that, Apparently Jacob, apparently that it was possible that now Rachel's not the only one that's got a strange God because they're getting ready to go back to the house of God. That's what Bethel means. And in preparation for going back up to the house of God, Jacob goes to all the servants and to all the concubines and to everybody present, and the Bible says, in verse number 4 of Genesis 35, and they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand. Notice it's plural, strange gods, plural, and all their earrings which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. When we think of hiding something, we think about we're going to hide it so we can get it back. No, he was hiding it from them. He wasn't going to get them back. He collected it all and he buried it. I don't know the details. I don't know if little Joseph is there. I'd like to think that little Joseph is there and he sees his mama. She comes up to the pit that they've dug and she's got a blanket, she's got a cloth and she unveils it and here's one of those Syrian gods. And with anger and with frustration, she takes it and she hurls it down into the pit, maybe break it in pieces. Here's little Joseph right where he always at, right on her apron tail. And he sees Mama break that idol in little pieces and throw it into the pit with some violence. Don't know that it happened, but I will say this. You see, the reason they kept these other gods It's like Christians carrying rabbit's feet. Are Christians wearing Saint Christopher medals around their neck? Are Christians wearing crosses on their neck? Now, if you do it for ornamentation, that's fine, but there are people who do it for luck. Did you know that? The cross symbol is good luck to a lot of people. A Saint Christopher is supposed to be the patron saint of travel. They wouldn't leave home without their Saint Christopher medal or whichever one of the medals it might be or the patron saints that it might be. It's all the same stuff. It's all the same thing. God said, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Nowhere in your Bible do we ever pray to any of the saints or do we ever pray to Mary or anyone else. That is reserved exclusively for God and God alone. So whether it was a small thing that they had in their pocket for luck, maybe they were just hanging on to it just in case. Well, we got the one God, but two's better. Can you imagine that? I was in Saudi Arabia, and there was a truck there with an Indian truck driver from India, and they take those flatbed trucks and they decorate them. And somebody had meticulously hand-painted all the different gods of India, and they were all over this truck, and there were pictures of monkeys, and there were pictures of cobras, and there were pictures of rats, and pictures of all these different things. There was the one that's got the multiple hands and the woman's face. There was all those different things, and they're all the way around this truck. And on the back, there's a cross in red. right beside the monkey God and the rat God. And right on around they went. And if you're not careful, if you go to someone who's in Hinduism and you say, would you like to trust Christ? They go, yes. Would you like Him to be your God? Absolutely. I'll paint Him on my truck. What's his symbol? If he's good luck, I'll take it. What's his symbol? What does it look like? I'll paint him on my truck. Put him right beside the rat god, right beside the monkey god. You say, that's not the way it really is. Oh, I promise you. As a matter of fact, they teach Hindu children not to get the same god mom and dad's got. They want to up the odds so they get them to get a different God, and they worship and pray to a different God than they do so they can have as many gods as they can in the house to cover all the bases. I'm very serious. There is a man who has a truck, and he opens it up, and there's all these idols of all these different gods on both sides. And he makes his living by going into villages and stopping, opening the truck up, and people come and lay money in front of each one of the gods, depending on what they need or what they want. And that's how he makes his living. He's a portable shrine. And they wouldn't dare walk by it, because if they walk by it, if they walk by the rat god and don't put money down or put something down, they go home, there'll be a rat in their meal barrel. And so they automatically, you've got to worship because they're fear based and they're afraid. I imagine that's the way that the family of Rachel was with all of these pluralistic gods. But suddenly there's a big change that takes place. And they called the teraphims of the Syrian gods. And so Joseph standing at her apron tail possibly saw Rachel surrender her future trust. And they called the name of the place El Bethel in verse number 7. What does that mean preacher? It means, Bethel means the house of God, but he put a word in the front of it, he put El in the front of it, and so, can I say it this way? I think that what he was trying to say was God's house of God, or maybe he said it this way, the house of the God of gods. Either way, it sounds pretty good, doesn't it? El Bethel. He was there on the way out, he's on the way back, he's there, and God met with him again. Can I just simply say to you, He's right where you left Him? Somebody said, I ain't seen God, I ain't found God. He's right where you left Him. But you need to know this. You need to cast off your idols before you go into His presence, or you'll get a deaf ear. You need to lay those things down with some vigor, with some anger because of what they've cost you thus far. and you need to put those idols away, and you need to break those idols, then go up to the house of God and God will meet with you. Look what the Bible goes on to say. Not only in this passage have we seen the confirmation of the trip by the scenes of glory and the cutting of the ties with the Syrian genealogy, the coronation of this trickster from the Son of God Himself. We've seen the cutting of the terraform, culling of the terraforms of the Syrian God. But now I want you to look at this last very somber scene. We see a cutting of the ties of sincere gratitude. We come to verse number eight, and only one verse is spent on it. Genesis chapter number 35, this great love story in your Bible is cut short. How short, preacher? Not sure. We'd have to go figure it out based on how old Benjamin was. But the Bible says they're on the way to Bethlehem. It's not named that yet, but they were on the way to Bethlehem. And the Bible says Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak, and the name of it was Alon Baketh. This very old woman, she had been nurse to Rebekah, nurse to Jacob. nurse to Rachel, and she dies along the way. She's been a very trusted friend to this family, and the Bible doesn't say just that one verse here. So think of this. She said goodbye to all of these things, and now the one person that she could trust and the one person that she could turn to, she dies. And so Rachel has a great deal of sadness because of her friend of trust here at Alam Bekoth. So let's see where we've come to. So in Rachel's life, it's a life of surrender, surrender, surrender. But fast forward, let's look at Joseph's life. It would be one of surrender. Rather than fight and stay in chains, he surrendered to be a servant in Potiphar's house and got accused of something he wouldn't do. And rather than be in solitary confinement in prison, he said, I surrender. And they made him keeper of the prison. They made him keeper of the rest of the inmates. And of course you know the story of the butcher and the baker that are brought and he interprets their dreams. Pharaoh has a dream. Joseph's forgotten. Pharaoh has a dream. And he speaks up and says, wait a minute, wait a minute. I remember a guy. I was in jail with a guy. And the scripture says that he was elevated to the palace. But that again took surrender. I'm sure his hopes were surrounded by going home. to see his daddy, by going home to see his brothers, by going back and life as it once was. But God had a greater plan than that. God had a bigger plan than that. Can I tell you that even though Rachel didn't get to make the whole journey, yes, she did too, because she had taught that boy something, apparently. Apparently, a great deal of Rachel rubbed off on young Joseph in the time that they had together. Can you prove any of that preacher? I believe I can. And I believe I can show you how close they were. You'll have to do some flipping with me. Look in Genesis 35. The grave, this devastating trial and the loss of Rachel. The Bible says, and it came to pass in verse number 18, as her soul was departing, for she died, that he called his name Benoni, which meant son of my sorrow. But his father called him Benjamin, which means the son of my right hand. And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob settled a pillar upon her grave, that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. Did he grieve for her? Was it an issue? Did she die in vain having this baby she wanted so bad? That's what she said the first month. God's going to give me another one. And He did give her another one, but she didn't live to see it. She died in childbirth. So, how do we know the impact it had on Joseph and the impact that it had on Jacob? Genesis chapter 47, all the way back at the end of the Bible. Look there with me. Genesis chapter 47. Joseph brought his father in, set him before Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. There's that story. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, how old art thou? Verse number nine. So here's the prince of Israel before the prince of Egypt. And they're conversing, how old are you? And of course, Jacob's quite a bit older. Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years. He's a hundred and thirty years old. But notice what the commentary that he gives in verse number nine. Few and evil have the days of my life been. Few and evil. What does that mean, preacher? The time he had with Rachel wasn't enough. And he hadn't got over grieving over the loss of his dear wife. And he's testifying before Pharaoh, the king, before the prince of Egypt. Few and evil have the days of my life been. So the admission of his grief directly tied to the loss of Rachel. But secondly, I want you to think what the Bible says in Genesis chapter number 48. There's the adversary of the grave in this devastating trial and the loss of Rachel. There's the admission of his grief directly tied to the loss of Rachel. But then there's the adoption of his grandsons, divinely transpired due to the loss of Rachel. Look what the Bible says in verse number 5. And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee, who's talking? This is Jacob. He has gone in now, he's in Egypt, he has met Joseph and realizes he's alive. And he says, whose boys are these? And he meets these two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee, a land of Egypt, before I came unto thee, and Egypt are mine. Notice what he says in verse number five. These boys are mine. He's the patriarch of the family. He said, these boys are not your boys, these boys are my boys. And to prove the point in the next verse, in verse number six, he says, and thy issue which thou begat us after them shall be thine and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. He said, if you have any more young'uns, they're yours. He said, but for as these two boys, they're mine. They're not yours, they're mine. And he lays claim on them. And look what he says in verse seven. He said, and as for me, Genesis 48, 7, and I'm through. He says, as for me, when I came from Paden, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way. Can you hear the hurt in that? When yet there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and I buried there in the way of Ephrath, the same of Bethlehem. You know what he was saying? He was saying me and Rachel were planning on having more children. but she died just short of Bethlehem. She died just short of the house of bread. Just a little further, we'd have been there, but she died. He said, but Joseph, as the firstborn, these are not your children, these are my children. And by doing that, he wasn't being selfish, just the opposite. He adopted those two boys on the spot. And he stuck them in the lineage of the 12 sons of Israel and gave Joseph a double portion. Occasionally the Bible will say something about the tribe of Joseph, but technically there is no tribe of Joseph. There's the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh. And by the way, I preached a message just the other day. turned out to be a great multitude and a great number. And by the way, they went on to conquer Canaan's land. You see, Caleb was, or Joshua, excuse me, Joshua was Ephraimite. And so, can I say it this way? Rachel, through the power of the cradle, Rachel, through the power of caring and of cultivating that young lad, she never got to have anything to do with Benjamin, only named him begotten in my sorrow, and dad said, no, we're gonna call him, we're gonna call him the son of my right hand. But truthfully, Benjamin never turned out to be a great deal. But boy, Joseph did. He surpassed everybody else, and of everybody there, he's the only one that had that one-on-one time with Mama Rachel. So this year, the Mother of the Year award goes, no doubt, to Rachel. True, the wife of Israel, but in a bigger sense, the mother of Joseph. Although she never got to see him sit on the throne. Maybe in her heart of hearts, she did after all. Rachel's journey and influence on her son in the few short years she had with him multiplied into double honor among the promises. God had said, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. If Rachel heard those words when God gave them to Jacob, no doubt she did see him on Because kings are going to come out of thy loins. And of course we know that ultimately, ultimately out of the tribe of Judah, the king of kings and the Lord of lords came into this world. I'm glad to report to you this morning that even though the life of Rachel was one of sorrow, sadness, separation, it was a life of surrender this and surrender this and surrender this and ultimately her surrender to life. But in all of that, she was investing and planting a seed in a young man who would go on to be, his life story occupies more of the Old Testament than almost any other person. And he is one of the most perfect types of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of your Bible. You can't hardly find a thing to lay on Joseph's count. He was as clean as a whistle. All because of a godly mama who had her journey, Rachel. The journey of Rachel from Padan Aram to the palace.