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If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to the book of Genesis chapter 29, and I will read from
verse 31 to 35. Genesis chapter 29, verses 31
to 35. I commence reading from the English
Standard Version. When the Lord saw that Leah was
hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a
son, and she called his name Reuben. For she said, because
the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love
me. She conceived again and bore
a son and said, because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he
has given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon. Again she conceived and bore
a son and said, now this time my husband will be attached to
me because I've borne him three sons. Therefore his name was
called Levi. And she conceived again and bore
a son and said, this time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she
called his name Judah. Then she seized Bearing. May the Lord add a blessing to
the reading of his word and the exposition of the same. Let us
look to him in prayer. Father in heaven, we give you
thanks for this time in this marriage service. when we can
seize from all else and concentrate on the word that we are about
to hear, the word that you're about to speak to us. And so
may you direct our thoughts and our minds and our attention to
yourself and speak, O Lord, that we might hear your voice and
let the things that we shall hear speak to each one of us
at our respective points of need. To the praise of your name and
to the satisfaction of our hearts. Amen. I do believe that many of us
who read our Bibles are very familiar with the story of Jacob. Jacob who had stolen from his
brother the birthright blessings, and because his brother was seeking
after his life for having deceived him in such a manner, he had
to take off. He left and went to live with
his uncle Laban. and there he discovers that his
cousin Rachel was so beautiful and therefore he requested for
a hand in marriage. But because Lebanon did not want
the older daughter to remain single while the younger one
gets married, he schemed to deceive the deceiver Jacob. And so the bridal price that
Jacob had to pay was to work seven years in order to have
Rachel. And at the end of the seven years
of laboring for her, the wedding day arrived and the two supposedly
got married. But when it was time for him
to discover who it was that he had married, to his shock, he
discovered it was the older daughter to Lebanon, Leah. Obviously he was very disappointed. Obviously he was very upset with
his uncle and the uncle told him it was not right that the
younger one should get married before the older. So if you are
willing to marry Rachel, you have to work for me for another
seven years. And he did. So he ended up with
two wives. Now this passage does not in
any way encourage polygamy. This passage is not in any way
an endorsement that one is free to marry more than one woman. It is because of the hardness
of man's heart and because of depravity and our fallenness
that we find such a thing happening, but it is not the ideal at all. And so here is Jacob. He marries both Leah and Rachel. Now, from this marriage and particularly
the experience of Lear, there are some lessons that we can
draw as we reflect about marriage, as we reflect about life in general. You and me know very well that
one of the best teachers that we have is experience. When nothing else can teach us
some of life's most important questions, experience will. Because we learn from our own
experiences, that makes experience a best teacher. But we know that
we cannot experience everything that is there to be experienced
in life. So we also learn from the experiences
of others and from the life of Leah we are able to learn a number
of things. What is it that we can learn
from the life of Leah? Not in its entirety, but as we
find it in its capsule form in the verses that we have read. Well, the first lesson that I
would like us to observe there is the pain of unfulfilled desires. We learn from the life of Leah
the pain of unfulfilled desires. Leah has the basic human desire
and that basic human desire was to be loved. Every one of us,
every human being, if they are breathing and they are honest
with themselves, they will admit that we all desire to be loved
and to be loved unconditionally, unreservedly, unmistakably, passionately,
completely. Whether it is the love of the
parents for their children, the love of Christians for one another,
but better still, the love of the wife for the husband and
the husband for the wife. We want love. We need love. We desire to be loved. There used to be an advert on
TV several years ago in a boarding school where it appeared like
one of their favorite spreads was not being put on their bread. And so the students rioted in
that boarding school and the advert was talking about what
they needed. We want buttercup on our breakfast. We want buttercup on our bread. And so on and so it was an advert. And we may well sing that song
as well. We want love in our lives. We want to be loved in our lives. That is the basic human need. And where it is lacking, It obviously
brings pain. And that was the experience of
Leah. That was the experience of this
woman in this marriage. The desire to have someone to
love you and for you to love another person is a natural desire
and a reasonable desire in all of us. But life was very tough
for Leah. Life was so hard for this woman. It's not easy being married to
someone that you know doesn't love you. See what we are told there in
verse 30? So Jacob went into Rachel also,
and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He loved Rachel more than Leah. And she probably lived like that
for many, many years of their marital life. Now there's something that we
are told with regard to these two women, and that takes us
back to verse 17. We are told that Leah's eyes
were weak. I do not have time to open up
what all that means in the original language, except to say that
there was something that is pointed out as a negative with respect
to Leah. But Rachel, as opposed to Leah,
was, as we are told there, beautiful in form and appearance. And so that seems to be the reason
why Jacob may have been attracted to Rachel as opposed to Leah. And so he loved the younger one. She was beautiful in form and
in appearance. And so in comparison to her younger
sister, Leah had her self-esteem dented, her self-esteem damaged. It was at its lowest. And even
as she found herself in this marriage, she knew very well
that her much more attractive younger sister had won the heart
of her husband as opposed to her. And that was painful. I want to believe and trust that
Kingsley and Mary, what has brought you together in this union is
love. What has made you to come together
and to be joined together in this marriage is nothing but
love. No doubt that Kingsley is a handsome
young man. No doubt that Mary is a stunningly
beautiful young lady and there was something that they saw in
one another that made their hearts skip a beat. But there is love
that has been developing and love that has been growing and
love that should remain there. It must not diminish at all because
it is painful when this love is not there. In any relationship,
it is painful. And so this is a reminder to
all of us, a reminder to those of you who are single. And I
know there are not a few that are still single here. They are
a reminder to all those of us that are married and whatever
situation we are in, this is a reminder to us that we must
marry the one that we love and love the one that we have been
married to. That is a need that we all have
to relate to. It is not just about the external
beauty. It's about the whole round person
that you love unconditionally. The whole round person that you
know you are committing your life to and sustain your marriage
on the basis of love. The second lesson that we pick
out from the life of Leah is the futile search for answers
to our disappointment. The futile search for answers
to our disappointment. Leah knew that she was not the
preferred wife in that marriage. And that is why polygamy is such
a sinful thing. Because the husband can never,
can never love equally all the women that he is married to.
There is always someone that is preferred, and that someone
even knows, and the others know that their most preferred one
is this one. And so because she knew she was
not the most loved in that marriage, what did she do? She began to
think of ways in which she was going to win the love of her
husband. And obviously she could have
tried many things. A good meal. She went through all the recipe
books that are out there, googled them if she had internet in those
days, cooked the best meals, and still did not work. But there
was something that God had given to her. which God withheld from
her younger sister. Her younger sister could not
have children. Leah was fertile and she could
have children. And in the space of four beses,
we are told that she gave birth to four sons. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. And these are not ordinary fellows,
no. We know that one of them became
the forerunner, so to say, and the inaugural priest. And it
is through his tribe that we had the Levitical priesthood. And it's only people who were
born into that tribe emanating from Levi who could become priests. And then, there was Judah. And it is Judah who gives birth
to a line of Boaz and a line of David and eventually the line
that is traced to the Lord Jesus Christ. What an extraordinary
thing that the line of Jesus, the earthly lineage of Jesus
goes back to Judah, goes back to Leah, the ugly one, the not
so pretty one. And that is what God made her
to be. And so because of her ability to bear children, God-given
ability, she used that as something that she could try to win the
love of her husband. Look at the motives behind Leah's
desire for children. And we see that in verse 32 as
well as verse 34. What was the primary reason and
the desire that she wanted to have as many children in the
shortest time possible? Verse 32, And Leah conceived
and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben. For she said,
Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband
will love me. Verse 34, again she conceived
and bore a son and said, now this time my husband will be
attached to me. My sister cannot have children.
My sister is barren. So, the more children I have,
the more attached, the more loving my husband is going to be towards
me. Did that work? No, it didn't. It didn't. A search for answers
to a disappointment, that search was futile and we'll see in the
third point that it was futile. Because there are some marriages
that remain still strong where there is no child at all. Rachel herself did not have a
child up to this time as her older sister was having them
like impania, guinea pigs. And her younger sister was still
barren, with no child. But Jacob still loved her. Barren, childless, he still loved
her. It was a futile search on the
part of Leah. More, more children. More and
more children. And you will love me. You will
be attached to me. No. That's not the foundation
of marriage. It's not children that are the
foundation of marriage. It is love. Because children
are a gift from God. In their presence or in their
absence, love must still be there and grow. And so if you begin
to establish the basis for sustaining a marriage grounded on the fact
that the more children I have, then the more loving my husband
would be, then that does not make sense at all. You will soon
discover that is a search for love in futility. as Leah soon
discovered. But there's a third lesson very,
very quickly that we should look to. And it is this, that there's
only one place where we can find hope when all else fails. There is only one place where
we can find hope when all else fails. And that we see clearly
in the very first verse in the passage that we read in verse
31. I don't know how many of us noticed
that when I began to read from this passage. Hear me read that
again. When the Lord saw that Leah was
hated, He opened a womb, but Rachel was barren. When the Lord saw, and therein lies our hope in
situations such as Leah's, This is how God comes to the downtrodden. This is how God comes to those
who are in painful circumstances. This is how God comes into the
situations that look so miserable and hopeless. So that if we ask ourselves,
can God work in broken families? Can God work in less than ideal
marriages? Can God work where there is strife? Can God work where there is discord,
where there is trouble, where there is resentment, where there
is frustration and disappointment? Can surely God turn things around
in such situations? And the answer is, yes, God can,
when the Lord so. And the hope that it gives to
us is this. Whatever your situation might
be in marriage, God is not ignorant. God is not unaware. God is not
totally ignorant of your circumstances. No, He knows, and He knows perfectly
well, and that's why He gives us hope. He gives us something
to hold on to, to smile about, and something to be an anchor
to us in all the circumstances. And soon enough Leah realizes
that it's not the number of children that will win the favor and the
love of a husband, it's ultimately a relationship with the God who
sees and the God who knows. Kingsley and Mary, let it be very clear to you. that there is tension sometimes
in marriage, that problems can arise and you have been perfectly
counseled as to how to deal with those situations when they arise. But sometimes they will come
at a time when you feel like you do not have the resources
to be able to cope with whatever situation has come about in your
marriage and in your lives. Where is it that you are going
to find the hope? It is in the God who knows. The God who sees. Yahweh! And that is the covenant
name that is used there in verse 31. When the Lord, in all capital
letters, the God who does not change, the God who loves covenantally
and with a special love, those that he has called to himself,
he knows, he sees, and that's where our hope lies. Now why do I say that Leah came
to such a realization that there's only one place where I can run
to. It is in the name that she gave to her fourth child, fourth
son. And she conceived, verse 35,
again and bore a son and said, this time I will praise the Lord. The other times, what was the
motive? Oh, my husband, I hope you'll be attached to me. Once
he holds this baby, he can see me on it. Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah,
nyah. And then anyway, lovely. Nothing. All roads lead to Rachel's bedroom. Children, close your ears for
some vela. And that's all. And she realizes,
oh no, it's not about the children. What is it that will give me
fullest satisfaction in the absence of these competing demands between
my husband and his love for me and his love for my sister? What
is it that will give me full joy? She realizes it is God who
sees, the God who knows. And that is the one that now
she acknowledges here at the birth of Judah, this time. And that is important. This time,
and that means she's comparing to the other times. You get the
point? The other times, I was doing
it to win my husband's affection, but this time, with or without
my husband's affection, blessed be the name of the Lord. You
hear the language of Job? The Lord gives, the Lord takes
away, blessed be his name. And that's the only place where
we find stability. That's the only place where we
find hope. This time, I will praise the
Lord. I don't know where you are in
your marriage. After 5 years, 10 years, 15 years,
20, 25, 30, 40 years, or 50 years, I don't know what you are expecting
in the years ahead, but you know that there are things that you
have to deal with in life, things that you have to deal with in
marriage, and you can never deal with them until you come to a
place where God is your all-sufficiency. God is your foundation. God is your anchor for your soul. He is the only one to whom you
can run. And that is the place that Leah
came to. And just to take you a little
bit into the future as I conclude, if you know the Bible story of
Leah, Rachel and Jacob. Eventually, Rachel would have
children and God gave her two children, Joseph. As we come
to the end of this chapter, there is a Joseph. And in the
next chapter, the last born comes, little Benjamin. And Rachel dies soon after giving
birth to Benjamin. The most beloved, the most beautiful
wife is the one that God takes away first. And Jacob remains
with Leah. And she's buried so far away
from her husband who loved her much more than the other. And
it is Leah who gets buried side by side with this husband who
did not seem to love her as much. What does that say to us? There is nothing that escapes
the notice of God, whatever it is that we might go through.
And ultimately in this entire story, what God is saying to
us is that He is faithful to His promises. He promised that
it is through the seed of the woman that we shall all be blessed. He promised that it is through
the seed that shall come from Abraham's own bosom that we shall
be blessed. And that line is being kept by
the God who is faithful. But in the midst of all that,
there is an intricate play of romance, of disaster, of pain. And all those things work together
for good as God is working day by day and week by week and month
by month. We ought to recognize that God
works in these kind of circumstances. Sometimes we cry. Sometimes we
rejoice. But at the end of the day, ours
should be the kind of spirit that later on began to develop
in the life of Leah. My life is about God. This time, I will praise the
Lord. And Judah is the one through
whom the Messiah comes into this world. And the Messiah who will teach
us and show to us what love truly is. Without Him, we can never
know the fullest extent of God's love for sinners. It is through
the Lord Jesus Christ that we see in vivid color that is undeniable
that God loves us, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish. That's how much God loves us,
that He doesn't want us to perish, but that we should put our faith
in His Son, His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. and that we will
have to live eternally. Is the Lord Jesus Christ your
Lord and your Savior? Have you surrendered your life
to Him? Has He begun to teach you what
it means to love someone and to be loved by someone? as He
began to teach you that the supreme delight of your heart in this
life and the life to come must be nothing but God and God alone. And once we have put God first
in our lives, then it becomes so natural and so spontaneous
that we will love those that God brings into our lives. And the best expression of love
in this world, besides the one that the Lord Jesus Christ has
shown to us, is the love between husband and wife. The love between
husband and wife. And that is why in the Bible
there is even one book that talks about the intimacy, the ecstasy,
and the bliss of marital love and union, as we see it in the
book of Song of Songs, which is rated PG25. Song of Songs. to teach us that we are to express
ourselves in the deepest expressions of love in marital union. And may God bless our hearts
with such a love and remind us that unfulfilled desires are
painful. that it is futile to search for
answers to our disappointment, except those answers must take
us back to the one who loves us, and the one who sees, and
the one who knows, and that is God himself. Amen. Let us pray together. Our Father
in heaven, thank you for reminding us that we all have this basic
need of love, to be loved and to love. And where this is lacking,
there is pain, there is disappointment, there is frustration, there is
everything that can go wrong. Help us, O Lord, to develop and
deepen that kind of love. selfless, sacrificial, unconditional,
not only in our marriages, but in our families and in our interpersonal
relationships, one with another. And this, Lord, we admit can
only be done by you, your work in our lives, the spirits prompting
in our lives. And so we lift up to your throne
of grace. Kingsley and Mary, that in the
beginning of this union, you will only cause them to bask
in the wonder and the amazement of their ever-growing and deepening
love for one another to the glory of your name. And if there be
those that are struggling in a dysfunctional relationship,
in a dysfunctional family, in a dysfunctional marriage, Lord,
your grace is ever sufficient. Let their eyes look to you, the
God who cannot fail, to whom all things are possible. We pray
and ask in the name of our dear Savior and Lord, even Jesus Christ. Amen.
Lessons from the life of Leah
Lessons from the life Leah
| Sermon ID | 62415830231 |
| Duration | 36:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Wedding |
| Bible Text | Genesis 29:31-35 |
| Language | English |
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