So we'll find here, let me get to my note here and make sure I get this right. So Leah will have seven children in total herself, six of them being sons, one of them being a daughter. Now that daughter will stay a part of the narrative several chapters from now, and we'll see that when we get there. We see that Rachel bears Jacob two sons. We've not got to them yet in the reading of the text, but Joseph will be her first son, and then Benjamin, her second son, who won't be mentioned. Benjamin won't be born until they're back in what we would call today the promised land. And Rachel will die in childbearing with Benjamin. So she will bear Jacob two sons. And then the maidservants or the maids that Laban gives to both of his daughters will each bear two sons as well, making the total of 12 sons in Jacob's house from four women. All right. So every boy and girl in this room, this is not the prescribed way to build a house. We know from the very beginnings of the book of beginnings that God has ordered that one man shall leave the home of his father and his mother and shall be married to a woman. And the two of them shall become one flesh. This is very clear scripture. Now, we will give acknowledgement that in this particular region, in this particular day, that there are different customs. And Jacob is living in this day with different customs, in other words, with different laws than ours. And that doesn't make his actions right. We'll see that some of the principles we learn about in the New Testament will bear light upon. And this is this is the glory of the New Testament and Old Testament, how they work together, is that many times the New Testament will give us understanding of Old Testament principles. or even through the narratives of here's the good that we can get from this. We're going to lean heavy upon the New Testament for the application. Because as you can see here, there's not a lot of things I would want to say. You should do this. You should do this, but you should not do it like this, would be how I would want to say. You should do it the way God describes us and prescribes us to do it. What we will do here is we can notice that there is a relational dysfunction between the two sisters. And listen, this is not to be harsh to either one of them. This is the reality of how God inspired holy men to write the holy scriptures. to include the good, the bad, and the very ugly. Can you imagine? We can say, well, man, I'm glad none of my sins are recorded in the Holy Scripture for the whole world to see. Don't you know that that's the truth? But if that were the case, God would clearly be able to use your fallen sinful ways to bring about glory for himself. You and I, whenever we sin against God, this is not a reason to sin against God. The Apostle Paul would say, no, no, no, this is not at all why you should just go out and live however you want to because you have forgiveness from God and you can show how good God is to give forgiveness to how wicked of a person you are. Well, that is a truth, but that's not excuse for us to continue living wicked ways. So we just will stop, we'll make acknowledgement of that, and then we get back here and we're going to use Rachel and Leah as a bit of a case study for understanding how bad, how a bad relationship can lead to unhealthy competition between family members. Well, Yes, Laban, Jacob's uncle, as we see in chapter 21, when Jacob is ready to marry Rachel, Laban does trick, he does deceive Jacob. And then he reveals Here's why I did it. Again, it's not to give Laban a pass on the wicked way in which he treated his nephew, but he reveals this is the custom. So he's making a distinction. Maybe in other places of the world they do it differently, but here we do it like this. The oldest daughter marries first. Yes, you want the second daughter as your wife, but the custom is you must marry the oldest. And so Jacob does. Of course he does this thinking the night of his wedding that he's married to Rachel. It's not until the morning that he discovers that this is not what they agreed to in their contract. And so Jacob goes and clarifies and tries to get things in order. And Laban says, OK, so here's the thing. We're not getting out of the first one. But if you want to marry the second one, which again would be something that would be in the custom of the time, that a man could have more than one wife. We call this polygamy. So boys and girls, polygamy is a sin against God. There are nations even today around the world who practice polygamy. And those nations who allow the actions and the practice of polygamy are sinning against God. So we don't want to miss that. We don't want to ignore that. This was a legal marriage. And in this place, nobody would have come and said, you can't do that. That's unfortunate. It's not until Moses is leading the nation of Israel out of bondage and in the wilderness that we come to Mount Sinai and we learn of the Levitical law. It's in Leviticus that we learn God very specifically says who a man can marry and not marry. And in this case, all of these marriages would have been forbidden by God. But they were customarily allowable in this time and in this region. So that's a messy, sticky situation, isn't it? So, so, so Jacob, it's not Rachel, it's Leah. And, uh, and so he worked seven years. to have this wife, and the agreement is, okay, well, let's spend, you give the first week, this would be the week of essentially, there's no way, after seven weeks, or excuse me, after one week, there's no way that you can disavow this union. Stay in here for one week, and then I'll give you Rachel, and here's the deal. You can have Rachel as your second wife, and here's the agreement. You have to work for me for another seven years for her. So Jacob says, okay, let's do that. Now, as you've heard in the narrative, and you're familiar with this story as well, that there's maids that are given by Laban. This again would be customary. When a woman is given into marriage, it's customary in this place and in this region that the father would also give a maid. to his daughter to be with her throughout, mostly for the childbearing, aid in childbearing and raising of children. Well, so that's the intention. So both daughters come with maids from Laban, their father, and then the rivalry really sets in. We can see that there is, so let me just lay out a couple of the things that are observable here. Obviously, there's envy involved. And hey, we're going to see how dangerous envy is for us. We see how disruptive it was in the relationship. We'll see practically from the New Testament how dangerous the attribute or the negative or the anti-attribute of envy is. So, first, we'll see that Leah is fruitful and that Rachel is barren. Now, we should note this, and we should not miss this, that the fruitfulness of Leah and the barrenness of Rachel are at the hand of God. Both of them are the hand of God. God is active in both cases. And in both cases, in the hand of God, there can be, if we are not guarding our hearts, there is the possibility that envy can become part of now the negative in the relationship. We'll also see that there is complaining going on. You'll hear after Leah bears Judah, number four, child number four, that the scripture will say, remember this is holy man and spot. That Leah would stop bearing children. Now we'll learn this to mean For now, she'll go through a season of barrenness. And so what happens is that there's that in place, and then there's Rachel's barrenness. So both of those coming into play, essentially here running at the same time. You see this in chapter 30. Verse 1, now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, here's her complaint, give me children or else I die. That's a high demand upon a husband. Give me children or I die. Jacob will give a proper rebuke to Rachel here. You see in verse 2, Jacob's at least acknowledging he knows God in the fruitfulness of the womb. In chapter 30, verse 2, Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? So there's a complaining, hey, My sister has now four children and I have none. You better give me some children or I die. In this, where there's envy now complaining in place, there's one of two places to go from here. One, you can see that you've sinned against God and your husband and repent of it or you continue down your envy-driven, complaining ways. And that's exactly what Rachel will do here. She will behave like Jacob's great-grandmother, Sarah, which, again, will be part of the custom that when a father gives a daughter and sends her In the event that the daughter would have children, the comfort would be that the daughter would give her maid to her husband to bear children in her name. They would essentially be her children. Well, that's not right. Don't go doing that. You would be sinning against God. But it is right. It was the custom. It was the way. And so Rachel, here, going off the lead of her husband's great-grandfather, who was really, even at that day, serving in the custom of the time as a barren woman, giving her maidservant to her husband to bear a child. So in other words, there's another way for us to do this, okay? And so let's do it like this. The only other, so let me stop here and say, the only other proper way to have a child outside of a husband and wife together is by the adoption of an orphan. So hear that again. The only other proper way for a child, the only God-ordained way for a child to be introduced into a household is for the husband and the wife to have a child of their own or for that husband and wife to adopt an orphan. So, in the ancient times, they had another way. In our modern times, you know that the modern science has found another way. And let me just stop here and say that I think that artificial insemination is akin to a maid servant being given to a husband to bear a child. Now, that's pretty risky to say because I even know people who have bore children through artificial insemination. Well, it's true. I mean, we know of two sisters that bore a lot of children a lot of different ways. Not meaning that that's an acceptable way. Now, here's the problem, and this is not It's fitting for us to at least address it here. And it's a subject matter that I've not addressed much at all, but I think it needs to be addressed here. And this seems like a good fitting place to address it. So let me speak to it in this way, and then we move along. The science of artificial insemination is, by the way, been around for a long time. The agricultural world has been engaged in artificial insemination in the cattle industry for a very long time. I suppose this would work in any animal husbandry biology that artificial insemination has been an active and usable and maybe even arguably pretty successful of the bearing of cattle. But we are not cattle. We are humans created in the image of God and God designs ways in which for humans to procreate. The problem with artificial insemination is that several eggs are fertilized. And in the modern day, selective choosing of the fittest or the most healthy of those fertilized eggs are then artificially inserted into the womb with the hopes of implantation and growing in the womb of a child while discarding dozens, if not hundreds, of siblings. Freezing them in freezer banks around the world are humans who have been artificially inseminated, in other words, fertilized eggs, frozen until such a time as they're selected to be inserted into a womb or to eventually be completely aborted. I just can't find in the observation of this modern practice, any humane action in this. Of the hundreds, the potential hundreds of siblings that will never be born because they've not been chosen or selected in the other way in which man has found to create children in the womb. Now, I would say here, to any husband and wife, if there are any, in the hearing of my voice that have used artificial insemination, we can still argue that God does indeed find ways to always receive glory. He does. But to abdicate this over to God and put it on God to receive glory out somehow out of us choosing less than appropriate ways is assuming on our part before God. And so we'll just move, we'll navigate to that point, and then we'll move along. But then also to anyone who's considering artificial insemination, which could be any number of people. Even in the future, some of our sons and daughters, our grandchildren, this science appears to have no end in sight. This would be right for us to be teaching our sons and That God has appointed this way, and this way meaning two ways in order for children to be added to the household. One is naturally, and the other is as natural and as glorious and as beautiful as the other. And that is the adoption of an orphan. So just as I've just mentioned here, there it appears that there is an apparent success. It appears that there will be successes in the way both Leah and Rachel will grow this house of Jacob, and they will grow it. It's estimated that this number of children being born by four women, that you essentially are having near twins, children being born at the same time. with this daughter or with this wife or with this maidservant or with that maidservant and this wife. You could potentially have, and many scholars are arguing that you have at least 12 children, that's 11 sons and one daughter being born in about an eight-year period of time. Now, that's only possible. You're a good scientist. That's only possible if you're using other ways in order add children to this home. So we'll see that it has this appearance of being successful. And it has grown Jacob's house in an extraordinarily multiplying and very quick way, which is what multiplying does. It happens much quicker than addition. But we must understand that this false success is no less real. It is the real reality of the house of Jacob. When his name is eventually, we're just chapters away from his name being changed from Jacob to Israel, and then the 12 sons, and Benjamin being the last, will be added once they're back in the homeland, that these 12 sons will be known as the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 nations, the nations within a nation. All right, so a couple of thoughts on how to make heads or tails of this broken situation. This is indeed broken. There's envy, there's complaining, there's manipulating, it appears as though that everyone is taking some kind of credit for the success of the addition, the multiplication of children to Jacob's life. When we've seen at least twice here, the instruction in the text, all of this, the barrenness and the fruitfulness is the hand of God. And also, when man begins to try to take the place of God, the right response to that is with anger. Am I in the place of God? addressed his wife. So a couple of thoughts here, we should make some heads or tails of this. Truths. So here's, these are biblical truths. Children are, isn't that children might be, the Bible teaches that children are a blessing. Now being a blessing doesn't mean they're easy. Children are easy. No, no, it's not It's not what it says at all. Children are a blessing. Children are a blessing from God. It is God's way of blessing. It is God's way of putting a blessing upon a household. And that through the natural marriage between a husband and a wife, or that husband and wife who find themselves unable to bear children, adopt a child who has no parents. That has been seen as a blessing from God. Other truths that we see here. We don't see them explicitly here, but they are truths in the Bible that come to play in this narrative. This other truth, marriage is one man to one woman. That is God's order. Man may make other definitions, but that puts man at odds with God. on the negatives of what's being called Christian nationalism. Again, my point today is not to make a case for or against this term Christian nationalism. you Get to know God and His way. Because they bless everyone. They're not favorable. We're not making an argument for a church-governed nation. Experiments about that in world history have proven to be very problematic. But nations that build their laws upon the principles of God, God puts his blessing upon those kinds of nations. And so a truth that we can see here is that marriage matters. We can look here, Genesis 29 and 30, and we think, well, marriage does matter, but here's an example for us of when you don't treat marriage the way God views it and the way God ordained it. There are problems, and they are inherent problems that will exist. And what happens to nations who don't submit to the authority of God is those nations find trouble inside of their borders. Well, now someone's going to make an argument. It sounds to me like you're making an argument for Christian nationalism. I just want to make sure we define Christian nationalism better than the secular world wants to define it for us if there is if there's even such a use of that term. That's, again, navigating through this text has brought in a couple of things that all I'm doing is bringing them up, and then I'm setting them aside and moving along. And I'll do the same thing here. I'm interested in dialogue and discovery about Christian nationalism, but I want to make sure that I'm not talking about church state. I'm talking about states that see themselves, governments, nations that see themselves as servants of God, deacons of God. So let me move us toward conclusion here with some warnings. A warning. Hey, whether your marriage is this messy or not, do you understand that envy is a bitter drink to drink? Envy is at war with your marriage. Envy is at war with your home. Envy is at war with your church. Envy is a bitter drink. In the house of God, we are instructed to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. In this example in Genesis 29 and 30, we don't see Any rejoicing of either of the daughters of Laban, of any of the women that that description of them is given to us about. Envy is a bitter drink. You'll see it both on Leah and Rachel. You'll see it first on Rachel and then you'll see it as well upon Leah. So there's a warning to us here. Envy. You don't want envy being a part of your normal action. This might be the easiest thing for me to say here this morning, but I'll say it because the warning is here. Polygamy is wicked. Let me say it again because there are some in our culture who don't think it's so wicked. But polygamy is wicked. First, it's wicked because it's a sin against God. We must press our government to give biblical definitions to marriage. Do you understand how awkward it is to look at a marriage certificate issued by a state that has applicant A and applicant B on it rather than groom and bride or male and female? It is an indication. If your state is granting certificates of marriage, licensing of marriage that is at odds with God, I would argue that this is from the bedrock of polygamy. Polygamy essentially wants to redefine marriage, biblical marriage. We must, so listen, when your legislators, and hey, by the way, Have you followed some of the tremendous decisions by the Supreme Court thus far this month? At least from the court, at least from the highest court in our land, the tide appears to be shifting to a more conservative. Not fully God-honoring, but more conservative. We can say, well, that appears to be good, but only until we see how far down the road this goes can we really say, that it's been good at all. But here's, this is for certain. You and I must not let up on pressing our legislators to define marriage the way God defines them. Now that's not a church ordered state. That's a church preaching to the state to do your duty, reward those who do righteous things and punish those who do wicked things. Any definition other than one man and one woman, let's just call it what it is. It is not marriage. The custom of the day might call it a marriage. The custom of Jacob's day called these marriages, called these women his wife. The custom of the day does not overthrow the truth of the Word of God. And you and I, we must not be afraid to press our government to honor God at the state. A third warning that I see here. So first, envy is a bitter drink. Don't drink from that well. Secondly, polygamy is wicked. And every form of redefining of marriage is wicked. Thirdly, sin, you know this to be true, sin is contagious. And it is most contagious like any other contagion. It affects those that you're closest to the most. Sin is a contagion. And it will affect those who are closest to you. Wives, if you're sinning, and it's a clear sin against the commands and the precepts of God, you are at risk of being contagious to the rest of your household. Husbands, men, if you are sick with wicked, vile, lust, and sexual sins, you are at risk of being a contagion to the whole of your household, affecting those closest to you, your wife, but then by proxies or by close proximity, your children. We must be careful. not to provoke others. They are responsible for their own actions, but you must be careful as to not introduce sinful ways, bitter drinks, and redefining for the sake of convenience. You are introducing a sin that is contagious. We must not provoke others to sin. Not only is your house at risk, of the contagion of sin that you've introduced, but so too is your church. Not only is your house and not only is your church, but so too is the whole of your community. See how serious this matter is? It is indeed serious. Let's make application of this from the New Testament. Let's turn to the book of James, and I'm just going to serve as a as a tour guide. I'm not going to stop and make a lot of comment here. I just want us to see how this lives out in real time according to James. James chapter 1. I found this extraordinarily beneficial. James, in the New Testament, he's writing this letter to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad. Who are these 12 tribes? us the house of Jacob. It's the nation of Israel. Now, we'll also be able to say this isn't replacement theology, as some want to accuse of. This is also the grafting in of the Gentile into the house of Abraham, who is the grandfather of Jacob. So to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, James sends a greeting along to them. He says this, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. How good would have this been for Jacob to have had this in place? Be careful, Jacob, of the trials that you will go through. Jacob, we're just on the scratching of the surface of the trials that are in Jacob's life. Consider it a joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result. so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Verse six, but we must ask in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man and unstable in all his ways. We would see this continues on in verse nine, but the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position. The rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass, he will pass away. where the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So too is the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Verse 12, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil. And he himself does not tempt anyone. Verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do you see the progression of this contagion? Envy, left unaddressed, will eventually introduce sin, and that sin will actually accomplish what it wanted to do, and that will eventually be the bringing about of death. Verse 16, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be the kind of firstfruits among His creatures. We'll move over to the third chapter, mostly for the sake of time. Not that there's nothing of value here, I want to look at here, make sure we include this in James chapter 3 verse 1. Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle his whole body as well. Now, if we put the bits into the into the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. So he's addressing he's addressed first the unconfessed sin. And the problem of it dwelling in you is it gets worse and worse and to the point that it calls your number and demands you to obey it all the way to death. And then he says here, one of the sources of this great problem that we have is as simple as the mouth, like that of a horse's mouth. We can direct the entire body by such a small thing. Look at verse 4. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder. wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts or it speaks of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire? The tongue is a fire, the very word of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of life and is set on fire by hell. Now there's more that we can glean out of this. But when we read James with Genesis 29 and 30 in our mind, we can see that there are things that are coming out of the mouths of all of the characters that are exposing their undealt with sins. And this too is a problem among us. There are some things to avoid. Let me finish here with this then in verses 11 of chapter 4. Really, I should read from verse 4 on. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So there again, You're going to take the customs of man that are opposed to the law of God as your, that's what you're going to hang your hat on? Then you are now an enemy of God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Verse 5, Or do you not think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us. He gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep, and let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of God, and He will exalt you. Do not speak against one another, brethren, He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, one who is able to serve, one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will do such and such in such a city. or spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. To look at that from the vantage point of Genesis 29 and 30, We can certainly make an argument that God turned these negative things into his own glory and built a house that would eventually be a house of nations that would outnumber the stars of the heavens. Well, this is what God can do. This isn't what man did. that God can do even with our sinful and broken lives. Think of your own life. How has God been greatly glorified by the sins you've introduced into your houses? Well, first of all, he's not glorified that you introduced them into your houses, but he is glorified that you would repent of them and turn to him. Does sin exist in your house? Husbands, are you bringing and introducing sinful ideas and practices? Wives, are you practicing and participating in evil and sinful ways? Sons and daughters, even you must understand the seriousness of your disobeying your parents. It introduces sins to the house. When we sin, it is a kindness of God that we would repent. So this would be my desire today that we would hear through watching and observing these blessings that God brings in unbiblical ways, God is still being glorified. So too is he going to be glorified in your life when you repent of your sin. So today, what should you do? You know you're practicing a sin, you know that you're infecting your whole household, and that the potential of your contagious sin in your own life, you are at risk of spreading that sin throughout the whole of the church body. And that when churches don't address these sins, we are in danger of an entire community falling and collapsing. in embracing sin at ease. You know, the only way that sin gets to the point where it rejoices in doing its sin in broad daylight is when churches stop declaring these actions as sins. Because the conscience knows the law of God. But when the church stops, and let me make the argument, when a member of the household stops confessing and acknowledging the authority of God in their lives. Expect for the contagious sin to spread like wildfire. It'd be right for us to get our lives in order again, wouldn't it? We should do that right now.