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and a They got it from both directions.
But I do have my wife with me. My wife, 30 years. Miss Dana,
appreciate her being here. And then as he mentioned, we
have three children together, Caleb, Charis, and Alethea. In
a week, Caleb will be 25. Charis is 23 now. Alethea is
21. It's hard to believe that. And
we didn't kill them. We didn't kill them. There's
something to be said for that because there's a lot of times
I wanted to. But it is good to be back with you again. I always
appreciate the chance to be here. I appreciate Brother Raines being so kind
as to let me bring my books and let me mention those. I love
to do two things particularly. I love to preach and I love to
write. I've got a faith column that appears in about 30 to 50
newspapers every week across 25 states or so. So I get a lot
of hate mail and death threats, but that's pretty cool too in
its own right. But I've written a lot of books as well on those
tables back there. You'll find a green series of
commentaries. I've written verse-by-verse commentaries
on several books including Revelations, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians
and Proverbs. A lot of others back there. I've
also got a series of devotionals called the Dew Drops Devotionals
that takes you through Scripture, one portion of Scripture at a
time, rather than just telling a story and bouncing around.
It starts in one place and works you this scripture, this scripture,
this scripture, and tells you what to do based on it. I've also got an
adventure series for young people out there, The Night Heroes.
When I was growing up, as Brother Raines said, the books that I
read shaped me largely. I grew up with the Sugar Creek
Gang and a lot of other good series of books. But this is
an adventure series for kids. It combines history, mystery,
adventure, Bible truth, character training, all the things we want
and they want all at the same time. And the heroes of this
book series are kids rather than adults. There are a lot of series
where the adults are the heroes. This one, three kids are the
heroes. So that's a fun series as well. Got some character studies
back there, the life of Joseph. I brought, I think, ten of my
Marriage Makers books. Marriage Makers, Marriage Breakers.
Figured that would be appropriate for this kind of a setting. So
that's there as well. It goes through 18 marriages
in the Bible and why they succeeded or why they failed. And some
of them you never really think of or never really consider.
So any of those you want to see, you let us know after service
and we'll be glad to talk to you about those. But get open
your Bibles to Genesis chapter 30 if you would please. Genesis
chapter We'll read verses 1-16 if we could please. Genesis chapter
30. Genesis chapter 30, we'll begin
our reading in verse 1. And when Rachel saw that she
bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said to
Jacob, give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was
kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God's stead who
hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold,
my maid Bilhah go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees,
that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah
her handmaid wife, and Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah
conceived, and bared Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged
me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son. Therefore
called she his name Dan. And Billa, Rachel's maid, conceived
again, and bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great
wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed. She called his name Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she left bearing, she took Zilpah, her maid, and
gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bared
Jacob a son. And Leah said, A troop cometh.
She called his name Gad. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bared
Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for
the daughters will call me blessed. She called his name Asher. And
Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in
the field and brought them unto his mother, Leah. Then Rachel
said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.
And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast
taken away my husband? Wouldst thou take away my son's
mandrakes also? Rachel said, Therefore he shall
lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. And Jake came
out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him
and said, Thou must come in unto me, for surely I have hired thee
with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night. Heavenly Father, bless, I pray,
the reading of your word, the preaching to follow, the teaching that
comes from it. Lord, I pray that you'd help us. to understand
the truth and apply it to our homes and hearts today. These
things I pray in Jesus' precious name, Amen and Amen. When you
are reading scripture, let me encourage you, do not just see
black words on a white page. These were real people in real
situations and because of that sometimes it got really hysterical. If you are the uptight type,
you may not like some of the things you see in Scripture.
Because I'm telling you, some of it is just absolutely side-splitting.
And this is one of those times. Think about it. Husband gets
auctioned off for produce. OK? It's good to know what's
happening here. Dude is out in the field doing
his work for the day. He has no clue what is going
on back home. Back home, though, there is a
bargaining session going on. One of the wives, and we'll get
that story in a minute, one of the wives' sons has found some
mandrakes, some love apples as they're called, and he brings
them home, and the other one wants some of them, and they
start bargaining back and forth, and he comes in from the field
that day, and she says, You've got to come and meet me tonight. You've got to stay and sleep
with me tonight because I bought you with turnips." I mean that's
just hilarious, right? Not exactly turnips, but he is
literally, his time that night is paid for with produce. Now
as with most interesting things, all of this has a back story.
The back story is pretty important. So let's work our way through
this and then we'll give you the application. Isaac, the son of Abraham, eventually
got married to Rebekah in Genesis chapter 24. In Genesis chapter
25 she found that she was barren. Well then Isaac prays and she
conceives. There is a struggle going on
in the womb. They did not have technology
then like we have today. They had no way of knowing and
seeing what was going on. So she knows something's not
right. And she goes before the Lord and she says these words,
she says, If it be so, why am I thus? Roughly paraphrased that
is, Oh God, I need some relief. I ain't got a clue what's going
on today. You got to do something. God says, Well, here's what you
got going on in there. There's not just one baby in there. There's
two babies in there. There are two manners of people
that are very different. They can make two nations. They're
not going to get along. And she said, You telling me?
They already fighting like cats and dogs in there. Well, it comes
time for delivery day. The first comes out, and again,
in a way that only God can describe things, it just becomes so hysterical.
The first one comes out red and hairy like a garment all over.
Now, can you imagine that? You there in the delivery room,
and you give birth, and you say, what does my baby look like?
Looks like a red, hairy garment. I don't care who you are, that's
funny. Well, that's the firstborn. Well,
then the second one comes out. And when the second one comes
out, the second one does what a newborn baby is not supposed
to be able to do. The second one reaches out, grabs
big brother by the ankle. He is, in so many words, saying,
you got out first. Well, as they grow, they grow
to be two very different kind of people. Esau, the oldest,
grows up to be a very manly, manly kind of a man. Esau's the
one that has rippling biceps, whose biceps have biceps. And
Esau goes out in the field with a knife in his teeth. And Esau
sees some unfortunate creature and runs it down, chases it,
stabs it with a knife, and throws it over his shoulder, brings
it home for a lovely barbecue. That's Esau. Jacob, not so much. Jacob was much more of a mother's
boy. He was much more likely to be found in the kitchen whipping
up a lovely cinnamon souffle. Well, they're so very different.
One of them favored by daddy, one of them favored by mama.
And there comes a day when the oldest one is out in the field
hunting and it's not gone so well, but the younger one, Jacob,
has been back home. He's been cooking, whipping up
some pottage. And the older one comes in, he
smells that. He said, hey, brother, what you
got cooking there? I'm starving. I got to have something. He said, I
got some potage here. I'll be glad to sell you some.
Oh, what will it cost me? Oh, not much. Just your birthright. One of the most precious things
anybody could ever have and despise. But the Bible says that Esau
is a vain and a profane person. He couldn't have cared less for
his birthright because there's a spiritual component to it.
So he sells his con artist brother his birthright. Well, later on
down the line, there's a second thing that happens between the
two of them. Daddy thinks he's getting ready to die, so he says
to his older son, go out in the field, catch me something to
eat, maybe some savory venison, such as my soul loveth, and I'll
bless you before I die. This blessing has both prophetical
and physical nature to it. He's going to say what God's
going to do for him. It's going to enrich him. So
Mama hears this. And when the older son is gone,
she says to the younger son Jacob, she says, go and put some, you
know that red hairy garment thing? You go put some hair, you put
some skins on your arms so you'll feel hairy and you go in there
and you tell your daddy that you're your brother and get him
to bless you instead. And he says, Daddy's going to
know it's me, and I'm going to get cursed and not blessed. He says, well,
Paul, me be thy curse, son. Just do what I say. And the two
of them conspire together. And he goes in there, got the
hairs on his arm, and he says, I'm here for you to bless me,
Father. And Daddy says, well, who are you? He says, I'm Esau,
thy oldest son. He says, well, come here so I
can smell you and feel you. He hugs him and he smells those
skins of the garments off. It's like the smell of the fresh
field. He blesses his youngest son, gives him a double portion
of all things, gives him all his brothers to fall down before
him and serve him. And no sooner has he gone, Esau
shows up. He's got the real meal, and he's
the real deal. He comes in and says, Daddy,
I'm ready for you to bless me. He says, who are you? He says, well,
I'm Esau. He said, well, then who came
here before you did? And it clicks with them both
apparently right at the same time. They realize Jacob has
conned them both again. Now he's got not just the birthright,
but also the blessing. Well, that's going to blow over
really quickly, right? Well, maybe not so much. Esau says, my daddy's
going to die soon. When he does, I'm going to kill
my brother. Mama knows he's telling the truth.
So she says, you need to run back to my home country for,
her words, a few days, till thy brother's anger be abated. Well,
neither of them know it's going to be more than 20 years, and
that he will never see her alive again. Well, he runs from the
face of his brother. He goes to his mother's home
country. He gets there. He stops by a well. And there
are shepherds coming out there to the well. And he says to them,
why don't you go ahead and water the sheep? And they say, we can't
do it yet. We've got to wait for everybody to get together.
And then they, plural, will take the stone off the well. Apparently
it's a really big stone. He says, we'll wait for them.
And they, plural, will get that stone off the well. They'll water the
sheep. And then a new shepherd shows up, a girl shepherd. Jacob
sees her, and all of a sudden his heart starts beating faster
than it's ever beat before in his entire life. All of a sudden
he's feeling more masculine than he's ever felt in his entire
life. He reaches down and grabs that rock gun so raw, flips the
rock over. Then he grabs that girl, bends
her over, kisses her, and says the three words every girl wants
to hear, I'm your cousin. But you've got to understand,
in those days, that's like a marriage proposal, man. When she runs
home and tells Daddy what's happened, he says, listen, why'd you leave
him out there? Bring the man home. She goes
and brings him home, and he just stays and starts working. He's working for a month, and
Daddy finally says, look, you can't be working for nothing.
What are your wages going to be? Well, he's already thought
through this. He says, I will serve these seven years for Rachel,
thy younger daughter. Daddy says, Groovy, by me? Better
that I give her to you than somebody else. He says, you work seven
years, I'll give you my daughter. He goes out there and he slays
in the field for seven solid years. I mean, he is anxious
to have this girl. Seven years go by, he comes to
Laban. He says, it's time for me to
have my bride. Laban says, all right, we'll set everything up.
He consults his Old Testament farmer's almanac, finds a night
where there'll be no moon in the sky and a heavy cloud cover.
Goes and procures a seven-ply industrial veil. for his older
daughter Leah whom the Bible describes as tender-eyed. And
while that may sound like a sweet thing, trust me it's not. Loosely
paraphrased it means even the tide wouldn't take her out. She's
an unattractive, unattractive woman. And he puts his heavy
veil on this girl and he says, you go in and you pretend to
be your sister. Now how's that for a little bit
of irony. Last time a parent was doing that it was his mama
and that was the daddy. Now all of a sudden another daddy
doing the same thing to him. What goes around does come around.
Well they have the marriage, they consummate everything. As
crazy as it sounds, he wakes up in the morning, pulls that
veil back, and realizes he got the wrong one. Now understand,
she's happy about this thing because she ain't getting a man
no other way. But he is furious. He goes to
Laban and he says, why did you do this to me? You tricked me.
He says, it must not be so done in our country to give the younger
before the older. Fulfill her week and we'll give
you the younger one too for another seven years' worth of work. You
could have told me that seven years ago. And yet, he does another
seven years worth of work for the one that he was wanting to
start with. And then on top of that, as if
life has not gotten complicated enough, there's a childbearing
contest between the two. And they have two helpers along
with them. Each of them has gotten a nurse,
a concubine if you will. So he has like two amateur wives,
two professional wives. It's a real mess. I mean, Dr. Phil would have a hard time unraveling
any of this, man. It's just a disaster waiting
to happen. Now this guy's got all these mouths to feed, man,
because he's got these wives and they're starting to bear
children. And there's this tension between Leah and Rachel. Now here's where things begin
to get to the heart of the matter. Three times we're told that Jacob
loved Rachel. Genesis 29.18, and Jacob loved
Rachel and said, I will serve these seven years for Rachel,
my younger daughter. Genesis 29.20, and Jacob served seven
years for Rachel. They seemed unto him but a few
days for the love he had to her. Genesis 29.30, and he went in
also unto Rachel and he loved also Rachel more than Leah. served
with him yet seven other years. Two times were told that compared
to the love he had for Rachel, any love he had for Leah was
hatred by comparison. Genesis 29-31, when the Lord
saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
Genesis 29-33, and she conceived again and bare a son and said,
because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore
given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon.
So Jacob loved Rachel. But if you read the text of Scripture
carefully, nowhere does it say that Rachel loved Jacob. Doesn't
even say that she wanted Jacob to love her. What it does make
clear is that she wanted what Jacob could possibly give her,
that being children. But one of those women was not
interested in Jacob for what he could give her. She actually
loved her husband and wanted him to love her. Listen to Genesis
29, 32. And Leah conceived and bare a
son. And she called his name Reuben, for she said, Surely
the Lord hath looked upon my affliction. Now therefore, My
husband will love me. If you knew how many times as
a pastor of 27 years and a marriage counselor of equal time, I have
heard the words, I just wish he loved me or I just wish she
loved me. If you knew how often I heard
those words, it would absolutely break your heart. I hear those
words all the time from one spouse to another. wished he, she loves
me." All this woman wanted was what any spouse still wants today,
the love of the other spouse, and she was willing to give up
anything to get it. And that brings us to our text.
One day, Reuben, the son of Leah, all of four years old, was walking
in the field during the wheat harvest. He found something called
mandrakes. Another name for them is love
apples. They were really prized by the people in those days.
Here's why. They were really, really sweet. They tasted great.
They had a lovely fragrance. I mean the whole house would
just be filled with the smell. And they were regarded as an
aphrodisiac. We brought them home to mom,
to Leah, and Rachel realized it. And her mouth starts drooling
and watering. She knows how these things taste.
And her sniffer starts going on, because she knows how good
these things smell. And she's thinking how wonderful
it would be to have those in the tent. So she says, hey, I
want your son's mandrake. And that starts a bargaining
session. Leah says, is it a small matter?
I'm taking my husband. You want my son's mandrakes also?
And she says, well, I'll give it in. 30 mandrakes, sold for
30 mandrakes. And they have their bargaining
session, and he gets sold for the night for those mandrakes.
He comes in out of the field. He is oblivious to anything that's
going on. He's getting ready to go to Rachel's tent, no doubt.
Liam walks out and says, oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. You're
coming this way. I bought you with my son's Mandrakes.
Now, this is neither here nor there, but you've got some choices
in life. If something does not go exactly
the way that you want it to go in life, and yet it seems really
interesting anyway, you can either pitch a temper tantrum, or you
can go, that sounds interesting, okay. This guy, he doesn't pitch fit. He just says, hey, if that's
the way it is, that's the way it is. I've been bought for mandrakes.
I've been bought for mandrakes. And he goes and he sleeps with
his wife Leah that night. So that's the end of the story,
right? The polygamous version of a one-night stand. Not exactly. That night is verse 16. Look
at what immediately follows, verse 17. And God hearkened unto
Leah, and she conceived and bared Jacob the fifth son. And Leah
said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden
to my husband. And she called his name Issachar.
And Leah conceived again, and bore Jacob the sixth son. And
Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry. Now will my
husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons. And
she called his name Zebulun. And afterwards, she bore a daughter,
and called her name Dinah. Think with me bare minimum of
the time those verses represent. It took us about 30 seconds to
read them. Here's the time it represents.
Conception, followed by nine months, followed by the birth
of Issachar, followed by 41 days of purification, followed by
another episode of intimacy, maybe more, followed by conception,
followed by nine months, followed by the birth of Zebulun, followed
by 41 more days of purification, followed by intimacy, who knows
how many times till she conceives again, followed by nine months,
followed by the birth of Dinah. As it turns out, Jacob stuck
around. She gave up mandrakes for a night
and Jacob stuck around and kept on sticking around. and kept
on sticking around, something changed the night when those
love apples changed hands. But it's even more longer lasting
than that. Fast forward, Genesis chapter 49, a lot of years. Jacob's
about to die. He's going to have to be carried
out of Egypt to be buried. He can be carried and buried
anywhere he likes. Here are his instructions. Genesis
49, 29. and he charged them and said
unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people, means I'm dying,
bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of
Ephraim the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah,
which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham
bought with the field of Ephraim the Hittite for possession of
a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There
they buried Isaac and Rebekah's wife and there I buried Leah. Rachel was buried in another
place due to circumstances along the way. Comes time for him to
be buried. He considers the option and he
says, bury me with Leah. Now do you remember how this
started? Miss the Tide wouldn't take her out. conspires with
daddy, tricks the dude into marrying her. It doesn't start much worse
than that. Now he's got all this trouble
and all this drama for all these years. The Bible says that he
hated her. She loved him, he hates her.
It's just a disaster. This can't possibly make it.
except the fact that it did make it. It so changed along the way
that he couldn't stand to be apart from her even in death.
Seems very much like things changed the night he heard Rachel slurping
mandrake juice in the next tent and realized that Rachel wanted
the mandrakes but Leah wanted the man. Everything changed in
other words when he realized that one, here's our key, was
a no reservations spouse. The only one of those two that
was all in with Jacob just for Jacob, not what Jacob could give
or provide or do, was Leah. As it turns out, the real love
apples weren't pieces of fruit. They were every time Leah sent
Jacob the message that he was the only one for her and she
couldn't live without him. A successful marriage is often
made to sound as complicated as rocket science, but it's usually
way simpler than that. If everything you do as a husband
or wife sends a no-reservations message, I'm absolutely all in
with you. We are riding or dying together.
If everything sends that message, Things tend to work out. In fact,
they tend to get sweeter than most people could ever imagine.
The late preacher E.V. Hill, a black preacher from California,
preached his wife's funeral. I heard it years ago, and it
is to this day one of my favorite messages. I got a funeral message
to be a favorite message. You just have to hear it sometime.
He called his wife, Baby. She died in her early fifties
of cancer. He was at the funeral talking about their life together,
talking about events that happened on the way. And he said this,
he said, I decided to buy a service station. And my wife, baby, said,
don't do it. You're going to lose your shirt.
I said, I'm going to do it anyway, woman. She said, all right, have
at it. He said, I bought the service
station. Things went bad. They went real bad. I was getting
real discouraged. He said, I came home one night,
though, and opened the front door, and I saw a meal on the
table and candles sitting all around. I said, what meanest
thou this woman? She said, you've been working
so hard. I just thought we'd have ourselves a candlelight
dinner. He said, sounds groovy to me. He said, I went down the
hall to the washroom and flipped the light switch, and no lights
came on. I came back out sheepishly and
said, baby, did they cut the power off? She began to cry,
and she said, I know you're working and trying so hard. Since they
cut the power off, I figure we just eat by candlelight tonight.
He said, she could have broken me in that moment. She could
have said, my father, the medical doctor's house, the lights were
always on, and the bills were always paid. She could have broken
me in that moment. Instead, she said, let's just eat by candlelight. It's a no reservations kind of
moment. My accountant is a unique individual. He could easily get on disability. He's been in a wheelchair since
childhood. Both of his arms are like this.
And yet he has worked as a 911 dispatcher, and he does accountant
work. And it's just wild to see him
do this number, try to hit the right buttons, and he always
gets them right. And we've never been audited, so we're good. But this guy who's in a wheelchair
with a crippled up, mangled up body has been married for like
35, 40 years. They've got an adult son now. Things have gone real good in
their marriage because in spite of everything she has always
sent him the message, you are the only one for me. I'll never
be for anybody else but you. I don't think you could pry her
away with Captain America. She's that much in with her husband
in spite of it all. Going back almost 25 years now,
a young couple came in for counseling at our church. They hadn't been
with us long. They sat down on the couch across from my desk,
crying and weeping and sobbing uncontrollably. When they finally
stopped all the crying and weeping, I said, what's going on? The
story began to unfold. They had not been married long.
They had gotten into an argument. She had gone back home a couple
of states away, and the devil is real good at what he does.
While she was home with mom and daddy, she happened to run into
an old flame. committed adultery on her husband.
She felt really guilty about it. Came back and immediately
told him everything that had happened. And now they're sitting
there on the couch crying and sobbing uncontrollably. And he's
saying, Preacher, I just don't know what to do. I don't know
what to do. I don't know how to handle this, Preacher. I don't
know what to do. When they got quiet for a moment, God just
seemed to give me the right answer. I said, young man, I got a question.
If I told you, you could likely get this woman to love you more
than she's ever even thought of loving you in her entire life.
I mean, just about to worship the ground you walk on. Would
you be interested in that?" He sniffled for a minute and said,
I guess I would. I said, then here's what you
do. You assure her right now that
you forgive her unconditionally and will never bring it up again
the rest of your life. Can you do that? He thought about
it for a good minute. Then he finally turned to her
and he said, what you did hurt broke my heart. But I absolutely
forgive you entirely from the bottom of my heart. And after
this day it will never be brought up again as long as I live. That's 25 years ago. It was also
three or four kids ago. He's in the ministry now. Their
adult son is in the ministry now because he just sent a no
reservations message. I'm for you regardless. The real love apples in your
life will be those no reservations moment when you send your spouse
the message, it's you. It's always been you. It will
always only be you. It will never be anybody else.
You will have to run me out of here with a stick because I'm
all in just for you. Heavenly Father, thank you so
much for your work and for all you've done. We love you and
appreciate you. Lord, I suppose if Lee and Jake
can make it, any home can make it. And Lord, I admire that woman
and her no-reservations attitude. Lord, I pray that you'd help
each one of us, Lord, to regard our marriage as so precious that
we also take a no-reservations attitude to it. And always and
only send the message to our spouse that we are all in just
for them. Lord, bless the homes represented
here tonight. May they stand the test of time
and trial. May they get to the end of the
way and realize they did it right. And we're blessed on that account.
These things I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Love Apples
Series Marriage Matters
| Sermon ID | 82024351353303 |
| Duration | 29:24 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Genesis 30:1-16 |
| Language | English |
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