Genesis 29-30:24
Posted by Allen Chapel AME Church at 7/19/2007 1:05 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
Last week, we concluded by talking about how Jacob ran because he was afraid of being killed by Esau, from whom he had stolen both a birthright and a blessing. So he ran and ran--but you have to sleep sometime. No matter how tough, clever, deceitful you are, you have to sleep sometime. Without it, you'll lose your mind.
If anyone deserved for someone to wait for him to sleep to catch him, it was Jacob! Esau should have followed him! But Esau didn't do that. So here he is, and the sleep has overcome him in the middle of nowhere. He hasn't secured himself against anything that might fall upon him in this place . . . yet he falls asleep. Anyone coming along might rob or kill him, much less take his blessing or his birthright.
But instead of losing everything in his moment of weakness, which is the weakness of us all (sleep), the moment of utmost vulnerability, this thief has a vision. It isn't a vision of hell, but instead a vision of angels going and coming on a ladder between the earth and the heavens. And God makes him a promise--not one he deserves! As if he doesn't have enough already. He doesn't deserve a birthright, but he gets it! He doesn't deserve a blessing, but he gets it! And now he doesn't deserve this promise, but he gets it: The Lord says, "I'm going to stay with you. I'm going to bring you home after a while, restore you to your family, and I will increase everything you have, including your family."
Jacob woke up refreshed and blessed anew, so he decides to consecrate and commemorate the place by pouring wine and oil over a rock, marking the space: "I did not know that the Lord was in this place, but the Lord was here." In the middle of nowhere.
Here's what's important: The Lord needs absolutely nothing to decide to bless you. Doesn't need any special time. Doesn't need any special place. Doesn't need any special conditions whatsoever. If the Lord decides to bless you, you're blessed.
(Compare Jacob's exile to the banishment of Adam and Eve, and of Cain, and of others, a motif repeated time and again in the first five books of the Bible, what we can also call the Torah or the Pentateuch. And each time people are exiled due to their own sin, God remains with them. This teaches us something amazing: That God protects us even while we're being wicked, even while he grieves over our sins.)
Because he decides to bless Jacob, does that mean Jacob now has no responsibility, that he can keep on acting the fool? No. Are we going to find out why he can't keep doing that? Yes.
The Lord is blessing him, but as he has behaved that is how people will behave with him. He's going to his uncle now. Seems like he ought to be safe with him, right? Let's see. (It's all about the family, isn't it? That's the reason we're studying this: because it's about families and how families tear themselves up and how the Lord restores and renews them, because it's always the province of God and faith.)
When Jacob comes across these strange men who he doesn't know, there's already a relationship between them because they share a common language. And as he says to Rachel after he kisses her, which is part of their common language of greeting between kin, "I am the son of Rebekah."
Join us in person any time ... Bible Study is held on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.
If anyone deserved for someone to wait for him to sleep to catch him, it was Jacob! Esau should have followed him! But Esau didn't do that. So here he is, and the sleep has overcome him in the middle of nowhere. He hasn't secured himself against anything that might fall upon him in this place . . . yet he falls asleep. Anyone coming along might rob or kill him, much less take his blessing or his birthright.
But instead of losing everything in his moment of weakness, which is the weakness of us all (sleep), the moment of utmost vulnerability, this thief has a vision. It isn't a vision of hell, but instead a vision of angels going and coming on a ladder between the earth and the heavens. And God makes him a promise--not one he deserves! As if he doesn't have enough already. He doesn't deserve a birthright, but he gets it! He doesn't deserve a blessing, but he gets it! And now he doesn't deserve this promise, but he gets it: The Lord says, "I'm going to stay with you. I'm going to bring you home after a while, restore you to your family, and I will increase everything you have, including your family."
Jacob woke up refreshed and blessed anew, so he decides to consecrate and commemorate the place by pouring wine and oil over a rock, marking the space: "I did not know that the Lord was in this place, but the Lord was here." In the middle of nowhere.
Here's what's important: The Lord needs absolutely nothing to decide to bless you. Doesn't need any special time. Doesn't need any special place. Doesn't need any special conditions whatsoever. If the Lord decides to bless you, you're blessed.
(Compare Jacob's exile to the banishment of Adam and Eve, and of Cain, and of others, a motif repeated time and again in the first five books of the Bible, what we can also call the Torah or the Pentateuch. And each time people are exiled due to their own sin, God remains with them. This teaches us something amazing: That God protects us even while we're being wicked, even while he grieves over our sins.)
Because he decides to bless Jacob, does that mean Jacob now has no responsibility, that he can keep on acting the fool? No. Are we going to find out why he can't keep doing that? Yes.
The Lord is blessing him, but as he has behaved that is how people will behave with him. He's going to his uncle now. Seems like he ought to be safe with him, right? Let's see. (It's all about the family, isn't it? That's the reason we're studying this: because it's about families and how families tear themselves up and how the Lord restores and renews them, because it's always the province of God and faith.)
Before we go further, what do you notice already about Jacob's relationship with these men? Isn't he already telling them what to do? He's got this tendency; he can't resist taking charge of everything!Genesis 29
29Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. 2As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob said to them, ‘My brothers, where do you come from?’ They said, ‘We are from Haran.’ 5He said to them, ‘Do you know Laban son of Nahor?’ They said, ‘We do.’ 6He said to them, ‘Is it well with him?’ ‘Yes,’ they replied, ‘and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep.’ 7He said, ‘Look, it is still broad daylight; it is not time for the animals to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.’ 8But they said, ‘We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.’
9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep; for she kept them. 10Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban. 11Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and wept aloud. 12And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father.[One of the Bible study class members pointed out that in the version she had in front of her, the King James Bible, the translation read, "And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother," which sparked a protracted discussion of the fallibilities of translation and the rabbinical tradition of commentaries or "midrash." The impediments for "perfect" translations of the original Hebrew text include the impossibility of literal translation--no word for for word transliteration. So we have several versions of the Bible, and we maintain the New Revised Standard Version in our pews as the most accurate one available to us right now. Rev. Scott argues that God can speak to us in any language, and any language is a gift to humankind from God. The fact that we speak at all is a miracle wrought of God. So no one language is any more special than any other. Every single language is significant. And the intercourse of human beings depends on shared speech. Even in this story . . . ]
When Jacob comes across these strange men who he doesn't know, there's already a relationship between them because they share a common language. And as he says to Rachel after he kisses her, which is part of their common language of greeting between kin, "I am the son of Rebekah."
13 When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14and Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh!’ And he stayed with him for a month.Where'd this talk of serving come from all of a sudden? Already it's been determined that there's some work for him to do. Isn't that just the way of families? And especially families who live off the land? The presumption is that everyone must work. Jacob is going to have to make his way by the sweat of his brow.
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?’
16Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17Leah’s eyes were lovely,* and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. 18Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’ 19Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.’ 20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.Maybe part of the problem these days is that courtship doesn't last long enough. Most people nowadays don't understand the nature of the work a relationship involves, or the commitment. "For better and for worse ..." all some people hear is "for better." As if "for worse" is an afterthought. Anyway ...
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.’ 22So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. 23But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. 24(Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.)Everybody would have been gathered. Then, at the appointed time for the couple went to consummate the marriage, they would be seen off. And the next morning, they would check the sheets for blood, both to see that the marriage was consummated and that the woman was virginal.
25When morning came, it was Leah!We presume that there were no candles, and that he didn't know till morning that it wasn't Rachel. But, after all, Leah is the firstborn, and the benefit of marriage is her birthright:
And Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?’ 26Laban said, ‘This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn.As if to say, "Are you so stupid as to not know this is what we do?!" It's almost funny.
27Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me for another seven years.’ 28Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife. 29(Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her maid.) 30So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He served Laban* for another seven years. 31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.Have we been here before? Yes!
32Leah conceived and bore a son, and she named him Reuben; for she said, ‘Because the Lord has looked on my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.’ 33She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘Because the Lord that I am hated, he has given me this son also’; and she named him Simeon. 34Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons’; therefore he was named Levi. 35She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord’; therefore she named him Judah; then she ceased bearing.And look! The tighter the relationship, the greater the enmity. Against whom did Jacob sin? Father and brother. Of whom is Rachel jealous? Sister, with whom she shares the same man, so they are sister-wives. And she yells at Jacob, as if it's his fault,Genesis 30
30When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister . . .
. . . and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I shall die!’ 2Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’ 3Then she said, ‘Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.’ 4So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her. 5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, ‘God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son’ . . .Today we have a word for this: surrogacy. Anyway, Rachel's barrenness: Is it her fault? No, she didn't do anything. Does she deserve to be barren? No, she didn't do anything. This doesn't say she had done anything wrong. Was it her fault she was born second rather than first? No. I whose hands is this? God's hands.
. . . therefore she named him Dan. 7Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8Then Rachel said, ‘With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed’; so she named him Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.They're trying to outdo each other!
10Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11And Leah said, ‘Good fortune!’ so she named him Gad. 12Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13And Leah said, ‘Happy am I! For the women will call me happy’; so she named him Asher. 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.’ 15But she said to her, ‘Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?’ Rachel said, ‘Then he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.’That is to say Jacob may lie with Leah so that Rachel can have the mandrakes.
16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, ‘You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.’What? When you pay someone, what's that called? Prostitution. Moreover, this is between a husband and wife. Just when you thought "The Young and the Restless" was as trashy as you could get . . .!
So he lay with her that night. 17And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, ‘God has given me my hire* because I gave my maid to my husband’; so she named him Issachar. 19And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20Then Leah said, ‘God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honour* me, because I have borne him six sons’ . . .Now, if he wasn't pleased after the second, third, fourth, or fifth, why would the sixth be any different? But she hopes so.
. . . so she named him Zebulun. 21Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb. 23She conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘God has taken away my reproach’; 24and she named him Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord add to me another son!’You see where we're going? If Isaac had preferred Esau . . . if Rebekah had preferred Jacob . . . and the contrary preferences meant a contrary spirit in the family, what would make you think that by the next generation or even the one after that, it will have gone away? So all the way now, in the third generation, we have Joseph coming along--and you all know what's going to happen to Joseph! Because Jacob will prefer Joseph. And look at how late Joseph is. Is he the first one? No. Not by far!
Join us in person any time ... Bible Study is held on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.
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