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SERMONThe Girl Nobody WantedSuccumbing to the world's definition of success brings devastation and disappointment, but God works with, through, and in weak people to give satisfaction.Timothy J. Keller
Text: Genesis 29:15–35
Topic: Where to find satisfaction
Introduction
I'm going to read you a passage out of the Old Testament: Genesis 29. And one of the things we're struck with immediately is that the Bible is the most unsentimental of all books when it comes to the subject of marriage and family. It is utterly realistic about this—that it is always hard and often devastating to not be married and it is always hard and sometimes devastating to be married.
Keeping this biblical understanding is very difficult, because there's almost no support for it institutionally, structurally. Outside Christian circles, or in the secular world at large, there's a tremendous amount of fear and a tremendous amount of cynicism about marriage, and with good reason, because of one of the things I just said that the Bible talks about. On the other hand, inside Christian circles there is a tendency to say, ah, marriage, that's what life's about. Marriage, family, kids, white picket fence. And the Bible says both of those attitudes are utterly wrong, because the Bible does not show us Jesus Christ pointing to marriage saying, "This is what you need." But rather the Bible shows us marriage both in its strengths and even in its tremendous difficulties pointing to Jesus Christ as the thing we need.
Now it's never been more obvious when I read you this account. I'm going to read Genesis 29:15-35:
Now after Jacob had been with Laban for a month, Laban said to him, "Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be." Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah; the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel." Laban said, "It's better that I should give her to you than some other man. Stay here with me."
So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. My time is completed. I want to lie with her." So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. And when evening came he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her and Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid servant.
But when morning came, behold, it was Leah. So Jacob said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me. I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived me?" And Laban replied, "It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Finish this daughter's bridal week, and then we'll give you the younger one also in return for another seven years of work."
And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. And Jacob lay with Rachel also and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Now when the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb though Rachel was barren. And Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben for she said "It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now." She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too." So she named him Simeon. And again she conceived. And when she gave birth to a son she said, "Now at last my husband will become attached to me because I have born him three sons." So he was named Levi. And she conceived yet again. And when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the Lord." So she named him Judah, and then she stopped having children.
A Family of Grace, a Family of Suffering
First of all, there are two things you have to know as background of this story. You have to know that Jacob came from a family chosen by grace and a family filled with suffering. Jacob had a grandfather named Abraham. One day God comes to Abraham and says, "Abraham, look at the world. Do you see the misery? Do you see the cruelty? Do you see the injustice? Do you see the disease? Do you see the tragedy? Do you see death itself? I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to heal it. I'm going to redeem it all. And I'm going to do it through your family. One of your descendants will be the Messiah."
God says to Abraham, "And, therefore, this is what has to happen. You need to know that, in every generation of your family there will be children, but one of the children will be the seed. One child will be the messianic seed, the bearer of the messianic strain. And that child should be head of the family, and that child must walk before me, and that child must pass the true faith along to all the family, because, of all those children, one of them will be the true seed, until someday one seed will be the Seed, and one prophet will be the Prophet, and one priest will be the Priest, and one king will be the King of kings and Lord of lords."
And that was why this was a very special family Jacob was part of. But also, in spite of that—and this is a lesson all by itself—this is a family filled with suffering. Abraham had one son, Isaac, and when Isaac's wife, Rebekah, was pregnant and she had two twin sons in her womb, God sent a prophecy to Isaac and said, "The elder will serve the younger." And that means God was saying to Isaac, the second one out is the seed, not the first one; not the elder but the younger—that's the seed. That's the one I've chosen.
But out they come, Jacob and Esau, and Isaac ignores what God says. He puts his heart on Esau and clearly favors him and loves him more than Jacob. And as a result, devastation is wreaked on both the boys as they grow up. Their characters are ravaged by this. Esau grow up to be willful, proud, and with no self-control at all because of the way that Isaac dotes on him and makes him the favorite, and Jacob turns into a liar. Jacob turns into a deceiver. Jacob turns into a manipulator.
Many of you know the story. What happens is, when they come of age, Jacob deceives his father one day. His father is old and blind, and Jacob dresses up as Esau and goes in and gets Isaac to give Jacob the blessing, to give Jacob the birthright, to give Jacob the headship of the clan. But when Esau realizes what Jacob has done, how he's been deceitful, Esau vows to kill him. And so Jacob has got to run, and he flees far, far away, to the other side of the Fertile Crescent, where his mother's relatives take him in. His uncle Laban takes him in.
Now Jacob's life is over. Jacob isn't sure if it's God that screwed up, if he's the one who screwed up, if his father or his family screwed up. But he'll never fulfill his destiny now. He's got no faith. It's all ruined. He's got no money. He's got no place. He's not in his homeland anymore. It's all over. So that's the story; that's the background.
Laban's Plot and Leah's Lot
But now the story has two parts to it—Laban's plot and Leah's lot. First of all, Laban—Laban's plot. Laban is the uncle, and Laban brings Jacob in as a sort of charity case, and Jacob's working for him for a month as a shepherd. And Laban suddenly realizes something. He looks and he says, This guy's a great shepherd. This guy's got management capabilities. And he realizes that if Jacob becomes a foreman for him, he could tremendously expand his operation and he could make a tremendous amount of money, as long as he doesn't have to pay Jacob too much. So he comes to Jacob and he says, "I'd like to give you a contract. What do you want in order to work for me?" And Jacob says, "Rachel."
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