God's Perfect Family Man

God’s Perfect Family Man

DBF 1/6/02

Genesis 30

A. Jacob’s Poor Example

B. Jacob’s Twelve Sons

C. God’s Perfect Provision

What is a perfect family man?

Is it a father who is present with his children as they grow?

Is it a husband who loves his wife and family above all else?

Is it a friend in sickness and in health?

Is it someone you can talk to without the private thoughts you share ever being revealed in places they should not?

Is it someone who reverences their parents, and continually provides for them?

Is it someone who catches moose and caribou and provides it to the family?

Is it someone who teaches all that is right to his family and sets the example that is often difficult in the present day?

This perfect family man is something somewhat different if you ask anyone here in

Dillingham and it is different if you ask anyone from anywhere. What we normally look at is our own family and search for what best attributes we would see in our Father, Uncles, older relatives and brothers.

That there is a great void in what we here feel are :Perfect Family Men is not surprising. It’s not that easy to go and get a #1 Best Seller entitled “Being the Perfect Family Man”, because that would be biased in our current situation. If I were a politician, my idea would probably be something akin to “I can do anything, as long as my family or the media do not find out.” If I were a movie star protecting and hiding my siblings while I was seeking myself would probably be what I believed to be the perfect family man. We often see the best human virtues by parents that are not well to do in this present age, but this still does not answer our question: What is God’s perfect family man. Let us look into the situation with Jacob in chapter 30 of Genesis and see some things that we should prayerfully avoid.

Jacob’s Poor Example Vs. God’s Desired Example

30And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

Genesis 30

1And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. 2And 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? 3And 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. 4And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. 5And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. 6And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. 7And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. 8And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali. 9When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. 10And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son. 11And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. 12And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son. 13And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

A good marriage is not one where perfection reigns: it is a relationship where a healthy perspective overlooks a multitude of “unresolvables.” James Dobson

As we read the beginning of our Chapter today we see that all is not paradise in Jacob’s family, and this extends from several sources.

Rachel envied her sister Leah; envy is grieving at the good of another, there may be no sin more hateful to God, or more hurtful to our neighbors and ourselves.

Rachael did not consider that God made the difference in her life and her relationship, and that in other things she had the advantage. We as people must continually guard against the fleshly narcissistic desires within us that tend to allow us to turn into ourselves and our own best interests continually and instead give ourselves fully in service to Christ. We should not evilly envy the things of others which causes us to have evil desires towards any of our fellow-servants.

Jacob loved Rachel, and therefore reproved her for what she said, and this is what God would expect of a Godly family man. Faithful reproofs show true affection and Godly love. But he quickly followed up the good practice with one of folly, much as his grandfather Abram his done previously.