-welcome everyone to NewSong on Memorial Day Weekend, or Race Day. Thanks for being here.
-I know it’s kind of an off day, so I thought we’d relax a little today and do something we’ve done the past few weeks at Drink Deep with the Sr. High’s. I thought we’d have story time. And before you ask, yes, there is a soundtrack.
-for today’s story, we are going to have a great story, a famous story, a love story. Some of you may have heard it before, but it’s a great story and we should hear it more than once in our lives.
-but I said, it’s a love story. It involves a man named Jacob and his search for love. Surprisingly, his search for love is kicked off by his mother. Before he has a chance to look for love, his mom gets involved. Typical.
-but anyway, Jacob’s mother Rebekah is talking with her husband Isaac and says that she is sick and tired of the Hittite women that live in the areas around them and that she would rather die than see her son marry one of them. Again, typical mom.
-so Isaac calls for his son Jacob and tells him he must not marry one of these Canaanite women, but instead Isaac is sending him back to the land of his grandfather where he will find his uncle Laban and there he must find a wife. Then Isaac places a blessing on Jacob that he would find a wife, have many children and come home to this land to become a great nation.
-Jacob goes on his way where some other things happen to him like seeing a ladder to heaven, but we won’t dwell on those today. After all, this is a love story, we’re looking at how Jacob found true love.
-eventually Jacob arrives in the land of Paddan-Aram where his grandfather’s family lives, but he doesn’t know it yet (there’s no sign, population 400). He arrives first at a well where the shepherds water their flocks. There were three flocks waiting by the well, but no one was getting water, there was a large heavy stone covering the well.
-Jacob strikes up a conversation with the shepherds and finds out it is a custom there that the well is only uncovered when everyone arrives. When everyone is there the shepherds remove the stone and everyone waters their flocks together.
-while they are waiting for the rest of the sheep and goats to get there, Jacob also starts asking the shepherds about themselves. He learns they are from the same area as his grandfather and asks if they know a man named Laban. Jacob asks if he is doing well and they tell him Laban’s doing great, in fact, here comes his daughter with the flocks. And then Jacob sees her. [JIMI HENDRIX'S FOXY]
-yes, that’s right, Rachel has got it going on. She is the hottie of the well and Jacob realizes that since she is Laban’s daughter, she is one of the women that his parents said he can marry. And he is stricken, twitter-pated. Jacob thinks she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.
-she is so beautiful and he is so taken with her that Jacob walks over to the well and removes the huge boulder on top all by himself, breaking with the local tradition, all so he can impress her. Then he walks up to her, kisses her on the mouth and starts to cry because he is so happy.
-for all you single guys, that is the Jacob three step approach to dating. Notice there’s no talking, it’s not necessary. When you see a girl that’s incredibly beautiful, simply give her water, kiss her, than cry like a little girl. 70% of the time it works every time.
-Rachel, after the Jacob three step approach, runs home to her father and tells him what has happened. He runs out to meet Jacob, hears his story, knows this is a good guy who is his flesh and blood and accepts Jacob into his home.
-so Jacob works for Laban, as a shepherd. He’s getting in good with dad and he’s managing to work with the girl he likes, Jacob’s got game after all. After a month of this Laban tells Jacob he shouldn’t work for free, how much does he want to be paid. Jacob says he will work for Laban for seven years in exchange for being able to marry Rachel, to which Laban says, “done!”
-so Jacob works for seven years for Laban, although he was so in love Scripture says it seemed as if it were only a few days (aww). When the seven years is up Jacob is all excited and goes to Laban saying “I’ve fulfilled my agreement, now give me my wife so I can marry her.” Laban invites the entire neighborhood to the wedding and has a huge feast and everyone parties. When it’s late and dark Jacob heads back to his tent with his new wife.
-the problem is the next morning Jacob wakes up and realizes that the woman next to him, it’s not Rachel! Now I don’t know how much you’re partying at your wedding that you take the wrong woman home and don’t realize it, but now Jacob is in bed with Rachel’s older sister Leah. Now, we don’t know much about Leah, there’s only one line that is used to describe her and we don’t fully understand what the ancient Hebrew means. As near as we can tell, it loosely translates that Leah wasn’t easy on the eyes (if you know what I mean). I mean, she’s no Rachel and she’s definitely not worth the Jacob three step dating plan.
-so Jacob goes to Laban and finds out that Laban did this! On purpose! Laban gave Leah to Jacob instead of Rachel. Jacob, a little confused, a little hurt, a little angry, explains how he just finished working seven years for Rachel. But Laban explains that in their family, in their culture, it is customary that women only get married after the firstborn. So the oldest marries first, then the rest of the daughters can marry. So for Jacob to marry Rachel, someone had to marry Leah first. And Laban apparently picked Jacob for that.
-so Laban makes Jacob a deal. He says to finish the wedding week (if you remember, back then they would take a week to celebrate a wedding, think back to Jesus turning water into wine) and once the week is done he can marry Rachel, provided he works another seven years for her.
-Jacob agrees. A week later he marries Rachel too and ends up working another seven years for her. And Scripture says Jacob was happy, he loved Rachel way more than Leah.
-so in this time where Jacob has two wives, loving one more than the other, Leah is feeling rejected, unloved, put to the side, so God blesses her. The Bible says one of the greatest blessing someone can have is many children. So God allows Leah to have children. In fact, God allows Leah to have four children.
-now Rachel’s mad. Her sister is trying to take her glory, her husband, and she becomes jealous of Leah. So she goes to Jacob and says “Give me children or I will die!” Slightly over dramatic but forcing Jacob to give her kids.
-Jacob, however, gives a great answer. “Um, am I God? It’s not really up to me here. If you’re not having children, talk to Him.”
-Rachel comes up with a plan. Since she can’t have children instead she will have Jacob sleep with her maidservant and have kids that way. Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, has two kids. Rachel is so excited by this she even names one Naphtali, which means “My struggle” because in Rachel’s words, “I have struggled with my sister, and I’m winning.”
-so Leah gives Jacob her maidservant and he has kids with her. It’s just really a nasty fight between the two women. It was so bad that at one point Reuben, Leah’s first son, was harvesting mandrakes, which are kind of like parsnips, and Rachel begs Leah to have some of Reuben’s mandrakes. Leah says to her, “What, wasn’t it bad enough you stole my husband now you want my mandrakes too?” Ouch! So Rachel works out a deal where Leah gets to be with Jacob for the night if she can have some mandrakes.
-that seems really petty, but it shows that more than likely, Rachel had Jacob all to herself by this point. She was the favorite after all, and if Leah has to basically trade and barter to get time with Jacob, he’s probably pushed her as far out of the picture as he can. The funny part is because of this she has another son, so Jacob spends a little more time with her and Leah ends up having another son and a daughter.
-but then it says God remembers Rachel’s plight and her prayers and He gives her a son, Joseph.
-and from that point on it’s all over. Jacob’s favorite wife has finally given him a son, and this little guy becomes the hope of many.
-and we know the rest, Joseph gets the coat of many colors, he goes on to Egypt, the family is saved all because of Jacob’s favorite Joseph.
-except the story today isn’t about Joseph, and to be honest, it’s not really about Rachel. I want us to focus on Leah for a moment, poor, rejected, not pretty on the eyes Leah. After Jacob returns home Leah is not mentioned again except after the story of Joseph to say she is already dead. When Joseph reveals who he is and brings the family to Egypt, Leah has already passed on and is no longer with the family.
-and from first glance it can seem like Leah played a very minor part in this story, she was unwanted and had a few kids, the end. And I’ll also guess that’s how she felt for most of her life.
-but we don’t always get to see the whole story, we only really see our part. If there’s one thing I want you to get from this story, it’s this: We may never know the significance of what we do for God, but what we do for God is never insignificant. You may not even know that God is using you, but that doesn’t make how He’s using you insignificant.
-Leah is either old or dead when Joseph is given his coat of many colors and he is daddy’s favorite, and if you remember the story all his brothers wanted to kill him. All except one who came up with the idea of throwing him in the well. That would be Reuben, the oldest, Leah’s son. Joseph was saved because of Leah.
-then, for God’s plan to save Israel to work, Joseph would have to get to Egypt. If you remember the story, he was sold to traders. That was Judah’s idea, Judah being the son of Leah.
-years later when the famine hits and the brothers go to Egypt, one is left behind in jail as part of Joseph’s plan, that would be Simeon, again, a son of Leah.
-eventually, the whole family moves to Egypt, they live there for hundreds of years and become slaves to the Egyptians. That is until God chooses one of them to be their deliverer, a man that knew God so well He would talk to God as a friend. A man who it says in the Bible there was no one else like. That would be Moses. Moses was from the tribe of Levi, one of the sons of Leah. The nation was saved from Israel through the line of Leah.
-after they’re out, Moses appoints his brother Aaron to be the priest for the people. Eventually it turns into the idea that the entire tribe of Levi would be responsible for all religious practices, priests, musicians, these people are in charge of worship. The people who taught everyone about God and provided sacrifices and made people right with God, they weren’t from Rachel, they came from Leah.
-a few hundred years later the people ask for a king. So God gives them Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, Benjamin being Joseph’s brother, the other son of Rachel. But he doesn’t obey God, so God rejects him as king and gives the kingdom to a shepherd named David, and David’s family is the one that rules the throne for hundreds of years. David was from the tribe of Judah, of the line of Leah.
-then after that eventually God send salvation to us, The Son of Man, the Son of God, The Messiah, The Christ, Immanuel, The Lion of Judah. Jesus didn’t come from Rachel, He came from the line of Leah.
-see, in Leah’s story, in the part that she knew, she probably felt pretty insignificant. She was not pretty or special, she wasn’t her husband’s favorite, she was second fiddle to her pretty sister. She had a few kids then she died, that’s all she knew of her story. But she played a much bigger part in the much larger story. Because of her Rachel’s son was able to save a nation. All worship and teaching of God to an entire nation was from her. The leadership of the kingdom was from her. The Son of God, our salvation, the reason we worship together here today, because of her.
-we may never know the significance of what we do for God, but what we do for God is never insignificant.
-because we don’t get to see the larger story all the time, we only see our small part in the story, we don’t get to see all that we could be doing for God. Maybe someone gets transferred into your project team at work or your class at school, no one ever listens to them, but you do and it changes their story and the larger story. Maybe you spend a few hours working with Scouts or your child’s sports team and it’s not that big of a deal, but one of those kids has never had an adult treat them the way you have and it changes how they one day treat their children, and their children. A single note by itself doesn’t make much sense, but when it’s added to the others in a symphony it can make quite an impact.
-so as we close in prayer, be asking God how He can use you, how He is using you. Maybe you’re doing something but you feel like it’s pretty insignificant because you can’t see the big picture. Or maybe God is asking you to do something significant, but you feel insignificant. I bet when Leah’s a rejected wife and mother of boys that have to fight for daddy’s attention she didn’t feel all that significant either. But remember, we may never know the significance of what we do for God, but what we do for God is never insignificant.
