Life can get messy. There's a hundred shopping carts, but I pick the one that has the broken wheel that thumps every time it goes around and has a mind of its own and it turns itself into unsuspecting customers. You know messy is probably an easier word than some people would say. When I talk to people some people don’t like the word messy. They like to say, “My life is more like a horrific disaster, but being messy is part of life.”
I think there’s something we learn in the messiness of life. In fact I think we have to prepare for the messiness of life when things aren’t so messy so that when things get messier we’re ready for them. We don’t always know what the messiness is going to look like. When things get messy and you’re surprised by the messiness, you need to say to yourself, “God’s not surprised by this. He knew this was coming. He knows what’s going on. God has a bigger plan than I know of.” Sometimes that plan is just to get to know Him better in the midst of the messiness.
In our passage today we’re going to see messy. In the midst of our passage as we see messy we’re going to see that God takes messes and turns them into messages. When we remember that we recognize that life doesn’t always have to go well for the message of Christ to shine through. Messes often produce these messages. I’m here to take you into the passage today because we’re going to see that in Jacob’s life. We’re going to see that sometimes things go well for him, but other times it’s quite a challenge that things get messy. So let’s dig into the messiness here. Let’s get messy ourselves as we’re getting into the story. Because we’re going to see some very practical applications that we can apply to our lives. Look with me at Genesis 29.
It says there in verse 1 – Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. Let me remind you Jacob is on a journey. As we saw in our last study, Jacob had left home under duress. His brother is about to kill him because Jacob stole the birthright, stole the blessing. His family was quite dysfunctional and so he’s now moving on.
As he moves on, we made the application that a lot of young people move out of their home. They move out of their home and they go to college or they get their own place. Sometimes young people make the mistake when they move out to say to themselves, “Oh I can cast off restraint now. I’m not under my parents’ rules anymore. I can engage in anything I want to do.” Sometimes people pursue pleasure. Pleasure in itself isn’t bad. It is a byproduct of life, not a goal. But some people use it as a goal. When you pursue it as a goal all kinds of bad things can end up coming into your life.
So we talked about how Jacob when he came out of his home he made this other choice. He says, “I’m going to now serve the Lord.” He goes to sleep and he sees this stairway to heaven and he sees this is an opportunity for him to connect with God on his own. What a great opportunity. If you’re moving out of your home, you’re starting over, that you have this relationship with God and you go, “I’m going to start my own adventure with the Lord.” I think this time in Jacob’s life was his commitment time to God. Where he connects with God on his own outside of his father and his grandfather (the patriarchs), and now he’s on his own and he’s watching God work. So that’s the journey that’s being talked about here.
His dad and his mom said, “Go to Haran and get a wife. And when you’re in Haran you’re going to see Laban.” He’s the brother of his mom. In other words you’re going to see Uncle Laban there. “And from there you’re going to find a wife”. So that’s what he’s on. He’s on this mission to go do that. Doesn’t have a GPS, doesn’t have road-signs; he’s just on his way to get over into that area. That’s where we pick up the story in verse 2.
It says – As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large (that’s going to be important in the story that the stone is large), and 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 over the mouth of the well. So the point is made there's a stone there. It's big. Multiple shepherds move it, put it back. That’s what he’s saying.
Jacob said to them… So he enters this scene where they are and he starts greeting them, as you would and I would. He says to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran. That’s where we’re from.” You can imagine Jacob going wow, God is at work here in my life. This is so cool. I dedicate myself to the Lord, I decide to live the God-filled life, and God is directing my paths and good things are happening. I get to Haran. Wow. No signposts, nothing. I meet these guys in the field, I ask them where they are, we’re in Haran. Good deal.
So he asks them another question. “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” He’s going yes! God is going before me. I’m trusting the Lord and here’s what He’s doing. He’s opening the door. He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!” Remember he’s on a mission. He’s going to go find a wife. Rachel is going to be the wife. He’s eager to find this wife. And now he sees this girl. He’s going ah. He’s going to fall in love with her like instantly here in this story. So he’s saying to himself, “I can’t believe this. Following God really pays off. You know when you trust yourself to the Lord. Instead of being the tricky guy trying to solve all the problems and get what I want, I’m trusting in the Lord. Look at all these things that happen in my life. This is really good. How fortuitous that God is doing these things.”
So verse 7 he makes this kind of arrogant statement in the passage to these other shepherds, maybe trying to get rid of them. He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.” But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well (there’s that stone again); then we water the sheep.”
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
Remember this is a large stone, we’ve been told. Several guys would move it. But here Jacob he just moves this stone on his own. I’m thinking this is what romance does to a guy. You know he can put it on now. It’s the testosterone he’s got. He can move this whole stone out of the way and he can water these sheep. Here he’s got it together and he can move this big ol’ stone out of the way.
Notice it says then in verse 11 – Then Jacob kissed Rachel. He greets her and then he just breaks down. You must have this experience sometimes when you’re just hoping for something. You want God to lead and He leads and the doors just open right up, one after another. And now it opens to this woman, Rachel. He goes, “Yes. You know, God, I am just so touched by this.” When you experience the grace of God and His goodness running after you and the evidence of His goodness you see everywhere you go, “God, this is so great. I just want to worship you.” And he wept aloud. It was just so touching.
You know sometimes people have questions about whether there’s a God. I understand those questions. Then when I say just trust yourself to the Lord and watch God work in your life, it just does something to you. Jacob’s experiencing that. He’s turned himself over to the Lord. God’s opening up the blessings for him and he’s watching God work and go before Him and behind. All these things are just so touching for him that he weeps aloud. He’s just so touched by the whole experience.
And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman, and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father.
Well let’s go to the next page. As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things. What do you think all these things are? Well Jacob is telling Laban his testimony. He’s telling him the story of this is how I used to be in my life. This is what a testimony is. This is how it used to be. I was in control trying to trick people and I was trying to control the situation and I stole the birthright and the blessing, but then I met the Lord. And on my path here, I’m coming out there, my parents sent me out here to find a wife and I met the Lord. He met me and He promised me that I would be blessed like my grandfather and my father and He’s passing that blessing onto me. I have a personal relationship with God and now He has directed me here to you. So he’s sharing his testimony with Laban.
And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month. So Jacob’s now going to work with Laban in his farm or wherever for a month. Laban sees the quality of worker he is. So it says in verse 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?” Don’t you wish your boss would say that? Hey, I want to keep you around here. Tell me what I need to pay you in order to keep you here. That’s what he says to him.
Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. So you got to kind of map this out. Leah is the older one. Rachel is the younger one. Keep that in mind. Two women.
Now we get a little bit of a description about them here so that we know some facts about them. It says – Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. That doesn’t mean she couldn’t see too well. What it means there was something about her that was plain. She was a plain person, whereas the contrast is that her younger sister was beautiful. She was plain. Now I know we’re going to kind of focus in on Rachel here for a minute, but I want you to know that in the story you’re going to identify with Leah who was a plain person. You’re going to feel her pain in the midst of this story. You’re going to see what she must have felt growing up, feeling left out in her life. That her sister was always getting the attention here. Here we go again. Her sister was getting the attention and she was just plain. She was there.
Verse 18 – Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. This is the courtship time. Oh this is so great, it just seems so short, we’re just having such a great time. He can hardly wait to get married. He’s excited. Seven years. It just seems like such a short time because he knows he’s going to have Rachel to be his wife. Just the romance that is in that is amazing in this story here. Jacob is going to serve for seven years for Rachel, so he does.
After the seven-year period is up, he’s been waiting for this, so he says to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” I’ve done my seven years. I’m ready to be married to her. So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. This is a wedding feast that’s going to go on for seven days. It's going to be a big party that’s going to take place here.
But in the evening… This is a really important part of the story. The party has been going on, but in this evening, Laban he took his daughter Leah and presented her or brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. So you’ve got to get this picture. Right? So he’s so excited to get Rachel, but when it comes time for him to go to consummate his marriage to have his wife so he can go into the tent and enjoy that honeymoon night together, Laban says, “Okay, here’s your wife,” and it’s Leah. So he goes into the tent.
By the way we have to have this parathesis. We’re going to need it. So let’s just put this in here real quick. (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) So now we have Leah and Rachel and we have Zilpah attached to Leah. Keep that in mind. That’s what we have so far. So he goes into her. Oh man, honeymoon night this is great.
Verse 25 – And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! You’re going wait a minute. Stop the show here. I’ve got to figure out what’s going on. How in the world could he go through the whole night and not know this was Leah and not Rachel? Well let me remind you of a few things about the culture.
One is when he was working those seven years he likely didn’t have a lot of contact with Rachel during those seven years. Secondly, the way they dressed in those times covered the woman up completely. That’s before the wedding night. And then when he was being presented and they went into the tent, she was likely covered up greatly. Thirdly, they were at a feast. He had probably been drinking as part of that feast and so his faculties weren’t all that acute at this moment. And lastly there was no electricity, no light bulbs on in this tent.
So somehow in the midst of this he goes through the whole night enjoying himself and their time together on this honeymoon night and in the morning… Can you imagine? You’re laying there. He wakes up in the morning, “Ah! What is this here? This is not what I had agreed upon.” What a shock.
Now the interesting thing is I think that happens in a lot of marriages today. People get married to Rachel, but in the morning it’s Leah. They’re surprised. This isn’t just men. This is women too. They have their whole hopes on marriage. “It's going to be so romantic. I can hardly wait.” And they wake up in the morning – “I’m married to this guy?” It’s a surprise. I think marriage is a wake-up call for us a lot of times because it teaches us a lot more about life and about love and so on. Now Jacob has a little more on his plate than we do, but I think that sometimes when people get married they misunderstand marriage. They come to thinking it’s all about romance and Rachel, then they wake up in the morning and it’s Leah and they’re going, “Oh no. This is what I’m going to be in for for the rest of my life?” Well that’s Jacob’s feeling. So you can experience his surprise in this moment.
And Jacob said to Laban (as you might imagine, he stomps out of the tent), “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” Deceived me. You’ve got to hear this story. He’s got to be ringing back to his own deception. His name means tricky guy. He’s the deceiver. He likes to be in control of situations, work them out for God. You’ve got to be thinking about this and the other parts of the story as you read this. Why then have you deceived me? Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.” Firstborn? He’s got to be thinking oh yeah, I’m the younger. Oh yeah, I stole things from the firstborn. That’s got to be ringing somehow in the back of his mind.
Laban says, “Okay, I’ve got a plan. Here’s my plan. Complete the week of this one wife (that is complete the feast for the rest of the week), and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” Another seven years. Jacob did so (he’s such a compliant guy), and completed her week. So finished the week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel. And then he worked another seven years. So now he’s got two wives here in the picture.
Notice it says here. Another parenthesis. You’ve got to get the parentheses in order to get the whole messiness of the story. It says in verse 29 – (Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.) So now you’ve got four women. Two wives at this point. But he’s going to end up with four wives here.
You might say wow, this is interesting. I’ve always wondered about polygamy and it looks like the Bible endorses polygamy. Well let’s step back here for a moment. Just because it’s in the Bible here doesn’t mean we are imitating it or we should emulate it. This is not God’s design. In fact every time in the Bible that we see polygamy, we see all kinds of problems. You’re going to see discouragement, you’re going to see loneliness, you’re going to see envy. You’re going to see competition going on here. Those are the real words we’re going to see in the passage. You’ll see anger. I mean this is a bad situation. You would think more people, more love to go around. It doesn’t work that way. When Jesus reflected on marriage, He told us about the design. That one man should lead one woman and the two become one flesh. That’s God’s design for marriage. Polygamy has all kinds of problems associated with it and we see them and we’re about to get life really messy here.
Watch what happens. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.
When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb. Notice God’s in charge of the conception here. Very interesting to note. But Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”
How many times when a marriage is in conflict today do the husband or the wife say, “I know what we do. Since we’re having so much conflict, maybe we’d be better after we have kids.” Those people have no idea what they’re talking about. If there was selfishness and conflict before you had kids, just wait till you have kids. Kids do not make life easier. They do not necessarily bring everybody together. If you’ve got selfishness beforehand, just wait till you have children. Then you see your selfishness in living color.
So the name Reuben means looked at or looked upon. And here you feel the pain of Leah, the longing in her heart. Because she’s saying, “I just wish that he would love me. And now I’ve had a baby and now he’s going to love me. He’s going to see me. I feel like nobody sees me. I feel like I’m left out of the picture. Now he’s going to see me.” And that’s Reuben.
Verse 33 – She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. Simeon means to hear. So God has looked at me, He’s heard me. Yes, now my relationship is going to be better with my husband.
Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. Which means attached. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing. So Judah means praise. So finally praise the Lord. I have all the sons. Notice all the four women, she’s got four sons. But she doesn’t have the husband that she wishes she had.
Let’s turn the page. It's getting messier. In verse 30 it says – When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. Take the picture here, okay? Because Leah has the children, but wishes she had the husband. Rachel has the husband, but wishes she had the children. There’s got to be some kind of a message in there about being content with what you have instead of always looking for something else. Rachel said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Basically he’s saying this. Look, you’ve got to look around here. I’ve got four kids over here. This isn’t my problem. If you’re not having children, it’s not because of me. That’s what he’s saying to her.
Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” So this is how she’s going to have children is through her servant girl, Bilhah. So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife (so now he has three wives), and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. Dan means to judge. Basically vindicated. I’m now vindicated because I now have a son through my handmaid.
Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali. Which means wrestling. Do you hear the longings in the hearts of these people? We’ve got anger, we’ve got competition, we’ve got loneliness, we’ve got the wrestling here that’s demonstrating the competition. We’ve got the envy that’s been mentioned. It’s just a really messy situation as you might imagine.
As we turn the page it says – When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Now he has four wives. It’s getting really complicated. Then Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. Gad means fortune. Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher. Which means happy.
Now. That’s a bunch of kids being born. I know it’s messy here at this point. But it’s going to get interesting here in a moment because now we’re going to see a wives’ tale play itself out regarding mandrakes. Now mandrakes were like a love apple. Like an aphrodisiac. Like you eat these and, boy, this is really going to turn everybody on. And now somebody’s going to get conceived here. That’s what we’re hoping is going to take place. Let’s see what happens with the mandrakes.
In the days of wheat harvest Reuben (who is a young teenager now, firstborn) went and found mandrakes (this rare love apple fruit) in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah… Now remember Rachel’s the only one with no kids. Everybody has kids but Rachel. So Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.” But 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?” This competition going on here. Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes.” So she wants the mandrakes because she’s hoping she’s going to bear children as a result.
Verse 16 says – When Jacob came from the field in the evening… He’s just coming home from work. He doesn’t know about all the stuff that’s going on at home. How often is that the case? You know as dads you walk into the house and you go, “Whoa, what’s going on here?” Especially when you’ve got kids running up to you “she did this” or “he did this” or “Mom won’t let me do that.” I mean isn’t that what happens when dads come home from work? Well here he comes home from work, he comes from the field in the evening and Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes.” You see Jacob so many times in this passive role. So he lay with her that night. Like alright, whatever. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. Which means wages.
And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. Now there’s only twelve sons of Israel. These are going to be the twelve tribes of Israel. There's only twelve of them, but Leah bears six of these. Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. Which mean endowment or blessing. Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. That’s going to be part of another story, but it’s mentioned here.
Then God remembered Rachel. Oh this is the sweet part of the story. It reminds me of the story of Noah. Noah was floating on the water for forty days in the rain, but he was out on the water for over a year. He’s out there. And the Bible says – And God remembered Noah. It’s not like He forgot about him like He was preoccupied with something else. It's just He turns His attention to Noah. That’s what He does now. And that’s what God does in our lives. He turns His attention to us. That’s what it says here in verse 22. God remember Rachel and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.”
And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!” Joseph means to add. So she’s saying may God give me another kid. Everybody else has more kids than me here. Maybe I could have another child. We won’t read about this today, but we’re going to see that she is going to have another child. His name is going to be Benjamin and she’s going to die in childbirth. There's, again, this statement of contentment. Sometimes we just need to be content with what we have instead of always wanting more. But she named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add another son.”
As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban… So now we’re going to switch from family messiness… Woo! Wasn’t that great. We got through all of that. All of that messiness that’s going on in the family. Now we’re going to look at work messiness for just a moment. Let’s see what happens at work. Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” He’s not really a believer, but he knows that God is working in Jacob’s life. So he says, “Look, it’s obvious here that when you’re around I get blessed. Name your wages, and I will give it.”
Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep.” Now sheep are white. So if you have one that’s black or spotted or speckled, they’re the oddballs here. He says, “Just give me all of those that are not of the main kind and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats.” Now goats are either brown or black or white or a mixture of those. But they’re not spotted. So if it’s spotted then that’s odd as well. She says, “Give me those. When the livestock reproduce I’ll take those and they shall be my wages.”
This next statement is important. I wish I had more time to talk about this, but not today. When Jacob has this pattern of dishonesty in his life and if you have a child who has a problem with dishonesty, then this is a great passage to just reveal one of the solutions that needs to take place in a person who decides they want to have integrity. Notice what Jacob says. So my honesty (remember he has a problem with deception, he’s the tricky guy, but he wants to have more integrity in his life) will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” What he’s saying is check up on me. Look at my life. If you have a temptation to be dishonest, you want to be in an accountable relationship. You want to say, “Check up on me. I’m here. Look at my life. If you find anything that’s here, you’ll know it’s been stolen or it’s wrong.” That’s what he does. Beautiful picture of someone who wants to become more honest.
Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” But that day Laban, who is a very tricky guy, obviously changes the wages all the time – look at what he does! He removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock. He got rid of them. All of the ones that would go to Jacob, he gets rid of those.
Well let’s go on and read this last section. Then Jacob took fresh sticks… Because here we are in another wives’ tale. I would view these wives’ tales as humanistic ways to solve significant problems. There's always ideas about it. Surely you see them. Don’t you get those advertising in the mail? Take this pill and if you do all your problems will be over. Or buy this stock, it’s the next Amazon. Or whatever it is. You see those things and you start thinking, “Wow, if I could be in control of my life I could do these things.” And we then tend to deemphasize God’s role in our lives. That’s what’s going to happen here. Let me read this story here.
It says – Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. The guy got rich is essentially what he’s saying.
Now I want to suggest that sometimes God works in our lives despite ourselves. We think we’re doing all these great things with the mandrakes and the peeled stakes or whatever it might be and God wants to do some work in our lives. He still does that many times. He blesses us in spite of our humanistic tendencies or our great ideas that we have. God just has this way of orchestrating the events in life in ways that we have no idea what’s going on.
In fact the messiness of this whole story, both in the workplace and in the home life, there's a real message that comes out of here and it has two parts. I just want to share this with you because this is where I think you’re going to walk out of here encouraged today. I think you’re going to feel more hopeful that God is working in your life, even if you don’t see it. You’re going to feel more confident that God can do amazing things, even if things don’t look very good or even if things are messy in your life. If you have an anger problem or you’ve sinned, there's a tendency to say I’m going to put myself on the shelf. God can’t use me. Or if you are trying to do the right thing and bad things start happening and every time you turn around you’re going “life is getting really messy,” I want you to know that God has messages that come out of messiness in our lives.
There are two big ones that take place in this passage. One is that there are going to be twelve sons. God is going to take this messy family situation and out of it create the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel is going to be the name that Jacob will have. His name will be changed from Jacob to Israel. We’ll learn about that soon. And his twelve sons become the twelve tribes of Israel. This is going to be the Jewish nation that before Jacob dies they’re all going to move to Egypt. We know what happens then. They’re in Egypt for a while and Moses rescues them out. They end up going to the Promised Land. That’s several books of the Bible to get there. But they get to the Promised Land and God does this amazing thing in the children of Israel. That’s what’s taking place in this passage. God is going to use the messiness of this family situation to create something big, to create His people and this whole nation. Amazing. God has a message even in the midst of the messiness of this passage.
But the second intriguing thing is to watch the scarlet cord. The scarlet cord is the line from Adam all the way down to Mary and Joseph giving birth to Jesus Christ. If you watch that scarlet thread pass through this family, do you know where it goes through? It goes through Leah to Judah. The one that means praise. That’s what we call the Lion of Judah. It’s Jesus Christ that’s passed through here. This is so amazing. Why does God do that? I think because God delights in taking plain situations and bringing a huge message out of them. That’s why God, when Jesus Christ came, had Him come born of this couple that had no notoriety. They were plain people that God used, born in a plain stable, a barn as it were. God used this amazing event in history in a plain situation. That provides us with tremendous encouragement because God wants to do amazing things in our life.
Your life might look messy right now. You might not be able to see what God is doing, but you need to know God has a message that He wants to proclaim. Sometimes the message is in your heart that God wants to work out some stuff inside of your life and that’s okay. You don’t want to say, “Oh because I’ve got sin in my life or because I have an anger problem or something I can’t be used of God.” No. God delights in taking messiness and turning good things out of that. There's a message hidden in that that is so powerful. But it’s not just inside of us. It’s in our lives. When our lives become messy, God has a message that He wants to share with us, He wants to pass on, He wants other people to be able to experience that in their lives.
I told you recently I sold my car. Well before I sold it I decided to take it to the Capitol Car Wash. The Capitol Car Wash is this place where you take your car in, it comes out clean at the end. It’s all done by these people and the machines and everything. I think getting your car washed is a spiritual experience. It's kind of like moving. You know when you move you have to get rid of the old and decide what you’re going to keep. It’s a spiritual experience. Well getting my car cleaned was a spiritual experience.
I drive up and the guy says, “Okay we’re going to clean the outside of your car.”
I say, “Yeah good. I need the outside of my car cleaned.”
“Do you want us to clean the inside too?” Isn’t that what God says to us? You just want to look good on the outside. Or should we clean the inside too?
I say, “The inside of my car is really messy. I might have to pay extra for that.”
He says, “No, it’s okay. We’ll clean it.”
So yes, my car is going through there. I go and I pay my money and I see those other cars over there. I say, “Why are those other cars over there?”
“Oh they’re the ones that get the special detailing. Would you like the special detailing?”
I say, “How much is that going to cost me?” After I saw the price I said, “No, thank you. I don’t want the special detailing.”
And then I think you know that’s a lot like the Christian life. God says, “Do you want the special detailing?” and I sometimes say (unfortunately), “No, I don’t think I want to pay the price for that.” Yet God wants to do something deeper in the messiness of my life. He wants to do something special in the detailing because it’s in the details that the message comes.
I didn’t pay for the detailing in my car. It wasn’t worth that much. But I do value what God is doing in my heart. I just want to pray, “God, do the special detailing in my life. Take the messiness and work that out into a message that you can use for your grace and for your glory.”
I trust that God will do that in your life. There’s a world out there that does not understand Christianity. There's a world out there that doesn’t understand who God is. There's a world out there that doesn’t understand that God has something powerful waiting and available to them. You have a message and God wants to share that message through your life. Let’s allow God to do those things in our hearts this week.
Heavenly Father, we come before you and know that you change our hearts. You change the ugly into beautiful, the plain into something special, the dirty into clean. You do some powerful things in our lives and we need that. Lord, we pray that the message that you want to draw out of our hearts would be seen by other people. That we’d have the boldness to share that with others. We look forward to what you’re going to do in our lives. Lord, be honored in our lives as we serve you and dedicate ourselves to you this week. In Jesus’ name, amen.
