Step by Step through the Old Testament

Step by Step through the Old Testament

Carlton L. Arnold, Teacher

Week 13

Genesis 29-34 - Israel, the man and the Nation

We’re into Genesis pretty heavily now. Genesis 29 is where I want to start this morning. We’ve been in Genesis for quite a while. I don’t apologize for that because it takes that long to introduce a lot of new concepts or principles about Bible study. That’s what I’ve been trying to do with going somewhat slower through Genesis than we will with some of the other books. I caution you or warn you that even though you’re probably stuck in Unit 3 or 4 because we’re not moving very fast, we will be going a lot faster once we get through Joseph. I’ll try to introduce Joseph this morning. We’ll close out Genesis the next two weeks and then get into Exodus. I want to encourage all of you to keep up your Bible reading. Don’t get behind on it. If you do, try to catch up, but at least read what we’re studying.

I’ve been concentrating on the relationship. That’s always the key thing that we’ve looked at. We’ve looked at the Patriarchs and their relationships with God. The first Patriarch was Abraham, the second was Isaac, and now we’re getting to Jacob. We have looked at each one of these and tried to determine, just from reading the Bible, what kind of relationship they had with God. We’ve seen in each case that they’ve had to (re)discover God for themselves. God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, so Isaac knew the fear of the Lord. As a matter of fact, that’s how the Bible refers to Isaac and his relationship with God: his fear, the fear of the Lord. Then we come to Jacob.

We saw, last week, that Isaac married Rebekah and she had two children, Jacob and Esau. God said that the older would serve the younger. With Jacob, we’ve noticed that he’s a deceiver. I’m going to say a lot about that this morning when we get into it. He was a deceiver.

In each of these cases, we’ve look at their relationships with God and how they discovered God. In his relationship with God, where would you put Jacob? It’s pretty sorry. Last week, we learned that he was a con man, a deceiver, and a manipulator. He just did some things that really didn’t involve God. Some of you who have been through the New Testament have seen this. This is an illustration of the spiritual versus the world.

I don’t think this does it justice because I think that the earthly world is such a small part, but the spirit world is a much larger entity in and of itself. When I say "spirit world," I mean the kingdom of God, heaven, and the spiritual aspect of things. "World" would be your normal, three-dimensional things that we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel here on this earth. Then there’s the spiritual side of it. I want to challenge you with your concept of God, but the idea is that as we grow up, we learn from our parents, friends, and environment about the world. We learn about the principles of this world and the philosophies of this world. Some time around the age of 8-12, we start to develop our own concept of what governs how we behave, what we do, and what we believe. A lot of these things are based on worldly principles, philosophies, understandings, worldly wisdom, etc. The thing about a Christian, someone who has accepted Christ, is that we take the worldly frame of reference and replace it with a spiritual perspective: new principles, philosophies, wisdom, etc.

Jacob learned a lot. Someone tell me one of the worldly principles Jacob learned from his mother. You can trick other people to get what you want. You can manipulate. You can twist, lie, deceive, etc., to get what you want in this world. Does that sound like a worldly philosophy? Yes. Is that not true? You don’t want to see it, believe it, or acknowledge it, but it’s out there. No matter how much you want to protect your own children from it, they’re going to learn, "For me to get something, I’ve got to figure out how to do whatever it takes to get it." That’s just an example. There are others. This morning, our pastor was talking about wealth. We could take wealth, riches, and money and compare and contrast what the world says about money with what is spiritually healthy. He gave some pitfalls this morning. There’s a worldly concept of money. What you want to do is take these worldly concepts and replace them with spiritual things. The spiritual has more power, more impact, and more eternal implications than anything the world has.

When we talk about Jacob, the deceiver, he’s down here (looking at things from a worldly perspective). To me, he has learned the world now. He has learned how to get his way in the world. That’s where he’s living. But we’re going to see how he’s going to begin to understand whom God is and what God can be for him and to him.

This morning, we’re going to get into the multiple children that Jacob’s going to have. We’re going to list thirteen of them. Out of this is going to come the Nation of Israel. We’re going to track this after Genesis, through Exodus and the rest of the Old Testament. We’ll see Joseph in here, but Joseph is just one of his sons. I want you to see that when we get through with Jacob, we’re going to get to the Nation of Israel. Right now it’s not a nation. It’s just people. It’s just a small tribe of nomads moving around.

I know this is not in the Old Testament, but everyone turn to Galatians 6. You will find Galatians in the New Testament. It’s Acts, Romans, 1^st & 2^nd Corinthians, and then Galatians. The New Testament people will recall that this is actually the first book written (chronologically) in the New Testament. The earliest was Galatians. We’re going to look at a spiritual principle. We’re going to apply it to Jacob and we’re going to apply it to ourselves.

Galatians 6:7-10

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

There’s the spiritual principle. God says, "I put a spiritual principle into place." This principle holds whether you’re talking about the Spirit or the World: whatever you sow, so shall you reap. It’s kind of like the physical law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Well, this is saying, "Whatever you sow, you’re going to reap." What does the word "sow" mean? It means how you live your life: what you invest your time and money in, where you invest your mental capacity and your thinking, and what you spend your physical activity doing. That’s what you’re going to reap. If you were to exercise an hour a day, three times a week, after six months, how do you think you’d look and feel? With a good diet, you’d be in good shape. So you are reaping what you’ve sown. That’s the principle. What ever you’ve been doing with your life up to this moment (whatever you’ve been sowing), God says that’s what you’re going to be reaping. Whatever you sow, that’s what you’re going to reap.

Job 4:7-8

"Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.

This is a spiritual principle that’s been active in your life whether you’re a Christian or not. It’s a spiritual principle that has impacted everyone’s life everywhere. That’s the way I read this. Whatever you’ve been sowing, that’s what you’re going to reap. Back in Genesis, what do you think Jacob has been sowing? Deceitfulness, lies, misleading people, etc. Guess what we’re going to read that happens to Jacob? The same thing. It’s an example of the spiritual principle. As a matter of fact, we’ll see this throughout the Bible. If you study people, you’ll see the impact of events on lives: the cause and the effect. If people don’t give much effort to something, they won’t get much out of it. Your children will do that. If they color something half-heartedly, all they have is a mediocre picture. This goes for life, too. You can look at your brothers and sisters, your mother and father, and other people and ask, "What kind of life have they been sowing? What kind of life are they now reaping?" Now that is a hard spiritual truth in some cases. Some people have been sowing things that they regret later on, but now they’re reaping it. Let’s keep that in mind.

Back to Genesis 29. Jacob has left Israel and he’s gone to Uncle Laban’s because Esau was going to kill him. Rachel said, "Let’s talk him into leaving." She deceived Isaac to convince him that Jacob should leave. So now Jacob is up in Haran with Laban. Laban had two daughters. One was Rachel and the other one was Leah. Leah is the one who had the "weak eyes"; she wasn’t very pretty. Rachel was beautiful. Jacob fell in love with Rachel.

Genesis 29:19-20

Laban said, "It's better that I give her to you than to 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.

Men, does that sound like your engagement time with your wife? It seems just momentary.

Genesis 29:21

Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her."

So there was this idea that Jacob would work for Laban for seven years and be rewarded with Rachel.

Genesis 29:22-25

So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But 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 as her maidservant. When morning came, there 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?"

You have to wonder, "Well, how did Jacob get fooled?" During the wedding ceremony, obviously Jacob could see, but somehow or another in the darkness or dark of night, Jacob goes in, lays with her, and that’s all he knows. The next morning, he wakes up, turns over, and there’s Leah, staring him in the face.

<Maybe he had too much wine.>

Well, that too. Not like today, though, right? (sic)

What kinds of things has Jacob sown? Didn’t he deceive Isaac to get the birthright? He put on the skin of a goat, prepared the stew, and said, "Yeah, I know I sound like Jacob, but I am Esau." The principle is here: whatever you sow, you’re going to reap.

Genesis 29:31

When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Leah is the one who’s going to be blessed by God. God saw that Leah was not loved.

Genesis 29:32

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."

So now we see the first of the sons of Jacob (Israel).

The Sons of Jacob

#	Mother	Son	Meaning	Circumstance
1	Leah	Reuben	"Behold! A Son!", also sounds like "he has seen my misery"	The first son, also "The Lord has seen [Leah's] misery"
2	Leah	Simeon	"favorable hearing" (good news?)	"Because the Lord has heard that I am not loved"
3	Leah	Levi	"a joining", or "attach"	"Now at last my husband will become attached to me"
4	Leah	Judah	"praise"	"This time I will praise the Lord"
5	Bilhah	Dan	"he has vindicated"	"God has vindicated me"
6	Bilhah	Naphtali	"struggle", or "wrestling"	"I have a great struggle with my sister"
7	Zilpah	Gad	"good fortune"	"What good fortune!"
8	Zilpah	Asher	"blessed", or "happy"	"How happy I am! The women will call me happy"
9	Leah	Issachar	"reward"	"God has rewarded me"
10	Leah	Zebulun	"gift"	"God has presented me with a precious gift"
11	Rachel	Joseph	"may he add"	"May the Lord add another son"
12	Rachel	Benjamin	"son of my right hand" -- was Ben-Oni ("son of my sorrow")	Difficult childbirth / Renamed by Jacob

This is the order in which they came. These are the women Jacob had sexual relations with to produce these children. It is very interesting to read the meanings of the names. Judah means, "praise." Judah is the one we’re going to track to lead to Christ. This is why we should be very interested in this list of names. When you read the lineage of Christ in Matthew 1, you’ll find Judah. He was fourth-born from Leah. There is a significance to the order, too. We’ll see that later in Exodus. You can read the names of the children, who they are, and what their names mean. Let me give you an example:

Genesis 30:1

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!"

Now, how spiritually mature is Jacob? Have we seen anything from Jacob yet? Not really. He had an episode with God. He had Bethel: the house of God. He said, "There is a God and God is there." When one has an episode with God, the worldly kind of disappears and you see the spiritual insight, momentarily, but then you’re in the world again. That’s where Jacob is. He had that momentary spiritual insight.

Genesis 30:2

Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?"

That’s a nice thing to say, isn’t it? It’s very hurtful.

Genesis 30:3

Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family."

Who does that sound like? Sarah. Remember. Whatever you sow, that’s what’s going to happen. It’s going to be reaped. Did God condone this? No. This is one of those things where a real critic of the Bible will ask, "How can you read a book that’s talking about polygamy, etc.?" God never condoned this. He’s just telling you what man did. When you read this, this is what man chose to do. This is not what God’s perfect choice or will was. This is what they chose to do… just like in our lives today.

Did these things happen because Jacob was a man of good character? I don’t think so. God was blessing him as He promised. Things were going pretty well for Jacob. In spite of everything Jacob has done, God if blessing him.

God had a plan. Man gets out of God’s will. As long as you obeyed God’s commandments, His will would happen. But as soon as we get out of God’s will and are focused on the world, God has the infinite wisdom, power, and omniscience to know how to get it back into His will. Judah, who came through Leah, is the key here.

God wrote the Bible so that all would know His plan and what man has done to thwart it. God’s will is a perfect will. With man’s will, man will do anything. If you’re in His will, then no matter how bad things look, God can and is using it. No matter how bad Jacob messed it up, God executed His plan. No matter how dysfunctional this family is, God is going to use them. God will work out his plan, his will, with this. Was it God’s will for the line to come through Judah? He knew it was going to be Judah. He knew it. He had all of these other problems out there, but he knew it would be Judah.

When I read Scripture, I think that if Abraham had waited on God, Ishmael would never have been born and we wouldn’t have all the conflict we have today. And, the birth of Christ would have occurred a lot earlier in the Bible, possibly. Do you see what I’m getting at? God says, "I have the plan that through Jesus Christ, all men will be redeemed. I am going to work through people (men and women) to have Jesus Christ born." But man has his own way. It was man who caused the chaos but God’s perfect will that worked it out. That goes for all of our lives.

Good analogy! God wants our minds on spiritual things—not momentary blips of time, but He wants us in the Spirit world all the time. That’s the spiritual life that those of you who’ve been through the New Testament recognize. It is a constant, continuous, 24X7 of living from a spiritual point of view, not worldly. You’re always in the spiritual, as a Christian.

Can God use someone who is not a Christian? Sure. You’d better believe it. And He does. It could be your supervisor, a friend, a neighbor, or anyone who is not a Christian, to work His will out in your life.

We’re going to see these names again. You’re going to see them over and over throughout the Old Testament. This is the Nation of Israel. You’re going to see these names pop up. Keep the list handy…it’s going to be used for a long time. All the children are born in Chapters 29 and 30. Some of you probably have a list or diagram in your Bibles. You may want to bookmark that because we will come back to it.

Genesis 31:17-21

Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household gods. Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. So he fled with all he had, and crossing the River, he headed for the hill country of Gilead.

This is when Jacob leaves Laban to return to Canaan.

Notice that Rachel stole Laban’s gods. When we talk about living in the world versus the spirit, here are some idols or gods. That’s the environment we’re talking about. Here is God, Creator God, Eternal God, Our God—we have an image of him in our own minds. They had the idols that God had to break through and say, "Here I am. Here is what I’m all about."

Where is Jacob, again, spiritually? He’s set on the world, isn’t he? He’s still deceiving. He’s not relying on God.

Laban pursues Jacob and catches up with him.

Genesis 31:30

Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?"

This is Laban. Laban knew by divination that God had blessed Jacob. What kind of divination was Laban getting? Where was Laban? He’s really deep into this "household god" business, isn’t he? These were little statues of men and animals. You can find pictures of these things from archaeology.

We have our own "household gods" toady, don’t we?

Genesis 31:31-32a

Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live.

Let’s skip to verse 35. Do you know where the idols are? Rachel is sitting on them on a camel.

Genesis 31:35

Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I'm having my period." So he searched but could not find the household gods.

This is her father she’s talking to.

So here’s where the household gods are being taken from Haran down to Canaan. Again, this is the kind of environment that God is dealing with.

What kinds of household gods do we have today? Television. TV is a god. You can call it entertainment or whatever you want, but it is a god. We spend a lot of time in front of the TV. If we wrote down how much we get out of the TV spiritually, how much would it be? You may say, "Well, we listen to Christian music," or, "I listen to sermons on TV." Yes, I understand that, but what about all the other junk? It could be your 401K, your job, your career, etc. It is anything you spend more energy on than God.

Genesis 31:42

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you."

I was referring to the "Fear of Isaac" earlier.

That’s talking about the dreams of Laban.

Genesis 31:53a

May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.

This was an understanding between Jacob and Laban. They had an agreement. They talked about God in this, but they had an agreement. This is how they kissed and made up.

Laban heads for Haran and Jacob heads for Esau.

In Chapter 32, Jacob takes all that he owns and splits it up into two pieces or camps. One is really elaborate and he sends them ahead to meet Esau. What does he want to do? He wants to make amends with Esau.

Genesis 32:9a

Then Jacob prayed

Jacob prayed. Now that’s interesting. Do you think Jacob’s beginning to wake up a little bit? He’s thinking, "Hey. You know, there is something to this God, Creator, the God of Abraham and Isaac."

This isn’t really one of those prayers from a mature, sincere Christian who’s praying. This is someone who has a problem and is bringing it to God. Does God listen any less? No. Is there any less power in that prayer? No. God hears prayer.

Jacob has spent a lot of time in this world. He’s got to unlearn a lot of stuff. You’re going to see Jacob until Genesis 50. Does anyone know if Jacob ever learns his lesson? He isn’t all bad.

Genesis 32:9b-10a

"O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, `Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,' I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant.

Now we’re getting somewhere. This will be a test for each one of you on your spiritual maturity today. When you pray, can you tell God about His attributes, characteristics, or the way about Him? That’s what Jacob is doing by saying, "all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant." In other words, Jacob thought about God enough to say, "This God (compared to all these other household gods) has kindness and faithfulness and You’ve shown it to me." Do you understand that that’s a deeper relationship? That shows a deeper understanding of who Jacob thinks God is, by just saying that.

Genesis 32:10b-12

I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, `I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"

We’ve talked about this. It’s just like Genesis 12.

This is the wrestling. Jacob wrestles with God.

He gets alone, by himself.

Genesis 32:22-28

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Do you see the spiritual maturity of Jacob coming through here? Jacob recognizes... who do you think the man is? Michael? Could be. It is a man. Over in Hosea 12, I think you'll find that it's really the pre-incarnate Christ, the Lord, God. You can still think it's someone else, if you want to. That's fine. There is a struggle. That's the key word: struggle. Because that's what your spiritual life is going to be about when you grow with Christ. When you grow as a Christian, it's not like you get it and it's easy and you go. It's going to be a struggle because you're going to have to take the worldly things you've learned and do what with them? Change them and say, "You know, I used to think that this was the way to get my way, get this done, or get that done. Now there's another way."

It can be as simple as: you're going to check out at Wal-Mart and there are three lines open. How do you get to the quickest line the quickest way? "Son, go over there and stand in that line. Don't let anybody push you out of the way. I'll be back and we'll get through quicker." Ha ha. You're working it out yourself. This is the principle that was to be replaced with what is spiritual. Everything that you thought from a worldly perspective has to be replaced. That's what I see happening to Jacob here. Jacob is struggling. The name "Israel" means, "struggles with God."

Hosea 12:2-4

The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there--

I think this really happened and I think it was the pre-incarnate Christ. I told you that whenever a man appears and there's a spiritual something to that (in the Old Testament), that it's the pre-incarnate Christ. I think this is Christ, wrestling for God. I agree that Christ could have spoken him out of existence right then, but the struggle was necessary. It's a very unusual story if you read it. You'll say, "This is unusual. Dislocating hips? Jesus is all-powerful. Why couldn't He have done this? (Or, Michael is powerful...)" But it is a struggle.

This is also where Jacob's name changes. It's not just a struggle between men--it's a struggle between self and reliance on God. That's what you want to see here. I think that this is the spiritual enlightenment of Jacob. We saw him pray, grow deeper in his knowledge, and now he's here. But he's still going to keep falling off. We're going to see this in his relationship with Joseph. He's still going to keep falling off.

His name becomes "Israel." That's what you need to keep in mind because it's easy to be confused with Israel, the man, and Israel, the nation. We'll try to keep that straight. There is an impact that occurs when your name is changed in the Old Testament. Actually, all of our names are changed when we become a Christian. We call ourselves, "Christian," because we are "in Christ" now. We still have our proper names, our worldly names, but we are a Christian.

Genesis 33

Esau and Jacob kiss and make up. Esau, for some reason or another, grew really mature. He had a very mature relationship with Jacob.

Genesis 34

This gets into some of the bad things with the kids. These are the kids, now. Dinah is one of them. She has sexual relations with a non-Israelite. The brothers, Reuben and Simeon, go over and kill the Shemites after they have agreed to be circumcised. They go in and knife them all. You can read this. It's a sordid story. Actually, there are three of four chapters in Genesis that you read and ask, "Why did God ever allow these in here?" God calls it like it is. This is man, taking his own will, and saying, "This is what I want to do."

Genesis 34:30-31

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed." But they replied, "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"

This is a result of the way the Shemites treated Dinah, the sister. They went in and killed everybody. Jacob says, "You have brought trouble on me." We could now look at: what is the testimony or witness now for Jacob to these people called the Canaanites and Perizzites? It's not a good testimony: "Our people went in there and killed them all." You're going to see that these people reap what they sow. There are just some really bad things in here. Reuben does some things later on that just don't make sense. He doesn't make sense other than just man, acting on his own behalf.

We need to stop here. Next week is Joseph. We're going to start with Joseph in Genesis 37. We're going to finish the rest of Genesis in two weeks. We'll cover Joseph the next two weeks and then we'll start Exodus.

Prayer:

Father, God, thank you for your Word and the truth in your Word. Thank you for allowing us to see things that people/men just wouldn't have written about the Patriarchs, their fathers, or their kinfolk, God. This is talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the things they did, Father, but it tells us that no matter how we are today, no matter what anyone in this room has done this past week, God, that you love us. You have a plan for us. You want for us to have that solid, right relationship with you, Father, and that's what we should learn through the things we read about Jacob. God, it's sordid. It's things that we don't sometimes like to read or think about in terms of a Sunday School class or church setting, Father, but it's truth. It's the truth that you've given us that says that you love us and even while we're sinners, you sent your Son to die for us. I thank you for that. Be with us throughout the week, God. We ask you to be with those prayer concerns that were mentioned earlier. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

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