20250622_IWillNotLeaveThee

[0:00] Okay, Genesis chapter 29. Now, he's just left Bethel and now he's heading for Haran.

[0:11] ! So, read those first all six, seven verses there, and get a picture in your mind about what's going on.

[0:30] Now, Jacob goes, Jacob journeys from Bethel, and he came to the land of the people of the east.

[0:42] Is that what yours says? Okay. And what's he see? I'm sorry? Okay. And a well.

[1:00] He sees a well and some sheep and some shepherds there. So, now this well has a stopper in it, doesn't it?

[1:14] Now, for what reason, I don't know, other than my guess is to impede the evaporation.

[1:26] But I don't know that. In any case, there's a stone lying on the well's mouth. So, Jacob comes up to him. Pardon me. And what's he say to him?

[1:46] Yeah. He calls him what? Okay. Brothers, where are you from? And what do they say? They say, we're from Haran. So, in Jacob's mind, I've come to the right spot. I'm getting close, right?

[2:05] All right. Now, he asks something else. What else? Okay. Do you know Laban? What do they say?

[2:21] We know him. Jacob asks, How's he doing? Is he well? He's doing fine. And Rachel, his daughter's coming, by the way. We see her off in the distance there.

[2:44] Now, we know that Rachel's doing what? Shepherding sheep. Right. She's a shepherdess. She's in charge of her dad's sheep.

[2:57] So, she's coming to the flock gathering at the well. Now, why are they gathering at the well all at once?

[3:08] Yeah. They gather all at once, and then they're going to roll that stone off.

[3:20] All the sheep are going to get their, be watered, and then they're going to put the stone back. Right. So, this seems strange to Jacob, doesn't it? Well, that's actually in the next verses.

[3:34] So, I'll let us go on. Verses 7 through 10. So, he knows already that Laban, he's in the right area.

[3:49] They know Laban, so he's close. He's going specifically to find whom? Do you remember?

[4:00] What did Rebecca say to him? Go to my brother Laban and find a wife there.

[4:11] Okay. So, he knows he's close. Uncle Laban's close. Okay. And now he knows Uncle Laban has a daughter.

[4:23] She's coming with the sheep. Okay. He knows that. So, in the course of their conversation then, in verses 7 through 10, he suggests something to the shepherds.

[4:39] What is it? It seems strange that they're all loitering around. What's Jacob say to them? Why?

[4:57] Well, he says it's still high day. You've got a lot of daylight left. Water, you know, let's get your sheep watered and get out there and feed them.

[5:10] That's his suggestion. That's the way he's thinking. What do they say? What do they say? What do they say? What do they say? What do they say? Yeah. We cannot until all the flocks are gathered.

[5:22] That would be in your verse 8, right? Until they roll the stone from the well's mouth when we water the sheep. I'm not drawing a big parallel here.

[5:40] It just, this whole rolling the stone away just got me to thinking about another stone that was rolled away. From which well we can drink living water, right?

[5:57] I know I'm stretching that analogy. But it just reminded me of that. Okay. Okay. Okay.

[6:09] We can't. Now, while they talk, Rachel arrives. What does Jacob do? What does Jacob do? What does Jacob do? Well, he's going to throw away and water the flock.

[6:21] What does Jacob do? What does Jacob do? Okay. Jacob says, I'll help it. I'm going to move this. I'm going to move this along here. So Jacob rolls the stone and waters the flock.

[6:35] Now, he's making an inroad here, by the way. He waters Laban's flock, her sheep.

[6:51] It doesn't say, now, it doesn't say he didn't let anybody else drink. And it doesn't say that he watered only her sheep, I know. But it doesn't say that he watered anyone's but hers.

[7:04] So, I'm not making anything of that. But I think there is a point here. He's saying, okay, Uncle Laban.

[7:17] Uncle Laban has a daughter who I'm supposed to get to know, according to mom. So, I'm going to make an effort here.

[7:28] I'm going to make an effort for a nice introduction. Nice introduction. Yeah. I'm going to make a nice introduction. So, as we roll on then to verse 11, what does Jacob tell Rachel?

[7:59] Okay. Specifically, he says what? I'm Rebecca's son.

[8:11] I am your father's relative. If you're in New American Standard. Yeah. If you're in King James, it says brother.

[8:24] It's the same word that he addressed the guys at the well. When he said, brothers, where are you from? It's the same word. And it has to do with a familial relationship.

[8:40] So, hey, Rachel. I'm your cousin. All right. So, what does Rachel do with this information? I don't know.

[9:07] Certainly. I do not know. Certainly. We're not given that kind of information in the scripture. My suspicion is that he knows that his family is from this area.

[9:24] And he's using an inroad there and calling them brothers. Now, that will not be an uncommon thing.

[9:34] Paul will use that of the Jews when he goes to the synagogues.

[9:44] He's going to say, brethren. Well, no. The Pauline word is in Greek.

[9:57] This is in Hebrew, so I don't know. But it has to do with that filial relationship. Yes. Now, he's going to say brothers.

[10:09] And he's going to use, Paul will use it of whom else. Christians, the church.

[10:23] Which is why the church calls one another brother and sister. We get that from Paul.

[10:36] That's where that comes from. And some denominations even take their names from that. Do they not? And by the way, when they break camp, one of the last hymn they'll sing is, oh, I've forgotten it now.

[10:59] It has to do with when we part, we're sorrowful, but till we meet again.

[11:12] That will be probably their last song that they sing when they break camp. Nevertheless. So, he's there.

[11:23] He's there. He's talking to Rachel. And Rachel goes and tells Laban. Now, what's Laban do with that information? All right.

[11:36] He runs out to meet him. He does the Eastern response. He embraces him. He kisses him.

[11:47] And he says, hey, what? What? I'm sorry? You're my own flesh and blood.

[12:02] So, then does he say goodbye? He brings him to his house. We're in verse 13 and 14.

[12:18] And so, he brings him to his house and Jacob abides with him what? About a month.

[12:30] Okay? So, now, when we're ready for verse 15, when we're ready for verse 15, how long's Jacob been in Laban's household?

[12:44] A month. He's been there a month. Now, I'm assuming Laban brings this up because the scripture just says that Laban says to him this.

[12:56] So, he opens a negotiation. What is it? Okay. How does he present it? Not only should you not work for nothing, but he says, just because you're my nephew, you shouldn't work for nothing.

[13:23] Name me your wages. Let's make this deal. So, I'm going to pay you, Jacob. So, Jacob's been there a month.

[13:37] Laban opens negotiation. Now, we have a couple of verses that seem to be stuck right in there. But it has to do with the negotiation that Jacob's going to propose, doesn't it?

[13:50] So, what are these two verses? Okay, Laban has two daughters.

[14:02] Okay. Laban has two daughters. And the two verses are, these two verses are going to describe these. At this time, they're girls. So, they're going to describe the girls.

[14:16] So, go ahead. How does God describe them? Okay. Okay. Okay. So, I don't know what tender-eyed means.

[14:34] Some people have speculated that she didn't have very good eyesight. Others have speculated that she didn't have a sparkle in her eyes. I don't know what it means.

[14:46] But it just says that Rachel was tender-eyed. That's all I know. Does anyone else have something they want to say? I said Rachel, didn't I?

[15:00] Okay. Leah was tender-eyed. Yes. Yes. Well. Possibly.

[15:21] Okay. Delicate.

[15:33] Delicate. See, that word is obscure to us, and it doesn't translate into English real well. We really don't know for sure what that means.

[15:47] But we do know for sure how God describes Rachel. How does he describe her? Beautiful. She's beautiful of?

[16:01] Okay. So, this is a good-looking girl. So, Jacob apparently isn't blind.

[16:16] And what's he say? Well, he doesn't say. Well, he will say, but... He loved Rachel. Okay.

[16:27] It says that Jacob loved Rachel. He was strongly attracted to Rachel. So, that helps his proposition.

[16:38] What's his proposition to Uncle Laban? Now, I have no idea.

[16:49] I have no idea that this is where English common law brought up indenturing.

[17:00] But the indent... But the indent... When people... It costs a lot of money when the colonists were first coming to these shores from Europe.

[17:16] It costs a lot of money. And many of the people who wanted to come didn't have that kind of money. So, what did they do? They indentured themselves.

[17:31] And it was for a seven-year span, generally. So, how many of you have read in...

[17:41] Usually, you do this when you're a child, but you've read... I shouldn't have brought it up because I forgot the name of the book.

[17:52] But it's about this young man that served with Paul Revere as an indentured servant to the silversmith. That was a fairly common thing.

[18:09] And sometimes parents indentured their children. A lot of times, that would go more on a premise. Sure.

[18:20] But it was an indenturement, nonetheless. They worked for no particular amount of money, but they got room, board, clothing, shelter, and they learned something, usually.

[18:38] That would be a normal procedure. And it was a temporary slavery, really, in that kind of a sense. And many parents indentured their sons, their young sons, to ship captains as cabin boys, so-called.

[19:05] And they, even on mental war. It was not uncommon for a 12-year-old boy to be serving on a warship in battles.

[19:20] And, but I don't know that this seven-year thing is what somebody came up with. Nevertheless, he says, I'll serve seven years.

[19:35] What? Maybe Jacob came up with it. I'll serve seven years for Rachel. What's Laban say? Okay.

[19:53] Yeah, it's a deal. So, here's a pretty good verse for us as husbands.

[20:05] What is it? Jacob served and? Seemed just a few days.

[20:19] Why? Because he loved her. Okay. So, he serves for Rachel. You already know what's coming, don't you? What's that?

[20:37] Okay. So, he served seven years for Rachel. Laban says, that's a deal. Now, why did he, it's not pertinent to the way God has worked.

[20:59] But it's interesting, as we consider it. Why do you think he indentured himself to Laban?

[21:10] Why didn't he just ask for a hand in marriage? See, that's where my Western thinking gets into it, isn't it?

[21:26] My modern Western thinking. Go back to his dad. Go back to Isaac and Rebekah.

[21:39] When Abram's servant went to Haran, what did he do when he met Rebekah? He gave her about $10,000 worth of jewelry.

[21:56] Remember? He hung bracelets and rings and all this stuff. And then, when he went to her father's house, where, by the way, her brother Laban was in on this, he gave extravagant gifts to the family, too.

[22:21] Jacob apparently didn't have anything to give. In fact, if you get in your time machine and run to chapter 32, where he's coming back home to Canaan, he's going to say, with my staff, I cross this Jordan.

[22:45] So, basically, it appears that he has nothing to give for a bride price. So, he indentures himself. I'll work for you seven years for her hand in marriage.

[22:58] And Laban says, it's a deal. I just wanted to see if we were on the... Okay. Now, we're about verse 21 by now.

[23:13] Well, so, keep reading. And... At the end of this seven years, that seems but a few days, what's Jacob say?

[23:32] Yeah. Hey, I fulfilled my end of the bargain. Give me my wife. So, that... So, that I can go into her.

[23:45] So, he wants to consummate his marriage. Which I would expect. It's been seven years. He'd been waiting a while.

[23:59] Okay. So, by the way, I have no idea how old these girls were when all this business was transpiring. But they weren't old.

[24:12] They weren't very old when the deal was being made. Because now, it's seven years down the road, right? So...

[24:22] So... Okay.

[24:32] So, Laban holds the feast. Keep going. And he brings Leah to Jacob.

[24:44] Now, for us, we say, how on earth did he miss this? He's drunk.

[24:59] Well, we have a friend who's a wood carver. And he does caricatures. And one of his caricatures is this guy in a bar.

[25:15] This cowboy bar or something. And the guy's well drunk. You can tell by the expression on his face. And it shows this woman sitting beside him.

[25:33] She's a... She's a battle axe. But what does he see when he looks at her? He thinks she's beautiful.

[25:47] I don't think that's... I don't know what happens. I do know that when Rebecca got off the camel, when she asked the steward of Abraham, who's that guy coming across the field to meet us?

[26:03] He said, that's my master's son. That's your husband. What did she do? I'm sorry? Yeah. She...

[26:14] She got off the camel and she put her veils on. So apparently, you've seen the pictures of the burkas? Maybe you've actually seen people.

[26:27] We saw folks in Beaver Creek. The women were in burkas. You can see this much. You know?

[26:37] I don't even know how they saw. But... So... I don't know. I'm suspecting that that had part to do with it.

[26:48] I don't know if he'd been drinking. Probably. There was a feast. So... In any case, he consummates the marriage and in the morning, what's he see?

[27:05] Well, that's a transformation. See... Does this not seem strange to you when you read it about the whole cultural thing, right?

[27:18] Because... Number one, how'd he not know? If he was... If alcohol was involved, a lot of it was involved. Apparently.

[27:30] But... In any case, the marriage is consummated now. It's a done deal. Who's his wife? Leah.

[27:42] Who had he bargained for? Who'd he get? Who'd he get? What? I wonder... I wonder...

[27:53] I wonder if it came into his mind... I remember what mom said. This must run in the family.

[28:05] When it was time for the blessing, right? I'm your son... Esau. Did that make him his son Esau?

[28:19] No. By the way, I should learn... That's a pretty simple lesson to learn, isn't it? Just because I say it doesn't mean it's true.

[28:32] Just because I say it doesn't make it real. It seems weird that we even have to talk about things like that because we live in a society now that pretends that because I say so, it's real.

[28:56] And not only may I be deluded, but you must be deluded as well. And if you're not, there's something wrong with you. No, there isn't.

[29:06] There's something wrong with... There's something wrong with you. You know, reality doesn't change, by the way. Same thing in theology. God does not change because of what I think about him.

[29:25] That doesn't change God. God is who he is regardless of what I think. You know someone, you know someone who has said something along this line.

[29:44] Well, I don't think God would do that. Or, I don't... God's going to give everybody a free pass because, after all, God's love.

[29:57] Is God love? Is God love? Well, that's a pretty easy one. Is God love? Yes. Does that mean that everybody's going to heaven?

[30:14] No. He's also wrath. Not only is he perfect in love, he is perfect in wrath, he's perfect in justice.

[30:24] That's why he became flesh and dwelt among us and carried my sin to the cross, imputing his righteousness to me because he, God says, he's going to be just, he's going to punish the sin, and he's going to be the, the justifier.

[30:53] The gospel makes no sense in terms of human, human thinking. So, Paul tells the Corinthians, this wasn't supposed to be in here, I'm sorry, but Paul tells the Corinthians, what?

[31:11] the gospel of the cross is what to the, it's foolishness to the Greeks or the Gentile world.

[31:24] That is, and in that context, it's, they were purporting on their wisdom, remember? They were building, they were taking the gospel and determining what it meant according to their wisdom.

[31:40] And Paul says, it's foolishness to the Greeks, it's a stumbling block to the Jews, but it is in God the wisdom and power of God because God isn't, isn't thinking like I think.

[32:02] Very fortunately, by the way. Very fortunately. Okay, so back to this. I don't know if that went through Jacob's mind at all about his deception.

[32:16] Nevertheless, he, he makes a statement, what's he say to Laban? What, what's up with this?

[32:29] Right. He confronts him. He says, I worked for Rachel and you did this.

[32:45] By the way, by the way, I'm far more, I'm far harder on my judgment of you than I am on my judgment of me, right?

[33:00] If I do it, if you do it, what are you thinking?

[33:11] What do you do that for? I have, I have a couple of nephews who are police officers. Well, one's a sheriff's deputy, one's a police officer.

[33:26] They never hear anything like that. You know, the people who burn cars would not be happy if you burned theirs.

[33:47] No matter what you pretended to have to say. The people who loot the stores would be very unhappy if you did the same thing to their house.

[34:00] Anyway, back to the point. So, Jacob says, well, Jacob says, you know, you've deceived me. I worked for Rachel, you gave me Leah.

[34:13] Now, what does Laban say? Laban makes his excuse. Yeah. Yeah.

[34:25] I, yeah, but what? What'd you say, Raj?

[34:40] Okay. And that may well be true. There you go.

[34:54] Why didn't he say, no, you can't work for Rachel? Well, here we go again. We're not always being up and up, are we?

[35:07] There you go. he, he, um, well, to him it's not free.

[35:20] He, he has a bride price coming. But, but he's, get, boy, this sounds hard, doesn't it? He's getting rid of her.

[35:33] Most, I have no, I have no children. I have no children. I have no children. I know they're all covered up. Talk to her a little bit.

[35:45] Yeah, well, uh, apparently, he wasn't thinking about talking much. Anyhow, back to the point.

[36:00] Um, so, he has no bride price. He gives him Leah. Leah. So, now, Jacob's married to Leah.

[36:13] Now, what's Jacob say? Okay, what's Laban continue to talk? Yeah, that's right.

[36:24] Laban makes a deal with him. What? What? Okay. Why didn't he just say, if you're racial, that's what I bargained for, Leah's a boat.

[36:43] Maybe he did. I don't know. It's not recorded that way. But, Laban says, fulfill her week. Now, I don't know, I don't know that, I assume this is the, the betrothal week, or not the betrothal, but the marriage week, of, the same thing as we say, when we say a week, is seven days.

[37:09] Literally, in, in the scripture, it just says seven. Fulfill her seven. So, I don't think, nevertheless, it, it appears, that to me, in the, in, in the reading of it, that what, Laban is saying, spend the first week, with Leah, as her, as your wife, and then, I'm going to give you Rachel, and you work another seven, for Rachel.

[37:46] Now, what's Jacob, say? That's what he did. He did so, and he fulfilled her week, and Laban gives him Rachel, to wife also, and Laban, Laban then, gives to Rachel, he had already given to Leah, as a family gift, he gave Leah what?

[38:13] Okay, I know I said what, that was, and I did that, so I wouldn't give it away, but he gave her a maid, a servant.

[38:24] He does the same, to Rachel, see? And, just a question, how's this family life, getting started? Well, read verse 30, what's he say?

[38:48] Right. Right. Now, God willing, next week, when we pick this up, we'll, part of what, rolls around in your mind, is, in the beginning, God said, for this cause, a man, should leave, oh, help me, should leave his father, and mother, and cling to his wife, and, and they shall be, one.

[39:40] Yes. Yes. And, Jesus will say that, to the Pharisees, when they ask him, hey, I know how I'm going to catch him, I'm going to ask him, okay, this man marries, five women, you know, each one's been, passed away, who's, you know, what's up with that?

[40:05] Or, no, I'm, I'm at the wrong spot. He's going to say, Moses said that we could, divorce our wives, for any cause. Or, is this what Moses said?

[40:17] And, Jesus said, what? Moses said, you could give a certificate of divorce. Why? Because she's not right?

[40:31] Is that what he said? No. Why? No. Because of the hardness of your heart.

[40:44] God allowed that in the Mosaic Law. He said, because of the hardness of your heart. But in the beginning, it was not so.

[40:54] And then he quotes from Genesis. And he said, and the twain, the twain, that one is a definite word. It does mean two.

[41:08] The twain shall be one flesh. That's pretty hard to do with polygamy. And, we'll, we'll get into a little bit of that, because the, the Mosaic Law will regulate these kinds of things.

[41:28] But, always in the back of our minds, we remember, it was reiterated by the Apostle Paul, exactly what Jesus said, where, the man shall leave his, his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the twain shall be one flesh.

[41:48] So, we'll, we'll get into that, God willing, next week. Have a great week.