Bible Wonders - The 4 Mothers - Rachel

Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?

I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises but the stars never fall?

Why dry land is never satisfied by water? And why fire never says enough? Enough. I shared the four mothers of Israel with Sarah, Rebecca, Leah last time and today we get to Rachel and oh what a spectacular picture we have with Rachel. As I have studied this and the more I've thought about this, the more that of all of them, this is my favorite story.

I love all the mothers and I'm very excited to meet them all in heaven. But this story gives me hope that's just beyond, it's just exactly what my heart needs. And so, you know, Rachel's story is unique amongst the ones but that she is not, she's the only one who's not buried in the cave of Makhlava because she died in Bethlehem or right there on the road.

And she's buried by the roadside there and that is a very significant issue. And when we go back to the story, Rachel was very much involved in all the shenanigans, which again, I hate that that happened for her and I hate that all the consequences for the sin. But I really love the fact that in my own life I can clearly relate and I can see that God is the hero of the story. There's no doubt in my mind. When it comes to the four mothers, you can see their love, you can see their righteousness, but you can also see the mistakes they made and the way that God continued to run with the ball in spite of what all happened and the hope that that brings to know that wow, it's really not up to me. And I think moms everywhere need to know that, that, you know, you love with all your heart and with all your soul and all you all, and you love your neighbor as yourself, but at the end of the day, it's God that is doing this stuff. So in Rachel's case, she, um, you know, certainly was madly in love with Jacob.

You know, it was a love at first sight thing there and, you know, very significantly we see the beginning of their meeting there in Genesis 27 that when Jacob met her after, which that's just a beautiful story, he rolled away a stone from the mouth of the well. Okay. If it doesn't sound familiar, like God is still always painting this picture of Jesus.

Right. And so, you know, that whole idea of rolling away a stone and then all the sheep get watered. And, oh my goodness, is that not what, um, his great, great, great, great, however you want to say it, Jesus would come, um, they would roll away the stone and we would all be watered.

And so it's, it's really cool. And at that moment, obviously he meets Rachel. And when he does, in spite of the fact that he falls madly in love with her, he weeps uncontrollably. And what the Jews teach about this is Jacob had a vision right there from God. And again, you know what, I'm not saying it's necessarily true, but it's helpful for me to see that what Jacob saw right then was how Rachel would be weeping for her children. And, and actually it was a scene of what would happen as was quoted in Matthew, you know, when it said Rachel weeping for her children. And that really becomes the main line of the story in Rachel's story from my perspective is, is what happens at the end, right?

She, she dies in childbirth. She names her son Bename, Bename, which is son of my sorrow, just like Mary had a son of her sorrow, but it would be God's son of his right hand. And as she's buried there in Bethlehem, and as the Jews teach that Jacob and Rachel had this agreement that this needed to happen based on the vision that he had had of, of what Rachel would end up doing. And what they teach about the passage in Jeremiah 31, which I want to read that now because it's just critical to the story.

So I don't know if you're like me, but I would, um, based on how I feel about my kids and all that that's going on with my grandkids, whatever, you know, I'm, I'm not only highlighted these passages, but you know, I've, I'm, I'm thinking strongly about memorizing them because the hope that is in these, these verses right here, these three verses is unbelievable. But when we read the whole story that the first line is quoted in Matthew two, but let's read the whole thing that's actually in Jeremiah 31. And he says, thus sayeth the Lord, a voice was heard in Rama, lamentation and a bitter weeping.

Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children for they were not. Thus says the Lord, refrain, refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy work shall be rewarded, sayeth the Lord. And they shall come again from the land of their enemy. And there is hope in thine end, sayeth the Lord that thy children shall come again to their own border. So this, this was, this was something that according to the Jews was prophesied, you know, that it was something that Jacob saw and what they teach. And clearly Jeremiah here is talking about the Babylonian exile, right? That all these children were coming out of Jerusalem and they were marching now to Babylon. And they're on this road, but that goes from Bethlehem to Rama. And this is the road that Rachel was weeping on. Now Rachel has been dead at this point in Jeremiah 31 for a couple thousand years.

I mean, a long time, right? And yet God is saying, stop weeping. God is saying, you know, that, that here we see that her work is very specifically says, but when we look carefully in the passage, there's so many things that are quoted that have to do with Jacob's story.

All right? Because what it says is that Rachel is crying, weeping for children, refusing to be comforted. Well, those are exactly, exactly the same words that Jacob refused to be comforted when they came to comfort him about the loss of his son, Joseph. And Joseph was not dead.

He wasn't. All was not, as it appears, just like the whole theme of Genesis is all that's not what it appears to be. And so here, Rachel is weeping for children, refusing to be comforted. Well, this is a reminder of the story of Jacob who refused to be comforted about a son who was not dead, right? And then it says, because they were not. Well, that again, if you look in that same passage in Genesis, who was it that was refusing to be comforted because his son was not?

Well, that very, they were not had to do again with Joseph and Benjamin, actually, and it's quoted in two different places where Jacob says that. And so, again, it's just really cool that the Bible is showing us something here in Jeremiah 31 of why Rachel is saying these very words, because everything is not as it appears. And clearly, you know, it just is really neat for me to know that mothers are forever. In other words, Rachel is still the mother of all these children that are leaving Jerusalem because, right, she's our great, great, great, great grandmother. And she is weeping. And she's still, you know, clearly, even as it's quoted in Matthew, at the point in time, the children are all killed in Bethlehem. Again, we find Rachel weeping for these children. And like, oh, my goodness, she is a mother. And it's pretty nice to know from my standpoint that my mother is still up there weeping over some of the choices I'm making down here. But God is saying he's going to fix it. I mean, it's just so clear.

It says your work is going to be rewarded. And I think here that he's talking about the work that Rachel actually did loving on her sons while she was alive. And so in praying for her sons while she's alive and clearly weeping for them at this point in time. In other words, if you look at this part of this story, the hope that's here is just absolutely miraculous.

Like, really? This is like a picture to me, like in Job, where we see what's going on in heaven. And God is talking about what's going on in heaven with Rachel weeping for her children. And what does that tell us? That we're going to know who our children are in heaven. And it tells us that we are involved in what's actually going on down here in some way, shape or form. And that God is going to be continually in relationship with us as he is here with Rachel and clearly Jacob in his own way. If you read the whole passage, and not to mention that this is the passage that talks very clearly of Jesus.

Because go down a few verses and you're going to find that the Lord is going to do a new thing. The bride encircles the groom. Well this, we are the bride of Christ and we are the new thing, okay? And we are going to, if you ever go to a Jewish wedding, they're going to encircle the groom seven times.

Like they went seven times around the city of Jericho to drop the walls. Well, we get a chance to do that with Jesus as a result of our mothers and their prayers. And their work. And our work, right? With our own children. How hopeful is that? Thank you for listening and Happy Mother's Day!