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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. About a week and a half ago, I was in Israel, and we were up in En Gedi. Beautiful place where David fled from Saul, and it was one of those caves. We don't know exactly which one, but David took refuge, trusting in the Lord from the provocations of King Saul.
There he wrote Psalm 57 and other psalms. It's a beautiful, beautiful spot, an oasis. There David said, under the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge. But while I was there, I was asked a question by somebody, and I had my little phone with me, my iPhone. So I glanced down at my iPhone at the Dead Sea. Now, I'm 1,290 feet below sea level. Lowest place in the earth, middle of the wilderness. And I notice I have all the bars lighting up.
I have full access. And so I was asked a question, I got on Google, and I went through the internet and found some answers. And then it struck me, I thought, what's wrong with this picture? It just doesn't seem right. This seems wrong to be in this ancient site, biblical site, primitive site. And yet, here with modern technology, I know that's the modern world, but there's some things, when you put them together, they just don't seem right or make sense. Ice cream on top of pizza would be one of those things. It's just not right.
Vanilla yogurt with Tabasco sauce. It's not right. Communion and Genesis chapter 30 don't at all seem to go together. If you know anything about this chapter, it's a chapter about a dysfunctional family, about superstition within the family as one tries to take these magical plants called mandrakes to procreate, and then the chapter ends with Jacob stripping off pieces of bark from pieces of wood so that his animals can be fertile. I mean, it's a bizarre chapter, and you think, what on earth does this have to do with communion?
Well, I'm not certain yet. But actually, the more I pondered it, it seemed to make sense. Because, you see, it is a story of a dysfunctional family. It is a story of a dissatisfied worker working for a greedy employer. Verses 1 through 24 is Jacob's home life.
Verses 25 through the end of the chapter is Jacob's work life. It's a mess. This chapter is a mess. It's the story of opposition. It's the story of superstition. It's the story of oppression.
Of the worst kind. But it's the story of redemption. While you have a faulty, frail, fickle man upon the earth making stupid choices, you have sovereign God in heaven enacting his perfect will in the midst of the dysfunction. So you might say chapter 30 is about a God who functions in the dysfunction. The family is a mess.
It is dysfunctional. But there is a God in heaven who is able to superimpose his perfect will and divine plan while man is making dumb choices on the earth. We prayed that, do we not?
Didn't Jesus teach us to pray, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prime example of God's will being enacted on earth from heaven while the people that he's doing it through are losers. I love this chapter for that reason. I take heart in this chapter for that reason. I love the fact that the Bible tells the truth about the heroes of the Bible.
It doesn't write a sweet little biography and then embellish it and talk about how wonderful Jacob the great patriarch of Israel was. It tells us the truth. It shows us the truth, but in the midst of that, how God powerfully works in the midst of failure. And that brings us, and it will bring us, right up to the cross of Jesus Christ. The worst event in all of history would be putting God to death. But it happened to be the very best thing that could happen.
God's will was being worked out through Pontius Pilate, Peter will later say, in accordance to Scripture. And in the midst of the worst possible circumstances, God is working. Or put it this way, while man does his worst work, God sometimes does his best work.
And they may not be in parallel tracks. It's that God will work in spite of who we are, not because of who we are. Well, I am going to go through this chapter very quickly. It'll be a quick jet tour, because we do want to take the Lord's Supper.
But I want to recap for you where we are. If you remember, Jacob was a con artist, a really good one. He wanted his brother, the firstborn, Esau's blessing, and he was able to con him out of that by cooking him some stew and having his brother swear that he could have the blessing, because after all, he could care less about a spiritual blessing, whatever that is.
And so Jacob was able to take the blessing of the firstborn for himself, the secondborn. Then this con artist has to flee for his life from home at his mother's bequest. He's out in the wilderness. God appears to him. He says, this is awesome. This place is awesome. God is in this place, and I knew it not.
I know it now, but I knew it not. And he names the place Bethel. He goes across the Jabbok River, up to the mountains, up to the highlands, and to the ancestral home of his father and grandfather, Abraham. Goes to work for a man by the name of Laban, who has two daughters. The youngest daughter is gorgeous.
She's a knockout. And he wants to marry her. And Laban, his uncle, says, no problem. If you work for me seven years, you can marry her.
He says, you got a deal. But on the wedding night, the chickens come home to roost. On the wedding night, the conniver gets royally connived. Because Laban takes his oldest daughter, Leah, whom the Bible says in soft terms that she wasn't all that great looking, and puts her in the bedchamber instead of Rachel. So when he wakes up in the morning, he doesn't find the girl he's in love with, Rachel, but Leah.
He's shocked, as any male who said vows to a different woman would be if he found somebody else in the marriage bed. He goes to Laban, and Laban says, well, you don't think you can steal the right of the firstborn, do you? The right of the firstborn, Leah, is that she gets married first, not Rachel. So here's somebody who tried to steal a blessing of the firstborn, and he was successful, and you reap what you sow.
And now Laban does something that teaches him a great lesson. So for 14 years, he works for Uncle Laban. Now in chapter 30, verse 1, you're about to read the story of a man who will get not just two wives.
I know that's what you think. He has two wives, Leah and Rachel. He gets four wives. That's right, he gets Bilhah, the maid, and Zilpah, the maid of these two women, and they bear him, children, as well as the other two.
He will have four women in his home. Without remarking too much upon that, to save myself arguments later on by some, it's enough to say that Jacob was not good at relationships. He was very, in fact, poor at personal relationships. Oh, he was a good cook. He was a good chef.
He was a great con artist, but he was poor with interpersonal relationships. His wife, Leah, the one who's not so good looking, happens to be very fertile. And we saw last time we were together, she bears him four children.
We've already seen them. And now we get to Rachel's desire in verse 1 of chapter 30. Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said to Jacob, Give me children or else I die. Jacob's anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of your womb? All her life, Leah lived in the shadow of her younger sister Rachel's beauty. She was gorgeous, beautiful to look at. But Leah clearly dominated the matriarchal status of the family because she's able to give birth to four boys.
They're mentioned in chapter 29. As she's giving birth to boy number one, boy number two, boy number three, boy number four, listen carefully. What she really wants all along isn't children.
She wants her husband's life. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, it's more important than ever for Christians to stand for truth in our broken culture. And in the God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues collection of booklets from Skip Heitzig, you'll get equipped to speak God's timeless truth into the big issues of our time. God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give $50 or more today to help reach people around the world with the good news of Jesus through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. She wants her husband's affection and attention. How do I know that?
Well, just review for a moment. Go back to chapter 29 and notice verse 32. Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will love me. She conceived again and bore a son and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon. She conceived again, bore a son, and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me because I've borne him my three sons. Da, da, da, da, da, da.
And she conceived again, verse 35, and bore a son and said, Now I will praise the Lord, therefore she called his name Judah. Every human being needs and craves to be loved and to be appreciated. Especially in a marriage, a woman seeks to feel the security, the strong love, the abiding love of a husband. Gentlemen, that's why you can never say, I love you, too often. You can say it all day long. You can call in the middle of the day. You could wake her up in the middle of the night and just say, I love you.
She won't punch you. And children seek to get love from their parents, just the acceptance of a dad or a mom. I got a note here in the agape box sometime back from a little boy, a prayer request, quote, Please pray that my dad would love me. That's what he wants. That's really all he wants. That's what she wants and gives him these children. Well, he says, I'm not in God's place.
I'm not the one in control of the genetic structure or your makeup or your inability or ability to have children. God, verse 2, has withheld you from the fruit of the womb. So she said, Here is my maid Bilhah. Go into her and she will bear a child on my knees that I also may have children by her. Now, that little phrase, a child on my knees, is an ancient expression that speaks of adoption, as though this child would be my own. In other words, she will have the child, but then the child will be placed on my knees for my care. This will be my child.
I will adopt the child you have with her. About 800 years before Moses was ever around, there was a guy whose codified law ruled the ancient Near East. His name was Hammurabi. And you may have heard of the Code of Hammurabi.
What he codified in writing governed people from Persia to the Caspian Sea, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Ocean. And in the Code of Hammurabi, it was stated that if a wife who's married to a husband has a maid because she herself cannot bear children, if her maid bears children on her behalf, they will become the property of the wife. It was standard operating procedure. It was the very law that Abraham and Sarah lived by.
You remember the story with Hagar. So, it was just what people did. It was, you could say, everybody's doing it. And not only is everybody in the world doing it, but my own family has done it.
My grandpa did it with Hagar. They had Ishmael. You have a classic case of conforming your character and behavior to that of the world. But what does Romans tell us? It says that we're not to be conformed to this world, but what?
Transformed by the renewing of our mind. We're to think differently than the world thinks. And here's the big point. The consensus of the group should never determine your morality. Well, the world does it. They sleep together.
They live together. They kick the tires of the car before they buy it. Why can't we? We should have that freedom. Now you're letting the world determine what is right and what is wrong. That's a huge mistake.
It was a huge mistake for her to do this. And yet God is superimposing his will in bringing the 12 tribes of Israel. She gave him Bilhah, her maid, as a wife. And Jacob went into her, and Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God has judged my case.
He has also heard my voice and given me a son. Therefore, she called his name Dan. Dan means judge. Danielle is God is my judge.
So this is where the tribe of Dan comes from. And Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister. And indeed, I have prevailed, so she called his name Nathali. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her to Jacob his wife. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. And so Leah said, a troop comes. So she called his name Gad.
Gadzooks, a troop comes. It's as if these two women are trying to start the first baby boom. And notice it's a competition between them. One is trying to get her husband's love. The other feels left out because, by the way, in ancient times, it was seen as a divine disfavor to not be able to bear children. And it was a sign of divine favor and blessing if you were able to have children, especially sons, to carry on the family name. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. And Leah said, I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.
So she called his name Happy Asher. Now Reuben went, and he's probably about eight or nine years old, that's the firstborn of Leah, went in the days of the wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son's mandrakes.
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? And Rachel said, therefore, he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes.
I'll tell you what, I'll work you a deal. You can have our husband tonight and sleep with him in exchange for your son's mandrakes. Now this shows me that Jacob had stopped having intimate relation, has stopped sleeping completely with Leah altogether. So that Rachel was in firm control of her husband.
Now they're swapping a deal. What is a mandrake? Technical term, mandragorus autumnalis.
What it was, was a perennial fruit that grows in the Mediterranean regions, bluish flowers in the winter, dark green leaves, and a yellow plume-like yellowish fruit in the summer. It also had a root, it was a carrot-like root, and the belief, the superstitious belief, is that it was an aphrodisiac. It increased sexual appetite and it opened the womb, enabling barren women to conceive. It did not, it was simply superstitious.
She's following the superstitions of her time, trying to get more children. When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, now he had no idea what's happening, his hard day's working, he comes in and he yawns in the tent, wants to grab the Jerusalem Post and sit down and read the paper. Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, You must come into me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes. I told you it was a weird chapter. And he lay with her that night. Interesting.
It's as though she's believing this ideology. Well, God hasn't helped me, and my husband, he's not helping me any. So maybe these mandrakes will help.
Also, they were called love apples. You know, I've trusted in the Lord, where has that got me? Now, that same philosophy I've heard over and over again on a number of different levels. Well, God isn't doing anything, so I guess I have to help God out. That's what Abraham and Sarah thought with Hagar.
That's what she is thinking. And so, and he lay with her that night, verse 16, their marriage had been reduced to a legal contract. And God listened to Leah, evidently then means she had prayed, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Now, the writer, Moses of Genesis, wants you to know that it's because God did it that they had the child. God listened to the prayer and gave her another son. And Leah said, God has given me my wages because I have given my maid to my husband. And so she called his name Issachar, which means hired or for sale. And Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good endowment.
Now my husband will dwell with me because I've borne him six sons. And so she called his name Zebulun, which means to dwell. Afterwards, she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah, which means judgment. It was very difficult to be a woman in those days.
Here's just a little insight. When a woman was about to give birth, they brought in the food and the singers and the wine, and they were all ready to party, hearty, if a boy was born. If a girl came out, well, congratulations, but pack up the wine and the party attire, and we'll see you next time. She's competing with her sister. She now has six to zero.
That's the score, 6 and 0. And she has a daughter. The daughter is mentioned, but her name is Judgment. Verse 22 is a highlight. Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. So after the man-break madness was over, that didn't work, but prayer did. She's trusting in the Lord.
She's leaning on him, and the Lord opened up her womb. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you confidently speak God's timeless truth into our culture.
Pastor Skip's God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues collection of booklets is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a Connection Make a Connection At the foot of the crossing Cast your burdens on His Word Make a Connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
