THE GOD OF PADDAN ARAM
(Jacob Builds His Family)
Genesis 29:1-30:24 Lesson 13b
Key Verse 29:35a
"She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said,
'This time I will praise the Lord.' So she named him Judah."
*JACOB MARRIES (29:1-30)
1.Describe Jacob's meeting with Rachel. What does this event reveal about Jacob? (1-14)
2.What were the wages he asked of Laban when he agreed to work for him?
How did he carry out his part of the bargain? What does this tell us about
his character?
3.How did Laban trick Jacob on his wedding night? What excuse did he make?
What did Jacob do about it? How did his refusal to give up Rachel, and his
love for her affect his life and his family? (14-30)
*RACHEL AND LEAH (29:31-30:24)
4.Describe the struggle between Leah and Rachel. What did each one want that
the other had?
5.Why and how did God bless Leah? What did she name her first 3 sons?
What does each name reveal about her inner misery and her deep desire?
6.What was her 4th son's name, and what did this name mean? What change
does this name reflect in Leah's thinking and life?
7.In the meantime, what was Rachel's problem? Why and how did Jacob rebuke her?
What does this show about her? (30:1,2)
8.What did Rachel do to solve her problem? What do the names of the sons born by
her maidservant show about her human struggle with her sister?
9.What did Leah name the sons borne by her maidservant? What do these names
show about her spiritual struggle? How did she come to have 2 more sons?
What were their names? In what way had her desires changed? How was she honored?
10.When Rachel finally had a son, what did she name him? What does this show about her?
When did she have another son? What were the consequence? (35:16-18)
11.What can you learn from the human and spiritual struggles of Leah and Rachel?
How did God use these struggles to accomplish his own purpose?
Describe the atmosphere in Jacob's home.
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JACOB BUILDS HIS FAMILY
The God of Paddan Aram (I)
Genesis 29:1-30:24 Lesson 13b
Key Verse: 29:35a
"She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she
said,'This time I will praise the Lord.' So she named him
Judah."
Jacob was a man who struggled with men. There is an element of human
greatness in his priorities and in his life of struggle. First, he
wanted honor--the honor of being number one. He struggled with Esau and
won the birthright, but he made an enemy and had to leave home.
Second, he sought love. He went to Paddan Aram with instructions from
his father to take a wife from among the daughters of his mother's
family. He met Rachel and fell in love with her (29:10,11). He lived
with his mother's family in Paddan Aram for 20 years, working as a
hired hand in the house of his uncle Laban. His life in Paddan Aram was
a life of hard work and struggle with his uncle. But he persisted until
he could marry Rachel. His home became place of struggle between two
women. But in the course of his struggles, Jacob revealed himself to be
a faithful man. And God proved himself to be a faithful God. Third,
Jacob sought wealth. Jacob arrived in Paddan Aram empty-handed, and he
would have left empty-handed, if God had not helped him (31:42). God is
great; he is patient and broad-minded. From the way God helped Jacob we
can learn something of the deep mystery of God's ways in his redemptive
work. Jacob was a man of his times and his family did not come up to
the New Testament standard (nor to the standard of Genesis 2, for that
matter). But God made Jacob's family very fruitful: he had 4 wives,
twelve sons and a daughter, and later, great wealth. In this lesson, we
learn about how God worked to build Jacob's family. God used this
family to build a nation. But before they could be used, they had to be
changed. This lesson is about God who helped Jacob in his struggle; it
is also about Rachel and Leah, two jealous sisters. One became a
spiritual woman and grew as a woman of faith. She had real joy in her
heart. The other one died in sorrow and bitterness.
1. Jacob marries (29:1-30)
After Jacob met God at Bethel and made his vow, he gained strength.
He walked toward the northeast until he came to Paddan Aram. He saw a
well in a field with several flocks of sheep lying near. He found that
the shepherds were from Haran, so he asked about his uncle Laban. To
his surprise, they knew Laban. Not only that, they pointed to a
beautiful shepherdess coming with a flock of sheep and told him that
she was Rachel, Laban's daughter. It was love at first sight! God had
faithfully brought Jacob to the home of his mother's brother, and had
led him to meet the girl he would love for the rest of his life. Jacob
impressed Rachel by rolling the large stone from the mouth of the well
and watering the sheep she was tending. He kissed her and wept aloud,
for he was deeply moved --either by God's faithful leading and/or by
Rachel's beauty.
Jacob was very different from Esau. Esau, his twin brother, already
had two Canaanite wives. He was a man of flesh. He could not wait for
anything. When he was hungry, he had to eat; when he wanted to marry,
he married--it didn't matter who. Jacob, however, had not married. He
had sought honor--the birthright--first. Now, he met the woman he
wanted to marry. But he did not rush into the marriage or try to live
with her before marriage. He agreed to work for her father as a hired
hand for 7 years for her hand in marriage. Verses 17-18 say, "Leah had
weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. Jacob was in
love with Rachel and said, `I'll work for you seven years in return for
your younger daughter Rachel.'" "Jacob served Laban seven years to get
Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love
for her." (20) There are things we like to do and things that we ought
to do. The things we like to do come from our emotions; the things we
ought to do rest on faith and will. A person who only does what he
feels like doing is a man of flesh. He can only make God sorry. (Eph
2:3; Ge 6:6) Esau was such a man. He looked strong, but he was weak
because he could not overcome the desires of his flesh. Such men live
out their lives as slaves to their feelings, and they die without doing
the things they ought to do. They can easily bring great harm to
others. But a person who rules the desires of his flesh and his
feelings, and does what he ought to do can become a great man. Jacob
was such a man. He mastered his emotional feelings and worked hard in
Laban's house for 7 years for the woman he loved.
To agree to work as a bond servant for 7 years without wages in order
to marry a woman seems foolish. But here we can see Jacob's greatness.
Jacob could give his very life to get the one thing he wanted. He wound
up investing 14 years of his life to get Rachel (30). Many people today
are too careful to calculate about everything. They are afraid to risk
anything. They are afraid to make any kind of commitment or work hard,
giving their hearts to any task. They are afraid that they will get too
involved and lose something. But shallow people like this never have
the courage to do anything great. Such men are destined to live on the
bottom of society and they are the ones who turn out to be the real
losers. The refusal to make lasting relationships or deep commitments
is the disease of modern man. These kind of people frequently must be
treated for mental illness.
So Jacob finished his contract and said to Laban, "Give me my wife.
My time is completed, and I want to lie with her." (No cheating before
marriage!) They had a big wedding. The bride was heavily
veiled--according to the custom of the times. The next morning, Jacob
woke up and found that the wily Laban had tricked him. He had married
Leah (whose name means "cow"). But Jacob did not give up. He finished
the bridal week with Leah, then made a new contract with Laban. This
time, he got payment in advance--he married Rachel. While working 7
more years, God made him very fruitful. He had 11 sons and a daughter
by Leah, Rachel and their maid servants, Zilpah and Bilhah. He got a
large return on his investment of 14 years of his life.
Jacob was only doing his own business, but God was working out his
sovereign plan. God used Jacob's love for Rachel, to give Jacob twelve
sons. These twelve sons were the foundation of the nation of Israel.
Sometimes we are so selfish that we only think about our own business,
but God is with us to exercise his sovereignty and accomplish his own
purpose. Later, we learn that Jacob's sons, with the exception of
Joseph, were not good men. But God changed them and raised them up to
be the Patriarchs of Israel and the foundation stones of God's
redemptive history. Our God has a purpose for each person, and he works
in and through each person's life to accomplish that purpose.
2. Rachel and Leah (29:31-30:24)
Jacob was a man of his times. We should not become so entangled in
judging him by the standards of another age that we miss the spiritual
lessons we should learn. One thing is clear: He suffered a lot because
he was married to more than one wife. His children also suffered and
his wives suffered. God's standard--one man, one woman, one marriage--
"till death do us part" is still best.
Jacob loved Rachel; he never changed. But God is fair. When he saw
that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb and gave her children. She
had 6 sons and a daughter. In the early years of her marriage, her one
consuming desire was for her husband's love. Her struggle is seen in
the names of her sons. When her first son Reuben (he has seen my
misery; see a son) was born, she thought that her husband would love
her. But nothing changed. Her second son, Simeon, also brought hope
that Jacob would love her. (Simeon means, "he hears") The third son,
Levi (attached) again brought hope that her husband would become
attached to her. But Jacob's heart was not moved. Leah was sorrowful.
She felt unloved. She was jealous of her beautiful sister who had
totally captured her husband's heart. She had thought that if she bore
sons for her husband he would love her, but it didn't work. It never
works. She must had cried many tears and struggled with hatred and
jealousy in her heart. Then, her fourth son was born. She named him
Judah. She made a decision. She would no longer beg love from her
husband. She turned her heart away from her husband and away from her
rival, to God. She named her fourth son "Judah" which means Praise--and
she praised God. Leah opened her hard cold wounded heart and let the
love of God come in. She solved her deep inner problem--her thirst for
her husband's love--by accepting God's love. God's love is far greater
than the measure of man's mind. It is the only love that truly satis-
fies. It is eternal and life giving. Later, Leah named the two sons
which her maidservant bore Jacob, "Gad" (good fortune) and "Asher"
(happy). She became a happy woman. Later, she bore Jacob two more sons:
Issachar (God rewarded me) and Zebulun (honor). She said, "God has
presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me
with honor, because I have borne him six sons." Her husband and future
generations honored her. She was buried in the tomb of the Patriarchs
beside Jacob, and her son, Judah, became the covenant son.
Rachel was quite different. She was beautiful and spoiled. She had a
monopoly on Jacob's love, but she was not satisfied. Human love cannot
fully satisfy a person's heart. Rachel was intensely jealous of her
sister. 30:1 says, "When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any
children, she became jealous of her sister. She wanted children, but
she didn't pray. She complained to Jacob, "Give me children or I'll
die." Jacob's angry answer pointed Rachel to God, but she did not
accept it. He rebuked her, saying, "Am I in the place of God, who has
kept you from having children?"
Rachel did not seek God; she had a bright idea. She gave her
maidservant Bilhah to Jacob and asked him to have children by her. She
used Bilhah as a surrogate mother for 2 sons. The names she gave these
sons reflect the inner bitterness in her heart. One was Dan, which
means "vindicate", and the other, Naphtali, "struggle." She only
thought about struggling with her sister and winning a victory
(30:3-8). Finally, God gave Rachel a beautiful son, Joseph. Jacob loved
him most, for he was Rachel's son. He became the cause of great sorrow
and the source of great blessing. But when Rachel bore her son, she
was not happy or thankful. She named him Joseph, which means "give me
another." She was never happy or satisfied. Her heart was full of anger
and jealousy. She worshiped idols (31:34). Finally, God gave her
another son, Benjamin, and she died in childbirth--still thinking only
of herself.
The sovereign God was working out his own purposes in the midst of an
imperfect human family. He blessed Jacob and protected him, and he
trained him. Many years later Jacob could say, "My life is a
pilgrimage", and "God has been my shepherd all my life." (47:9; 48:15)
God used Jacob's love for Rachel and through the struggles of his
family, gave Jacob 12 sons, and made him into a great nation, the
nation of Israel.
The names of Jacob's sons are:
Leah - Reuben (see, a son), Simeon (he hears), Levi (attached),
Judah (praise) Issachar (reward), Zebulun (honor)
Rachel - Joseph, (add another), Benjamin (son of my right hand)
Bilhah - Dan (vindicated), Naphtali (struggle)
Zilpah - Gad (good fortune), Asher (happy)