Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20000213.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III - God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
V. Round Twenty-One - Trusting God To Diffuse The Time Bomb Of One's Feeling Unfairly Rejected
(Genesis 29: 31-30:24)
  1. Introduction
    1. Solomon knew the volatility one's feeling unjustly rejected can be, for he wrote in Proverbs 30:21-23 (NIV) that one of the things under which "the earth trembles . . . [is] an loved woman who is married."
    2. Genesis 29:31-30:24 reveals the need for us to seek God's help to diffuse the emotional time bomb that can be set off by one's feeling unjustly rejected by others (as follows):
  2. Trusting God To Diffuse The Time Bomb Of One's Feeling Unfairly Rejected, Genesis 29:31-30:24:
    1. Leah grew up angry as she, the older daughter, was less desirable as a wife than her younger sister:
      1. Leah developed into an unattractive woman in her culture, Genesis 29:17a with Ryrie St. Bib., KJV ftn.
      2. Also, her younger sister, Rachel, was beautiful, so Leah must have dreaded her sister would be married before her, a fact of great humiliation in her day! (Gen. 29:17)
    2. When Jacob asked to wed Rachel, but obtained Leah, an emotional time bomb began to tick in Leah:
      1. Jacob came along and, fitting with Leah's nightmare, asked for Rachel's hand and not Leah's, 29:17-18.
      2. Laban arranged for Leah to be smuggled into Jacob on Rachel's wedding night, and Leah went along with it to avoid suffering the humiliation of being passed over for the younger, prettier sister, 29:19-24.
      3. When Jacob discovered he had been given Leah, he made a scene about it Laban to Leah's dismay, Genesis 29:25-26. Leah then saw a second wedding occur where Rachel was wed to her husband, something that would have humiliated Leah in front of the whole neighborhood, Genesis 29:27-30.
      4. Of course, Rachel would also have been upset at her older sister's going along with Laban's ruse, so the union of the sisters in marriage with Jacob was set with a spirit of distrustful competition from the st art.
    3. God graciously stepped in, seeking a balance so that Jacob, Leah and Rachel would calm down and look to Him for dealing within the polygamous triangle that none of them had ever really wanted:
      1. Seeing Leah was unloved, and knowing the emotional time bomb fuse had been lit in Leah, God let Leah bear children to her honor while closing Rachel's womb, Gen. 29:31. This would have signaled all were to be considerate of one another and ask God for help as Isaac had for Rebekkah, Genesis 25:21.
      2. Instead, a potentially explosive competition arose between Rachel and Leah, Genesis 29:21-30:15:
        1. At first, Leah produced Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, naming these sons with names to signal her desire that her husband, Jacob would accept her and love her as his wife, Genesis 29:21-35.
        2. When Rachel saw she was barren, instead of looking to God for help as Isaac had for his barren wife, Rebekkah in Genesis 25:21, Rachel testily resorted to the act of supplying her handmaid, Bilhah to Jacob to produce sons, an act replicative of ancestress, Sarah's past Gen. 16 unbelief, (30:1-8).
        3. Leah reacted just as faithlessly, giving her own handmaid, Zilpah to Jacob to produce sons, 30:9-13.
        4. The competition between the sisters came to a head in Genesis 30:14-16 where Rachel agreed to give Leah a chance to cohabit with Jacob if she could eat Leah's son's aphrodisiacs!
        5. In that event, Leah expressed she still felt unloved by Jacob compared to Rachel, so Rachel began to be considerate of her sister, Leah providing she could become pregnant, Genesis 30:14-15a, 15b.
      3. God graciously gave both women children after this to keep the family together, Gen. 30:16-21, 22-2 4.
      4. In the end, God's grace was realized by both women as signaled in the names given to their children:
        1. Leah honored God in her explanations for the names her next sons (& daughter), Genesis 30:18-21.
        2. Rachel's name for Joseph is a play on the words (a) 'asaph, "take away" and (b) yoseph, "add", showing God had removed her barrenness and given hope of another son, B.K.C., O.T., p. 77.
Lesson: Leah, Rachel and Jacob should have SOUGHT GOD'S help when they found themselves IN their unwanted triangle to DIFFUSE the life-long, time bomb feeling of REJECTION in LEAH.

Application: If we or another we know feels UNJUSTLY SLIGHTED, realize an emotional time bomb is ticking away in them, and that God expects us to seek HIS help to DIFFUSE it with consideration to all before the explosion occ urs and hurts many innocent people!