God Uses Imperfect People — Genesis 31-35

0:03 Good morning. Good morning. With me, if you will, to Genesis chapter 33. Genesis chapter 33. I I understand that I need to apologize to those back in the nursery.

0:21 I understand also that when when they mic me up like this, the only people that they can hear singing in the back is me. So, I'm truly sorry for that. Anybody that's that sits in front of me normally knows that that's not a pretty sound. Let's let's pray. Father, we we're grateful that you've brought us here today.

0:42 We pray that you your word might speak through that those things that that you would have remembered are remembered and those that that I've said that you wouldn't have remembered. I remembered. We pray lord that you'll speak through me today. We pray these things in your son's name. Amen.

0:58 So, we've been on a journey here through Genesis and we find ourselves today starting in chapter 33 and you know, if if you haven't been reading along, boy, I encourage you to do so because we can't spend all the time in order to cover the the area that we're going to try and get through today, chapters 33, 34, and 35. We have to skip along a little bit. So I'd like you to think about it like nature walk. Have you have you been on one of those interpretive trails where you go out into the the metro parks or the national park and you just sort of walk along the trail and all of a sudden there's a little sign, right? And you read it.

1:36 And this is where we found a buried, I don't know, arrowhead. And you walk along, and this is where George Washington stubbed his toe one day, and everybody, his wooden teeth fell out, I don't know. But you walk along, and you have those signs along the way. So think about it as we walk through Genesis today, we'll skip back and forth and read a few verses to set the tone. That's sort of what we're trying to do here today.

2:50 So return to your family. I mean, he's been away for twenty years. Ray developed that a little bit the last time we were in Genesis, and and it was a tumultuous twenty years. But to think return to your family in and of itself, if we just take that, returning to your family sounds like a good thing unless this is the family you're returning to. Chapter 27 verse 14.

3:11 So Esau, Jacob's brother, hated Jacob because of the blessing with his with which his father blessed him. And Esau, his brother, Jacob's brother, said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then, I will kill my brother, Jacob. So, he... The lord's asking him, go back there.

3:34 Go back to your family. Go back to Esau from whom he had stolen everything and who wanted to kill him. In addition, we also read in chapter 28, and behold, verse 13, chapter 28, behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie will give... I will give to you and your descendants.

4:00 Now this is the encounter that Jacob had on his way sorta out of town, and the lord had had met him at Bethel and so he has this encounter and he's really encouraged and and he's thinking, you know, this is the land that I'm going to inherit and now the lord has said, go back. Go back and so, you you can imagine that that Jacob's got a mixture of feelings in his mind. You know, the lord's calling me to do what it is that he's asking me to do and yet, he has some dread, some apprehension, ends up in the end of chapter 32 wrestling with the lord and and and Ray told us how he he wrestled with him in prayer and contended with the lord. Ask him those hard questions. Really, really struggled in that time and here he finds himself in chapter 33.

4:54 Saying, here comes Esau. Now, one thing I want to point out, and I'm not going to belabor it here because we don't have enough time to develop it fully, but it's important to realize that Jacob heard that call. He heard the Lord talking to him. He heard what the Lord would have him to do, and he he decided to follow it. He decided to be obedient.

5:18 And what's the Lord calling you to do today? Can you hear him clearly? Are you asking yourself, are you searching hard? I think we should be. It's a struggle that we should always be working towards to understand what is it that the lord would have me to do because these are life and death matters, aren't they?

5:35 Jacob is heading back to what could be in his own mind his death. Yet, yet, for some reason, the lord has impressed upon him. The lord has overcome that. Lord has said, look, this is important. You need to go.

5:48 This is important. What would he have you to do today? This of that importance. It may be a simple thing. It may be a big thing, but yet, it's still that important that we should know what the Lord would have us to do.

6:01 If we're gonna move our family, take all of our possessions, and take them to another land, well, then it should be important to understand clearly what the Lord would have us to do. So, again, back to chapter 33, this pending doom that Jacob has been waiting for has wrestled with God. What else was he doing? Okay, in chapter 32, he found out that he had divided his camp in two. He'd taken all that he had and all that he owned and all that was with him and had split him into two, thinking that maybe one would survive.

7:15 The night before, he had struggled and sent his wife and children ahead of him, and then he stayed behind. He was staying behind, and that's when the Lord wrestled with him and and said, hey. I think saying, hey, what are you doing? Are you still going to follow through and Jacob saying, you don't understand. Those kind of things.

7:37 You can imagine the drama here, okay? He's kind of like Abraham and Sarah. When they said, look, the lord promised. Therefore, I need to act. I need to fulfill the god, the lord's promise, okay?

7:50 And they they they concocted this scheme with Hagar and we found out that that wasn't what the lord had in mind, Okay? The same way Jacob seems to be conniving, figuring out how can I work out God's plan here? So imagine the time in your life when you dreaded most what was going to happen next, and there was nowhere else for you to go. Some people, it might be on the the birth of a child. Right?

8:23 That's a happy occasion, but boy, what we have to go through to get there. It's just, you know, there's some apprehension there, right? Some it might be standing up here on Sunday morning. Oh, there's the last song. You know, now I better get up.

8:38 I can't avoid it any longer, right? I can't run away. Know I I went out to get a drink, so people probably thought I was running away there, but it's occurred to me. But at any rate, in my case, it might be when I had to terminate an employee. You know, I've had that opportunity or requirement on many occasions, and boy, I've to tell you, you don't sleep well the day before.

9:06 There's a lot of things, I mean, going through your head, and if there was a way I could get out of it. It's reminiscent to the lord's a prayer in the Garden Of Gethsemane, right? It was just so so much anguish and this is where we find Jacob in chapter 32 and then we're trying to find out now in chapter 33, where's Jacob at now? Where's he at today? Okay?

10:13 He's wrestled it to the ground. He understands. He can't get out of it. He's not going out of it. He's he not only can't get out of it.

10:20 It's not something that somebody's holding him to other than the lord is impressed upon him but yet, he has chosen. I'm going to move forward. I have to move forward. Now, it's about how he moves forward, right? He moves forward out in front.

10:32 He gets in front of his children as opposed to sending everybody in front of him. He's now sending and and thinking, how can I get, I'll try and save myself? He's saying, I'll get out in front. He bows down seven times, not once, seven times. In a sense saying, I'm sorry.

10:49 I was wrong. Please forgive me to Esau. Versus the the opposite would be, hey, please accept the bribe. Please accept what I've given you. Please or or in in another way, let's fight.

11:03 Come on. If that's what it's gotta take, let's do that. I believe he's following god's direction. He insists at the end of the day that not only since Esau says, look, I don't need what you've got. I've been blessed as well but Jacob says, no.

11:19 No. No. You gotta take it. Please. Take it.

11:22 Take it. It's from me. The Lord has blessed me too. So... And what what...

11:51 And then surprise of all surprises, not what he was expecting, Esau runs to him and says, look, twenty years is behind us. I, in a sense, I forgive you. The lord has been out there working ahead of him and the lord can work these miracles. Jacob had humbled himself before god and man and was rewarded accordingly. He wasn't proud and scheming anymore, not deceiving.

12:23 Now, just in case you were thinking that now Jacob has reached the pinnacle and he's all fixed and ready to go, just wait. We're going to see that he's still working on making mistakes. But we can still go back even through the time that we spent in Genesis and understand that the Lord accepted some folks, he rejected others. Some he worked through and others he wouldn't. I think Hebrews eleven six summarized that the best.

12:54 It says, without faith, it is impossible to please him, meaning God. For he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder, a rewarder of those who diligently seek them. Yet, none of the people that we've talked about, none of the the fathers of the faith, none of the heroes that we're looking at here can be considered perfect. What did Ishmael really do wrong? A 13 year old boy, right?

13:46 Moses, he killed a man, struck the rock when he should have had faith, complained about his speech. David, Solomon, Paul persecuted the church. The list is long and distinguished, but yet the Lord has still chosen to use imperfect people. It's easy to think of this imperfection or these imperfections in them and condemn them because of their faults. Yet, it's more appropriate, I think, to appreciate that God used them and can use each of us if our heart attitude is right towards them.

14:25 It's even more remarkable to note that there was one who walked perfectly on this earth and fulfilled god's will for us. Jesus Christ alone stands as perfect in the eyes of god. So, I think it's important not to judge a man early in his life. We don't know what the Lord has for him. I mean, we're all imperfect as well.

14:48 So just to summarize chapter 33 for what we've talked about here, have you considered what the call of God is on your life? Are you willing to risk it all? We should be. Jacob was, and God answered his prayers when he struggled with them. And he had to come to the realization that the Lord said he'd be with me, and therefore, I'm going to trust him at his word, move forward despite the anticipation or the anxiety that he felt.

15:19 And the Lord has a plan for each one of us. We shouldn't judge a heart of a man. The Lord judges the heart. Those experiences that you've had are just preparation for the task that he has ahead for you. He uses imperfect people.

16:14 Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Jacob and his entourage have traveled to this place called Shechem. They've set up camp just outside there. They have bought land and are intending to dwell there. Right?

16:36 And and one of Jacob's daughters, a young woman, apparently very attractive, catching to the eye, says, you know what? I think it's time for me to go out and get to know these folks around us. We're going to, I think I want to intermingle. I want to know what's going on out there in the world, not just what's happening here in my camp. You know, in and of itself, ladies, you'd all agree with me, that's probably not a good idea, right, to put yourself in the wrong spot, the wrong time in life.

17:11 But it really speaks more towards her hard attitude. She's wandering out away from the camp after she's been instructed, told, demonstrated this is not the place. We need to stay amongst ourselves. We need to not be out in the world. The Lord has plans for us, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

17:35 Still, she wanders away physically and spiritually. Now it's not to say that she deserved what she got. Okay? The blame is clearly not placed on her, but certainly she's in the wrong place. So I ask you children, young people, is your faith your own?

18:01 Do you believe what you've grown up learning? Do you believe in your heart? Do you have faith that what the lord is calling you to do is what he would have you to do and that he has a plan for your life? Are you just following your parents lead? Are you in the church because it's safe?

18:18 It's it's where I've always been. It's I know everybody and I know what's going on. Are you dabbling in things you know to be wrong? Because if you are, there's consequences for your actions. Let's read on.

18:32 Verse two. And when Shechem, the son of Hamar, the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and violated her. So, Shechem is this young man. He's the son of the provincial king, prince, leader, owner of the city so to speak. And he sees Dinah walking around intermingling amongst the folks and does the wrong thing.

19:06 He rapes her. What he does is clearly wrong and the blame for this is clearly placed on his shoulders. It's not hers. Subsequently, though, he does fall in love with her, and he really does want to marry her. Later in the chapter, verse 19 says, so the young man did not delay to do the thing and we'll talk a little more about that in a minute because he delighted in Jacob's daughter.

19:30 He was more honorable than all the household of his father. So, the writer gives him credit for actually trying to act honorably towards Dinah in his heart after he'd done wrong, unlike the way his father and others are doing later. So the ends, however, don't clearly, or clearly don't justify the actions that he did before. His family and the entire city, it ends up, suffer a great consequence because of his imprudent act. We need to all realize that there are consequences for our actions.

20:07 Sometimes, if we only do it once. Sometimes, even if we regret it or wanna make amends for it or take it back or change our mind later. Let's be careful about the way we act. So now Jacob, let's think about Jacob and what his part in the story is. So verse five says that he holds his peace until his sons come back from the flocks.

20:29 This is not Jacob's finest hour. I get the impression that Jacob is trying to manipulate the situation here. He knows, I believe, what his sons are gonna do. He knows the way they're gonna act, the way they're gonna react. And if not, he also has said, look, I want back up here.

20:49 And then he seems to have forgotten the lessons that he learned just one or two chapters before, right, where he had wrestled with the Lord and said, what do I do? How do I go? How do I approach this? Lord, help me. You can solve this problem.

21:05 Till he gets to the point where in the end of the chapter he really reveals his heart in this situation. Verse 30 says, it will... It... It's... Jacob's talking to Simeon and Levi, his two sons, after they've taken the actions that we'll talk about.

21:23 He says, you've troubled me by take... Making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I. So we just hear a lot there, right?

21:41 I, me, me, I, me. He's worried about himself, the skin that he's inhabiting, and not necessarily the the honor of his family or in particular his daughter. The very next verse says, Simeon and Levi responding back and they said, but should should we he treat her, our sister, like a harlot? It's a rhetorical question, of course. No.

22:11 But essentially, what they're saying is, well, what should we have done? You stood by, you watched, you saw what we were getting ready to do, you saw all that we did, and now you have something to say about it? Let's hear it. And what did Jacob say? Nothing.

22:29 There was silence. He didn't answer. He went unanswered. And in a sense, he's undermining his respect before the eyes of his children there too. We know what Jacob had learned and now we're just wondering where has it been or where's his heart in that he's forgotten it so soon.

22:50 Don't we all find ourselves there sometimes? The Lord reveals us something special. He touches our hearts. He puts us in a way where we understand just a little bit better than we did before, and then we go right out and make another mistake the same way or along the same lines. Oh, dear.

23:08 Our hearts are troubled. So now, Hamor. Hamor, who's the father of Shechem, decides that he's going to make amends and he proposes a treaty through marriage. He tries to bargain the action away, okay? He is no repentance shown, only self serving negotiation to save himself and the others around him.

23:30 Their true hearts and motivation are really shown in verse 23. When he's trying to convince those around him that they should go along with his plan, He says, will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us. So there's great financial gain to be made. And Hamar says, look, I think we can we can capitalize on this even though it's a bad thing.

24:05 Says he's willing to pay whatever the pace... The price would be. Enter Dinah's brothers led led by, we're told Simeon and Levi. They're not hearing of it. They're not they're not going to accept this and they devise a scheme, right?

24:21 And say, look, the price in order for us all to be the same, you gotta understand that we're all circumcised and and that's a covenant and a sign. You know, it's just important. If we're all going to be the same, you should be like us. I don't have time to go into that detail and and talk about the sign of the covenant and and what it was intended to to be or the the mistakes that were made in the New Testament as well relative to circumcision and adding to and just saying, this is what will save you and this is what will make you right before god but we'll save that for another time. And on the surface though, Hamor and his cronies, his relatives, his people, excuse me, they decide, yeah, this is not too bad.

25:10 It's not going to cost us anything, right? We're not going to pay money. We're not going lose any sheep. It's only, I mean, this this doesn't sound like a bad. They did it.

25:17 Why can't? It's not not a big deal, right? And so, they're thinking, we kind of made out okay like this and we're ready to move forward. Everybody, all the men in the whole city and probably is decent size are going to be circumcised. Well, the joy didn't last long.

25:38 After three days, all the men are in agony and pain and that's when Simeon and Levi come in and execute their plan, the rest of the plan. Verse 26 says, and they killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and went out, killing all the males, including Hamor and Shechem. They plundered the city. Plundered is a a military term that says, we go and take everything that has some value and take it with us so that we can continue our our conquest or to will gain riches this way. That's what they'd done.

26:19 So, the plan had backfired on Hamor and all the rest. If you realize or remember back too that Simeon and Levi were number two and number three. So, where's Reuben in this whole thing? Reuben was number one, right? He was the oldest son.

26:54 He had been under threat of being killed by Esau. Let's go. Time to go. His mom and his dad had devised this plan. You're going to get out of here.

27:03 Go find a wife. Then, he's under threat from Laban and his sons. Right? Hey, you've taken everything. You you got all the good stuff.

27:12 How, you know, they're not looking at him very very well at this point. And they say, we don't like this. And and Jacob says, we gotta go. So now he's said, look. Look what you've done to me in this area, and they're gonna kill us, kill me.

27:32 And they gotta go. But even though he's under the move, on the move, the Lord's still directing. Verse one, God said to Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar there to God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau, your brother. So God's still directing. He's trying to get him back to Bethel where he first had his encounter with the Lord and and the angels going up and down the ladder.

28:00 And to Jacob's credit, at this point, he does a good thing and he says, listen, I I get the pressure where he's saying, look, that was a bad chapter in our life behind us. Right? Here's what we're going do. I want you to put away all the foreign gods. You remember that they had brought idols with them when they had left Laban's household, if you will.

28:25 Rachel had sat on them to hide them and he also says, purify yourselves. Change your garments. In the family, they actually take off. He says, they gave him the ears, earrings in their ears that must have been important at the time. He gave, they gave him all of the foreign idols and Jacob takes all of it and he hides it under a tree and leaves it behind.

28:48 So, in a sense, this is a symbolic gesture to say, look, we're going to leave the past behind us. All that that was dragging us down, all, you know, that we were doing, it's a new day. It's time to to move on. So when he gets there, let's take a step back. In chapter 33, we saw that after fleeing Laban, Jacob had taken a look back and said, you know, the Lord has been with me.

29:28 And he's fulfilled his promise not to abandon me. And tell me he will be with me. And so he built an altar there to the lord and he called it El Elohi Israel or god is the god of Israel. Loosely interpreted, god is my god. It's commemorating the fact that he personally, Jacob, is committed to the lord.

29:53 He believes, he trusts, he sees what the lord's done to him. He sees that the lord has protected him. He sees the lord has been with him. He saved him from Esau and at first blush, that's all good. Maybe he's starting to believe, but I think there's more that he's have to learn.

30:12 Hasn't he forgotten that the promise was to him and his descendants? And has in chapter 34 been a stark reminder of where the household stood from a spiritual sense? Rachel had been hiding the idols. Dinah was wandering away and got into major trouble. Simeon and Levi were taking revenge into their own hands.

30:37 Reuben was not to be found. We we learned later that he's in bed with one of Jacob's wife's concubines, Bilhah. Jacob has reverted to his conniving ways and letting his sons do the dirty work. He's lost respect of his sons, I believe, and has no answer for how to lead the family. It's a humbling picture.

31:02 So while he had learned so much and said to God, this is... God is my God. I believe in him. I think he's also getting a clear warning here. You're not special in and of yourself.

31:15 It's not just about you. You can't keep me, meaning the Lord, to yourself. You've got to live it. You've got to teach it. You've to tell others about this faith.

31:26 And what better place to do that than right here in your family? Look where they're at. You need to change what... How the way you're treating or leading your family, and now's the time to do it. And I believe that's what he does.

31:39 He he says, look, let's get all this behind us. Let's put it behind us. Let's all of us, not just me. It's not about me. It's about all of us serving the lord.

31:50 So, I think it's a good a good thing that Jacob has done here and now, he's made, he's come back to Bethel and he creates a new altar and he calls it El Bethel or god of the house of god. My loose translation is, god is god. Doesn't matter what I give to him. Doesn't matter what I say about him. He's still god, okay?

32:13 So, he's come full circle. In chapter 28, he he met with the lord in Bethel and said, you know what? I think this is going to work out okay. If you'll be with me, then, I'll give you this as if the lord needs for him to share with him. It's a good thing.

32:29 It's not bad. I'm not saying that he didn't do, he did wrong. I'm just saying he progresses to the point where he says, now what lord? You did do what you said you're going do. You're my god.

32:39 I accept you. To the point now in chapter 35 where he returns there, and he said, you are God, period. And I need to recognize that. I need to realize that. And now I do.

32:50 I submit to you, Lord, realizing that you're God, you're gonna do what you wanna do, and now what you want me to do is to encompass everybody, to include everybody, to not just live my faith personally, but to take it out and to display it. So that takes us to the point where now he meets with the Lord. And I think this is a beautiful affirming passage in chapter 35 beginning in verse nine. And I'll comment as we go. It says, God appeared to Jacob again when he had come from Pararam and blessed him.

33:25 So it was on the way to Pararam that he had first encountered him. Now he's on his way back. That had been his refining place in a time where he had grown. And God said to him, your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel, our prince with God, shall be your name.

34:02 That's what I think we all need to realize is that God is God, Period. Maybe god is god and I'm not. Even better thing to say. Verse 12, be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.

34:21 The land which I gave Abraham, Abraham and Isaac, I give to you and your descendants after you, I give this land. A reiteration of the promise. It was a personal promise to Jacob. The same as Isaac had received and the same that Abraham before him had received. Verse 13, then God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

34:42 He left him there. And in a sense, I can imagine Jacob having this amazing feeling of peace. In a sense, the Lord has put his arms around him, his hands on him, he's affirmed him and said, listen, you come through along, but I think you've learned a lot. I think this is where I want you at this point. And yet, I can still see him feeling lonely at that point and saying, oh, where's the lord?

35:11 But he is right there. I can talk to him. I can contend with him. I can ask him the hard questions. Verse 35 goes on and we hear about Rachel dying.

35:21 She dies in childbirth, given birth to Benjamin. The only one of his 12 sons who had been born outside the home or the the the shadow of Laban and I think you're going need to remember this when we go on to chapters 42 through 44 when they're asking, Joseph is asking for him to, for Jacob to give up Benjamin. And it's just a really tough thing. Rachel was his favorite. She's now died and died in the process of having the last child which was Benjamin and you can imagine his heartstrings being pulled there.

36:04 And then it goes on to remind us, I think we need to look back and maybe this is what the Lord always has for us to do is to look back and see where he's been. Come on now. Okay. So let's look back. I hope you can read that somewhat anyhow.

36:22 But we've come so far through Genesis, right? And as we go through, we've heard different plots, right, different stories. And in my mind, I was trying to get it all stuffed into a way that I could see it. Like Roger said in the earlier meeting, you know, if you can draw me a picture, I can get it a little bit better. So this is my feeble attempt.

36:43 Now, Art, I want you to watch closely because usually when I put a slide up here, I have a mistake on it. So there's a mistake here somewhere. Don't know where it is, but you can find it. So he usually helps me out that way. I appreciate it.

36:54 At any rate, we we started off with the story of Adam and Eve and they were one, right? So, they came from from one bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, and and they have children, three of which are are highlighted in the the text for us. Remember chapter four where Cain slays Abel. It's a it's a dark time and and shows the the condition of man but then they have a next child who is Seth and Seth is the person who's who creates the the lineage that leads towards Noah. The.

37:29 Dot. Means many generations have followed and flown by to where we get to Noah, right? Remember Noah gets on the ark and he takes three families with him, right? He's the families of his three sons. They're Shem, Japheth, and Ham.

37:45 Ham has some trouble later on. Noah makes some mistakes too but but really, the the line continues again, dot, dot, through to another man named Terah, okay? Terah has three sons, Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. Okay? They live in Ur Of Chaldee way down by the Tigris River, I guess it is, way down there.

38:12 And he has these three sons and he says, let's, you know, we're going have to move. Before he does, he loses one of his sons named Haran who has a son named Lot. Okay? So the point is, look, he takes Abraham and Lot with him, as well as Sarah and Hagar is along as well. And he moves up to Heron.

38:34 You know, he he moves up there and and starts to change where they they've lived. Eventually, Abraham is called to leave his family there and move down towards Canaan, right? And and at the time, he's struggling. There's no children. So, they come up with that plan where through Hagar instead of Sarah, his wife, they they have Ishmael, right?

38:58 And and eventually, lord says, no, that's not the the one who are going to carry this through. It's going to be Isaac out of Sarah and you know, the story talked about the story of Isaac, right? And we're sort of following these, you know, the the the large blue boxes, if you will, Adam, Noah, Abram, Isaac, right? And continuing down there, but Isaac's without a wife, right? So they send, most people think Eliezer, Roger talked about that a few weeks ago, to go get a wife.

39:29 Where did he go? It's important that I didn't have, I had took me time to realize this and make the connection, but he hands off to Abraham's family, Nahor. Right? Nahor has had a son, Bethuel, and he's got two children. One is Rebecca.

39:48 And that's who he brings back to be Isaac's wife, okay? He also meets at the time a guy named Laban who's Rebecca's brother, right? And then, you know, as as time would have it, Isaac and Rebecca have Esau and Jacob who we just heard is now known as Israel, right? So, we're we're moving along there. Jacob is under threat of Esau's death or or going to kill him and he gets advice from his father Isaac and little manipulation from his mother Rebecca.

40:28 Send him back. So, where does he go to get a wife? He goes back to Laban and doesn't get one but two, right? He works seven years thinking he's going to get Rachel as a wife, and he gets Leah instead. And Laban's father right there, Rebecca's brother, says, hey, if you want Rachel too, you can work another seven years.

40:53 He does, and Laban sends Zilpa and Bilha as maids with the two young ladies. Right? They come with, it's like also included, right? And then they come along, and unfortunately, there's some jealousy as things move along because Jacob is is married and Leah is the one that starts to have the children. And the first thing she does is she has four boys in quick succession.

41:30 There's Reuben, the firstborn, right? And Simeon and Levi, the two we talked about, and then Judah. Well, not to be outdone, Rachel is is it's just not working and so she decides, you know what, I'm going to do like Sarah did and provide my maid for me to have children, right? And so, young men are born there, Dan and Naftali. Not to be outdone, Leah says, look, I got a maid too.

41:59 How about we do that over on my side of the picture? Gad and Asher are born, right? And then Leah is fertile again. Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah. Now, Dinah is the only woman up there, but she's the one we talked about here, so I wanted to include her.

42:18 It's specifically pointed out in scripture that she's warned Leah. So the point is that now here we are down down the road, and Rachel still without children. One is born. Next is Joseph. They leave, and then Benjamin is born, and she dies in childbirth with Benjamin.

42:39 Now, important to remember as we go forward that Joseph's sons were Ephraim and Manasseh. That's important to recognize because in a sense, the last part of chapter 35 says, and Isaac died. Now, Isaac was an old man when he sent Jacob away. He was blind. Twenty years later plus, he's coming back and saying, you know what?

43:03 He's still alive. I I Esau and Jacob bury him. Sort of it's like that this is the time we know they're together, right? They understand each other. They're okay with each other.

43:17 But it's really this is Israel. Okay? The tribe of Israel, if you will. The the the Israel that we know is headed to Egypt. So so we're sort of summarizing where we've been, and this is important to know, that's where they're headed next.

43:34 Right? Chapter 37 puts Joseph in Egypt, and they all are headed that way. So it's it's sort of a look back and a look forward at the same time. So, just a point of interest, Judah is where the the lord's lineage will come from. So, let's just summarize really quickly.

43:52 We're out of time. I think what we're we can learn today is this. Number one, that god's calling each one of us to follow his direction. He asked for us to trust him at his word and that he will keep his promise. He expects us to struggle and we're going to have hard questions.

44:12 We should ask them and we should contend with him to do... To understand those. He can work out the impossible, but it's important to know that he's willing and able to train each one of us. Perfect people need not apply. He's willing to work with imperfect people, and he's willing to work through any situation, and he is patient.

44:35 Finally, it's not about us. It's really about him. So when you make a mistake, it's not about beating ourselves up and saying, there, I'm done. You know? No.

44:46 He can work that out. He wants us to train others. It's not just about me and God. It's about me with everybody else and God. We need to reflect on what he's done so that we can have strength and know that he has done what he said he would do.

45:03 He is doing what he said he would do. And then repeat, sort of like that, you know, wash, rinse, repeat on the on the soap bottle. So, keep doing it over and over again until we get it right but I think in this this is that the picture I have here is is one that probably is not my idea what god looks like but it reminded me of this. So, I think what he's really trying to do is say, I want you. I can work with you.

45:34 You're just the material I'm looking for. Everything that has gone on, everything that's gonna go on, everything that will happen, I can handle. I just want you. And I think the story of Jacob helps us to understand that today. So let's pray.

45:53 Father, we're very thankful that you've given us this opportunity to to spend in your word. We're thankful for your word. We're thankful that you have had it written, preserved it, and that we can learn from it. The depth of it is amazing to us, Lord, and so we pray that your Your Word might continue to go forward, that we might live it as well as talk about it. It's in Your Son's name we pray, amen.

46:22 Thank you. Sorry I went over a few minutes there.