May 25, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Connect with skip Heidzig and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program. Connect with skip Heidzig's
all about connecting you to the never changing truth of
God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why we
make messages like this one today available to you and others.
Before we get started with the program, we want to
invite you to check out connect with skip dot com.
(00:22):
There you'll find resources like full message series, daily devotionals,
and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign
up for Skipp's weekly devotional emails and receive teaching from
God's Word write in your inbox each day. Sign up
today at connectdiskip dot com. That's connect with skip dot com.
Now let's get started with today's message from pastor's Skip Heitzig.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Now, about a week and a half ago I was
in Israel and we were up in Ngetty, 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
(01:06):
King Saul. There he wrote Psalm fifty seven and other psalms.
It's a beautiful beautiful spot and 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,
(01:27):
my iPhone. So I glanced down at my iPhone at
the dead sea. Now I'm one two hundred and ninety
feet below sea level, lowest place in the earth, middle
of the wilderness, and I noticed I have all all
the bars lighting up. I have full access. And so
I was asked a question. I got on Google, and
(01:50):
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.
(02:10):
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 thirty don't at all seem to
(02:35):
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
(02:56):
that his animals can be fertile. I mean, it's a
bizarre chain, 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
(03:21):
a dysfunctional family. It is a story of a dissatisfied
worker working for a greedy employers. Or verses one through
twenty four is Jacob's home life, Versus twenty five through
the end of the chapter is Jacob's work life. It's
(03:42):
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, fickled man
(04:06):
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 thirty is about
a God who functions in the dysfunction. The family is
a mess, it is dysfunctional, But there's a God in
(04:28):
heaven who is able to superimpose his perfect will and
divine plan while man is making dumb choices on the earth.
We pray that, do we not? Didn't Jesus teach us
to pray our Father, which are in heaven hollowed, Be
thy name, your kingdom. Come. Your will be done on
(04:50):
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
(05:12):
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
(05:35):
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 punches. Pilot Peter will
(05:56):
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
(06:18):
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,
(06:43):
the firstborn Esaus 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 us spiritual blessing,
whatever that is. And so Jacob was able to take
the blessing of the firstborn for himself. The second born
(07:08):
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
(07:28):
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
(07:50):
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 way
night the chickens come home to roost. On the wedding night,
the conniver gets royally connived because Laban takes his oldest daughter, Leah,
(08:15):
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 shocked. Has any male who said vows
(08:38):
to a different woman would be if he found somebody
else in the marriage bed. He goes to Laban, and
Laban says, well, you can't. 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
(08:59):
blessing of the first born, and he was successful. And
you reap what you sew. And now Laban does something
that teaches him a great lesson. So for fourteen years
he works for Uncle Laban. Now, in chapter thirty, verse one,
you're about to read the story of a man who
(09:23):
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 bill Ha 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
(09:48):
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
(10:10):
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 one of chapter thirty. Now,
(10:31):
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.
(10:56):
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
(11:18):
mentioned in chapter twenty nine 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 love.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
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.
(11:54):
God speaks Biblical answers for today's issues. Is our thanks
for your gift of at least fifty dollars today to
help share biblical teaching with more people around the world
through connect with Skiff Heidzig. Go to connect with Skip
dot com slash offer or call eight hundred and ninety
two to two eighteen eighty eight and request your resources
when you give fifty dollars or more today to help
(12:16):
reach people around the world with the good news of
Jesus through connect with Skiff Heidzig. Let's continue with today's
teaching with pastor Skip.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
She wants her husband's affection and attention. How do I
know that? Well? Just review for a moment. Go back
to chapter twenty nine and notice verse thirty two. Leiah
conceived and Bora's 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
(12:48):
and Bora's son, and said, because the Lord has heard
that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son.
Also she called his name Simeon. She conceived agin Bora's son,
and said, now this time my husband will become attached
to me, because I've borne him my three sons, Da, Da, Da.
(13:13):
And she conceived again Verse thirty five, 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,
(13:35):
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 just I
love you. She won't punch you. And children seek to
(13:56):
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
(14:16):
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 two has
withheld you from the fruit of the womb. So she said,
here is my maid Bilha. Go into her, and she
(14:40):
will bear a child on my knees, that I also
may have children by her. Another 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
(15:01):
be my child. I will adopt the child you have
with her. About eight hundred years before Moses was ever around,
there was a guy whose codified law ruled the ancient
Near East. His name was Hamarabi, and you may have
heard of the code of Hamarabi. What he codified in
(15:23):
writing a governed people from Persia to the Caspian Sea,
from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Ocean, and in
the code of Hamarabi it was stated that if a
wife who's married to a husband hasn't maid because she
herself cannot bear children, if her maid bears children on
(15:44):
her behalf, they will become the property of the wife.
It was standard operating procedure. It was the very law
that Abraham and Sarah live 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
(16:09):
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
(16:30):
to be conformed to this world, but what transformed by
the renewing of our minds. 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
(16:53):
kick the tires of the car before they buy it.
Why can't we We should have that him. 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 and bringing the twelve tribes of Israel. She gave
(17:17):
him Bilha, her maid, as a wife, and Jacob went
in to her, and bill Ha conceived and bore Jacob
as son, and Rachel said, God has judged my case,
and he has also heard my voice and given me
a son. Therefore she called his name Dan. Dan means judge,
(17:41):
danielle is God is my judge. So this is the
where the tribe of Dan comes from. And Rachel's made
Bilh 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
(18:01):
Na Thali. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing,
she took Zilpah, her maid and gave her to Jacob's wife,
and LEAs made Zilpah boor Jacob's son, And so Leah said,
a troop comes, so she called his name gad gad zooks.
(18:23):
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
(18:48):
a sign of divine favor and blessing if you were
able to have children, especially sons to carry on the
family name. And LEAs made zilpah boor Jacob a second son,
and Leah said, I am happy for the daughters will
call me blessed, so she called his name happy Asher.
(19:10):
Now Reuben went in these probably about eight or nine
years old, that's the firstborn of Leah, went in the
days of the wheat harvest and found man drakes in
the field and brought them to his mother Leah. And
Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your
son's man drakes. She said to her, is it a
(19:33):
small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would
you take away my son's man drakes also? And Rachel said,
therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's man. Drakes.
I'll tell you what. I'll work you a deal. You
(19:53):
can have our husband tonight and sleep with him in
exchange for your son's men. 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
(20:19):
a mandrake technical term Mandragoris autumnnolis. 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
(20:42):
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.
(21:02):
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. He's
a hard days working he comes in, and he yawns
in the tent, wants to grab the Jerusalem Post and
(21:23):
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 in to 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
(21:49):
this ideology. Well, God hasn't helped me and my husband.
He's not helping me any, so maybe these mandras 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
(22:12):
of different levels. Well, God isn't doing anything, so I
guess I have to help God out. It's what Abraham
and Sarah thought with Hagar, that's what she is thinking.
So and he lay with her that night Verse sixteen.
Their marriage had been reduced to a legal contract, and
(22:32):
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
(22:55):
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
(23:16):
him six sons. And so she called his name Zebulen,
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,
(23:38):
and they are already to party. Hardy. 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, and she
(24:02):
has a daughter. The daughter is mentioned, but her name
is judgment. Verse twenty two 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,
(24:25):
but prayer did. She's trusting in the Lord, She's leaning
on him, and the Lord opened up her womb.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope
you've been strengthening 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 skips God speaks
biblical answers for today's issues. Collection of booklets is our
(24:54):
Thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heisig today.
Request your copy when you give fifty dollars or more
call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. That's
eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight or visit
connectiskip dot com slash donate and did you know that
you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from
(25:14):
Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox. Simply visit
connectiskip dot 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 The Skift Hidzig Make Connect,
Make a Connect, The Cross.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Chats song.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Makes Next Connect. The Skift Heidzig is a presentation of
connection communications connecting you to God's never changing truth in
ever changing times
This is Connect with skip Heidzig and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program. Connect with skip Heidzig's
all about connecting you to the never changing truth of
God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why we
make messages like this one today available to you and others.
Before we get started with the program, we want to
invite you to check out connect with skip dot com.
(00:22):
There you'll find resources like full message series, daily devotionals,
and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign
up for Skipp's weekly devotional emails and receive teaching from
God's Word write in your inbox each day. Sign up
today at connectdiskip dot com. That's connect with skip dot com.
Now let's get started with today's message from pastor's Skip Heitzig.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Now, about a week and a half ago I was
in Israel and we were up in Ngetty, 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
(01:06):
King Saul. There he wrote Psalm fifty seven and other psalms.
It's a beautiful beautiful spot and 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,
(01:27):
my iPhone. So I glanced down at my iPhone at
the dead sea. Now I'm one two hundred and ninety
feet below sea level, lowest place in the earth, middle
of the wilderness, and I noticed I have all all
the bars lighting up. I have full access. And so
I was asked a question. I got on Google, and
(01:50):
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.
(02:10):
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 thirty don't at all seem to
(02:35):
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
(02:56):
that his animals can be fertile. I mean, it's a
bizarre chain, 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
(03:21):
a dysfunctional family. It is a story of a dissatisfied
worker working for a greedy employers. Or verses one through
twenty four is Jacob's home life, Versus twenty five through
the end of the chapter is Jacob's work life. It's
(03:42):
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, fickled man
(04:06):
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 thirty is about
a God who functions in the dysfunction. The family is
a mess, it is dysfunctional, But there's a God in
(04:28):
heaven who is able to superimpose his perfect will and
divine plan while man is making dumb choices on the earth.
We pray that, do we not? Didn't Jesus teach us
to pray our Father, which are in heaven hollowed, Be
thy name, your kingdom. Come. Your will be done on
(04:50):
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
(05:12):
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
(05:35):
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 punches. Pilot Peter will
(05:56):
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
(06:18):
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,
(06:43):
the firstborn Esaus 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 us spiritual blessing,
whatever that is. And so Jacob was able to take
the blessing of the firstborn for himself. The second born
(07:08):
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
(07:28):
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
(07:50):
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 way
night the chickens come home to roost. On the wedding night,
the conniver gets royally connived because Laban takes his oldest daughter, Leah,
(08:15):
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 shocked. Has any male who said vows
(08:38):
to a different woman would be if he found somebody
else in the marriage bed. He goes to Laban, and
Laban says, well, you can't. 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
(08:59):
blessing of the first born, and he was successful. And
you reap what you sew. And now Laban does something
that teaches him a great lesson. So for fourteen years
he works for Uncle Laban. Now, in chapter thirty, verse one,
you're about to read the story of a man who
(09:23):
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 bill Ha 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
(09:48):
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
(10:10):
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 one of chapter thirty. Now,
(10:31):
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.
(10:56):
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
(11:18):
mentioned in chapter twenty nine 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 love.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
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
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God's timeless truth into the big issues of our time.
(11:54):
God speaks Biblical answers for today's issues. Is our thanks
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when you give fifty dollars or more today to help
(12:16):
reach people around the world with the good news of
Jesus through connect with Skiff Heidzig. Let's continue with today's
teaching with pastor Skip.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
She wants her husband's affection and attention. How do I
know that? Well? Just review for a moment. Go back
to chapter twenty nine and notice verse thirty two. Leiah
conceived and Bora's 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
(12:48):
and Bora's son, and said, because the Lord has heard
that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son.
Also she called his name Simeon. She conceived agin Bora's son,
and said, now this time my husband will become attached
to me, because I've borne him my three sons, Da, Da, Da.
(13:13):
And she conceived again Verse thirty five, 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,
(13:35):
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 just I
love you. She won't punch you. And children seek to
(13:56):
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
(14:16):
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 two has
withheld you from the fruit of the womb. So she said,
here is my maid Bilha. Go into her, and she
(14:40):
will bear a child on my knees, that I also
may have children by her. Another 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
(15:01):
be my child. I will adopt the child you have
with her. About eight hundred years before Moses was ever around,
there was a guy whose codified law ruled the ancient
Near East. His name was Hamarabi, and you may have
heard of the code of Hamarabi. What he codified in
(15:23):
writing a governed people from Persia to the Caspian Sea,
from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Ocean, and in
the code of Hamarabi it was stated that if a
wife who's married to a husband hasn't maid because she
herself cannot bear children, if her maid bears children on
(15:44):
her behalf, they will become the property of the wife.
It was standard operating procedure. It was the very law
that Abraham and Sarah live 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
(16:09):
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
(16:30):
to be conformed to this world, but what transformed by
the renewing of our minds. 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
(16:53):
kick the tires of the car before they buy it.
Why can't we We should have that him. 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 and bringing the twelve tribes of Israel. She gave
(17:17):
him Bilha, her maid, as a wife, and Jacob went
in to her, and bill Ha conceived and bore Jacob
as son, and Rachel said, God has judged my case,
and he has also heard my voice and given me
a son. Therefore she called his name Dan. Dan means judge,
(17:41):
danielle is God is my judge. So this is the
where the tribe of Dan comes from. And Rachel's made
Bilh 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
(18:01):
Na Thali. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing,
she took Zilpah, her maid and gave her to Jacob's wife,
and LEAs made Zilpah boor Jacob's son, And so Leah said,
a troop comes, so she called his name gad gad zooks.
(18:23):
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
(18:48):
a sign of divine favor and blessing if you were
able to have children, especially sons to carry on the
family name. And LEAs made zilpah boor Jacob a second son,
and Leah said, I am happy for the daughters will
call me blessed, so she called his name happy Asher.
(19:10):
Now Reuben went in these probably about eight or nine
years old, that's the firstborn of Leah, went in the
days of the wheat harvest and found man drakes in
the field and brought them to his mother Leah. And
Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your
son's man drakes. She said to her, is it a
(19:33):
small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would
you take away my son's man drakes also? And Rachel said,
therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's man. Drakes.
I'll tell you what. I'll work you a deal. You
(19:53):
can have our husband tonight and sleep with him in
exchange for your son's men. 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
(20:19):
a mandrake technical term Mandragoris autumnnolis. 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
(20:42):
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.
(21:02):
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. He's
a hard days working he comes in, and he yawns
in the tent, wants to grab the Jerusalem Post and
(21:23):
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 in to 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
(21:49):
this ideology. Well, God hasn't helped me and my husband.
He's not helping me any, so maybe these mandras 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
(22:12):
of different levels. Well, God isn't doing anything, so I
guess I have to help God out. It's what Abraham
and Sarah thought with Hagar, that's what she is thinking.
So and he lay with her that night Verse sixteen.
Their marriage had been reduced to a legal contract, and
(22:32):
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
(22:55):
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
(23:16):
him six sons. And so she called his name Zebulen,
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,
(23:38):
and they are already to party. Hardy. 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, and she
(24:02):
has a daughter. The daughter is mentioned, but her name
is judgment. Verse twenty two 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,
(24:25):
but prayer did. She's trusting in the Lord, She's leaning
on him, and the Lord opened up her womb.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope
you've been strengthening 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 skips God speaks
biblical answers for today's issues. Collection of booklets is our
(24:54):
Thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heisig today.
Request your copy when you give fifty dollars or more
call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. That's
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come back next time for more verse by verse teaching
of God's Word. Here on Connect The Skift Hidzig Make Connect,
Make a Connect, The Cross.
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