Seven Layers: November 2007

I don't normally do this but I typed out my sermon for Sunday. It is based on Gen 29:31-35. I am doing it for a local nursing home today at 3pm. It is based off of an article I have by Francis Frangipagne on this text. I thought since I haven't written in a while, and especially much original material, you might like this. Enjoy

This Time, I Will Praise The Lord!

My mom tells the story of Christmas Eve when I was about 9 years old. I was so excited for the next day to come. My mom sent me to bed and after I was fast asleep, she stayed up late into the night (about 4am) wrapping presents and putting them under the tree.
She awoke the next morning to a startling discovery. Instead of waking up, having breakfast together, and then opening presents, she found out that I had woken up about 6am and opened every present under the tree. I can still remember the shock and disappointment on her face. She missed the joy parents feel at Christmas, seeing their kids open presents.

Here is a fact you can count on: You and I cannot pass through life without getting hurt. Pain and disappointment are inevitable. Some pains are flesh wounds, and superficial. As some of us have seen on The Bachelor this week, some pain and disappointment rocks the core of our being.

Today’s text is an unusual one for Thanksgiving, but one in which I believe God has something to say to us today. It speaks to how we handle the setbacks which come our way in life. And our response to these setbacks will often determine the destiny of our life.

The story begins with Jacob and Rachel. Jacob is a man looking for a fresh start and was instructed by his mother to come to his uncle Laban for work. He arrives and sees this beautiful woman, Laban’s daughter. This is love at first sight. His heart beats fast, his palms sweat. Like a knight in shining armor he ignores cultural expectations and waters her sheep. He kisses her before he even speaks to her. She rushes home to tell Daddy and Daddy invites Jacob to stay with him and gives him work.

About a month later Laban and Jacob work out an arrangement for marriage. Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Leah the oldest is described by the author as having weak eyes, (Gen 29:17). Leah’s name in Hebrew means “Wild Cow”, not an attractive name for a girl. Rachel is described as beautiful in everyway, her face and her shapely figure. I think her name in the Hebrew is translated as “Hottie!” Jacob is in no way going for Laban; Rachel is the one he is in love with.

Jacob, since he had nothing to pay a dowry, agrees to work for 7 years to pay the dowry for Rachel. The scriptures tell us that those seven years were like a few days to him because he was so much in love.

At the end of the seven years, Laban throws a wedding feast and everyone in town is invited. That night, most likely when Jacob had at least one too many, tricks Jacob by giving him Leah instead of Rachel. They consummate the marriage. The next morning Jacob wakes up and finds out he has been deceived by Laban. Upon confrontation, Laban says that custom of that area is to marry the oldest first. So Jacob agrees to work for Laban for another seven years in exchange for marrying Rachel the following week. The scriptures say that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah (29:30). I think that is an understatement of the century. Some translations say that Jacob hated or despised Leah.

I wonder how Leah felt. All her life Leah felt unattractive, unlikely that anyone would want to marry her. To make matters worse, her sister is the most attractive girl in town, which makes Leah an afterthought in the family. The ugly duckling.

Not only does she feel bad about herself, but her father essentially uses her as a bargaining chip for economic gain by getting Jacob to work 7 more years for him. In addition to being rejected essentially by your dad, your new husband feels anger and contempt whenever he looks at you and he does not love you. If anyone ever had a right to feel bad about life, it was Leah.

This is where the story gets interesting. Gen 29:31 reads, “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved”. Here we learn an important truth about God. The Lord is drawn to those who are hurt. God saw her pain, her heartache, her disappointment, her abuse, and acted on her behalf.

I recently had a conversation with someone who really doubted that God understood their pain and felt like God enjoying punishing this person’s life. This is not what God is like, as the psalmist says, God is especially drawn to the brokenhearted, to those who are crushed in spirit. Although Leah was not loved by her husband, she was loved by God.

The verse goes on, “the Lord let her have a child, while Rachel was childless.” In that culture, women’s primary role was to have children, and having male children was of high value. Verse 32 goes on, “Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, ‘It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” Reuben’s name actually meant, "The Lord has seen my misery". What a great name for a child. This shows how much she was hurting and how much she wanted to be loved and close to her husband. Yet the text says nothing about Jacob’s response, which means his heart had not changed.

She has two more children, Simeon and Levi, hoping that her husband will at least love her now. But nothing has happened. Jacob still loved Rachel and not Leah.

There is a lesson for Leah and for us. You cannot make someone love you. In fact, the more pressure you put on someone to love you, you actually drive them away. Leah thought she could only be fulfilled if Jacob would love her.

During Leah’s fourth pregnancy, a miracle occurred. She became aware that even though she was not loved by her husband, she was loved by God. “Once again she became pregnant and had a son. She named him Judah, for she said, ‘This time, I will praise the Lord!’” The name Judah means praise and eventually Jesus was born from this tribe.

Leah learned that finding fulfillment in what you produce or what people think about you, ultimately did not fulfill her. Only when she turned her life over to God, did she find the fulfillment she was looking for. She turned over the pain and disappointment of her life over to God, and she chose to take this blessing of life to praise God.

You and I each have pain and disappointments in life. Some of us wish we could go back and make different decisions in life, wish we were born different, wish life wasn’t so hard on us, wish this or that had gone differently. We read self-help books or watch Oprah to feel better about ourselves but it doesn’t last. The only thing that lasts, which will make any lasting difference, is to bask in the love God has for us, for you and for me. John put it this way, “How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called his children. And that is what we really are!” You and I are children of God who need to daily soak in the love of God. Prayer, Bible reading are not just disciplines in order to me good Christians. They are the means in which God infuses his great love in our lives and fulfills every nook and cranny of our being. There are areas of our lives that only God can fill. Friends, spouses, children, money, work will not satisfy every area. The more you and I choose to delight in God, the more God transforms us from the inside out and makes us more beautiful than we can imagine.

The Story doesn’t end here. Do you know what happened to Leah? The years came and went and both Leah and Rachel died. Jacob, while on his deathbed, spoke this to his sons, Gen 49:29-31, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave, which Abraham bought as a burial place. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Issac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.”

Jacob buried Leah in the ancestral place of honor. Those few words say so much. They tell us that after Leah found her fulfillment in God, God changed the heart of her husband and gave it to her. Her inner beauty shown forth to Jacob.

So this Thanksgiving weekend, and on Christ the King Sunday this Sunday, become like Leah. Turn over the pain and disappointment of your life over to God. Surrender your desires to him and put him first in your life. And as you do that, he will make something beautiful of your life. Speak to those areas of unfulfillment within you and say, “This time, I will praise the Lord!”

Last night I watched The Bachelor, After the Final Rose with Kate. If you missed what happened watch this:

Yes, He told both women no. Last night he had to answer to both the women he said no to. I must say I bet he will have difficulty getting a date. People will remember him with anger and confusion. Sometimes people don't get it, and obviously Brad is one of those people.

On another note...

Greg, our church adminstrator, told me today that Sesame Street is coming out with DVD's of their first few episodes from the late 1960's. But on the front of the DVD is a warning, "these are intended for adults not children." What! If 1960's Sesame Street videos have warnings, we are all in trouble today! Apparently they showed back then some kid who got lost, when home with a stranger, had ice cream and then found their parents.

On another note...

We had our unity service on Sunday with all three worship services combined into one. It was really a good service, the music was great, spirited, and the food after was excellent. It took a lot of work to pull it off but it was worth it.

We are spending thanksgiving at home. Kate is preparing the food and her mom and Dad are coming down. It will be nice to have a slow Thanksgiving. It doesn't really feel like Christmas already. It's supposed to be 70 today and the leaves are still falling. We got our Christmas tree down today to set up. As a preacher, you always have to think ahead of the seasons so it is weird planning worship for Christmas when it still just feels like fall.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!