Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday, August 19, 2016
The main reason is to focus in on the faithfulness of God in keeping His part of the Dispensation of Promise by the fact that He will fulfill His promises in spite of man's failures.
GEN 13:2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.
GEN 24:35 "And the Lord has greatly blessed my master, so that he has become rich; and He has given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and servants and maids, and camels and donkeys.
Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large.
He did what any normal man would do, he tried to get the others out of the vicinity so that he could be alone with her.
PRO 23:7 "For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But his heart is not with you."
He has just arrived into this new country and he is telling them to water the sheep, and then go, and then pasture them.
These are all commands, "Water the sheep, then go, and then pasture them!"
Jacob [notice only Jacob] went up, and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
Do you recall what was said about this huge stone in verse 2, Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large.
GEN 29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there, they [the men in the plural] would then roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.
Jacob went up, and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
"to roll the stone," it is the Hebrew verb galal which in the Hiphil stem means to be caused to roll away the stone, or to have something motivate you or to give you strength to do it.
What do you think motivated him to move this boulder that normally could only be moved by four or five men?
He did this because she had a beautiful figure and a beautiful face according to verse 17.
The beauty of his cousin Rachael gave him unusual strength.
He wanted to bind Jacob to him in some way but, in a rather crafty manner, let Jacob name the terms, anticipating that because of Jacob's desire for Rachel, he would get a better bargain this way.
Leah means "wearied wild-cow" says the Hebrew Scholar Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius in the Biblical Library and Rachel's means "ewe, the predominant element of the flock."
TLJC is from the tribe of Judah, REV 5:5, Heb 7:14, and therefore, being in the line of TLJC perhaps that is why Leah is mentioned as on Jacob's wives.
Rachel's sons are mentioned in GEN 35:24 the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin; --- both considered to be the favorite sons of Jacob.
Both Leah and Rachel are mentioned, though there are two more women who brought forth sons of Jacob who eventually became the twelve tribes of Israel.
When it says Leah's eyes were weak, in the ancient world this does not mean that she had poor vision but that they lacked the deep lustrous color common among brown eyed Egyptian women.
Light eyes such as blue were consider to be unbecoming and unattractive in the ancient world.
Seven years of free service by a man who was an exceptional worker was surely a fine deal for Laban, especially in view of the fact that he would have been happy to have Jacob marry into the family regardless.
To this day, Orientals, Arabs and Syrians still practice what we call "arranged marriages".
Prin-When dealing with a deceiver you must be precise and accurate with your words.
Laban devised one of the most mendacious lying schemes imaginable, resolving to substitute Leah for Rachel on the wedding night.
He figured because Jacob loved Rachel so much that he could extort another seven-year period of free service from Jacob, as well as solve the problem of getting a husband for Leah at the same time.
It was the custom in the ancient world to have a great festive week after a wedding, beginning with a banquet on the wedding night, with many male guests invited.
Laban invited "all the men of the place" to the marriage banquet so that when the prank played on Jacob becomes known to all, it will not be easy for Jacob to cast off Leah.
It was the same thing that happened to King Herod in MAT 14:9 And although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests. Laban's plan was to dispose advantageously of a daughter who perhaps none would have desired.
When Jacob deceived his father Isaac, he pretended to be the elder when he was the younger --- now, he thinks he's getting the younger when in fact he is getting the elder!
The tables are turned now and Jacob says in effect, "It's an awful thing to deceive someone."
1. In the ancient world it was customary for the bride to be veiled until they entered the bed-chamber.
2. When Jacob took her into his chambers and into his bed, it was also customary that the room would be completely dark with no candles.
3. The conversation was to be in whispers and in brief words of love.
4. You have to remember, unlike most marriages today, when they got married in the ancient world they had sex for the first time......so Jacob would not have been familiar with Rachel's body.
5. The night of their celebration of marriage, they drank the finest wine!
The question implies that Laban has made a mockery out of the finer and truer desires of men, and has toyed with loyalty, truth and pure love.
Prin-Jacob now feels what it's like to have deceit practiced on him concerning something that is extremely important and precious.
Perhaps Laban was also a lawyer and so he reminds him of the fact that there was a clause in the fine print that perhaps
Jacob didn't see.....or in reality that he had conveniently forgot to mention to Jacob.