Hear Matthew Flannagan preach on Genesis 29.
Genesis 29 – Jacob Arrives in Paddan Aram
29 Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?”
“We’re from Harran,” they replied.
5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?”
“Yes, we know him,” they answered.
6 Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?”
“Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”
7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”
9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd.10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissedRachel and began to weep aloud. 12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things.14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel
After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak[a] eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”
22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. 24 And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.
25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Jacob’s Children
31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben,[b] for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”
33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.[c]
34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.[d]
35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.[e] Then she stopped having children.
Footnotes:
- Genesis 29:17 Or delicate
- Genesis 29:32 Reuben sounds like the Hebrew for he has seen my misery; the name means see, a son.
- Genesis 29:33 Simeon probably means one who hears.
- Genesis 29:34 Levi sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for attached.
- Genesis 29:35 Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.
Matt preaches most Sundays at Takanini Community Church. Earlier in they year he began a series on Genesis. Some of his sermons in the series are available as podcasts on the church’s blog.
Tags: Genesis · MP3 · Preaching · Takanini Community Church7 Comments
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
This is one of the best descriptions of the Judeo-Christian religion that’s ever been put on the written page. Courtesy of none other than Albert Einstein.
“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this.
For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”-Albert Einstein
“Religion is mind rot. A bunch of asinine Stone Age bullshit that only the weak minded, apparently in need of comforting fairy tales, can swallow.
Virgin births, blood sacrifices, talking donkeys, genocide, infanticide,slave trading, stoning non-virgins to death, stoning homosexuals to death, etc. In other words, absolute Stone Age bullshit!! Gotta love it!!”–Me and all other sane people.
I dont understand the use of the term Stone Age as an insult. In evolutionary terms this was very recent and Stone Age humans were no different than us. No less intelligent. Neither were they ignorant, rather their knowledge was related to living under their circumstances. All our contemporary knowledge would not equip us to survive in their world.
Our modern educated enlightened culture kills 42 million of our most innocent and defenseless each year, by aborting them. 93% of these abortions are for personal convenience.42 million is more than the entire population of the world at the end od the Stone Age. Clearly we have advanced a lot!
ile we are on the subject of the Stone Age, our modern educated enlightened society aborts around 42 million babies a year ie deliberately killing the most innocent and defenceless of our own kind. Thats more babies killed each year in our modern enlightened culture, than the entire population of the world as the Stone Age came to a close.
Sorry about the messed up previous comment, editing in comment boxes really difficult on Android based touchscreen tablet.
Hey Jeremy, I’m not sure what level of mental retardation that you suffer from, so I’ll try to write slowly and only use small words.
Stone Age humans may not have been very different different from you (judging by your profile picture) but most of living today are quite different in our knowledge and intelligence.
And when you look at all of the asinine bullshit that saturates the bible, one can only imagine what even more primitive humans might have believed in.
I love it when you Jebus nutters talk about abortion. You seem to conveniently forget that about 12-15% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, or spontaneous abortion. So that means that your invisible sky-god is the greatest abortionist of them all!!
Jesus sure seems to love killin’ babies!!
Have you ever thought about trying to put a number to all of the unborn babies that your supposedly loving sky-god has killed?
And what a shame Jesus wasn’t a little more discriminate about his baby killing. Maybe we would have never heard of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc., etc.
Well Harry, i think your personal ignorance and lack of logic is only exceeded by your rudeness. I cannot guess what you are hoping to acheive. I suspect the anonymous nature of commenting on other peoples blogs means your standard of interaction falls way below how you would behave in person. I hope so because the alternative is that you are an incrediblily rude and offensive person.
I am interested in your conflicting beliefs about Jesus, i am guessing you dont believe in him as God, but somehow you hold him directly responsible for what you term spontaneous abortion or miscarriage, odd.
There is a fundamental difference between a reproductive system that self corrects non viable pregnancies and killing of babies for personal convenience, or are you suggesting God micro manages everything and biological systems wouldnt work without this.
Harry, I know you weren’t really interested in facts, but just in case you decide to recite this stand-up act elsewhere, you might want to at least get a few things right. e.g. This writing depicts events in the middle bronze age. Not that it matters in the context of your canned monologue, but there you go, I’ve just improved your game for free.