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So, Genesis 29 is an introduction to the first time for us, two biblical characters that are very important for us, especially when it comes to the Old Testament nation of Israel. But it's Leah and Rachel, the two sisters that are mentioned in the story of Leah and Rachel. That's the title for my sermon this morning. I couldn't think of a better one, Leah and Rachel. Now why are they so important? Well, you don't need to turn that, but in Ruth chapter 4 verse 11, Ruth chapter 4 verse 11, it says, And all the people that were in the gates and the elders said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which too did build the house of Israel, and do thou worthily in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. So, here we see, you know, obviously several centuries later, we see the Israelites, the elders of the land there. Those that are well respected, those that are, you know, to have positions of authority, they look back and they look at Rachel and Leah as two ladies which built the house of Israel. Because it's by these two ladies, and later on their handmaids, we'll get to that next week, that the children of Israel were born unto Jacob. And if you may recall in your Bibles, Jacob later on has his name changed to Israel. That's why his children are known as the children of Israel. So these two ladies are very important to the Old Testament. They lay that foundation of the nation. And so this is the first time in Genesis 29 that we're introduced to these two sisters. So let's start the story off there in verse number one, Genesis 29, verse one. And Jacob went on his journey and came into the land of the people of the east. Now let's just stop there. If you just recall our memory, why is he leaving? Why is he on his journey? Well for two reasons. If you remember Genesis 28, his father sent him out to find a wife. Not a wife from the children of the Canaanites, but from his own family, his extended family that he had in Haran. And not only that, but in Genesis 28, Genesis 27, when Esau made a vow to kill Jacob. Remember? And his mother were involved in being deceitful to their father. Esau saw that his blessings were stolen from him and Esau, Jacob's brother, made a vow that when my father dies, I'm going to kill Jacob. I'm going to slay my brother. And so of course Jacob's mother, Rebekah, was concerned about this and sent her son away basically, just in case his father would die during that time and he would be slain by the father. So there's the two reasons there. The mother had a concern for her son's life to journey away. She also said a few words into Isaac's ear as well. Hey, he needs a wife and he's all right, get away, go away and find a wife. So that's the reason why he's on this journey. Verse number two, and he looked and behold a well in the field. And as we're reading for the book of Genesis, you may have noticed how many times these wells come up, you know, over and over again. Such an important asset to anybody that was a farmer or that had cattle, things like this. They needed these wells of water and we can take many spiritual truths by these wells and we'll take one as well from this one. But here it says a well in the field and lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well they watered the flocks and a great stone was upon the world's mouth. So they couldn't access this well right now to feed the sheep, right? There's this big stone over the well. Verse number three, and thither were all the flocks gathered and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep to put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. Now notice in verse number three, it's explaining, you know, when this stone would be removed from the well. It's there in verse number three and thither were all the flocks gathered together and they rolled the stone, they. So you needed multiple people to roll this stone out of the well, okay? Multiple people, they were needed. So these guys were there waiting for others to show up so they could feed the flock. Let's keep going. Verse number four, and Jacob said unto them, my brethren, whence be ye? And they said of Haranawy, and he said unto them, know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, we know him. And he said unto them, is he well? And they said, he is well. And behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. Now Laban, we've already been introduced to Laban, he was Rebekah's older brother, okay? And Rebekah is the mother of Jacob. And now we see Rachel pop into the scene, Rachel his daughter, Rachel Laban's daughter has now arrived, come into this well. So that makes basically Rachel and Jacob first cousins, okay? First cousins. First, later on we'll see that he does marry Rachel. Verse number seven, and he said, lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together. Water ye the sheep and go and feed them. And they said, we cannot until all the flocks be gathered together. And till they, there is again, till they, we need multiple people, they roll the stone from the world's mouth, then we will water the sheep. So we see that, you know, just a couple of guys were unable to roll that stone away, okay? They needed many men to come and remove that stone to water the sheep. Now what, notice in verse number seven, Jacob has concerns about these sheep. They say, why is that? He says, look, water the sheep, what's going on? It's high day, he says, yeah? Yeah, lo, it is high day. What he's saying is, you know, this is where the sun's at its highest, this is where the sun's beaten down, you know, the heat upon these animals, he says, why don't you water these guys? Why don't you give them water to drink from? Why don't you give them food? And of course, he knows this because we read previously, we knew about Jacob, that he was, remember his brother, the Bible compares his brother as a hunter. They would go out and be a hunter and it said that Jacob dwelleth in tents. And the misconception you can get there is that he's this lazy bum in the tents. No, no, no. He's looking after his father's business, he's looking after the servants, you know, he's looking after the cattle, making sure that, you know, a large household, large, large farming, you know, and cattle and all that are being taken care of. So he knows the needs of animals. And so when he says, hey, you know, about the sheep, hey, why don't you, you know, give water to the sheep, he knows what he's talking about, right? He knows what he's talking about. And he says, man, it's sunny, these sheep are suffering, they need a drink, you know, give them drink. And so, you know, when the Bible says here that it's high day, it's somewhere between, you know, noon and 3pm. You know, I've often heard it say that the sun's it's harshest at 3pm. You know, that's where it's at its highest, that's when it's the strongest around 3pm. So that gives you a rough idea of the day that it is. And then we see Rachel now coming with her sheep, with her father's sheep coming to this well as well. And what this reminds me of is you see this great need, you see these cattle coming, these sheep coming for water, and there's this great stone, okay? And how do you remove that stone? In here, they needed multiple people. They needed many men to be gathered together to remove that stone. And the immediate thing as I'm studying for this, I thought about was the church that is run by committee. Are you familiar with those churches that are run by committee? In other words, the pastor of the church does not have authority within the church. The pastor can't make decisions on his own within the church, that he needs to run it by, you know, a group of deacons, or he needs to run it by a group of elders. And basically, if the elders or the deacons don't like, well, the elders, you know, we use that term for pastors, but some churches use that as like another way of viewing deacons, for example. And you know, in many ways, if that church does not like the pastor, not because he's preaching anything heretical, not because there's anything wrong with him, they just don't like him preaching, maybe he's preaching the truth. They have the authority to get rid of that pastor. That's not how things ought to be. You see a group of sheep here needing to be fed. And you see the committee going, well, hold on, we can't do it yet. It's not time. We got to wait for the others. We need to vote on this. We need to decide first with a big grip before we feed the sheep. No, no, no, that's not how it ought to be in a church. You know, the Bible calls the people that are gathered together, the congregation, the flock, all right? And the pastor is another way of saying the shepherd, and it's my job to make sure that you're watered. It's my job to make sure that you're fed. And if there's a big stone there at the well, we need to get rid of that stone. It's not by committee. I don't come to you and say, hey, what should we preach this week? What should we do this week as a church? Hey, are you guys happy with what I'm preaching this week? Because if you're not happy, I'll preach a different sermon. Hey, churches are not to be run by committee. You see the problems when they are, when they're run by the congregation. That's not the proper governance that a church should have. It causes problems. There's always that shepherd that knows the need for the sheep and needs to make sure that they're watered, okay? It doesn't matter if everyone agrees. It doesn't matter, you know? As a leader, as a preacher, you need to make sure you take that stone out of the way. You make sure the water, there's access to that water at the same time, at the same time. And by the way, you know, if you want to be a leader in church, you want to be a pastor or even a deacon in a church, you need to learn how to make decisions. You need to learn how to be a leader. You need to understand if I need to make a decision regardless of the outcome, regardless of what happens, I need to make the right decision in accordance to God's will. And look, every time you make a decision in church, it's going to upset somebody. And you just have to, you have to realize that, all right? As parents, you make decisions around the house, you're probably going to upset the kids from time to time. So what? You put up with it. That's life. You know, an employer, your employer makes decisions every now and again. They make changes in the business. You may not always like it. You may not always go with it, but what are you going to do, all right? Once they set the goal, once they set the vision, as an employee, it's your job to follow that vision. And as a church, let me say to you, you know, I need your support. I need you guys to say, hey, if Pastor Kevin's making a decision, if the church has been run a certain way, why is that? Or do we need to vote as a committee? No, no, no. You need to understand there are probably good reasons why that's in place. There are good reasons if you trust my judgment. Now if you have questions, by all means, you know, come and ask me questions. That's all good. But we see the problem with churches that are run by committee. They don't work. It doesn't feed the sheep, okay? And at the same time, in saying all of this, Proverbs 11, 14 says this, where no counsel is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. So how do we combine these two things in relation to the church? Well here's the thing. If I make some significant decision, especially if it's a large financial decision, I'm going to run it by you guys. I'm going to run it by some of the men in church and say, hey, what do you think about this idea? What do you think if we did this? Do you see any problems? Do you see any concerns? Do you have any issues? Let me know because now I'm running it by some counselors. But at the same time, at the end of the day, if 50% of the counselors say one thing, 50% of the other counselors say something else, at the end of the day, it's the pastor's decision to make that call, whatever it is, once it's run by counsel. So we need to have the balanced view. If you have a pastor that just does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, does not think about the needs of his local church, well what did it say there? Where no counsel is, the people fall. Why do churches fall? Why do churches fail? Because there was no counsel that was sought by that preacher, that pastor. So we see a great truth that is happening here. And let's keep going, verse number nine. And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass, and by the way, what's Rachel doing? She's working for the family. She's involved in the family's business. She's looking after the sheep. She's under the authority of her father, but she's not just at home doing nothing. She's not a lazy lady, right? She's out there looking after the sheep that her father has. Verse number 10. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the world's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. Man, he sees this attractive lady come here. He's going to marry her. He's got his sight set on her. And he goes, she's coming with sheep as well. You know what? This idea of committee doesn't work. These sheep need to be watered. They need to be fed. So what does he do? Does he wait for the committee? No. He single-handedly rolls the stone away. Man, that would have taken some strength. Was Jacob some weakling in a tent doing nothing? Was he just some weakling playing video games all day, wasting his life, destroying his future? No. This guy was a hard worker. Again, you're going to see this theme of Jacob, not just Jacob but Esau. It takes a lot of work to be out there as a hunter, and it takes a lot of patience to wait for your prey. It takes a lot of skill to do these things. We need to teach our children to be hard workers' parents, Rachel with the sheep, not just the boys, but the girls need to learn how to be hard workers. Give them chores to do. Mothers, what's going to make your life easier instead of you worrying about every little aspect of the house is giving tasks and chores to your children. Whether you pay them or not is irrelevant. Give them the work to do so they learn how to be a hard worker. And we see that, yes, Esau wasn't this greatest guy, but one thing he definitely learned was to be a hard worker. One thing we learned with Jacob, this guy's got muscles. This guy's got strength. He's able to move this rock off the well with no one else. They're all waiting around, hanging around. Hey, when's everyone going to turn up so we can move this stone? Jacob goes, forget this. You know, it just rolls that stone away and gives access to the sheep, to Rachel, his cousin. And one thing I'm reminded of as we're going through this, just a spiritual lesson here is you don't need to turn there, but John 4.14, we've turned this to a number of times as we've gone through the book of Genesis, but again, it's the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. And Jesus told the Samaritan woman, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. You know, some churches will not allow you to go door-to-door soul winning. You know, the Bible uses the term here as a well, as that which gives eternal life, the water that comes from Jesus Christ, okay? If they receive that water, that everlasting water, they'll never thirst. That's salvation. You know, nothing's stopping you from being a soul winner. Nothing's stopping you. You say, oh, there's this church, they're saved, they got the right gospel, they're King James only, but they don't, I mean, they don't go soul winning, all right? So I'm not going to go to that church. Nothing's stopping you from rolling that stone away and giving people access to the water. You don't need a church to send you soul winning. Now, ideally, the church should be sending you soul winning, right? The church should be motivating you. The preacher should be preaching these things, all right? And of course, ideally, as we know, when we've got a group of people together going for that one task, it makes it a lot easier, okay? Just like prayer. Prayer's hard by yourself, but you pray together, it's much easier. Soul winning, when you go by yourself, it's hard, but when you go together as a group, it's much easier. You motivate one another, you provoke one another to love and to good works. Listen, you know, soul winning, I know we only get the hour between the services here on a Sunday, but that shouldn't be it, all right? If you have free time, you've got nothing else to do, go soul winning. Try to find someone else in the church that is able to go soul winning with you. Just remove that stone. You don't need to wait for the committee to make an agreement. Just do it, okay? That's what a leader does. That's what a hard worker does, you know? It doesn't matter what everyone else says. Listen, I've been in church where I've been criticized for soul winning. I went soul winning with the church, I went to the church, and then, because it was only once a fortnight, well, that narrows it down a bit, anyway, once a fortnight, so I was like, well, I want to go every week, so I started going every other week just by myself or with a couple of my kids. You get criticized. You get criticized because, well, that's not, you know, church, well, it doesn't matter. It's the gospel. There are people that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved. You know, when you do it on your own and no one else is there and you just do it regardless of what everyone else is doing, you're like Jacob here, just moving that, just by yourself, the strength. We see the strength of Jacob, right? He's a hard worker, but if you do it on your own, I see a strength of spirit, a mental strength, a strength that only God can give you because it's hard, it is hard work. Going door to door sowing is hard work. It's difficult doing it by yourself or just with your family, but if you're able to do it, accomplish it, man, there's great strength in that person, okay? You want great strength? You want to develop great strength? It's not just your muscles you need to work. It's the spiritual life. It's your mental strength, doing the work for God, and so we see both Esau and Jacob were definitely hard workers. Let's go to verse number 11, Genesis 29 verse 11. Sorry, I just lost my place here, verse 11. It says here, and Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept, and there's nothing inappropriate with this kiss. It's just a kiss of greeting. We'll soon see, but you see that he starts to weep, he's finally made it, it's a long journey, here's my cousin, here's my family, right? So he's excited to see his extended family, verse number 12. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father. So again, I just believe he's weeping there because it's just been a really long journey. She recognizes that Jacob is the first cousin, but there's nothing inappropriate with that kiss. Look at verse number 13. And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him. So there you have two men kissing, right? Because culturally, some cultures, that's acceptable. Obviously we get instructed in the New Testament to greet one another with a holy kiss. And so for some cultures, it is perfectly acceptable to kiss one another, I mentioned to you guys in Chile, South America, men don't kiss one another, they give handshakes, but if there's a lady in the church, yeah, you kind of kiss one another on the cheek. There's nothing inappropriate with that. Of course, doing it here, I'm not asking you to do it here, but you take the principle. The principle is if you're happy to see one another, then greet one another. And you do it with whatever is culturally acceptable in our nation, okay? Verse number 13, I'm sorry, I just read that. Verse number 14, and Laban said to him, surely thou art my bone and my flesh. I think maybe he sees him, he sees Jacob, and he sees the resemblance. That's what I think is going on. That's why he says, surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month. So don't miss that point there in verse number 14, Jacob stays with his family for a month before we get to the next verse, okay? Because we already, where he said that Jacob is a hard worker, well, if he's accepted by extended family to come into his house and he's there for a whole month, again, do you think he's just lazy? Do you think he's just a lazy bum doing nothing? No, we already saw what Jacob is like, he's working hard. The next verses will confirm that for us. Verse number 15, and Laban said unto Jacob, because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall thy wages be? Man, how many of you guys would want your employer to say to you, you know, what shall thy wages be? How much do you want me to pay you? What a great question, right? Why do you think he's asking this question? Again, he says he's been serving for naught, he's been working hard for nothing except I guess, you know, accommodation and food, but besides that, he's working for nothing. And if you say, I'd love it for my employer to say, you know, what shall thy wages be? What do you want me to pay you? Or what do you need to do? You need to start working for naught. That's how you get promoted. That's how you get your pay rises, guys. This works in real life. If all you do is work the hours that they gave you, just do the minimum, the job they've given you, and you think, oh, I did my job, I deserve a pay rise, you're mistaken. You're mistaken. If you just do the bare minimum, you just do what your employer says, and that's it, you have been rewarded. You get your paycheck every week, every fortnight, every month. Why would you expect a pay rise? Why would you expect a promotion? Why would you expect them to say, why do you want to get paid? I mean, I don't know, maybe some of you have been asked that question, what do you want us to pay you? And I've had that twice said to me. I'm not saying that to boast. I'm just saying these things work in real life. You work hard, you work for naught. Look, this is what you do. You go to work, you do your job. Say, man, I still got three hours left. What do I do? Do I just, you know, I don't know, what do you, whatever, do I go on Facebook for the next three hours? Do I go on YouTube for the next, no, next three hours, you work hard. You do extra. You go to your manager and say, hey, what do you want me to do? I'm bored, I've got a few hours, I've got through all the work, do you have something for me to do? Or if there's just obvious things to be done, just do it. Or you use the time to educate yourself more in your workplace. You know it inside and out. You know your job super well. And when that happens, you start to become more productive, you become more efficient, you start motivating the people that are around you, all right? You stop time wasting. And one thing that I learned with promotion, I wasn't even chasing the money. You know what it was? It was just loving your job. Just loving what you're doing. You say, well, I love my job. It's not, that's not what, don't misunderstand. I've said this over and over again. You make Jesus your employer. You work for Jesus Christ. You get into full-time ministry. Say a pastor? No, no. You become a full-time, you're getting full-time ministry for Jesus Christ. You work for Jesus Christ. You don't work just for men to see you. You work that Jesus would reward you and he will reward you. He will reward you. And when you said Jesus as the employer, I mean, think about your employment right now and just think it was Jesus Christ that was in that office. How much more would you work? How much more would you love him? And by loving him, you're going to love the business that you're working for. You're going to love even the employees that you don't necessarily get along with, your coworkers, because Jesus employed them. Jesus has them there to work with you so you can run a business and profit from it. You said Jesus as your boss, you're going to work harder than you've ever worked before. You're going to work for naught because you know, man, I'm never going to be able to repay what Jesus did for me. So I might as well just work for nothing. Praise God. And of course with Jesus, you're never working for nothing. Even if you don't get rewarded here, it's happening up in heaven. The truth is they're being laid up in heaven. That's how you get promoted. And when people see you, when managers see you, they say, man, this guy's really valuable. This is not just another employee. It's not like we can just fire this guy and just replace him with someone else. This person's more valuable than the average employee. That's when they'll come up to you and say, what do you want me to pay you? That's what's going to happen. Boy, you get the promotions. You get the pay increases. You do that. All right. But that's not how people think. That's not how people think. That's how Jacob thought. He's like, oh, I'm here. I'm going to work hard. You know, most people think, well, you know, if you give me a pay increase, I'll work harder. You've got to, you'll never get the pay increase. You'll never get the promotions. You'll never take on the leadership positions in a company if that's your mindset. You need to work for naught. We have these stories in the Bible because they work. They work in real life. You know, I'll give you one. I have two examples. I'll give you one example. One example. There was a time I was working for my, one of my managers, right, and I, you know, we're having kids and expenses of life were going up, so there was another position at another department under a different manager, and I didn't even do it. I just went to that person and said, look, I'm just curious about the job. Can you explain it to me a little bit, so to think about whether I should apply for it or not, okay? I didn't even do an interview. I didn't even apply for it, like officially, and I went and I sat down and he explained to me, and he goes, oh, how much are you earning? I said, oh, this much. He goes, oh, yeah, I'll give you some, I'll give you a lot more. I mean, it was a lot more. It was a lot more than I was like, I was like, whoa, yeah, this sounds good, right? And I said, you know, let me think about it and, you know, I'll see whether I should apply for this position now that I understand it better, all that. Anyway, that manager, obviously, he thought he hired me right then. I didn't even have an interview. I wasn't even officially applying, right? I just wanted to know more about the job before I thought about applying, right? But he went into a business meeting with another manager, well, with the other managers, one of them being mine, and said, oh, yeah, we feel that position already. We've got Kevin coming to join us. Before I even said anything, he goes, yeah, we've got Kevin to join us. And so then my manager heard about it and, you know, calls me into the office, said, oh, why didn't you tell me you applied for the position? I'm like, I haven't applied for the position. What are you talking about? You know, and says, oh, no, because, you know, this person said, oh, you already accepted. I'm like, no, I haven't accepted. I mean, I'm really considering it because, you know, it's so much more money and, you know, cost of life going up. And my manager goes, oh, well, if you stay with me, I'll pay equal to what that person did. Praise God, I just stayed where I was because I've already enjoyed my job, already knew it, didn't have to learn new things, and I got the equal amount as the other man. Look, that's what happens sometimes. You can, you know, some managers are going to play tug of war with you because they see the value of you in the business. Do you know why? Because I worked for nought because I did my job and then I was like, what else can I do? Even if you were sweeping the floor, and I think I gave you this example once, I was managing a large team. I had like 50 people under me and I'd see rubbish, I'd see the floors dirty, and I know the cleaners are coming. I know they're coming at the end of the day, but it looks disgusting right now. So get out there, get the vacuum cleaner, start vacuuming. And people are looking at me like, oddly, like, what in the world? What are you doing? Hey, I'm working for nought. I'm working for Jesus Christ. I love the business, I love the workplace because Jesus has employed me to do a good job, to be a hard worker. That's how you get your promotions. All right? If you're looking for a promotion, you need a higher pay increase. That's what you do. You work for nought. Okay? Jacob worked for nought for a whole month, and the employee goes, what do you want me to pay you? I've had that once said to me, you know, by one of my ex-managers. I was working for another company. He called me on the phone. We want you back. Pay yourself whatever you want. Those were exactly his words. Pay yourself whatever you want. All right? Oh, you're boasting. I'm boasting of Christ. You know, Christ is the one that motivates me. Christ is the one that has given me his life, has given me the new man. When you go to work, you work in the new man, just like anything else in life. Yeah, if you work in the old man, in the flesh, you'll do minimum. You might even do less than what is expected of you. If you're in the old man. No, in the new man, you'll do what's expected and you'll do more, and the Lord will reward you. Again, in this life, yep, probably, but if not, in the next life. Okay? And you need to leave that judgment up to our Lord God. Let's keep going. Verse number 16. Verse number 16, and Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. Now I've heard some really weird teachings on this. Verse number 17. Obviously, very clear, Rachel was beautiful and well-favored, okay? So she obviously, out of the two sisters, you know, attracted the most attention, all right? But then it says here that Leah was tender-eyed, and some people say, well, you know, she had like droopy eyes and it made her appearance not very, she wasn't very attractive or she had like red eyes and it's like, it's because they're comparing it to Rachel, right? Being beautiful. So somehow they think being tender-eyed means you're ugly or something, right? I don't, I can't see that there in that passage. I mean, you know, when we talk about tenderness, we're talking about, you know, Jesus, God, often, his mercies are called the tender mercies, okay? Tenderness is just another way of saying gentle, okay, gentleness. And gentleness is one of the fruits of the spirit, all right? Gentleness is one of the fruits of the spirit. And so I don't read it that way, okay? That she's tender-eyed. I think what we should do is just look at the Bible and see how else the Bible defines these eyes or eyes in general when it comes to ladies. So please keep your finger there and go to Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 24. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 24. We just get a principle here, sorry, 25, Proverbs chapter 6 verse 25. Oh, we can read 24, let's read 24 as well. It says here, to keep thee from evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman, lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids, okay? So the Bible here describes, well, this is an evil woman, a strange woman, but we can take the principle here, okay, that ladies, your eyes are beautiful to men. They're beautiful to your husband, okay? And ladies know this, you say, oh, how can, you know this. That's why you put on the mascara. That's why you put on those extended eyelashes or, I don't know, what do you want to say? Mascara eyelashes, eyeliner, is that something else? I don't know. The shadow, shadow underneath the eyes? How do you know so much? I don't know. Sorry. You know, why do they accentuate the eyes? Why do they put, I mean, it's just the eyes, right? But you know why? Because ladies know that that's attractive to men. If I make my eyes shine brighter, you know, I not wink, but flatter my eyes to men, it'll melt their hearts. You know, I think that's what's going on here. And Leah's not that kind of girl. Like, she's not trying to flatter men with her appearance. She's not like, she hasn't got all the mascara on. Maybe Rachel does. Maybe Rachel's that person that's a lot more vain about her appearance. And so that's how I read it. I just think that she's tender-eyed, meaning that she's not trying to attract men. She's not trying to accentuate her beauty. Because here's the thing. It can't be that Rachel is stunning and that, you know, Leah's this ugly, you know, thing of a woman. No, I mean, these two sisters must have had the same physique. Because later on, Jacob's deceived. He ends up marrying Leah, you know, sleeps with Leah. And you know, it would have been obvious if it's a totally different person. They must have, those two sisters must have had a very similar physique about them. And so I don't believe Leah's like this ugly woman, like a lot of people preach. I don't think so. I just don't think she's that woman that's seeking after beauty or trying to attract men because of her beauty. The Bible also says in Proverbs 31, 30, favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Now look, there's nothing wrong with beauty, you know. The reason why men want to get married is because they find their wives beautiful. Praise God for that. Praise God for God's creation, all right. But if that's all you're focused on is the beauty, well, that's vain. It's empty because the beauty is not always going to be there, all right. And that's why it's important that women, you learn to fear the Lord, okay. That's what's going to make you beautiful. That's what's going to attract the right husband, the right man into your life is not only if you're beautiful on the outside, that's an advantage, but that which is beautiful forever is if you can fear the Lord as the Bible describes, okay. And one thing you'll also notice as we, not in this chapter, but in following chapters is Leah, she's not perfect, but Leah seems to be the one that fears the Lord more than Rachel. In fact, Rachel has some major problems with her spiritual life. I mean, Leah seems out of these two sisters to be the more godly woman. Let's keep reading, verse number 18. And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel. I mean, that's his wages. That's what he wants to get paid because I'll work seven years if you give me Rachel to get married, thy younger daughter. And Laban said, it is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man abide with me. Laban says, look, you're a hard worker, man, you're a man of quality. He says, yeah, it's better for my daughter to marry you than some other bozo out here. All right. And men, you want to get married? What do you do? Hard working, be a hard worker. You get a job, you provide for yourself, you can provide for a wife. And the fathers are going to be like, yeah, you know what, you'd be a good person. I'd rather you marry my daughter. I know you love her. I know you provide for her. Then some bozo here on the Sunshine Coast that's, you know, doing nothing with his life except going surfing or something. Right? Verse number 19 or 20. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her. So he definitely loves her, right? A few days, the seven years just go by so fast. He's just looking forward to marrying Rachel. And Jacob said unto Laban, give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled that I might go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. And it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah, not Rachel, but Leah, his daughter, and brought her to him, and he went in unto her. So again, you see there that Leah must have had a very similar physique as her sister in order for Jacob to be deceived. So instead of marrying Rachel, Laban tricks him, Laban deceives him, and gives him Leah for marriage. Such horrible deception. And then verse number 24. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah, Zelphah, his maid for a handmaid. And this lady Zelphah and the other handmaid that gets mentioned later are again very important ladies that you need to think about and just as names, just for your Bible knowledge. Because out of these ladies would also come other children of Israel, we'll go into that later on. Verse number 25. And it came to pass that in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And he said unto Laban, what is this that has done unto me? Did not I serve thee for Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? You know, as I read this, I feel sorry for Jacob. I do. I feel sorry for Jacob. And it's seven hard years for his wife, Rachel, that he loves. Very clearly the Bible says he loved her, all right, but he got deceived, he got deceived. And I can't help but think how God puts these chapters together for us, because he did the same thing to his father. Remember when he deceived his father, his mother and him, you know, his father wanted to bless Esau, all right, and they stepped in, they didn't wait for the Lord to step in. They stepped in and they deceived, he deceived his father. You know, Rebekah deceived her husband, so her husband would bless Jacob instead of blessing Esau. And, you know, the verse that immediately comes to mind is, you know, Galatians 6 7, which says, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And I think we're seeing some of that chastisement. You know, whether it's direct chastisement from God or if it's just a natural consequence of your sin. But a lot of sins just have natural punishment that goes along with it. Okay, it's not like the Lord really has to step in. It's just there. It's already in place. It's one of God's laws that he puts in that sin. You commit those sins, it's going to destroy you and your life. And it's just, you see here, you know, he's sowed deception, and now he's reaping deception. And so I kind of feel sorry for Jacob, but at the same time, I'm like, but you're getting what you deserve. I mean, I mean, this is bad for the for the daughters. This is a bad situation. I'm not saying it's good. I'm just saying, look, you can see, when you're deceptive, when you're a liar, when you're going around causing problems, those problems are going to come back to you one way or another. You know, be sure of it. You know, you go around being deceptive, you go around lying, you make it half truths, you know, God's going to punish you. If you're a child of God, you know, he will step in and make sure something happens, something to catch your attention, whatever it is, you know. When things go bad in your life, and something happens, you need to pause sometimes and go, could this be the Lord? You know, am I reaping what I sowed? Have I done something that's caused this issue to come up? You know, maybe the Lord has stepped in and chastise me. That's what your immediate thought should be, okay. As soon as you go through trials and difficulties, some issue comes up, have I done something wrong? Have I done something ungodly? If you can pinpoint what that is, yeah, it's probably the consequence of that sin, alright. But as Christians, because, you know, Christians, anybody, anybody with a flesh, we can be full of pride. You know, we go through difficulties and trials and like, you know, I don't deserve this, you know, you know, the devil's persecuting me. It could be the Lord allowing you, you know, to punish you for your sins, just allowing things to come full circle in your life. You know, look, if you can truly say, Lord, I don't know what I've done wrong. I mean, we all sin, okay. But you know, I don't know what I've done to be able to, you know, create this situation in my life, then yeah, it may just very well be the Lord, you know, allowing you to go through trials and difficulties. It might be the Lord just allowing you, trying your faith, you know, maturing you in the Lord, you know, causing you to draw strength from Him. And you know, so you can grow in the Lord and you can be a blessing to others. That's a possibility. But I'll just say, when things go bad for you, like this, you get married to the wrong person, you better start asking the question, Lord, what's going on? Have I done something deserving of this? And I would say, yeah, you deceived your father. Let's keep going. Verse number 26. And Laban said, it must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. And brother Richard Symes, then in Sydney, preached a really great sermon. I'd encourage you guys to hear it. I can't remember what he called it. I think he just called it what it says here. It must not so be done in our country. And what Laban is saying here is, you know, our custom, our culture, our country does it this way. We don't allow our younger daughters to get married first, you know. So I had to deceive you. I had to give you Leah first, because it's not so done in our country. And you know what? It's wrong. What Laban did was wrong, okay? He lied to Jacob. You deceived Jacob, okay? But here's the lesson that we can take, and it was a really great sermon. I really encourage you to listen to it. The thing that I gather out of this is that we can't say to God, but we're in Australia. Lord, I can see you want me to live a certain way. I can see, you know, you want me to walk a certain path, but we're in Australia, Lord. Lord, I'm in Queensland. Lord, I'm on the Sunshine Coast. Lord, I'm near so many beautiful beaches. You know, this is the way we do things, Lord. Yes, there's nudity at the beach. Yes, there's all these, you know, ungodly practices, but we're in Sunshine Coast, Lord. You know, no, it's wrong. When the Word of God says something, you follow what God says, regardless of what your country says, regardless of what your society says. Jacob removed the stone off the well, regardless of what the committee said. Look, when God's Word says to walk a certain way, to do certain things, you just do it. You don't need to worry about what your country has to say. You do it because the Lord commands that which is right. And Laban was wrong. He's blaming, oh, this is the way we do in our society. No Laban, you're a deceiver. No Laban, you're ungodly. No Laban, you're in sin. No Laban, you're wicked. You better go and confess your sin to the Lord. You better go and try to make things right. I don't know how to make things right here. Okay? They're married. They're married. Let's keep going, verse number 27. This is what Laban says to Jacob, fulfil her week. That's Leah's week. And we will give thee this also, after the service, which thou shalt serve me, yet seven other years. So Laban says, look, I will give you Rachel, okay, if you work for me for another seven years. Now, he didn't have to work another seven years before he got Rachel. Okay? He didn't work 14 years, and then he got Rachel. All he had to do was wait a week with Leah, you know, like for the honeymoon period to be over, or maybe the marriage celebrations. I'm not sure what that week represents, but he's there to be with a week with Leah, then he would be able to marry Rachel, but now he'll be owing another seven years of work. So he is working 14 years for Rachel, but the other seven years came after he already married Rachel. You can see this here, because it says here, let's keep, let's read 27 again. Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service, which thou shalt serve me, yet seven other years. Okay? So I will give you her, fulfill the week, and then it says here in verse number 28, and Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. So you can see here that now he's able to marry Rachel, okay? Laban agrees to give Rachel as his wife. And let me just say, polygamy is never right. Never right. Okay? How do you fix this situation? What would be the right thing for Jacob? He married Leah. He's deceived, he married her. He slept with her, okay? They're one flesh in every aspect of the word, right? The marriage has been consummated. And the right thing for Jacob would have been just to stay married to Leah, and just dealt with the concept, like this is what happened, this is the situation I'm in, all right? That's how it should be. But I know life is hard. You know, life is hard, and people just feel forced to make certain decisions in life. You know, whether it's divorce, whether it's remarriage, whether it's these kinds of things. You know, one thing you just need to understand, it's wrong. You know, it's wrong to do these things, you know, to not do things according to God's word. But here we have an example where Jacob was weak, and I almost don't blame him. In years working for this woman that you love, I almost don't blame him, I feel sorry for him again. You know, but this is what he does. You know, polygamy, he marries two sisters, but it's never right. Because what you see in the following chapter next week is that these sisters, it destroyed their relationship. They were constantly competitive, they were constantly whining. I mean, this would have been a horrible marriage for Jacob, horrible household, you know, to be there in the room with your wives, okay? It just didn't work out for him, is what I'm trying to say, okay? And so these are the consequences for doing things not in accordance to God's word. Verse number 29, and Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid to be her maid. So that's the other handmaid, Bilhah, she's also a mother of some of the children of Israel, which we'll go into next week. Verse number 30, and he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah and served with him yet seven other years. So there you go. He lays with her and now serves with him yet seven other years. So 14 years overall to marry the woman that he loved. Verse number 31, and when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Now these are interesting things. Now remember he's working for seven years for Rachel. He loves Rachel. I don't blame him. He loves Rachel. I'm sure he's spending every moment with Rachel, doing everything with Rachel, having fun with Rachel, they're going out on their dates together. He still does his duty with Leah, he still fulfills that aspect of their relationship that she can fall pregnant. But one thing you'll notice in verse number 31, it says that when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, you know, you may have grown up in a household where your family hated you. You may have grown up in a household where maybe it's a dysfunctional family. Maybe you were abused, maybe not even by your household, just by others, by strangers. You may have been taken advantage of. Maybe you got saved and you've had your friends and your family turn their backs on you and you've been hated by them. Let me encourage you to say that the Lord sees when you're hated. So you see, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, I feel bad for Leah, but sorry for her. You know, she's doing what her father said. She was involved in the deception, but at the end of the day, she's doing what her father says. She got married to this man and now this man doesn't want to be with her. And you'll see later on, he spends no time with her. Okay, you'll see soon in this chapter. You know, and I feel bad for her. You know, she's having all these kids, husband's not around, doesn't love his wife, but the Lord sees it. The Lord saw the hatred that Jacob had for her. And let that be an encouragement to you because when you're feeling alone, you feel like everyone's turned against you, the Lord sees that and not only will he see it, he'll look after you. How did he look after her? It says he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. So the reason why Leah started to have children is because that was a blessing from God. The Lord saw that she was being neglected and said, you know what, I'm going to give you children. I'm going to allow you to fall pregnant easily, have children, and look, the world right now is going, man, she's hated by her husband and now the Lord's cursing her with children. How difficult is it for this Leah? No, no, children are a blessing. You know, you got to learn to appreciate it when the Lord opens that womb, when the Lord gives you children, it's a blessing from God. You know, maybe the Lord's given you children because you were having hardships because maybe you were being hated by people around you and maybe the Lord's opened the womb to give you comfort, to give you joy, appreciate the children you have, value your children. Don't let them go to waste. Don't let them go to this world. Verse number 32, and Leah conceived and bear a son and she called his name Reuben for she said, surely the Lord have looked upon my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me. She recognizes, look, I've fallen pregnant, the Lord's seen my affliction. The Lord has seen me, she's encouraged by it, right? Now therefore, my husband will love me, I feel sorry for her, she's looking for love. And that's what wives need. The Bible says, husbands, love your wives. It's in there for a reason, okay? It's in there for a reason. Wives are suffering when they don't feel that their husband loves them and it's It's not the physical intimacy. You can see that's happening. It's the emotional attachment. It's the time that they're not spending time together, you know? Jacob's, you know, all about Rachel, you know? Verse number 33, and she conceived again and bear a son and said, because the Lord have heard that I was hated, he have therefore given me this son also and she called his name Simeon. Now let's pause there for a moment. Let's talk about hatred. We can see that she was hated. The Bible's clear about that. She recognizes that she's hated by her husband. Verse number 11, and when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, the Lord recognizes she's been hated by Jacob, okay? So when we talk about hatred, there's a couple of things we need to understand, okay? This gives us a decent explanation or a definition of what hatred is. Who did Jacob love? Rachel. Who did he not love? Leah. Okay? Now when the Bible uses the word hatred, okay, it can mean different things. It's kind of like the word love. Obviously the love that I have for my wife is different to the love that I have for my children, okay? Obviously the love that I have for God is different to the love that I have for this congregation, okay? What I'm trying to say is love has different measures and it sort of depends on where that love is being directed to, okay? Hatred is the same thing. Hatred has different measures. Hatred is the opposite of love, okay? Quite often when we think of hatred, we think of these like ill feelings, right? Like we think like we want that person destroyed, you know, I just hate that person. I want God, please take them out. And there is that hatred in the Bible. We do see that in the Bible, okay? But also if you do not love somebody, okay, you say, well, I have no love for that person. You know, I'm sure Jacob feels like Leah was part of this inception, you know, she was part of this and it's destroyed, you know, his life and, you know, this marriage is, you know, you see later on the conflict between the sisters, all this stuff. He didn't have the right measure of love that he had. In fact, he had no love. He had hatred for Leah, okay? And so I want you to think about these things because I'll just quickly read to you. If you guys just quickly go back to Genesis 27, just a few chapters. Genesis 27 verse 41. We have another definition of, we have hatred here again, but slightly different. It says here, and Esau hated Jacob, right? Hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob. I mean, that's an extreme hatred, okay? That's an hatred to the point, you want to kill your own brother there in that story, okay? Obviously, Jacob's not wanting to kill Leah, he's not trying to kill her, okay? But he has no love for her. He doesn't have the proper love that a husband ought to have for his wife. The Bible calls that hatred as well. Husbands love your wives, okay? If you don't love your wife, you hate your wife, okay? Now, this wife's falling pregnant, say, well, you know, I'm doing my duty. Yeah, but are you spending time with her? Are you fellowshipping with your wife? Do you comfort her? Do you take her out on dates? Do you spend time with her? If you're not doing those things, you hate your wife, okay? You hate your wife if you're not doing those things. Take heed to what the Bible says. Do you want to be known by God as a man who hates your wife? I hope not. Husbands, love your wives, the Bible says. Love your wives. Jacob wasn't doing what was right. He wasn't doing what he was called to do. You know, the Bible says in Psalm 11 verse 4, you don't need to turn there. It says, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord watches us. The Lord watches men if you're loving your wives, if you're spending time with them or if you're hating your wives. Verse 5, the Lord tryeth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. You can see the Lord hates as well. Verse number 6, upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone and horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup. You know, the Lord can hate so much that he will rain fire and brimstone and destroy entire peoples, entire cities. We saw that in Genesis 19. We saw God's hatred. Now, I don't think that chapter mentioned God hates them, but we saw the fire and brimstone come and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and some of those other cities. You know why it rained fire and brimstone? Because the Lord hated them. The Lord hated them. The Lord hated their wickedness. The Lord hated the sodomites. You know, I've had people say to me, how can you say that? How can you say you hate homosexuals? I've had Christians say to me, look, they say to me, look, I don't hate them. I just have no love for them. That's hatred. We read that, right? Jacob had no love for Leah. The Lord says you hate them. You might not hate them to the same measure that I do, but if you can say I have no love for them, you hate them. Praise God. We're on the same page now. We have some other Baptist brethren around here. We have no love for them, then you hate them according to God's word. Let's get going. Genesis 24, Genesis 29, verse 34. And she conceived again and bear a son and said, now this time will my husband be joined unto me. Do you see her desire? She says, now my husband will be joined unto me. Now I'm going to be to spend time with him because I have born him three sons, therefore was his name called Levi. What was she lacking? Companionship. She was lacking her husband being there. Her husband was with Rachel. Her husband was working all the time, and when he was off work, he was out with Rachel. Leah was left alone, and you can see her heart, heart's breaking. Now that I've had three sons, surely now my husband will be joined unto me. Just because you have a bunch of kids doesn't mean you have a good marriage. Having kids nine months, they're there. It's all done. But a marriage requires lifelong commitment till death do us part. In richer, in poorer, in sickness, and in health, all those vows that you made when you got married, you need to keep those vows or God will look down on you. Husbands, you're instructed to love your wives, Lord will look down and say you hate your wife. You know, expect bad consequences to come your way when the Lord can see that about you. Verse number 35, and she conceived again and bear a son and she said, now I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah and left bearing. First thought that I want to give you guys before I get to the conclusion here is you can see that every time Leah, and we've seen this already in the Bible, but every time Leah has a child, she calls their name by something, by a certain definition. So Judah was just born there, right? So now I will praise the Lord, therefore she called his name Judah. So something about the name of Judah has to do with praising the Lord. Some definition there. And so just the last thing I want to say here, especially mothers, ladies, when you have children, maybe your time has passed now, but hey, for those that are still able to have children or will have children in the future, pay attention to what you name your child. Be careful about the names you choose. You know, my wife and I, we spent a lot of time looking at children's names and what we could name. Actually, my wife spends most of the time. I usually just tick the box when she has a list, right? Yeah, that one's good. That one's good. But it's important. We see this in the Bible. We need to name our children after things that you can get behind. You know, there are a lot of names that are actually, the definitions are like wicked pagan definitions, you know, or you know, your name and a child. No one's called Diana here, right? Like Diana. I actually like the name. I think it sounds nice, Diana, but your name and your child after like a moon, the Roman moon goddess or something. All right. I mean, that was where the name comes from, from that moon goddess. So you don't want to use names that point to pagan or false gods or wickedness, you know? Now be careful about how you name your children. Make sure it's not just, oh, that sounds nice. That sounds cool. What does it mean? Does it mean something? Okay. Especially if they're going to grow up as a believer, be in church or these things, you know, it's, it'd be embarrassing for your children to have like wicked pagan names of goddesses and gods, you know, false gods. So you can see here, in the Bible, it was very important with how they named children. They always made sure the definition was something they could at least get behind and, and meant something to them. All right. And just in conclusion, guys, what I want you to do, go to Genesis 49. We're going to fast forward a few chapters here, just in conclusion, because, you know, as I'm reading for this chapter and as I'm preaching, my heart's breaking for Leah. You know, my heart's breaking for Leah. And you can see she goes to the Lord for comfort. You know, she's, she's encouraged by the Lord that she's having these children. And I know we'll get to Genesis 49 later on, but just, just to close this a little bit on a nicer way, Genesis 49, verse 28, Genesis 49, 28. The Bible reads, all these are the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is it that their father speak unto them and bless them. Everyone according to his blessing, he blessed them and he charged them. So by the way, Israel is Jacob, okay? So and he charged them and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people. They buried me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for possession of a buried place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah. So you can see Rachel was not even buried in this place, okay? Rachel was the wife that he loved, you know, at the beginning here. And Rachel passes away as well later on. So you can see that Jacob gets to a point where he does love Leah, you know, and we can see that Leah's prayers to the Lord, her anguish, her pain have been answered by the Lord. We can see that Jacob made things right eventually, okay? And that he respects Leah, he loves Leah. He even buries Leah, even though he was deceived to marry her, he buries her in the same place his father, his mother, his grandfather, his grandmother were buried. And that's where he wants to bury it as well. I want to be buried there with Leah. So you can see her prayers were heard by the Lord. And ladies, if you're not being loved by your husbands, you've done whatever you can. I hope you've done whatever you can to tell them you need more love if that's happening. The next thing you do is take it to your husband's head. Your husband's head is Christ. You take it to the Lord, you go and pray to Lord, you seek the Lord, you say, Lord, my husband doesn't love me, he doesn't love me the way he ought to. Lord, my husband hates me, potentially. Can you sort it out? You know, if you've done anything you can, let the Lord sort it out. Either he'll bless you, in this case it was children, he'll see what you're going through, he'll give you what you need to give you joy in life, or he'll be able to turn the hearts of your husband, as we saw Jacob here later on, his heart was turned and he wanted to be buried with Leah. Let's leave it there, let's pray.