Peter Barnes : Genesis 29:1-30
SERMON NOTES: THE DECEIVER DECEIVED (Genesis 29:1-30)
Jacob comes to Haran in Mesopotamia, and ends out marrying two sisters, Leah and Rachel. God chastens those whom He loves – Prov.3:11-12.
- Sin rebounds on the sinner.
– 29:1-8. Rachel then arrives, and Jacob goes into action – 29:9-12. He looks to be trying to show off, and seems to give the kiss of greeting before he introduces himself as her cousin.
– Jacob has fallen for Rachel – 29:13-20. He has no bride price so he works instead. It looks like it is heading for a ‘happily ever after’ ending, but it comes unstuck – 19:21-25. Calvin says that Jacob should have dismissed Leah because there was no mutual consent (29:26-30). The deceiver has been has been forced to drink his own medicine.
- Jacob learns the hard way.
– there is a similarity to Psalm 7:12-16, and Haman in Esther 7:9-10. Jacob learns the hard way what he might have learnt far more comfortably had he not descended into deception and selfishness.
- Providence is read backwards.
John Flavel said that sometimes the providences are like the Hebrew alphabet, and best read backwards.
(a) Jacob cheated his father in 27:19, and then is cheated by his father-in-law, Laban.
(b) Jacob took the rights of the firstborn in 25:31-33; then suffers because of similar rights regarding Leah.
(c) Jacob sided with his mother against his brother and father in 25:28; 27:5-8; then has divisions in his own household – 29:30.
Leah goes on to give birth to six sons, including Levi and Judah from which the Messiah came. God has comforted a lonely and isolated Jacob in a dream – 28:12; now Jacob is taught by hard experience.