40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 40 Minutes In The Old Testament: Episode 40

Episode Date: February 10, 2016

In this 40th episode Chad and Daniel discuss the events leading up to Jacob finally meeting his match in the art of deception. The house of God, more women at wells, rock moving, drunkenness and trickery abound. Have a listen!

welcome to episode 40 of 40 minutes in the old testament that means something i don't know what it means but it seems like we should have had something amazing planned we don't in fact we have nothing planned but uh other everyone said we don't even have brandon we really kind of messed this whole thing up uh because we just now realized what it was but uh hey there's a conference coming up i mean it's like right around the corner in orlando christ old fast conference february 18th through the 20th you can go over to christ old fast.org and you can register for that it's not too late you can get it done uh also uh go over to 1517 legacy because we are uh under their under their banner there we are a project of them and they've got a lot

of great stuff going on over there that you can check out other podcasts and articles and all kinds of stuff and chad where are we at in genesis on this 40th episode of 40 minutes in the old you know 40 is a very biblical number so i i do think this is probably going to be the most sanctified episode we have so far why do you think we went with 40 minutes chad exactly it was either it was either seven minutes or 40 minutes seven just didn't seem quite long enough but 40 that's a good choice yeah good generational number we are uh we're not in chapter 40 that's for sure We're kind of in the middle, toward the end of chapter 28 of Genesis. We're in the middle of probably the most interesting episode in Jacob's life.

This is when he is on his way into exile, and he stops for the night, sleeps in open ground, and he has this dream of the ladder or the stairway that's extending from earth to heaven. so i think we i think we finished uh around verse 17 chapter 28 something like that so we'll pick up there all right i wonder if there's people that feel like this has been like 40 episodes in the wilderness probably so i'm sure there's a few out there yeah it's maybe we're finally going to get to the promised land here i think i think we will i think we're getting closer anyway we'll uh step by step we'll we'll get there so uh here's jacob uh our our friendly deceiver the younger brother who has uh with the help of his mom received the birthright the blessing of

the firstborn that uh legally anyway belonged to his brother his brother is uh understandably angry angry to the point of wanting to kill him and so jacob's mom says hey you need to get out of here for a few days so let your brother cool off tell you what it's time you get a wife once you go back to where i'm from and marry one of the daughters of my people and then once you've done that you can come back and we'll all live happily ever after well it doesn't work out quite that way but that's that's kind of that's where we are in the narrative about Jacob anyway so he leaves home he arrives at Bethel and spends the night and below the night he has this dream of this stairway extending from earth to heaven and the Lord stands above him we talked about that

last time that God's not at the top of the ladder looking down but he's rather right there by Jacob he's giving him the promise of presence that he's going to be with him and he promises that he will have descendants as numerous as was promised to abraham and he says wherever you go i am with you and i will keep you and i will bring you back to this land i will not leave you until i've done what i promised you kind of a echo there of uh jesus promised his disciples at the end of Matthew 28. Lo, I am with you always. So God's going to be with Jacob

and he's going to bless him. He's going to bring him home. So Jacob wakes up and here's Jacob's response to the dream. He says, surely the Lord is in this place and I didn't know it. And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place?

This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven. So that's where we get Bethel, by the way. Beth El in Hebrew just means house of God. It's like Bethlehem means house of bread, that Beth is the word for house. Now what I find remarkable about this is Jacob just stops wherever. It looks like a good place to camp for the night, so he lays down, puts a rock

under his head, and all this happens. He didn't know the Lord was in this place. He didn't know that this was going to be where God was going to reveal himself. But God's revelation is what reveals also that this is a sacred place. So the way that God's presence is known, his house is known, the gate of heaven is known, is by the presence of God and by the promises and the speaking of God. So if you were to read this particular story in light of where we're at you know where's the house of god where's where's the gate of heaven for us well it's it's where christ is that's that's bethel that's the house of god that's the gate of heaven because that's where christ has revealed himself it's where he speaks his word is where his

where his presence is at uh and that's if you were to if you were to choose a name for a church that'd be a it'd be a great name bethel it's the house of god it's not it's not an architectural designation it's a verbal designation that god speaks god acts god is present and because that's where he speaks and acts in his present that is the house of god so his word is what determines everything his word is the means by which he comes to us dwells with us and blesses us so it really doesn't matter where you're at spatially i mean if you're in a church if you're if you're somewhere else where christ and his word is that is the that's the house of god that's the gate of heaven because that's where god reveals himself as the god who is for us who is with us who speaks

his promises to us i think jacob's a weird guy he is a weird guy why do you think he's weird here who who puts a rock under their head that is strange i mean good dude you're on like a sojourn or something here i mean you got like a pack or something or wad up wad up some clothes he's like i need to find a good rock put my head on i never even occurred to me to put my head on a rock that sounds horrible it does yeah i i don't think that i've ever slept uh anywhere with uh any kind of hard object under my head i mean a rock or i don't know i'd rather have nothing whatever it might be yeah i'd rather just lay flat flat on the ground anything better than a rock that's yeah that's weird yeah i can't he he never took camping 101 i guess you're supposed to use

something besides a rock but the rock becomes important uh because when he gets up in the morning he uh he takes this he took he took the stone pillow and he sets it up as a as a pillar and then he pours oil on top of it and uh he says he called the name of the place Bethel. Previously, it had another name. It was called Luz, and then he makes a vow, but before we get to the vow, let's pick up the stone again. He says, this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you. So, the stone becomes important. The stone marks the place at which God appeared to Jacob and blessed jacob and he'll come back here after his long after his 20 years of exile he's going to come

back to this place uh just like just like he promised but it's kind of interesting too because the uh in hebrew the stone is called a matzevah and uh it kind of depends where you're at in the scriptures as to whether that's allowed or not because actually uh these stone pillars were used as cultic objects by some of the pagan religions of the land and so they were forbidden in the in moses law because they had this uh this pagan this pagan connection to their own religious rights but you do have a few you do have a few situations where they're actually used as a like a sacred marker in in israel's history for instance it's uh when when rachel dies later on jacob sets up a stone it's kind of like a headstone i guess you could say um absalom set

up one for himself uh when later on when jacob and laban they make a treaty and they set up a a stone pillar that's like a a treaty witness between the two of them so the the stones are important because the stone is like a a mute witness to a promise or to a loss like a gravestone is but in this particular case uh it marks this spot of the theophany of the divine appearance of jacob and he anoints it with uh he anoints it with oil as a means to sanctify it to uh to set it apart as the most significant place to him uh as he begins as he begins his exile you know What's also a little known fact, Pillar is actually texting for Pillow as well. Hand me that Pillar so I can take a nap.

I really need to get me a new Pillar. That's actually what's going on there. The true Texas English comes out. What's up? Even God knows Texas is best, right? He does. It's right there in the Hebrew. the the uh the true holy land so uh stone pillows and ladders extending from earth to heaven

and uh promises all sorts of stuff happening here in this uh in this story it's important for jacob because if you put yourself in jacob's shoes this this revelation that he receives here is perfect timing because he's leaving home. He's just stolen the blessing from his brother. For all he knows, his brother's actually pursuing him, going to hunt him down and kill him. His future is unknown. And at this point of weakness and vulnerability

and the beginning of exile is when God appears to him and assures him that he will be with him. They will bring him home. and that he's going to bless him along the way, which just goes to show what a patient and loving and merciful God we have, that he would do this for such a scoundrel as Jacob. Jacob has certainly not deserved this appearance of God to him and all the promises that God spoke to him.

I mean, he's leaving because he lied. He's leaving because he angered his brother. he's leaving because he had done nothing right and everything wrong and yet here's god promising to take care of him despite all of his sins yeah that's that's how god does it god likes to give you something when you're on the run yeah it's pretty good that's a perfect that's a perfect timing yeah and it's uh it these stories part of the problem with us at least with a lot of people is we know these stories too well in some ways it would be nice if i could just erase from my mind everything i know about the bible and just read it for the first time as if i've as if i've never

never read it before because i think sometimes when when that happens you take a person who doesn't know the scriptures and they're reading for the first time they're shocked by some of these stories or they're scandalized by them or they see things that maybe we don't see because we've read them so many times you know this is a great example of that and there's stories like this throughout the scriptures where at the moment at which you would expect god to destroy someone punish someone is the exact moment at which he appears to them and is merciful and gracious you expect the story to read and so jacob on the run put his head on a rock and then a bear came out of the woods and ate him right that's the end that's how and jacob got what he deserved

that's how this is supposed to happen but that's not what happens yeah that's uh that's the backward ways of our backwards god who is always doing that which we least expect the opposite of what we expect in fact acting in ways that often to us appear to be immoral and unjust because they don't fit with our preconceived notions of what should happen to bad people but that's uh that's god he is uh he's not us he's actually love and mercy and and grace and he uh he acts according to those attributes by giving to sinners what they don't deserve yeah when you uh when you get what you don't deserve that's a real good thing it is it is and jacob certainly certainly he gets gets what he doesn't deserve he gets the dream he gets the promise he gets the presence he

gets uh he gets everything and he makes a vow he says uh this and this is a kind of a typical old testament vow we see the same thing uh jephthah the book of judges and uh hannah makes this vow a similar vow absalom makes a similar vow that if god will do this then they will do that And so Jacob says, if God will be with me and keep me and bring me back and give me what I need, my daily bread, more or less, then I will return to my father's house in safety. Then this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house. And of all that he gives me, I'll give him a tenth. so this is jacob's way of of uh promising god that if or when god does this that jacob will respond likewise yeah yeah that's chapter 28 let's make let's get all the way to 40 let's go

all right let's go all right chapter every five minutes we can do this so in chapter 29 we uh we pick up the story where jacob actually gets where he's going so the scriptures don't give us a whole lot of details uh many times about things we're actually curious about so we're not told about what happens on the rest of jacob's journey this this of course would have taken a while but it jumps ahead it jumps right from god right from jacob's vow uh to his arrival at his destination so it says jacob went on his journey which interestingly i i got to throw in a little bit of Hebrew here. That phrase, Jacob went on his journey, it literally means lifted up his feet, and it's the only place in the Bible where this occurs. Now, we can conjecture exactly what it

means, but I almost had the impression that he walked with a little bit of a lighter foot, if you will. He wasn't as weighed down with worry and guilt and everything as he was before, so his his burden was somewhat lightened he lifted up his feet and he journeyed onward and he gets to where he's going he he came to the land of the sons of the east which is where his mom was from so he's back in his mom's home territory and once more this is this is uh this will not be the last time we see this once more we have romance happening at a well yeah yeah so uh here's what happens with jacob he gets uh he gets where he's going he doesn't actually know that he's there yet but he comes to a well and there's some shepherds with their flocks gathered

around the well and there's a large stone that's over the top of the well this is not the regular watering time so jacob engages in a uh conversation with these shepherds and basically asked them hey what are you doing here you should be out this is not the time to water your flocks you should be out letting them graze in the pasture so what's up and they tell him that well we can't do anything until they whoever they are roll the stone away from the mouth of the well so they're having this conversation jacob and these shepherds are and all of a sudden while he's talking with them And Rachel comes walking up with her father's sheep because she's a she's a shepherdess, just like the daughters of of the daughters of Jethro were also shepherdesses. So she's not taking care of her father's sheep. And the shepherds tell Jacob that this is Rachel, the daughter of Laban.

And so he realizes that this girl is a relative of his. And so Jacob has a chance to show off his superhuman strength. So he walks up to the well and this huge stone that's over the mouth of the well that evidently took several men to move. Jacob moves all on his own. You can see him kind of, you know, rolling up his sleeves a little bit. rachel's walking up yeah take care of this stone he pulls a he-man and and takes the stone off the mouth of the well all on his own he says this stone is a pillow to me i shall lift this stone as i lift a pillow just just toss this over there i'm gonna sleep i'm gonna sleep on that later

I've slept on stones bigger than this so I assume that Rachel is impressed with his brute strength so he takes the takes the stone off he waters the flock of Laban his mother's

brother and that reminds me a lot of it's kind of like mother like mother like son here because if you remember when When Abraham sent his servant to get a wife for Isaac, when the servant gets to where he's going to the well, then Rebecca comes out and she waters all these camels that belong to Abraham's servant. So like his mother did back then, Jacob is kind of doing the same thing. He waters the flock of Laban, his mother's, his uncle, Uncle Laban.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel. and lifted up his voice and wept now here's a bit of bible trivia for you this is the only time in the scriptures in which a man kisses a woman who is neither his wife nor his mother so you can tuck that away next time you play bible trivia this is the only time when an unwed man kisses an unwed unwed girl it would be jacob that did that it would be Yeah, it would be Jacob. So he moves right from impressing her with his physical strength to giving her a kiss. He must have felt like she was really impressed.

Yeah, he must have. I'm sure she was. I'm sure she was very impressed. This girl, that was a pretty impressive feat. She won't mind if I just lay it on her. I'm sure she swooned when she saw his biceps. Oh, man. The guys are ridiculous.

Yeah, they are. they really are and he i'm sure he was taken by her beauty too because uh even though it's not mentioned here a few a few verses later uh i love the translation rachel was beautiful of form and face so she was hot in other words there's the hottie by the well the hottie by the well yeah that's our that is our our book that we'll be uh beginning soon yeah biblical dating hotties by the well yeah that's it what is it with all these beautiful women showing up at wells i mean that does happen over and over i don't know i and all the patriarchs they end up with a with this uh you know 10 this this real attractive woman i just think it's why it's weird he starts crying yeah

like yeah that is that is strange like she must be thinking this guy is this is a weird dude he's like he's like moving this huge rock then he kisses me and starts crying i don't recommend that as like as as a move that anyone should try you're probably not going to get a second date let's put it that way yeah no i don't think that's gonna that's not gonna win the hearts of most ladies i wouldn't think yeah that's that's a strange move for sure jacob is a strange guy he uh dresses up like his brother he uh has strange dreams he sleeps on pillows and he kisses and then he cries so he's he's an unusual character but hey it worked you know it didn't work he uh he goes on to uh i i don't know what rachel's reaction was she must have thought

who is this guy but he goes on to tell her who he is he's a relative actually they're cousins they literally are kissing cousins also a little known biblical also yeah kissing your cousin it's biblical man there's a lot of relatives that are uh engaging in romantic relationships in genesis that's another reason why texas is the most biblical place on earth oh so uh what happens rachel runs she uh she tells her dad uh what uh what just happened And Laban's happy to see him because now we have Laban kissing Jacob. Of course, you know, the Oriental form of greeting was a kiss. That still takes place in some cultures today.

So this wasn't such a weird thing. He brings him to his house and it says, I wish I could have heard what Jacob says. It says, Jacob related to Laban all these things. So everything that had happened. well i bet that was an edited account i bet so so here's what i did i dressed up like i was my brother and my mom and i we lied to mom to dad and then i was able to get this blessing and he's trying to kill me and that's why i ran and uh by the way can i marry your daughter i i think it probably went like this so here's the thing uh my brother is a real insane person and uh he's so

crazy that um you know my parents didn't want to didn't want to give him the birthright so uh reluctantly i went ahead and went along with it and they gave it to me i couldn't bring myself to do any harm to him and he's chasing me down now and uh but then i had this dream uh and now here i am and i moved this huge rock and your daughter uh is there and god's just you know just really blessing me you know for honoring my father and mother in such a profound way i like it at uh that ring for everything that we know of jacob that rings true you know he's going to put a spin on anything that he says so here he is talking to his uh uncle future father-in-law telling him quote all these things so laban says uh well your family you know

you're your kin you're my own bone and my flesh and he stays there a month and uh you know during the course of this month i suspect that laban was devising a plan as as we will hear more about Laban as the story goes on uh he was a match for Jacob in the art of deception you know Jacob was uh was peerless back home well maybe his mom was a pretty good deceiver too but uh when Jacob meets Laban he has definitely met someone who is a a good match for him in the art of deception so Laban is uh is thinking to himself well we need to we need to come up with something where i'm going to benefit from having this this uh relative in my house so laban says uh because you're my relatives you do therefore serve me for nothing tell me what shall your

wages be well jacob probably wasn't serving him at all at this point but uh he's going to go to work for him now laban has uh two daughters we've already met the younger of the two rachel and now we're introduced to the older whose name was leia now rachel means like a ewe lamb uh leia means cow so even why would you name your daughter that i mean in that culture you know we don't know what that means in english but uh i don't get it yeah there's few people in the bible i feel worse for than leia she is uh if yeah if there is like a character that just elicits sympathy you almost hurt for her it's it's leia she did nothing to deserve any of the stuff that uh that happens to her but you will see too is that god is very sympathetic to to leia yeah yeah exactly i mean

we'll see at the end of the chapter for when it's talking about the birth of her sons that uh let's think about this this morning when i was getting ready for for this that uh you know if i were to have written the biblical story then i would have um i would have placed the like the kingship and the priesthood and these you know these important these important parts of israel's life within the family of of rachel her sons but it doesn't work that way because levi and judah the priestly and the kingly tribes they're both the sons of uh this unloved unwanted wife so god is compassionate toward her he he sees her suffering and uh he is merciful and gracious to her and gives her gives her the sons he uh he gives her these two important sons in the history of the the nation

of israel so here's the plan uh jacob says jacob jacob loved rachel it says well let me back up i'm sorry uh it says leah's eyes eyes were weak but rachel was beautiful of form and face now uh that that's a hebrew idiom it doesn't mean that she couldn't see very well that means that just she wasn't she wasn't attractive she was lacking in luster if you will she didn't have that twinkle in the in her eye yes she didn't have the twinkle in her eye that uh that rachel had so here's rachel the beauty queen and here's leah the uh the unattractive one and jacob loved rachel so he says i will serve you seven years for your younger daughter rachel now notice Laban's response this is important notice what he doesn't say it is better that

I give her to you than that I should give her to another man stay with me what's significant is he doesn't say who her is you can almost see Laban kind of looking over at Leah as he says the response Jacob thinks of course he's talking about Rachel and Laban is saying yeah I think it be better if I give her to you than that I give her to someone else. So Laban has a plan and Jacob has a plan. And these two plans are about to come into conflict. So Jacob did what he said. He served for seven years. And this is a beautiful line. this is verse 20 so jacob served seven years for rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her uh can we have an awe moment

no this is this is actually uh there's an echo of what jacob's mom had said remember when he left She said, stay for a few days, and then I will send for you. So we have here the same phrase. So, you know, even though it's seven years, even though he was gone much longer than his mom ever envisioned, these seven years, because Jacob loved Rachel so much, seemed to him, but those few days that his mother said he would be gone. So the seven years are up, and Jacob says to Laban, give me my wife. for my time is completed that i may go into her that's a weird thing to say to your father-in-law by the way yeah that's it's uh just they're so up front about it about it there is there is no

holding back they are very explicit just talking man to man here yeah yeah give your daughter to me so that i can have sex with her it basically is what jacob is is saying to laban it's uh it's time i've waited seven long years so they uh they have the wedding uh layman gathers all the men of the place and they they have this uh have this feast and i'm sure at the feast there was not only food but drink having a good old time yeah we don't know exactly everything that happened in weddings back then but uh it was fun it was a feast it was a party you know it was a wedding party. Wedding parties are always fun. And it says that in the evening, all right, so we've already got the time of day here. It's dark. They've been partying for a while. Probably had

some fermented beverages. Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her to him, and jacob went in to her now uh these uh of course these brides would have been veiled as was the the custom back then and it's possible probable that jacob all his senses were not completely you know 100 because of it seems like he had to have been like just blitzed yeah if he is this is the second time in the scriptures where we've had a a very drunk guy having having sex uh you know we had a lot with his daughters earlier yeah you gotta be blitzed right for this like that he can't be like i think i'm over the legal limit i i'm not gonna you know i'm not gonna drive i think i might have had might be one over the over the line uh do you i mean you just

gotta be you gotta be on the verge of passing out man yeah this is this is not good and then scripture sometimes forces like a slight delay you know we want the action to just jump right to the next thing but scripture sometimes delays that it's a rhetorical thing because we we have verse 24 thrown in oh by the way also laban also gave his maid zilpah to his daughter leah as a maid it's like this parentheses in there and it delays the action as it moves on so we've got leah we've got her maidservant zilpah verse 25 one of my favorite passages in the scripture so it came about in the morning that behold it was leah there is there is no punctuation in the hebrew but if there were

there would definitely be an exclamation point after this particular phrase behold it was leah so you can you can just imagine jacob rolling over in the bed that morning and looking at the woman beside him for whom he had worked seven years with whom he was deeply madly in love who held the key to his heart all that romantic stuff and he rolls over and looking at him is a cow yes leia yeah and uh he's not very happy about this situation as as none of us would be how did how did leia get like i talked into this well i you know she her dad is a very convincing character so i suppose that he uh he pushed her into it he's like this is the only way to marry you off you don't understand it's never going to happen if we don't do it this way yeah not

not only how did leggett talked into this but how did rachel get controlled to where she didn't do something about it there's no way that she could have known what was going on too i mean they're having a wedding feast well we're not those are those are questions unfortunately we don't have we don't have the answers to but uh here is here's jake's response what is this you have done to me wasn't it for Rachel that I served with you why then have you deceived me oh here we go

here we go the deceiver is deceived poor Jacob he uh everything the chickens came home to roost he who had deceived his brother deceived his father stolen the

birthright dressed up like he was somebody else in order to have what he wanted now has the tables turned and his his uncle ends up deceiving him so laban acts like this is this is great you can see laban he just all cool and stoic acting like he's shocked that jacob would be upset about this he's like well come on you know it's not the practice here to marry off the younger before the firstborn you should have known that you know everybody knows that that's not our tradition you know a lot about firstborn and that kind of stuff jacob yeah why are you so upset you you should have known i mean

you did have sex with this woman so how did you not know that it was the uh the older of the two then he goes on he's like i tell you what tell you what let's do uh just go ahead and uh finish off this wedding week of celebration with this my older daughter and we'll give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years so jay laban has this all figured out uh he is a plotter he's a planner and a plotter and this worked out i mean he he gets both of his daughters married off right after uh right after one another now uh this is kind of a i know we only have a couple minutes left so i don't know if we'll reach all this but finish all this but there is there's a bit of ambiguity here and i

I guess one could go a couple of different ways here, but it goes on to say that Jacob did so. He completed his week and he gave him his daughter, Rachel as his wife. And then he gives the maid servant and Jacob also has sex with Rachel. He loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban for another seven years. Now,

when I read that, I read it as if it's not that Jacob had to wait another seven years to get Rachel, but that he finished off this wedding week with Leah. He married Rachel and had another wedding week, and then he was obligated

to serve another seven years to fulfill his end of the bargain. Yeah. But he ends up working 14 years for seven of which were for a wife that he didn't want. So that we're getting close to our to our 40 minutes here.

But, you know, the the great thing about this story is that it shows that, you know, with all of the mess that was going on here, with all of the the the self-serving motives, the deception and everything else that was that was happening, just like happens, of course, still today in families and churches and everywhere else. you know god is still at work behind the scenes as it were making sure that his will is going to be done because in the end that as we talked about earlier that's what's going to happen because it's from the sons of the unwanted wife that he will raise up the priesthood as well as the uh as the messiah as the uh the king the anointed king who will come yep yeah yeah he uh He's going to bring about the Messiah through the unloved, which is what he does. Which is what he does, yeah. All right.

We are out of time. So I'm sure next week we're going to talk about spotted goats and all kinds of stuff like that. Thanks for joining us for episode 40 of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. Sorry we didn't have anything amazing planned, but that was pretty epic. A lot of deception. So we will see you guys next week. © transcript Emily Beynon