Genesis 51

 

 

RACHEL WHO DID NOT KNOW

THE BLESSING OF GOD

(Gen 30:1-24)

 

 

Introduction: Leah and Rachel's rivalry (vv. 1-13)

In chapter 29, Leah gave birth to four sons, including Reuben. In fact, Jacob loved his younger sister Rachel more, but God looked into Leah's heart and allowed her a son first. At that time, not being able to bear children was considered a shame for women. Despite receiving more love from her husband, when only her older sister gave birth to a son, Rachel’s heart was filled with envy. The direct translation of the expression “I will die” in verse 1 can be changed to

“I am already dead because I cannot give birth to children.” She had failed in the competition to have a child with her older sister, and because of this,

she felt that she would lose her husband's love and the privilege of becoming the mother of a covenant descendant, so she said this out of desperation.

However, there is one truth that Rachel overlooked. It is true that it is God, not Jacob, who opens the womb and controls life.

 

Believer must find several meaning in the book of Genesis such as the blessing in Gen. 1:27-28, background to lost that blessing in Gen.3:1-20,

and must know the mystery to restore that blessing through Gen.3:15 for receiving salvation.

When you receive salvation and enjoy its meaning, the power will appear.

A few things you need to know what are those blessings?

 

  1) Gen.1:27-28 God’s given blessing

  2) Gen.2:17

  3) Gen.3:1-20 Lost blessing

  4) Gen.3:15 Receiving salvation

  5) Gen.6:14-20 The reason to make the Ark and blessing.

  6) The purpose to call Abraham.

  7) The reason to bless Isaac.

  8) The reason to give grace and hardship to Jacob.

 

 

1. The reason

  1) Save from idolatry.

  2) Family salvation.

  3) Enjoy the blessing and witness(evangelism)

  4) Mission to save all nations.

     Like those mission was given to people in the book of Genesis. But people could not know that they received a lot of suffering.

 

 

2. Rachel and other wives of Jacob do not know this blessing.

  1) They jealous each other and make their family become complicated. (Gen.30:1)

  2) They want to get children so they give their servant girl to their husband as a concubine. (Gen.30:3-5, 30:10)

  3) Competition to get possession.

  4) Jacob’s humanism and competition.

  5) Complicated family

 

 

3. Result

  1) Conflict arise between brothers.

  2) Problem arise continually in family. (conflict, incident of Dinah, Incident of Joseph)

  3) Jacob was deceived in his whole life.

 

4. But God will fulfill his will to his chosen people and to fulfill His kingdom through suffering and problems.

  1) 12 tribes was formed.

  2) God gave great people like Levi, Judah, and Joseph.

 

* Suffering followed David's sin, but God's will was done.

 

 

5. If believer know the mission the work of God appear in reality.

  1) If we know 4 purposes all doors will open.

  2) If we know the calling and mission we have victory in real life.

    (1) Gen.39:1-6

    (2) Gen.22:1-13 Isaac as a burnt offering-->Mystery of a ram

    (3) Gen.32:22-32 Prayer along the Jabbok River

    (4) Eph.1:3, 10

      v. 3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

      v. 10. to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head,

         even Christ.

    (5) Eph.1:17-19

     v. 17. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him              better.

     v. 18. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his

            glorious inheritance in the saints,

     v. 19. and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength.

 

 

Conclusion: Earth's history is centered on the Christ covenant.

  1) Jacob and his 12 sons returned to the land of Canaan and separated from Laban after living with his wife for more than 20 years to establish

       the family of the covenant with Jehovah. At that very holy time, Rachel tried to bring the household godof Laban into Jacob's family.

  2) Then her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, would have no choice but to follow their mother's faith. Esau, who had taken two Hittite women as wives,

      was Me-center and the center of Esau's attachment to the things of the world, he excluded from the runners of the covenant..

  3) At that time, a woman who could not give birth to a son was a reason for divorce. The only person who could solve Rachel's problems was God.

       She had already had a son through Bilhah, the maidservant, but it had no real meaning to her because she did not give birth to her.

  4) In verse 22, ‘God remembered Rachel’ means that He deeply thinks and takes care of her personally, not to the extent of lightly reminiscing.

      Only God's mercy was the way to do what even mandrakes could not do, that is, to wash away her shame and restore her honor as the mother of

      the covenant people. He gave her two sons to Rachel and washed her shame, but left the religious education of her two sons to Leah.

 

In today's text, despite the competition and conflicts Jacob's family showed in childbirth, God had mercy on Jacob's family and poured out His grace,

and through them, He established the Israelites who would carry on the baton of the covenant. I bless you to focus your attention on the God who will

give us the same grace and walk with the Lord on the covenant journey.