Fellowship in the Word

Bil Gebhardt: What about Matthew and Zacchaeus? They're tax gatherers. They betray their own people. They exploit their own people for Rome and for more money for them. Matthew writes a gospel. God uses flawed people. By the way, that's interesting to me and hopeful because we're flawed, all of us. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, not even one. From this immoral, dysfunctional family, God is going to bless the whole world through Jacob's family tree.

One of the very popular websites in our world is ancestry.com. Through their website, you're able to explore your family tree. It seems to me almost every family has one person that is very devout about this. We have a niece who has gone back generation after generation. We read about our ancestors and then we're kind of left with questions. Why wasn't I ever told about that ancestor? You mean that guy fought in World War I on the German side? They had how many kids? Why didn't they have any kids? Why was he in prison? You see, the typical family tree has bright spots and blight spots because they're all typical families.

If you're serious, you have to come to a certain conclusion when you do this. You'll never fully escape your DNA. You won't. Your height, your bald spots, your intellectual strengths and limitations, they're all there. A lot of the things in your life were already setting the ground for you long before you were ever born. That's the way it was with Jacob. Jacob became famous because of his family tree.

Jacob had no talents. He had no real accomplishments at all. He is hardly a spiritual example. We've been in a series on him and I said he's the poster boy of grace. There's nothing about Jacob that would make you think he's just wonderful, but his family tree. He's the grandson of Abraham who received the Abrahamic covenant, an unconditional promise from God to bless the whole world through the seed of Abraham and Sarah.

His 12 sons become a nation that is still very much alive in our world and news today, Israel. It's never going to change. If you read in your Bible in Revelation 21, one chapter away from the end of the Bible, there's a new heaven and there's a new earth and there's a new Jerusalem. It says this, "It had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels. And on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed."

All of this in spite of the massive shortcomings of Jacob and his sons. If you think about it, you mean to tell me that the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the whole world, comes through these completely dysfunctional people? Emphatically and absolutely yes, that's where they come from. We have looked at Jacob. He tricked his brother, deceived his father. He was a mama's boy. He ran for his life because he saw Esau was about to kill him. He goes 500 miles and runs into his mother's brother's place. Laban tricks him. He has to work seven years in order to have Rachel as his wife. Then he's deceived by Laban and in his tent, he finds Leah. So he can marry Rachel, Laban said, for another seven years' work. So he works 14 years to have these two wives.

He loves Rachel, but he does not love Leah. And so what we find in this soap opera, that's the only way I can put it, is how do these 12 tribes come to be? Open your Bibles to Genesis 29 and verse 31. If you're not familiar with the passage, a lot of what I'm saying today will shock you because it's a shocking passage. It's just the way it's written. Now we know from verse 30 that the Lord saw that Leah was unloved and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben. She said, "Because the Lord has seen my affliction, surely now my husband will love me." Everything about this sibling rivalry has almost nothing to do with God at all. This is two sisters having an unbelievable sibling rivalry. Now Leah says, "If I can give Jacob a son, he'll love me." Now remember, I've said this before, in that part of the world, especially if you're a landowner, the most important thing that you could have is a son because he inherits everything and he keeps your legacy going. And so she says, "I've been able to do that."

And she names him Reuben. What does that name Reuben mean? "Reu" means look. "Ben" means son. So she had her baby, "Look, son." That's his name. And it says then she conceived again and bore a son and said, "Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved," there it goes again, "He has therefore given me this son also." And she named him Simeon. Simeon comes from the Hebrew verb "shama" and it means to hear. So what this name means is the Lord hears. The Lord knew my burden. The Lord hears my burden. And he gives me a second son.

Then it says she conceived again and she bore a son and said, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me." Notice her motivation here has nothing to do with God. "I want my husband. Now this time my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name is Levi." Where we get the Levitical priesthood from. Levi comes from the Hebrew verb "lavah" and it means to draw or to join. Levi means I have this son, it'll draw Jacob to me. Jacob will be drawn to me. I've given him now three sons. That's what Levi means.

And then there's a point of insight, I think there's a reason for it in my opinion. It says she conceived again and bore a son. "This time I will praise the Lord." Therefore she named him Judah. And then she stopped bearing. Now what's so important about that? She's shown no spiritual insight at all, but now she says she's going to praise the Lord. I think that probably came from God because his name's Judah, which means praise the Lord. And through Judah comes David and through David comes Jesus Christ our Lord. So this is the praise the Lord family. This is the tribe of Judah. Judah himself wasn't much of a man, but this tribe, there's some insight.

So right now then what you end up seeing here is that she has four sons in a row. Now question, how do you think Rachel's taking this? Verse 30:1, "When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister and she said to Jacob, 'Give me children or else I die.'" What's she doing here? We just learned that she was barren. But she didn't say that. She didn't talk into God. Who's she blaming here? Jacob. "Give me a son." Jacob's anger burned against Rachel and he said, "Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? Come on, I'm doing my part. I can't control these things."

Now Rachel and Leah are just like Jacob and Laban. You see all of this scheming, all of these shortcuts. Where did the shortcuts all start? Abraham and Sarah. God said Sarah's going to have a child, the whole world's going to be blessed through this. What'd Sarah say? "I'm so old, that's not possible. How about the handmaiden?" You see, that'll do it. That'll be the son. And that was the birth of Ishmael. And what a terrible idea that turned out to be and is still a terrible idea all the way to our day.

And now notice what Rachel decides to do. You see, there's two handmaidens here. She said, "Here is my maid, Bilhah. Go into her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children." So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife and Jacob went into her and Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. There's my plan. I can circumvent God here and that'll be my plan, just like Sarah. Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son." Therefore, she says, "I'm going to name him Dan."

By the way, the name Dan, from "danai" in Hebrew, "God has vindicated me" because I gave a maid to my husband. Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore a second son. So Rachel said, "With mighty wrestling, I have wrestled with my sister," notice this is only about the rivalry, "and I have indeed prevailed." She said, "I'm going to name him Naphtali." His name Naphtali means fighter. He proves I'm fighting and winning against my sister. Now this is a little delusional, isn't it? I mean, my goodness, the sister has four sons of her own. Rachel doesn't have any, but her maid has two and she thinks I'm winning this fight.

Watch how these sisters work. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. So Leah said, "How fortunate." And she named him Gad. Now, if I were going to take the Hebrew word and turn it into English you would understand, we're going to name him Lucky. His name is Good Fortune, Lucky. We're going to call him Gad. "Look, this is working out. I'm catching up on my sister. I have a lot more children, but now this idea with the maids." Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, "Happy am I, for women will call me happy." So she named him Asher.

Now you are smart enough, what do you think his name is? Happy. That's his name, Happy. Not Asher, it's Happy. That's what the word means, a common word. I mean, this is just getting absolutely ridiculous, but I can tell you this: Leah's knocking the daylights out of her right now. 6 to 2, Leah. She's winning 6 to 2. It gets worse. Now in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and he brought them to his mother Leah. And then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." What is that? Mandrakes are berries that he found in the field. They've been called in ancient times golden love apples. They are known to be an aphrodisiac and a fertility drug.

Now it's saying how bad can this get? What you're going to see in just this moment. Rachel says to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." And she said, "It is a small matter for you to take my husband." Now do you remember the story? Jacob loved Rachel, right? So Jacob works seven years so he could marry Rachel. Then after too much drinking and in a pitch-black tent, Laban sneaks in his oldest daughter Leah and the marriage becomes a marriage in that Hebrew culture when it's consummated, not through I do, I do. It's not like vows like that, but when it's consummated. So Jacob marries Leah through the deception.

Now Leah's calling Jacob my husband. "She's taken my husband." Well, how'd you get to be his wife? Well, I deceived him. You see, you can see there's nobody here of any amiable qualities whatsoever. So she says that to her and she said, "It's a small matter for you to take my husband, and would you take my son's mandrakes as well?" Now Rachel's thinking she's just like Jacob, just like Laban. "Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes. I'll rent you my husband. I'll rent him out tonight. You give me the mandrakes and I'll let him be with you tonight."

You can't make this up. I mean, no one would make this up in a culture. You're trying to set the basis of the 12 tribes of Israel for all of Judaism and this is how they came to be. I mean, it's just hard to imagine. Now watch, when Jacob came in from the field in the evening then Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come into me for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes. I paid for you. You're mine tonight." Oh my goodness. Now watch. Jacob's just, "Okay." And so he lay with her that night.

I hope you're coming up with a question here. Where is Jacob in all this? What is going on in his head? "Whatever you say. Okay, over here. Okay." I mean, what is happening here? There's no leadership. There's nothing on his part. No spiritual discernment, none. One commentator said it may be because he's been used to being always bossed around by women because he was his mama's boy, not his father's. I don't know if that's true or not, but I know this: he's absent here. He's showing nothing here. This is the man whose name becomes Israel. That's him.

It says then, "God gave heed to Leah and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son." Then Leah said, "God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband." So she named him Issachar. Now when you think about this, what does Issachar mean? Man for hire. That's his name, Issachar. It's unreal. Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. And then Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good gift. Now may my husband dwell with me because I have borne him six sons." See what this is about for her? What does Leah have to learn, what lesson here? Neither sex nor children can create love. There's no love there. He's loved Rachel the whole time. She names him Zebulun and it means a gift from or an honor from God, Zebulun. Afterwards, she bore a daughter, named her Dinah. There'll be more daughters but we'll see them in the future.

Then it says, "God remembered Rachel and gave heed to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.'" She named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord give me another son." That's what the name Joseph means. She named him may the Lord give me another son. That's his name. And God does by the way, but not where they're at. Benjamin is born in the Promised Land in the land of Canaan as the 12th tribe.

Amazing. I'll say this, I've been preaching since I've been in my mid-20s. I've never preached this text before. Not sure I ever want to do that again. How many of you had this in Sunday school? Nobody. It's all scriptures God-breathed is profitable. I don't know how you deal with this. Wow. You see, you wonder something when you read this story. Where are the examples? Where are the devoted? Where are the heroes? Tell me anybody here who has one amiable quality. Anybody. But he's there, it's God.

You know what God says in this story? He says, "Look at what I can do with the circumstances that I often find myself in." That's how God works all the time. God uses flawed people. And no one's more flawed than this group. They're about as flawed as you could be and they become the foundational basis of the nation of Israel. God uses flawed people. I mean, you're reading the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11 and her name just shows up in the Hall of Fame. This is all the people that could have been in there in the Hall of Fame in one chapter 11 of Hebrews and there she is and she's known as Rahab the harlot.

Do you ever wonder if you got to heaven and you met her, "Are you Rahab the... oh?" You see, that's who she is and God used her. What about Saul of Tarsus? He hated Jesus Christ. He hated the church. He likely orchestrated the martyrdom of Stephen. He was going around arresting and incarcerating Christians. He becomes the great apostle. What about Matthew and Zacchaeus? They're tax gatherers. They betray their own people, they exploit their own people for Rome and for more money for them. Matthew writes a gospel. God uses flawed people. And by the way, that's interesting to me and hopeful because we're flawed, all of us. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, not even one.

From this immoral dysfunctional family, God is going to bless the whole world through Jacob's family tree. It wasn't the mandrakes that allowed Rachel to conceive, it was God. Max Lucado said, "Through the squabbling, strutting, struggling, competing and comparing, the love potions, the surrogate strategies, the tears of the loveless and the childless, God was always in control and he always delivers on his word. He made the promise of how this would happen."

That's a great story for us. God always makes his promises come true. You see, everything that God has promised is something that is true. We try to distort it in every way we can, but there's no way of distorting this at all. There are hundreds of promises in Scripture. Some people really get on the idea that I've sinned so much in my life, I'm separate from God. I'll never be able to reconcile to God. Or I've still sinned or something to do anything like that and they forget what God has said about such things. You can listen as I read these passages. This is in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18. God talking. "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow, and though they are red like crimson, they will be white like wool." Who said that? God. So no matter how crimson red my sin is, God says, "No, I'm making it white."

Psalm 103 and verse 12. "As far as the east is from the west, so far I will remove your transgressions from you." How far is the east from the west? Infinity. Infinity. As far as the east is from the west, I remove your transgressions, all of them, from you. Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 12, he says, "For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more." Isn't that something? He also says in the Old Testament, "I'll take all their sins out to sea and I'll bury them." We remember our sins, but some of us think that God is remembering all of our sins and keeping a tab on what we're doing. It's not true.

Now God is all-knowing, so he doesn't mean I couldn't bring them up if I wanted to. It means that for me in my relationship with you, I've not only forgiven your sins, I've forgotten them. You see, that's an important lesson for us because one of the things we often do is we never forget or we never forgive ourselves. God says, "No, that's what I've done." You see, there's no sin in anybody's life. There's no sin that God can't make as white as snow, as far as the east is from the west, and totally forgive it. It doesn't matter what anyone's ever done. That's an important lesson for us.

How about this one? The idea that when we get fearful and afraid. And again, Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5. He says in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never desert you, I will never forsake you. So we can confidently say the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What could man do to me?" So often in our lives, we feel like we're alone and I can't see a way out of this. He says you're never alone. I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. Never. So he said, "If I'm right here with you, why are you afraid?" You see, that takes our faith, but it's an important thing. Put yourself in any frightening situation in your entire life and just imagine that you're in that dark alley, French Quarter, late at night and you're walking down there and the Lord's walking right beside you and says, "Hey, don't be afraid, I'm right here." What would you think? "Yeah, I feel pretty good. He's right here." But he is right here. You see, what's my problem? It's my faith and my trust in this. That's the way this works.

Perhaps my favorite one, this is important, you know the verse well. I think sometimes when we fail God and fail people, we become so guilty that we think that somehow we've hurt our relationship in an irreparable way from God. Paul says in Romans 8:38, "I am convinced that neither death nor life," now tell me all the other things that exist here. Not death nor life, that's pretty inclusive, isn't it? But he doesn't stop. "Nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing would ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Do you realize how wonderful that is? I say this often but I'll say it again: nothing you could ever do will make God love you more and nothing you could ever do could make God love you less. You see, you can't do something to make God love you less. God loves you. He loves you, nothing can separate that. Not anything.

And that's an important promise for us. God uses flawed people. God's promises are not because of us. They're in spite of us. You see, and that's the way God operates. Everything that God is going to do through Jacob's in spite of Jacob, not because of Jacob. That's such an important lesson for us to understand. The word for all this is the word we've been using for over a month now, grace. The unmerited favor of God. Unmerited favor, God bestows his grace on us. And if you don't believe it, then when you get home today read that chapter over again. Read what God has done through the family tree of Jacob.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you'd just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 70006.

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