Finding True Fulfillment in God's Love
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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Jacob is a man with an inner vacuum, an inner emptiness. Jacob's a man with, as we're going to see a little more, and reasons why, an inner sense of emptiness, and he's desperate for other people's affirmation, other people's blessing, for success, for approval, and so on. [00:03:13]
The theme of this passage is that people with an inner emptiness give themselves to a hope very often. They give themselves to a hope, and that is a hope for what we'll call one true love. People with an inner emptiness have a tendency to give themselves to the hope that out there somewhere, there's that right person. [00:04:39]
Jacob is now absolutely in love with her because when he negotiates a price, he says I'll work seven years. Now, we know from both archaeology and from history that 30 to 40 shekels was a normal price that a suitor paid the family of a bride, someone he wanted to marry. [00:08:51]
He's overwhelmed with emotional and sexual longing for her. He will do anything for her. Now, what do we see? Why is he like this? And the answer is this is how he's dealing with the failure of his life. He's looking at her and saying, oh my word, I don't have you. [00:11:00]
Leah was unattractive. Leah was homely, and she grew up in the shadow of a younger sister who was utterly stunning, and that's the reason why Laban has to unload her like this. The only way I'm ever going to get Leah married to anybody is I'm going to have to trick somebody into it. [00:23:07]
Every time she starts to have a son, it's one of the most plaintiff series of sentences in the Bible. Every time she starts, she has a son, she chooses a Hebrew word for the name that expresses her longing for Jacob. So Reuben is taken from a word that means to see. [00:24:02]
The first lesson we're supposed to learn from here, this especially in the most vivid way, when Jacob wakes up in the morning, it was Leah. We're being taught something that in all of life, through every event, through every aspect of your life, there always will be a ground note running. [00:31:17]
Most people, if they really learned how to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something this world can never give them. There are all sorts of things in the world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. [00:32:39]
The moment she did that, that she took her life back, there's liberation, and she realized she'd be a lousy wife, and you will be a lousy wife or a lousy husband, whether you're married or you're not married, if you don't do the same thing. [00:38:56]
God looks down at a beautiful woman and an ugly woman. God looks down at a woman who's had a designer life and everybody in the world has always wanted and looks at one who the he looks at the girl nobody wanted. He looked at the girl who's unloved, who's unlovely. [00:40:09]
The gospel saves people not who are strong. The gospel saves people who will admit they're sinners and that they're weak. And what ends up happening? Who goes back? Jacob, the son who's not loved and who was deceiver, but now he's humbled into some decent character. [00:42:09]
If you've been rejected by some human being who you thought was going to love you and make it all right, one of the reasons I think God brings the Messianic seed to Leah is because Jesus is going to grow up rejected, lonely, constantly misunderstood, ultimately rejected in the end. [00:43:05]
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The theme of this passage is that people with an inner emptiness give themselves to a hope very often. They give themselves to a hope, and that is a hope for what we'll call one true love. People with an inner emptiness have a tendency to give themselves to the hope that out there somewhere, there's that right person. [00:04:39]
Jacob is now absolutely in love with her because when he negotiates a price, he says I'll work seven years. Now, we know from both archaeology and from history that 30 to 40 shekels was a normal price that a suitor paid the family of a bride, someone he wanted to marry. [00:08:51]
He's overwhelmed with emotional and sexual longing for her. He will do anything for her. Now, what do we see? Why is he like this? And the answer is this is how he's dealing with the failure of his life. He's looking at her and saying, oh my word, I don't have you. [00:11:00]
Leah was unattractive. Leah was homely, and she grew up in the shadow of a younger sister who was utterly stunning, and that's the reason why Laban has to unload her like this. The only way I'm ever going to get Leah married to anybody is I'm going to have to trick somebody into it. [00:23:07]
Every time she starts to have a son, it's one of the most plaintiff series of sentences in the Bible. Every time she starts, she has a son, she chooses a Hebrew word for the name that expresses her longing for Jacob. So Reuben is taken from a word that means to see. [00:24:02]
The first lesson we're supposed to learn from here, this especially in the most vivid way, when Jacob wakes up in the morning, it was Leah. We're being taught something that in all of life, through every event, through every aspect of your life, there always will be a ground note running. [00:31:17]
Most people, if they really learned how to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something this world can never give them. There are all sorts of things in the world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. [00:32:39]
The moment she did that, that she took her life back, there's liberation, and she realized she'd be a lousy wife, and you will be a lousy wife or a lousy husband, whether you're married or you're not married, if you don't do the same thing. [00:38:56]
God looks down at a beautiful woman and an ugly woman. God looks down at a woman who's had a designer life and everybody in the world has always wanted and looks at one who the he looks at the girl nobody wanted. He looked at the girl who's unloved, who's unlovely. [00:40:09]
The gospel saves people not who are strong. The gospel saves people who will admit they're sinners and that they're weak. And what ends up happening? Who goes back? Jacob, the son who's not loved and who was deceiver, but now he's humbled into some decent character. [00:42:09]
If you've been rejected by some human being who you thought was going to love you and make it all right, one of the reasons I think God brings the Messianic seed to Leah is because Jesus is going to grow up rejected, lonely, constantly misunderstood, ultimately rejected in the end. [00:43:05]
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