Scripture: Genesis 29:1-30

I. God is at work in your happy times.

A. There are no coincidences in God’s world. There are only the providences of God. And God in His providence had directed Jacob step by step to his family in Haran (vs. 1-6). Jacob was so overcome with emotion by seeing the beautiful Rachel and by a successful conclusion to his journey that he kissed her (vs. 11) and told her that he was Laban’s relative. After Rachel ran to tell her father Laban about Jacob’s arrival, Laban came and welcomed Jacob to the household.

B. Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban appears to agree to the deal in vs. 19, and we go on to read in vs. 20, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” Does Jacob seem like a happy man at this point in the story? Yes! But the story gives no indication that Jacob thanked God for His sovereign providence.

II. God is at work in your bad times.

A. The bad times for Jacob are found first in a word that is used 6 times in vs. 15-30: serve. Jacob is not just the servant of Laban; he is the slave of Laban. Jacob did not have a relationship of a son-in-law to a father-in-law with Laban. He had a master-slave relationship. Laban was a greedy man who used people to get what he wanted. Every family member is just an object to Laban. They are people to be used so he can make more money.

B. God was at work to discipline Jacob for his sins of deceiving both his father and his brother. God gave Jacob a very painful discipline. Jacob the deceiver is now the one deceived. He deceived his older brother, and now an older sister, Leah, deceives him (vs. 25). God is committed to bring bad pain into your life when you have sin to be addressed. Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

III. God is at work in your sad times.

A. It is Leah who has the sad story in Genesis 29. We read in vs. 30 that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. But some scholars say this translation is too tame. What is really being said here is, “Jacob loved Rachel rather than Leah.” Jacob did not love Leah at all. How sad! If you are in Christ, failure is not final. Sadness is not final. God will use this unloved daughter and wife, Leah, to give birth to Judah who would eventually lead to the birth of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah – Jesus – the Savior of the world.

Application:
God is always at work in your life even though you may not see it.

Sources:
The Bible
Commentaries by Allen P. Ross, Dale Ralph Davis and Bruce Waltke

Sermon Discussion Questions

1. How can you remember to thank God for the happy gifts He brings into your life every day? How have you seen God’s providence in your life today?

2. How did Jacob reap what he had sown? Can you remember a time when God had you reap a painful harvest from some sin you had sown?

3. Does sadness make your life not worth living? How was God at work in Leah’s sadness? How can we trust that God is at work in our sadness?