Old Testament 15 Patriarchal Stage 5 Liberty Home Bible Institute HL Willmington

This is the story of Abraham and his son Isaac. Abraham dies and is buried by his sons Isaac and Ishmael. The Bible speaks of Abraham's faith and his city. Isaac, described as a mediocre son and father, has significant events in his life at different locations. He is submissive on a mountain, a gentle groom in a field, a copycat in a Philistine home, a willing worker by desert wells, and a frustrated father at a supper table. Isaac's life is filled with blessings and challenges. This is number 15 in a series of 80 Old Testament tapes. We're about to finish the life of one of the greatest men, certainly, that ever lived. His name was Abraham. And in chapter 25, at the age of 175, we read, And Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was carried, or was gathered, to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah. This is, of course, where Sarah was born. And so here we have now the funeral of Abraham. The Bible speaks in the New Testament of Abraham's faith. He's mentioned a number of times, as we've already said, in the book of Hebrews, as well as other passages. The book of James speaks about him in Galatians and Romans. Especially in Hebrews chapter 11, verses 8 to 10, it speaks of his city. By the way, this is the final C in that outline. Now, I hope that you won't turn the tape off if we go through this outline one more time. But I want you to be able to think your way through this great man's life. His conversion, his calling, his commission, his caution, his Canaan, his carnality, his condensation, his courage, his communion, his covenant, his compromise, his circumcision, his compassion, his corrupted kin, his carnality, the second time, his celebration, his Calvary, his cave, his command, his Keturah, and now his city. Well, I thought you said he died. Yes, he did. But he left this veil of tears in his life forevermore, because in the book of Hebrews we're told by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and with Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. And there we have now the death of this grand old man. And of course then the next patriarch in the patriarchal stage is his son Isaac. And Isaac has been described as the mediocre son of a great father, whose name was Abraham, of course, and then the mediocre father of a great son, whose name was Jacob. The main action of the life of Isaac occurs at the following five places. And in the outline we'll see this. On a Jerusalem mountain, and by a Hebron field, in a Philistine home, along some desert wells, and then at a supper table in his own home. And it begins, and we've already discussed this, on a Jerusalem mountain where the story picks up in Genesis 22. And here he is pictured as the submissive son. And Isaac, of course, meekly submits to being used as a burnt offering. And then the second field, or the second event in his life, location in his life, we've discussed also, by a Hebron field. Here he's pictured as the gentle groom. He meets Rebecca for the first time, of course, and they marry. And then he and Ishmael bury their father Abraham. And Abraham, as we said before, lived 38 years after the death of Sarah. And so he lives to see not only Isaac and Rebecca get married, but he lives to see the birth of their boys. Ishmael died at the age of 137, and about this time, after 20 years of barrenness, Rebecca and Isaac begin to pray that God would give he and his wife children, in chapter 25 and verse 21. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together within her. And she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. Why am I having all this problem? And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manners of people shall be separated from thine by vows. And the one people shall be stronger than the other peoples, and the elder shall serve the younger. So we're told that he entreats God for the barrenness of his wife, Rebecca. This is the second student of five recorded biblical prayers for a child. Abraham, of course, prayed for a child in Genesis 15, and God answered it. Now Isaac prays for a child, and God doubles the prayer request here and sends twins. And then later on, Rachel will pray, and God will give her a child. And then in 1 Samuel 1, a barren woman by the name of Hannah will pray, and God will allow her to bear a baby boy into the world, whose name will be Samuel. And then in the New Testament, there is a barren wife of a priest whose name was Elizabeth, and the priest's name was Zechariah. And they pray, and God gives them a boy they call John the Baptist. Rebecca gives birth to twin boys, and they are named Esau and Jacob. We'll go back to them a little later on. I'll just read about it here in verse 24. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, they were born, and there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red all over like a hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. And, of course, this is Hebrew referring to red. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel. So he's been called the wily heel-catcher. And here we see this attribute in him already. And his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was three score years old when she bare them. So he was 60 years old when his wife gave him twin boys here. So we see him on a Jerusalem mountain by a Hebron field, and then later in a Philistine home. We're studying the life of Isaac now. And here he's pictured as a copycat. Some years later, Isaac visits this Philistine city, and he lies in Genesis chapter 26. He lies about his wife, Rebecca, as his father had lied about his mother, Sarah, so many years ago. And that's why we've entitled this, in a Philistine home, the copycat. We read the circumstances in verse 1 of chapter 26. And there was a famine in the land. Beside, the first famine that was in the land, that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto Geher. And even though he's out of the will of God now, God says, look, I don't want you to go to Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. And then God reaffirms to him now, God gives him the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant. But in time of famine, Isaac, like his father Abraham, forsook Palestine, and he moves into the Philistia area. Well, he has the same blessing and problem, like his father Abraham. He's married to a very beautiful girl. Her name is Rebecca. So he lies to king Abimelech concerning Rebecca, saying she was his sister. Now, Abraham was half right when he said that Sarah was his sister, because they were half sisters. But someone has said that if a half-truth is presented as the whole truth, it becomes an untruth. But in Isaac's situation, it was a total error, because they were not related even in a half-brother or half-sister sense. Abimelech discovers the truth of the matter and reproves a totally embarrassed Isaac about his lying. The way that we won't go into this now, you can read it in the word of God. There are some things that are better read than discussed. But certainly he must have been terribly embarrassed concerning the circumstances surrounding, whereby Abimelech found out that they were anything but brothers and sisters. But in spite of his carnality, God reaffirms the Abrahamic covenant here in Genesis chapter 26, and he blesses Isaac greatly in material things. And Isaac, like his father, becomes a very wealthy man. Then the fourth point of the outline, on a Jerusalem mountain, by a Hebron field, in a Philistine home, and now alongside some desert wells. And here he is pictured as a willing worker. Everywhere that Isaac went, he seemed to wind up digging wells. He did a lot of this. You see, the reason being, the Philistines soon became jealous of his great success, and they retaliated by filling up with earth some old wells, once dug by his father Abraham. And so Isaac spends a great deal of time moving around and clearing the debris from these clogged water holes. And do you know, student, I believe that the young minister of God can derive some profitable lessons from these verses. That is to say, Isaac going around digging up these wells. Because throughout our history, our spiritual forefathers had, with patience and pleasure, dug down deep into the word of God and beautifully exposed those clear, fresh, cold water wells of his virgin birth, the sinless life of Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and future coming. But you know, of late these wells have been clogged in the minds of many because of the hateful actions of the Philistine liberals and the higher critics. And therefore, I believe one of the main jobs of the young man of God today is to clean out these wells, that the life-giving fluids may once again satisfy the parched hearts of humanity. God sometimes calls a man to dig out some wells, the wells that Spurgeon and Billy Sunday and Martin Luther and John Calvin and many of these other great men in the past had once dug down into the word of God. About this same time, God appears to Isaac and Rebekah again, and they are grieved about this time because their son, at the age of 40, Esau, picks a pagan girl for his wife. And this will play an important part in our story later on, because when it comes time for Jacob to get married, because of what his brother had done, his older brother Esau had done, Isaac and his parents, especially his mother Rebekah, determines that he will not stay in the land of Palestine and marry a pagan girl as Esau, his brother, had done. So we have him again, by way of the outline, on a Jerusalem mountain, by a Hebron field in a Philistine home alongside some desert wells, and now, finally, at a supper table in his own home, the fifth geographical location. And here he is painted as the frustrated father. Isaac, at the age of 137, felt he was to the point of death, and actually he would live another 43 years and reach 180, according to Genesis 35. But he thinks he is going to die now. One of the reasons might have been that his brother Ishmael had died at 137, and he thought maybe he would die about that age, too. But in addition to this, of course, he was half blind, and apparently his faith had pretty well wavered. So he instructs Esau, his favorite son, and we'll discuss this later when we talk about the life of Jacob, to kill a deer and prepare him a venison meal that he might eat and bless him before he died. Now, apparently his spiritual condition has apparently seriously deteriorated, because his last thoughts were on his belly. It almost reminds us of Philippians 3, it speaks of the enemies of God, whose God is their belly, who mine earthly things. So he says, I'm going to die, but I want that venison steak meal before I die. Well, Rebekah, his wife, overhears this conversation between Isaac and his son, his favorite son Esau. And so she immediately enters a plot with Jacob to deceive Isaac in order that Jacob might receive the blessing. And Rebekah was right in concluding that God desired the blessing to go to Jacob, but she was totally wrong by taking matters in her own hands. Now, I had said before that I think Isaac's faith was wavering now, the reason being that even before their birth, God had told Rebekah and Isaac that they would have twins and that the elder would serve the younger. In other words, that normally the blessing and the birthright was to go through the eldest son. But God made the prophecy, and I'm sure Isaac must have known this, that the younger would receive the blessing and the birthright. But apparently now he's either forgotten it, or I probably concluded he just didn't care. But he decided that I'll give the blessing and the birthright to my favorite son, regardless of what God said. And I frankly happen to think more of Esau than I do Jacob. And then, of course, this pitted one boy against the other, because then his mother said, well, Esau is the favorite of his father, and so I'll take up for Jacob. And the family was sort of divided. You have Isaac and his mother, Rebekah, and then you have Esau and his dad, Isaac. And God, I'm sure, was grieved at this entire situation. So that's what his mother says to Jacob. Rebekah says to Jacob, well, Jacob feels the plot will never work. In spite of being half blind, the lad knew that his dad would want to lay hold hands on him and complains. He says, it won't work, Mom. Verse 11 of chapter 27, he says, because behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. He surely was in more ways than one. And very frankly, you would not have wanted to buy a used car from Jacob. In fact, the name almost indicates chiseler. And God saved him later on, but at this time he was anything but a spiritual man. He was a smooth man. Well, his mother reassures him, and she says, upon me be thy curse, my son. And she prepares Jacob for this deceitful action by cooking a dish similar to that of venison. So she cooks him up a mock venison dish, as it were. And then she dresses her boy in Esau's rough clothing. And the Bible says in verse 16 of chapter 27, that she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck. And then she pushes him in the room where her blind husband Esau, or Isaac, is there. And Jacob then presents himself to Isaac as Esau. And when Isaac asked him how he found the venison so quickly, Jacob lies. Notice what he says, because the Lord thy God brought it to me. Here's the first of many sins that Esau, that Jacob will commit. After some initial doubts, he's not quite sure. He says, the voice is the voice of Jacob. But he said, the skin is the skin of Esau. And if you say you're Esau, you must be Esau. So he gives him the blessing. And then Jacob kisses his father. And I think, student, that this is the first of three kisses of treachery in the Bible. Jacob kisses Isaac here in order to deceive him. Genesis 27. Then years later, there will be a general in David's army whose name is Joab. And he's going to kiss on the cheek another man whose name is Amasa in order to murder him. Second Samuel 20. And then, of course, the most infamous kiss of all. In Matthew 26, verse 49, Judas kisses Christ in order to betray him. Well, Jacob had no sooner walked out with the blessing, the birthright rather, the blessing upon him as given by his father than who should walk in by Esau. Who should walk in, of course, than Esau. And the plot was discovered. And Esau wails aloud over this deception. And the Bible says in Hebrews 12 that he sought it with many tears, but God had already made sure that Jacob got the blessing. And then he determines to kill his brother after his father's funeral. Rebekah learns of this plot and she asks Isaac that Jacob might be sent to Haran to seek a wife. Of course, her main reason, however, was to save his life. I told you that Esau, his brother, had married a pagan girl when he was 40. I told you this worked into our story. And it certainly does because now, by the way, Jacob at this time is 77 years old. He's not a young kid. And so his brother has been married for some 37 years. And probably Esau might have been a grandfather at this time. And Jacob is yet to get married. See, they lived much older in those days. And he's still a comparatively young man, as we would think of age today. But his mother does not want him to marry a pagan girl like Esau did. And so she says to her husband, let's send Jacob back to Haran, where I came from. And there'll be some godly girls back there, and he can find a wife there as you found me when you sent your servant. And in chapter 28, they instruct Jacob that they do not want him to marry a pagan girl. Thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. And so they send him away now. And at this point, in chapter 28, Isaac drops from the biblical account, even though he would live another 43 years. But as far as we know, he just lived them without any real accomplishment. Someone has said that Isaac was not a man who dreamed dreams and conquered continents. He was, as we said before, he was the mediocre son of a great father, Abraham, and the mediocre father of a great son, whose name was Jacob. So one final time, they outline the life of Isaac. We see him on a Jerusalem mountain, the submissive son, by a Hebron field, the gentle groom, in a Philistine home, the copycat, alongside some desert wells, the willing worker, and then finally at a supper table in his own home, the frustrated father. And at this point, we now go to the life of Jacob. In chapter 25, verses 27 to 34, we pick up the early history of the life of Jacob. We read, after their birth, that the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob. And now we read here of the devising brother. By the way, let me go through the outline very quickly that we shall follow in studying the life of Jacob. Here we go now. We'll come back and comment on this. The devising brother, the deceitful son, the dreaming pilgrim, the frustrated family man, the enterprising employee, the determined wrestler, the enraged father, the obedient patriarch, the sorrowing saint. And so those areas pretty well summarize the life of Jacob. Let's look now at the devising brother. I think the birth of these twin boys grammatically disproves the foolish claims of both the communist and socialist, and they say that hereditary and hereditary and environment determine the man's character. But you start to think both these boys have the same background, but one grew to love God later, while the other looked down upon spiritual things. Esau became a skilled hunter and the favorite of Isaac's, while Jacob was the quiet type and appealed more to his mother. Now, Jacob connives his famished brother to trade his birthright. We read about this in verse 29. Jacob sod, or he made pottage, sort of a beef stew, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. And therefore was his name called Edom, which means red. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. For some reason Jacob wanted the birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. It didn't mean he hated it, but the word despise simply means that he looked lightly upon it. He had no real concern for it. Let me just explain what the birthright involved here. This applied to certain advantages and privileges and responsibilities of first-born baby boys during the Old Testament period. And the advantages of the birthright and the privileges were that this baby would become the object of special affection, that he would legally receive a double portion of his father's estate. And if that's the case, you would wonder why Jacob or why Esau would have despised it, I mean, if he would get a double portion of his father's inheritance. Well, we're not sure, but perhaps at this time Esau or maybe Isaac could maybe possibly was not a very rich man. Later on he became rich. We don't know. But I suspect that he might have been a rich man. Well, if that's the case, then why would Esau despise his birthright? If he could have hung on to it, he could have had a double portion of the inheritance. Well, I think because of the second thing I'm going to say about the birthright, not only were there advantages, but there were responsibilities, spiritual responsibilities. And the responsibilities were that the eldest child was expected to assume the spiritual leadership to the family. And he was also required to provide food and clothing and other necessities for his mother until her death and all unmarried sisters until their marriage, until they got married. Well, I think he simply, in spite of the fact, would have inherited a double portion of his father's estate. That would have been fine, but he didn't want the responsibilities of that spiritual leadership that he would have had to assume. In the New Testament, we read the following concerning Esau and this birthright in Hebrews chapter 12, the author of the book of Hebrews says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Notice it calls him a fornicator. Now, in the Old Testament, we don't read about that, but apparently he was an immoral person. And then he was a profane person. Now, the word profane is simply a word meaning one outside the temple. That is to say that Esau had no regard whatsoever for spiritual things. And I think with all this in background in mind, much light can be thrown upon the character of Esau, who counted as nothing his birthright. All right, this brings us to the second part now of the outline. We've looked at the devising brother, how he cheated in a sense his brother. Of course, what he took from his brother, God would have legally given it to him someday. But now he gets out of the will of God and takes it in a way that God did not desire him to take it. And then secondly, the deceitful son. And we've already discussed this, how he deceives his father. And number three, then, we have the dreaming pilgrim. In chapter 28, he leaves the land of Palestine, of Hebron, in that area. And he starts in now toward Haran, there to find him a wife, but also to escape the murderous statement of his brother that, I'm going to kill my younger brother for deceiving me. And he tells him, Isaac and Rebekah bless him and tell him to leave and to go to Haran. And in verse 3, Isaac says, And God Almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. And Isaac sent away Jacob. And then, of course, he comes to the land of Haran. But before he gets there, he has a very important dream here. After a long, hard journey on his way from Beersheba in Hebron to the city of Haran, he arrives at Bethel, which was some 40 miles from Beersheba. And using a stone for a pillow, Jacob soon falls into an exhausted sleep. As he slept, the Bible tells us that he dreamed, and behold, a ladder sat up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. According to Hebrews chapter 1, verse 14, angels are the ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. And Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, had received their blessed ministry in Genesis 18, and Lot had received it in Genesis 19, and now Jacob also would share in this experience. And I believe that believers today have the privilege of being ministered to by angels. We may not always know when this takes place, but I believe it still happens. Now, at the top of this ladder in this dream, Jacob sees the presence of God himself. And for the first time, Jacob hears the Lord's voice confirming to him the Abrahamic covenant. And in verse 15, God tells him, he says, And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places, whither thou goest, and will bring thee again unto this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Now, some twenty years later, Jacob will return to the land of Palestine, and one of the first places he goes, he goes back to Bethel. All right, as he wakes out of his sleep in verse 16, he says, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! There is this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And of course, Bethel literally means the house of God. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it upon for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and rain to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. If you'll give me everything, Lord. Well, I believe that he's saved at this point, but he's certainly not sanctified. That is to say, in the sense that he's not growing in grace. But Bethel perhaps marks his salvation. It's difficult to pinpoint the salvation of Old Testament Saints. But if you have to say anywhere, here's where he was saved, I would say he was saved here. Then he finally says in verse 22, We know this is the second person in the Bible that has practiced tithing. Abraham gave tithes and offerings to Melchizedek, you remember, in Genesis 14, Jerusalem. And now he does the same, or at least he promises to do the same here, Abraham's grandson, here at the rock of Bethel. Now, finally, in fact, I think I should read this before we let him get on into Heron, a statement from Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse, concerning verse 15, where God says, I will not leave thee. Barnhouse says, Most precious of all promises is that of the presence of the Lord. He was made here to Jacob in pure grace, to Moses later, and for all the people before they crossed the Jordan with Joshua, and then to Joshua as he assumed leadership and faced battle, and to Solomon for the building of the temple. It was made to the disciples just before the Lord ascended into heaven and confirmed to us here today, I will not leave thee. Later on, we're going to study one of the greatest love stories of all time, and it will be the love story between Ruth and Boaz. And before the story takes place, though, Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, are on the other side of the Jordan River in Moab, and Ruth will say this to Naomi, I will not leave thee. And what a precious promise this is. All right, this brings us to the fourth area in our outline. We've seen the devising brother, the deceitful son, the dreaming pilgrim, and now the frustrated family man. He was frustrated like his father, Isaac, had been frustrated some years ago. Jacob arrives in Haran, and he meets his cousin and his future wife, whose name is Rachel. And after rolling away a heavy well stone, he meets her down by a stone or down by a well. Important meetings have taken place by wells. This is where Moses later will meet his wife, Zipporah, by a well. And then, of course, in the New Testament, the Samaritan woman will have her immortal soul saved by a well in John chapter 4. And so he rolls away this well stone, and he meets now Rachel, and he introduces himself, and this is accompanied by kissing and crying. And then he meets his future father-in-law, who was the brother of Rebecca, and his name is Laban, and his future father-in-law, of course. And here he meets his match. Jacob was a con man for a while, and so was Laban. And Laban had a little more experience at it. He'd been around a little longer. Jacob is so much in love with Rachel, the daughter of Laban, that he agrees to work seven years for the hands of Rachel in marriage. And here begins one of the great love stories of all time. Okay, so after the seventh year, the wedding is performed. But the next morning, Jacob realizes that he's been deceived on his wedding night, because the bride was heavily veiled. And this crafty father-in-law, he had secretly substituted his oldest girl, whose name was Leah, in place of Rachel, his youngest. And so Jacob runs running in there like a wounded bull and says, what in the world have you done? And so Laban said, oh yes, I knew there was something I forgot to tell you about. Listen, we have a custom here, and the custom is Jacob, that we don't believe the younger daughter in a family should get married before the older daughter. And so you understand what the situation is. Well, Jacob is furious. He agrees to work another seven years for Rachel without pay, because he loves her so much. But he is, however, permitted to marry her within a week. In other words, he didn't have to wait 14 years to marry her. He waited seven years and one week. You read that in Genesis chapter 29, verses 25 to 30. So after the honeymoon, a one-week honeymooning with Leah, as it were, then Jacob also has the opportunity, is allowed to marry his beloved Rachel. And even though he has to work for another seven years, he gets her after seven years and actually seven days. And then from this point on, Jacob begins to raise a family, and actually he has four wives. He has two at first, the two sisters, and then each of these daughters of Laban, Leah and Rachel, present Jacob their personal handmaidens for childbearing purposes. And one was named Bilhah, the other's named Zilpah. And so from Leah and Rachel, then the two handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah, that become his mistresses, as it were, from these four women, they give him at least 12 recorded sons and one recorded daughter. Now, he has more daughters than this, but one recorded daughter. So there are 13 children. We have their names. And let's look at these from the oldest, and her name was Leah. She gives him six. Reuben, his firstborn son, comes from Leah. And then Simeon, the second, comes from Leah. And then Levi, the third son, and these were where the priest came from, comes from also Leah. And then Issachar, or Judah, rather, his fourth son, comes from Leah. And then later on, his ninth and tenth son, Issachar and Zebulun, will come from Leah. And then she'll give him also his only recorded daughter, whose name was Dinah. So he has six boys from Leah. His first, second, third, fourth, ninth and tenth sons are born from Leah, the wife he married and didn't even realize he was marrying her. And then from Rachel, his beloved wife, she gives him two boys, Joseph, this was his eleventh son, and Benjamin, his twelfth son, from the body of Rachel, the womb of Rachel. Of course, Joseph becomes his favorite son. And then from Billa, who was Rachel's handmaiden, you almost have to have a scorecard to find out who's first here. She'll give him his fifth and sixth sons, and they're Dan and Naphtali. So these two come from the womb of Billa, who was Rachel's handmaiden. And then Zilpah, who's Leah's handmaiden, she gives him his seventh and eighth sons, and they're named Gad and Asher. So we have twelve boys here during the twenty-year period that he leaves home before he comes back to Bethel again. Let's draw some conclusions, interesting conclusions, from these births and from these passages. And this is the first one that we've already discussed. Half of Jacob's sons were born to a wife he had no intention or knowledge of marrying. And this would include, among other things, Levi, from which tribe all the priests would eventually come, and also Judah. And this tribe would eventually give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. You stop to think about that. I wouldn't have done it that way, would you, had I been God? And I was rather surprised years ago when I read this as a student many years ago at the Moody Bible Institute, and I just thought, sure, that God's original plan was for Jacob to marry Rachel, because that's what Jacob wanted to do, and that God would allow Rachel to give birth to Judah. And this would be in line, of course, of the Messianic promise there. But no, Jesus Christ came through Jacob, but he came through the womb, as it were, at least the ancestry of the womb of the older sister Leah there. And then also Levi, the tribe from which the priests came from. And another interesting fact, and we've discussed this, Leah gives Jacob his only recorded daughter, whose name was Dinah. But, of course, as I said, he had other daughters that we don't know their names. And then another interesting fact, Rachel bore him his two final and favorite sons. Joseph, of course, would become the most famous of all, and then Benjamin was the youngest. Now, one little interesting sidelight here, too. After her first four children were born, Leah became temporarily barren, and she didn't think she was going to be able to give any more children to her husband for a while. So she attempts to stimulate her womb by eating some mandrakes. This was a leafy plant, sometimes referred to as a love apple, and these were eaten by peasant women in the Near East in the belief that this would aid them in becoming pregnant. And I think Leah was now attempting to bear children with the aid of artificial methods. I think that the mandrake fruit used here serves as an illustration or an example of the various artificial and Christ-dishonoring methods used by some to fill the house of God today, such as soup suppers and oyster stews and church bazaars and bingo parties and rock-and-roll sessions. Now, listen, earthly children are only born when the bride comes into contact with the bridegroom. That's how you have children. You don't have mandrake fruit. And when the bride prays Rachel's prayer, and in chapter 30, verse 1, she says, Give me children or else I die. I think then the bridegroom will bless. All right, so we have him, we see him here now with the twelve boys and perhaps a number of daughters that are not mentioned. He's going to stay for a few more years and then they'll go home and Jacob will spend the remaining years of his life in the promised land. And this will be the subject of another lecture. Thank you.