Promises can be either reassuring, or heartbreaking. Promises can either bring hope, or their breaking can dash hopes.
Think of Jacob—on his own, now married, two wives, eleven sons and one daughter, far from family he hasn’t seen in over fourteen years… The promise of God is so important: that God is committed to him, that God will bring him back, that God will make his family like the dust in number, that God will change the world through Jacob’s family. And look at that family!
This promise of God is a statement of profound grace—and it calls from Jacob obedience to the good and trustworthy word of God. That lies—as we will see—at the heart of this bizarre path of Jacob’s enriching. This is not a formula for financial success but a statement of grace received by faithful obedience!
What a dysfunctional family! What a mess that human sin has left! What good can come out of such a mess?
Now, as we read this section, please remember Genesis 28:15 - God is with Jacob until His promises are fulfilled. And one of those promises is that Jacob will have offspring as numerous as ‘the dust of the earth’ (28:14). One of those promises is that through Jacob’s kids, God will bless the world.
SO, as we watch the LORD see, and intervene for, the unloved (both Leah and Rachel), we see the good that comes out of the disciplining disappointment of the Father with His people: a brood of twelve boys, and one girl, who will grow to be the twelve tribes of God’s mob!
It’s often easy to see God working in the good times in our lives. But, where is God when things get hard?
In Genesis 29 Jacob is forced to face the consequences of his sin and faces some challenging times.
But this does not mean that God has left him. In fact, it is these very challenges that God will use to shape Jacob into the father of the Israelites.
God did not abandon Jacob in his suffering—God will not abandon us in our suffering. But in His grace, He uses it to shape us to be the people He wants us to be.
