Pastor Lonnie’s sermon Sunday was titled “Eyeing the Blessing.” The scripture reading was Genesis 29:16-35, the story of Jacob working for his Uncle Laban for seven years in order to be able to marry the beautiful Rachel. However, Laban deceived him, and gave him the older daughter, Leah, saying that it was the custom for the older daughter to be married first. Leah had weak eyes, but Joseph only had eyes for Rachel. Laban agreed to give him Rachel, if he would work for seven more years. Jacob (meaning ‘the deceiver’) had met his match. So in less than a month, he obtained two wives, for whom he had to work 14 years.
Genesis 29:31 tells us that God is a seeing God. He saw that Leah was not loved, and opened her womb. She had a son and named him Ruben (the Lord has seen my misery) and thought that surely Jacob would love her now. She conceived again, and named this son Simeon (one who hears) because the Lord heard that she was not loved so He gave her this one too. She conceived again, naming this son Levi (attached), saying that at last her husband would become attached to her because she gave him three sons. Then she conceived again, and when she gave birth to another son, she named him
Can you imagine being Leah? She feels rejected, far from loved, desperate; nobody is seeking her. But God is a seeing, seeking God. The names she gives her sons reveal her perception of herself. God doesn’t work on others—he works on us. It took Leah four times to realize her value comes from God, not from her husband, or her sons, but from God.
In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, we see that Jesus descended from
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