Leah Learns to Rest

When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben for she said, “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.”  Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.  (Genesis 29:31-35)

After Leah had a child, she was alright for a while, but old habits were hard to break. Her rest between children was only temporary and she quickly went back to her previous ways. Leah was unloved by her husband Jacob. She kept trying to please him with children, hoping that she would win him over to her. That did not work for her and will not work for you.

 Leah Was Used by Her Father

The story of Jacob and Leah is a Bible example of God turning cursing to blessing, first for Leah and finally for Jacob. Their marriage was a trick pulled on Jacob by his boss, Leah’s father, Laban. Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years for his other daughter, the beautiful, Rachel. When the marriage day came, the father substituted Leah and Jacob did not know until the next morning. Jacob was reaping what he had sown. He had been swindled out of the bride he wanted in the same manner he had swindled his own father out of his brother’s birthright.  Jacob’s life of cheating others continued after the story of the birthright, and now he had to face retribution. Now he was the one being cheated.

More work was involved before Jacob could have Rachel as his wife. But Leah loved Jacob though she knew he preferred her sister. One advantage Leah had, was she could easily bear children and she did. Her sister Rachel was barren.

Leah is typical of so many women who try to win their husband’s affection by having children, hoping to make him feel obligated to love them and stay. Leah tried to win her husband’s love by works and not by faith. She put her trust in her own plotting and scheming and did not put her trust in God. But, God’s grace is still seen in the story. God was gracious to Leah by giving her many baby boys to present as sons to Jacob. After the birth of Judah, Leah began to rest in her bearing of children and in her faith. She had Judah and chose to praise the Lord and quit trying to gain Jacobs love through her works. But soon, for the second time, she went back to trying to win Jacob by having more two children.

 And Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons." So, she called his name Zebulun (Genesis 30:20).

God’s Plan, Or Our Plan

A major difference between the life of grace and the life of works is time. If you wait on the Lord, standing on His grace and promises, the answer will come, but usually not as soon as your flesh wants it. Often, while waiting in faith, we become frustrated and switch to trying to get our answers ourselves, by our own strength. We do this, knowing full well God says, “not by might or power but by My Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6).

The works of the flesh seem to offer a quicker solution. After all we know people in high places, capable of helping us. We remember old tricks we have used in the past which brought answers, why not use them again? The problem with our own devices is they do not bring lasting results. The prosperity brought on by our own ideas will run out of our hands. God’s answers may take longer, but they are sure, and the results can be passed on from one generation to another, to our children and children’s children.

The Power of Patience

Why does God’s plans take longer than ours? Time helps develop character. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we have need of patience, so after we have done the will of God we might receive the promise (Hebrews 6:12). We are more interested in the results of our faith than developing character. God wants us to be a better believer by the time the answer comes. God knows, and we should too, that trials and storms will come before the answer arrives. He wants to see how we handle the storms before He will see us over to the other side where our prayers and faith are answered. He wants to know if we will give up when the pressure is great. It is not the storm that makes us strong, but the faith we use in the storm that builds us up.

Leah became the classic example of doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. What she strived for in her own strength she eventually found in her faith. We are not told all the reasons why, but Jacob eventually found a deep love for Leah. And, at his death, Jacob was buried beside Leah, not Rachel. It could be the old adage, when we get the thing we so wanted, it is usually not as good as we imagined.

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Philip: The Skeptical Disciple

Are you a skeptic? When a group is asked for opinions on a project, are you the one who usually tells why it won’t work? You tell people you are just being a realist, looking at all the variables, but you are the one everyone knows will be against the proposal. You fear being wrong if it fails. But the root of the problem is, you don’t like change. You are comfortable with things the way they are.

Jesus had a disciple who was a skeptic, Philip. This is not the Philip of Acts six who was known as the first New Testament evangelist. This is one of Jesus’ twelve - His closest followers. Philip was the one that when tested with a situation needing faith, voiced opposition, quoted remote possibilities, and thought any attempt to accomplish the venture was futile or a waste of time.

The twelve disciples were from varied backgrounds and nationalities.  Each one can show us God can use anyone. So, take comfort you who are skeptics.

Discovery and Background of Philip

“The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”  Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”  Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”  Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”  Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1: 43-51)

Philip is only mentioned in one other gospel, Matthew 10:3. Without John we may have known nothing about Philip. John also mentioned he was from the city of Andrew and Peter.  This gives us his relationship to some of the other disciples. He is Jewish by birth and religion, but he had a Greek name. His parents were apparently open to Greek culture. This may be one reason why Jesus chose him.

Philip and Nathanael were apparently close friends who studied the early prophets together. Jesus found Philip by the leading of the Holy Spirit.  But Philip was already seeking Jesus through the word.  Philip knew Jesus was Messiah when he met and talked with him.

Nathanael questioned Jesus because Old Testament scripture didn’t say He would come from Nazareth. The Pharisees said the same to Nicodemus, “Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee” (John 7:52). But Nathaniel believed in Him when, through a word of knowledge, Jesus said he had seen him sitting under a fig tree.

Jesus Tests Philip

“And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”  But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” (John 6:3-7)

Philip must have been an accountant, a bean counter, tight. His human talents and reasoning were getting in the way. This is why we are to cast down reasonings that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). His answer was that two hundred denarius represented almost one year’s salary for one person. Perhaps the moneybag held about that much money.  Also, his lightening quick financial brain spread out that amount of money over the large number of men alone in the crowd. “I have calculated over five thousand men besides women and children. It would take one year’s salary just to give everyone a little bit. We could spend all we have, and everyone would have just a little.”

It is amazing that Philip did not grow in faith, rather regressed after his point of salvation. This is the first of two events where Philip showed his skepticism and later his total reluctance to take a public stand at all for knowing Jesus.

Philip is Reluctant to Speak About Jesus

“Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus” (John 12:20-22).

The Greeks who came to the feast of Passover were interested in meeting Jesus. They probably overheard the disciples speaking to one with a Greek name, Philip. They approached him and asked to see Jesus. But he passed it off to others. These men were not even a threat, members of the Sanhedrin wanting to arrest Jesus and His followers. Yet, Philip went to Andrew first. Then Andrew and Philip went to Jesus. Philip was again a disappointment to Jesus.

Unbelieving Philip

Philip has been three years with Jesus now and has so regressed in faith, he will ask Jesus to show him God the Father so he can see Him with his eyes.

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”  Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves” (John 14:7-11).

By now Philip should be instructing others but he has to be taught again the introductory levels of faith (Hebrews 5:12). He believed immediately in Jesus when he first met him. He has not allowed the teaching or the miracles of Jesus to turn around his own skepticism. His calculating mind has come up short again.

Philip’s Turnaround Happened at the Upper Room

“And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James” (Acts 1:13).

We often think of Thomas and Peter, how their lives were changed dramatically at Pentecost. But Philip’s life was changed in the upper room as well. The Bible does not record his ministry after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but church history does. Philip went to Scythia, part of southern Russia, and settled in Hierapolis, near Laodicea. He helped carry the gospel into Europe. He reminds us God can use ordinary, calculating, skeptical people as disciples. He can use any person out of any color, race, gender, lifestyle, religion, mindset, or congregation. The lesson you should learn is - if Philip could mature and grow, so can you.

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Caleb: It Is How You Finish

Have you reached the point of retirement, or facing that time shortly? Do you see each day as if your life is winding down? Are you already planning more for your death than what is left of your life? Do you feel as if your calling is coming to an end? Maybe It’s time to conquer something new. The hero we are going to study today, asked for a new project at eighty-five years old. I don’t find that Caleb was led by God to take on a mountain in his later years or conquer the Anakim. He asked for a new project and God gave him one.

I believe you have a lot to do with your length of life, health and overall attitude of joy and fulfillment. Life is not a settled time determined by God alone. There are things you can do to add “length of days” and “live long on the earth.” If you do not have a vision for the latter days of your life, then ask God for one. Caleb did.

Without a Vision You Will Perish

My doctor told me something important as I reached my mid-sixties. He told me most men die within a year or two after retirement if they have nothing to do except fish or hunt. They have been so used to working and having something to do each day, they die soon for lack of a goal each day.

The pastor who began the church I pastored was approaching his seventies and retirement and losing his vision and hearing. His step daughter was in trouble financially and with her health. She was going to have to give up her new born son to foster care. Her step father and mother adopted the son, their grandson, and raised him. At seventy, this former pastor gained a whole new need to live and raise this boy in the ways of God. Within a few months, his hearing and vision returned. In his eighties he was attending his son’s baseball games and school functions.  The boy went to college and is married now and his father, my former pastor, died at ninety-seven years old. Like Abraham, he found a new reason to live. “With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:16). God wants to satisfy you with long life.

Caleb’s Introduction at Cadesh-Barnea

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.

So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.

Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of the tribe of Ephraim, Joshua the son of Nun.” (Numbers 13: 1-3, 6, 8)

After one year in the wilderness, the children of Israel came to the boarders of the promise land and Moses sent in twelve spies, the heads of each of the twelve tribes. Of the twelve, only two came back with a report that Israel could take the land and the inhabitants. The other ten were afraid of the giants.

God had previously told the Israelites they were already the owners of the land, but only two remembered God’s promise, Joshua and Caleb. These two compared the giants to God and the other ten compared the giants to themselves. You will never win if you compare yourself to the enemy. But you cannot lose if you compare the enemy to God. “If God be for you, who can be against you?” (Romans 8:31)

Caleb and Joshua Stand on the Lord’s Side

“And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go in at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who searched the land, tore their clothes: Doubtless you will not come into the land, of which I swore to allow you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.” (Numbers 13:30,14:6,30)

Not only did Caleb and Joshua come back with a report of faith, they stood by their decision when all the other leaders were against them. They were not swayed by the multitude, but by God’s promise. God said of the entire generation that left Egypt, only two would go into Canaan, Joshua and Caleb.

Caleb’s Career

Caleb and Joshua were the only two who came from Egypt, crossed the wilderness and entered Canaan.  All others of the first generation died in the wilderness over the next thirty-nine years because of unbelief.

Caleb saw the oppression of slavery in Egypt, but also saw the rise of Moses to deliver. He saw the ten miracles performed by God through Moses on the land of Egypt. He participated in crossing the Red Sea and witnessed the drowning of the Egyptian army behind.

Caleb saw the death of Moses and experienced the transition of leadership to himself and Joshua. He and Joshua led the second generation, born in the desert, into Canaan. Together they won battles against large cities and small. They overtook small and large armies and in one case conquered five armies who united against them. God fought with Israel and they took the land promised to Abraham and divided it among the tribes of Jacob’s sons.

The Reflections of Caleb

“And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.  Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.” (Joshua 14:10-12)

Many begin well but finish poorly, or do not finish at all. King Saul, Lot, Samson, Solomon and Demas are a few in the Bible.

Caleb had no problem finishing well. He looked to the God who began the work to also finish it in him. Like a huge marathon of runners, the beginning of a race sees thousands take off at the gunshot, but few cross the finish line. Most give up somewhere along the line. Beginning is not a problem, finishing is.

Abraham began at seventy-five to become the father of all believers. At ninety-nine he became a father and began the Jewish race also. Moses began at eighty to be the deliverer of Israel. He led them through the wilderness until he was one hundred and twenty.

Now, our hero Caleb, at eighty-five took a mountain and the largest giants of Canaan who lived there, the Anakim. The Anakim were the ones who put fear into the hearts of the ten spies. They reported to the people of Israel, “we were as grasshoppers in their sight.”  Caleb was successful in killing most of the Anakim and driving out the remainder of them from Canaan.

Caleb’s Final Days and His Generosity

“Now it was so, when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. So she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?”  She answered, “Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water.” So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.” (Joshua 15:18, 19)

Caleb’s daughter was included in the inheritance given to him. She had already received a large piece of land in the south and now asked for more. Caleb knew his life was coming to an end and was generous to her. He thought more of others, including his daughter, and provided for his children and grandchildren in the coming generations. After all, our blessings in life, given to us by God, are for us, our children and our children’s children.

Reflections of an Older Man

Now that I am in my seventies, I can say with David, “I have been young and now am old, yet, I have never seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed (children) begging bread” (Psalm 37:25). If you will stick with God and His plan for your life, and maintain your vision and joy, you will be one of the few finishers in a huge field of starters.

How many people do you remember who attended your church years ago and were excited for what God had planned for their lives are still around? Where are most of them today? How many pastors were passionate to win souls and disciple believers years ago are still in the ministry today? Our national average says only one out of ten pastors will finish.

When I went to Bible School in the early seventies, there were thirty-five in my graduating class. All were excited to begin their ministries pastoring churches, evangelizing their cities or going to mission fields around the world. Ten years later, at our reunion, only ten showed up. Our Bible School director said more than twenty had given up, took secular jobs and were no longer in the ministry. Even Paul in Second Timothy chapter four, told of many who had begun with him and were no longer in the ministry.

Let your motto be, “no matter how strong the opposition, I will get up each morning and put one foot in front of the other, I will be a plodder. I may be as slow as the turtle, but I will win the race over the rabbits who took off fast but have given up. It’s not how many started with me, but how many finish. I am not just a starter, I am a finisher. I will finish my race and I will keep the faith. I may not be remembered by many in life, but God will shout from the housetops of heaven what I did in secret in life. And there is a prize laid up for me in heaven.”

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Jonah and Jesus

“Show Us A Sign”

“Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.” Matthew 12:38-41

Jesus answered the Pharisees that the only sign they will get is the sign of of the Prophet Jonah. Because He makes a comparison between Jonah and Himself in these verses when He refers to Himself as “one greater than Jonah,” we must look at what happened to Jonah in the belly of the whale in order to realize the significance of what happened to “one greater than Jonah” in the belly of the earth.

Often the story of Jonah is interpreted to mean that you shouldn’t run from the call of God. If you do, He has a big whale waiting for you. However, this is not the essence of the story at all. In fact, Jonah wasn’t running from God. He was running from having to tell the Gentiles about God! He was very much like the religious Pharisees of Jesus’ day that wanted to see a sign from Him. He was jealous and possessive of God’s message. In Jonah’s mind salvation belonged to the Jews and he didn’t want to take the Jewish message to the Gentiles of Ninevah.

Cast Out of God’s Sight

Jonah 1:17 we learn that… “the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, Jesus would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

We learn what took place in the whale in Jonah 2:1-3. “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me.”

Verse 4 says, “Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’” When Jesus died on the cross He was cast out of God’s sight when He went to the heart of the earth. In Matthew 5:25-26, Jesus is saying, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” In the natural Jesus was talking about a civil case, but on a spiritual level, He was referring to the time when He would be cast into the prison of the heart of the earth. Also, we can assume that Jesus’ spiritual adversary is Satan. Although Jesus is saying to agree with your adversary in order to avoid the consequences, we know that He could never agree with Satan. Therefore, Jesus had to suffer the consequences described in these verses. He was “delivered to the judge” when He was placed on the cross where His Father stood in judgement over Him. At this time the Father had to turn His back on His Son and this caused Jesus to cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Then Jesus was “turned over to the officer.” More exactly, He was legally turned over to the devil and was cast into the prison of hell. Remember, according to Matthew 5:26, He could not come out until He had paid the last penny, the entire debt. Then, and only then, would hell have to release Him.

Other Parallels Between Jesus and Jonah

“But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (Jonah 2:9-10). Just as Jonah was vomited out upon dry land, Jesus was spit out from the heart of the earth. This can only mean He must have paid the entire debt for mankind!

After Jonah came out of the fish’s belly, the Lord told him to arise (Jonah 3:2). Likewise, when Jesus came out of the heart of the earth, He “arose”, or more explicitly, He “rose again” in that He was resurrected.

When the Lord spoke to Jonah this time, he obeyed and went to Ninevah. As Jonah walked through the great city of Nenevah, …he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4) Why did God want him to warn the people of imminent destruction? It was God’s desire to give them a chance to repent and He knew that their repentance would stave off destruction. The people heard Jonah and repented. As a result, “then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it” (Jonah 3:10). A parallel is found n the forty days of grace which God gave to Ninvah and the forty days Jesus walked the earth in His resurrected body before He ascended into heaven.

Jonah preached a simple message of repentance during these forty days. In the same manner, Jesus’ message was the simple plan of redemption to turn from old ways and turn towards Him. When we believe, we too are saved from destruction. We should all have been destroyed, but Jesus took our place. Our destruction has been stayed. Furthermore, when destruction does come - and it will - God will spare believers just as He spared the repentant people of Ninevah. Isn’t that good news?

One Greater Than Jonah is Here!

When we come back to Matthew 12:41, Jesus is speaking to the unbelieving Pharisees who would not accept Him as Messiah even though He personally preached to them, “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.” This is truly an indictment against religious people. Jesus tells them that their wickedness is greater than the wickedness of the people of Ninevah since Ninevah acknowledged their wickedness and repented on hearing Jonah’s preaching. These Pharisees who seem outwardly moral and so inwardly wicked that even the preaching of “one greater than Jonah,” the Lord Jesus Christ, will not bring them to repentance; therefore, they must be judged. These men had their chance to turn from spiritual death and they refused. Simply by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior they could have avoided this. Believers don’t have to pay the wages of sin and spiritual death because Jesus went to the cross and suffered in hell for them. While in hell, He paid the price to the very last penny.

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