Jacob’s Marriages
Introduction
Every night before we put him to bed, Emily or I would pray and typically read a story from the Biggest Story Bible by Kevin DeYoung to our firstborn (Luca). And lately, I’ve been trying to train him to say “God” more regularly as we teach him that the whole Bible is about God and that each Bible story is about God. Yet, whenever he sees Goliath, he points to it and says, “Dad.”
Often times, we tend to think of the most popular Bible stories by naming the main characters (like Abraham or Isaac or David), but almost never name God. Even last week, I heard someone ask: does the Bible ever talk about Jacob’s ladder? Or is it God’s ladder? And today, we will again see that the main character in this familiar story is not Jacob—but God.
This passage today marks the second day of Jacob’s journey towards Haran (28:10) when Jacob wakes up from this supernatural encounter with God, acknowledges YHWH’s presence, then makes a vow to him. What started off as an escape plan for Jacob (27:41-45) is now slowly becoming—to Jacob—God’s plan for him!
Now, I use the word “slowly” because notice how Jacob’s physical journey runs parallel with his spiritual journey of faith—which seems to be at its beginning phase based on the language of Jacob’s vow: “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go [in other words, if God keeps his promises to me]… then the Lord shall be my God” (28:20-21).
Last week, Jordan rightly emphasized that this vow shows us more of a change in Jacob’s heart than anything. The Jacob who would deceive his brother to get food and clothing is now the Jacob that depends on God for those very things—especially for such a long journey to Haran!
Yet, the “if-then” language in Jacob’s vow seems to hint that this change of heart is likely in its early stages. In the same way that Jacob bargains for Esau’s birthright, the NIV Study Bible comments that maybe Jacob “the bargainer” is still being good-old Jacob here—but nonetheless, Jacob continues on this journey by faith (even if it might not be in its full form): “Then Jacob went on his journey” (29:1).
And what motivates Jacob’s continued journey from here on out? God’s promise to him: “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (28:15). So we cannot miss the fact that the narrated events throughout Jacob’s journey to Haran and back to Canaan (ch. 33) and Bethel (ch. 35) all hinge on this promise. God is the one who will orchestrate all that is about to happen in Jacob’s s journey.
And in our passage today (Gen. 29:1-30:24), we will continually see that God providentially guides Jacob throughout this whole journey as he meets the right people that lead him to Laban—even through all the deception and dysfunction that we will see in this episode—in order for God to come through on his promise to bring Jacob back to the promised land and inherit the promised blessing.
So in this three-part scene of Jacob’s Journey, let’s look at the first part in verses 1-8 when Jacob Meets the Shepherds.
Jacob’s Journey
Jacob Meets the Shepherds (29:1-8)
In verse 1, the narrator tells us that Jacob journeyed “and came to the land of the people of the east.” Throughout Genesis, the idea of journeying to the east signifies exile from Eden (Gen. 3:24)—and in Jacob’s case, this is ironically the beginning of his exile from the Promised Land. Guess who sent him away from Canaan? His own father, Isaac (Gen. 28:5), who urges him to take a wife from his uncle out east instead of a Canaanite wife.
And this general detail on "the east” is interesting because, in chapter 28, the narrator specifies Jacob’s destinations. We know that he "went to Paddan-aram” (Gen. 28:5) and “toward Haran” (Gen. 28:10).
So why the ambiguity in chapter 29?
We see why in the following verses. In verse 2, Jacob—likely exhausted from this long journey on foot (at least a few hundred miles), depending only on YHWH each day for food and drink—now looks and sees a well in a field somewhere, as well as a flock of sheep and a few shepherds (who were waiting to water the sheep according to verse 3)—so Jacob makes his way there and asks them: “My brothers, where do you come from?”
Jacob has no idea where he is, or where his final destination is. This might be hard for us to imagine because we are so used to maps on our phones and signs on our roads everywhere. But Jacob would’ve had next to nothing to guide him.
And the narrator wants us to see this from Jacob’s perspective, who journeyed on—holding nothing in his hands, except for God’s promise to keep him wherever he goes. And whether Jacob realizes it or not, God is keeping his promise—as evidenced by the shepherds’ response in verse 4:
“‘We are from Haran.’ [So Jacob] said to them, ‘Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?’ They said, ‘We know him.’ He said to them, ‘Is it well with him?' They said, 'It is well, and… Rachel his daughter [she’s one of us, and she’s] coming with the sheep!”
Coincidence? No—providence.
Which we see the rest of the way, including verses 7-8 when Jacob tells the shepherds to water the sheep even though it was “not the time” to do so because it was too hot in the “high day.” But it was during this “wrong” time that Jacob meets the right people at the right time—especially in the second part of this scene (verses 9-12) when Jacob Meets Rachel.
Jacob Meets Rachel (29:9-12)
“While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother” (29:9-10).
While this is not the marriage scene (yet), it also foreshadows Jacob and Rachel’s eventual marriage. Throughout the OT, meetings at the well are typically associated with future spouses (Ex. 2:16-21)—the most recent one being Abraham’s servant & Rebekah (Gen. 24). But at this point in the story, we are not told about Jacob’s affections for Rachel as we are in verse 18—so what’s going on here?
In verse 3, the narrator dropped some hints that help us to understand this part of the scene. We know that the stone was “large,” so the shepherds would roll the stone away together (likely because it was heavy)—and they would only do so at the right time when all the flocks were there. But in verse 10, Jacob sees Rachel and immediately rolls the stone away for her. Whether he’s shepherd strong or supernaturally strong (since God is with him), we are not told—but he does it. Why does Jacob do this? Was Rachel just that beautiful? (Like, “let me get that for you my lady”).
Again, we are not told the romantic details until verse 17—so it’s likely because (as the shepherds informed him) Jacob realizes that Rachel is related to “Laban his mother’s brother,” a phrase that the narrator repeats 3x in two verses to emphasize its importance.
This also explains why, in verse 11, Jacob kisses her (on the cheek—a custom greeting in the Ancient Near East, especially for blood relatives). Then, in verse 12, Jacob tells her that he’s related to her. At this point, Jacob greets his cousin Rachel and cries because he has finally found Rachel who will help him find the one he is looking for (which is Laban, his mother’s brother).
And whether or not Jacob realizes it, God is the one who helped and guided him to the shepherds and Rachel to find Laban, which we see in the third part of this scene (verses 13-14) when Jacob Meets Laban.
III. Jacob Meets Laban (29:13-14)
After Rachel ran ahead and told her father, [and] “as soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son [note the emphasis on family line there], he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him [warm familial greeting] and brought him to his house [Middle eastern hospitality at its finest]” (29:13-14).
As a good host, Laban would’ve likely put food on table—especially upon realizing that his nephew has been travelling all this time to find him. Likely over the table, “Jacob told Laban all these things [likely his mother and father’s instructions to find Laban and take a wife from this daughters], and Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh!’” It’s as if Jacob were Laban’s own son who had come home (like the father’s response to his prodigal son in Luke 15)—we see a picture of a warm family reunion, and Jacob stays with him for a month. All is well.
Or is it?
Everything looks good right now, but there’s more than meets the eye. How do we know this? Well, we have seen Laban do the same thing in the past with Abraham’s servant (Gen. 24:29-33). And based on what we clearly find out about his character in the future, not everything is the way that it seems.
It’s like those scenes in a survival show when the survivors find a sanctuary, and they rejoice because they are finally safe. But the ominous music plays and the camera focuses in on the new character and his warm, inviting smile as he feeds the survivors and gives them shelter, which is supposed to give you a hint: This place is no sanctuary, and this person is up to no good—which we see right away in the next scene revolving around Jacob’s Marriages zooms in on Jacob and Laban making deals with each other that is ultimately influenced by Laban’s deception.
Jacob’s Marriages
Deals & Deception (29:15-30)
One month later, we find out that Jacob has been working for Laban without pay when the scene dramatically opens with Laban asking his nephew: “Tell me, what shall your wages be?” (29:15). Now, we’re not told what all happened in the past month, but the background details (Gen. 29:16-18a) between Laban’s question and Jacob’s answer are again supposed to give us hints on what likely led to this interchange.
As Jacob likely told Laban earlier, he was there to find a wife—so the details on Laban’s two daughters shouldn’t surprise us, but the emphasis here is on Jacob’s greater affection for the younger and better-looking daughter. Jacob likely worked as a shepherd with Laban’s flock (Gen. 30:29), which meant that he would’ve spent a lot more time with Rachel (Gen. 29:9). So, it makes sense that Jacob loved Rachel—thus, his deal: “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel” (29:18b).
Typically, with marital arrangements back then, the man’s father usually gave a bride price or dowry to the bride’s parents. What is ironic here is that Jacob could’ve offered plenty (and he shouldn’t have even needed wages) since he was blessed by his father with everything, but he left his home without anything in his hands—so, Jacob is forced to work with his hands and offer his service in exchange for Rachel. Laban then affirms Jacob as his kin and agrees to his 7-year deal, which is essentially a 7-year betrothal (Gen. 29:19).
Can you imagine what these 7 years would’ve been like for Jacob? He would’ve continued to work closely with Rachel and his love for her would undoubtedly have gotten much stronger (and likely Rachel’s for him, though we’re not told that). And in what felt like 7 days to Jacob (Gen. 29:20), this 7 year betrothal would’ve been full of anticipation for their wedding night (much of what we see throughout the Song of Songs).
So, when his time was complete, Jacob went to Laban to claim his wife and consummate their marriage (Gen. 29:21). Laban is silent, but organizes a wedding feast (as was custom, Gen. 29:22). And on the first night of the wedding feast—which is where this 7-year wait/anticipation builds up to and finds its climax—Jacob spends the wedding night with Laban’s daughter in the darkness of the wedding chamber (Gen. 29:23).
And it’s not until the next morning, when the wedding wine has likely passed through Jacob’s system and the light breaks through this dark chamber, that Jacob sees clearly—not only who his newlywed really is, but also who his father-in-law really is (Gen. 29:25).
But the irony here is this: in the same way that Jacob deceived Isaac who couldn’t see in his blindness, Laban now deceives Jacob who couldn’t see in the dark. In fact, Jacob’s complaint to Laban about his deceit mirrors Isaac’s grievance to Esau about Jacob’s deceit (Gen. 27:35) On top of that, the one who tricked his dad as the “firstborn” is now tricked by a dad with his firstborn.
So Laban gives his reasoning in verses 26: “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.”
If this was their cultural custom, then Leah (and Rachel) would’ve likely expected that Leah would be the first one to be given away for marriage. A lot of people unfairly assume that Leah deceived Jacob along with Laban, but the fact that Laban gave Leah a servant on the wedding night (which scholars say was a custom gift from a bride-to be’s father back then before giving her away) tells us that Leah expected to be Jacob’s bride—along with Rachel and Laban’s countrymen.
The text doesn’t tell us that Leah (or even Rachel) was privy to the deal that Jacob and Laban made with each other. So, this tells us that Laban alone was responsible for deceiving Jacob as a foreigner—which we see further evidence of in verse 27: “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.”
Not only does Laban deceive Jacob, but he also outsmarts and takes advantage of Jacob in this deal—much like Jacob did with Esau and his birthright. What we are seeing here is the biblical concept of retribution. What Jacob did to others (like his blind father and his hungry brother) is now being done to him (and we know later on Laban gets the tables turned on him too). But who was behind all of this? Not Laban, but God.
Remember—God is the one who brought Jacob here, and he is the one keeping Jacob here. God, in his providence, uses deceptive Laban to teach deceptive Jacob a lesson. And what’s the purpose of this lesson?
As Bruce Waltke suggests, “God’s divine providence becomes a means of discipline to transform Jacob’s character” (Waltke, p.399). It is through these deals and deception that God keeps his promise to Jacob (while disciplining Jacob in the process).
So, Jacob submits to Laban’s leverage by completing Leah’s wedding week in order to take Rachel as his wife (who also gets a servant before being given away like Leah). Jacob finally gets what he worked for, but at the cost of another 7 years unlike the first 7.
Because the next 7 years are featured in the next scene revolving around Jacob’s Sons that are full of Duels & Dysfunction, which is set up by the ominous statement in verse 30: “And he loved Rachel more than Leah.”
Jacob’s Sons
Duels & Dysfunction (29:31-30:24)
“When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (29:31).
Two observations should be noted right away. By starting the scene with this detail, the narrator makes it clear that 1) YHWH still is, and will be, the main orchestrator of the following events behind the scenes, and 2) God’s sovereignty in the womb precedes human responsibility.
What do these mean? We can draw 2 main meanings: 1) Children are a blessing from the Lord (Ps. 127:3), and 2) God gives them to achieve his purpose. We’re going to flesh out the implications of this and what this looks like later (in the do and dont’s section), but these are two foundational ideas that will govern the rest of this scene.
We see right away that Leah acknowledges these things in the birth of her children. And note that for each childbirth in this scene, there is a pattern: A name is given, and the reason why the name was given (which is closely tied to the meaning of the Hebrew name).
First, Reuben—because God saw her affliction. Second, Simeon—because God heard her prayers about being hated or loved less. But we see a different angle with her third son, Levi—because she hopes that Jacob will now be attached to her, which was implicit with Reuben when she hoped that Jacob would finally love her.
While Leah wrongly sees her kids as a means towards Jacob’s approval, she rightly credits God for the birth of her children in faith. This was especially clear in the birth of her fourth son, Judah, when she simply says: “This time I will praise the Lord.” (29:35).
This is how we rejoice when children are born—praise the Lord for his gift. It is such good news when we hear about pregnancy announcements or baby showers in our church, and we need to rejoice with those who are expecting because we’re celebrating the Lord’s gift to his beloved (Psalm 127:1-3)!
So, with much joy and praise to the Lord, Leah’s child-bearing ceases, and we find out later on that this is the line where the Messiah would eventually come from—so the chapter ends on a positive, faith-filled note.
However, we see the opposite in the next chapter when the camera suddenly shifts towards Rachel and her negative, faithless disposition: “When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I shall die!’” (30:1).
Up to this point, we’ve only heard about Rachel’s bodily features and how Jacob loved her more than Leah because of that. Now, we get our first glimpse of Rachel’s heart through her first words—and we see an example of an envious, emotionally manipulative and quarrelsome wife.
There’s some lessons to be learned here for young Christian men who settle for young Christian women who look good on the outside without digging deep enough to see if they look good on the inside as well. What’s one way to measure that? Her tongue. And this is our measure on the beautiful and attractive Rachel. Don’t be like Jacob who falls for this (both the woman and the ruse) and do your homework (students in the room).
Because you don’t want to be reading the Proverbs on the quarrelsome wife (Prov. 25:24; 27:15) when you’re sharing a house with one. Otherwise, you’re going to have a lot of frustrating dialogue like this: “Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, 'Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’” (30:2)
Jacob, for the first time, shows glimpses of spiritual leadership and rebukes his envious wife with the truth about God—which is for us today. God is sovereign over giving the fruit of the womb or taking away the fruit of the womb (as many of you know, we saw both cases in a matter of one week). Bittersweet, and yet we say “Blessed be your name.” But in Rachel’s case, God withheld the fruit of her womb in the first place—as Jacob reminds her.
But unfortunately, Rachel’s response in verse 3 continues to show her unattractive, faithless heart when she commands Jacob to have children with her slave. And how does Jacob respond in verse 4: “Yes ma’am.”
The Jacob from verse 2 (the example to follow) somehow vanishes in verse 4 (this reminds us of how Abram responded to Sarai with Hagar).
He goes on to have two children with Bilhah for Rachel’s sake (Gen. 30:5-8), and the quarrelsome wife gets what she wants. Rachel claims that God had judged or vindicated her prayer (Dan), and that she has won the wrestling match with her sister (Naphtali). You can almost imagine Rachel’s smirks of triumph that she would’ve given Leah after each child was born.
Which is interesting because from a selfish, sinful standpoint, one would think that Leah still has the upper hand with four of her kids to Rachel’s two. And yet, the camera shifts back to Leah who realizes, “Oh no, I’ve stopped bearing children, and Rachel has gotten two already—I gotta get my game on!”
So Leah, who at first only sought her husband’s approval, now also engages her sister in this children’s competition (double entendre here). What’s worse is that she mimics Rachel’s faithlessness in forcing Jacob upon her slave, Zilpah (Gen. 30:9-13)—who gives birth to Gad (which Leah now attributes to good fortune rather than God’s blessing) and Asher (because Leah is so happy that other women would call her blessed).
Then, in verses 14-15, we hear about this seemingly random account where Rachel trades a night with Jacob for Reuben’s mandrakes (which tells us, not just Reuben’s age, but also how long this duel has lasted). However, scholars say that mandrakes were plants/fruits that back then were believed to increase fertility rates (Song 7:13)—so Rachel here is likely trying an unconventional strategy to hopefully gain the upper hand.
Meanwhile, Leah makes the trade and claims her conjugal rights that night with her hired slave—which wasn’t Bilhah or Zilpah, but Jacob (30:16). Have you noticed how Jacob has resorted to being a yes man to his two delusional wives and a tool in their dysfunctional duels? This is a sad moment, because Leah (who is unloved by Jacob) now also sees Jacob as a mere commodity to be used. Another lesson can be learned here about maintaining the beauty of a biblical marriage through the years.
Regardless, the detail given in verse 17 is that "God listened to Leah [likely her prayers]” and she bore two more sons. However, she misinterprets God’s answer to her prayer as God’s reward (Issachar, Gen. 30:18) for her faithlessness prior, as well as God’s endowment/gift (Zebulun, Gen. 30:19-20) that supposedly seals Jacob’s approval.
Then, in verse 21, she gives birth to a daughter named Dinah, but no meaning is tied to her name since the focus in this section is the birth of the twelve tribes of Israel. While feminism might use this as an attack on the Bible’s “misogyny,” the fact that Dinah is mentioned in this part of Scripture actually shows that God values, not just all of life, but women.
So, with Leah having 6 sons and 1 daughter, the camera shifts back to Rachel once more—and despite her past records, verse 22 says that “God remembered Rachel.” Remember that the last time we heard about Rachel was during the mandrake account where she tried her own hand at fertility, and the narrator makes sure to remove any credit from Rachel and her mandrakes, and give every credit to God and his remembrance of Rachel.
Plus, the detail that “God listened to her” suggests that Rachel likely gave up on her own efforts at pregnancy and gave her requests to the Lord in prayer instead. So, God saw it fit to open her womb when “she conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.’ And she called his name Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord add to me another son!’” (Gen. 30:23-24).
While the competition between children seems to have faded for Rachel here, we know that these duels and dysfunction will eventually go down the line with Jacob’s sons—but the chapter ends with a glimmer of hope and looks forward to God’s promise being fulfilled through these sons.
This section in Genesis ends with God as the main orchestrator behind the scenes. From Jacob’s journey in meeting the right people at the right time to Jacob’s marriages that lead to Jacob’s sons, God uses all of these to keep his promise to Jacob.
Dos & Don’ts
So what lessons can we learn from all this? I see two main areas to draw from in this episode of Genesis—the first relating to marriage, and the second relating to children.
- Marriage
Keep in mind that the narrator describes—not prescribes—these marriages. I think it goes without saying: Men, don’t marry two women, especially if they’re sisters (and especially if they’re your cousins). All joking aside, it can be tempting to hear about a dysfunctional marriage like this and think “Well, God can still use this marriage, can’t he?” Yes, God can use bad marriages—not because of them, but in spite of them.
Even the NT tells us that much of the OT was written for us so that we learn from their mistakes. So we don’t need to make Jacob’s marriage(s) the standard and assuming that God will redeem bad marriages (and besides, we don’t know if God redeems Jacob’s marriages or not).
The OT is full of wisdom on what a healthy, godly marriage looks like (from Genesis and the Wisdom Literatures to Hosea and the Prophets), as well as the NT that gives the fuller picture of marriage (Christ and the church) as well as specific instructions on how to relate in marriage. There’s so many great marriage books in our church library, and I’d encourage you to come to the marriage workshops every second Sunday night (or watch them online). Take advantage of these things.
- Children
Parents, unlike what we saw in these passages, we need to resist the temptation to feel this sense of identity and security or superiority complex simply by having a baby, whether that was after the pregnancy announcement or the birth and upbringing of your children (and this is a stronger temptation for new and young parents).
And I point to myself the most here: When our first Filipino/Mennonite hybrid child was born, there was this sneaky temptation to think: “Yes, we’ve done it! We’ve reached it.” (I’m thankful for the older Christians around us who warned us from going down that path.)
This is not the game of life where you level up once you have a kid or 5 (or a dozen when they get cheaper). Veteran parents, you know all about this sneaky temptation from Satan (and this applies to grandparents as well), so beware. This is exactly what the narrator of Genesis 29-30 guards against when he constantly makes sure to give all the credit to God instead of Leah’s fertility or Rachel’s attempts at fertility.
Young moms, remember that God opened your womb before you could even conceive. If children are a gift from the Lord, then you need to treat them like a gift that you don’t deserve as opposed to your greatest accomplishment in life that you carry around to show everyone.
Be careful that you don’t mask “God’s blessing” as an excuse to make yourself feel more superior to (or privileged than) others. This is what lead to the children’s competition with Leah and Rachel isn’t it? And yet, it is still so prevalent with parents today: “Oh, I have more kids than her. My kids walked and talked before hers. My kids are more skilled. My kids are better behaved. My kids are Christians. My kids have better jobs.”
If God gives us children for his own purposes (like he did with Leah because she was unloved and Rachel because she gave it to God in prayer), then we cannot use our kids as a means for our own purposes and live vicariously through them.
Yes, we can enjoy God’s reward, but in a way that says “God, I don’t deserve this, but thank you.” That’s the difference between entitlement and prayer. We can rejoice that our children might look like us (Emily and I are still at tension regarding our boys, but that’s ok)—but our job as stewards is to hold our kids with open hands to God, and our job as disciples is to make them look less like us and more like Christ. They’re not “our kids”—but God’s children.
On the other side: If God withholds the fruit of the womb, then you cannot think or act as if you deserve children (like Rachel did at the start). Whether you’re single, or married but unable to have children for any reason, be comforted that God, in his providence has withheld children from you so that he might achieve his purposes through you in a way that cannot be done if you had children. Guard from any envy or bitterness towards God or other parents/children—instead, pray (like Leah and Rachel both did eventually) that God’s will be done in your life and the parents/children around you.
It’s not wrong to desire being a parent someday (whether you’re young or old, single or married), but you need to watch that you don’t get consumed by this desire apart from God’s will. Pray to that end (like Leah and Rachel did), but don’t expect that you will automatically will have kids in the future just because you have the ability to do so (wrong). Instead, be ready for God to do as he wills. As we’ve seen in the text, God’s will is to be the main character in your life/story, so seek his will—children or no children.
Jacob’s
Son
Now, this passage does not point us to mere dos and don’ts for a good marriage/family or good morality. Instead, it leads us to good news—that in spite of Jacob’s marriages being full of deception and dysfunction, God guides him in this journey to use his marriages to bring about his sons. These sons would then go on to head up the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel, through whom God would bless the nations and the world!
In doing so, God (as the main character of this episode in Genesis) fulfills his promise to Jacob: “Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 28:14).
And we know the story doesn’t end with Jacob’s sons—because this all points to Jacob’s son (singular) through one of Leah’s sons, Judah, who would receive a son by doing something even worse than Jacob by committing sexual immorality with his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Gen. 38:12-26). From this son, Salmon would be born and eventually have a son with Rahab the prostitute (Matt. 1:5)—from whom would come Solomon, the offspring from David’s affair with Bathsheba.
From this messed up, scandalous and dysfunctional family line—a perfect and sinless son, Jesus, would come and be born of a virgin who was betrothed to Joseph from David’s line.
Later on, this Jesus would eventually go to Jacob’s well at the “wrong time” and meet a Samaritan woman (John 4) who was thirsty for sensuality—in order to make her (and the unclean Samaritans) a part of his bride, his church—who (as we read this morning in Ephesians 5) is being sanctified by her true husband, Christ, to present her to himself holy and blameless on that day when she walks down the aisle of righteousness clothed in white (Rev. 19:7-8).
So, if you have not repented and believed in Jesus (that is, turned away from your mess and turned to Jesus for your cleansing), then please do not leave without talking to someone here. Jesus came for dirty sinners like you and I.
But if you are committed to obeying Jesus today, then welcome. Welcome to this messed-up church filled with deception and dysfunction (more than we’d like to admit)—because this (us together as a local body of believers), with our masks down, is the unclean bride in black that Jesus seeks to wash white as snow.
Come to the Lord’s table, to eat and drink and feast with us sinners saved by grace. Come as you are—not to stay where you are, but to celebrate together the body and the blood of the one who makes us holy and blameless.