The Covenant Family

We're going to be reading from Genesis chapter

Genesis 29 · chapter mention

29. We'll start reading in verse 31, where we

left off last week, and then we will be reading

through chapter 30 to verse 24, starting in chapter

29, verse 31. Now the Lord saw that Leah was

unloved, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was

barren. Leah conceived and bore a son and named

him Reuben. For she said, Because the Lord has

seen my affliction, surely now 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. So she named him 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 he was

named Levi. And she conceived again and bore

a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord.

Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped

bearing. Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob

no children, she became jealous of her sister.

And she said to Jacob, give me children or else

I die. Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel

and he said, am I in the place of God who has

withheld from you the fruit of the womb? She

said, here is my maid Bilhah. Go into her that

she may bear on my knees that through her I too

may have children. So she gave him her maid,

Bilhah, as a wife, and Jacob went into her. Bilhah

conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said,

God has vindicated me and has indeed heard my

voice and has given me a son. Therefore she named

him Dan. Rachel's maid, Bilhah, conceived again

and bore Jacob a second son. So Rachel said,

with mighty wrestlings. I have wrestled with

my sister, and I have indeed prevailed. And she

named him Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had

stopped bearing, she took her maid, Zilpah, and

gave her to Jacob as a wife. Leah's maid, Zilpah,

bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, How fortunate!

So she named him Gad. Leah's maid Zilpah bore

Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, Happy am

I, for women will call me happy. So she named

him Asher. Now in the days of wheat harvest,

Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field

and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel

said to Leah, Please give me some of your son's

mandrakes. But she said to her, Is it a small

matter? for you to take my husband? And would

you take my son's mandrakes also? So Rachel said,

Therefore he may lay with you tonight in return

for your son's mandrakes. When Jacob came in

from the field in the evening, then Leah went

out to meet him and said, You must come in to

me, for I have surely hired you with my son's

mandrakes. So he laid with her that night. God

gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore

Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, God has given

me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband.

So she named him Issachar. Leah conceived again

and bore a sixth son to Jacob. Then Leah said,

God has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband

will dwell with me. because I have borne him

six sons. So she named him Zebulun. Afterward,

she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. Then

God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her

and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore

a son and said, God has taken away my reproach.

She named him Joseph. saying, may the Lord give

me another son. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, we come to you at this time and we come

to your word. Father, we ask that you would bless

richly the ministry of your word. Father, let

us be edified and sanctified, built up, changed

and transformed. by your spirit as he works in

and through your word in our lives. Father, we

ask that you would use your word to pierce the

hearts of unbelieving men, to draw them unto

yourself. Lord, we thank you for the word of

God. We ask that you would be in our midst at

this time. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. We come to this passage

at the end of chapter 29. and the first half

of chapter 30, and we immediately come to it,

and many of us think, wow, there's really some

issues going on with this family. It's a sad

story in many, many ways. We find the women in

the story dissatisfied. with themselves, their

circumstances, with their children in a sense,

and with their husbands. We find the man willing

to compromise himself for the sake of pleasing

his wives and for the sake of supposedly procuring

that which God has promised. But we also see

that this story is very beautiful in another

way. It's ugly, brothers and sisters. It's clear

and obvious. It's up front. We can't miss it.

And we're going to deal with a lot of that today.

But this story is incredibly beautiful as well.

Because what we have here is God and His grace

and in His mercy working in the midst of... this

ugliness, working in the midst of this family

to bring about his purposes, to bring about his

plans, to bring about the Lord Jesus Christ,

and to bring about the church, brothers and sisters.

So we are going to have mixed emotions as we

come to this text. I want to ask a question before

we proceed any further. God made a promise to

Jacob in chapter 28. And it was the same promise

that he made to Abraham and to Isaac. I want

to read in chapter 28 when God meets with Jacob

at Bethel. Listen to these words. Then Jacob,

starting in verse 10, then Jacob departed from

Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain

place and spent the night there because the sun

had set. And he took one of the stones of the

place and put it under his head and he laid down

in that place. He had a dream. And behold, a

ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching

to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were

ascending and descending on it. And behold, the

Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord.

the God of your father Abraham and the God of

Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give

it to you and to your descendants. Now, right

now, Jacob has no descendants, brothers and sisters.

He has no children. He has no wife when God makes

this promise to him. Your descendants will also

be like the dust of the earth. And you will spread

out like the West and the East to the East and

to the North and the South. And in you and in

your descendants shall all the families of the

earth be blessed. Now, before I get to my question,

I want to remind you of something. We mentioned

that there's four dimensions to this promise

that God made to Abraham. There's the dimension

that God is making a promise specifically to

the patriarch. He did the same with Abraham.

He's doing the same with Jacob. God would bless

Jacob himself as a man, his household. God would

bring about the nation of Israel. They would

spread out. They would be a multitude. They would

be a large people. But God would bring the Messiah.

He would bring Christ in and through Jacob as

well. And then he would bring the church. He

would bless the nations. By saving sinners, brothers

and sisters, and establishing the church throughout

the world, throughout the ages until his return.

How would God in this story, in Genesis chapter

Genesis 29 · chapter mention

29 and chapter 30, take further steps in accomplishing

that promise? That's the question we have to

consider today. In the establishment of Jacob's

family with Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants,

we see God building a family. We see God taking

further steps to accomplish and bring about his

purposes. How exactly do we see this in the text

today which we read? Well, first, By opening

Rachel's womb, but I apologize, by opening Leah's

womb as he sees her affliction. We see this in

verses 31 through 35. What is Leah's affliction?

What is the root of her issues? Well, she has

disordered affections. She inordinately desires

and longs and craves the regard of her husband

and disregards God and his pleasure for her.

However, we also see that she is in a broken

home that is terribly dysfunctional. She's secondary

in a sense in her relationship with Jacob. It's

a relational affliction in a sense. She's longing

for something from her husband that she cannot

get in and from her husband in a sense. She's

looking for a satisfaction that only God can

provide. She's overlooked. She's unseen. She's

unloved. She's invisible in a sense. Nobody recognizes

her. Nobody sees her. But all the while, God

sees her. God knows Leah. She is before his face.

Yet this doesn't help her until a little bit

later. God is compassionate to her and he blesses.

We see this in verses 31 through 34 of chapter

29. God opens her womb and makes her fruitful

and gives her children. It carries the idea that

God hears Leah's cries, her affliction, her pain.

God sees her hardship and her heartache and God

acts. to bring relief in her life. He's compassionate

and merciful towards Leah. And eventually, we

see that Leah praises the Lord. In a sense, her

affection and her love and her praise move beyond

her husband to the Lord. We see this in verse

35, and she conceived again and bore a son and

said, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore

she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

So we see that God is progressing and advancing

his sovereign purposes by opening Leah's womb.

What's the significance of the name Judah, brothers

and sisters? Who would come from the tribe of

Judah? The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ himself

would rise from the tribe of Judah. God is working

towards his purposes and bringing about his purposes

in Christ. But we also see that God takes further

steps in advancing and fulfilling his promise

to Jacob by opening. Rachel's womb as he remembers

her. We see this in the last part of the section

we read in Genesis chapter 30, verses 22 through

Genesis 30:22–24

24. We read this. Then God remembered Rachel

and gave heed to her and opened her womb. So

she conceived and bore a son and said, God has

taken away my reproach. She named him Joseph,

saying, may the Lord give me another son. The

first thing we notice about this portion is that

God remembers Rachel. Now it's not as though

God forgot Rachel. It's not as though God had

neglected to think about Rachel. But when the

Bible uses this language, God remember, it's

intending to communicate something that is special.

It describes a unique divine act that is carried

out in covenant faithfulness and in providential

timing. So if you remember, God remembered Noah.

God didn't forget Noah after the flood started.

No, God acted in covenantal faithfulness and

providential timing to start the recession of

the waters. He was bringing about his purposes.

He was acting distinctly and uniquely in covenant

faithfulness towards his people. The same thing

is said with regards to Abraham and Sarah. And

the same thing is referred to in Exodus chapter

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

2, where God remembers his people who are in

bondage. It's the decisive, covenantal, faithful

act of God on behalf of his people. That's what

we find taking place here. But it also says that

God hears Rachel, which implies That she has

been crying out to God. She has been crying out

to God to be merciful to her, to take her shame

and reproach away from her. We can look back

on these circumstances and these situations,

and we can look at them somewhat humorously at

times. We can look back and we can see these

situations, and brothers and sisters, we can

look with a proud heart and look down on our

forefathers and the matriarchs of our faith.

We can look back almost in an unfeeling sense

as well, where we don't realize this was their

life. Brothers and sisters, Rachel, her pride

in life. was destroyed by barrenness. Her value

and worth in that culture was a shame culture.

They heaped shame on women for that. Brothers

and sisters, she felt the weight of this and

she felt the relief of this when God opened her

womb and gave her a son. When Joseph was born,

she cried out to God. And then God heard her

prayers and God acted on her behalf. Just as

God heard and saw with regards to Leah, God hears

and God sees and God acts with regards to Rachel

as well, brothers and sisters. We find something

really important about the character of God in

all of this. Leah and Rachel both stand in a

long line of godly women who are taught to wait

upon the Lord, who are dependent on the Lord

to open their womb and to accomplish his purposes

in and through. Think of Sarah, the matriarch

of the faith, Abraham's wife. Think of Rebecca,

Rachel, Leah. We could think about Hannah. You

know the grief and the mourning and the pain

that Hannah expressed in her prayer of lament,

which Eli overheard. Do you remember that, brothers

and sisters? We could think about Elizabeth in

the New Testament, the mother of John the Baptist.

They were dependent on God to perform and to

act and to work on their behalf. God saw them.

God heard them and God acted. Now, there's another

way that we see that God brings about the further.

of his promise and his purposes in this text.

Not just by opening Leah's womb, not just by

opening Rachel's womb, but also by overruling

the sin and the schemes and the plans of men

and women. These individuals in this family,

God overrules them. It's so clear in this passage.

When we look at this passage and we see the ugly

side of it, what do we see in this text? Brothers

and sisters, we see anger. We see jealousy, envy,

rivalry, and competition. We see disordered loves.

We see sexual immorality. and infidelity. We

see godlessness in a sense among the patriarchal

family of Jacob. We see sinful desires. We see

sinful actions. We even see superstition with

the mandrakes, which we'll speak on in a moment.

That was a fruit that was associated with fertility

in that culture. They were trying to leverage

superstition to get what they wanted. However,

in the midst of all of this, we see God bringing

about his purposes by overruling it, superintending

these situations, circumstances, sin and transgressions

and broken relationships to bring about his sovereign

purposes. Think about Rachel and Leah's carnal

schemes to obtain children and marital affection.

They couldn't get what they want, so they thought

they would take another path. Think about Sarah

and Hagar, the same reality. could not produce

and get what she wanted. She did not wait on

the Lord as she ought to. So she resorts to the

arm of the flesh and gives Hagar to her husband.

We find the exact same thing with Rachel in the

first several verses of chapter 30. Rachel wants

children. Rachel cannot have children. Therefore,

she gives her servant Bilhah to her husband so

that she can have children through Bilhah. She

got a surrogate, in a sense, to obtain that which

she wanted. She was scheming in her carnality

and in her flesh, brothers and sisters. She was

resorting. to the flesh to get what only God

could give to her. And we might think, well,

Leah will learn from Rachel. Leah will learn

from Rachel not to do these foolish things to

resort to the arm of the flesh, but she doesn't.

She does the exact same thing. She gives her

servant, Zilpah, Jacob. Why? Because she has

desires that she wants met. She wants children.

She longs for that which only God can give. Then

we get to this mandrake episode or this manipulation.

And we'll read this starting in verse In verse

14, we read this. Now in the days of the wheat

harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the

field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then

Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your

son's mandrakes. But she said to her, is it a

small matter for you to take my husband? And

would you... Take my son's mandrakes also. So

Rachel said, Therefore, he may lie with you tonight

in return for your son's mandrakes. When Jacob

came in from the field in the evening, then Leah

went out to meet him and said, You must come

in to me, for I have surely hired you with my

son's mandrakes. So he lay with her that night.

So we have these two women. Who are seeking to

leverage superstitious things to increase their

fertility and their chances of having children.

Why? To get ahead of the other one, brothers

and sisters. They're trying to outdo the other

one. Sinful, vain. prideful advancement within

the home and the family. That's what's going

on in this home and Jacob, the patriarch's life.

Using and utilizing magic in a sense with the

mandrakes, most likely, that's not absolute,

but most likely that is what is taking place.

Now it doesn't work out the way that they think.

Rachel thinks that if she can get the mandrakes,

she will have children. However, Leah is the

one that God opens her womb and gives her children.

It's almost as though the Lord is saying, your

plans and your purposes cannot thwart my promise.

Your plans and your purposes, your schemes, your

agendas cannot stop my grand and my glorious

gospel purposes, which I will accomplish in my

perfect sovereign will, which I will bring about

according to my purposes. What is the inevitable

result? They cannot stop. the promise according

to God's purposes. And God uses their sinful

actions to accomplish his sovereign purposes.

It is clear that the God here was accomplishing

his purpose according to His perfect, holy will.

It is not being accomplished by the fallible,

finite purposes of men. They are being used by

God to bring about His ends. They are not the

ends. Everybody in that home, in the patriarchal

household, has their own intentions, brothers

and sisters. Jacob has his, Leah has hers, Rachel

has hers, and the maidservants have theirs. In

all of those carnal schemes and sins and transgressions,

God is working a single unified plan to bring

about his purposes and his plans for these individuals,

for Israel, for Christ, and for the church. God

is bringing all of that out of this. We have

such a low, such a little view of God all too

often, brothers and sisters. Think about these

individuals. These were emotionally driven events

and circumstances. But out of it, did they see?

Did they see beyond their circumstances? Possibly

at times we see glimpses of that. With Leah praising

God. with them thinking about themselves and

their children with relation to God. Jacob saying,

I am not God. Rachel praising the Lord because

he's taken away. Yes, but brothers and sisters,

over and above all of that is a transcendent

and a glorious and a majestic God who is not

caught up in the schemes of men. And he's bringing

about his purposes. He transcends the troubles.

and the trials and the hardships that catch us

up and stop us, that hurt us so bad. Brothers

and sisters, they don't stop his purposes. They

don't stop his plans. He continues in his sovereignty

and his power. It's clear that God governs and

rules. over and through their sin to bring about

his good sovereign purposes. In Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 19 · chapter mention

19, we read this. In Proverbs 19, we read this

in verse 21. Many plans are in the man's heart,

but the counsel of the Lord will stand. Brothers

and sisters, God's decretive purposes will come

about. They are established and they are ordained.

We are fallible and find that he is infinite

and he is eternal. We read in Genesis chapter

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

50, this famous verse at the end of Joseph's

life, starting in verse 18. Then his brothers

also came and fell down before him and said,

Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said

to them, Do not be afraid, for am I in God's

place? Meaning, am I God? Am I sovereign? No.

Am I judge? No. As for you, you meant evil against

me, but God meant it. The evil, the evil the

brothers intended against Joseph, God meant that

evil for good in order to bring about this present

result to preserve many people alive. God is

in the business of bringing good out of evil,

brothers and sisters. God is in the business

of bringing good out of bad. God is in the business

of bringing good things out of hard and terrible

and difficult things, brothers and sisters. That

is the hope of the Christian, that God uses the

hard things in their lives for his glory and

for their good. In Acts chapter 2, we have the

Acts 2 · chapter mention

ultimate demonstration of God bringing good.

out of evil. We read this in Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

starting in verse 22. Men of Israel, listen to

these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested

to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs

which God performed through him in your midst,

just as you yourselves know, meaning they know

these things to be true. They witnessed them.

This man, delivered over by the predetermined

plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to

a cross by the hands of godless men and put him

to death. But God raised him up again, putting

an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible

for him to be held in its power. The most tragic,

according from a human perspective, the most

evil, the most tragic thing that has ever occurred

on planet earth, the son of God who took on flesh,

who never sinned, who never broke God's law,

the purest man that ever walked the face of the

planet, that man was killed and murdered on a

cross horribly. Evil. terrible, bad, yet God

brings glorious and redemptive good out of that

evil and that bad, doesn't he? He brings the

resurrection. He brings the defeat of death.

He brings the forgiveness of sins. He brings

the pardon, the free pardon of sin for those

who would trust in Christ. He brings all of that

out of evil. that came upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's clear in this text that God did, in

fact, bring about and progress his purposes.

You say, well, in our text, in Genesis chapter

Genesis 29 · chapter mention

29 and 30, what exactly did God advance? What

exactly did God do to further his promise and

to bring about further fulfillment in Jacob's

life. Well, what is he doing? He's building the

nation of Israel, brothers and sisters. How many

names do we have? We're missing one, Benjamin.

He would be born a little bit later. Out of this

mess, God has brought about Reuben. Simeon, Levi,

Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun,

and Joseph. God promised to bring a nation from

Abraham, didn't he? And what do we find? God

establishing a people. What do we find beyond

that in this text? Well, Hone in on one of those

tribes that has come from this mess, Judah. Who

would come from Judah, brothers and sisters?

What would come about? What would be accomplished

through the lineage, the royal lineage of Judah?

Well, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The

one who would come and take on flesh and be born

of a virgin. The one who would live a perfect

life unto the law of God. The one who would die

on the cross and raise on the third day. The

one who would ascend to the Father's right hand

and return in power and glory. The one who would

accomplish redemption and time in history. He

would come from Jacob through Leah and through

Judah, brothers and sisters. God is bringing

about, his further purposes. And there's even

more. We might think, well, that's it. But he

also brings about Joseph. Now why is Joseph significant

to the story of redemption? Well, in Joseph,

from Rachel, God is providing a means of preservation

for Israel. If Joseph hadn't been sold into slavery,

if he hadn't ascended and rose to power and been

the second in command, brothers and sisters,

the sons of Israel would have been destroyed

in the famine. God preserves his people and brings

them into Egypt and prepares the way for the

Exodus, the wilderness, and to bring them back

into Canaan, the land of promise. Do you see

how God is working his purpose and his plan?

God is advancing his redemptive purposes in the

world. It's abundantly clear in the text. God

accomplishes his purposes in this world in such

a way and in such a manner, and we see this,

that he makes his people learn to wait upon him.

God accomplishes his good purposes. He acts according

to his good pleasure. He is faithful to his promises.

But brothers and sisters, in all of these things,

he does them so that his covenant people have

to learn to trust him so that they are forced

to wait upon the Lord. Isn't that what we see

with Leah and Rachel? They were forced to deal.

with the providence that they had been dealt.

They were forced to accept their providential

circumstances. They were taught to submit to

God and his purposes, God and his plans, God

and his providence in such a way that they would

learn the folly of resorting to the arm of the

flesh. That's what God is working into our lives.

God works in our lives and brings about his purposes

in Christ and the church in our lives today in

such a way that he teaches us as his people to

wait upon him. He's teaching you to trust him.

He's teaching you to accept the providences of

your life. He's teaching you to cry out in dependence

and reliance upon him in your difficulty. And

he's teaching you the folly of resorting to the

arm of the flesh to try and get and obtain that

which only he can do. The means that the believer

is to lay hold of is that of prayer and the word,

brothers and sisters. The means, the weapons

of our warfare. are not carnal in nature. They

are spiritual in nature, brothers and sisters.

So God is teaching us to mortify the arm of carnality,

of fleshliness, of worldliness, of manipulation,

of all of those things, and to lay ourselves

bare before him and to trust him and his goodness.

in his grace, in his mercy, his sovereignty,

his providence, and his promise that he is doing

all of these things for our good. So God brings

about his purposes in such a way that we are

forced to learn to wait upon him. It's hard to

wait, isn't it, brothers and sisters? We get

antsy. We get real antsy if we're honest. We're

called to calm ourselves and to cast ourselves

over and over into the good hands of a loving

father who has given Christ to die for sinners.

No matter the situation, cast yourself into the

loving arms of the Lord who is sovereign. And

he's also teaching us in this waiting to rightly

order our affections and our longings. What was

he teaching Rachel and Leah? I would say a significant

lesson that he had for them was that their true

satisfaction had to come from the Lord. They

could not look for ultimate satisfaction in their

husband, in their spouse. They could not look

for ultimate satisfaction even in children. Where

must they find their real hope? Where must they

find their real contentment, their lasting joy?

Where must their affections fully and finally

rest supremely in their heart and their life?

On the Lord of glory, brothers and sisters. Supremely

upon him and beyond anything in this earthly

life. There are so many good and blessed things

to enjoy and to find joy and to... to have pleasure

and to find satisfaction in this life, brothers

and sisters. That is how God has designed it.

So many good things. But if those things, if

those things become the ultimate source of satisfaction

in your life, then it will begin to lead you

to misery and grief and heartache. and sadness.

Why? Because they're becoming an idol and being

exalted over God who ought to have all of your

affections no matter what. Good things loved

too much can become bad for your heart, brothers

and sisters. That's what we find in this text.

As you wait in this life, find your true satisfaction.

In God himself. But we also see that God accomplishes

his purposes in such a way, in a sovereign way,

but he also does it in such a way that man always

remains responsible and accountable. We look

at this text. And there are growing movements

today that are encouraging polygamous relationships.

And do you know some of the texts that they will

go to? They'll go to the patriarchs. They'll

twist and pervert many other texts. But they'll

go to this text as well. Brothers and sisters,

just because God uses and works through and governs

something does not mean that he endorses or that

he approves of their methods or their means necessarily.

That's exactly what we find in this text. Sin

rises from the creature, never from the creator.

God governs. Those realities. He rules over.

He rules over and in and through those realities

to bring them to his intended sovereign purposes.

But nobody, nobody ever slides. We can't say,

well, God uses that. Therefore, he doesn't. Answer

for that. He's not accountable or responsible

for that because God brought good out of that.

Brothers and sisters, every single human being

will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the

judgment seat. Every single one. Jacob, Leah,

Rachel. The maidservants, you, me, every human

being will give an account before the risen and

glorious judge of all the earth. And you will

either stand in the righteousness of Christ or

you will stand on your own two feet. There's

no passives. Amen. are under the sovereignty

and providence of God. But all men are responsible

for their lives and their actions, brothers and

sisters. Every single one. They don't get a pass

because it's not explicitly condemned. We find

that God holds all men accountable. But we also

see that as morally accountable creatures or

people that God has made in this world, we find

and we see that there are blessings and dangers

to the right and wrong use of created things,

means, ordinances, and realities. One of the

most abundantly clear things in this text is

the dysfunction, the brokenness, the misery,

and the chaos that comes from casting off God's

good design for marriage. Why were they so miserable?

Because they were making choices that were sinful.

They were casting off God's good design for them.

But we also know from the scriptures, specifically

the book of Proverbs, that if we make wise decisions,

generally speaking, Because we live in a created

order and a created world and we are creatures

in this world and God has designed the world

a certain way, certain things will come about.

There will be flourishing likely. There will

be life. There will be blessing, fruitfulness,

and many other things, brothers and sisters.

If you cast off what God has said, And God has

declared to be good in his word. You can fully

and completely expect to suffer for that. If

you say, I don't care. I'm going to live how

I see fit. God will discipline you. God is not

mocked as Galatians. tells us. If you choose

to live in a way that is opposed to God's good

designs and God's good purposes, regardless of

how hard it may seem, hardship and pain will

come into your life. Issues will come from it.

But brothers and sisters, the glorious promise

of that Is it for the believer, even when they

make bad decisions? God uses that for their good.

So if you make good decisions according to God's

revealed will, we ought to expect and to look

and believe that good things will come as a result

of those in our lives. There's blessings and

dangers that we find. in this text. Our decisions

have real consequences. Our actions are meaningful.

They're not paper houses in a sense where they

really don't mean anything. God has created a

world of means and he expects his people to rightly

use those means. So brothers and sisters, Make

good decisions for the glory of God based upon

the revealed word of God to bring glory to his

name and expect good from those realities. Now,

we see the gospel in this text as well. When

we think about this, we don't just see it in

the fact that God is bringing it about, but we

see it in the fact that you and I, As the people

of God are the afflicted ones, we are those who

are disheartened and cast down. We are those

who need the compassion and the mercy and the

grace of God in our lives. And we are those who

are in need of a gracious God to condescendingly

and graciously provide a redemption for us. And

we see that he has. provided that redemption

in Jesus Christ. The Lord is abundantly good

and kind and faithful to his people. We see the

gospel in this text.