Genesis 30:1-24 Day 1
Joy’s Notes:
Comparison and envy come EASY to the human heart.
But Contentment and joy are fruits that come from TRAINING your mind to focus on Gratitude.’
• Eve was allowed to eat from ALL the trees except one.
• The enemy convinced her to solely focus on the ONE she can’t have (so she’ll lose sight on the trees she can)
⁃ This same scenario plays out here in Gen 30
⁃ This same scenario plays out in my life!
Gen 30:1
When Rachel saw that she wasn’t having any children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister.
She pleaded with Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
• she pleaded with… Jacob (not God)
• This is a spiritual X-ray into her spiritually dehydrated heart.
⁃ jealousy= a topic we’ve discussed over 12x in our Genesis adventure together!
• James 3:16
“For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition there you will find DISORDER
(out-of-order) & EVIL of every kind!”
• Jealousy & selfishness are always MARRIED!!
👇
• And can give BIRTH to: CONTROL (which is what we see play out in this story)
COMPARISON: if someone wins— I “lose”
• John Baptist “So… what if I do lose??? (It’s not about me!)
🔥Cain KILLED his brother instead of: KILLING the spirit of COMPARISON in him
( he thought it was on OUT-SIDE-IN job)
💙But killing his brother NEVER killed his jealous heart
“Jealousy is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
ON/OFF THE ALTER:
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Comparison:
when I’m “ON” the alter= makes me WANT the Jesus they have!
But…
Comparison:
When I’m “OFF” the altar= makes me look inward that I’m not enough.
• over 12% of daily thoughts are centered on comparison!
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Gen 30:2
Then Jacob became furious with Rachel. “Am I God?” he asked. “He’s the one who has kept you from having children!”
Gen 30:3
Then Rachel told him, “Take my maid, Bilhah, and sleep with her. She will bear children for me, and through her I can have a family, too.”
• again- a decision “she” made, not God
Gen 30:4
So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her.
• Adam & eve playing out here
1. Abraham: slept w/ Sarah’s servant, Hagar.
(Introducing jealousy & bitterness into family)
2. Issac: prayed to GOD when Rebekah couldn’t conceive- & she had twins.
3. Jacob: followed his grandfathers (Abraham) example & slept with wives servant (which brought in jealousy & bitterness)
This practice was socially & culturally “practiced.”
• but just because something is culturally accepted doesn’t mean it’s right, Godly, wise or good for you— in fact, it’ll most likely lead you to great difficulty and heartbreak!
____________
Gen 30:5
Bilhah became pregnant and presented him with a son.
Gen 30:6
Rachel named him Dan, for she said, “God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son.”
7 Then Bilhah became pregnant AGAIN and gave Jacob a second son.
8 Rachel named him Naphtali, for she said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I’m winning!”
• HINT: into todays topic (of control)
9 Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, so she took her servant, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. (Jacob slept w/ Zilpah)
10 Soon Zilpah presented him with a son.
11 Leah named him Gad, for she said, “How fortunate I am!”
12 Then Zilpah gave Jacob a second son. (Jacob slept with zilpah again)
13 And Leah named him Asher, for she said, “What joy is mine! Now the other women will celebrate with me.”
14 One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought them to his mother, Leah. Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But Leah angrily replied, “Wasn’t it enough that you stole my husband? Now will you steal my son’s mandrakes, too?”
Rachel answered, “I will let Jacob sleep with you tonight if you give me some of the mandrakes.”
• mandrakes were wrinkled leaves with purple flowers- with the root being several feet long & weighed several pounds
• Mandrakes were believed to be a stimulant to help w/ fertility & conception in barren women.
- the “stew” scene of Esau & Jacob played out here! (Rachel is giving up her husband for an opp to get pregnant with help of mandrakes)
16 So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. “You must come and sleep with me tonight!” she said. “I have paid for you with some mandrakes that my son found.” So that night he slept with Leah.
17 And God answered Leah’s prayers. She became pregnant again and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob.
18 She named him Issachar, for she said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife.”
19 Then Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob.
20 She named him Zebulun, for she said, “God has given me a good reward. Now my husband will treat me with respect, for I have given him six sons.”
21 Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by enabling her to have children.
23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. “God has removed my disgrace,” she said.
24 And she named him Joseph, for she said, “May the Lord add yet another son to my family.”
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C O N T R O L :
“The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something — & enter God’s realm where everything is possible.
He specializes in the impossible.
Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love.” - Corrie Boom
• What we’re seeing in this twisted and sad story goes ALL THE WAY BACK TO EVE!
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Gen 3.16 “You will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”
• When I try & control something, it causes INJURY
🔥W H O A :
ANYTIME I engage in controlling Tendencies, I’m taking on the very nature of Satan himself.
👇
⁃ God is a God of freeWill and not control!
Control:
Often comes from traumatic events that left me feeling:
vulnerable,
powerless,
helpless,
Unsafe
Fearful
Home ENVIRONMENTS:
Unsafe
disruptive
Uncertain
Unstructured
chaotic
abandoned
————
A CONTROLLING SPIRIT desires to overly attach to a specific outcome (EXPECTATION)
“We don’t have an OUTCOME-FAITH” (Tami kromer)
Outcomes= expectations
Expectations= premeditated disappointment (Susie Larson)
Control:
• planted in fear
• rooted in unbelief.
BUT Control is an Illusion
• Control issues aren’t about control.
👇
• They’re about my unbelief
“Unbelief will move me to construct a god in my own image.”
• Control is an outside-in job, instead of an inside-out job!
A N X I O U S N E S S :
👇
when people feel anxious we respond by trying to find more control.
• Control is a counterfeit version of coping with anxiety (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323454).
• BUT— it actually causes MORE anxiety???!!!!!😱
Control may give a sense of power in the short-run, but in the long-run it’s destructive!!
(that’s the DECEPTION of Satan)
“I can’t be happy UNTIL God does it MY way.”
VS.
“God, this is what I want, but even if....”
• “We can hold TIGHTLY to God-sized dreams, but hold LOOSELY to HOW He’s going to do it”
His plan for me is far exceedingly BETTER then mine!
🔥God does things in:
Unordinary,
unusual,
impossible,
unthinkable,
unfathomable ways!
• Don’t get stuck on a human method, but on a Divine Miracle!
Instead of objecting where I am, it’s time I’m accepting where I am so I can be receiving where He’s leading me.
• Goliath was put in David’s path not to defeat him, but to promote him.” (David would of never become king without Goliath.)
• Judas was put in The 12 not to harm Jesus, but to Disarm satan.
“It may look like a SET-BACK but it’s a SET-UP” to fulfill your destiny.
2 cor 4:17-18
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen
but to things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen is temporary, but the things that are unseen is eternal.”
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⁃ Rachel had her EYESIGHT on Leah (v. 30:1)
⁃ GOD IS MY AUTHOR:
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• God knows the end of my story.— He’s my Author!
I AM NOT THE AUTHOR OF MY STORY!!!
👇
Why do I keep trying to change the chapters?
• it would be like telling Michelangelo to step aside & let me finish his painting!
RIDICULOUSNESS
HEB 12:2
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith...”
—> ME AS AUTHOR: leads to restlessness , perfectionism, shame, anxiousness , depression , weariness, exhaustion
• Psalm 37: 23 :
“The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.”
CONCLUSION: (Susie Larson post:)
👇
Every soul needs healing of some kind.
And every one of us has baggage that needs to go.
Baggage like fear, despair, control, discouragement, jealousy, and insecurity.
May you dare to humble yourself under God's mighty hand.
Ask Him to show you your heart, the things you cannot see.
Dare to surrender your plan, and trust Him with your desires and see if He doesn't meet you, minister to you, and establish you more fully in His purposes for you.
God wants to revive His Church.
He's purifying hearts, healing hearts, and disciplining those who need it.
He misses nothing.
May revival start within you as you sort through the stuff that pushes you down or holds you back.
God always has more for you.
Whatever promises you've memorized, know there are more of His promises to appropriate.
In whatever ways you've experienced God, these are just tastes of things to come.
Nothing on earth compares to knowing God in a way that changes you.
The world needs your influence.
And Jesus loves you more than you love yourself.
Trust Him as He chan
ges you from the
inside out.
”#SusieLarsonBlessings