11 Traits of The People of God – Part 1

Christian Shields

11 Traits of The People of God / Tribes of Israel / Ge 29:31–30:24

Going over Reuben (Seeing) and Simeon (Hearing). God’s people are seen by God and heard by God.

Introduction

Genesis 29:31–30:24 NKJV

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.

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.” Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.

When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife. And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad. And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.

Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest 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 that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”

And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, 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.” And he lay with her that night.

And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 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. Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” So she called his name Joseph, and said, “The Lord shall add to me another son.”

•     Wow! That was a huge chunk of text… and if you struggled to take it all in, don’t worry! We are going to be spending some time in these verses over the next 6 weeks…

•     You see, what we just read was the birth stories of 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel… the only tribe missing is Benjamin who will get born in chapter 35, everyone else is mentioned here.

•     Now, if you got confused when reading this narrative this morning, don’t worry, I had to read it like 10 times to figure out exactly who was having what baby… because Jacob here has two wives, who both want kids desperately… and then two rival wives get there handmaidens involved, and they start having surrogate children… and it can be confusing… what can really help is a family tree.

•     So Abraham and Sarah have Isaac, Isaac and Rebekah have Jacob, And Jacob has Two wives, Leah the older sister with weak eyes, and Rachel the younger sister whom Jacob loved.

•     Leah is the first to have children, she has Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah… Then Rachel get’s upset that she is not getting pregnant, so she takes matters into her own hands and gives her servant Bilhah to Jacob for Jacob to get pregnant, and so Bilhah has Dan and then Naphtali…

•     Now Leah doesn’t want to be one upped by her little strong-eyed sister, so Leah say “Oh yeah, I can give our husband a maidservant too!” So she gives Zilpah to Jacob and Zlipah has Gad and Asher… after that Leah get’s pregnant a few more times birthing Issachar. Zebulun, and a daughter named Dinah… who is important later on in Genesis… and then FINALLY God gives Rachel two children, Joseph and Benjamin.

•     And these boys go on to become great tribes of people, and thus they are called the twelve tribes of Jacob, or more specifically (because God Changes Jacob’s name) the Twelve Tribes of Israel… Let’s pray.

•     So what I want to do is start a new six week long serries talking about each of these 11 sons of Jacob… I will talk about Dinah latter when her story comes up, and Benjamin later as well… but I want to focus on these 11 tribes, the circumstances surrounding their birth, and the prophetic names each of them is given…

•     Because as God is creating His people, He is also showing us quit about about what He wants His people to be like… thus the title of this series is not “Eleven Tribes of God’s People” but instead is “Eleven Traits of God’s People”

•     Show Title Slide

•     Eleven traits of God’s people… because each of these children born were born under unique circumstances and were given names based on their circumstances… and I think these names are important… Names always seem important to God… I think the names are prophetic… and I think God knew what He was doing as each of these boys came into the family of Jacob…

•     I will give you a quick overview of what each of the names mean, then we will get into it with the first of the two sons born to Jacob…

The sons born to Leah:

•     Reuben—(seeing) (29:32)

•     Simeon—(hearing) (29:33)

•     Levi—(joined) (29:34)

•     Judah—(praise) (29:35)

•     Issachar—(hire or  wages) (30:18)

•     Zebulun—(dwelling) (30:20)

The sons born to Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel:

•     Dan—(judge) (30:6)

•     Naphtali—(wrestling) (30:8)

The sons born to Zilpah, handmaid of Leah:

•     Gad—(a troop or good fortune) (30:11)

•     Asher—(happy) (30:13)

The sons born to Rachel:

•     Joseph—(adding) (30:24)

•     Benjamin—(son of the right hand) (35:18)

•     Do you guys see how these names could be used to describe the people of God? Because ultimately I am a part of this family, and if you are born again then you are a part of this family too… these are our ancestors through Christ, and they describe us, or they at least OUGHT to describe us… lets take a look at Jacob’s first son to get us Started… Reuben.

Reuben – God Sees Us

Genesis 29:31–32 NKJV

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.”

•     God is writing down the account of how He started His people, the nation of Israel… A MONUMENTAL moment in the history of mankind… and how does He start this narrative? He starts it with the phrase “God saw”…

•     People of God… We must understand that God sees us… oh how much pain and anxiety would melt away if we truely understood that God sees us in our affliction.

•     How much temptation we would reject if we really believed that God sees us in our sin.

•     How much trust we would place in the way of the Father if we believed that God sees our situation and our future better than we do…

•     God Saw Leah, and God sees you and me… God Sees us.

•     “When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved”… so let’s get that out of the way, Leah was unloved… some translations translated this as “when the LORD saw that Leah was hated”…  It’s not that Jacob preferred Rachel, but still really kind of liked Leah… it was that Leah was unloved…

•     Jacob was tricked into marrying her, now he has the true love of his life also as a wife… so Jacob is giving ALL of his love to Leah’s younger sister…

•     What is interesting to me, but not surprising, is that though Jacob does not love Leah, he still sleeps with her… because contrary to MANY people’s belief… you do not have to love someone to want to sleep with them… Particularly imprant for young ladies to hear this… that man who wants to sleep with you but doesn’t want to marry you… HE DOESN’T LOVE YOU.

•     Come on that will preach right there, that is not even the sermon but that is good… Jacob didn’t want to marry Leah, he didn’t love her maybe even hated her… but he still wanted to sleep with her… interesting…

•     But back to the point… God saw that Leah was unloved, God saw Leah in her affliction, and God did not remain idle… God did something about it and gave her a son, Reuben…

Exodus 3:7 NKJV

And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

•     God says “I have surely seen the oppression of My people… a trait of being one of God’s people is understanding and living like He sees us.

•     We celebrate passover every year, remembering that God saw the affliction of His people and God DID something about it.

•     God’s people DID NOT STAY in bondage, they were delivered from Egypt… and that is easy for us to say now because we are not living it, we are just looking back at the victory God won…

•     But it must have been hard to believe for those Hebrew slaves… to believe that God saw them as they made bricks out of clay day in and day out… it must have been hard to believe that God cared… that God would deliver them…

•     Now we are not in bondage to Egypt… but I would bet that there are many people in here who are in bondage to other things…

•     Bondage to pain or illness… bondage to family issues or struggles… bondage to finances or debt… bondage to addiction… bondage to anger… bondage to depression…

•     Now I believe that God can deliver you from all these things, just as God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians…

•     But this sermon is not about Deliverance… in fact, Leah was NOT delivered from hatred after bearing a son, Jacob still did not love her… but she was able to take an extreme deal of comfort in knowing “God sees me in my affliction”.

•     Can I be transparent with y’all? My affliction, my bondage right now is migraines… over the past 14 days I have had about 10 days robbed by migraines… My dad, my earthly father, is visiting my Sister in Seattle for Christmas, I was texting him and let him know about the migraines… and my dad text back… “I will pray right now and throughout the holiday specifically for these activities, your productivity, and your health. Whenever a child hurts, the parent’s heart breaks.”

•     Now there is not much my dad can do for me from Seattle but pray, and I am so grateful for those prayers… but it was the last line of his text that got me, as I was writing this very sermon… “Whenever a child hurts, the parent’s heart breaks…

•     I took a great deal of comfort in knowing that my father understood my pain, and that his heart was aching for me…

•     If my father on earth knows how to show that kind of compassion, how much more will our heavenly father?

•     So as we talk about traits of a Christian… a Christian should first and foremost, in all situations, recognize that God sees him.

•     Before you pray for deliverance, remember… God sees you… and He cares… and if you can get that mindset… if you can live by that mindset… I am preaching to myself know… if we can live by that mindset, it will make the path to deliverance so much smoother.

•     To say “I know my God will deliver me… and even though I am in pain right now, my God sees me, my Father sees me… and He cares… He is not Okay with this… He is acquainted with my sorrow, and He will not leave me nor forsake me!”

•     By the way, the name Reuben is actually a bit of word play… it comes from the Hebrew sentance Re’u Ben… Ben meaning son and Re’u meaning “To see”… His name means “See, a son” or “I was seen, and this son proves it!”

•     It is almost a theological confession… Leah is not just naming her son, she is proclaiming that God saw her affliction, acknowledged her pain, and that this son is evidence that God does indeed see her.

Psalm 34:15 NKJV

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry.

•     The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous… GOD sees us… And His ears are open to their cry… God HEARS us… that is our second trait of the people of God this morning… God’s people are Heard by the LORD.

Simeon– God Hears Us

Genesis 29:33 NKJV

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.

•     The name Simeon comes from the Hebrew word Shama… which means to hear…

•     But in scripture when we the word Shama is used it does not just mean “to hear” but it is much deeper than that… how many times has my wife told me something and I definitely “heard her”… like my ears registered the sound… but I didn’t listen to her… I didn’t pay attention… I was in the midst of doing something else, or thinking about something else… and then like a week later my wife is like “Don’t forget we have that birthday party to go to today” and I am like “What birthday party? You didn’t tell me about no birthday party” and she is like “I told you last week, and you said ‘OK’”…

•     You see I heard what she said… but I did not “Shama” it… I was not listening, I wasn’t registering it.

•     Thus Shama means not just to hear… but to hear and understand… to hear and respond… to hear and act…

•     One of the most important Shama verses in the bible is Deuteronomy 6:4

Deuteronomy 6:4 NKJV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!

Shama oh Israel…Listen, receive, submit, and align your life with the eternaly important fact: GOD IS ONE… it is not just enough to hear these words… but you must receive them, contemplate them, ACT UPON them… this is what Simeon is named after… Shama…

•     When God “Shamas” us, when He hears us… He is listening to every word, every prayer, every cry…

•     He is understanding our pain, our need, our sorrow… and He is acting on our behalf… not just idly listening, but acting and doing something about it… maybe not in our timing, maybe not in the way we think it should be done… but we can be sure that God is not asleep at the wheel… He hears our prayers…

•     But this is a trait of people who are God’s people… people who are living righteously… if you are living in sin, God is not going to hear your prayers… He may hear them in the sense of “He know what you prayed because God is all knowing” but God is not going to Shama them, He is not going to consider them…

•     Think of it like a judge hearing a case… when I judge hears your case it is not just about sound coming from your mouth, no when you have a hearing it means the judge is considering your case, weighing out all the facts, and deciding how to act…

•     If you live righteously then you have a judge on your side who wants to hear your case… but if you live in sin then the Bible is very clear that God will not hear you. There are MANY verses that make this point, and I have preached this before so I won’t belabor the point… but here are some highlights:

Isaiah 59:1–2 NKJV

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

•     The word here is shama… your iniquities and your sins have made it so God does not shama you.

•     You say “well that is the old Testament Pastor… ok, here is a verse from John…

John 9:31 NKJV

Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.

•     God hears, God Shamas His people… but if you are an unrepentant sinner, God does not hear you.

•     But pastor that was before the death and resurection of Jesus… Ok… Here is from 1 Peter, well after Jesus died and rose again…

1 Peter 3:12 NKJV

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

•     What do all these verses have in common? God HEARS His people, but He does not hear those who do evil…

•     So what does this tell you, sitting in a church in the year of our Lord 2025… it tells you one: live righteously, and when you sin repent, get right with God… and God will hear your prayers, just like He heard the cry of Leah…

•     And second, it should tell you this… Never act like God doesn’t hear you…

•     Because I know the temptation… ok, I have dealt with chronic health issues… I am currently dealing with migraines… I know the temptaltion… the temptation to think “Does God really hear me” or worse “Why do I even pray? God never listens”.

•     Be careful with that nonsense… because what you are saying is either that you are not saved… or that you are living in unrepentant rebellious sin… or both…

•     Because God listen’s to His people… the Bible is CLEAR about that…

•     Now this is not me telling you that if you are in pain or suffering then you must be in sin… some preachers say that, but I don’t see that in Scripture… What I am saying is this: You know if you are living for God or not… and if you are living for God striving to live righteously with the help of Christ, because we are only made righteous through Him… then you can KNOW that God hears your prayer… and that He doesn’t just hear, He Shamas… He listens, He considers, He acts…

•     And that fact in and of itself may not deliver you from your pain… no Leah’s problems would keep on coming… No, knowing that God hears you may not deliver you from your pain, but it can at least deliever you from anxiety, it can at least strengthen your shaky faith, it can at least give you courage to push through, to run your race, to finish well.

•     Now we are going to conclude this message… and we are going to conclude it a little differently this morning… if someone can come in play…

Conclusion

Genesis 29:31–33 NKJV

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.

Instead of just recapping the message, let’s do something about it… I want to pray for anyone in here who has chronic pain or afflictions, or addiction or bondage they are facing… and as we pray, know that God sees you and God hears our prayer… but before we do that I need to make sure that everyone who want’s to pray is right with God…

Gospel Call (Quick)