11 Traits of The People of God – Part 8

11 Traits of the People of God Part 8

Christian Shields

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

Going over Issachar (Hire or wages) God does not give according to wages, as we think He ought, but gives from an abundance of grace and mercy.

Introduction

Genesis 30:14–21 NKJV

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.

• Ok… where do I even start with this hot mess of scripture?

• There is this competition happening between two sisters over their shared husband…

• Now, before I move any further… Pastor Amanda says that I have not made this clear enough so let me make this VERY clear. IT IS NOT GOD’S STANDARD FOR A MAN TO HAVE MULTIPLE WIVES!

• God’s standard is and has always been one man married to one woman. This is clear in the fact that God made one woman for Adam to have as a wife, and Jesus doubles down on this in the New Testament…

• The standard is one man and one woman married until they die. It’s clear cut… so don’t leave this sermon series being like “Sounds like I need to go and get another wife and a couple of maidservants to boot!”… NO! That is sin… stay away from that nonsense… it never works out anyway… Case in point… THESE WOMEN MARIED TO JACOB ARE MISERABLE.

• Look, Leah has had four sons…

• And her sister Rachel got envious… Rachel was baren so she gave her maidservant to Jacob and her maidservant had two sons.

• That made Leah envious, so Leah gives her own maidservant to Jacob, and that maidservant has two sons…

• But as we learn this morning, that was not enough to keep Leah happy… she needed more sons of her own, from her own womb… but she has this problem… Her husband has stopped sleeping with her…

• And that is a problem for a variety of reasons, but particularly so when you are trying to make a baby.

• So what is a wife to do? She purchases a night with her own husband!

Genesis 30:14–15 NKJV

• Now I don’t know what is crazier… the audacity of Rachel to withhold Jacob from Leah, who married Leah first mind you…

• Or the audacity of Leah to think it is okay to purchase a night with her husband…

• Or maybe the craziest thing is the the audacity of Jacob to go along with this plan… Genesis 30:16

Genesis 30:16 NKJV

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.

• But what I think is crazier than all the audacity of man, is the goodness of God through it all… because through all this daytime tv drama that is happening, God remains good and gives Leah another son, God gives her Issachar.

Genesis 30:17–18 NKJV

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.

• Now if you have been following along with our series so far you know how this works, the names of these children are derived from Hebrew words or Hebrew phrases… and Issachar is no different, Issachar comes from the Hebrew word Sakar.

Sakar שָׂכָר

• Wages

• Reward

• Hire

• So Sakar means wages or reward, and the Hebrew phrase “Yish Sakar” means “There is a reward” or “You will be paid for your work”…

• Now we are in the tail end of our series “11 traits of the people of God”, we have had 7 previous sermons going over the names and associated traits of the previous 8 children of Jacob, and today we go over sons 9 and 10…

• By the way Dinah is also born in the passage of scripture we read today, her name comes from the same Hebrew word Dan comes from, meaning judgment or vindication… probably a jab at Rachel who had Dan as a son… but we will go over Dinah latter in scripture… today we are going over Issachar and Zebulun… now we just learned what Issachar’s name means, so let’s see how it applies to our life… Yish Sakar, There is a reward…

• So point one this morning, as Christians we should know and we must live with the understanding that our work for the Lord has good wages, we must understand that our faith is rewarded.

Issachar – Our Faith is Rewarded

Genesis 30:17 NKJV

And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

• What do you mean GOD LISTEND TO LEAH? Clearly she is envious… clearly she is desperate… she is buying a night with her own husband… Why is God listening to her? Why is God rewarding her?

• Because, through all the mess that is Leah… she still puts an extraordinary amount of faith in God.

• And to understand this, the story of the mandrakes needs a little unpacking…

• This is a picture of a Mandrake, specifically the kind of mandrake that Reuben would have gathered.

• Now there are two traits about Mandrakes that are very important to the circumstances surrounding Leah and Rachel and Jacob…

• First is the fruit, those plumb sized berry’s at the top, they taste sweet like apples… but the real key is that many ancient peoples believed that this fruit was an aphrodisiac.

• Now for two women who are trying to get their husband to impregnant them… having a aphrodisiac like Mandrake fruit would be a powerful tool to have…

• So Leah, who is not as beautiful as Rachel… she want’s children from her husband, she has to get him to sleep with him… it would be a handy thing for her to have, this fruit, to give to her husband as a snack at some point…

• But that is not the only trait about mandrakes that give them importance in this story… do you notice how the roots of the mandrake look like a person?

• In ancient cultures they believed that this was not coincidental… they believed that the mandrake plant grew little men, or more specifically that if you ate the mandrake roots that you would become incredibly fertile… that you would in turn grow a little man.

• So here you have miracle plant, it’s fruit makes you want to do the deed… and it’s root makes the deed produce children. At least that is was the people of Jacob’s time thought…

• Here is where faith comes in though, church… you with me?

• Leah had the Mandrakes… she had the aphrodisiac and the fertility enhancers… and all she wanted was for her husband to sleep with her and give her babies…

• And yet, instead of trying to trick her husband… sneak the mandrakes into his food one lonely night… make some tea from the roots and get to business…

• INSTEAD OF THAT, she gives up her miracle plant to her rival… Leah has what she needs, but she gives it away trusting that it is GOD who will provide… not some creepy plant her son gathered…

• She had faith that God could do what Mandrakes couldn’t and God rewarded her faith. Yish Sakar.

2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

Psalm 58:11 NKJV

“Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

• Now I want to be abundantly clear, we are NOT talking about salvation here. I am talking to a church full of Christians who have been born again, who have been saved.

• If you have not put your faith in Christ, if you hav enever been born agian there will be a time for that and the end of service, and then all of this will apply, but until you find Christ the only thing I want you focused on is giving your life to Him, getting your sins forgiven and getting made right with God….

• But assuming you are saved, your sins have been forgiven, you are born again… well then… we need to understand that God is… Tat He is good… and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

• in fact, the word Sakar is the word God used describe Himself in Genesis 15:1

Genesis 15:1 NKJV

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward (exceedingly great sakar).”

• Now the question is, are we living like God is our great reward? Or are we putting our trust elsewhere…

• Because Leah could have put her trust in Mandrakes… but instead she gave what the world would say is her best weapon… she gave her best weapon to her enemy! Because she knew it was not the mandrakes that would reward her, it was God who would reward her…

• Now in America we don’t often put our trust in Mandrakes… but there are other things we put our trust in.

• Instead of mandrakes we trust money.

• Instead of mandrakes we trust the wisdom of men… see what I am saying, instead mandrake we trust Man’s-takes…

• We don’t have mandrakes to help us get fertile, we trust the medical community instead… oh how many families have been lied to about IDF… listen, just side note because I never understood it until someone explained it to me, but IDF murders babies… a lot more babies than abortion even… why? Because if we believe life begins at conception as the Bible teaches… then we must have a problem with how IVF is practiced in America, where dozens of eggs are fertilized to produce one or two full grown children… what happens to the other two or three dozen babies that were conceived? They get thrown out, they get murdered, they get frozen and left in a freezer until they are no longer viable… But the medical comunitiy likely wont teach you that. Modern day medicine is wonderful, but it is not a replacement for God and His word.

• But I get off track… what am I trying to say?

• Don’t put your trust in Mandrakes, Mammon, Money, Medicine, The methods of Men, Muscles or might… or… I don’t know… Miralax?

• Instead, put your faith in the Mighty, Majestic, Miraculous, Merciful, Mountain Moving, Master and Messiah… believing in faith that He will reward you if you diligently seek Him!

• This doesn’t mean you can’t have and use money, or that you shouldn’t take medicine or go to the doctor… Sometimes I praise God for Miralax, you know what I am saying…

• But it means that my trust is not in those things.

• It is why we are doing a building fund for Sierra Leonne… I mean, 22 thousand dollars would go along way in paying off our building, or getitng us a new parking lot… and if God is going to provide for Seirra Leonn through us, then He is going to provide for us through some other means.

• Listen if God calls you to sacrafice and adopt a child… do you think God is going to reward you for that, or curse you for that?

• If God calls you to sacrifice and take a job that pays less but lets you be with your family and church more… do you think God is going to reward you for that or curse you for that?

• If God calls you to sacrifice and give the money you were saving for a new Video Game council to the church’s building fund… do you think God is going to curse you for that or reward you for that?

• By the way, these are ALL examples that have happened recently in our church (I am the video game one, I am a nerd, but God called me to give away my savings that I was saving for a new Nintendo Switch 2, it hurt because I don’t have a lot of extra income… BUT GOD MADE A WAY… and I was able to get a Nintendo switch 2 and accessories on the day it came out during the midnight launch!

• ANd I know that sounds petty, and it kind of is… but man… when God asks you to give away something you have been working hard to save… be it your time, your money, or your comfort, you career, whatever… when God asks you to sacrafice that… it in a very real sense brings you to a place where you must answer “Do I trust in mandrakes or do I trust in God? Whom do I trust to reward me?”

• And all I am telling you is this, in big stuff in small stuff, in medium stuff… In stuff that doesn’t matter, like video games, and stuff that can change everything like new jobs and adopting children… time and time again I have seen it to be true. GOD REWARDS THOSE WHO DILLIGENTLY SEEK HIM.

• Now let me read this verse one more time to cement it in, then we will move on to Jacob’s 10th son.

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

• Now after God gave Leah her reward, the wages of her faith… God gave her another child, so let’s quickly take a look a Zebulun…

Genesis 30:20 NKJV

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.

• Now Leah is doing a bit of wordplay, like I did last week with “I saw a saw saw salsa”… here she uses three words that sound very similar in Hebrew. She says “Zabad, Zebed, Zabel… Zebulun!”

Genesis 30:20 NKJV

And Leah said, “God has endowed (zabad) me with a good gift (zabel); now my husband will dwell (zabal) with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.

• Now the name Zebulun itself comes from that final zabal, dwelling, specifically from the root word Zebul…

Zebul זְבֻל

• Habituation

• Dwelling Place

• Home

• Now in ancient cultures if you are to live with someone you are to give them a gift, and endowment, and those words just so happen to sound the same… so Leah does a bit of wordplay to say “This son is the gif that God has given me, and the endowment I have given my husband so he will dwell with me. Zabad, Zabel, Zabel, Zebulun! So our final point this morning, and nearly the final point for this series… Zebulun – We dwell with God.

Zebulun – We Dwell With God

• Okay, I have three or four scriptures, an example, and some encouragement and then we will close this penultimate sermon down.

Psalm 91:1 NKJV

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

1 John 4:16 NKJV

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

John 15:4 NKJV

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

• As we have gone through this series we have talked a few times about how Christ is the vine that we are grafted into. The orginial branches of that vine were Israel, God’s original chosen people… which is why these 11 sons of Jacob are of such huge importance, because they are the first 11 of the 12 tribes of God’s people.

• But as God’s people we are grafted into that Vine, and thus these tribes reflect us as God’s people as well… that is why this series is 11 traits of the people of God and not 11 tribes of the people of God.

• So we know that Jesus is Di-Vine, and we are Di-branches, amen? But look at how Jesus describes that relationship…

• We are to abide in Him, we are to dwell in Him, and He is to dwell in us…

• In other words, God is my dwelling place, I dwell with Him and He dwells with me… in fact, that is how Heaven, or more specifically, New Jerusalem is described.

Revelation 21:3 NKJV

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

• This is the ultimate fulfilment of Zebulun… in eternity, in glory… God will dwell with us and we will dwell with Him… that is perfection… that is God’s will…

• And as we prayed earlier this morning together, we prayed “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

• So I cant’ make this any more clear. GOD DESIRES TO DWELL WITH US AND WE WITH HIM.

• He is my strong tower, He is my refuge… Jesus makes me to lie down by still waters in green pastures… but I don’t want to stay next to still waters and green pastures UNLESS JESUS IS THERE… Because He is my dwelling place.

• He will be forever my dwelling place in heaven… but I don’t have to wait until I am in heaven to enjoy dwelling with God…

• Okay, here is the real life example… Pastor Matt Krachunis is my pastor… and he has a funny answer when people ask him “what do you like to do with your free time”.

• He responds with “Me and my wife just like to enjoy our mortgage”

• In fact sometimes I will call him and I will ask “What are you doing” and he will say “Enjoying my mortgage”.

• When you press him on this… like, pastor Matt, what do you mean? He will tell you something along the lines of “You know… so many people spend so much time and effort and energy trying to get out and do things… BUT I AM PAYING A LOT FOR THIS HOUSE! I want to enjoy it! So I am staying home today to enjoy the most expensive thing in my life”.

• Now, church here is the spiritual side of this example… You may not have a mortgage, maybe you are renting or whatever… but surely the most expensive thing in your life is your Salvation… because it was bought with the blood of Christ!

• Ought we not then as Christians to spend time enjoying our salvation. God gave EVERYTHING to dwell with us, ought we not to enjoy that dwelling place…

• And yes of course we will in heaven, but we need not wait until then, family… we can enjoy our dwelling place now…

• Right before I wrote this sermon, I began a sweet time of prayer and meditation… and this what the Lord showed me… “Enjoy your mortgage (now obviously it’s not a mortgage, the debt has already been paid, but I knew exactly what He meant). Enjoy your mortgage, enjoy dwelling with me”… and then, in my office, with Lofi-Christian playing, and a candle burning, lights off… me on the ground talking to Jesus… Jesus begain taking me on a tour of my dwelling place…

• There was a beautiful prayer garden, with such peace, that I could go to whenever I wanted a place to retreat.

• There was a spring of living water, that I could drink from whenever I was thirsty.

• Couches to recline on when I am tired, and tables to dine at and have the deepest of conversations with God as I feast on His Word.

• It has great walls to protect me from enemies.

• It has massive gates for inviting in friends, and grand halls for entertaining them in the love of the Lord.

• It’s furnishings are exquisite, it’s atmosphere is peaceful, it was bought with a price, but it was freely given to me…

• MAN… why don’t I spend more time there?

• Why do I turn to my phone? It is not nearly as valuable?

• Why do I turn to Netflix, or Youtube, or Beast Games Season two?

• Mr. Beast does not have nearly enough money to buy my dwelling place.

• Why do I think that another vacation, a new car, or a bigger kitchen will fulfil me more than time dwelling with my Savior and He with me?

• And I am not saying all those otherthings are inherintly bad… but I am saying this: Spend time with Jesus… like really, just rest in His presence.

• Turn on some hymns, sing a song with your family, retreat to your prayer closet, turn off your phone, close your eyes, and just BE WITH JESUS.

• Alright, let’s close this down with a quick recap and the Gospel..

Conclusion

• Issachar – Reward or wages…

• Zebulun – Dwelling or home…

• Now I mentioned this earlier, but it is so important to know and understand… You can only dwell with God if you have bene Saved… and Salvation is not a reward for your hard work, it is not the wages for any good deeds you think you have done.

• No one is getting to heaven because they have earned it…

• In fact, what we have earned, and the Bible is very clear on this, what we have earned is death… that is the wages for the sins we have commited…

• But salvation, salvation is not a wage, it is a free gift from God.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel Call