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A Reversal of Fortune through a Savior’s Birth
Genesis 29:1,10-32; 30:1-2, 22-24; 30:25-36, 43; 31:1-7, 17-18, 22-29, 41-45, 55
We love stories with reversals of fortune. That’s why Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and even the Three Little Pigs gratify us. Misfortune, loneliness, and danger all end in happily ever after. But there’s always a turning point before that. The prince finds the shoe; Beauty sees the Beast’s compassion; and the piggies take refuge in a brick house. These stories reflect our inbuilt desire. We feel the guilt of our sins and misery and long for total reversal. But what’s the turning point? Grace.
And the Bible is full of pictures of guilt then glory, with in between grace. It starts with God creating light, heavens and earth, a garden, and a people; but sin and misery destroyed it. The Bible ends with God lighting the new heavens and new earth, a garden city filled with redeemed sinless people. What’s the turning point? At the cross, the Savior Jesus Christ reconciles us to God! Exodus starts with slavery in a land ruled by a cruel king, a generation of slaughtered babies, and a water crossing. It ends with freedom in a land with God as king and a new generation crossing the water. What’s the turning point? At the mount, the savior Moses brought them to make covenant with God. Ruth starts with tragic women returning home empty to work. Ruth ends with triumphant women who found fullness and rest. What’s the turning point? At the threshing floor, the savior Boaz promised to make Ruth his wife. Because of grace, there can be glory. Guilt, grace, glory. We see the same today. This massive account begins with guilt but ends in glory. Why? Because of grace. We’ll look at this account by comparing that guilt of the beginning with the glory at the end, in 4 opposites before looking at that grace - that turning point.
Firstly, he arrived poor and single, but departed blessed and multiplied. After he left Isaac, Jacob was lost, empty, afraid, and defeated. God met him in Bethel, showed him his greatness, and assured him of great blessings - to prosper him with seed and land. But how will it come to pass? He had nothing! He was poor and single. In verse 1, he arrived at a well near Haran. And it was providence! Shepherds from Haran who knew Laban’s family happened to be there. Then Rachel, Laban’s daughter happened to come with her flock - “behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep”, verse 6. We learn he wanted to water her flocks. Why? Well, he’d come to marry a daughter of Laban. And there she was! But he had nothing. How else could he get in good with them? And yet to this suggestion, these shepherds refused. They wanted to wait till all flocks got there before removing and replacing the big stone well cover. Verse 8 - “We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.” It was so heavy it had to be a group effort. But in verse 10, Jacob personally removed the stone. He by passed custom and demonstrated great strength. Why? For her. And with that, he revealed himself to Rachel. Verse 11 says he greeted her with a kiss, lifted up his voice, and wept. He was relieved. He had nothing, no entourage, no signs, no prospect - but he must’ve known that God led him to her. And she in turn told Laban. Verse 14 says that Laban welcomed Jacob saying, “Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month.” He came with nothing - with great guilt and on unequal footing. But God was keeping his promise, to watch over him - to prosper and bless him.
And in chapter 31, 20 years later, he left with much. That’s the glorious reversal when Jacob returned to Isaac. In Genesis 31:43-55, Jacob and Laban made a covenant and parted from one another. Verse 45 - he took a stone and made a pillar (sound familiar?), and made a mound with other stones. There, they made covenant. Verse 52 - “This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.” Why this truce? Jacob by this time had grown powerful. He had wives, 11 sons, and a great number of cattle. Genesis 30:43 says - “And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.” But Laban was not very happy about it. Neither were his sons who said in Genesis 31:1 - “Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s hath he gotten all this glory.” Meaning, when Jacob left, he was powerful; more glorious than Laban. This is how the Lord had blessed him. He arrived poor and single, but departed blessed and multiplied. He came with nothing at a well covered by a stone, but left with everything at this stone mound. From a state of guilt to a state of glory.
But what happened in these 20 years between guilt and glory were years of deception and rivalry. If not, why was there a truce needed? But we see the second set of opposites - the deceiver was deceived but his deceiver was deceived. In Genesis 29, After Jacob went to Laban’s home and stayed for month, he had to work. And Laban seemed generous at first; verse 15 - “Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?” And Jacob said that he’d work for Rachel’s hand in marriage - “And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.” Why not Leah? Verse 17 says she was tender eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. Meaning, Leah didn’t have that sparkle in her eyes that Rachel did. What a shallow man! But that’s what he did - and it didn’t seem like a long time to him because he loved her. The deceiver was looking outside himself to love another. But the deceiver was deceived. Jacob was “Jacobized”. Instead of Rachel, Laban gave him Leah on the night of the marriage. But Jacob only discovered it in the morning! You can imagine how tipsy he probably was. But when confronted, Laban said it wasn’t their custom to give the younger before the older was married. So Jacob worked another 7 years for Rachel. 14 years of free labor. This was the kind of man Laban was - using his daughters as pawns to be disposed of for 14 years of free labor. After all, Jacob was a very strong man. If he could single handedly remove and replace a stone cover from a large cistern, what else could he do? And so the master deceiver Laban benefited all of those years. But Jacob endured it. Why? For love. It was for the love of Rachel that he endured.
But this was very different from what was at the end. Jacob the deceiver was deceived; but now, his deceiver Laban was deceived. 20 years later, Jacob fled secretly. In Genesis 31:17, when Laban was sheering his sheep, Jacob told his family to leave. And we learn that they all fled, but not before Rachel took her father’s idols - verse 19 - “Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.” Now, why did she do this? We can try to spin some moral justification for Rachel. Jewish tradition tells us that she did so to keep her father from idolatry. Sounds good - but some have suggested other more plausible reasons. But these reasons show she was probably self-serving. None of the possible reasons are wholesome, but two stand out. Idols were used as title deeds to property and inheritance. Possession of them gave the holder rights. So Rachel took them to hold on to land rights for her children. Another reason was to cut off Laban’s access to power. Laban obviously believed the idols contained power. In verse 30, he asked - why did you steal away my gods. So no idols, no power over them. This was possibly why she took them - for the safety of her family. Now, eventually Laban caught up with them after 7 days. All her scheming was unnecessary. Because before Laban met them, God appeared to him in a dream, verse 24, and warned him not to speak good or evil to him. Now, this means that God warned him not to speak duplicitously to Jacob - don’t mask your evil with nice sounding words. So Laban did have bad intentions. Like before!“Oh, you must not know our custom - we never let the younger marry before the older.” Yeah, right! And he did try in verses 26 onwards - why did you run away secretly. You should’ve told us, we’d have thrown you a going away party! But here, God deterred him - stopped him from resorting to deceit again.
But on the other hand, Laban was deceived. That’s the reversal! When he confronted Jacob, he searched the tents for the idols. But Rachel sat on the idols and claimed she couldn’t stand up because, verse 35 - “the custom of women is upon me.” “I’m on my period and I’m too weak to stand.” Laban used the reasons of his country, but now Rachel used this delicate reason. As we look at this, the point is not to defend her or make a moral judgment. She was obviously wrong. She stole. She lied. She deceived. But the point is to show that while Jacob was deceived before, now his deceiver was deceived and outsmarted. A reversal! From guilt to glory, if you will. How do we know? Jacob was now on equal footing, pointed out all the deceit Laban had committed against him. In verse 37-42, he pointed it all out - “why’re you searching my stuff? In these 20 years, I’ve not stolen anything from you! I’ve even suffered loss when you’ve taken things away from me. Day and night, dry summer and cold winter, I’ve worked hard! I’ve served you all this while, when you’ve changed my wages 10 times!” Translation - I’m not the one who stole and deceived, you are. And verse 42 - “Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.” If God hadn’t been with me and warned you, you’d have stolen again from me. The poor and single man no more. But the powerful and confident man. And yet, he still called God, the God of my father and Abraham. He’s not there yet. But he could see that God was preserving him, preventing him from being deceived. Now, from this account, we see a great reversal - the one deceived was vindicated, his deceiver was deceived.
We see another reversal. Thirdly, God loved the unloved and God favored the unfavored. When Jacob got married in Genesis 29, it’s clear he wanted to marry Rachel and not Leah, but got deceived into marrying both. As a husband, in this weird unbiblical and unsanctioned marriage of two wives, Jacob, we’re told in verse 30, loved Rachel more than Leah. In fact verse 31 tells us that Leah was hated. This is a Hebraism. It doesn’t mean that Jacob loathed her with great hatred; rather the word love and hate speaks about comparison and choice. If he really hated Leah, he wouldn’t have had children with her. Because right after this was said, Leah gave birth to Reuben. God opened her womb. Which showed that Jacob didn’t not love her. But God loved her even though Jacob loved her less. But what’s amazing here is this - almost each time she had a child, she called on the Lord’s name. When she had Reuben, she said - “The Lord saw my affliction.” When she had Simeon, “The Lord has heard.” When she had Levi, “My husband will now join me.” And with Judah, “I’ll praise the Lord.” So there was brokenness in the marriage.
But what do we see at the end? What’s the reversal? In Genesis 31, Laban’s sons were jealous of Jacob. He was getting richer. They said in verse 1 - “Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory.” Jacob also knew that Laban didn’t favor him, verse 2 - “And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.” What should he do. It was at that point in time, that the Lord himself told Jacob to leave - “Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.” So what did he do? He spoke to his wives. But weren’t they at odds? Wasn’t one less loved than the other? How? Would they agree with him? After all, this was their father. So he told them in verse 5 - “I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.” And he told them God said to leave. Now, what’s the reversal? In verses 14-16, we see that they were united. They’d also been burned, unfavored. They asked - “what’s left for us in our father’s house? He’s also taken away our inheritance. Whatever God has given you belongs to you.” And his family was agreeable to leave; his wives said - “whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do” verse 16. We see how much Jacob had prospered. Not only did he have possessions and wealth to cause jealousy, but he had a united family now. He had Rachel and Leah who agreed with him against their father. But it wasn’t always so. Before, no unity; now there’s unity. God loved Leah when she wasn’t. God favored Jacob when he wasn’t. There’s a great reversal.
So we’ve seen how he was so rich that Laban’s sons were jealous. How did this happen? What we see will really disappoint us! Not only from a moral point of view, but from a religious point of view. God blessed him through superstitious brides and superstitious breeding. That’s the fourth point. And this is not as much a reversal as it is a mirror. As we come to the turning point, each successive comparison becomes less stark. But here, we see a mirror. How he prospered both in family and in possessions. After all, the blessing on Jacob was for these things. So we see how he prospered. No doubt God intervened by using the primitive, unsophisticated, and even questionable ways of man. What were these two things that mirrored one another?
In chapter 30, after Leah gave birth to 4 sons, Rachel gave her maid to Jacob and she bore him 2 sons - Dan and Naphtali. So now Jacob had 6 sons. Then Leah became jealous and gave him her maid. Then Jacob had 2 more sons by her - Gad and Asher. 8 sons now. Now, in verses 14-21, we see how Reuben, who was a young boy then, found some mandrakes in the field after playing there. Mandrakes were plants believed to aid fertility. So Rachel begged Leah to pass her some. Listen to Leah’s outrage in verse 15 - “Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Jacob already loves you more than me; and you want my son’s herbs? So Rachel bargained with her - I’ll take the mandrakes and you can have Jacob. And she did, for a night. And we’re not sure about the timeline, but is it possible that from that night, she conceived triplets?! She didn’t take the mandrakes, but she was fertile! From that union, she bore 2 more sons - Issachar and Zebulun - and a daughter Dinah. Jacob now had 10 sons and a daughter. And in exchange for that night, Rachel took the herbs and gained fertility. So Jacob was multiplied. How? Scheming and superstition. But God was sovereign.
But Jacob not only multiplied, he prospered with many servants and animals. Now, after having his children and working for Laban, Jacob pleaded with him to set him at liberty so he could return home. He’s paid his dues! But why would Laban let go of a good thing? Instead, he begged him to stay. Verse 27 - “I’ve learned that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your price, and I’ll pay you.” And here we see another kind of bargaining. Jacob said - don’t give me anything except this. I’ll take care of the flocks like I usually have. Give me the speckled, spotted, and striped goats and sheep - that’ll be for me to keep. And Laban readily agreed. Genetically, solid colors are typically dominant while multicolored coats are often recessive traits. But this is what Jacob did - he took sticks of different colors - green, brown, and white and alternated them, and placed them in the watering troughs, so that whenever the animals came to drink and mate, they’d be surrounded by these striped wood. This was superstition. He hoped that his animals would produce more speckled, spotted, and striped offspring so his flock would grow. We cry - “Primitive! Superstitious! Unscientific!” And we’d be right. But God was the one who allowed these recessive traits to proliferate in Jacob’s breeding program. So while Laban thought that he’d outsmarted Jacob again, God was the one who did this. Genesis 31:12, God told him in a dream - “Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.” God saw. Jacob’s flocks were stronger too. And this is why the end of Genesis 30 says, “And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.”
From poor and single, to multiplied and blessed. From deceived to his deceiver being deceived. From disunity to a united front. From multiplied children mirroring multiplied flocks. Why? What was the turning point? In the middle of this entire narrative we find these words in Genesis 30:22-24 - “And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: and she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.” That’s the turning point (and last point). God remembered and provided a savior. Now, when it says God remembered Rachel - it doesn’t mean he forgot her. “Remember” is covenant language. When God remembered Noah, the flood ended. When God remembered Abraham, Lot was rescued. When God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he sent Moses to deliver Israel. To remember is to act in faithfulness to a promise. Rachel thought she was forgotten. For years, she watched her sister bear child after child. She cried. She schemed. She demanded. And then, when all her schemes had failed, God remembered. In verse 22, Rachel said God heard her. But it wasn’t her bargaining, mandrakes, or anger that he heard - he listened to her desperate covenant cry. Yes, Scripture doesn’t record it, but God heard her and opened her womb. Barrenness in Genesis is never just a medical problem, but a theological one. Can God bring life where there’s no hope? Can the covenant continue when the mother is empty? Yes! Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary - a womb of a different kind. Joseph would be the savior that Israel would one day need - where they’d be faced with famine and need a place to find refuge, and Abraham’s seed would be preserved. And this narrative would’ve been especially meaningful to the Israel that emerged from Egypt. They began poorly - as slaves in Egypt being ill-treated and used for the prosperity of Pharaoh. But it was also there that they’d grow, multiplying faster than the midwives could kill them. Why? Because there’d be a reversal - Moses was born to save them and lead them out. Everything before Joseph was deception, rivalry, barrenness, superstition, and bargaining. But everything after was God’s blessing - of wealth, protection, a covenant, and a return to the Promised Land. The turning point was not Jacob’s cleverness - it was God’s grace. Guilt, grace, glory. As we look at this, we know that the turning point in our lives is Christ. Before that - sin and misery; but we find grace in him. And one day there’ll be glory. But where is the reversal in our lives? Aren’t you experiencing it? Are you not more prayerful, and loving, and victorious over sin? Sure, there are times of weakness and wrong ways of thinking. But isn’t God preserving you? Therefore, learn to live in gratitude. Before glory, after grace, learn to live in the gratitude that you belong not to yourselves, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who, with His precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil.
He never bargained for his life, he submitted. He was used despitefully. While Rachel cried - give me children or I die! Our Lord Jesus died that God might have his children. Folks, reversals in the lives of believers is a wonderful thing. And it’s all because of Christ. Don’t focus on your defeats. But focus on what Christ has done. That challenge you have today, that you want to fix with mandrakes or striped rods - primitive methods; you scheme and deceive; and yet for all that you’ve done, are you at peace? Family disunity? Bitterness at being taken advantage of? Stealing idols for security? Or have you prayed and submitted to God? The center of your life is not your suffering or your sin. It’s the fact that God remembered his covenant and proved it at the cross. He didn’t open a womb, but a tomb. And from that empty tomb came the firstborn from the dead, the greatest Savior - the Lord Jesus Christ - your turning point. And you must let him be.
Let us know that we’re poor and needy; but we’ll be gloriously blessed one day. Now, we’re tempted by Satan who tries to deceive us; but know too that Satan is bound. God loves the unlovable like us, and he favors us even in life’s difficulties. And now, he blesses us despite our sins and foolishness. Why? Because God remembers us - he has provided us a Savior.
1. He Arrived Poor and Single (29:1-14) but Departed Blessed and Multiplied (31:43-55)
2. The Deceiver Was Deceived (29:15-30) and His Deceiver Was Deceived (31:17-42)
3. God Loved the Unloved (29:31-35) and God Favored the Unfavored (31:1-16)
4. God Blessed Through Superstitious Brides (30:1-21) and Superstitious Breeding (30:25-43)
5. God Remembered and Provided a Savior (30:22-24)
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Mark Chen, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2026, Rev. Mark Chen
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