Mark McLellan on the Roles of Men and Women

Pastor Mark has another great podcast, this one on the respective roles and responsibilities of men and women in marriage. Listen to his last sermon at http://graftedin.com. Seriously. Listen.

Marriage in the Bible

Jacob, Rachel, & Leah: Whose Eyes Were Veiled?

Genesis 29:23 …he took Leah his daughter…

It appears that this maneuver was Laban’s idea, but Jewish tradition says that Rachel and Leah willingly cooperated. Jacob and Rachel had devised a secret sign for just this situation, so that Jacob would not be fooled. Rachel, knowing that Leah might never be able to marry and have a family, had compassion on her and revealed the secret sign to her. Even so, it seems difficult to believe that Jacob could make such a mistake, especially after having lived with both of these women for seven years. But there are several other factors to consider:
  1. There was almost certainly a substantial amount of alcohol consumed during the celebrations.
  2. Rachel and Leah probably both wore veils, even in public, and which they might not have removed even on their wedding night until after the last lamp had been put out.
  3. The interior of an animal skin tent at night can be exceptionally dark.
  4. Jewish tradition says that Rachel and Leah were twins and so could have been very similar in height, weight, and build.
  5. God had promised to look after Jacob until he returned to Canaan, and Jacob’s blindness could have been induced by God to ensure the execution of a divine plan.

In support of the fourth and fifth items above, there is another tradition that says Esau should have married Leah while Jacob should have married Rachel. Since Jacob received Esau’s blessing from Isaac, he also had to be the father of all twelve of the tribes of Israel. Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah had been marked as the mothers of the nation of Israel, and no other woman would do. Therefore Jacob had to marry all four of them, and God made sure that it happened. But why did Rachel and Leah go along with this idea? I have heard some women say that they would rather be the third or fourth wife of King David than the first wife of Nabal.

The rabbis say that Jacob married so late in life because he had been studying under Shem, the son of Noah. I do not know if that is true, but it would certainly make Jacob a more attractive prospect than most other men. Having spent the last seven years in such close proximity to Jacob, Leah might have already harbored a strong attraction to him. She was also a godly woman and probably very respectful of her father’s wishes, however conniving he might be.

Rachel was more likely than Leah to find another husband if Jacob rejected her and could have felt some compassion toward her sister in her unfortunate situation. She was also a godly woman and probably experienced a great deal of conflict in her loyalties, as she was not yet fully married to Jacob.

George Google Orwell and the Internet Borg

  • What if your free email provider indexed every email you sent or received for keywords?
  • What if they provided a free search engine that remembered every search forever?
  • What if they also owned a great video sharing site and remembered every video you watched?
  • What if they offered free blogging sites, remembered every visit, and indexed every post and comment?
  • What if they offered a free website analytics tool that anyone could use to keep track of every site visitor?
  • What if they had an ad agency that tracked every visitor of every website wherever they went so they could deliver more targeted advertising?
  • What if the same company offered free maps and directions with satellite or even street-level views and remembered every location you viewed?
  • What if they made the maps really easy by linking them to the GPS device in your phone so you can never get lost?
  • What if you could use their on-line productivity software to create all your documents and financial records and share them with anyone.
  • What if they let you store backup copies of all your computer files on their servers for safe keeping and kept a copy of your encryption key?
  • What if they cross-referenced all these different data points and shared them with others?

George Orwell? 1984? The real thing could be so much worse than old George ever dreamed.

Thank You, Veterans

To those of you who have been willing to put yourselves in mortal danger for the rest of us, Thank You!

To everyone else: Tomorrow is not the day for patriotic disclaimers. Don't say, "Thank you, but..." Don't say, "Serving in the military would be ok if only..." Just say thank you. Show sincere appreciation, and leave it at that. Resume your political commentary on Thursday.