Ok . . . honestly? . . . I think if I had been the editor-in-chief of the Old Testament Canon of Scripture there’s just some parts I would have left out . . . the story of the births of Jacob’s children being one of them (Genesis 29:31-30:23). Talk about being ill conceived.

You know, you read later about the twelve tribes of Israel and it sounds kind of impressive. The tribes of Reuben . . . and of Simeon . . . of Levi and Judah . . . the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher . . . the tribes of Issachar and of Zebulun . . . Joseph would become two tribes . . . and Benjamin would round out the mighty family name. Tribes . . . clans of people . . . forming a mighty nation. You might think, “What manner of leaders must have been their founders? What noble heritage must be theirs!” Wrong! . . . Hit the buzzer! . . . Flash the X! What a gong show!

After bartering for his brother’s birthright and then scamming his brother out of his blessing, Jacob has to flee to avoid his brother’s wrath. And then Jacob the deceiver meets his match in Uncle Laban, Mr. Speak-out-of-both-sides-of-my-mouth. Jacob works seven years in order to marry Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, but Laban slips the elder Leah into the wedding bed after Jacob obviously partied too hard at the reception. So Jacob has a wife he doesn’t really want, along with her maidservant, but strikes a deal with tricky Laban for Rachel, as well. Another wedding . . . another wife . . . another maidservant. Has the making of a modern day “reality” TV show. Weird!

But that’s nothing compared to the dynamics of Jacob’s “wedded bliss.” Leah conceives and has a son, Rachel is unable to have children. Leah sees this as the means to moving from “second fiddle” to “top spot” with her husband and even more so as she bears sons number two, three, and four. Now Rachel gets choked . . . she envies Leah and takes it out on Jacob. In order to “compete” with her sister Rachel tells Jacob to lie with her maidservant and use her as a surrogate, “that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her” (Gen. 30:3). So Jacob, who’s been sharing his bed with two women, adds a third to the mix. The result, two more boys.

Ok, so now Leah’s feeling threatened . . . four kids to none was a comfortable lead . . . but four kids to two? . . . with an obviously fertile woman in the game? . . . this is kind of threatening. So Leah sub’s in her maidservant . . . Jacob now lies with a fourth woman . . . enter the world, sons seven and eight . . . but hey, who’s counting? They are!

Leah goes on to bear Jacob another son and then a daughter. “Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son . . . and she call his name Joseph” (30:22-23). Eventually Benjamin would follow, born of Rachel, and he would round out this “happy family.”

See what I mean when I say I might have just left this part out? I might have just replaced it with “And Jacob had 12 sons and a daughter.”

But that’s not how God works . . . He doesn’t hide the fact that His purposes are accomplished by less then perfect people and, in fact, sometimes out of extremely dysfunctional situations. But that’s the point . . . they are HIS PURPOSES . . . HE IS fulfilling HIS PROMISE . . . and, the fact that He chooses to use such ill conceived people is testimony to the abundance of HIS GRACE.

And, while I ain’t no Jacob . . . only one wife . . . and five daughters (better than any twelve sons, in my opinion) . . . that God has chosen to use this “gong show” in this chair in some manner, is solely a reflection of that same grace abundantly poured out despite my past and my performance. And while I haven’t been called to be the patriarch of a great nation, I am a sinner saved by grace, God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He has prepared beforehand, that I should walk in them (Eph. 2:9-10).

And so, let the record stand . . . not squeaky clean, but called . . . a little dysfunctional perhaps , but directed by the Spirit of God . . . not by my goodness, but by His grace . . . not for my legacy, but for His glory alone.

Amen?