February 3, 2026 - Genesis 29 & Psalm 25

We trace Jacob’s reversal in Genesis 29, the heartbreak and hope in Leah’s naming of her sons, and the pivot from people pleasing to praising God. Then we zoom out to Psalm 25 and the Psalms as Israel’s discipleship guide, calling us to learn God’s paths and submit to God's ways. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Scripture Reading
• 0:28 Jacob Meets Rachel At The Well
• 2:45 Seven Years, A Switch, And A Second Seven
• 3:39 Leah’s Sons And The Meaning Of Their Names
• 6:45 God Opens The Womb And Checks The Heart
• 9:45 From Seeking Approval To Praising God
• 15:36 What The Psalms Are And How They Work
• 18:06 Psalm 25 As Discipleship And Instruction
• 20:24 Closing And Resources
• 20:43 Applying The Psalms To Daily Obedience

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley. Today is Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 29. Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it. For out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well. Jacob said to them, My brothers, where do you come from? They said, We are from Haran. He said to them, Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? They said, We know him. He said to them, Is it well with him? They said, It is well. And see, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep. He said, Behold, it is still high day. It is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them. But they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep. While he was still speaking with him, Rachel came with his father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud, and Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman, and that he was Rebecca's son, and she ran and told her father. As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him, and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh, and he stayed with him a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall be your wages? Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel. Laban said, It is better that I give her to you than I should give her to any other man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife that I may go into her, for my time is completed. So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went into her. Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And Jacob said to Laban, What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said, It is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years. Jacob did so and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his female servant Bilha to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. So Jacob went into Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love me. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also, and she called his name Simeon. Again she conceived and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will be 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, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing. Psalm twenty five. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long. Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me. O guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. Well, as we begin to dive into Genesis twenty-nine, we have an interesting story of the trickster becoming the one who is tricked. Now, Jacob, of course, we talked about in Genesis 28, is turning a corner. He's shedding his trickster ways, and he's beginning to trust in the Lord and to rely on him and to follow him in deeper ways, and that will continue. But in Genesis 29, the tables are kind of turned on Jacob, and he is the one that is tricked by Laban. He desires to marry Rachel. The text says that he loves her, he finds her very beautiful and attractive, and yet he is tricked into working seven long years to marry Leah, only to find out that it was the daughter that he did not desire to marry, and he is required to work another seven years in order to marry the daughter that he desired to marry, all along Rachel. And this is going to cause some tension in the relationship that's reminiscent of his father and his relationships and Abraham's relationships, just in different ways, but some of the family dynamics and the tension that gets introduced continues through Jacob and his wives. And from the get-go, there is tension because of uh Jacob being tricked into marrying Leah and really having a sort of partiality and a favoritism towards Rachel. And uh we we also see that that Leah is trying to, as a result of all this, it seems like maybe Jacob was just out in the open about his dislike uh for Leah or just maybe his favoritism towards Rachel. And we see Leah kind of pining after her husband's affection and her husband's uh really approval, it seems like Leah seeks to win her husband specifically with uh children. And we see in verse 32, it says, And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love me. Now I want you to notice, uh, we haven't talked about it a ton, I don't think, on the podcast, but anytime there's a name, specifically uh in just Hebrew language and the Old Testament, it is almost always associated with something to do with the scenario or the person or individual. So Jacob, of course, means heel grabber that becomes reminiscent of him being a trickster. And now we see these names of these children that Jacob has with Leah, and their names kind of being associated with what's going on within their relationship. So the name Reuben just means uh a son. So uh Leah is kind of in her heart saying, you know what? My husband will love me, Jacob will love me if I provide him a son. And so she has a son, God gives her that, and she names him Reuben to for just again that that call to God gave me a son. Hopefully, my husband will love me because I was able to provide him uh with an offspring. And of course, unfortunately, that's not what happens because she it says in verse 33, she conceived again and bore another son and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon. Now the name Simeon means herd. And so again, she is connecting her situation with the naming of their children. And in this situation, she goes back to the drawing board and says, Okay, maybe if I give him another son, maybe if I am able to provide him with another offspring, then he will hear me, then he will love me, then he will uh have affection for me. And of course, we continue to see that's not really the case. And in verse 34, it says, Again she conceived and bore a son, and now she said, Now this time my husband will be attached to me three times, third times the charm, Leah says, Because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name was called Levi. And the word Levi or the name Levi means attached. So uh she continues to name her sons after just that the things and the desires that she has for the relationship in her marriage to uh Jacob. And finally, in verse 35, it says, And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased uh bearing. And the name Judah actually means uh praise. And so, of course, we see that pattern continued uh here. Uh, but Leah is is seeking to win the approval of her husband by providing him with children. So she's taking something that is good. Children are such a blessing from the Lord, children are a heritage from the Lord. And one thing that this passage makes clear is that it is God who opens the womb. Now we have some level of scientific understanding today that, of course, they didn't have during biblical times, but nevertheless, it still remains true that those who have children, it's because God opens their womb. And so we even see that in verse 31. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. So God is sovereign over the giving of children, and that is a good thing, their heritage from the Lord, but she's trying to use something that is good to please man. And of course, there's brokenness involved in that. You can sympathize with Leah, but I had I just had this question how often uh do we do good things for the wrong reasons or for the wrong audience? We can do good things, we can have good desires, we can pursue things that perhaps the Lord intends to give us, or it's a part of his good design, or it's just a common grace that he uh gives us by living and enjoying just the pleasures of uh this life that we are able to in a good way, but we do it uh in the wrong ways or for the wrong audience. And how often do we do things to seek the approval of man? How often, even in the context of maybe Compass Bible Church South Valley and serving and we're we're planting a church, there's lots of work to be done. How often is it easy for us in our hearts to work hard, uh, to serve well, not because we want to praise the Lord, but because we want the praise of man, we want the approval of man. And that's just always a good heart check for us, and this is a good passage just to remind us of who are we serving? Why are we doing the things that we're doing? Why are we pursuing the things that we are pursuing? Even if it's a good thing, the Bible makes it clear this is a great example that we can pursue a good thing in the wrong way and for the wrong audience. And uh, what I love about this passage is where Leah ends up. So she starts just uh pleasing man. She she wants approval of her husband, she's trying to earn affection, she's trying to earn love, she she wants a seat at the table, she wants to stop being hated. These are good things, but she's using something that God gives, a gift of the Lord, perhaps in in the wrong way, but that's that's where she begins, but that's not where she ends. In verse 35, it says, And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord. She finally ends by saying, You know what? Uh, I'm done trying to win Jacob's approval. I'm done doing good things like having children for the wrong reasons and for the wrong audience. I'm gonna praise the Lord. I'm gonna stop trying uh to force the issue. I'm gonna entrust myself to God and I'm going to praise the Lord. And would that just be an encouragement to us uh today as we think about just all of the various areas of our lives, whether it's specific in the church or in our families or at our workplaces, what are we doing? Are we doing good things? But we need to evaluate the motives and ask, are we doing good things uh in the right way or the wrong way? Or are we doing good things for the wrong uh audience? Even Paul addresses this in the New Testament. He talks about how we work uh not uh not for eye service as people pleasers. What a temptation I know that that is for so many today, uh, where we want we want to please man. We care a lot about what others uh think, and we can be controlled by that and we can be motivated by that in ways that are unhelpful and ungodly. And I think Leah is a picture for where she ends for us to say, you know what, we ought to just uh have the kind of mentality that she ends with of saying, This time I will praise the Lord, whether it's in my workplace, how I parent my kids, how I live my life as a single individual, uh, or anything in between. I will praise the Lord. And I'm not gonna do this so that others will see me. I'm not gonna do this, or even as the Pharisees, where I'm praying out loud in the streets, Jesus says, Surely they have received their reward. We want to do this because we're trying to honor God. We we want to do all the things that we do in our life, uh, parenting, working, and otherwise, because we say, you know what, I want to praise the Lord. Now, in Psalms, I wanted to just to give some context for Psalms in general. So let's zoom out and kind of use Psalm 25 as a springboard to show us just the broader picture of Psalms as a whole, uh, so that it helps us more with the individual psalms that we may be uh reading. So the book of Psalms is a gathered collection of we've been reading them already, prayers, poems, and songs. So a lot of these uh psalms were put to different tunes, they were sung in uh assemblies together, uh, they were actual prayers by individuals or collectively. There's poetry, of course, uh in the book of Psalms. And if you didn't know, the Psalms is actually divided uh in a kind of a five-fold division. And you can look in your Bible and it'll tell you book one, book two, book three, book four, book five, and it'll it'll earmark that for you in your Bible. But the Psalms has a five-fold division, and that's intentional. It's actually a five-fold division that is meant to mirror the five-fold division of the Torah. That's the the book of the law, or the book of Moses, or the Penate, a lot of names for the same thing, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So that's there's five books in terms of the books of the law, and there's a fivefold division of the Psalms. And I believe that's that's intended uh for uh just to mirror those things because, in a sense, the the book of Psalms was Israel's worship guide for pursuing obedience to God's commands and and waiting faithfully uh for God's Savior that he promised in Genesis 3.15. So I like to think of the book of Psalms as Israel's uh essentially their discipleship curriculum, where they're seeking to, as a nation, to worship God rightly and to obey God faithfully. And so there's a lot of themes in there where David is talking about uh he's talking about justice, he's he's talking about the law, he all of those things get get bound up in uh the nation of Israel seeking to teach and to train and to remind one another of these truths from the the book of the law that God had given to them through through uh the Mosaic covenant and uh things like that uh to help them in their worship of God and their obedience to uh God. So think of the book of Psalms again as Israel's discipleship curriculum, where they're seeking to help one another. And I say all that because in in Psalm 25, specifically in verses four and five, uh it says, Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation, for you I wait all the day long. And of course, this becomes sort of quintessential for the Psalms as a whole, where they're seeking as a nation collectively uh to be taught by God, uh, to grow in the paths of God that they desired to be led in God's truth and to be taught God's truth. And they they wanted to obey God rightly and worship God rightly. And so I want you to think of Psalm 25 again as a discipleship curriculum that was specifically during this time, it was written for Israel, but then of course it is written for us as well, for our good, for our instruction. And that's exactly what David is praying for. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths, lead me in your truth, and teach me. You can hear the discipleship language in this, which is really just trying to help people grow and mature and to live in alignment with God's commands and with God's uh character. So that's just uh a broader sort of sort of overview of the book of Psalms as a whole, a fivefold division that is meant to mirror the fivefold division of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And it's essentially the discipleship curriculum for how to live in a way that honors God by worshiping God rightly and obeying God faithfully. And that's of course, we can as well use it for those purposes along with the nation of Israel from thousands of years ago. So we can pray along with David, make me to know your ways, oh Lord, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day along. So I hope that you find great instruction in the Psalms. I hope that you feel discipled by by those who were seeking to disciple one another, to help one another grow, to instruct one another in how it is to worship God rightly and obey God rightly. And I pray that the Psalms would continue to be that for you today. And that's part of God's design for them. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.