It’s Sunday night. How you feeling about the week ahead?

Hopefully better than Jacob did the morning after his first wedding.

Before we get to why he felt that way, let’s back up for a second. After Jacob tricked his father Isaac into bestowing his brother’s firstborn blessing on him, he needed to get out of town, so he headed for his grandfather Abraham’s homeland to find a wife.

On the way there, God made the same promises to Jacob that he had made to Abraham and Isaac, the promises of land, descendants, and blessing to his people.

(Jacob was using a rock for a pillow at the time. Tough dude.)

Once he found Rachel, the woman he wanted to marry, he worked seven years for her father to gain her hand, ready to start making good on God’s promises.

Then the morning after the wedding, behold, it was Leah! (Rachel’s sister.)

On one hand, you could say he got what was coming to him. The deceiver had now been deceived.

On the other hand, it’s pretty shocking to wake up next to a wife you didn’t expect. 

He probably thought something like, “God, what are you doing? I was finally trying to follow you. Why are we taking this detour?”

I bet you know a similar feeling. Life doesn’t turn out the way you expected. You work toward a goal and it gets taken away from you. Obstacles keep coming up. Your plans get derailed.

Some things are our own fault - we’re all sinners and make bad choices. Other events are not our fault at all, but they still have a major impact on our lives, and not always in a good way.

So what did Jacob do after his shock? He got back to work, serving seven more years for Rachel, whom he loved.

One of Rachel’s sons was Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. God meant this evil for good, though, because Joseph eventually saved the Israelites from a famine, preserving God’s people.

And what happened to Leah, the unwanted wife?

She had a hard, sad life. But - one of her sons was named Judah, and there are a couple of people in Judah’s line of descent you may have heard of: David the King and Jesus Christ the Messiah.

In the end, Jacob was faithful to believe God, to trust his promises and follow his word. And God was faithful to Jacob, to keep the promises he made and bring a redeemer for his people.

Read the book of Genesis and you’ll find a lot of sinning and being sinned against. But you’ll also find a lot of faith and a lot of God being faithful.

The story of Genesis is God working his redemptive purposes for his chosen people as he makes and keeps promises to save fallen mankind.

For those people, none of their sin, and none of their unexpected circumstances thwarted God’s purposes.

It’s the same for you. This week might bring some new trouble, or last week’s problems might still be lingering. 

God probably hasn’t promised you that he will make your name great, nations will come from you, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.

But he has promised to give you strength when you’re weary, to lift you up on eagle’s wings, to walk with you through darkness, and to bring you home.

And along the way, he is working his redemptive purposes in your life just like he did in Jacob’s. 

Grace and peace to you in the week ahead.