FROM THE ASHER OF DISASTER

Genesis 30:9-13 (KJV)

When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.

And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son.

And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad.

And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son.

And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

Has anyone here seen the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”? 

Characticus Potts, an eccentric inventor played by Dick Van Dyke buys an old racecar that his two children have come to love playing on.

He fixes up the car and then, at a beachside picnic, tells the children a story about the car’s super powers.

At one point in his story the Baron Bomburst of Vulgaria attempts to steal the car. Failing to do so, he kidnaps Grandpa Potts, Characticus’ father, believing him to be the inventor.

When he gets him to Vulgaria he locks him away with several other inventors insisting that they recreate a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The distressed Grandpa Potts confesses to the other inventors, though not to Baron Bomburst, that he is afraid he cannot build a car like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. At this point, in order to encourage him, the other old scientists begin a song… 

Let’s listen to just a moment of it.

Genesis 30:13 is the first time we find the “blessed” in the Bible and, we find the Hebrew word translated “blessed” not once but three times in this one verse. 

It’s important because we find that Hebrew word in three of the four variations it is found in the Bible:

• Happy - H837 - her state of emotion
• Blessed - H833 –the root word- her state of reputation
• Asher - H836 - her state of testimony

Leah named her fifth son the second by her concubine, Zilpah, Asher, because, she said, that she was happy and everyone would call her blessed.

Asher is the Hebrew word for happy or blessed.

I read this passage and I was reminded of that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang song, From the Ashes of Disaster Grow the Roses of Success.

I have three observations in my message today.

First, 

I. THIS WAS A DISASTER

I don’t know how else you could describe the majority of the life of Jacob than a disaster.

A. It was a disaster that his parents chose to favor one child over the other.

To make matters worse, Rebekah favored Jacob and Isaac favored Esau.

Jacob grew up in a divided home spiritually.

Make no mistake about it, the reasons for each parent having the favorite that they did was spiritual.

Rebekah favored Jacob, the fairer, more thoughtful son – and the one God had already said was to be possessor of the birthright blessing.

Isaac favored Esau, the hairy, rugged outdoorsman and hunter.

Esau had no interest in the birthright blessing and the spiritual responsibilities associated with it.

Isaac, who was supposed to be a spiritual man, like Esau because he was worldly.

This does not mean that Rebekah was godly. She had no problem deceiving her husband in order to get for Jacob what she believed to be his.

A godly person would have trusted God to do what God promised to do.

I know a ton of spiritually minded people who will use any measures necessary to insure that God’s will gets done. 

They don’t trust God to keep His Word.

B. It was a disaster that Jacob cheated his brother out of the birthright and then conspired with his mother to lie to Isaac to get the blessing

Esau had no interest in the responsibilities of the birthright blessing but he sure enough had an interest in the blessings of the birthright blessing.

When Esau learned that Jacob had tricked his father into giving him the blessing instead of Esau, he fumed inside and determined that, as soon as dad was dead, he would kill Jacob too.

C. It was a disaster that led Jacob into fathering children by not one, not two, but four different women.

The jealousy between Leah and Rachel is well documented.

Bilhah and Zilpah were caught in the middle but you can figure that they weren’t too thrilled about having to bear children and give them to Rachel and Leah.

D. It was a disaster that the children born into this relationship were at odds as they were

That these children were angry is undeniable.

• They disrespected their father
• They slaughtered an entire village of people
• They sold their brother Joseph as a slave and led their father to believe a lion had killed him

This whole family situation is a wreck.

But more – there is almost no one in the family, with the exception of Joseph and possibly Benjamin, who isn’t a wreck personally.

• Jacob struggled with his faith almost until his dying day
• Dinah was defiled in a field – what was she doing in the field?
• Judah sought out a prostitute
• Reuben and Simeon slaughtered the people of the town near where Dinah was defiled
• All of them threw Joseph in a pit, talked about killing him and finally sold him as a slave

I do not know a family alive who is in worse condition than this one!

Leah may have been happy and she thought people would call her blessed when Zilpah brought into this world her son Asher but I want to remind you that happiness and blessings, when they are not focused on the Lord, can quickly turn into curses.

They were a disaster but

II. FROM IT GOD BROUGHT A SUCCESS

God had made a promise to Abraham that from him would come a nation more numerous that the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky.

• He and Sarah only had one son
• Isaac and Rebekah only had two but
• From Jacob came the twelve tribes of Israel

Just before Jacob died he called his children together to pronounce his blessing.

Genesis 49:1-28 (KJV)

And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.

Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.

Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 

Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.

Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.

Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.

Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:

But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)

Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

We can’t say that everything that happened to the people of Israel was a good thing. The Jews have seen more than their share of trouble in this world.

But they have also seen more unimaginable blessings than any other people in this world.

• It was for them the Red Sea opened and they parted on dry land
• It was for them God held the sun and moon still so they could finish defeating an enemy
• It was to them God gave leaders like Moses, and David and Solomon
• It was to them God gave such prophets as Elijah, Elisha and Isaiah
• It was to the Jewish people came men with the character of Daniel, and the influence of John the Baptist

More importantly 

• It was to them God gave the Word of God and
• It was through them God gave the world the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world and
• It was from them came the first local New Testament Baptist Church
• I remind you that every one of the apostles, upon which the local church is built, was of Jewish blood

There are some “ashes of disaster” in the history of Israel.

But up from those ashes grew the Rose of Sharon, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to end this message with an application and remark that

III. YOUR LIFE (and mine) IS A DISASTER WAITING TO BECOME A ROSE OF SUCCESS

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (KJV)

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

We are going to find ourselves in one of two classes of people today:

• Those who cannot inherit the kingdom of God
• Those who used to be like that but have now been washed

The Bible says, Romans 3:10, 23 (KJV)

….There is none righteous, no, not one…

…For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The Bible says, Psalms 51:5 (KJV)

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

 In other words, we all begin in the “ashes of disaster”.

There is no difference:

• Male or female
• Young or old
• Rich or poor

God does not discriminate regardless of race, creed or gender.

We are all equally lost and all equally capable of being rescued.

You might feel like your life is a disaster right now.

But out of your disaster can bloom a glorious rose of righteousness.

Romans 10:11-13 (KJV)

For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

There is no difference; anyone can be saved.

But you may be here and you know two things are true of you:

• That you are saved and
• That you are still a disaster

Have you ever seen a rose bloom immediately after planting?

Christianity is a process of growth.

Salvation happens in a moment, like planting that rose into the ashes, but he rose comes much later.

There is going to have to be: 

• Some watering
• Some fertilizing
• Some pruning and
• Some waiting

before the roses start to show.

Just be patient. Wait on God. Let Him work in you to conform you into His image.

And you will discover that, up through the ashes of living in this world, will grow an unbelievably beautiful rose when you stand before Jesus Christ without spot or blemish or any such thing.