Jacob Flees from Laban

Story: Jacob Flees from Laban

Passage: Genesis 31

Characters: Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Laban

Summary: Jacob heard that Laban and his sons did not like him anymore. God told him to return home. He told Rachel and Leah tha God had told him to return. They said they had nothing left at home and Jacob could do what he wanted. They fled. Laban pursued. He wanted his idols back which Rachel had stolen. Jacob said he would kill whoever had the idols. Laban did not find them. Laban and Jacob made a covenant and Laban returned home.

Notes: Laban did not like Jacob. I doubt he ever really did. He just liked what Jacob did for him and he was no longer on the receiving end of this relationship. Jacob had served with all his strength for 20 years but Laban had continued to change his wages and take advantage of him. Jacob gave credit to God for blessing him and bringing him through his time with Laban. This is significant since he did not yet consider God his god. God referred to Himself as the God of Bethel, where Jacob had made Him a vow. This meant God was reminding Jacob of His promise to Jacob and their deal they had made. Rachel and Leah felt regarded as foreigners in their own home. Their dowry was meant to be used for them, but Laban had used it for himself. He was not providing for his daughters, so they had nothing tying them to home. They submitted to Jacob’s leadership through following God. They said “Whatever God has said to you, do.” This is a great example for how marriage should work. The wife is supposed to submit to the husband who is to submit to Christ. If the husband is following Christ, then by following her husband, the wife is following Christ. Rachel and Leah decided to follow Jacob because they knew he was following God. Rachel stole the idols. I assume she must have believed in worshipping them. She kept it secret though. The passage is specific enough to tell us that Laban took seven days to overtake Jacob’s three day lead. God told Laban not to talk to Jacob. He failed miserably! He claimed that he wanted to celebrate with Jacob and send him on his way. I think that this is dripping with deceit. Laban did not like Jacob anymore and would not have consented to letting him leave with his daughters. The missing idols were a good excuse to chase down Jacob. I find it interesting that the passage says he felt for the idols everywhere. This was a very thorough search. I find Rachel’s method of hiding the idols humorous. Claiming she was on her period and could not move is funny to me, but even funnier is that Laban did not question it and gave up. Jacob was angry and questioned Laban’s motivation for chasing them down. Laban said that everything he saw was his: the flocks, his daughters, his grandchildren. Laban still did not acknowledge that Jacob had earned his wealth but felt it was stolen. If Laban had his way, Jacob would have never had any wages. Laban does not want Jacob to marry again showing that he does have some respect for his daughters. Jacob offered a sacrifice to God, probably to thank him for letting him survive his encounter with Laban. Jacob called God the God of Abraham and Nahor and the Fear of Isaac. I find it interesting Jacob called the God he didn’t quite know yet the Fear of Isaac. Laban left for home.

Questions: Why did Rachel want the idols? Did Jacob ever find out she had them? What did the daughters think of their father Laban? Why did Jacob call God the Fear of Isaac?

Lessons: Leah and Rachel’s submission to Jacob is a great example for marriage. Husbands can learn from Jacob’s submission to the will of God, and wives can learn from Leah and Rachel’s submission to their husband as they knew he was following the will of God. We can also learn from Jacob giving credit to God for his blessing and protection and his submission to God’s will as a result. Everything we have comes from God and belongs to God. If we can remember that, it could transform how we approach our lives. Jacob’s obedience is significant as well because while God had blessed him, it had not been easy. He had spent twenty years of hard work constantly having to overcome unfairness from his employer, yet he still trusted God and tried to follow Him.

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

Story: Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

Passage: Genesis 29:1-30

Characters: Jacob, Rachel, Laban, Leah

Summary: Jacob comes to Haran and finds a well with shepherds around it. Rachel leads her sheep to the well. Jacob rolls the stone away from the well and waters her sheep. He then kisses her and weeps. She tells Laban what had happened and Laban comes and asks Jacob what his wages should be. Jacob agrees to work sevewn years for Rachel. When the seven years are up, Laban gives him Leah. After he wakes up and complains, Laban makes him work another seven years for Rachel.

Notes: We are about to begin reading about one of the biggest cases of sibling rivalry this world has ever seen! But for now, we have Jacob arriving at a well. Around this well are a bunch of sheep and shepherds. Jacob did not know where he was so he asked them and he found out he was in Haran. He had made it! Now this well had a large stone covering it and the shepherds would not move this stone until all of the sheep were there. Apparently it was difficult to move and they didn’t want to move it more than they had to. Rachel was a shepherdess. She led her sheep to the well and when Jacob saw her, he went crazy. Boys today will go to great lengths to impress girls with their strength. Jacob was no different! As soon as he saw Rachel he went and moved the stone himself. His immediate reaction to seeing her was to move a giant stone by himself which normally took several men to move. This cracks me up! Jacob knew she was one of Lot’s daughters and he was apparently very attracted to her! He watered her flock and then kissed her and started weeping. I want to imagine this scene from a couple different perspectives. First of all, Rachel must have been confused. She went to the well like normal and there was a strange man there who started showing off his strength, then kissed her, then started weeping. This was not an ordinary event! Now from the other shepherds’ perspective, this would have been equally if not even more odd! Now from Jacob’s perspective, this makes more sense. This was a very spiritual moment for him. God promised to grant him a successful trip and now he had been led to the correct land, to a well where one of Laban’s daughters was coming, and she was very beautiful. This event showed Jacob that God was really with him! It is no wonder he wept. I also find it funny that both with Rachel and Rebekah, watering a stranger’s animals was involved. Anyway, Laban acknowledged that Jacob was family. Remember, Jacob would have been Laban’s nephew. Laban let Jacob set his wages. Jacob only wanted one thing, Rachel. However, he would need a dowry and he did not bring anything with him, except for some oil apparently. So he offered to work seven years for Rachel. Laban’s response was very indifferent. He thought it would be better to give her to Jacob than another guy so he agreed. Seven years of work was honestly better than a typical dowry. A dowry was designed to go to the bride in case of an emergency. While Jacob provided no actual wealth, Laban was blessed because of Jacob, but as we will see later, instead of giving it to Rachel, he kept it for himself. The passage says that the seven years felt like only a few days because of his love for Rachel. Awwww. Isn’t that sweet! In reality though, this shows us Jacob’s character. In that culture, he would not be able to see Rachel as much as he would have liked. To be willing to work seven years for her, and to do it so easily shows us how willing he was to wait and be patient for his future wife. This shows how his character truly was transformed during his journey from an impulsive deceitful young man to a patient wise man whom God would use to further His redemptive story. When Jacob’s seven years were up though, he was done waiting and he did not beat around the bush. He demanded his wife. So Laban set up the marriage feast. However, when night came, Laban switched Leah and Rachel. Jacob did notice this switch until morning. Needless to say, Jacob was surprised and upset. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Genesis 29:25, “And in the morning, behold, it was Leah!” How might this have happened you ask? Well in that culture, the custom was to veil the bride until she was alone with her new husband. In this case it would have been dark at that point and I’m sure that there was some alcohol involved as well. Obviously Rachel would not have been terribly willing to go along with this plan, but the father had the ultimate authority so she would have had no choice but to give in to her father’s demands. Jacob felt wronged. He had been deceived. The man who had impersonated his own brother to get the blessing had now been tricked by a woman impersonating her sister to marry him. Laban gave a lame excuse, but Jacob could do nothing about it. Jacob who was known for his deceit was now the object of deceit. This would trigger a battle between two deceitful men. Jacob worked another seven years to marry Rachel, but Laban at least let them get married as soon as the honeymoon was over for Leah. I imagine there was some tension for those seven years between the two men though. The Bible clearly states that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Poor Leah married Jacob and then watched him complain about not marrying her younger sister, and then he married Rachel and worked seven years for someone else. She was now married to a man who did not care for her. The passage says that she had weak eyes. This could mean that her eyesight was bad, or that she had delicate, or blue, eyes. Blue eyes were considered weaker than strong brown eyes and this would have made her less attractive. Either way, Rachel was more beautiful than Leah. Once again beauty plays a role in a biblical marriage. And it will play a role in some conflict as we will soon see.

Questions: How could Jacob not know who he was marrying? What made him so attracted to Rachel from the very beginning? How big was the stone he rolled away from the well? Was Laban aware of Jacob’s deceitful nature? What did Leah think of this deal? What did Rachel think of this deal? Had Leah been attracted to Jacob over that first seven years he had worked?

Lessons: True love is worth waiting for. If you truly love someone you will be willing to do anything, even working seven years for that person. Jesus calls us to love our enemies, love our neighbors, love God, basically love everyone. This total devotion and selflessness should be evident in any relationship in your life. Another lesson to pull from this is yet another lesson against favoritism. Though we have not yet seen the consequences, the favoritism Jacob shows to Rachel will create quite a bit of conflict in the next passage.

Isaac and Rebekah

Story: Isaac and Rebekah

Passage: Genesis 24

Characters: Abraham, His servant, Rebekah, Laban, Isaac

Summary: Abraham made his servant swear to pick a wife for Isaac from his own family and not from the Canaanites. The servant wanted to know what to do if the woman would not return with him. Abraham said that he would be released from his oath, only don’t bring Isaac back to his family’s country. The servant went to the city of Nahor. He asked God to show him who Isaac was supposed to marry. The deal was that when the servant asked for water, the woman He wanted Isaac to marry would offer to water his camels as well. Sure enough, when Rebekah walked out the servant asked her for water and she offered to water his camels as well. He found out she was a relative so he found Laban, her brother, and told him his mission. Laban said that he could take Rebekah back with him but he wanted to wait ten days. When the servant expressed his wish to leave immediately, they consulted Rebekah and she said she would go. They left and Isaac saw them coming from far away so he married her immediately.

Notes: This is the first account of a marriage relationship prior to marriage that we see in the bible. However, as we have just read, there was really very little relationship before marriage. Here are a few observations I made from this story. I am going to analyze this by character.
Abraham trusted his servant a lot! He gave him control of his house, his son, his son’s marriage, his wealth, etc. Abraham was insistent on two things: staying separate from Canaan, and staying on the land which God was giving him. So he wanted Isaac to not mix with Canaan, but continue living on their land. Having Isaac marry a family member was a good way to keep their family separate. When his servant prayed, he prayed to the God of his master Abraham. I wonder if he considered God to be his god as well. He must have trusted God since he asked a very specific request of God. I feel like serving a man like Abraham would make it easy to trust God. He finishes his prayer by saying that if God does this, the servant would know that God has shown steadfast love to his master. I really get the idea that he looked at God as his master’s god. God would come through indeed. In fact, before Abraham’s servant had finished praying, Rebekah had come out. The servant asked her the question and she responded by offering to water his camels. The servant did not jump to conclusions though. As she watered the camels, he silently watched her and prayed about whether she really was the one God wanted. It was later that he found out that Rebekah was family. God had led him straight to Abraham’s family. It was perfect! The servant retold his entire journey and what God had done and then demanded an answer. When he was told his journey was going to be successful, he wanted to get back home as fast as possible! The servant’s job was complete. He had been blessed with a successful journey.

Rebekah’s family was a little unusual from what I can tell. Her brother Laban was the one who did most of the negotiations in this story. The dad, Bethuel, was around because he was involved in giving the servant permission to take Rebekah back as Isaac’s wife. However, Laban was just as involved in giving his sister away. In fact, his name is mentioned before Bethuel’s name. It was not Bethuel who wanted Rebekah to stay another ten days, but rather it was Laban and her mom. The dad sounds like he was just not too involved in running the family. Her family blessed her as she left. They had no idea that their blessing mirrored the promise given to Abraham about his descendants. When Laban saw the man talking to his sister, he ran out to see what was going on. He was obviously very protective of Rebekah.

Rebekah is definitely wise and polite. She is portrayed as very mature in this story. She is also described as very attractive. I find it interesting that physical attraction played a role in this divine match. Is it possible that God’s design for marriage, physical attraction is actually quite important? I would say that it is very possible! Christians today are very quick to point out that a marriage cannot be based on physical attraction. This is true, but it also cannot ignore attraction. God designed marriage to involve a certain level of physical attraction! We also read in previous chapters that Sarah was very beautiful as well. Beauty played a big role in marriages in these stories! I find it amazing that Rebekah went from minding her own business, to riding on a camel towards her future husband, away from her family and land, all within a day! The faith and maturity she shows is amazing to me! To leave her family like to that to marry a man she doesn’t know who lives in land which he doesn’t owe take incredible faith!

Isaac sounds like he was still grieving his mother’s death. He was in a field meditating when Rebekah arrived. I suspect he was praying still as a result of his mother’s death. When he saw Rebekah he took her into his mother’s former tent, which was still set up apparently, and he married her. Marriage was not built around getting to know the other person and making sure you are compatible, it was a beautiful practical thing ordained and set up by God himself. It says that she became his wife and he loved her. Love is the result of marriage not the basis for marriage. And this marriage comforted Isaac after Sarah’s death.

Questions: What did Abraham think of this match? Why was Rebekah so willing to leave her family like this? Why was Laban the primary protector of Rebekah? Did Abraham’s servant truly fear God? How attached to his mother was Isaac? Why was he meditating in the field?

Lessons: Pray specifically. The servant prayed a very specific prayer and God answered it immediately. We need to pray specifically and expect God to be able to listen. This story also teaches me a lot about what marriage should look like. You do not need to love someone or get to know them perfectly before marriage, all of that will come after marriage. Marriage can be a very comforting thing. Laban is also a good model of how protective a brother should be of his sister. If the father and the brother accept their responsibility as protectors, then it is less likely that a guy will take advantage of a young woman.