We last saw Jacob making his way towards the eastern lands
where he intended to not only put as much distance between himself and his vengeful brother Esau,
but also to meet his uncle Laban and to marry one of the women there under his mother’s wishes.
Previously, we saw Jacob dream of the angels and we saw him come to realise that he was,
in a sense, the chosen one by God and that despite all of his schemes and deceptions,
God had made up his mind and he indeed was to be the one who inherited the covenant. Now,
this might’ve been all well and good to a truly honest and pious man, but Jacob, the heel catcher,
had always been an opportunist and with this, he sought to extract tangible guarantees from God,
those that would ensure his safety and also grant him bonuses including food and clothing.
Evidently, he did not trust the word of God and appeared to only concede
to him if his own demands were met first. Now, God is not seen here to comment on or
reprimand Jacob’s response and the bible does not convey that God had really taken Jacob’s
demands as a slight. But as we see what transpires in the eastern land of Harran,
within the household of Laban, it could be argued that God had already set up Jacob’s
punishment - a long and gruelling punishment that not only sheds years off of Jacob’s life,
but also provides him with a taste of his own medicine, for the trickster, is tricked.
The bible tells us that after seeing God in his dream at Bethel, he continued on his journey until
he came to a well in the open country. There, he saw three flocks of sheep laying beside the well,
having recently been fed from it. Over the mouth of the well was said to be a large stone
and that when the flocks were brought there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well,
something which appears to have been an arduous task and certainly took the might of several men.
Having seen the shepherds there with their sheep, he asks them where they are from
and whether they know of Laban, the grandson of Nahor. To his surprise,
they actually do and they point out that Laban’s daughter Rachel had arrived with the sheep.
When Jacob sees her approaching, he is struck by her beauty - in fact, he is so smitten at
the sight of her that he hopes to eliminate the other shepherds from the scene at all,
so that he can be alone with her. He tells them, “Look, the sun is still high; it is not time for
the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to the pasture.” (Genesis 29:7)
But the shepherds explain that they can’t do as he says, because the flocks had not yet been gathered
and the large stone which covered the mouth of the well had not yet been rolled away. In this,
we understand that moving this rock was a most tricky thing to do and probably required the
strength of more than one man in order to achieve. But Rachel drew near, and Jacob realised that if
he wanted to be alone with her, he needed the shepherds to leave that very moment.
So, taking it upon himself, he rolled the large stone away from the mouth of the well
himself and took it upon himself to water the sheep too. The bible tells us, “Rachel came
with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban,
and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well
and watered his uncle’s sheep.” (Genesis 29:9-10). It might also be said here that Jacob was trying
to impress Rachel by moving the stone himself and took it upon himself to water the sheep
not just to get the other shepherds to leave, but also as an act of kindness to Rachel
in an effort to woo her even more. It also shows us that despite being a scheming man
who had confined himself to the tents, Jacob did possess a great deal of strength after all,
perhaps similar to that of Esau, but that he only needed the right motivation in order to unlock it.
In one of his more bold moments, Jacob does not appear to even introduce himself to Rachel.
He instead shoots his shot and kisses her just like that. He is then seen to weep aloud
and proceeds to tell her that he is Jacob, the son of Rebekah - her father’s sister.
Now, as you might imagine, Rachel was probably stunned at this stranger grabbing her and kissing
her and was probably even more confused when he began to weep aloud into the air, professing not
only his relief at having found her, but also his proclamations that they were related. She is
not seen here in the bible to really give much of a reaction to Jacob’s bizarre introduction,
but instead runs and tells her father. The bible tells us of this event, “Then Jacob kissed Rachel
and began to weep aloud. He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son
of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.” (Genesis 29:11-12).
When Laban learned of the news that his nephew had come to visit him,
he drops everything and proceeds to show him great hospitality. We are told, “As soon as Laban heard
the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and
brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him,
“You are my own flesh and blood.” (Genesis 29:13-14). It might be said that because of
the customs of society at the time, Laban was more than happy to take in his sister’s son.
His statement ‘You are my own flesh and blood’ also indicates that because they are related,
Laban would never have hesitated in welcoming Jacob into his household. But a more sinister
idea suggests that Laban was much less interested in Jacob and his familial ties,
but instead with the fortune he would inherit after his father Isaac died.
This is certainly believable when we see how deceptive Laban turns out to be and how he
is able to essentially use not only Jacob as a pawn in his games, but also his own daughters.
As you might imagine, Laban’s hospitality would only last for so long and after a month, Laban
said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing?
Tell me what your wages should be.” (Genesis 29:15) Now, it might sound like that Laban
was showing courtesy to Jacob by letting him decide his wages, but in actuality
this was Laban giving Jacobo a subtle message that if he wanted to stay within his household,
he’d need to become a servant. Luckily, Jacob picks up on Laban’s hint
and tells him that he will accept his wages in the form of his daughter’s hand in marriage - Rachel,
in particular. Now, it should be noted that Laban had two daughters - the older being Leah
and the younger being Rachel. The bible tells us that Leah had weak eyes and was essentially
much less attractive. Whereas Rachel was beautiful and had a good body.
The bible tells us specifically, “Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah,
and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was
beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return
for your daughter Rachel.” (Genesis 29:16-18) What’s interesting here is that we learn that
Jacob is in love with Rachel - which I suppose, wasn’t exactly a shocker given how he couldn’t
control himself when he first laid eyes on her. She was, as the bible tells us,
very beautiful and possessed a body that Jacob was most attracted to. By comparison, her sister Leah
was not so fortunate and it is believed that she was not only showing age, but did not possess a
body like Rachel’s. Furthermore, she is described in the bible as having ‘weak eyes’, which some
have determined to mean that she had poor vision, or poor health. Meanwhile, another more common
belief is that Leah’s eyes were simply dull and did not have the same life in them as Rachel’s.
We also see here that Jacob surrenders seven years of life in order to obtain Rachel’s
hand in marriage. Whilst these seven years are seen as compensation to Laban
for allowing Jacob to live with him, it also has a dual purpose as the seven years serve as a dowry.
Now you may agree that seven years is a considerably long time and it might be said
that it was demonstrative of how much Jacob loved Rachel. It could also be seen as Jacob ensuring
that Laban would not refuse his offer, for seven years of service was not something he could say
no to. But it could be argued that Jacob’s attempt to make such an unrefusable offer
worked against him, for it alerted Laban as to how much Jacob wanted to be with Rachel.
With this knowledge, Laban was able to take advantage of Jacob.
Laban appears to agree to Jacob’s terms, telling him that he’d rather give Rachel to a man like
Jacob, his nephew, than some random stranger. The bible then tells us that Jacob did indeed serve
his seven years to obtain Rachel, but that these seven years only seemed like a few days to him,
because of his love for her. It is believed that during these seven years, Jacob went without pay
and was in some capacity, at the mercy of Laban for food and shelter. Yet, despite
these gruelling conditions, the seven years passed by in no time, and we are led to believe
that because of the thought of being with Rachel, Jacob was able to not only endure such hardships,
but that he barely even noticed them. Now, you might say that the reason it wasn’t such a big
deal for him was because he got to see Rachel all the time anyway and whilst they weren’t married,
they were still ‘together’ under the household of Laban. This isn’t necessarily true,
given that in ancient culture, Jacob, as a servant would have probably been made to work
outside for long hours and that he might have been forced to adhere to the social guidelines
that segregated servants from the household members, or at least, prevented them from
conversing and forming a relationship. This shows us that not only was Jacob willing to
go to such extremes for Rachel, but that he was also prepared to wait for her for seven years.
When the seven years pass, Jacob confronts Laban immediately and demands, “Give me my wife.
My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.” (Genesis 29:21) Evidently, whilst the
seven years had flown by for Jacob, he was done waiting for what he wanted and was clear that
his service to Laban was now over and that his uncle should now uphold his end of the bargain.
Laban appeared to certainly do so, as he brought together all the people of his household and
held a feast in honour of the union between Jacob and Rachel. Yet, things were not as they seemed.
The bible tells us, “But when the evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob,
and Jacob made love to her.” (Genesis 29:22) Now, many of you will be wondering - how on
earth did Jacob not realise he was having sex with the wrong daughter? And I’m pretty much in
agreement with you. Some ideas propose here that at this feast, Jacob had consumed too much wine
and that in his drunken state, he could not tell the difference between Leah and Rachel.
However, the bible does not detail the contents of the feast
and Jacob’s sobriety does not appear to come into question.
Another idea proposes that because of the customs of the wedding, the wife was constantly veiled so
as to preserve her modesty and that she was only revealed to her husband when they were alone
at the end of the night. Naturally, by this point it would have been dark and so,
it could explain how Jacob was fooled. Furthermore, it should be noted that Leah
was most likely involved in the deception as well given that she willingly goes along with it. Or
that perhaps, she’d been instructed to do so by her father and therefore could not disobey him.
Some ideas propose that Leah secretly loved Jacob and realising that this was her only
opportunity to be with him, she jumped at the chance to fulfil her fantasy.
It might also be questioned as to why Rachel did not alert Jacob that this was happening
and this might be because she was either ignorant to the plan, or that Laban’s
authority over the household was absolute and thus, could not be questioned or challenged.
When Jacob wakes up the next morning, he realises that he is lying next to Leah
and not Rachel. With this, he immediately realises that he has been deceived and that
Laban had supplied him with the wrong daughter. The bible tells us, “When the morning came,
there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel,
didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” (Genesis 29:25)
Here, we see Jacob get a taste of his own medicine, for the deceiver is ultimately deceived.
You can sense the panic in his words as the realisation of what has transpired begins to sink
in. No longer is he the one pulling the strings of those around him, but instead comes to find
himself at the mercy of someone far more sly. It might be argued that as stated earlier, this was
his punishment for not only giving God ultimatums, but also for having deceived both Isaac and Esau.
In fact, one might say that the deception here is quite similar to the deception Jacob had
made against Isaac given that where Jacob took advantage of Isaac’s inability to see, the same
was done to him by Laban. It could also be said that where Jacob had schemed to trade his status
from the younger sibling to the older sibling, Laban had schemed to trade the older sibling for
the younger sibling with his own daughters, thus causing Jacob to reap what he’d sowed.
Believers might draw the conclusion from this part of the story, that just because one gets
away with some pretty deceitful actions - such as Jacob has been seen to do - it does not mean
that they will not be punished later on. God might not choose to change his plan as he continues to
give Jacob the birthright and bless him, but he does later put him through the harsh reality of
working for Laban and shows him quite vividly what it feels like to be so utterly taken advantage of.
Essentially, the idea of karma is established here in that those who do bad, will only get so far
before their transgressions and sins catch up to them.
Laban proceeds to answer Jacob and tells him, “It is not our custom here to give the
younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then
we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.” (Genesis 26-27)
Laban’s rather cold and callous response could be seen as his attempt to defuse the situation,
without having to actually accept the guilt. He also produces the excuse that according to
the customs of Harran, the younger daughter is not allowed to get married before the older one
and that Jacob should have really known this before agreeing to the proposal.
In essence, Laban seeks to shrug the blame off of himself and onto Jacob as well as
to justify his actions in the first place. He is basically telling Jacob that these are the rules
and that no one would be able to marry Rachel without Leah being married first. In this,
Laban’s excuse keeps Jacob’s hands tied and so, he is unable to do much about it but accept
another seven years of labour in order to obtain Rachel. Here, Jacob really comes to learn what
it is like to be deceived and how such actions can truly make someone else miserable. By experiencing
this first hand, Jacob understands the pain he has caused and perhaps, this was God’s way of making
him develop some empathy and to perhaps prevent him from doing something of the like again.
The bible concludes this section telling us, “And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah,
and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant Bilah to his
daughter Rachel as her attendant. Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel
was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.” (Genesis 29:28-30)
As always guys, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode of biblical stories explained,
then don’t forget to give it a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe for
more content just like this. Until next time.