Payback

DEVOTION

GENESIS

PAYBACK

Gen 29:21-30

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her." 22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. 24 And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant. 25 When 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?" 26 Laban replied, "It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter's bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work." 28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. 30 Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

NIV

How could he not know who he was lying with? Laban certainly deceived Jacob regarding giving him Rachel for this seven years of service. But is this sort of a payback for his deception of his father? He pretended to be Esau and here Leah may well have pretended to be Rachel. Yet if they were so different, why wouldn’t Jacob know as he engaged in the most intimate of physical acts? How dark is dark that he could not even see her at all and notice who she was? Was it customary for the woman to cover their faces? According to the scholar this was the custom, the new wife having a veil on her wedding night. Nevertheless Jacob does discover the truth in the light of morning and he is not happy about this one bit. Although he must have felt very happy with himself during the night, he now feels deceived. Did he think about how he had deceived his father? How it made his father feel once the truth was known? It does seem interesting that he gets some of the same treatment he gave others. It does appear to lend to a teaching of do onto others as you would have then do unto you. Laban is not a totally bad person and explains his situation and he just could not give him Rachel with first giving him Leah. However Rachel comes with another seven years of labor, which Jacob willingly agrees. So now he willingly spends a whole week of nights lying with Leah, fulfilling the custom of that time. It is interesting after he receives Rachel as his wife, we are told he loved her more the Leah. We already knew he loved her, but we did not know he loved Leah at all. Yet we are told he loved Rachel more the Leah, so he must have also found love in his heart for Leah after spending this time with her. It may not have been her intense beauty as we are told Rachel was the beautiful sister. However Leah may not have been the ugly sister, just not as beautiful as Rachel. Yet she could well have been the most charming of ladies, gentle and caring, sweetly giving in her demeanor. Jacob could not help but to love her, yet just not as much as Rachel, his first love, and the young lady who caught his eye. What do we learn from all this? Love is more than physical. Although in our youth it seems we are attracted at first to the physical charms of a potential mate, love has to be far deeper than that if it is going to sustain throughout life. We are going to see that all the women, Leah, her handmaiden, Rachel and her handmaiden all have sons for Jacob, twelve in all. Surely a custom that was acceptable in those days, but have long been put aside. We have but one mate and they are to be our love all the days of our lives. But we return to this predominate truth of how Jacob was treated as he treated his father, with deception. Was it the justice of God? Not so, as Jacob had committed himself to God and God had promised him, had made a covenant with him, that he would bless him, and give him descendants he could not number. No, this was not God getting even, but perhaps teaching him a lesson, instructing him in the right ways. God does show us our faults, but not to punish, but to instruct, to correct, to guide us into paths of righteousness. Certainly God did not withhold Rachel from him and in fact Jacob enjoyed the company of four women who all ultimately gave him sons. God blessed him abundantly, but still showed him how he had been and how he should be. God blesses us, he loves us and because of his great love he shows us our faults and shows us the right path. He instructs us, he corrects us, he disciplines us so that we may be the person he has planned us to be. Yet looking ahead, far ahead we see Jacob loves one of his sons a great deal more than all the others because he was Rachel’s son. We still see another dysfunctional family because of the behavior of the father. How long does it take for a person to learn how God would have them be? There was not a great deal of brotherly love in this future family. But God still works in their lives. We may not learn all our lessons from God overnight either, but he still keeps working in our lives, he never gives up on us. But let us at least try to learn our lesson from our past mistakes and move forward with God. Will we ever be the perfect person he desires? Does he expect perfection? Not really, that is why we have Christ, to be our perfection, our righteousness. Nevertheless we should not openly continue to disregard the Lord's instructions or corrections. It seems Jacob may never learn completely nor will we, but God is always wanting to be our guide, our God, loving and blessing us because he is our God.