A Few Days

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

A FEW DAYS

Gen 29:14-20

After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 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." 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel." 19 Laban said, "It's better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me." 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

NIV

The deception is about to take place, but before we deal with that, something here rings our bell or strikes a chord in our hearts. First, there is the offer of paying Jacob for his labor because Laban did not think it fair Jacob worked for nothing just because he was a relative. Perhaps, Laban is not that off, or that bad of a character, and maybe this deception that is about to occur is from the hand of God. If Jacob is going to have twelve sons, he will need more than one wife, and even then there will be maidservants involved in giving Jacob all his sons. However, the nugget for us at this beginning of the story is that Jacob worked for seven years to have Rachel, whom he loved, as a wife, but it only seemed like only a few days to him. Is that not our story only we have been married for way more than seven years, but because we love our spouse, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty-plus years only seem like a few days. We can look back throughout our lives and remember so many events, so many we know it took many years to accomplish, yet because we are still in love the time has just slipped right by almost without noticing. Although the fact that love covers a multitude of sins as Peter puts it. Solomon framed it in a proverb, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all wrongs”. Because of our love, there is no record of wrongs as Paul put it in his letter to the Corinthians. When we think of no record of wrongs, we think that it would be impossible to ever remind ourselves of those wrongs, as well as reminding our spouses, that is if we kept no record. Surely God keeps no record of our wrongs, but then He is God and we are but mere humans with all our weaknesses. Still, our mark, our command is from God, and if we are obeying the word of God, then because we love that person, first and foremost, our spouse, but that love carries over to our neighbor. Without getting sidetracked with loving our neighbor, the point is no matter how many years we have loved our spouse, or been in love with our spouse, it only seems like a few days.