And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house; and he told Laban all these things.
Jacob reaches Haran with nothing. Within moments his mother's brother is running to embrace him — the man who will shape the next twenty years of his life. The welcome looks like pure family joy. Commentators ask who arranged the meeting, and what Laban was weighing as he held his nephew.
Nobody in the chapter prays, and God is not named at the well. Writers still see His hand behind every step of the encounter.
As usual, Jacob is here under God's providential care, even when we hear only of the shepherds of Haran. Rachel appears, and Laban follows. It is His sure but unseen and unnamed direction.
That guidance was real mercy — and it led him straight to a man cut from the same cloth as himself.
In Genesis 29 Jacob takes up his journey again. At once we see the merciful hand of God directing him and opening his way. God guides his steps to the very well where his uncle Laban's sheep were watered, and where he met his cousin Rachel. Laban received him into his house with an overflowing welcome. But there Jacob found himself in the hands of a man who matched him in deceit.
The warmth is real family affection. The question is how long it lasted.
Rachel left the sheep and ran to tell her father the good news of a relative from a far country (v. 12). Laban also ran to meet Jacob, and embraced and kissed him. So he welcomed him into his home as his own "bone and flesh" (v. 14). How good it would have been if this attitude had lasted through their whole relationship! But when they parted twenty years later, the atmosphere was hostile rather than friendly.
At the parting twenty years on, one detail stands out: who did not get a kiss.
The next morning, before they parted, Laban kissed his daughters and their children. But there is no mention of his kissing Jacob, as he had done when they first met (Gen. 29:13).
This is not the first time Laban runs out to greet an arrival from Canaan. Years earlier he welcomed Abraham's servant, who had come to find a wife for Isaac — and one writer points to what triggered the rush.
It is no accident that Laban offered hospitality so readily. He had seen the ring and the bracelets on his sister's hands. He had heard her report of what Abraham's messenger said to her. He came at once to the man, who was still standing by the camels at the spring. His welcome sounded warm and pious — as such people tend to sound when honour and advantage are certain. The later history shows that Laban was a grasping man and an idolater.
Jacob's telling of "all these things" is the whole of what he brought. There were no camels, no gifts, no wealthy master behind him.
Remember the contrast with Isaac the heir, the son who stayed in his father's house. His father sent the honoured servant Eliezer to represent them both, with fitting equipment and rich gifts for the bride. Here the outcast wanderer has nothing to commend him but his relationship and his service. And Laban was not slow to see the value of so capable a man for interests dearer to him than anything else.
The door that opened to him led into an environment that fitted him uncomfortably well.
It is striking to see how he gets back into an atmosphere so completely suited to his moral make-up. The bargaining Jacob meets the bargaining Laban, and both strain every nerve to outwit each other. We cannot wonder at Laban. He had never been at Bethel. He had seen no open heaven, with a ladder reaching from there to earth. He had heard no magnificent promises from the lips of Jehovah.
The twenty years that followed were not bad luck with an uncle. They were training, and the pattern holds for everyone God calls.
There he must bow to the divine discipline that had already forced him to leave his father's house and the recent unhappy influence of his mother. So it is with each of God's children. Grace is sovereign in calling even the most difficult people. But they pass under a moral government that notices every fault, so that they may share in His holiness. Compare John 15, Hebrews 12:5-11, and 1 Peter 1:15-16.
- Welcome arranged. God is never named at the well, yet the shepherds, Rachel and then Laban all arrive on cue — sure, unseen direction.
- Welcome warm. The running, embracing and kissing were real family affection. Yet twenty years later Laban kissed his daughters goodbye — and not Jacob.
- Welcome calculating. Laban had greeted a visitor from Canaan once before, with jewellery on the table. His warmth ran hottest when advantage was certain.
- Welcome empty-handed. Isaac's servant came with camels and rich gifts. Jacob brought only his kinship and his ability to work, and Laban put a price on both.
- Welcome into discipline. The bargainer walked into a bargainer's house. Grace calls the most difficult people, then puts them under a government that notices every fault.
And Laban said to him, Thou art indeed my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him a month's time.
Jacob reaches Haran a stranger. His mother's brother runs out, embraces him, and calls him family — and the month that follows opens into twenty years Jacob never planned.
Laban's phrase is a standard way of claiming someone as family. A Bible dictionary groups it with the same wording used elsewhere in Genesis:
The same kindred: "you are my bone and my flesh," Genesis 29:14; "he is our brother, and our flesh," Genesis 37:27.
Nobody prays here, and heaven stays silent. Yet one writer names who is arranging the meeting. He also marks the contrast with an earlier journey to find a bride, in Genesis 24:
Here, as usual, Jacob is under God's providential care, even when we hear only of the shepherds of Haran. Rachel appears, and Laban follows. It is His sure but unseen and unnamed direction. Yet notice the difference from Genesis 24. There Eliezer prayed a clear prayer of faith and worshipped at once. God answered promptly, and the bride responded readily.
One writer traces this family welcome to its end:
Family affection fills the scene. Jacob kissed Rachel and wept for joy, telling her that he is the son of Rebekah, her father's sister. Of course they had never met, but family ties can still be very strong... Laban also ran to meet Jacob and embraced and kissed him. So he welcomed him into his home as his own "bone and flesh" (v. 14). How good it would have been if this attitude had lasted! But when they parted 20 years later, the atmosphere was hostile, not friendly.
Jacob had used deceit to get what he wanted at home. Now he settles in with a relative who works the same way:
It is remarkable to see how he settles back into an atmosphere that suits his moral makeup so exactly. The bargain-making Jacob meets the bargain-making Laban. Both strain every nerve, as it were, to outwit the other. Nor can we wonder at Laban, for he had never been at Bethel: he had seen no open heaven... You cannot expect worldly men to show anything but a worldly spirit, and worldly principles and ways.
The free month ends, and Laban raises the subject of pay:
After Jacob had stayed there a month, serving Laban, the question of his wages came up. He loved Rachel, so he agreed to serve seven years for her. Verses 23-30 tell us how Laban deceived him at the end of the seven years, and Laban had a plausible excuse for acting as he did. We cannot fail to see here the working of the government of God. It illustrates our Lord's words: "with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." It was Jacob's turn now to complain of being cheated.
Being paid back in your own coin sounds like bare justice. Another writer insists that is only half of what is happening:
He is now a stranger and a servant for hire. He is the victim of the deceit and self-advancement of Laban, his relative — and near kin in character too. The retribution is impossible to mistake all the way through: the measure he has dealt out to another is dealt out to him again. But we cannot miss this either. In the way it is dealt out, God is speaking to the heart and conscience of the wanderer. There is governmental equity, but also the chastening of a holy love.
The house that disciplined Jacob left its owner untouched:
As to Laban, he was a thorough man of the world when Jacob entered his house, and so he was when Jacob left it. In all his dealings, from first to last, he eyes his own advantage. He has to admit that the hand of God was with Jacob; but he would make that hand, through Jacob, serve himself... For twenty years he saw the hand of the Lord, and the working of His grace and power, in his own house and before his own eyes, day after day. Yet he remained a man of the world.
- Kinship — "my bone and my flesh" is the plain claim of blood relation. Laban is saying: you are family.
- Providence — Jacob prays no prayer here. Yet God's unseen hand brings him to the shepherds, to Rachel, and to Laban's house.
- Likeness — the family tie is also a moral one: a bargainer arrives in a bargainer's home, and the atmosphere suits him.
- Discipline — the free month becomes paid service, and the deceiver is deceived. Writers see both God's even-handed government and a Father's correcting love.
- Contrast — twenty years under one roof left Jacob chastened and Laban unchanged. Watching God work does not by itself change a man.
And Laban said to Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou serve me for nothing? tell me, what shall be thy wages?
Jacob has worked a month for his uncle Laban with no agreement about pay. Now Laban asks what his wages should be, and Jacob's answer — seven years of work for Rachel — raises the question the commentators press hard: can a bride be bought?
Laban opens the bargain only after a month of unpaid service. Jacob's reply shows an old habit.
They had been together one month, with Jacob apparently working for his uncle. Then Laban realised that Jacob should have wages for his service, and asked what Jacob would like for wages. Here again Jacob's character as a bargainer stands out. Laban had a daughter older than Rachel, but she was not as attractive. Jacob was drawn only to Rachel and offered to work for Laban for seven years to earn Rachel as his wife.
Laban appeals to kinship, and kinship is nearly all Jacob has. Isaac's bride was sought very differently.
Remember the contrast with Isaac the heir, the son who stayed in his father's house. Remember too the honoured servant Eliezer, sent to represent him and his father, with a fitting escort and rich gifts for the bride. Here the outcast wanderer has nothing to recommend him but his relationship and his service. And Laban was quick to see the value of so capable a man for interests dearer to him than anything else. So the bargain was soon struck, and Laban accepted Jacob's warm offer at once.
Laban's welcome had been warm. His character was another matter.
Laban welcomed him into his house with open arms, but there Jacob found himself in the hands of a man who matched him in deceit.
Commentators fault both men here, not Laban only. The wrong lies in treating a marriage as a transaction at all.
And here is where Jacob makes a serious mistake. I used to feel very sorry for Jacob when Laban deceived him and he got a wife he did not want — he wanted Rachel, not Leah. But do you know where Jacob went wrong? He got Leah by bargaining. Jacob badly misrepresented the relationship that gives the most beautiful picture of the bond between Christ and the church. That bond is one of pure grace. Jacob brought it down to the level of a merely legal thing instead of recognising it as a thing of pure grace.
The same writer goes back to the first marriage of all, and notes that Laban was selling what was never his.
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were completely wrong in placing a monetary value on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift by grace. Grace should always come first in the sacred relationship of marriage.
The seven years ended with Laban giving Leah instead of Rachel. Commentators see God's hand behind the trick.
We cannot fail to see in this the working of God's government. It illustrates our Lord's words, "with the measure you use it will be measured to you." It was Jacob's turn now to complain of being cheated.
Jacob's long work for love has another side. Writers see in it a picture of Christ winning His bride.
He has Himself gone into the distant land, and has worked and suffered reproach and wrong for her. In all this, Jacob sets forth the true Bridegroom. The Lord Jesus Himself has borne the heat of the day alone. He had nowhere to lay His head, like Jacob. He was away from His Father's house and from the place of His inheritance. He was wronged again and again in a world which, like Laban and his house, always seeks its own.
The contrast teaches as much as the likeness. Jacob served for hire; Christ did not.
See the contrast with the Bridegroom. He longs deeply for the bride, yet He is content to be cut off and have nothing. He refuses to serve the world for hire. He is content to be a stranger to His brothers, a foreigner to His mother's children. He serves His Father in the appointed place. He becomes obedient to death. He loves the wages of righteousness. He has a right to all, yet takes none, so that He might receive all in resurrection.
- Wages asked. After a month of unpaid work, Laban offers pay. This is not generosity. He had seen the worth of a capable man for interests dearer to him than anything else.
- Wages named. Jacob arrives with nothing but kinship and work to offer. He prices Rachel at seven years, and his old habit as a bargainer shows again.
- Wages wrong. Rachel was never Laban's to sell. Marriage pictures pure grace, and Jacob dragged it down to a legal deal.
- Wages returned. Laban deceives the deceiver, and God's government pays Jacob back by the measure he had used.
- Wages refused. The true Bridegroom toiled for His bride in a world that, like Laban's house, always seeks its own. Yet He took no hire. He received everything in resurrection.
And Laban had two daughters the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger, Rachel.
One short verse introduces the two sisters Jacob will marry, and it marks which one is older. That order matters. It becomes the trap Laban sets for Jacob, and, for many writers, a picture of God's ways.
Commentators start with what the two names mean:
Rachel, "sheep," seems to stand for the meekness and patience of true discipleship. That is the very opposite of Jacob's self-willed and unrestrained temper up to now. But he must get her through unwanted Leah. Her name, "wearied," suggests the "tribulation" that works "patience" out.
The verse marks Leah as the elder. A firstborn's rights are exactly what Jacob had ignored at home, and one writer sees God's hand in what followed:
His uncle's deception might well have reminded Jacob of his own past. He had deceived a relative himself — his own father. Such things have a way of recoiling, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that those who take on the character of deceivers will very likely be deceived themselves (2 Tim. 3:13). Here too Jacob learned, painfully, the rights of a firstborn. He had ignored those rights in the case of his brother Esau.
Jacob then offers Laban seven years of work for Rachel. Commentators call that bargain wrong on both sides, and set it against the first marriage of all:
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were totally wrong in placing a mercenary value on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift by grace. Grace should always come first in the sacred relationship of marriage.
Jacob's love carried him through years of hard service. One writer finds here the one point in Jacob's life that pictures Christ:
And only after years of toil could Jacob claim her as his own. By day the heat consumed him, and the frost by night; and sleep left his eyes. But love lightened the burdens and sweetened all the bitterness of those long years. "So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her" (Gen. 29:20). This is the only phase of his life in which Jacob appears as a picture of our Lord. He is the One "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and (His toil ended) is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture. Some read the sisters as two groups of people:
I have no doubt that Leah represents the Gentiles, and Rachel the Jews.
On that reading, each sister has her own place:
Here we find the picture in Rachel: so long wooed yet withheld, so long barren, so great a cause of sorrow and anxiety, and yet so greatly and endlessly loved... Leah (who is regarded as picturing the Gentile) was the first one Jacob got, but she was not the first one he sought... Even so, she is the most fruitful. She is honoured in the births of Judah and Levi — the Ruler and the Teacher, King and Priest.
Others take the two sisters as a picture of something nearer home — the gap between what we wish we were and what we are:
Rachel (meaning "sheep") pictures the lovely state of soul that believers would like to reach: humble submission to God. She was the desire of Jacob's heart. But in struggling to get Rachel, he only got Leah, whose name means "wearied." Leah is a picture of what I really am, not what I want to be... I may try hard to make myself different, only to find myself "stuck" with what I really am, as Jacob was "stuck" with Leah! This is the struggle of Romans 7, where "I" is seen fighting against "I."
- Named — Leah means "wearied," Rachel means "sheep." We reach the meekness we want through the tiredness we did not want.
- Ordered — Leah is the elder, and that becomes the trap. Jacob had pushed past a firstborn's rights, and now he must learn them.
- Priced — Jacob works to earn a wife. God gave Adam his wife as a gift of grace.
- Loved — love made seven years feel like a few days. Here alone Jacob's toil pictures Christ, who endured for the joy set before Him.
- Fruitful — Leah, the wife Jacob never asked for, bore Judah and Levi — the King and the Priest.
And the eyes of Leah were tender; but Rachel was of beautiful form and beautiful countenance.
The story stops here to compare two sisters. That comparison shapes all that follows: who Jacob wants, who he gets, and who bears his sons. It is one line about eyes and beauty. Yet commentators read in it both a hard lesson for a schemer and a picture of God's wider dealings.
The two names carry meanings, and the story acts them out. One writer prints them, with the older reading "tender" where the ESV has "weak":
Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah (Weariness), and the name of the younger was Rachel (Ewe). And the eyes of Leah were tender... And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they were in his eyes a few days, for his love to her.
Jacob answered the difference between the sisters by buying the one he wanted:
Rachel did not belong to Laban. Both Jacob and Laban were completely wrong to put a price on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift, by grace. Grace should always rule in the sacred relationship of marriage.
Laban then handed him the plain daughter in the dark. That reversal was not bad luck:
His uncle's trick might well have reminded Jacob of his own. He himself had deceived a relative before — his own father. Such things have a way of recoiling, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that those who form the character of deceivers will very likely be deceived themselves (2 Tim. 3:13). In this case too Jacob painfully learned the rights of a firstborn, which he had ignored in the case of his brother Esau.
Verse 17 ranks the sisters by looks. God ranks them the other way:
It is not Elohim here, but Jehovah, God in special relationship and moral dealing. He looked on the sorrowful and despised wife. He gave the comfort of a son not to Rachel but to Leah, the one "hated" by comparison. Rachel, happy in her husband's love, stayed barren!
The woman passed over for her looks became mother of the leading tribes:
She was 'tender eyed,' and not as beautiful as Rachel. But God blessed her: she bore Jacob six sons and one daughter. So she became the mother of the heads of the important tribes of Reuben, Levi, and Judah, as well as of Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun.
Commentators differ on what the two sisters picture. One reads them like this:
Rachel represents Israel, Messiah's first object of love on earth. But this fails by no fault on His part. And He has Leah. She represents the call of the Gentiles — the nations — in the meantime, during Jacob's servant state and great sorrows, when "more are the children of the desolate than of the married wife, says Jehovah" (Isaiah 54:4, compare Gal. 4).
Another writer takes Leah as a picture of the church rather than of the nations generally, and draws the timing out further:
Rachel typifies Israel, Christ's earthly bride. Jacob first sought Rachel, but received Leah. In the same way Christ came first to Israel; and when Israel rejected Him, He first received the church. Leah, like the church, is the fruitful one. Later, loved Rachel passes off the scene, like Israel after the Millennium, and Leah remains as Jacob's companion in the land of promise.
Read closer to home, the two sisters picture an inner struggle:
Rachel (meaning "sheep") pictures the lovely state of soul in humble submission to God that believers would like to reach. But in struggling to get Rachel, Jacob only got Leah, meaning "wearied." Leah is a picture of what I really am, not what I desire to be. I may try hard to make myself different, only to find myself "stuck" with what I really am, as Jacob was "stuck" with Leah! This is the struggle of Romans 7, where "I" fights against "I."
The sister Jacob admired was no safer than the one he did not want:
Although Jacob loved Rachel so much, beautiful and well favoured, was she completely trustworthy? No. Later she stole her father's idols, hid them in her tent, and deceived him. This is like our own hearts. The lesson is this: the desire to reach a high spiritual state has in it the elements of idolatry and of deceit. A person who wants to reach a certain state will try to deceive himself into thinking he can make it... There can be no perfection while we remain in the flesh.
- Names. Leah means "weariness"; Rachel means "ewe." The verse sets weak eyes beside beauty of form and face, and the names then play out in the story.
- Bargain. Jacob put a price on a bride he should have received as a gift. Grace, not payment, belongs to marriage.
- Recoil. In the dark, Laban deceived the deceiver. Under God's governing hand Jacob learned the rights of a firstborn he had once ignored.
- Reversal. God looked on the despised wife and gave her a son, while the loved one stayed barren. The plainer sister became mother of Reuben, Levi and Judah.
- Mirror. Rachel is the state of soul we wish we had; Leah is what we are. Neither sister was trustworthy, and no one reaches perfection while we remain in the flesh.
And Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
Jacob has nothing to offer but his own work, so he names a price of seven years for the woman he loves. That raises two questions: was this bargain right, and why did the price feel so light to the man paying it?
In that world a man did not just ask for a wife. He paid her family for her. A Bible dictionary lists Jacob's offer alongside the other payments Scripture records:
The sum paid by a man to the relatives of the woman who becomes his wife. Genesis 34:12; Exodus 22:16-17; 1 Samuel 18:25: compare Hosea 3:2. When Leah had her sixth son, she said devoutly, "God has endowed me with a good endowment." Genesis 30:20. The dowry which Jacob gave for his wives was seven years' service for each. Genesis 29:18, 27.
Custom does not settle whether the arrangement was right. One writer faults both men, because Laban had no right to sell what was never his:
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were completely wrong to put a mercenary value on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift by grace, and grace should always be uppermost in the sacred relationship of marriage.
One writer sets Jacob's bargain beside Isaac's marriage:
Remember the great contrast: Isaac the heir, the son who stayed in his father's house. His father sent the honoured servant Eliezer to represent Isaac and himself, with a proper escort and costly gifts for the bride. Here the outcast wanderer has nothing to recommend him but his relationship and his service. Laban quickly saw the value of so capable a man for interests dearer to him than anything else. So they soon struck the bargain, and he accepted Jacob's warm offer at once.
The next verse tells us the seven years felt like a few days. One writer draws from it the only point where Jacob's life pictures Christ:
Only after years of toil could Jacob claim her as his own. In the day the drought consumed him, and the frost by night; and his sleep left his eyes. But love lightened the burdens and sweetened all the bitterness of those long years. "So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her." This is the only phase of his life in which Jacob appears to be a type of our Lord. Christ "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame." His toil ended, He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
The same power carries the Christian who waits for Christ's return: "Love annihilated time. The story explains the great secret of the power of an all-absorbing object of affection" (J. Wilson Smith).
Jacob asks for Rachel. Laban will give him Leah. One writer reads the swap as God's government at work:
The story of how Laban deceived him at the end of the seven years is given to us in verses 23-30, and Laban had a plausible excuse for acting as he did. We cannot fail to see in this the working of the government of God, and an illustration of our Lord's words, "with the measure you use it will be measured to you." It was Jacob's turn now to complain of being cheated.
Kelly names the purpose: Jacob "might judge himself, and learn by his own experience how hateful it is to give way to deceit" (William Kelly).
One writer reads the two sisters as standing for two peoples:
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I have no doubt that in the two wives we have the Gentiles and Israel: Rachel first loved on the earth, but not possessed; but Leah the fruitful mother of children. Rachel had children also afterwards on the earth. Rachel, standing for the Jews, is the mother of Joseph, and later of Benjamin — that is, of a suffering Christ glorified among the Gentiles while rejected by Israel, and of a reigning Christ.
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- Price. Jacob's seven years were a dowry — the customary payment made to a bride's family, paid here in labour because he had nothing else.
- Bargain. One writer judges the deal itself wrong: Rachel was not Laban's to sell, and grace, not commerce, should govern marriage.
- Poverty. Isaac's father sent Eliezer with costly gifts to fetch a bride; the outcast Jacob had only his relationship and his work to commend him.
- Love. The years felt like days because love was carrying them — the one point where Jacob pictures Christ, who endured for the joy set before Him.
- Measure. Laban handed the deceiver the wrong bride; the measure Jacob used came back to him, so that he might judge himself.
And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man abide with me.
Laban answers Jacob's offer of seven years' work with words that sound like family kindness. In fact a nephew with nothing goes to work for an uncle who stands to gain everything. This verse closes the deal, and the deal shapes the years that follow.
Jacob has come from Bethel, where God had promised him the land and a countless family. Yet the man he now sits down to trade with is his own mirror.
It is remarkable to see how he slips back into a setting that suits his character so completely. The bargain-making Jacob meets the bargain-making Laban, and you can see them both straining every nerve to outwit each other. And we cannot wonder at Laban. He had never been at Bethel. He had seen no open heaven, with a ladder reaching from there to earth. He had heard no magnificent promises from the lips of Jehovah, granting him all the land of Canaan and a family beyond counting. No wonder he showed a grasping, low spirit. He had nothing else to fall back on... But Jacob had seen and heard all this at Bethel. To find him struggling with a man of the world, and trying that way to build up property, is especially humbling.
Laban replies fast because the terms suit him. An earlier marriage in the same family had looked very different.
The contrast with Isaac is striking. Isaac was the heir, the son who stayed in his father's house. The honoured servant Eliezer was sent to represent Isaac and his father Abraham, with proper supplies and rich gifts for the bride. Here the outcast wanderer has nothing to offer but his family tie and his work. And Laban was quick to see the value of such a capable man for the interests he cared about above everything else. So the bargain was soon struck, and Laban accepted Jacob's warm offer at once.
Laban speaks as though Rachel were his to hand to the highest bidder.
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were completely wrong to put a money value on a wife. When the Lord made a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift of grace. Grace should always come first in the sacred relationship of marriage.
Jacob agreed to seven years of work. How long they felt depended on his heart.
The seven years during which Jacob had to serve for his wife "seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her." His heart was in it, and the years flew past like days. Love annihilated time. The story explains the great secret of the power of a love that fills the whole heart.
Laban will not keep the terms he has just accepted. What Jacob suffers here matches what he had done to others.
In his exile he reaps what he had sown; as he deceived his father, so Laban deceives him. He had taken unfair advantage of his brother Esau's hunger. Now his uncle Laban takes advantage of his position, and Jacob has to work hard for his wages.
God let the deceit happen, and He had a reason for it.
Laban wronged Jacob gravely, in a matter that must touch a man's heart... But God wanted His servant Jacob to learn, through his own wounded heart, how vile self-seeking deceit is. So He allowed it, and He would use it for chastening and for good in the end.
Jacob the schemer is hard to admire. Jacob serving for Rachel is another matter.
Only after years of hard work could Jacob claim her as his own. By day the heat wore him down, and by night the frost; and sleep left his eyes. But love lightened the burdens and sweetened all the bitterness of those long years...
- Bargain. Laban's kind-sounding words close a trade. He gains a capable worker; Jacob pays with seven years.
- Grace. A wife was meant to be a gift, as the first woman was given to Adam. Pricing Rachel by years of work was wrong on both sides.
- Love. The price was heavy, but love shrank seven years to a few days — love annihilated time.
- Harvest. Jacob deceived his father; now Laban deceives him. He reaps what he sowed, and feels it where it hurts most.
- Picture. Serving to win a bride is the one place where Jacob's life pictures Christ, who endured for the joy set before Him.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they were in his eyes as single days, because he loved her.
Jacob's first seven years of work for Laban fit into one sentence: long labour that felt short. The verse says nothing about wages or hardship. It only shows what love did to time, and commentators read it two ways — as a window into human love, and as a picture of Christ working to win His bride.
The measure of the years was not the calendar but the heart. One writer turns Jacob's experience into a test of how we wait for the Lord:
To say in your heart that the Lord delays His coming is a very clear, though silent, way of saying you do not want Him to come. He is not the ruling desire. Jacob served seven years for his wife, and they "seemed to him but a few days, because of the love he had for her." His heart was in it, and the years flew by like days. Love wiped out time. The story explains the great secret of the power of an all-absorbing object of affection.
One writer sets studying prophecy against longing for the Lord Himself:
He waits and longs for the Lord because he loves Him who first loved us... One person may know prophecy very well and have none of that hope; another may be full of the hope and know nothing about prophecy... If you love someone, you delight to see them. Being away from the person you love is hard. There may be very good reasons for the delay, but the delay tests your patience, and the hope that the one you love will come back soon is the greatest joy.
"A few days" describes the feeling, not the facts. The work itself was hard, and one writer spells out what it involved:
He had to bear the weight and heat of a long, hard day before he could take Rachel as his own. The law of her people, the law of her country, and the greedy demands of Laban had put him on these terms. He had to endure sun by day and moon by night, to work night and day, and to have his exile stretched out — or go without his Rachel.
The arrangement itself is no model. One writer faults both men for putting a price on a wife, and contrasts that with how marriage began:
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were wrong to put a money value on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift by grace, and grace should always rule in the sacred relationship of marriage. Still, Jacob was willing to work seven years for all this because of his deep love for Rachel.
Another writer warns against judging those days by later standards:
Then came the humbling test of the younger daughter, offered on the same terms of long service. To Jacob those years seemed like only a few days, because he loved her. But we must not measure this case, any more than others in Old Testament times, by the light the Saviour later shed on marriage, as on everything else.
This stretch of Jacob's life stands apart from the rest. One writer marks it as the single exception:
By day the heat consumed him, and the cold by night, and his sleep fled from his eyes. But love lightened the load and took the bitterness out of those long years... And this is the only phase of his life in which the patriarch Jacob appears to picture our Lord, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Read alongside the law of the servant who refuses his freedom for love of his wife, the picture stretches past the cross into a service that never ends:
Jacob's seven years of service for Rachel pictures Christ becoming a servant to win the church. This pictures a service that never ends, gladly taken up to keep her. The more we think about the depth of love and the height of devotion here, the further beyond our understanding they seem.
Commentators differ on what the two sisters represent. One reading assigns them to two peoples:
I have no doubt that Leah represents the Gentiles, and Rachel the Jews.
Another traces the order of events rather than the identities:
It appears that Rachel was the first beloved wife, but in fact the last to enjoy, and bear the fruits of, the relationship... Leah before this is the mother of many sons, as there are before Israel comes into full and happy view.
- Love measures. Seven years shrank to days for Jacob, because love, not the calendar, set the length of the wait.
- Love pays. The feeling was light; the work was not — heat by day, cold by night, sleepless work under a greedy employer.
- Love gives. A wife bought as wages reverses Eden, where God gave the woman as a gift. Grace, not bargaining, belongs in marriage.
- Love serves. In this one scene Jacob resembles Christ, who endured the cross for the joy set before Him and serves on to keep the bride He won.
- Love waits. Love made Jacob's years fly. The same love makes a Christian long for the Lord's return instead of saying He delays.
And Jacob said to Laban, Give [me] my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.
Seven years of service are over, and Jacob does not ask Laban for Rachel — he demands her, because the time is served. Two questions hang over the scene: was the bargain right at all, and why does God let Jacob's confident claim end in a trick?
The deal Jacob now calls in was wrong from the start. Both men put a price tag on a woman, and one writer sets that against the very first marriage.
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were completely wrong to place a mercenary value on a wife. When the Lord created a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift by grace. Grace should always rule in the sacred relationship of marriage. Still, Jacob was willing to work all those seven years because of his intense love for Rachel. In fact the time seemed very short to him compared with the prospect of having her as his wife. When the time was completed he asked Laban to give him Rachel now (v. 21).
Jacob does not say the years dragged. He says they are finished — and the reason the counting felt light is love. The same love decides whether a person actually wants the Lord to come back.
Jacob had to serve seven years for his wife. They "seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her" (Gen. 29:20). His heart was in it, and the years flew by like days. Love wiped out time. The story explains the great secret of the power of an all-absorbing object of affection. Let us weigh this carefully. It is very clear that no such object governed the heart of the evil servant. He did not love his Lord, and he did not care about His coming.
Jacob has no gifts and no wealth to offer for Rachel. What he does have, Laban wants.
Here the outcast wanderer has nothing to recommend him but his relationship and his service. Laban was not slow to see the value of so capable a man for interests dearer to him than anything else. So the bargain was quickly struck and Jacob's eager offer instantly accepted. But then the full time of service for his bride arrived. The crafty uncle put on a wedding feast in Jacob's honour, yet he had no scruple about the cruel trick of swapping Leah for Rachel, the one Jacob had wanted from the first.
Jacob once handed deceit out to someone else. Now he is about to receive a disguised bride, and one writer says the repayment is not cold justice.
Here the second period of his life begins. He is now a stranger and a servant working for hire. He is the victim of deceit and self-advancement by Laban, his relative and morally his close kin too. The retribution runs all the way through, and no one can mistake it: the measure he handed out to another comes back to him. But it is just as impossible to miss that God, in the way He deals it out, is speaking to the heart and conscience of the wanderer. There is governmental fairness, but also the chastening of a holy love. Bethel is proving itself true. The Father disciplines every son He receives.
Jacob can claim Rachel only because the work is done. One writer finds his single likeness to the Saviour right there: the toil first, then the bride.
Then comes Rachel, "beautiful in form and appearance." Only after years of toil could Jacob claim her as his own. By day the drought consumed him and the frost by night, and sleep fled from his eyes. But love lightened the burdens and sweetened all the bitterness of those long years. "So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her" (Gen. 29:20). This is the only part of his life where Jacob pictures our Lord. He is the One "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and (His toil ended) is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
- Bargain. Jacob claims a wife he priced like wages. A wife is God's gift by grace, and grace should govern marriage.
- Love. Love for Rachel wiped out time, so seven years felt like days. Love for Christ makes waiting for Him just as light.
- Empty hands. He brings no gifts, only his family tie and his work — and Laban sees exactly what that work is worth.
- Discipline. Instead of Rachel he receives Leah. The measure he handed out to another comes back to him — fair government, and a Father's loving correction.
- Christ. Here alone Jacob pictures the Lord. He endured the cross for the joy set before Him, and now, His work done, He is seated at God's right hand.
And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
Jacob has finished seven years of work for Rachel, and Laban throws the wedding feast. It looks like the happy end of a long wait, yet the night that follows raises a hard question: what was God doing while Laban cheated His servant?
The feast honoured Jacob in public. The deal behind it was one-sided from the start: an exile with only his work to offer, and an uncle who knew what that work was worth.
Here the outcast wanderer has nothing in his favour but his family tie and his service. Laban was not slow to see the value of so capable a man for interests dearer to him than all others. So the bargain was soon struck, and Jacob's warm offer was accepted at once. But the full time of service for his bride arrived. Then the crafty uncle, under all his show of a wedding feast in Jacob's honour, felt no shame in a cruel deceit. He put Leah in the place of Rachel, the one his heart had wanted from the first.
Jacob had once deceived his own father to get what he wanted. Now his uncle deceives him, and commentators see the same standard coming back on him.
Verses 23-30 tell how Laban deceived him at the end of the seven years. Laban had a plausible excuse for acting as he did. In this we cannot fail to see the government of God at work. It illustrates our Lord's words, "with the measure you use it will be measured to you." Now it was Jacob's turn to complain of being tricked.
The night had two lessons in it for Jacob.
There are two things Jacob has to learn on this memorable occasion. First, for his comfort: all his failures will not alter God's purpose to bless him in sovereign grace. Second, for his correction: God's sovereign grace will not hold back God's chastening hand because of his failures... He still has to go on as a lonely wanderer. He must spend long years of toil and hard service in the house of a stranger, because of his sin against his father and brother. He has to reap what he has sown.
The pattern runs through his whole life, and it does not end in gloom.
He had deceived his father and cheated his brother. In turn he was deceived and cheated by his father-in-law, and later by his own sons. But all this only makes God's grace to him shine the brighter.
The feast drew in "all the people of the place." Inside the house, the deceit needed one more person's silence.
Laban wronged Jacob deeply, in a matter that must touch a man's heart. And Leah was without doubt a willing party to the cheating breach of the marriage agreement about Rachel. She could and should have told Jacob the unworthy trick her father was playing through her. But God wanted His servant Jacob to learn more deeply, in his own wounded affections, how vile self-seeking deceit is. So He allowed what He would use for chastening and for good in the end.
Jacob ends up with the wife he did not choose, and she is the one who bears children. Commentators read this in more than one way. Some see God's dealings with Israel and the nations:
I have no doubt that in the two wives we have the Gentiles and Israel. Rachel was loved first on the earth, but not gained. Leah was the fruitful mother of children.
Others draw it inward, to the gap between who we want to be and who we are:
Rachel (meaning "sheep") pictures the lovely state of soul that believers would like to reach: humble submission to God. She was the desire of Jacob's heart. But in struggling to get Rachel, he only got Leah, meaning "wearied." Leah is a picture of what I really am, not what I want to be.
- Feast — the celebration was real, and so was the plan behind it. Honour shown in daylight covered a swap made in the dark.
- Measure — the man who deceived his own father received the wrong bride from his father-in-law. The standard he used came back to him.
- Government — God did not step in to stop it; He used it, so Jacob would feel in his own wounded love how hateful deceit is.
- Grace — his failures never cancelled God's purpose to bless him. Discipline and sovereign grace ran side by side, and the grace shines brighter for it.
- Picture — the wife he wanted first was not the wife he received first. Some read this of Israel and the nations, others of the gap between what we long to be and what we are.
And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in to her.
Jacob had worked seven years for the woman he loved. On the wedding night, in the dark, Laban put the elder sister in Rachel's place. Two questions rise at once: how did it happen, and why did God let the deceiver be deceived?
Darkness did the work. Jacob had no way to see who was brought to him.
So Laban made a marriage feast for them. When evening came — and with it darkness, with only very dim light at best — Laban had Leah go to share Jacob's bed with him. Jacob had no suspicion of this until the morning. Perhaps he had drunk too much wine at the feast. But he was not prepared for such dishonest deception from a close relative.
The next morning Laban had an answer ready: in his country, he said, the elder daughter must marry first.
If he were honest, he would at least have told Jacob this when they made the agreement seven years earlier! Maybe Laban made up this rule in his own mind and then treated it as his country's custom! Surely, if it had been the usual custom, Jacob would have heard of it during those seven years. But Laban knew that the best way to get Jacob to continue working for him was to do just what he did.
Laban's excuse was not the whole story. A higher hand was at work.
Laban had a believable excuse for acting as he did. But we cannot miss the working of the government of God here. It illustrates our Lord's words: "with the measure you use it will be measured to you." It was Jacob's turn now to complain of being beguiled.
The payback even matches the detail. Jacob had once brushed aside his brother's place as elder son.
The deception by his uncle might well have reminded Jacob that he had once deceived a relative himself — his own father. Such things have a way of coming back, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that people who take up the character of deceivers will very likely be deceived themselves. Here too Jacob learned, painfully, the rights of a firstborn — rights he had ignored in the case of his brother Esau.
But this is not cold payback.
You cannot mistake the repayment running through it all. The measure he gave to another is measured back to him. But you also cannot miss that, in the way it is handed out, God is speaking to the heart and conscience of the wanderer. There is fairness in God's government, but also the chastening of a holy love.
Two people wronged Jacob that night, not one. And God had reasons for letting it happen.
Laban wronged Jacob badly, in a matter that must touch a man's heart deeply. And Leah, beyond doubt, agreed to the cheating that broke the marriage agreement about Rachel. She could and should have told Jacob the shabby trick her father was playing through her. But God wanted His servant Jacob to learn, in his own wounded love, how vile selfish deceit is. So He allowed what He would use in the end for chastening and for good.
One writer traces the trouble further back, to the bargain itself.
Jacob got Leah by bargaining. In doing so he badly misrepresented the marriage relationship, which pictures the relationship between Christ and the church so beautifully — a relationship of pure grace. He brought it down to the level of a mere legal deal instead of seeing it as a thing of pure grace. What was the price here? Seven years of wages. It was completely wrong; a wife is worth far more than that.
One writer reads the order of the two marriages as a picture of Christ's own path.
Rachel is a picture of Israel, Christ's earthly bride. Jacob sought Rachel first, but received Leah first. So Christ came first to Israel; Israel rejected Him, and He received the church first. Leah, like the church, is the fruitful one.
- Sowing. Jacob deceived his own father; now, in the dark, his father-in-law deceives him. The measure he used is measured back to him.
- Precision. The repayment fits the crime. He ignored a firstborn's rights; now an elder daughter's rights bind him.
- Purpose. The wrong was real, and Leah shared in it. Yet God allowed it, so Jacob would feel in his own heart how hateful deceit is.
- Love. This is not bare payback. It is the chastening of a holy love, and God is speaking to the wanderer's conscience.
- Grace. Marriage pictures the pure grace between Christ and the church. Jacob dragged it down into a bargain, and paid a price for a bride worth far more.
And Laban gave to her Zilpah, his maidservant, to be maidservant to Leah his daughter.
Jacob worked seven years to marry Rachel. On the wedding night Laban sent Leah instead, and with her a servant girl named Zilpah — the woman who would become the mother of two of Israel's tribes.
The gift of this servant belongs to a night of fraud. Jacob made an eager offer, Laban took it at once, then broke it when the seven years were up.
So they soon struck the bargain, and Laban took Jacob's eager offer at once. But when the full term of service for his bride was up, the crafty uncle put on a wedding feast in Jacob's honour. Behind all that show he had no scruple about the cruel deceit of putting Leah in the place of Rachel, the one Jacob's heart had wanted from the first.
Jacob had used deceit before. Now deceit falls on him, and commentators read the whole episode as God's dealing with him, not bad luck.
Verses 23-30 tell how Laban deceived him at the end of the seven years, and Laban had a plausible excuse for acting as he did. We cannot fail to see here the working of the government of God. It illustrates our Lord's words: "With the measure you use it will be measured to you." Now it was Jacob's turn to complain that someone had tricked him.
The wrong was real, and Leah kept silent when she could have spoken. God allowed it because He meant to work something in Jacob through it.
Laban wronged Jacob badly, in a matter bound to cut a man to the heart. Leah was beyond doubt a willing party to this cheating breach of the marriage agreement about Rachel. She could and should have told Jacob the unworthy trick her father was playing through her. But God wanted His servant Jacob to learn something deeper. In his own wounded heart he would feel how vile self-seeking deceit is. So God allowed it, and He would use it for chastening and for good in the end.
The Bible names this servant again long after the wedding night. Two of Jacob's sons came from her.
Servant of Leah, and through her Jacob became the father of Gad and Asher. Gen. 29:24; Gen. 30:9-12; Gen. 35:26; Gen. 37:2; Gen. 46:18.
The names in this story carry meaning of their own. One writer traces them from patience, through tribulation, to terror and tears.
Rachel, "sheep," seems to stand for the meekness and patience of true discipleship. That is the very opposite of Jacob's self-willed and unrestrained temper up to now. But he could only win her through unwanted Leah, whose name, "wearied," suggests the "tribulation" that works out "patience." And even then, before Rachel had a child, and in despair of ever having one, the maidservants came in — Bilhah, "terror," and Zilpah, "a dropping" (as of tears).
Leah later gave Zilpah to Jacob, matching what Rachel had done with her own maid. The names of the sons record the contest between the two sisters.
The names Rachel gave the sons of Bilhah expressed the state of her soul, and her attitude toward her sister. Dan and Naphtali do not tell us of grace, but of satisfaction in scoring points of strife. Leah was drawn into the snare, and through Zilpah she would match that advantage. The names she gave Zilpah's sons, Gad and Asher, do not carry the contention that ruled Rachel's spirit; but they fall far short of the faith Leah showed in naming her own sons.
The sons of Jacob arrive in a tangled order. One writer sees man's own hand behind it.
This order speaks to us of man's plans acting according to his own thoughts, outside the thoughts of God. We see these plans in Laban's giving his daughters to Jacob and in Rachel and Leah giving Jacob their maidservants.
Yet God did not disown the children born from that tangle.
God's institution of marriage was the union of one man and one woman — the two, and only two, becoming one. What is more than this is not of God, but comes from human lust. Jacob's two wives gave their maidservants to their husband, and so he had four wives. God reckoned the twelve sons of these four women equally as sons of Jacob, and they became the heads of the twelve tribes. It might have been thought that God would not have blessed the offspring of these unions, but He did.
- Handed over. Laban passed Zilpah to Leah on the night he swapped one daughter for another — a gift folded inside a deliberate fraud.
- Measured back. The deceiver was deceived. Writers see God's government here, measuring back to Jacob what he had measured out.
- Aimed at the heart. God allowed the wrong so that Jacob's own wounded heart would teach him how vile self-seeking deceit is.
- Misused. Leah later handed this servant on to Jacob, and the names of Zilpah's sons fell short of the faith Leah once showed.
- Reckoned anyway. Human scheming arranged these marriages, yet God counted all twelve sons as Jacob's and made them heads of Israel's tribes.
And it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done to me? Have I not served thee for Rachel? Why then hast thou deceived me?
Jacob wakes after his wedding night and finds the wrong woman beside him. His protest to Laban is a cry of betrayal — from a man who had once played the same trick on his own father. The chapter raises two questions at once: what kind of man was Laban, and what was God doing with Jacob?
The trick worked because Laban controlled the whole wedding, and because darkness hid everything until daylight.
When evening came, darkness fell with it, and there was only very dim light at best. Laban sent Leah to share Jacob's bed, and Jacob suspected nothing until morning. He may have drunk too much wine at the feast. But he was in no way ready for such a shameless trick from a close relative.
The wrong was real. Jacob had kept his side of the bargain in full. The man who took his work broke faith with him.
Jacob asks, "Why then have you deceived me?" His father Isaac could once have asked him the same question. One writer notes how well God's discipline fit the crime.
Under the government of God, Jacob found himself in the hands of a man even more selfish than himself. God's discipline fit his case remarkably well, and it came through his marriage. He was deceived over Laban's two daughters, just as Isaac had been deceived by his two sons. Age had blinded Isaac; the strange marriage customs of the east blinded Jacob.
This was not a one-off. It was a pattern: Jacob deceived a relative, and a relative deceived him.
Such things have a way of coming back on a man, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that people who take on the character of deceivers will very likely be deceived themselves (2 Tim. 3:13). Here too Jacob learned, with pain, the rights of a firstborn — rights he had ignored in the case of his brother Esau.
God's purpose to bless Jacob never wavered. But it did not shield him from the consequences of what he had done.
First, for his comfort, he will learn that all his failures will not change God's purpose to bless him in sovereign grace. Second, for his correction, he will learn that God's sovereign grace will not hold back God's chastening hand because of his failures. The sovereign grace of the Lord will not set aside the faithful government of the Lord... He has to reap what he has sown. If Jacob deceives his father with the skins of goats, then in the years to come his own sons will deceive him with the blood of a goat.
The pain had a purpose. Jacob had to feel from the inside what he had made his father feel.
Here it was the LORD dealing with Jacob, so that he would judge himself. He would learn from his own experience how hateful it is to give in to deceit — even when the aim was to gain the birthright or the blessing over a godless brother... In this way a person gets used to the fact that he has to do with God in the little things of life, as people count them, as well as in the greatest.
Leah does not come out of this innocent either. She could have warned Jacob in time.
Leah was without doubt a willing party to this cheating breach of the marriage agreement over Rachel. She could and should have told Jacob what a shameful trick her father was playing through her. But God wanted His servant Jacob to learn, in his own wounded heart, how vile self-seeking deceit is. So He allowed what He would use in the end for chastening and for good.
One writer reads the two wives as a picture of something larger. In this reading each woman stands for a people God calls.
Rachel represents Israel, the Messiah's first object of love on earth. But this fails, and through no fault of His. And He has Leah, who stands for the call of the Gentile nations that comes in between, while Jacob serves and suffers greatly.
- Sowing. Jacob fooled a blind father about two sons. Laban fooled a bridegroom in the dark about two daughters. The match is too close to be an accident.
- Reaping. The wrong done to Jacob was genuine wickedness in Laban, and at the same time the hand of God governing His own child.
- Grace. God's purpose to bless Jacob stood untouched. Being loved by God does not cancel the harvest of what we plant.
- Purpose. God aimed the pain at Jacob's conscience. Jacob had to learn for himself how hateful deceit is — and to deal with God in small daily matters, not only in crises.
- Result. Jacob reaped what he had sown. Yet God used the long years of service and sorrow to chasten a schemer and bring good in the end.
And Laban said, It is not so done in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn.
Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and Laban gave him Leah instead. Laban's excuse is the custom of his country — and it lands on the man who had himself pushed past a firstborn's rights.
The excuse arrives seven years too late to be honest:
Jacob confronted Laban about his deception in giving him Leah instead of Rachel. Laban calmly replied that in his country the younger daughter must not marry before the elder. Honesty should have told Jacob this seven years earlier, when they made the agreement! It may be that Laban invented this policy in his own mind and then treated it as his country's custom. For if it really had been the usual practice, Jacob would have heard of it long before seven years had passed. But Laban knew the best way to keep Jacob working for him: he told Jacob he could work another seven years for Rachel.
Jacob had once deceived his own father. Now the same trick falls on him, and the fit is too exact to be an accident:
Genesis 29, 30 and 31 record Jacob's stay in Haran. It turned into a duel of cunning between Jacob and his uncle Laban. Under the government of God, Jacob found himself in the hands of a man even more selfish than himself. There was a remarkable fitness in God's discipline over his marriage. Laban deceived him about two daughters, just as two sons had deceived Isaac. Age blinded Isaac; the marriage customs of the east blinded Jacob.
The lesson fits the sin:
His uncle's deception might well have reminded Jacob that he had once deceived a relative himself — his own father. Such things have a way of coming back, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that people who take on the character of deceivers very likely end up deceived themselves. Here Jacob also learned a firstborn's rights the painful way — rights he had ignored with his brother Esau.
Taken as a principle, Laban's rule is the opposite of the way God works:
Jacob comes into Padan-Aram. Many of us have lived there, morally. It is where Laban's house is. There speculation and trying to get on without God are everywhere. There Jacob uses his own skill and wits to get ahead, breathing all the while an air that lowers the glory of Christ. No sense of the pre-eminence of Jesus is tolerated. God sets out the principle, "He does away with the first in order to establish the second" (Heb. 10:9). Laban says, "It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn." It is a serious thing to live, in our affections, in a scene that will not put the second before the first!
One writer sums up Jacob's time in that country as a life "where the first was put before the second, and the result was sorrow and disappointment" (F. A. Hughes).
Laban's rule and God's rule cannot both stand, and Scripture shows which one God keeps:
When did God ever choose the firstborn of flesh? All through Scripture He sets aside the one who looks to have a claim by birth. In this way everyone learns that blessing comes entirely by grace. Not Cain, but Abel; not Ishmael, but Isaac; not Esau, but Jacob.
Laban was not the only guilty party. Yet God folded the whole wrong into His dealings with a man who needed to feel in himself what deceit costs:
Here too we see the righteous government of Jehovah. Laban badly wronged Jacob in a matter that must touch a man's heart deeply. Leah, beyond doubt, went along with the broken marriage agreement over Rachel. She could and should have told Jacob the shabby trick her father was playing through her. But God wanted His servant Jacob to learn more deeply, in his own wounded affections, how vile self-seeking deceit is. So He allowed what He would use for correction and for good in the end.
- The excuse — Laban pleads local custom only after the wedding. A real rule would have reached Jacob seven years earlier.
- The mirror — a man who deceived a father over two sons now meets a father who deceives him over two daughters. Deceivers get deceived.
- The bill — Jacob had ignored Esau's rights as firstborn. He learns those rights the hard way, at the cost of seven more years.
- The clash — Laban's country will not put the second before the first. God's way is to set the first aside and establish the second.
- The point — all through Scripture God passes over the firstborn. Blessing comes by grace, not by birth.
Fulfil the week [with] this one then we will give thee the other one also, for the service that thou shalt serve me yet seven other years.
Jacob had served seven years for Rachel and woke to find Leah beside him. Laban does not apologise. He offers a new deal: finish the wedding week with Leah, then work seven more years for the woman he wanted.
Laban answers with local custom. One writer doubts the custom was real at all.
When Jacob confronted Laban about giving him Leah instead of Rachel, Laban calmly answered that in his country the younger daughter must not marry before the elder. An honest man would at least have told Jacob this when they made the agreement seven years earlier! Perhaps Laban invented this rule himself and treated it as his country's custom! If it really were the usual custom, Jacob would have heard of it long before the seven years were up. But Laban knew that this was the best way to keep Jacob working for him. So he told Jacob he could work another seven years for Rachel. What could Jacob do? His heart was still set on Rachel, so he accepted this unfair treatment, and in the end got her as a wife too.
Laban defends himself by the rights of the elder over the younger — the very order Jacob had overturned at home.
However, the deception of his uncle might well have reminded Jacob that he himself had before deceived a relative, his own father. Such things have a way of recoiling, under the governing hand of God. It is striking that people who take on the character of deceivers are very likely to be deceived themselves (2 Tim. 3:13). Here too Jacob learned the hard way the rights of a firstborn, which he had ignored in the case of his brother Esau.
Behind Laban's greed another hand is at work. Its aim is not punishment but self-judgment.
Here Jehovah was dealing with Jacob so that he would judge himself. Jacob had to learn from his own experience how hateful it is to give in to deceit. That was true even when the aim was to gain the birthright or the blessing over a godless brother, who cared only for himself and never had God as a living object before his soul. God makes such experience profitable to a weak or careless soul. In this way a person gets used to dealing with God in the small things of life, as people count them, as well as in the greatest.
Seven more years of service do not mean God has dropped His promise to bless.
There are two things Jacob has to learn here. First, for his consolation, he will learn that all his failures will not alter God's purpose to bless him in sovereign grace. Second, for his correction, he will learn that God's sovereign grace will not hold back God's chastening hand because of his failures. The sovereign grace of the Lord will not set aside the faithful government of the Lord. Jacob's circumstances do not change. He still has to go his lonely way as a wanderer. He still has to spend long years of hard work and bondage in a stranger's house, because of his sin against his father and brother. He has to reap what he has sown.
One writer sees in this delay a picture of something much larger.
Jacob loved Rachel first, yet he had to wait for her and serve the week over again after Leah was given to him. Surely this has a clear bearing on the Lord's relation to Israel, whom He loved first. In the meantime the Gentile, once passed over, has taken her place, with rich results in His grace.
Commentators differ on how far to press the two women. Some see in Leah a picture of those who share the toil before they share the glory.
Jacob went for Leah and secured her at the cost of rigorous service, and she first shared with him the days of toil before having part with him in the wealth and glory which he acquired.
Commentators differ on how far to press the two sisters. Another writer draws a closer lesson from the meaning of their names.
Rachel (meaning "sheep") pictures the lovely state of soul, in humble submission to God, that believers would like to reach. She was the desire of Jacob's heart. But in struggling to get Rachel, he only got Leah, whose name means "wearied." For Leah is a picture of what I really am, not what I want to be. … I may try hard to make myself different, only to find myself "stuck" with what I really am, as Jacob was "stuck" with Leah! This is the struggle of Romans 7, where "I" fights against "I."
- Deceit — Laban's rule about the elder daughter appears only after seven years of unpaid work. He knew this was the surest way to keep Jacob working.
- Debt — Jacob once pushed past a firstborn's rights with Esau. Now he is held to those same rights himself.
- Discipline — God's aim is self-judgment. Jacob learns from experience how hateful deceit is, and learns to deal with God in small matters as well as large.
- Grace — Failure never changes God's purpose to bless. Grace also never holds back His chastening hand: God disciplines Jacob and still keeps him.
- Picture — Jacob waited for the bride he loved first and received another meanwhile. Writers see here the Lord's dealings with Israel, and a mirror of the heart's own struggle.
And Jacob did so, and fulfilled the week [with] this one, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to be his wife.
Genesis 29:28 closes a bitter week for Jacob: he keeps Laban's terms and finally receives Rachel, after seven years of work. Two questions press hard here — what did Jacob agree to, and why did God let a schemer be out-schemed?
The "week" Jacob completed is a week of days, not another seven years. One writer settles the word from how Hebrew uses it elsewhere.
I believe we can say that shebu-a and shebu-im are used for week and weeks. Genesis 29:27-28 gives the word for a week, and Leviticus 12:5 gives it for weeks.
Rachel came at the end of that week. The price came after her, not before.
He reaps in a measure what he had sown. He deceived his father Isaac and now Laban deceives him in different ways, especially by substituting Leah for the beloved Rachel. A week after he received Leah, he received Rachel too. But though he now had her, he still had to serve seven years for her.
Laban's defence was simple: the younger daughter is not given before the firstborn. But it came seven years too late to be honest.
Honesty would at least have told Jacob this seven years earlier, when they made the agreement! Laban may have invented this rule in his own mind and then treated it as his country's custom! If it had really been the usual custom, Jacob would have heard of it long before the seven years were up. But Laban knew that the best way to get Jacob to continue working for him was to do exactly what he did. So he told Jacob he could work another seven years for Rachel. What could Jacob do? He still had his heart set on Rachel, so he simply submitted to this unjust treatment, and in the end got her as a wife too.
The man who deceived his own father now wakes to a substituted bride. Writers see God's governing hand behind Laban's greed.
Such things have a way of coming back on us, under the governing hand of God. It is a striking fact that those who make themselves deceivers will very likely be deceived themselves (2 Timothy 3:13). Here too Jacob learned the hard way about the rights of a firstborn — rights he had ignored with his brother Esau.
This discipline does not cancel God's choice of Jacob. It runs alongside it, and every child of God knows it.
Grace is sovereign, and it calls even the most wayward. But those it calls come under a moral government that takes notice of every fault, so that they may share in His holiness.
Both men treated Rachel as goods to be traded. One writer sets that against the very first marriage.
Rachel did not belong to Laban, and both Jacob and Laban were completely wrong to put a money value on a wife. When the Lord made a woman for Adam, He gave her to him as a gift of grace. Grace should always rule in the sacred relationship of marriage.
Commentators also read the two wives as a picture of two peoples.
I have no doubt that in the two wives we have the Gentiles and Israel: Rachel loved first on the earth, but not yet gained; and Leah the fruitful mother of children. Rachel had children also afterwards on the earth.
A second writer traces what that cost means for the church.
Leah was bride to one who foreshadowed Christ as a sufferer — one who was worn out by tireless toil, and who worked while others slept. Jacob went for Leah and won her at the cost of hard service, and she first shared with him the days of toil before having part with him in the wealth and glory which he acquired… like Leah, the church is called to share a path of toil and suffering before having her eternal portion with Christ.
Commentators differ over the figures. One writer ties Rachel to the Gentiles and Leah to Israel; another sees the church in Leah.
- Bargain. Jacob bought his bride with labour instead of receiving her by grace. Both he and Laban were wrong to put a price on a woman at all.
- Week. The week here is seven days — Leah's marriage week. Rachel came at the end of it, and Jacob served the second seven years afterwards.
- Boomerang. Laban invented his excuse about the firstborn. God still used it: the deceiver was deceived, and the man who had ignored a firstborn's rights learned them the hard way.
- Government. Grace called Jacob freely. God's moral government still noted every fault, so that His children would share His holiness.
- Picture. Behind the bargain stands a better Servant. One bride is loved but not yet gained; the other is received first and is fruitful; the service goes on until He has both.
And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, Bilhah, his maidservant, to be her maidservant.
Genesis 29:29 reads like a small note of business: Laban hands a servant, Bilhah, to Rachel, just as he had handed Zilpah to Leah. Yet these two servants become mothers of four tribes of Israel, and this arrangement sets up years of rivalry inside Jacob's tent.
The verse closes a story where the trickster gets tricked. Jacob had deceived his father and his brother; now Laban deceives him.
Verses 23-30 tell how Laban deceived him at the end of the seven years, and Laban had a plausible excuse for acting as he did. We cannot fail to see here the government of God at work. It illustrates our Lord's words: "with the measure you use it will be measured to you." Now it was Jacob's turn to complain of being tricked.
God had a purpose in it for Jacob's own heart.
Here it was Jehovah dealing with Jacob so that he might judge himself. Jacob had to learn from his own experience how hateful it is to yield to deceit. That stayed true even if the aim was to gain the birthright or the blessing over a profane brother — a brother who cared only for himself and never had God as a living object before his soul. Such experience does good to a weak or careless soul. In this way a person gets used to dealing with God in the little things of life, as men count them, as well as in the greatest.
Laban gives Bilhah to Rachel as her servant. Rachel later gives her to Jacob to gain children — a move one writer traces back to an earlier failure in the family.
Then we too often fall back on a substitute of our own making, as Rachel did. Sarah had done the same when she gave Abraham her servant to have a child by her. Rachel ought to have known that this did not work out as Sarah planned. But she thought, as Sarah did, that the children of her servant Bilhah would be hers... All of this struggle is a picture of the struggle in Romans 7. That struggle only stirs up the evil passions of our hearts, instead of subduing them as we try to do.
The names Rachel gave Bilhah's sons record what was in her. They are not the last word.
The names Rachel gave the sons of Bilhah expressed the state of her soul, and her attitude toward her sister. Dan and Naphtali do not tell us of grace, but of satisfaction in gaining points of strife on her own part... But it is God's prerogative, while every wrong has its effect among men and its judgment before Himself, to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, the called according to purpose. He at least is good and does good, whatever man has to mourn.
So what became of the four tribes born to the two servants?
Here we have the origins of the tribes in these sons, who were named by Leah and Rachel. The servant women did not name their own sons. The four tribes that came from them do not appear to have made any particular mark in the nation's later history.
That obscurity is not the end. When God seals the tribes of Israel, the sons of the servants are not left out.
Here the sons are arranged by their different mothers, with the children of the servant women mixed in among the children of the free... They are no longer listed simply in the natural order of birth. God seems to signal that He would make them a spiritual people too, stamped with His seal. They will then be Israelites indeed, in whom is no deceit.
One writer reads the two sisters as a picture of two peoples.
I have no doubt that in the two wives we have the Gentiles and Israel: Rachel loved first on the earth, but not yet obtained; and Leah the fruitful mother of children. Rachel had children later on the earth too. Rachel stands for the Jews. She is the mother of Joseph, and later of Benjamin. Joseph pictures a suffering Christ, glorified among the Gentiles while rejected by Israel; Benjamin pictures a reigning Christ, the son of his mother's sorrow but of his father's right hand.
- Measure. Jacob deceived others, then Laban deceived him. God's government handed him back his own method.
- Discipline. God's aim was that Jacob would judge himself and learn from experience how hateful deceit is.
- Substitution. Rachel turned Bilhah into a man-made shortcut to children. She repeated Sarah's mistake, and it bred strife.
- Record. The names Rachel gave those sons preserve her rivalry. Yet God works all things together for good to those who love Him.
- Reach. The servants' sons made little mark in Israel's history. In the end they stand sealed among the children of the free.
And he went in also to Rachel; and he loved also Rachel more than Leah. And he served with him yet seven other years.
Jacob at last has the wife he wanted — but only after Laban handed him the one he did not, at the price of seven more years' work. The verse names his preference openly, and that unequal love shapes the family that follows.
Jacob arrived at Laban's house empty-handed. His own father, Isaac, came by a bride in a very different way:
Think of the contrast with Isaac the heir, the son who stayed in his father's house. His father sent the honoured servant Eliezer to represent them both, with fitting equipment and costly gifts for the bride. Here the outcast wanderer has nothing to recommend him but his relationship and his service. And Laban was quick to see the value of such a capable man for the interests he cared about most.
The second seven years were not in the original bargain. A trick forced them on Jacob, and commentators see God's own government behind that trick:
Verses 23-30 tell how Laban deceived him at the end of the seven years. Laban had a plausible excuse for what he did. In this we cannot fail to see the government of God at work. It illustrates our Lord's words, "with the measure you use it will be measured to you." Now it was Jacob's turn to complain that someone had tricked him.
Jacob paid for Rachel with years of hard labour. Here, and here alone, one writer sees him picturing Christ:
And only after years of toil could Jacob claim her as his own. By day the heat consumed him, and the cold by night, and his sleep fled from his eyes. But love lightened the burdens and sweetened all the bitterness of those long years. This is the only part of his life in which Jacob seems to picture our Lord, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame." His toil ended, and He "is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Getting Rachel did not settle the household. It began a rivalry, and the law would later forbid such a marriage outright:
Next Laban forces Leah on Jacob by deceit, and Jacob has to add Rachel as well — the one he loved and had bargained for. But here again strife and division follow, and the sisters' rivalry increases the misery of it, with two concubines added. Marrying two sisters at the same time, coming where it does in the story, might have become a trap for Israel. That is why the law later singles it out (Leviticus 18:18) and forbids it.
Loving one wife more meant the other counted as "hated" — loved less by comparison. Leah was not innocent; she went along with her father's scheme. Yet God gave her what the favoured wife did not have:
The righteous government of Jehovah is clearly seen here also. Laban wronged Jacob badly, in a way that must wound a man deeply. And Leah was beyond doubt a willing party to the cheating breach of the marriage agreement about Rachel. She might and ought to have told Jacob the unworthy trick her father was playing through her.
He looked on the sorrowful and despised wife. He gave the comfort of a son to Leah, the one "hated" by comparison, and not to Rachel. Rachel was happy in her husband's love, yet she stayed barren! ... But Jacob was slow to forget the wrong done to him about Rachel, or to feel his own wrong to Leah.
Some writers read the whole arrangement as a picture of Christ's dealings with Israel and the nations — the first-loved bride delayed, another brought in during the waiting:
Jacob loved Rachel first. Yet he still had to wait and serve another seven years for her after Laban gave him Leah. Surely this bears on the Lord's relation to Israel, loved first, while in the meantime the slighted Gentile has taken her place, with rich results in His grace.
The one who was not the first choice is not the one left out:
He gets Leah instead of Rachel. He has the Gentiles, seen in their place on earth; still the Jews are loved — Rachel. He represents the Lord in His ways, not in his conduct: he loves Rachel. The Gentile, Leah, was never loved like the Jews on earth; but God blesses Leah.
- Sowing — Jacob had deceived his father. Laban's trick measured the same back to him and cost him seven more years.
- Serving — He came with nothing to offer but family ties and hard work. Love made the long service feel light.
- Strife — Two sisters in one house brought rivalry and misery, and the law later forbade such a marriage.
- Seen — God looked on the wife who was loved less. He gave her a son, while the favoured wife stayed barren.
- Shadow — Writers see Christ waiting for Israel, the first-loved, while God brings in and blesses another.