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.