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.