Genesis 29:27–30

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.