The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 20
The sons of Jacob
Read Genesis 29:15–30:24.
Earlier on, we saw trouble in Isaac and Rebekah’s family when Jacob deceived Esau to gained the birthright. Now Jacob himself was deceived by his uncle, Laban, when Jacob lived with him for 20 years.
Through these events, Yahweh used this challenging period to discipline Jacob as well as grow him. And God also advanced His promised plan of building the nation of Israel from Jacob.
Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Jacob loved Rachel and wanted to marry her. But in their culture, the groom would have to pay a bride price. That would be about 30-40 shekels of silver. The average worker’s income was one shekel per month. Because Jacob didn’t have money, he and Laban agreed that he would work for seven years to pay the bride price for Rachel.
This was actually a poor deal: working seven years meant Jacob would have earned 84 shekels, more than double the average bride price. Nevertheless, he loved Rachel so much he was not only willing to do that, he felt that the seven years went by quickly.
However, Laban deceived Jacob. On his wedding night, Leah was given to Jacob instead of Rachel!
Leah would have been veiled, so Jacob wouldn’t have been able to see her face. Earlier, Jacob had pretended to be Esau in order to trick his father Isaac. Now, Jacob experienced how it felt to be deceived by Laban: he was intentionally given the “wrong” girl! Jacob must have recognised that he had done the same thing before. So he had to accept it.
After finishing the bridal week with Leah, he also married Rachel. So Jacob had two wives in seven days: Leah at the start of the week and Rachel at the end of that week. But to pay the bride price for Rachel, he now had to work another seven years for Laban.
When God created mankind, marriage was supposed to be between one man and one woman. But we see that mankind perverted it. Even Jacob ended up with two wives!
There are serious consequences when people don’t follow God’s good design. The wives were jealous and competitive. They started a contest of child-bearing, competing for Jacob’s love and recognition. What a terrible situation! But we will see that God was not thwarted. He used this bad situation to bring about good. He created the nation of Israel.
How did this happen?
It started when Jacob favoured Rachel but was cold towards Leah. God saw that Jacob didn’t love Leah as much as Rachel and in His compassion, gave Leah children. Rachel became jealous because she was barren. So she came up with a plan and gave her servant to Jacob as his wife.
When both Leah and Rachel got married, their family had given each of them a servant girl as a wedding gift. This was the custom during that time. One servant girl, Zilpah, belonged to Leah and another, Bilhah, belonged to Rachel. Just as it was earlier, when Jacob’s grandmother, Sarah, had given her servant girl, Hagar, to Abraham as a wife to help her bear a child who would be treated as Sarah’s, Leah and Rachel could choose to do the same.
So both women, aside from trying to have children with Jacob themselves, gave their servants to Jacob to increase the number of children they could count as their own! What a mess! So much heartache, competition and jealousy between the sisters! They even gave their sons names that communicated the struggle they felt. For example, Leah named her first son Reuben, which means “the Lord has seen my misery” as well as “now at last my husband will become attached to me”.
In this reading, 11 sons of Jacob were born. Ultimately, he would have 12 sons and a daughter. And God used all 12 sons to create the nation of Israel.
Through these events, Jacob was learning to submit to Yahweh’s loving hand of discipline. He also grew in faith and character. He had four women in his life and two were actively manipulating him. He received tough lessons on how it feels to be on the receiving end of deception and manipulation.
Sometimes, Yahweh allows people to experience what they themselves have done to others. His discipline on His people can be very ironic. The Bible says that a person will reap what he sows. This means that what one does, one will receive the fitting result.
Ponder about our own lives. Have we been on the receiving end of something nasty or miserable? Have we experienced how it feels to be treated in a certain way?
First, let’s determine not to do to others what we did not like receiving.
Secondly, ask God to reveal if we have ever treated others in this way. See if He impresses some situation or someone onto our hearts. Pray and ask for His forgiveness.
God could make something good (the 12 tribes of Israel) come out of something not good (two wives, two concubines and a miserable family life for all).
Are we or our loved ones in a situation that we would say is “not good”?
Pray and tell God about it and ask for His help. God is able to work His good even in the worst of situations. He is never stuck. Go to Him in prayer.