Bible Readings
Reading 20: The sons of Jacob
Read Genesis 29:14–30:24.
Earlier on, we had seen trouble in Isaac and Rebekah’s family where Jacob deceived Esau and gained the birthright. Now we will see how Jacob himself is deceived by his uncle, Laban, when Jacob lived with him for 20 years.
Through these events, importantly, we will see that Yahweh used this time of trouble that Jacob faced to discipline him 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 income for a worker is 1 shekel per month. Because Jacob did not have money, he and Laban agreed that he would work for 7 years to pay off the bride price for Rachel.
This was actually a poor deal for Jacob: working 7 years means he would have earned 84 shekels, more than double the average bride price. Nevertheless, Jacob loved Rachel so much he was not only willing to do that, he felt that the 7 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 would not 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 married Rachel. So Jacob had two wives in seven days: one wife, Leah at the start of the week and one wife, Rachel, at the end of that week. But to pay the bride price for Rachel, he now had to work another 7 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 now ended up with two wives!
However, there are serious consequences when people don’t follow God’s good advice. We will see how competitive and jealous the two wives get. They start a contest of child-bearing, competing with each other for Jacob’s love and recognition. What a terrible situation! But we will see that God is not thwarted. He used this bad situation to still 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 could not have children as she was barren. So she came up with a plan. She would give her servant to Jacob as his wife.
When both Leah and Rachel got married, they were each given a servant girl as a wedding gift by their own family. 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 on where 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 among these two sisters! They even gave their sons names that communicated the struggle that 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 are born. Ultimately, he will have 12 sons. And God used all these 12 sons born to Jacob to create the nation of Israel.
Through these events, Jacob was learning to submit to God’s loving hand of discipline and was also growing in faith and character. He had four women in his life and two were actively trying to manipulate him. He must have had a good lesson on how it feels to be on the receiving end of deception and manipulation.
Sometimes, God allows people to experience what they themselves have done to others. Sometimes, God’s discipline on His people can be very ironic. The Bible says that a person will reap what he sows, meaning that what he plants, he will get 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. 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.