“The Deceiver is Deceived”

Genesis 29:12-30

We left off a couple of weeks ago with Jacob managing to not only make it to Haran, where his uncle Laban lived, but he’s managed to encounter the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and is over the moon in love. 

In today’s Scripture reading we begin with Jacob telling this lovely woman, Rachel, that he was actually a relative of her father, the son of his sister Rebekah. She runs to tell her father. Laban hears the news and hurries to meet him, embraces and kisses him and brings him to his home. Jacob fills him in on how things have been and Laban exclaims, verse 14,  “You are my own flesh and blood.”

Hyperlink! Where have we heard those words before? Does anyone recognize the melody? 

Jacob has left the house of his father and mother, and meets the bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh by a well in the east. This language should take us right back to Genesis 2. Where God planted a garden in the east of Eden, water flowing, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, two becoming one, you get it. 

After a month, Laban questioned Jacob about their arrangement. Obviously Jacob was sticking around so even though he was a relative, it wasn’t right for him to work for him for nothing. Laban asked, verse 15, 

 “Tell me what your wages should be.” 

At this point the story takes a pause and the narrator fills the reader in on some details. Laban didn’t have just one daughter, “Lamb,” he had two. Rachel had an older sister named Leah, whose name means “calf.” Next, the narrator compares the two sisters.  

The older sister had weak eyes, whereas the younger sister had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 

Here is a place where it would be nice to know ancient Hebrew. Here is another hyperlink. The narrator is again making a reference back to Genesis 2. The contrast provided between the two daughters has been used before. One is “weak eyed” the Hebrew word is “tov” which has the meaning of “bad” and the other is “ra” having the meaning of “beautiful.” It is a word play, depicting the two daughters as the two trees in Eden. And like the trees, we will soon discover that the two daughters will be given in an inappropriate way. This offers the reader the ability to begin to evaluate the character of Laban. 

The word play reminds the reader of Eden and compares the behavior of Laban with that of Eve, doing what was good in her eyes, taking inappropriately what ought not to have been taken in that way. This hyperlink offers the reader a vivid critique of the men in this story. The trees in Eden were good, but they were abused and mistreated. 

Reader, be aware. 

We are told that Jacob was in love with Rachel and he was ready to make a deal with Laban. He offered seven years of service in return for the younger daughter Rachel. Laban figures it’s better to give his daughter to Jacob then to some other man, so be it. They made a deal. Verse 20, 

“So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.”

The guy was obviously head over heels in love. 

After seven years, Jacob approaches Laban and asks for Rachel. He was ready to make love to her. Laban concedes and brings all of the people of the place together and gives a feast. Suffice it to say, this was a drinking feast. The wedding of all weddings. They all got wasted. We now have a weird inversion of the Eden abundance. When you put wine, intoxication, in the tent or in the garden, we’ve read it before, usually it is not good. 

When evening came, Laban took his older daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. Oh, by the way, Laban also gave his daughter a servant, Zilpah, as an attendant. A piece of information we will need for later in the story.

Morning comes and who does Jacob discover, lying next to him? Leah! Jacob approaches Laban and exclaims, verse 25, 

“What is this you have done to me?”

Hyperlink! Remember what God said to Eve when He came to have a walk? These exact words. 

Jacob continues,  

“I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”

Ouch! Being deceived is not fun.                                       What comes around goes around. 

Laban has a reply. He explains how things were done in his part of the world. Their custom was not to give the younger daughter before the older daughter had been given. That’s just not right. But not to worry. All Jacob had to do was finish out this daughter’s bridal week and then he could have the younger daughter also. Oh, yeah in addition to serving another seven years of work. 

The whole idea of the older child being chosen over the younger child wasn’t a novel idea. 

It was widely recognized over many cultures, including amongst the Hebrews. Yet, when we look back over the first third of Jacob’s life, he has spent a lot of time and energy elevating himself as the second born. Perhaps he thought he could scheme his way into getting the second daughter, Rachel. We also have the language of Laban gathering all of the men of the village and then telling Jacob, “Hey, that’s not how we do things here. Remember, we wait for everyone to arrive before we water our sheep.” The trickster gets tricked. 

What could Jacob do? He finished out the week with Leah and then Laban gave him Rachel to be his wife. Laban also gave Bilhah to Rachel as an attendant. We are told that the love Jacob had for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. Oh yes, he also worked for Laban for another seven years. 

Let’s look back, 

Lemek accumulated two wives.

Abraham accumulated three wives in the course of his life. 

Isaac stayed with one wife, as far as we know. 

Esau accumulated three wives. 

Jacob takes the cake. In time, he will have accumulated four wives. From a cultural stand point it would have meant a sign of status. But from an Eden point of view, he’s the worst yet, he’s the furthest from the ideal. 

How is it that these men of God seem to get rich off deception? 

Remember Abraham? He went down to Egypt, deceived the king of Egypt and he got rich. He gained flocks of sheep, oxen, donkey and male and female servants. And one of those female servants was named Hagar. 

We are currently in the center of the center of the center of Jacob’s story and can you sense the matrix of the melody? 

Check in time. 

Humans beware. It’s not easy being the chosen one. In fact, many times our society tells us we are chosen, only for God to come along and topple our hierarchies and to elevate the unloved and the non-chosen, even while He continues to work out His plan of chosenness. How is it that Christian traditions have created this “in and out” system? Either you are in or you are out. Saved or unsaved. As far as I can tell, election and chosenness is not a binary system. At least not so far in the Hebrew Bible. The chosen ones don’t always come from the top and when they do, they don’t always act in ways that would keep them there. When we leave it up to humanity, things get messed up. 

When we take it back to God, justice and righteousness prevail. Regardless of what humans do. Thank God for grace. 

Lord’s Supper