I’m going to begin today’s post with a side note. If you are book lover like myself, I highly recommend reading Liz Curtis Higgs series, The Lowlands of Scotland series. It is the story of Jacob, Leah and Rachel set to 17th century Scotland. As much as I read, this remains one of my most loved series. It is through this series that I gained a better and more appreciative understanding of Leah. My heart breaks for this young woman. Let’s take a few steps back, however, and see how she ended up is such a horrible predicament. Our reading today begins with Rebekah scheming to deceive her husband, then going to great lengths to carry out her plan. She convinces her son to carry out her plan which results in her son having to deceive and lie to his father. To give her a slight benefit of the doubt, God promised her at the birth of her sons that Jacob would be the promised line. However, this fact does not excuse her actions. God never intends for us to take matters into our own hands and carry out His plans through deception and schemes. He had proven countless times that He was perfectly capable of handling things. I’m sure God’s plan would not have resulting in Jacob having to flee from his home or Esau growing such a deep hatred for his brother that they spend years alienated from one another. Yet again, we see God work in spite of the disobedience. Isaac flees to his Uncle Laban’s home. On his journey, God comes to Jacob in a dream and it is after this encounter that we see the character of Jacob take on a transformation. It is interesting to note, however, that Jacob says God will be his God if God proves Himself to Jacob. One would think that God would have already been Jacob’s God. Nonetheless, he builds an altar to God and continues on his journey. Immediately upon his arrival, it is love at first sight. He sees Rachel and he is smitten, so smitten in fact that as soon as he meets her, “he kisses Rachel and weeps loudly.” His loves blinds him to the scheme of his Uncle. He works seven years for Rachel but ends up marrying Leah. I’ve always sort of blamed Leah, assuming that she knew of the scheme. However, she most likely was lied to by her father. She was probably told that Jacob agreed to marry her first, as was the custom for the oldest daughter to marry first. I’m not quite sure how Jacob could spend an entire night with Leah, yet think it was Rachel. Love must have really blinded him! Nonetheless, Laban’s plan worked and Jacob married the daughter he didn’t love. How sad for Leah that she knew her husband didn’t love her. How gracious that God gave her the greatest blessing a woman could know, four sons. Now don’t forget the names of these sons. They are vital to unfolding of God’s plan for Israel. Keep in mind, in particular, Judah. The irony of today’s reading cries out to us. Jacob was deceived in the same way that he deceived his own father. Don’t foolishly think that this is karma. It doesn’t exist! It’s simply living with the consequences to sinful decisions. We see that Jacob doesn’t react in anger, but willingly accepts the agreement to work another seven years for Rachel. Perhaps Jacob realized the pain he had caused his father when he discovered what Laban had done. There was a change in Jacob’s character after his encounter with God. It is my belief that God further used this wrong by Laban to mold Jacob’s character. I have to point out one more incident that is just humorous to me. Jacob is burning so passionately for Rachel that he really says to her father, “Give me my wife…I want to sleep with her.” After getting past the shock of how honestly he speaks to his father-in-law, we can actually learn an incredible truth. In our culture, we are told that sex is common, no big deal, normal even early in a relationship. What we learn from Jacob is that yes, when we are in love, we have a great passion and desire to be in an intimate relationship with that individual. After all, that is how God designed us. However, what we also learn from him is that because of his love for her, he respected her enough to wait for her. Not only did he wait, he waited seven years. Our passion is never an excuse to act in sin. It is our love that drives us to act out of respect rather than how we feel. Love is not based on emotion. Jacob loved Rachel, because he loved her he waited and worked. He didn’t sneak behind her father’s back. He didn’t dishonor her. He kept his passion under control. This woman would never doubt her man’s love. What a beautiful picture of real love rather than the lies this world tries to feed us about love.
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