Genesis 29:15-28
This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on July 30, 2017.
History has a strange way of repeating itself. There is a couple in my church that just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. They met in 6th grade and have been in love ever since. Their story seemed strange to me. I don’t know anyone who married their high school sweetheart from my hometown. Not one. Over the 35 years of marriage, they raised four boys. Three out of the four sons married their high school sweetheart.
Our text for today is also a story of history repeating itself. It is a story about love, deception, waiting, and dysfunctional families. A journey through Genesis will reveal a flawed, dysfunctional first family of faith. Abraham and Sarah had their own struggles as they made a mess of their family by trying to bring about God’s promises in their own way (Genesis 16). Isaac and Rebekah’s twin boys, Esau and Jacob, were estranged, to say the least. Jacob, the younger, seized the opportunity to steal his brother’s birthright (Genesis 25:31-34). His brother came to him famished, and Jacob used that moment to take what was rightfully Esau’s. Toward the end of Isaac’s life, his wife Rebekah conspired with Jacob to deceive his father Isaac through a masquerade. Jacob was able to make his father believe he was Esau. Isaac gave his full blessing to Jacob (Genesis 27:27-29), and there was none left for Esau (Genesis 27:37). The hatred and conflict between Jacob and Esau reached a boiling point when Esau planned to murder his brother. The threat to the covenant in this generation is the conflict between Jacob and Esau.
In our text today we find Jacob on the run to his uncle Laban’s house. On his journey when Jacob found himself alone at night, he had a dream. In his dream, God made a covenant with Jacob. On his journey, Jacob came to a well where he saw three flocks of sheep gathered as well as their shepherds. Jacob inquired about his family and discovered that the shepherd he was talking to knew his uncle, Laban. Imagine how excited he was! He was so close to finding family again. As they were speaking, Laban’s daughter Rachel walked up. We learn that Rachel is a shepherdess. Jacob was so overcome that he removed the enormous stone covering the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. He then kissed Rachel and began to weep. What a joy and comfort it must have been to finally lay eyes on someone from his family.
Jacob was captivated by Rachel, the younger daughter of Laban. He agreed to work for Laban for seven years in return for Rachel’s hand in marriage. Jacob was so madly in love, the seven years flew by. The seven years of wages would have been intended to be the bride price. That money should have served as the dowry for Rachel. The time had finally come. Laban threw a great feast to celebrate the marriage. Only that night instead of sending Rachel into Jacob’s room, Laban sent Leah, his older daughter. It’s hard to imagine how Jacob could have been deceived. During the wedding feast, the bride would remain veiled. The festivities were also known for their heavy drinking. Perhaps the veil and the alcohol can account for the fact that Jacob did not know he was taking the wrong woman into his bed. Laban used a feast and a disguise to deceive Jacob.
Upon waking in the morning, Jacob was enraged that he had been deceived. He cried out in much the same way his father cried out when Jacob deceived him (Genesis 27:35). Laban argued that in their custom, they did not put the younger daughter before the older one. The reader should hear these words as piercing to Jacob, for that is exactly what he had done. He used food, disguise, and deception to put himself before his older brother Esau. Laban offered to give him Rachel as well after the wedding week was complete with Leah. Jacob was required to work another seven years to receive Rachel as his wife as well.
There are a few ways you could preach this passage. The first is to talk about the journey that Jacob went through. He became the victim of the very same crime he committed. Perhaps Jacob spent the second set of seven years of labor considering just what he put Esau through. He understood all too well what feeling cheated and deceived felt like then. In many ways, Laban and Jacob were a perfect match. They both appeared to be gracious and friendly at the start, but in time their true character was revealed. They were both shrewd opportunists. Often we don’t understand the weight and cost of our sins until we experience them for ourselves. This was likely an important process for Jacob to go through in order to be ready to wrestle with God years later and ultimately to return and face Esau.
Another way to preach this text would be to focus on Leah. She was the first born and the pawn in her father’s schemes. She was also unloved by her husband. No one wanted her. Her father was trying to get her off his hands, and her husband only married her because he was deceived. Many people know what it feels like to be unloved. Did Laban have to talk her into deceiving Jacob or was she a willing participant? As Jacob and Laban shouted at each other the morning after the wedding feast, did she sob as she overheard their argument?
This story really sets up the next several chapters when we learn about the 12 sons of Jacob. These twelve sons, who become the twelve 12 tribes of Israel, did not come from a beautiful, perfect family. God, in his goodness, used a messy, dysfunctional family to bring about his promises. If he can use a family as broken as this one, surely he can use our families as well.
Sarah Stewart
Minister for Young Adults
First Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, OK
SarahStewart@fbcokc.org
Tags: Love, Deception, Waiting