Genesis 29 “Jacob’s Failed Dream”

Jacob is on his way to his uncle  Laban, firstly to escape the wrath of his brother Esau and -to find a wife  from among his mother’s people. We know that he is the chosen seed – the line  of a long line  of men, chosen and predestined of God, a people  for His own glory. They are  remarkable  not because of who they are in themselves, but because of the remarkable God  who calls  them.  

And so we come to Genesis 29. We saw that God had made Himself known to Jacob in a most remarkable way in 28:10-22.  Strengthened by that experience, which must have provided  Jacob with remarkable levels of assurance and confidence in God’s plan and purpose,   he arrives safely in Haran. At this stage he has nothing but the clothes on his back. And he has absolutely no idea  what the future may hold.

The 29^th and 30^th chapter are both beautiful and disturbing. Beautiful, because Jacob   meets  Rachel, the girl of his dreams;  disturbing because Jacob is going to get his own  medicine  from his uncle Laban – in fact, he will receive an overdose of  deceitfulness.  

The first 15 verses are filled with love and romance and a warm reception of Jacob by Laban and his family (29:14).  But reality is beginning to set in 29:16,“Now Laban had two daughters!” The fact is that Jacob had only eyes for one – Rachel. 

Jacob loved Rachel (29:18) so much that he was willing to serve uncle Laban for 7 years for her. After 7 years had passed, they were more than ready for each other. But the problem was that Laban had two daughters, and Leah was weak sighted and perhaps not as pretty. For this reason she sadly appeared to be considered as inferior  marriage material. 

It is at this point that the story becomes ugly and twisted. Laban is going to abuse this situation to put a Leah into an unsuspecting Jacob’s marriage bed (29:23).  Women in those days had very little choice in the matter of whom they  would marry. This is still the case in many parts of the world today.   To add  to this complexity, we read in the next verse (29:24) that  “Laban gave  his  female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be  her servant.” Although this seems to be an obscure, irrelevant addition to the text, it is not. Soon we are going to learn that  Zilpah will also become one of the wives of Jacob, as  domestic squabbles play themselves out against the background of Laban’s  deceitful dealings with Jacob. When Jacob wakes up in the morning next to Leah  he is  confronted with the reality. “What is this that you have done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?   (29:25) Look who is talking now!  The deceiver is being deceived.

Laban’s response  in  19:26 is  off- handed;  “It is not done so in our  country, to give the younger  before the firstborn.”  Why did he not tell Jacob  of this  at the beginning? Jacob’s  dream for a happily- married – ever- after to the woman of his dreams   was shattered, and he was forced to work for Rachel for another  7 years  (29:27-30).  And  so  Jacob  would land up in a situation where he was eventually married to 4 women: Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah. As we shall see, this is a recipe for severe interpersonal conflict among the 4 women.  And it  goes against  the creation  principle of marriage, for  from the beginning God had made one man and one  woman alone  to be  exclusively  married (Genesis 2:21-25). 

But this is what sin does. Sin distorts and destroys the good life that God has intended for the people  made  after His own image. Later under the law of Moses polygamy was forbidden (Lev. 18:18). Jesus in speaking about God’s intended purpose in marriage in Matthew 19:4-6 goes back to Genesis 2:21-25.

In this  mess,“all things  work out for good, for those who are  called according to His purpose. (Rom. 8:28).  And in the midst of this mess, in his own struggle against sin (Hebr. 12:4) God disciplines Jacob, the son  whom he loves (see Hebr. 12:5,6).  God shows His love to Jacob in the discipline that he receives at the hand of  his  deceptive uncle Laban. 

We are called to learn from this.  

• God’s called and chosen people  must never be idolised. Never say, 'what a great  man Jacob is. What a giant of the faith!’. Rather, be amazed at the work of the  great God  behind the man. What patience  God  portrays in our human mess. Thank God, that in all these things  there are lessons learnt  as the love of God changes us  every step of the way. 
• Let us not presume upon the kindness and patience of our God. The  deceitfulness, such as Jacob  and Laban portrayed,  may never be excused. Thankfully in all this  the work of God  is not hindered.  The unfaithfulness of man does not nullify the faithfulness of God. 
• Let us also understand also that it is rarely God’s way  to protect His people from  their own foolish sin  or the sin  that is  propagated against them (e.g.  Laban using  Leah). He allows us to  experience  the force of our  sinful  actions, and He teaches us in these  moments to  learn to live in dependence upon His divine  grace and mercy.  We can learn from this in terms of our own parenting practise.   As  parents we  want to soften the consequences of sin that our children  sometimes  get themselves into.  If all we do is to consistently bail our children out, we are not following the pattern of God.  God, because He loves us, allows us live with the consequences of our sin in order that we will be more careful  with sin.  This is how  God deals with Jacob in this setting. He loves Jacob.  But He loves Jacob more than his sin. He loves Jacob more than his desire for a healthy marriage, or his health  or  his well- being.  God  loves Jacob so much that  He  will teach him the lessons  that he needed to learn. Jacob needed to learn  that  the way he dealt with his brother Esau  was not ok. To teach him this leasson God will make  him  serve Laban for twenty years of hard labour. It will be 20 years before  Esau actually   will serve Jacob, in accordance with  the prophecy of  25:23 that the older will serve the younger. Jacob  needed  to learn, in receiving Leah instead of Rachel  to respect the rights of the first born. What had he done with Esau? He had not waited on God to arrange  this. He conspired on his own to usurp the rights of his first born brother, and now he wakes up and he is with the wrong woman.  Isn't this  interesting? He usurped the rights of his first born brother ( instead of waiting upon God to bring the prophecy about)  and now he will have to honour the rights of first born Leah.  Again, we  cannot  excuse  the deceitfulness  of what Laban did here. But God  uses this occasion  to  teach Jacob a  lesson. Jacob also  needed to learn  from   being deceived by Leah's father, that this was exactly what he did to his own father Isaac when he  deceived him into thinking that he was Esau, thus receiving the blessing. The Lord disciplines Jacob according to  his wrongdoing.  And again we are reminded of  Hebrews 12:4-11, that the Lord disciplines those whom he loves.

And so we see  that God has allowed Jacob to be in a situation in which he will have Leah, an unloved wife, bearing him  the first four sons  and a loved wife, Rachel  who  can't produce children. In this  situation  God  will be  sanctifying Jacob. God is more committed to our holiness  than our happiness. It is better that we limp to heaven  than go  to hell with all the arrogance of  our human  faculties intact! 

God's discipline  is His means of blessing! (29:31-30:24)

• God builds  his kingdom in spite of sinful follies. God builds His people and His church in spite of us – in spite of a dysfunctional family.
• God still uses Jacob, despite the fact that he is such a  self willed man.
• God is blessing Leah, ven though she was an unloved wife. In fact she will bear 6 of Jacob’s 12 sons. Despite her hardships she seems to have kept  herself from bitterness.  From the names she gives to her children she  seems to have been a spiritually minded woman. Ruben means the Lord sees. The Lord has seen my affliction, she says, and heard. Simeon refers to prayer. The Lord has heard me. Levi, which sounds like the Hebrew word for attachment.  She longs to be attached  to her  husband, and she prays that God would bring that about.  Judah means  praise , because she desires to praise the Lord.
•  God  will be  blessing  Rachel who at this stage  is barren (29:31).

No one  comes out of this experience, not having learned a  lesson that God intended to teach. 

• Jacob would have to live with the consequences of his deception.
• Leah would have to wrestle with being an unloved woman, an unloved wife. 
• Rachel would have to wrestle with barrenness. 

And in  all this, and through this,  and against all odds  God is building His  chosen people, his church.  God is working His purposes out. He will get the glory  and not any man. This is the nature of God's work in this world. 

"Not  to us, O  LORD, not to us, but to your Name give glory , for the sake of your steadfast love  and your faithfulness."  (Psalm 115:1)