On his way to see his mother’s family in Haran, the LORD met Jacob in a special place and assured him that he would be blessed with offspring and land that he did not deserve. God did not tell Jacob at the time that he would also get some of what he deserved.

Saving grace does not eliminate all consequences. In fact, saving grace gives us a Father (though the Hebrew patriarchs didn’t refer to God as “Father”), and every loving father disciplines his children. So does our Father in heaven. Yahweh will be Jacob’s God. Yahweh will go with Jacob and guard him. And Yahweh will also mature Jacob. Each of them will be associated with the other forever, and all the families of the earth will be blessed in Jacob, so he has some growing up to do.

The LORD would discipline Jacob with more than he bargained for, including a crazy, selfish, deceitful uncle. Jacob wouldn’t realize how deceitful Laban was until later, but that’s part of the problem with deception. Also, what goes around comes around. Jacob deceived, now he is deceived, and ironically ruined under the pretense of priority for the firstborn.

The blessing of finding family is mixed with the nature of the family he found, or at least the head of that household. The blessing of finding work is mixed with a steep price paid by that work. The blessing of finding a wife is mixed with finding one but getting two. It was more than Jacob bargained for.

In verses 1-14 Jacob meets family and in verses 15-30 Jacob marries sisters.

Meeting Family (verses 1-14)

Then Jacob went on his journey is an unfortunately flat translation. The Hebrew says that “Jacob lifted up his feet” (Tyndale’s accurate translation) which is a comment on his resolve to keep going based on the LORD’s reassurance, or at least his eagerness to increase the distance between himself and Esau.

He came to the land of the people of the east, though Haran is more north than east. So far in the book of Genesis, going to east is less preferable, and often an sign of separation. For Jacob he will find what he was looking for and some of what he wasn’t.

Jacob came upon three flocks of sheep near a well with a large stone across it. Somehow he could identify the separate flocks, perhaps by their positions or by the fact that there were too many shepherds for it to be only one. The flocks were near a well that was protected by a stone that usually took more than one man to move.

When Jacob saw them he said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” He plays up the politeness, though they don’t give him much more than the minimum reply. ”We are from Haran.” This is encouraging. So he asked, ”Do you know Laban the son of Nahor? How big was Haran? Or is this the eternally human response? “Oh, you live there? Do you know So-and-so?” Their reply is too short to get a definitive sense of their perspective, but enough to get a hint. They said, “We know him.”” What else did they want to say? Laban was not the kind of man who could avoid a reputation.

Then Jacob asked how Laban was doing? Did he have shalom? This wasn’t being well in the peace-of-soul in God way, but a general, “is he alive?” He was. And the shepherds were happy to have a way out of the conversation because, as “luck” would have it, ”see Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!” From this moment Jacob’s attention was distracted for at least the next 14 years.

Jacob saw enough that he knew that he wanted a little alone time with his cousin. So he tells the men to get back to work. They were waiting around when they could have been letting their flocks graze. It was too early in the day to fold them together; that was done for the night for warmth and protection. Jacob tells them to give the sheep a drink and go back at it for a while which would give him a chance to speak with Rebekah.

They resisted, saying that they couldn’t do as Jacob proposed because they couldn’t get the stone off the well. They would have to wait, maybe until another flock with another shepherd arrived and enough men were present to open the well. They aren’t in a hurry, nor do they have any reason to listen to this outsider.

So there would be an audience, so what? Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess and as soon as Jacob saw Rachel and the sheep…Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock. With the strength of ten men, well, maybe four, Jacob performs the feat by himself. Hopefully Rachel was watching.

Note the three-times repetition in verse 10: his mother’s brother, his mother’s brother, his mother’s brother. He found people who knew his mother’s family, now he found the family, and possibly his future wife. He knew the story of his Grandfather who sent a servant who met Rebekah at a well. Here Jacob does the watering rather than the woman.

And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. It’s deja vu but for real.

Laban had been through this before, and last time he got a lot in the deal. This time he would get less up front and far more in the end. As soon as Laban heard the news…he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. He did probably wonder, “Where are all the camels?” But that was answered soon enough. Jacob told Laban all these things. All what things? All the things that brought him to Haran. Unlike the servant who prayed and then retold the entire story to praise God, Moses demonstrates that he can summarize. Jacob explains why he’s alone and has nothing: he is on the run. Did he say why? I think so, especially since Laban uses the story against him later. Did he say he was looking for a wife? I also think so. If he wouldn’t have told Laban the story, would Laban have allowed him to stay? If he knew how Laban would use the story against him later, would he have told the story more carefully?

Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh! Which could mean, “And I’m so glad you’re here!” or “I am satisfied that you are who you say you are” or “You have family problems that I’m very familiar with.” Regardless, Jacob stayed with him a month.

Marrying Sisters (verses 15-30)

Laban had been watching Jacob for a month and had already heard Jacob’s verbal diary. Jacob had told him his heart. Ever the shrewd man, Laban proposes a deal.

“Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing?” Tell me, what shall your wages be?” However generous this may sound, in two sentences Laban turned a relationship based on family into a relationship based on money. The argument assumes that Jacob, as a relative, should not receive anything or serving. Laban wanted to be the boss more than a relative, though he did suspect that he would be getting a son-in-law in the package.

The answer comes in verse 18b, but two and a half verses come in between describing Laban’s two daughters. First was Leah, a name that meant “cow.” She was older, unmarried, and her eyes were weak. It’s not a lazy eye, one that doesn’t move with the other. It’s a set of “soft” eyes. What does that mean? Who knows. Some suggest it meant that her eyes were light rather than bright. She was less attractive because of it.

The other daughter Jacob met at first, Rachel, a name that meant “ewe.” She was beautiful in form and appearance, a real looker (with strong eyes?). And Jacob loved Rachel. Had they been talking? Or was it love at first sight?

Jacob makes an extravagant offer. ”I will serve you for seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” He had no money to pay a dowry as was common so he offers to work for her. Later in the Law the bride price is fixed at fifty shekels. If Jacob earned one shekel a month, then he was offering 84 shekels (Denham). She becomes an (expensive) commodity over which the men bargain. As for the many years, there was nothing for him back home but a brother eager to murder him.

Laban was getting the better deal, though his response is not positive or perspicuous, that is, clearly expressed and easily understood. ”It is better that I give her to you.” Some have pointed out that Laban doesn’t use Rachel’s name, so he may have had someone else in mind when he said “her.” If so, that is low.

Jacob got to work and the seven years seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Awwwww.

Between verse 19 and 21 seven years go by! And strangely, Jacob has to initiate. ”Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” Laban had to be aware of it. Rachel had to be aware of it. Who in the house wasn’t counting down the days?

So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. At least he did something nice for the couple. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went into her…And in the morning, behold, it was Leah!. Brides were veiled, but that’s some veil. It was night, so it was dark, but that’s some darkness. Either love is blind, or Jacob must have been drunk. The word feast in Hebrew typically referred to a drinking party. “Feast” is mišteh, from šāṯá, “to drink” (Hamilton). Moses doesn’t say it explicitly, but Jacob wasn’t aware of who he was with until the morning. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s dawn.

Why did Leah agree to the deception? Where was Rachel? Tied up in a closet?

Jacob doesn’t love the one he’s with. He said to Laban, “Why then have you deceived me?” Did Jacob hear what he was saying when the word came out of his mouth? Deceived is the same word Esau used about what Jacob did (27:35).

Laban answered, I imagine in such a way that his tongue hurt his cheek, ”It is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn.” Ouch. Note that he said firstborn not “older” as in 29:16. He’s using Jacob’s own story against him, and casts stones from the moral high ground that such a thing just isn’t done in his country. Society falls apart if this kind of thing is allowed. He could have told this to Jacob before agreeing to the terms. What goes around comes around. (Of course Laban is also doing doublethink. Is he really arguing that deceit is fine as long as it protects the firstborn rather than undermines the firstborn?)

But Laban does add something, ”Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” The wedding feast often lasted seven days. “The week of feasting (see 29:22) toasts Laban’s wit and the humiliation of Jacob and of Laban’s daughters” (Waltke). Jacob had to endure the looks and laughs of the people the entire time. Did he see Rachel? What did he say to Leah?

Both daughters were given a handmaid, Zilpah (to Leah, verse 24) and Bilhah (to Rachel, verse 29). They are inserted here because they will become mothers of tribes of Israel.

For now, Jacob gets his second wife in eight days. Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved her more than Leah. He didn’t learn from seeing familial favoritism in his home growing up. He couldn’t have known the sort of conflict that would come from this arrangement. Love did not set him free, from serving or strife. He got more than he bargained for.

Conclusion

Nothing Laban did was right, and Jacob still got what he deserved. He also got better than he deserved. The LORD disciplines those that He loves, and Laban was a tool in God’s arsenal.

Leah, though we sympathize that she was unloved by Jacob, gets a measure of what she deserves for her willful part in deceiving Jacob. She is not guiltless. Though she will become the mother of Judah, so of David, and so of Jesus. She receives consequences of her actions and also gracious blessing from the LORD.

It takes wisdom for us to know how not to be like Job’s counselors with others, or make assumptions in our own lives, that if a bad thing happens then it must be discipline for a sin. Jesus Himself said about the man born blind that it was not because of his sin or his parents’ sin. We can endure difficulties to show the grace of God already present or we can experience difficulties to discipline us to seek grace to become more like Him. Without being Job’s counselors we must still recognize that the Father disciplines those whom He loves.

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.
(Proverbs 3:11–12, ESV)