In our study last time, we looked at the story of Jacob and his dream about the ladder. And you might remember that I told you that the dream of the ladder and the angel’s ascending and defending upon it, and the Lord standing at the top of it, was an illustration of the gospel. Jesus said in John 1:51 that He was the One on whom Nathanael would see the angel’s ascending and descending.  So we saw that the vision of Jacob’s ladder was actually an illustration of the gospel.  Jesus is the way to God.  He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

Today we are looking at the next major incident in Jacob’s life, which is his marriage to Rachel. And I hope to show you how this story is illustrative of the love that Christ has for the church.  The church, as I have often pointed out, is the bride of Christ. Ephesians 5:25 says that Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.  So as Jacob became a servant so that he might gain his bride, so also Christ became a servant and carried out His work because of His love for the church.

Of course, Jacob is the promised seed of Abraham through whom would come a nation, the seed through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And he has come to the land of Haran to seek a bride. And of course that is ultimately a reference to the promised seed, Jesus Christ, through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, as He comes to earth to seek a bride, the church, made up of all the nations of the earth.

And so the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant is accomplished in Jesus Christ. Abraham is the first Jew, and in a sense, Christ is the last Jew of that lineage.  The line passed from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, to Judah, to David, to Christ. But the important aspect of the line was not blood lines, but a spiritual line of faith. And so the promises to Israel were fulfilled by the Messiah.  But the Abrahamic covenant continues to all nations through Christ. So that as Paul says in Rom 2:28-29  “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.  But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”  So the blessing was never based on genetics, but on faith.

So then faith is the scarlet cord that links the lineage of Abraham to the church, the bride of Christ. Just as illustrated in the women’s Bible study that they recently had on Ruth, she was a Gentile, a Moabite. But in her marriage to Boaz, a Jew, she was brought into the covenant of Abraham, just as through Christ the church is married into the covenant. This is also illustrated in the birth of Jacob and Esau.  Both were twins from the same father and mother – Jews.  And yet Jacob will be the son of faith, whereas Esau will be the son of the flesh. Jacob inherits the promises, Esau does not. Jacob becomes Israel through whom Christ will come.  But from Christ comes salvation to the Gentiles, so that ultimately, the children of Ishmael and Esau will also be brought into the family of God by virtue of marriage to Christ. 

So Paul can say in Gal 3:26-29 “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”

Now that’s a heavy dose of big picture theology for a Sunday morning sermon, but let’s work our way through this historical account, and hopefully by it reveal some important doctrinal truths concerning the gospel.  Jacob has left his father’s house under duress. His brother was going to kill him.  He had deceived his father.  He had stolen his brother’s blessing.  So he ends up on the run from his brother.  His mother had convinced his father to tell Jacob to go to his mother’s country to find a wife, which was a ploy on the part of his mother to get Isaac to send Jacob out of harm’s way from the wrath of Esau.

Along the way, Jacob had a dream in which he sees the Lord standing at the top of a ladder which extends from his campsite to the heavens.  And angels are ascending and descending upon it.  As I said, this is really an illustration of the gospel.  The Lord extends to Jacob a series of promises that He will bless him, and protect him and preserve him. But Jacob falls short of appropriating those promises.  He basically says “prove yourself to me, and if you do all that you have promised, and bring me back safely to my father’s land, THEN you will be my God, and I will give you my tithe of all that I have.

So as I said last time, I think at this point Jacob fails to appropriate the blessing of salvation that God was promising to give him. Instead he opts for doing things his way, focusing on obtaining the carnal aspects of the blessing, and hoping that God helps him get what he wants.  He wants the blessing of God, for God to be his genie, so to speak, who will give him his desire for physical prosperity. But he doesn’t want the Lordship of God in his life at this point.  And so he embarks on a 20 year journey into self determination.

But the sovereignty and providence and calling of God are still at work, whether Jacob acknowledges them or not.  Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.”  God was working providentially to bring Jacob to saving faith in Him, in spite of the willful rebellion of Jacob, and in fact even working through Jacob’s disobedience to achieve HIs purposes.

And so even though Jacob travels almost 500 miles, alone and through uncharted territory for him, yet he ends up right at the same well that Abraham’s servant found Jacob’s mother Rebekah all those many years before. Let’s read starting in vs 1 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the sons of the east.  He looked, and saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for from that well they watered the flocks. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large.  When all the flocks were gathered there, they would then roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.  Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.”  He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know [him.]”. Laban, of course, is the brother of Jacob’s mother Rebekah. 

Jacob thinks he is the captain of his ship, but in actually, the Lord was directing his steps. Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way.”  Also, Proverbs 16:9 says, “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

This journey of Jacob is illustrative of how the calling and election of God works.  It does not work by exclusion of the mind and will of man.  The mind and will of man are fully incorporated in the decisions that he makes.  Man is not a robot. He does not act by pure instinct like the animals.  But God is at work in directing a man’s decisions. He is providentially directing circumstances to guide us and direct us as we go through life, in order to bring us to His desired destination.  We cannot understand how both the will of man and the purposes of God work together, but we know that they do. Otherwise, how can man be held accountable for his actions, unless he is responsible for his decisions? So though the mind of man plans his way, yet the Lord directs his steps.

So after traveling 500 miles without GPS, Jacob has come to the very well used by his Uncle Laban to water his flock, and very likely, the same well that Rebekah came to water the camels of Abraham’s servant.  What luck.

And of course, Rachel just happens to be coming to water her sheep at the very same time.  Vs  6 And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well, and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.”  He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.”  But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”  While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.  When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.  Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept.  Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.”

Some commentators say that Jacob was between 55-60 years old at this point. Rachel is presumably a young, unmarried woman.  And if she is as beautiful as the Bible says she is, then she must be quite young, as it would be unlikely for her to remain unmarried for long.  She is also working as a shepherdess, which is not the sort of job a married woman would have. So I guess Jacob could be accused of robbing the cradle.  But I think the culture norms in that region concerning marriage were a little different than they are today.

But it’s likely that Jacob has love at first sight for Rachel.  That might be evident from his showing off his strength in moving the stone on the well.  The other shepherds were waiting for the stone to be moved, and Jacob after seeing Rachel is able to move it all by himself.  The other curious thing is that he then ran up to her, kissed her and lifted up his voice and wept. I don’t know quite what to make of that.  Not usually a good way to pick up girls I would think.  But it seems to be expressive of the pent up emotions that he was feeling.  I will say though that the kiss is not a romantic type of kiss.  This is the customary kiss of greeting given by men and women of those days. And I suppose that if you or I had walked for 25 days through wilderness, and finally arrived at the exact destination, meeting the exact relatives that you had left to find, then you might be overcome with emotion as well. 

But I am reminded of Jesus who wept over Jerusalem. On what is called Palm Sunday, being celebrated by many today, Jesus came into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey, and the crowds were calling out “Hosanna, BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!”  And yet when He approached Jerusalem, He wept over it.  Jesus knew what He came to do, and that He had been born as the seed of Abraham who would crush Satan’s head, reversing the curse, bringing salvation to Israel, yet they would ultimately reject Him as their King, as their Savior and Lord.

So after Rachel hears who Jacob was in relation to her and her family, she runs to tell her father Laban. Vs13 So when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he related to Laban all these things. Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.  Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”  Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.  And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.  Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”  Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.”  So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

It would seem that Jacob had arrived in Haran with just the clothes on his back. There is a Jewish tradition that says that Jacob had been robbed by a son of Esau when he was on the journey. And that might explain why he had no money, no dowry, or anything of his own when he arrived.  But that is not supported by scripture.  I would guess that he left in such a hurry that there was not time to get him any money or goods, and besides, he was only expected to be gone a few days or weeks until Esau cooled down. But whatever the reason, Jacob was broke.

So after a month passes, Laban says in a round about way, what do you want for your wages? Jacob was obviously working for his keep, and yet Laban knows that he must want more than that. And Jacob had no money for a dowry which was customary to give to the family of the bride. So Jacob says I will work seven years for your daughter Rachel. Seven seems to be a number associated with covenants, and so while that seems a really high price to pay for us, it was not considered a long time in that culture.  And the text says that because of his love for Rachel, the seven years seemed to him but a few days.  That’s interesting, because I would think that seven years would seem an interminable length of time to wait when you want to get married to the woman you love. But the opposite is true for Jacob. Seven years seem like just a few days because he was so much in love.

There is a parallel here to that of Jesus Christ, who humbled himself as a servant that He might perform His work on the cross to effect our salvation, that we might be joined to Him as His bride. I think we can find that servanthood expressed in Phl 2:5-8 which says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” And in regards to the joy that Jacob had when he suffered as a servant for the love of Rachel, we again see a correlation in Christ, of whom it is said in Heb 12:2 “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.

We come then in the story to Laban’s deception.  The deceiver gets deceived. Or you might say that the Biblical principle is illustrated of you reap what you sow. Gen 29:21-30  “Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give [me] my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.”  Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast.  Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and [Jacob] went in to her.  Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid.  So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?”  But Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.  “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.”  Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.  Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.  So [Jacob] went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

There would have customarily been a week long wedding feast for the marriage of Jacob and Rachel. I’m not sure how that would have worked out. Did Rachel participate in the wedding feast? I don’t know for sure all the traditions of those days and that culture.  But she would have been veiled, it would seem. However, I believe the bride and groom were kept separate at the feast, and then on the last day, the groom would go take his bride into the chamber.  

But on the last day, Laban has Leah dress in a veil and she is taken by Jacob to consummate his marriage.  It was presumably dark, and he never really gets to see her face until the morning. It’s kind of hard for us to imagine, but nevertheless, it did happen, and the fact that we are unknowledgeable about the wedding arrangements is a disadvantage to us. But that is also the excuse of Laban, that the custom of that day and country was that the younger must not marry before the older. I doubt that was actually true. It might have been the desire of the father to marry them off in chronological order, but that was probably not the truth of the matter.  He just saw an opportunity to marry off his older daughter and make Jacob responsible for her. Leah is considered less attractive, which is indicated by the phrase Leah’s eyes were weak.  No one seems to know precisely what that means, other than it it countered by Rachel was beautiful of form and face. So perhaps Leah was not found attractive for some reason and thus limited in her prospects for marriage.

I feel for both Leah and Rachel. Imagine Rachel’s disappointment.  She has been waiting 7 years for her wedding day, and she is deprived of it by treachery from her own father. And she has to endure the wedding night knowing that her sister is with Jacob instead of her.  Laban had to know that what he was doing was a great evil to everyone concerned.  And imagine Leah’s embarrassment and shame, knowing that she had contributed to this debacle.  And furthermore, that she was unloved. We don’t know if she was a co-conspirator or not. I would hope not but it would seem like she had to have wanted to participate.  But the father was in that time and place like a tribal chieftain.  What he said was law. And his daughters were completely under his authority. 

I will say though that there must be some correlation here between the loved and unloved daughters of Laban, and the twin brothers Jacob and Esau of whom one was loved and one was hated. And I cannot say that there is a direct comparison, but it would seem that God loved Jacob, and yet Jacob did not reciprocate that love for many years.  God continued to provide for him, to protect him, to offer his promises to him, but Jacob was determined to work out his “blessing” through his own deceitful efforts, though he didn’t mind if God helped things along.  But only after a long period of rebellion, did Jacob surrender to the Lord after we are told he wrestled with the angel of the Lord all night after leaving the employment of Laban.

Leah is unloved in the sense that she is not loved to the degree that Jacob loves Rachel. And perhaps that is the way that it should be understood when it says that God loved Jacob but He hated Esau.  God had no animosity towards Esau, but He does not love him with the redeeming love that He has for Jacob.

In the case of Leah, it would seem that Jacob did fulfill his obligations to her as his wife. It would have been adding insult to injury if he would have kicked her out the next morning since she would have been unable to remarry and would have been left destitute.  But God was able to use even the evil that man conspired for good. 

So vs 31 says, “Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”   Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, “Because the LORD has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” 33 Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this [son] also.” So she named him Simeon.  She conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi.  And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.” So Leah has four sons in quick succession, and the fourth son is Judah, the father of the tribe of Judah, from whom the Lord Jesus comes. 

He is the one in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Though Christ is a Jew, the promised seed of Abraham, yet the good news is that all the nations, the nations that were initially represented as the unloved, will yet be given access through marriage to become the family of God through the representative seed of Abraham whose death atoned for the sins of the world.