Genesis 29:1-30
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 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.
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. 24 (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) 25 And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” 26 Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” 28 Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 (Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.) 30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. [1]
God’s great revelation of himself to Jacob and the angelic vision of the stairway between heaven and earth was a wonderful grace-filled way for the fleeing patriarch to begin his long journey to Haran. The pre-incarnate Promised Seed showed up to stand watch over Jacob as he slept alone in the wilderness. Jacob received a clear gospel message from YHWH. God alone would preserve the patriarch. God alone, through his free will, was giving Jacob a divine relationship and all the Abrahamic blessings.
But Jacob proved himself to be exactly like you and me. Messiah appeared and preached the gospel. Jacob was amazed and awed by what he heard and realized he was indeed in God’s house (Bethel). And yet the very first thing Jacob does upon waking up is to forget the gospel and bargain with God. The old, scheming, self-centered Jacob was still alive and well as he conditionally pledges his loyalty to God – assuming God acted according to his promises. Jacob is offering to sell God devotion in exchange for the already-promised blessing. Jacob has twisted the good news of God’s free-will grace into a give-to-get religion. That’s why it’s important for us to hear God’s good news as often as we can. Because, like Jacob, we are prone to forget it and turn back inward upon ourselves. Like Jacob, we are all works in progress.
JACOB ARRIVES (1-8)
There is a hint that Jacob’s encounter at Bethel gave him a spring in his step as he traveled on to Mesopotamia. Verse 1 reads, “Then Jacob lifted up his feet.” Jacob was skipping down his own Yellow Brick Road with a sense of adventure ahead, rather than a sense of his murderous brother behind. But there is foreboding in the text as well. Moses tells us Jacob “came to the land of the people of the east.” Genesis emphasizes the east (3:24; 4:16; 10:30; 11:2; 13:11; 25:6) as a “bad” direction. “Movement to the east in Genesis is in the context of judgment (4:16) or vanity (11:2; 13:11) or alienation (25:6). The same is true with Jacob. The journey to the east is filled with heartaches.”[2] Only when Jacob moves back west to the Promised Land will he find peace.
The shift in scenes is abrupt. First Jacob lifts his feet in Bethel and immediately he is by a well in Haran. Wells in Genesis are representative of life and blessing. Three flocks of sheep were gathered around the well as were the listless shepherds. A large flat stone covered the mouth of the well. The slab had a hole cut into its middle with another, more rounded very heavy rock covering the hole to prevent evaporation and pollution. None of the shepherds had yet made the effort to role away the top stone and none, it seemed, made an effort to greet Jacob. It was up to the patriarch to make the first move:
4 Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” 6 He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!”
- Kent Hughes says, “These shepherds remind me of dock workers on their lunch break— little or no eye contact, grudging monosyllabic answers— and obvious relief when they spot Rachel coming. Whew! Bother her, not us.”[3] The unhelpful shepherds underestimated Jacob, who knew a thing or two about animal husbandry. He gave them a rebuke as his cousin approached. “7 He said, ‘Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.’” Jacob wants some alone time with his cousin. But these guys are first in the water line and unwilling to budge. “8 But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”
JACOB AND LABAN’S FAMILY (9-14)
Rachel’s name means “ewe lamb.” So, there’s a word play going on in this text as the shepherdess named “ewe lamb” approaches with her sheep. She is the lamb with her lambs. Moses doesn’t tell us this was love at first sight. But we do know Jacob is very joyful to have reached the end of his long journey from Canaan and found his uncle’s family. Jacob is amped, as we see in verse 10, “10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.” Jacob rolled away the stone it took several shepherds to move and watered his cousin’s flock first. Sorry boys, family comes first. Who’s the mamma’s boy now? We can imagine the shepherds taking a few steps back in tense silence. In the previous story and this one, a stone (ʾeḇen) becomes a pivotal part of the story. In Bethel, the stone that first was under Jacob’s head (28:11) is raised as a commemorative pillar before God (28:18). In this narrative the stone at the well becomes the means by which Jacob meets Rachel.[4]
It would have taken a fair amount of time to water Rachel’s sheep, given the limited size of the well’s opening. But when the last of her flock was watered, Jacob kissed his cousin and wept out loud. This is the only instance in scripture where a man kisses a woman not his wife or mother, so it gives us an indication of Jacob’s joy and relief. He had finally met his flesh and blood family. He had just performed an extraordinary feat. Now he introduces himself.
If Jacob was thinking about how this was a fulfillment of God’s promises, the record is silent about it. Certainly, he doesn’t mention his God at this point. There’s no record that he prayed before reaching the well in the way Abraham’s godly servant had when he came to seek a wife for Jacob’s father. Jacob is still living out of his Jacob-focused “give to get” religion. “The narrator records no specific petition from Jacob to God for provision of a wife. Instead, Jacob seems to stumble into his good fortune unaware of God’s presence. Rachel does arrive at the well providentially, but now it is Jacob working to impress Rachel rather than …studying her character. Then, when he is received by the family, there is no mention of his offering praise or thanksgiving to God.”[5]
This scene is a fulfillment of God’s promise to Jacob, “I will be with you.” It is more about God’s providence than Jacob’s prayerlessness. God has providentially led Jacob in his wanderings. It’s no coincidence that the patriarch stumbles upon some people who know Laban well. It’s no coincidence that Rachel happens to be approaching the well at the moment when Jacob reaches these men. Jacob had no idea where he was and had to ask the shepherds about his location. It’s no coincidence that Rachel runs to tell her father about this amazingly-strong relative from wealthy Abraham’s family, his sister’s son. It’s no coincidence that Laban hurries out to welcome him. There are no coincidences. God is absolutely sovereign over absolutely everything, everywhere, all the time.
12 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.
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.
Perhaps Laban came running in expectation of receiving the kind of riches Eliezer had brought to secure Rebecca for Isaac hastened his pace to meet Jacob with a hug and a kiss. But we can also imagine his disappointment when Jacob told his uncle “all these things.” There were no ten camels, no gold jewelry. Jacob didn’t even come with one donkey. What good were YHWH’s promises of future land, seed, and blessing to Laban? So what if one god among many favored his nephew? The boy had nothing. But he was strong, and he could work. And he seemed to have experience with livestock. So, Laban extends to him Adam’s covenant language of family and adoption, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” (2:23; Judg. 9:2; 2 Sam. 5:1; 1 Chr. 11:1;2 Sam. 19:13). Laban realizes Jacob is exploitable, so he extends him this seemingly enthusiastic family adoption covenant. So begins Laban’s double dealing with his nephew and even his own daughters. But Jacob, in his enthusiasm, likely failed to see Laban’s intentions.
From Jacob’s perspective, he stood at the gate of heaven and possessed divine intimacy with the one true God. Heaven stood open to him. That was true and would remain so his entire life. But he needed much polishing. And polishing only happens by friction. And the friction has begun. Jacob needed a compassionate spirit. He needed to experience pain following his life of luxury. He needed humility and some comeuppance. He needed to grow in faith and die to himself, to learn to wait upon the Lord. Peter would write to the oppressed Church:
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.[6]
JACOB’S COMEUPPANCE (15-30)
Jacob joined his new-found family. But he didn’t see Laban’s crafty plan:
And he stayed with him a month. 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
Laban sounds as if he is being generous. In fact, an attentive reader will see he’s turning his nephew into a wage slave rather than a member of his family. If Laban pays him a wage as an employee, Jacob has no share in Laban’s wealth. The magnanimous offer is a crafty, greedy ruse. “Jacob had never worked for anybody. He was probably industrious to a degree and certainly had done things around the home of his mother and father in Beersheba. But he was the son of the patriarch. He had not served others; others had served him. Besides, the oracle associated with his birth had declared unequivocally, “the older will serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23). That is, Esau would serve Jacob. But here Jacob is, serving his uncle Laban.”[7] Laban’s trickery is followed by another ominous revelation:
16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. 18 Jacob loved Rachel.
So again, we have and older-younger sibling conflict where the younger is the chosen one and the older has a flaw. Leah has “weak” or “soft” eyes. She lacks fire in her eyes. She’s the shy, retiring sister with a frumpy personality. Leah’s name means “wild cow.” Like her sister, Ewe Lamb, she is about to be traded like livestock. To Jacob, Rachel was the fiery one. She was the fearless shepherdess with all the drive, energy, and personality her sister lacked. Most ominously, we’re told that Jacob loved Rachel so much he was willing to work seven years for her (29:18) as his bride price. “20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” Bruce Waltke notes, “Jacob has entered a dark night of slavery, a foreshadow of Israel in Egypt. Laban outwits Jacob and reduces family to an economic arrangement (cf. 25:23; 27:29, 37, 40).”[8]
Jacob loved Rachel, despite the fact that he would father children by Leah and both wives’ concubines when they used their maids as pawns in a birth war. Years later as Jacob lay dying he said to his sons, “As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)” (48:7). And here, at the beginning of his love, the seven years seemed like a day because he loved her so much.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.”
This verse suggests that Laban was delaying the marriage contract past the original seven-year deal. The absence of the word “please” strongly suggests Jacob was stating a grievance. It seems Laban complied right away by throwing the typical week-long drunken wedding feast. “The typical wedding featured processions to and from the bride’s dwelling. There was also the reading of the marriage contract. The feast was attended by both families and the community. And the first day’s festivities ended with the groom wrapping his cloak around the bride and taking her to his tent where the marriage was consummated. Following that, the feast continued for six more days.”[9]
Laban used the veiled bride, the darkness of the night, Jacob’s enthusiasm, and quite a bit of wine to achieve the switch. How Laban restrained Rachel Moses does not say. In Gen. 27, two brothers were exchanged by a trick before a blind man; in Gen. 29, two sisters are exchanged by a trick in the darkness of night and behind a veil, which eliminate Jacob’s sight.” On the other hand, in a way that defies human logic, God is working out his sovereign purposes through the “wrong” wife. Leah will become the mother of Judah, David, and Jesus Christ![10]
The angel-laden stairway was still with Jacob. The pre-incarnate Promised Seed was with Jacob. But Jacob’s blessing was upside-down – blessing through hardship, growth in Christ through suffering and struggle. Consider this: Twelve sons and one daughter would be born to the four women. Through unloved Leah and her maid Zilpah, eight of the twelve tribes would come. Leah would be the mother of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Despised Leah was the hereditary mother of the kingly tribe of Judah and the priestly tribe of Levi. In the midst of human sin and failure, through the family infighting God’s work thrives. God is faithful to his covenant despite our faithlessness.
Even as the elect son, Jacob did not escape the consequences of his sins. Jacob was not immune to the hard training that produces more Christlikeness. God’s people are the special objects of the hard training he brings. “God had brought the arch-deceiver Laban into the life of the great patriarch-deceiver so that Jacob’s sin might be displayed before his eyes and he might be cut to the heart. Jacob’s nemesis and greatest antagonist was an instrument of God. The ladder assured that it was so. And Jacob was going to change, not overnight but over time. He would become Israel, a prince of God.”[11]
Today for all believers the angelic stairway is presided over and administered by the risen and ascended Son of Man who lived the perfect life he imputes to us and died the death our sins deserve. As Jesus explained to Nathanael: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). And the same Lord does the same thing for all his children. There is continual commerce between Heaven and earth for you and me. And like Jacob, we happily see it when everything is going well. But when life goes south, when our sins catch up with us and we are paying the piper, when hard times and hard people come into our lives, then the ladder seems remote. But the commerce is there.
And if anything, it is more intense. Perhaps, as it was for Jacob, there are difficult people in our lives— Laban-type adversaries — harsh people, judgmental people, deceitful people, untruthful people, arrogant people. And we cry for relief. But it just may be that through them we take a long look at ourselves. Through them we might come to see our own sins and repent and regain some of our gospel sanity. One thing is for sure: The commerce on behalf of our souls will never cease until we are with the Son of Man. And for this grace we must bless his name![12]
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 29:9–30.
[2] Hamilton, 2:252.
[3] Hughes, 366. Kindle Edition.
[4] Hamilton, 2:253.
[5] Waltke and Fredericks, 399.
[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Pe 1:3–8.
[7] Boice, 2:783.
[8] Waltke and Fredricks, 403.
[9] Hughes, 369. Kindle Edition.
[10] Waltke and Fredricks, 403–404.
[11] Hughes, 370-372. Kindle Edition.
[12] Id. 372. Kindle Edition.
