The selfishness and rebellion that is taught to us will eventually teach us a lesson...

This week, we have been looking at an event that occurred in history and is recorded for us in a letter in the Bible called the book of Genesis. Wednesday, we looked on as Jacob journeyed to the land of his uncle Laban and met one of his daughters named Rachel. After greeting Rachel, Moses tells us that Jacob lifted up his voice and wept after recognizing God’s activity in his life. Today, we will jump back into this story as Rachel leaves Jacob to inform her father Laban of the news. We meet Laban and see his response to Jacob in Genesis 29:13:

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.

Laban responded to the appearance of Jacob by embracing him and welcoming him as part of the family. And for a month Jacob stayed with Laban and got to know Laban and the rest of his family. And like many family reunions, Jacob got to hear a lifetime of stories from Laban’s family. And Laban listened as Jacob shared a lifetime of stories from his family.

For a month, as Jacob helped out on Laban’s family farm, Jacob shared the story of his family. The story of being Rebekah’s favorite son; the story of the favoritism within the family; the story of deceit and deception; the story of Rebekah’s plan to rescue Jacob from Esau and find him a wife from Laban’s daughters. 

And as Laban listened on and recognized that Jacob was looking for a wife, Laban began to come up with a plan. You see, at this point Laban had no leverage over Jacob. Jacob has been helping Laban out as a relative and a volunteer. But if Laban hired Jacob, then he would gain leverage over him as his employer. So Laban offers Jacob a job and begins to negotiate the terms of his employment. Now Laban knows that he has two daughters that Jacob could marry; Leah, who was the oldest and her younger sister named Rachel.

Moses explains that Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face. Now when Moses says that Leah’s eyes were weak, this phrase literally means that her eyes lacked luster. This is a nice way to say that Leah was not a looker. Leah was not attractive. Rachel, however, was beautiful of form and face. In other words, Rachel was easy on the eyes. Rachel was a looker who was beautiful. Laban, with an understanding Jacob’s story and his sister Rebekah’s plan, comes up with a plan of his own in verse 18:

  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. 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.

Here we see Jacob and Laban agree to an employment contract between them. You see, while Jacob loved Rachel, Jacob did not have any money to provide a dowry which, in the culture of the day, was a monetary gift that was given to the bride’s family for the right to marry. So, instead of the traditional dowry, Jacob agrees to work for seven years as a dowry to Laban so that he could marry Rachel. Laban responds to Jacob’s offer by accepting the offer.

However, notice what Laban says to Jacob as he accepts his offer: "It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me." We will come back to that statement in a minute. Moses tells us that Jacob remained engaged to Rachel as he worked during those seven years. And his love for Rachel was so intense that those seven years seemed to fly by.

At the end of the seven years, Jacob demands that Laban fulfill his end of the agreement. Laban responds to Jacob’s demand by throwing a large wedding ceremony and reception. Moses then records for us what happens next:

  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?"

To which we say “what!” Who says the Bible is boring? Now there are several questions that arise here. The first and most obvious question is “how could Jacob not know. I mean, Rachel was beautiful and Leah...not so much. How could Jacob not know that he was sleeping with Leah instead of Rachel”?

While Moses does not give us a great amount of detail about the wedding reception, I imagine that there probably was an open bar. And after seven years, there was probably a great deal of celebrating and partying going on. So Laban took advantage of Jacob’s intoxicated state and a dark tent to deceive Jacob by giving him Leah instead of Rachel. And as a result, Jacob had sex with Leah and consummated a marriage relationship with her. And here we see Jacob, who has been the deceiver throughout his life, end up being deceived. Here we see Jacob, who had been taught and who had gotten ahead all his life through deception, become the victim of deception.

Another question that arises here is “why would Leah go along with such a deceitful plan? And where was Rachel when all this was going on?” I will answer that question with a question: Do you think that Leah knew that she was the ugly duckling of the family? Do you think Leah was tired of watching Jacob fawn over Rachel during those seven years? Do you think Leah was lonely? Do you think Leah might have been jealous?

Another question that arises here is “how could Laban justify what he had done?” We see Laban’s response and justification recorded for us in verse 26:

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.

Laban’s response, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: Hey Jacob, that’s not how we do things around here. And besides, I never agreed to you marrying Rachel. Remember I said “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; I did say who I agreed to give you in marriage. I simply said that it would be better to give her to you in marriage. Tell you what I’ll do. If you complete the week long wedding reception and remain married to Leah, I’ll let you also marry Rachel. And instead of working another seven years in order to provide the dowry for her hand in marriage, I will let you marry Rachel, then work off the dowry”.

Laban was able to shadily justify his act of deception. And because Laban knew that Jacob was madly in love with Rachel, Laban was able to leverage that reality into seven more years of labor from Jacob. And as a result of Laban’s deception, Jacob ended up getting married two times in eight days. Jacob remained married to Leah, who he did not love and married Rachel who he did love.

And it is here, in this story, that we see God reveal for us a timeless truth. And that timeless truth is this: The selfishness and rebellion that is taught to us will eventually teach us a lesson. Just as the lifestyle of deception that Jacob leaned from his family eventually taught him a lesson as a result of being the victim of deception, the selfishness and rebellion that is taught to us will eventually teach us a lesson.

And intuitively we know this to be true, don’t we. We even have a phrase in our culture for this timeless truth: what goes around comes around. And all of us can probably think of examples where we have seen this principle plays itself out, can’t we?  Just like Jacob, we often learn how to express the selfish and rebellious desires that rage within us from others. Just like Jacob, we often put into practice all that we have been taught about selfishness and rebellion on others.

And just like Jacob, we often mistakenly think that we are exempt from this principle. We mistakenly think that while others are taught a lesson from the selfishness and rebellion that they have been taught, we will never be caught or taught a lesson from our selfishness and rebellion. And just like Jacob, we end up learning the hard way that the selfishness and rebellion that is taught to us will eventually teach us a lesson.

So here is a question to consider: How are you responding to the selfishness and rebellion that is being taught to you? Are you putting into practice the selfishness and rebellion that you have been taught by others? Do you mistakenly believe that you are exempt from this principle and that you will never be taught a lesson from your selfishness and rebellion? Or are you resisting the temptation to think that you are exempt and refusing to express what you have been taught about selfishness and rebellion on others?