Roles Reversed

We are looking at another large portion of Scripture today, so we are just going to hit the highlights like we did last week. Go ahead and open your Bible to Genesis 29 this morning.

As we continue seeing A Faithful God working through Flawed People, we are going to see several instances where God brought about reversals in people’s lives. The tables turn, the unexpected happens, and yet through it all, God is still faithful.

In fact, as we will see, he often works best in times where roles are reversed.

We will see that in three different ways this morning.

Let’s pick up in chapter 29 to get into the story. If you were with us a few weeks ago, you are going to notice a number of parallels between this chapter and chapter 24, although there are some glaring distinctions.

Jacob was both running away from his brother and had been sent by his father to go get a wife from their ancestral homeland in Haran.

He ends up at a well, much like Abraham’s servant did when he was looking for a wife for Isaac.

There is a well or cistern there that has a stone that covered it.

Three shepherds are there with their flocks, but they aren’t uncovering it until all the flocks are there. We don’t know if that was because it took that many men to take the stone off or if that was just the custom.

While he is talking with the shepherds, Rachel comes up with her father Laban’s flocks.

Pick up in verse 9-12.

Whether God gave him some unusual strength or he just rushed to take care of Rachel’s sheep, he opens the well for her and fills her in on who he is and why he is there.

Interestingly, we are already seeing a reversal from chapter 24. When Abraham’s servant showed up at a well, he expected the woman to draw water for him and his camels. The servant also has lavish gifts to give. Now, Jacob is the one doing the watering, and at this point, he is penniless, even though he stands to inherit the majority of Isaac’s possessions when he dies.

In another contrast, but not reversal, notice how differently Jacob is acting than the servant did—the servant prayed for God’s guidance and worshiped the Lord when he answered his prayer.

While God’s hand is clear in this story as well, we don’t have any record of Jacob praying or worshiping.

That fits what we have seen of Jacob so far—he tends to run head-first into things without praying or recognizing what God is up to.

Now, Laban comes back into the story. Laban is Jacob’s uncle, the brother of his mother, who was the primary person who dealt with Abraham’s servant when he came to get Rebekah.

He welcomes Jacob into his house, and Jacob begins to work for his room and board.

This is one of the most beautiful parts of the passages we will look at today…pick up in verses 14-20.

Jacob loves Rachel dearly but doesn’t have the traditional gift the groom would give to the family of the bride.

Instead, he agrees to work for seven years in exchange for the privilege of taking Rachel as a wife.

Pay attention to the note in verse 17 - Rachel has an older sister named Leah. Scholars debate on how best to understand the phrase that said Leah has “tender” eyes. Some interpret that as a good thing, since the eyes were one of the most prominent features a young man would notice since unmarried women wore veils in those days. Others think it is a negative thing, implying that her eyes were weak or sickly or something of the sort.

Either way, Jacob fell in love and wanted to marry Rachel, and the seven years he worked were like a few days to him.

This is where we see the first clear role reversal as we see that...

1) The deceiver is deceived.

The seven years of work are completed, and now it is time for Jacob to marry the woman he has loved all this time.

That’s where we start in verse 21-27.

Let’s deal with the obvious question: how on earth could Jacob have missed this?

Keep in mind that in those days, the bride was veiled all the way to the bridal chamber where the couple would spend their first night together. They didn’t have electric lights, so it would have been dark. They also had a big feast to celebrate the wedding, so it is likely that Jacob was at least tipsy if not drunk.

In the morning light, it becomes clear that Jacob had been given Leah as his bride instead of Rachel.

He is understandably upset, so he confronts Laban who appeals to the culture of that region as the reason why he didn’t. Some say this is an excuse, and others say this is something that may actually have been arranged by the elders of the village—keep in mind the culture of that day was very different than ours.

It is possible that they were hoping that Leah would find someone to marry in the seven years Jacob was working for Rachel, and it just never worked out, so they came up with a plan.

Either way, the roles have been reversed. Jacob, the deceiver, has been deceived in an incredibly painful way.

This role reversal is not some kind of karma like we often think of.

A lot of Americans live with a worldview that says if I do good things, good things will happen to me. If I do bad things, bad things will happen to me.

It doesn’t take long for us to realize that life doesn’t work out that way all the time, though.

Sometimes, terrible people seem to have easy lives and wonderful people seem to endure incredible difficulty.

There isn’t an exact system “one bad thing for every bad deed, and one good thing for every good deed.” That’s actually really good, because we are far more sinful and do and think far more bad things than we want to admit.

However, there is a general principle that when we live life God’s way, we experience the blessings that come with that. When we reject him and live life our way, we receive the consequences of that.

That’s spelled out in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

Galatians 6:8–9 CSB

because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

There are times where we reap the fruit of the actions we have done in the past, both good and bad. We know that those who follow Jesus will ultimately receive some level of reward for their faithfulness, but it also impacts our hear-and-now.

It is also true that God sometimes teaches us valuable lessons by putting us through challenging circumstances.

That seems to be what is happening here.

Jacob, the younger brother, deceived his father and stole his older brother’s blessing.

He ran away and fell in love with Rachel, the younger sister.

Now, her father has deceived Jacob and given him Leah, the older sister.

Jacob comes face to face with someone who can outdo his own deception and has to bear the painful consequences that come with it.

At the time, I can only imagine how disoriented he was. How could God let this happen?

However, as we will see, God is still faithful and at work despite Laban’s sinful treachery.

He fulfills the responsibility to Leah and then marries Rachel, but now he has to work seven more years for her.

Verse 30 gives us the painful prelude to the next role reversal, where we see that...

2) The unloved is honored.

It isn’t just that Jacob prefers Rachel over Leah; look at the first phrase in verse 31—she is unloved.

However, we see the reversal right off the bat. The Lord opened her womb and she started having sons, while Rachel is unable to conceive.

These verses are heartbreaking to read. Start in verse 32-34.

With each birth, she thinks, “This is it! Now Jacob is finally going to love me.” It never happens.

Reuben (has seen my affliction); Simeon (has heard); Levi (attached).

Something significant happens with the fourth son, though. Read verse 35.

She names this son Judah, which sounds like “praise” in Hebrew.

It doesn’t seem like this sticks, but for this moment, Leah realizes some very important truths:

No matter how many sons she has, Jacob is never going to love her like she wants him to.

Regardless of Jacob’s love, the Lord deserves praise.

Again, she falls back into her old pattern eventually, but here, she acknowledges the same thing Hagar did—God sees and God hears those who are unloved.

While Laban undoubtedly sinned in the way he married Leah off, God still knew what he wanted to accomplish through Leah.

While Jacob was a terrible husband and sinned against her by rejecting her when he should have loved her, God heard her cries and was enough for her.

You might be here this morning and feel just like Leah. You don’t think anyone loves you, and you may feel like something about you is never enough.

May I remind you this morning that there is a God in heaven who cares more deeply about you than you can imagine?

He cares so much that he would call you to himself, to call you away from sin and trying to find your happiness in anything else because he knows it will always leave you empty.

These sons would never give Leah what she needed; only God could do that.

When Judah was born, she acknowledged that God was worthy of praise, regardless of how Jacob acted.

Are you willing to do the same?

Are you willing to acknowledge that God is good even when life doesn’t feel like it is?

Unfortunately, Leah didn’t stay in that posture for long.

As chapter 30 opens, you find Rachel making the same mistake Sarah did. She couldn’t have a child, so she gave her slave to Jacob as a wife.

Once she starts having children, Leah decides to give her slave Zilpah to Jacob the same way, and Zilpah begins to bear children for him.

The rivalry continues, and Leah herself is able to have two more sons and a daughter for Jacob.

Her husband never shows her the love he should have, but God honored her by allowing her to birth about half of the sons whose descendants would form the twelve tribes of Israel.

The promise is shifting from one person—Jacob—to twelve of Jacob’s descendants, and Leah has been the one to give birth to half of them.

Not only that, but do you remember her son Judah? Of the twelve tribes, Judah was the tribe that would produce some of Israel’s greatest kings—David, Solomon, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah, and ultimately, Jesus himself would come from this line.

This entire study has been showing us how God’s promises extended past the lifetimes of those who he gave them to. Her, unloved Leah ends up being honored as one of her son’s descendants would be the Savior of the world!

It wasn’t the favored wife who receives that blessing; God reverses the roles and honors the unloved wife.

There is one more role reversal we want to look at from this passage.

The deceiver is deceived, the unloved is honored, and...

3) The unworthy prospers.

Let’s pick the story back up in 30:25.

Jacob has served Laban for 14 years now and had a number of children. He is starting to feel the pull to go back to the land God promised Abraham and the push to get away from Laban, but he still doesn’t have anything of his own to take with him besides his wife and children—he hasn’t actually been getting paid this entire time.

Laban had figured out at some point that God was blessing Laban because of Jacob, so he didn’t want him to go. He told Jacob to name his price.

Pick up 30:29-33.

The majority of Laban’s goats were likely solid black, and the majority of his sheep were likely white, so Jacob says, “Give me the spotted and striped female goats and the dark colored sheep.”

That would make it clear whose animals were whose and there could be no quibbling.

Laban agrees, but he does something interesting. He puts Jacob’s flocks and herds three days away from Jacob, and he puts them under the care of his sons.

He makes Jacob continue to care for his livestock because he knows God will bless what Jacob does.

Laban was partly right: God was going to bless what Jacob did.

However, it would be to Laban’s detriment.

Jacob came up with a system to make the strongest animals produce spotted babies that would be his and the weakest animals to produce solid colors that would belong to Laban.

Although it is described in the text here, no one we know of has ever really been able to replicate this in animal husbandry, so it is clear evidence of God’s hand with Jacob.

In fact, Jacob tells his wives in chapter 31 that God gave a Jacob a dream where he told him some of this.

However he came up with it, it worked out the same way.

Where Laban thought he would get rich, God kept taking from him and blessing Jacob instead.

Think about that for a minute—what right did Jacob have to expect God would do anything for him?

From the moment we learn about him, he is fighting with his brother, grabbing at his heel, manipulating and deceiving others to get his way. He is unfair to his wives and their children, and we see very little in his life that shows a strong concern for the Lord.

And yet, the Lord causes him to prosper in spite of his unworthiness.

He had failed and would fail time and time again, yet God had made a promise, and God is faithful and would keep his word.

Jacob didn’t deserve it, but God showed him grace anyway.

He reversed the roles and gave prosperity to the one who didn’t deserve it.

When Jacob arrives in Haran, he has almost nothing. He worked 20 years for an unjust man, and yet God still prospered him.

When he leaves, he takes a large family and a large amount of wealth with him, none of which he deserved on his own.

Hasn’t he done the same for us?

We are all like Jacob—we have all done what we wanted and thought best. He gives us life, and we deserve nothing from him on our own.

However, in the greatest role reversal in history, God comes to save us and rescue us.

Through the descendants of Leah’s son Judah, Jesus, the Son of God, would one day take on human flesh. Paul says:

Philippians 2:7–8 CSB

Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

God took on flesh and took on Jacob’s deception, Rachel and Leah’s bitterness, and my sins and yours and took them to the cross to pay the debt that you and I owe.

In exchange, he offers me his righteousness.

Elsewhere, we read

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He took our sin and exchanged it for his righteousness.

If you are here today and you are in Christ—in other words, you have given up living life your way and surrendered to living life his way instead—then all your deception and lying and selfishness and pride and unjust anger have been laid on Jesus on the cross, and he has clothed you in his righteousness instead.

Now, we live our lives out of gratitude for all God has done, seeking to honor him as best we can, through the power he gives us.

We are willing to be mistreated, to do hard things, and to endure hardship all because Jesus is worth it.

We know that in spite of all our mess, he is faithful.