Jacob's Wives and God's Discipline

Introduction

God’s Providence in Finding Wives

Last week we saw the covenant that had been given to Abraham and passed on to Isaac finally embraced by the next generation through Jacob. Of all the covenant patriarchs, Jacob perhaps has the most questionable character. Abraham failed to have faith in God at times, but at other times his faith was exemplary for us in the New Covenant to follow, even to the point of sacrificing his own son believing God would raise him from the dead. There was growth of faith over time, and that is meant to be established as the norm for those in covenant with God.

Isaac was less of an example. Even after what happened with Abimelech and God’s provision and blessing, Isaac’s old age still shows infantile faith in his attempt to bless Esau rather than submit to God’s sovereign plan. Now Jacob has only just recieved the covenant promises from God, and he already has a reputation of being deceitful, dishonest, and a coward. Why God would choose someone like him to be the covenant head may seem confusing, and it forces us to remember that God’s work of election is not based on our works, but on God who calls and brings those he has called to himself. Those who he foreknew and fore-loved he predestined, those he predestined he called, those who he called he justified by the faith that he gives by his Spirit. God calls some pretty messed up people and decides to highlight his own glory by saving them and working in their lives and making them more and more like himself.

Jacob follows the steps of his grandfather's servant by heading to Paddan Haran to find a wife for himself. The cycle of the covenant continues, but with some differences. While Jacob’s story is similar to what has happened to his forebears, God deals with Jacob on a personal level.

Similarities to Abraham’s servant’s experience

The similarities between what happens at the beginning of our text and Abraham’s servant’s quest that ended in providence are very clear. First, like Abraham’s servant, Jacob finds himself at a well. We have looked before at the significance that wells had in the ANE. A water source was the most important thing you could possibly have as a desert nomad, it provided both drink and wealth. Wells in the book of Genesis represent wealth, survival, and blessing. They are a place of security even during famine. So it is not surprising that God has often used wells as the means of his blessing and they hold covenantal significance for this reason. At Beersheva Abraham found security in the land God had promised him, as did Isaac. Both times this signified God’s providential watch over them in an often unforgiving land. So when Abraham’s servant found Isaac’s bride-to-be at a well, where she watered his camels after the long journey, it was significant because it represented God’s providence. Just as he provides water for Abraham to keep on living in the promised land, he provides the girl that would mean Abraham’s promised dynasty would continue against all odds.

So it’s not surprising that the next part of the covenant story unfolds near a well. It is here that Jacob will meet one of his future wives. In someways it can sound like a retelling of the story of Rebekah his mother, but the situation is notably different. In fact, it seems obvious that parts of it are intentionally backwards. Instead of coming to the well when all the young women of the town come out to draw water, he comes when all the young men are watering their herds. Abraham’s servant sought God to lead him to the right woman, Jacob goes to them men who are there. The servant saw the woman before he knew whose house she was from, for Jacob its the opposite. Rebekah waters the servant’s camels, Jacob water’s Rachel’s sheep.

Appearance of A Beautiful Girl

When this beautiful girl appears, Jacob falls in love right away. Perhaps the cheesiest line in the whole book of Genesis is found in verse 20, that the time he would work for the bride price would feel like a few days, because he loved her so much. Very cute, but there are problems. Even though she is from the right family, there are some problems with Jacob’s situation here, which is why the author parallels similarities to Genesis 24 with some stark and problematic differences.

Difficulties

No bride price

First, Jacob has no bride price. He comes to Laban seemingly with empty pockets, and this is somewhat strange and introduces the irony and main theme of this story. Jacob is a trickster and yet he is chosen, beloved child of promise in God’s eyes. However, this does not mean that Jacob is going to have it easy. In fact, when we read this chapter in light of the preceeding events described in the last five chapters, there is a strong focus on irony in this story.

Almost everything that happens to Jacob is ironic and has a connection to something else that has happened already. And a lot of that is to show how wrong things are going with Jacob.

It does seem strange that Isaac did not send him gifts like his father sent with his servant in Genesis 24. Perhaps Isaac was bitter towards his son, and sends him off without any wealth, making marriage very unlikely, so he might have a reason to put Esau back in the blessing. We aren’t told, but instead of paying a bridal price, Jacob starts to work for his Uncle Laban for 7 years.

With the reintroduction of Laban, Jacob has finally met his match. Jacob is known for being a trickster, and now he is the one who is about to be tricked over and over again. Things will not go well with Jacob while he is with Laban, and we will see God using Laban to slowly unravel Jacob and all of his trickery. This part of Jacob’s story is about God’s fulfilment of his promises while at the same time doling out loving discipline as he grows in his faith.

Unable to take a wife back to the promised land

Another problem for Jacob is his inability to take his wife back home with him. This is partly because he does not have the money for a bride price and partly because his brother still wants to kill him. This forces him to stay away from his rightful inheritance and with this pagan family led by a man as deceitful as him. God uses this to discipline and lead him away from his old lifestyle of trickery to walk before him blamelessly just as he called Abraham to walk in Genesis 18. Jacob’s time in Paddan Haram is a sort of exile for him, hinting at the exile of his descendants in the land of Egypt. God uses this exile to purify him and essentially make him ready to live in the land that he has been promised.

The undoing of Jacob

The irony continues in this text as we see the undoing of Jacob. Rather than Rachel being given as a betrothed because of God’s providence, Laban treats the affair like a business deal. Jacob will work to earn his wife. Laban sees that Jacob is strong and hardworking when he moves the stone from the mouth of the well and thinks he can profit himself by essentially selling his daughter. However, even here Laban’s words are tricky. When Jacob tells him he will serve him for 7 years for his daughter’s hand in marriage, Laban’s response is, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” Very uncommitted, foreshadowing his trickery. Jacob works for Laban for the 7 years, and unlike the episode of Abraham’s servant finding his mother Rebekah, Rachel’s opinion is not given. All of the positive signs given in Genesis 24 are non-existent here. Finally, on the day of the wedding Laban gets lots of wine for the wedding, probably gets Jacob a bit drunk and the brides vail and perhaps low light would have made her face invisible to him., and the next day he wakes up and instead of Rachel, the girl he was working to marry, there’s her sister Leah. Leah is described as being “weak in the eyes” which simply means she wasn’t very attractive to Jacob.

When Jacob confronts Laban the next day, he gives an unsatisfying excuse based on their regular practices. Maybe he thought if he told Jacob the truth he might leave, since it is clear that Laban wants Jacob to stay there forever. This way, he has secured Jacob for another seven years and he marries Rachel the next day.

The irony in this story is that it is almost a direct replay of the trick he played on his own father. Just as he exploited his father’s blindness and tricked him into given him his father’s blessing, Laban exploited Jacob’s blindness through the bride’s vail the the drink to trick him into marrying the wrong bride. While he tricked his father into blessing the younger rather than the older, Laban tricked him into marrying the older rather than the younger daughter. This experience serves as an example of the principle from Galatians 6:7-8

English Standard Version Chapter 6

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Jacob sowed deceit, and that is what he has reaped. The trickster has become the tricked. He ends up marrying Rachel, going against the biblical model for marriage, and although both women will become the mothers of the people of Israel, Leah will be the mother of the Davidic line, and through her will come the Messiah.

Spiritual Infancy

But Jacob’s biggest problem, however, is not his deceitful uncle, it’s his own spiritual infancy and lack of faith. The biggest difference between Jacob and Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24 sticks out like a sore thumb. Jacob’s search for a wife is completely prayerless. While Abraham’s servant found a beautiful girl as well as Jacob did, he has also found a girl with good character as a direct result of to his prayers. He then praised God, both in his heart and before Rebekah’s family for his providence. It was an expedition full of faith in God and God honoured that faith. Jacob does not pray at all, he doesn’t praise God, and he chooses Rachel based solely on her appearance and not on her character, which we’ll see in the future is less than admirable. Jacob has the foundation of faith, but it is very immature and weighed down by self reliance and motivated by his own passions. He does not submit his desire for a wife to God or seek for her in prayer, he simply follows his natural instincts.

All of Jacob’s problems start with his own spiritual immaturity. Directly or indirectly, the situation is finds himself in is his own doing. If he had been wiser, he would have maybe come eventually with a bride price because his father would maybe not be so mad at him, he would be praying for divine intervention and guidance, he would be considering character above beauty, and he would have the discernment to maybe judge the character of Laban and be more on guard against his tricks.

As God’s covenant Child, God will continue to work through Jacob despite his failures

However, God’s plans, once again, comes to pass just as he intended them to. God’s plans cannot fail because of human failures, and that means his promises will come to pass. Jacob is not going to loose God’s favour or covenant because of his foolishness and lack of mature faith, God carries it to pass. In the same way, the sins of a Christian cannot cause a Christian to lose their salvation. That would put God’s promises in our hands, and Scripture never does that. It is always according to his own will and election.

But part of God’s purpose is to lead his people out of sin and foolishness and into a lifestyle that is consistent with his own revealed character. And this is a painful process, because it means destroying part of who you were, the sin that you used to love now must be stripped away. The more wild oats you sow in spiritual ignorance, the more you will have to deal with as your grow as a Christian.

Everyone who is saved has been saved by grace alone through faith alone, and everyone who is saved has access to the loving presence of God and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. But the more sin there is to burn away, the bigger the fire often is. A Christian saved out of a life of drug abuse for example may have a more painful experience as a new Christian than someone who was not. But this isn’t just true for obvious sins, deep seeded pride may be just as painful to remove. Regardless, God is going to remove our sins by his Spirit, and that is not a pleasant experience. This is called discipline by the author of Hebrews (12:11).

English Standard Version Chapter 12

11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

God’s Providence in Loving Discipline

This is exactly what God is doing in the life of Jacob in our text today. He is forcing Jacob to take a little of his own medicine, and that is quite painful for him. Imagine accidentally marrying someone who aren’t attracted to after 7 years. But through this pain, God is breaking away the sin and installing more faith in his providence. While the wedding does not go as planned, God does use both woman to populate the promised Kingdom, but there is a favour that God shows to Leah, who will become the ancestor of Christ. In that way, the promised line goes through her, not Jacob’s beloved Rachel.

Conclusion