Genesis 29.21-24-Laban Deceives Jacob on His Wedding Night

Sunday June 25, 2006

Genesis: Genesis 29:21-25-Laban Deceives Jacob on His Wedding Night

Lesson # 168

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 29:21.

On Tuesday we studied Genesis 29:1-12, which records Jacob finally arriving in Paddan Aram and meeting the shepherds from Haran and the daughter of his uncle Laban and future wife, Rachel.

On Wednesday evening we noted Genesis 29:13-14, which gives us the record of Jacob meeting Laban for the first time and staying with Laban for a month.

On Thursday we studied Genesis 29:15-20, which records Jacob agreeing to work for Laban for seven years in exchange for being betrothed or in other words, engaged to Rachel.

This morning we will see in Genesis 29:21-24 that the seven years have been completed and Jacob demands that Laban give him Rachel to consummate their marriage.

But instead of giving Jacob Rachel, Laban deceives Jacob on his wedding night by sending into his tent her older sister Leah.

Genesis 29:21, “Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.’”

Even though Jacob is only betrothed or engaged to Rachel, she is reckoned as his wife according to Deuteronomy 20:7 and 22:23-25 and among the heathen in Mesopotamia.

Jacob makes this demand since he has completed his end of the agreement and has completed seven years of service for Laban as the “bride-price” to marry Rachel.

The “bride-price” refers to the compensation paid to the family of the bride for the loss of the bride’s presence and services and her potential offspring and would demonstrate proof to Laban’s family that Rachel would be well cared for by Jacob.

The “bride-price” must not be confused with a “dowry,” since the latter was provided by the bride’s family whereas the former was provided by the groom.

Notice that Jacob takes the initiative and not Laban who should have since Jacob has fulfilled his end of their agreement and Laban has yet to.

Laban is dragging his feet since he has profited greatly from Jacob’s service according to Genesis 30:29-30.

Laban is reluctant to face the prospect of losing Jacob’s services after his marriage, so therefore, he said nothing.

Therefore, Jacob had to remind him to fulfill his part of their agreement.

Genesis 29:22, “Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast.”

Notice that there is no record of a response to Jacob’s demands, which suggests Laban’s reluctance to consummate and celebrate the marriage.

However, without answering he prepares a feast to celebrate the marriage, not the marriage of Rachel and Jacob but of Leah and Jacob.

“The place” refers to the city of Nahor since Genesis 24:10 identifies it as the home of Laban.

Laban gathered all the men from the city of Nahor not only because it was the custom of the day but also because when the prank he is about to play on Jacob becomes known by all, it will not be easy for Jacob to rid himself of Leah.

It was the custom of the day that a wedding involved processions to and from the bride’s house, a reading of the marriage contract, and a large banquet attended by both families and neighbors.

Of course, Jacob’s family cannot attend, which makes Jacob very vulnerable to deception and exploitation.

The first day’s celebration ended with the groom wrapping his cloak around the bride who was veiled throughout the ceremony, and taking her to his bedroom where the marriage was consummated.

The feasting and celebration continued for an entire week after the marriage was consummated on the first day.

“Feast” is the noun mishteh (hT#v+m!) (mish-teh), which means, “drinking” and therefore implies that Laban was putting on a drinking party indicating that one of the reasons why Jacob did not know that he was making love to Leah and not Rachel was that he was drunk.

This word indicates that Jacob was not in control of his faculties on his wedding night because he was drinking with all the men of the city.

Therefore, we see that Laban uses this “beer-bash” or “wine-fest” to dull Jacob’s senses in order to deceive Jacob so that he doesn’t notice that he is having sex with Leah rather than Rachel.

Genesis 29:23, “Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her.”

Leah would have veiled herself in order to identify herself to Jacob that she is the bride, which was customary to do in the marriage ceremony (See Genesis 24:65).

Laban not only uses the booze and bridal veil to pull off his deception of Jacob but also employs the cover of darkness as well.

Just as Jacob took advantage of his father’s blindness so Laban uses the cover of darkness to outwit Jacob.

Just as his sister Rebekah deceived her husband Isaac by putting the goat skins and Esau’s clothing on Jacob, and preparing a gourmet meal to deceive Isaac into bestowing the blessing of the birthright upon Jacob rather than Esau so Laban uses the booze, the bridal veil and the cover of darkness to deceive Jacob into sleeping with Leah.

Jacob pretended to be his older brother Esau and now Leah is pretending to be her younger sister Rachel.

It would be safe to assume that while Leah was sleeping with Jacob, that Rachel would have been very jealous of her sister Leah and angry at her father.

Now, Leah obviously obeyed her father and agreed to his scheme to deceive Jacob, which was wrong of her to do.

Yes, she was under her father’s authority and yes she should obey her father’s authority but not to commit sin as we see here.

She could have at least sent someone secretly to Jacob to warn him of the plot but she never does.

Undoubtedly, she was jealous of Rachel because Rachel was more beautiful than her and Jacob loved Rachel rather than herself.

Therefore, she agreed to take part in the scheme because she too appears to be in love with Jacob.

Laban knows that once Jacob recognizes that he has been deceived and has yet to consummate his marriage to Rachel that he will work for another seven years since his love for Rachel is so intense.

By executing this scheme to deceive Jacob, Laban would also solve his problem of finding a wife for Leah.

At worst, if Jacob refused to work another seven years for Rachel, Laban knew that it would not be too difficult to find a husband for her since she had a great figure and big beautiful brown eyes as men of the Middle East love.

Also, even if Jacob eloped with Rachel, Laban would not have lost anything and so it was worth the effort from Laban’s perspective to attempt this deception of Jacob.

Genesis 29:24, “Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid.”

It was customary in the ancient world for the bride’s father to give her a large wedding present, a dowry.

Ancient marriage contracts demonstrate that dowries usually were composed of clothing, furniture and money and served as a nest egg for the wife in case her husband died or she was divorced.

The Old Testament does not mentioned dowries except in cases where something very valuable like a slave girl is given.

It was customary in the days of the patriarchs for a father to present his daughter with a personal servant on her wedding day.

So we see that even though Laban is unfair in his treatment of Jacob, he does give Leah a dowry in the form of his personal servant, Zilpah.

“Zilpah” is the proper noun zilpah (hP*l!z!) (zil-paw), whose name means, “intimacy” and who later bore Jacob two sons, who were named “Gad” and “Asher.”

Amazingly, the grace of God was manifested by Laban sending Leah in to the tent of Jacob rather than Rachel since Jacob did not recognize it at the time but Leah was in reality a gift from the Lord to him and was in fact his right woman and not Rachel.

In Genesis 29:25-30, we see that Jacob discovers that he has been deceived by Laban and trapped by him so that he agrees to another seven years of service as payment of the bride-price for marrying Rachel.

Genesis 29:25, “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?’”

The expression “behold it was Leah” describes the shock from Jacob’s perspective in his thinking.

The question “What is this you have done to me,” expresses verbally Jacob’s shock as to Laban’s deception.

Jacob’s next question “Was it not for Rachel that I served with you” reminds Laban of the terms of their agreement.

Jacob’s third and final question “Why then have you deceived me” echoes the words of Esau upon learning that Jacob had deceived their father and cheated him out of the blessings of the birthright (See Genesis 27:35-36).

Just as Jacob deceived his father in order to cheat his older brother Esau from receiving the blessing of the birthright, so now Jacob is deceived by Laban so that Jacob sleeps with Laban’s oldest daughter Leah rather than the younger daughter Rachel.

The shoe is now on the other foot; the deceiver has now been deceived.

Jacob has reaped what he has sowed.

Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

Genesis 29:26, “But Laban said, ‘It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.’”

Hypocritically, Laban hides behind local tradition to mask his guilt and dishonorable conduct.

Laban’s response reveals that he thought that the ends justify the means.

Genesis 29:27, “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.”

“Complete the week of this one” refers to fulfilling Leah’s week and “the other” refers to Rachel.

Genesis 29:28, “Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.”

There are several reasons why Jacob agrees to Laban’s ridiculous and unreasonable and unjust proposal.

The first is that if Jacob turns Laban down he will lose Rachel whom he loves.

Secondly, he was isolated and therefore without family support.

Thirdly, Jacob recognizes at this point that the Lord is disciplining him through this injustice.

The fourth reason that Jacob does not object to Laban’s proposal was that he would only have to wait a week before he could consummate his marriage to Rachel.

Lastly, Jacob does not object to Laban’s proposal out of respect for Leah and does not want to dishonor her and himself before the men of the city of Nahor.

The only good thing about Laban’s proposal was that Jacob did not have to wait another seven years to finally consummate his love for Rachel but only had to wait until the week with Leah was over, which is indicated by a comparison of Genesis 29:28 and 30.

Genesis 29:29, “Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.”

The name “Bilhah” is the proper noun bi (hh*l!B!), whose name means, “carefree” and who later bore Jacob two sons, who were named “Dan” and “Naphtali.”

Genesis 29:30, “So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.”

Notice, that the Word of God does not say that Jacob did not love Leah but rather he loved Rachel “more” than Leah implying obviously that he did have love for Leah but it was not as passionate as his love for Rachel.