35 JACOB STARTS A FAMILY

Laban was a base cheat as is readily shown in that, after Jacob had worked for seven years for Rachael whom he loved, at the wedding feast Laban put Leah into his arms instead of Rachel. Verse 23 tells us this plainly. “But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her.” I cannot understand how a man and woman can have such an intimate experience together as sexual intercourse and Jacob does not know that she is not Rachael, but rather Leah. Laban had given a feast (22). Was there a lot of wine at that feast? Was Jacob that drunk? Did they not talk together as they made love? These questions must go unanswered, but nevertheless the next morning he made a huge and embarrassing discovery.  As verse 25 succinctly says, “When morning came, there was Leah!״ 

This was Laban’s sin; he wronged both Jacob and Rachel, whose affections belonged to each other, and, if we took an extremely harsh view of this arrangement, it may even have made Leah an adulteress. It would have been no small wrong to her too. Why did she go along with the trick? It was Jacob’s affliction, certainly a grief to kill the joy of the marriage-feast. There in the morning, look, it was Leah.

It is easy to see here how Jacob was paid in his own coin. He had cheated his brother in order to get what he correctly thought was his, and had cheated his own father when he pretended to be Esau, and now his father-in-law cheated him. Howsoever unrighteous Laban was, the Lord was righteous. Even unbelievers have a sense of justice as indicated in Judges 1:7 “Then Adoni-Bezek said, ‘Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.’ They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.” Righteous or unrighteous, if people take a false step, they are sometimes paid publicly for their sins while still on earth.

If we want to think about being surprised with the bride after the wedding we would have to admit that many, though not disappointed in the person, soon find themselves much to their grief disappointed in the character of the person. The choice of a spouse therefore, on both sides, must be made cautiously, prayerfully and with good advice. If there should be a disappointment, may it not be caused by intentional mismanagement. On the other hand, oh, the delight to be married to one who continually surprises us with how good their personal character is even though we did not see it before we married them. My wife still surprises me at how good a person she is.

How did Laban try to defend himself when Jacob confronted him? “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one” (26). That is a pretty lame excuse. If that were the custom, why had he not said so earlier? It is even possible that there was no such custom in his country as he pretends. He only teases Jacob and laughs at the success of his trick. The person who can do wickedly and then think to turn it off as a joke, though they may deceive themselves and others, will find at last that God is not mocked. Even if there had been such a custom, and he had resolved to observe it, he should have told Jacob so when Jacob served him for his younger daughter he knew the real nature of the situation. There is an ancient proverb which says, “From evildoers come evil deeds.” Laban was evil. Also we know that the person that deals with treacherous men put themselves at risk to be dealt with treacherously.

Laban made the problem worse. He drew Jacob into the sin, snare, and confusion of multiplying wives, which remained a blot in his generation and will be to the end of the world. Jacob only wanted to be as true to Rachael as his father Isaac, had been to Rebekah. He that had lived without a wife to a mature age himself could then have been very well content with one. But Laban, to be easily free of the responsibility of two daughters at once and also to get seven years’ s more service out of Jacob, forces this arrangement on Jacob. Laban cleverly, craftily draws Jacob into an unescapable trap by this fraud. How could Jacob refuse? He could not refuse Rachel, for he was engaged to her; still less could he refuse Leah, for he had already married her.

It was not until later under Moses’ law that this kind of problem was clearly addressed and then Jesus also solved it from another angle even more fully. Leviticus 18:18 says “Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living” and Matthew 19:5 says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  These commandments certainly would have ruled out Jacob’s polygamy.

One sin commonly leads to another. People who go into wickedness by one sinful door seldom find their way out except by another. The principle laid down in Malachi 2:15 may have been in effect even before Moses’ law. It says, “Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.” So there was a reason against polygamy as ancient as Adam’s marriage yet there was no express command against it. The polygamy of the patriarchs was, to a degree, excusable in them. It may have been a sin of ignorance. It was not the product of any sinful lust, but for the building up of a family. But this certainly does not justify its practice in our day, when God’s will is plainly made known, that one man and one woman only must be joined together as it says in 1 Corinthians 7:2. “But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.” Having many wives suits well enough with the carnal sensual spirit of some other religious traditions in our world which allow it; but we have learned that the way of Christ does not.

Let’s see now what lessons we can draw from the first four of Jacob’s sons, all by Leah. Leah, who was less beloved, was blessed with children, when Rachel was denied that blessing, Genesis 29:31 says, “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.” Scripture clearly says that this was the Lord’s doing. Look and see how deliberate was God’s plan for dispensing gifts. It involves God’s calculations to keep the balance even, setting difficulties and comforts one over-against another, that none may be either too much elevated or too much depressed. God still keeps that principle in effect. We have enough blessings to keep us thankful to God and enough trouble to keep us dependent on God.

Rachel wants children, but she is blessed with her husband’s love; Leah wants that, but she is fruitful. The same thing happened between Elkana’s two wives as recorded in 1 Samuel 1:5, “But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.” The Lord is wise and righteous. “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved,” or perhaps we should say not loved as much as Rachael was loved, because somewhere else it says it that way, then the Lord granted her a child. God has His own way to keep things balanced as He chooses. He comforted Leah. We don’t know if Rachael bragged to Leah that Jacob loved her more than he loved Leah or not, but the possibility that that occurred remains. Hannah’s rival taunted her. For His own reason God comforted Leah, by allowing her to bear four sons for Jacob. The story line indicates that this was intentional on God’s part. Perhaps it was that she might not be overwhelmed with any contempt, real or imagined, put on her. God, after all, keeps His own principles just like the one recorded in 1 Corinthians 12:24. “But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it.”

The names Leah gave her children indicate she was respectful towards both God and her husband. She appears very eager for her husband’s love and she considered the need for it her affliction. She named her first son Ruben. “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” She did not criticize Jacob with her misery as though it were his fault. Neither did she reproach him for it, and make herself a burden to him, but simply laid it to heart as her grief.

And how was it that she was married to him? By cooperating with her father’s fraud. She herself had reason to bear with the misery with more patience because she herself agreed to the deception by which she became Jacob’s wife. Is there a lesson here to the effect that we should well bear that trouble with patience which we bring on ourselves by our own sin and folly? Some of our inconveniences in life are the consequence of our own mistakes or sins.  She promised herself that the children she bore him would gain her a share in Jacob’s affections. She called her first-born Reuben (see a son), with this pleasant thought,  “Surely my husband will love me now.” And her third son’s name also indicates that she wanted Jacob’s love. “Now at last my husband will become attached to me.” And what did she say when her second son was born? “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved.” Clearly Leah wanted her husband’s love. Her joy was that she had many sons, her burden was that she lacked her husband’s love. And yet Jacob kept coming back to her with a conjugal responsibility.

Mutual affection is both the duty and comfort of couples. Yoke-fellows should work to be the support and friend that everyone needs. 1 Corinthians 7:33-34 say, “But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.” If we choose to marry we must accept the responsibilities of marriage.

She thankfully acknowledges the kind treatment God gave her in allowing her to bear four sons: “. . .  the Lord has seen my misery.” “. . . the Lord heard that I am not loved”  “This time I will praise the Lord.” Whatever else we have that helps and encourages us in our afflictions or our deliverance from them, God must be recognized as the prime Cause of it. He uses secondary human or what appears to be natural causes, but He is the real Cause and to Him we must give the credit. This is a lesson for today’s Christian leaders to learn from this part of the story of Jacob. We can often see God’s pity and tender mercy in our lives. Her fourth son she called Judah (praise), saying, “This time I will praise the Lord.” And Judah we know was he through whom, looking at the natural linage of Jesus’ ancestors, that the Christ child came.

Whatever causes us to rejoice ought to also be our cause for thanksgiving. Fresh favors from God should quicken us to praise God for former favors as well as the new ones. “Now will I praise the Lord” more and better than I have done. All our praises must centre in Christ, both as the content and reasons for the praise of them and also as the Mediator of them. He descended from him whose name was praise, for He is our praise. Is Christ formed in my heart? If yes, then praise Him. We live in the now: so “This time I will praise the Lord.” “Now I will praise the  Lord.” If Jesus Christ the descendant of Judah be born in our hearts, Now is a good time to praise the Lord.

(1) God is not mocked. Trickster Jacob is tricked. (2) Leah suffered for her part in Laban’s deception. (3) Leah wanted her husband’s love. (4) Leah gave glory to God for the sons He allowed her to bear.