The saga continues; our journey through Genesis has taken us on
many twists and turns. We began with Noah and were reminded of God’s grace
even after the world seemed to have no hope. We were then face to face with Abraham
whose calling seemed more like a ‘choose your own adventure’ series as opposed to following the will of God. When he was called, he went. Then as
the path became tricky he created new possibilities, sometimes causing more trouble, especially when trying to pass of his
wife as his sister.
Our
journey with Abraham continued as he fathered a son through a slave woman, only to cast him away when his wife bore him a
son. We talked about the agony of the life of Ishmael and how even when hope
seemed to have run out, God provided for him and his mother and continued a great nation through him. From there we talked about Isaac, Abraham’s true first born son, and how when Abraham reached his
darkest hour he chose to do the right thing, he chose to follow God’s command.
And by doing so he was willing to sacrifice his son if that was what was being asked.
Thankfully, in the last moment God reached out and saved Isaac.
From
there we traveled with Isaac and heard about him falling in love at first sight with Rebekah, and how by being faithful and
trusting in God completely things can and do sometimes fall right in to place. We
heard then of the battle within Rebekah as she carried twins, Jacob and Esau, and how the sons fought from the very beginning. We heard of the starving Esau who was willing to walk away from his birthright in
order to have supper, and how Jacob took full advantage of his brother’s lack of seeing the bigger picture, and by doing
so tricked his father into giving him the birthright. The brother’s struggle
continues on later, but before it does, our scripture reading from today takes place.
Our
scripture today picks up with Jacob, he had left home after the struggle with Esau, and as he traveled the land he came upon
relatives, his mother’s brother. Jacob is so happy to be accepted that
he begins working for his uncle and sees Rachel, his uncle’s daughter, and much like his father he falls in love in
that moment. But the comparison with his father’s love story with Rebekah
ends there, for here we have two sisters. It almost seems fitting that with the
struggle of Jacob and Esau and the question of birthright, we encounter two sisters. Jacob
falls in love with the younger of the two, thus creating another case of sibling rivalry.
Jacob
is asked if he should really work for free, at which point Jacob makes a deal with his uncle that if he works for seven years
he may receive Rachel for his wife. The uncle agrees. After seven years of working, the day finally arrives for the wedding to take place. All of a sudden the uncle realizes that if he marries off the younger daughter first it will be even more
difficult to marry off the older daughter. And this is where the story gets a
little complicated.
Let’s
paint a picture of the scene. For seven years Jacob has been working for his
uncle with no other pay than the promise to marry the love of his wife. Scripture
goes into very little detail about these two women, but it makes a couple of very distinct comments. We hear that Rachel is graceful and beautiful, and Leah has lovely eyes.
Now it is hard to say what the wedding attire was of the day. It is possible
that the bride was in full dress, that her face and her eyes were covered, and that there was really no way to tell that the
bride that Jacob was about to marry was the older sister and not the one he was in love with.
To be honest it sounds awfully familiar as to how Jacob and Rebekah deceived Isaac when he bestowed the birthright
on him. It was a pattern of deception; in both cases not the right thing to do
but, as with all stories, it is better to get the whole picture before concluding that it was a complete fiasco.
So,
Jacob ends up marrying Leah. When he discovers the truth he confronts his uncle
and they make yet another deal: if
Jacob will fulfill the ritual of marriage with Leah, which at this time included a week of different rituals, then he would
allow him to marry Rachel with the same deal of seven years of work. Makes perfect
sense, right? We could spend a lot of time judging whether Jacob was truly tricked
or if he knew he was marrying the wrong woman, but scripture does tell us that as soon as he realized the deceit, he went
to his uncle. You have to ask yourself where these two sisters were during this
time? Did Rachel not realize what was happening, that her sister was marrying
the man she was to marry? Did Leah secretly want this to happen, or was she somehow
unable to speak?
Can
you imagine being in Jacob’s shoes? For many they see Jacob as the bad
guy of this passage, for how could he not realize he was marrying the wrong woman. But
Jacob is in a no win situation. He is a decent guy, and in this case he could
have turned his back on Leah, not finished the wedding ritual with her, and ended the marriage before it began. But if he had done that, would he have been able to marry Rachel?
Would their father have allowed him to marry one daughter after disgracing the other?
Jacob can’t win. He could have just let it be and just married Leah,
a woman he didn’t love, and say goodbye to the love he had for Rachel. He
could have ended the marriage with Leah, or he could do exactly what he did - do the right thing to maintain Leah’s
honor while still maintaining the chance to marry Rachel. If you will, Jacob
was truly caught between a rock and a hard place, and he chose to dive right in.
There are so many questions that can be asked and moments where the whole thing feels
more like a soap opera than scripture. But as I have said many times while going through Genesis, we have to see where the
story ends before we can really understand the situation completely. Just like
in our own lives, we don’t understand what in the world is going on, and that sometimes we need to be removed from the
situation or let a lot of time pass before it becomes clear where God was at work. That
is how we need to come to these extraordinary people and their journeys.
Ok,
so now that Jacob has worked for 14 years and has two wives, where does our story take us?
It would be great to say it all worked itself out beautifully, but in marriage the sisters were not equal, for Jacob
truly loved Rachel and not Leah. That poor woman!
First she is thrust into a marriage with a man who doesn’t know he is marrying her, and then she is in this marriage
where her sister is more loved than she. Our scripture reading today ends before
we find out what comes next. God sees how unloved Leah is, and he clears the
way for her to bear a child; perhaps through being the mother of his first born son Leah would find the love she deeply wanted
from Jacob.
It
could have been a good plan, especially since Rachel was unable to conceive children at that time. But Rachel became angry with Jacob and with God, and she gave her maid to Jacob so she could conceive on
her behalf. Does that sound familiar at all?
Her maid conceived and she was happy. Then Leah found she could no longer
bear children, so she also gave her maid to conceive on her behalf. Finally,
after Leah and the 2 maids bore many children, God remembered Rachel, and she now bore a son, Joseph.
We
went from two women being married to Jacob, to them having children, and then to their maids entering into marriage with Jacob
and having children. It would be so wonderful if this passage came with dialogue. Can you hear some of these conversations? I
mean think back to our thoughts on Abraham when Sarah told him to marry her slave Hagar, and how it just seemed like he went
along blindly. Now we have Jacob who has 4 wives and many children from them
all. To be exact, 12 sons in total.
Do
you know where this is going and where our story will take us? From these four
women and one man, the 12 tribes of Israel come in to existence. In order of birth
the 12 sons are Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah (born of Leah), Dan and Naphtali (born of Rachel’s servant), Gad and
Asher (born of Leah’s servant), Issachar and Zebulun (born from Leah) and finally Joseph and Benjamin (born from Rachel). It is the descendants of these 12 sons that go out and form the great nation promised
by God to Abraham. Two generations later his descendants have become very numerous.
From
here our journey through Genesis returns to Jacob and Esau and their encounters. We
will then follow the descendants of Jacob through Joseph, Jacob’s most beloved son, for he was the first born son from
Rachel, which of course leads to all sorts of trouble for him. But that truly
is for another time. We will hear more about Joseph, how his life impacted all,
and eventually how his life would reconcile the sons of the four women.
But
for now we are left with the scripture of the day. Now that we have an idea of
where the story continues, perhaps some of it makes more sense. We know that
Jacob tried his best to do the right thing; he followed God as best as he could. Yes,
there were definitely some things done that in today’s society wouldn’t be the acceptable norm, like having four
wives and kids with all of that at the same time. But for the times in which
they lived, this wasn’t that far away from the norm. Jacob did his best
to allow each woman to maintain her honor. I mean this is not the ideal situation,
but in thinking about what could have been, Jacob did his best. After all, he
was between a rock and a hard place.
Following
the life and relationships of Jacob is very much like trying to stay on top of a soap opera, but the difference is that there
are lessons to learn. We see how one tries hard to be devoted to God and do the
right thing. We see the limits to which parents will go, and perhaps we learn
that what we want isn’t necessarily what is best. We can learn that God
cares whether or not we feel loved.
When it comes down to it though, we have no idea how God will use the situations we
find ourselves in. Just like Ishmael, sometimes we just need to follow the road
to see where it is headed. The discovery of how God used even the strangest and
most difficult situations to bring about amazing things is inspiring. Without
Joseph being sent off, the amazing things he accomplished would not have happened; without there being multiple wives the
covenant God made with Abraham might not have been accomplished through Jacob.
Our journey through Genesis is helping us to hear the voices of those who have come
before us, those who have traveled similar roads to those we might be on now. We can hear the stories of how even in the darkest hours, God was there providing
light. We see the devotion to follow God even after one ‘messes up’. We see God’s promises revealed, and we get to see the progression of the covenant
God made with Abraham traveling through his family line until it becomes an actuality.
We have the supreme privilege of not having to wait for the next chapter to be written
or episode to be aired, for it is all right there in front of us. Within the
pages of scripture God’s love and faithfulness stretches through time. Sometimes
we just need to hang on for a bit as the ride takes us through loops and down steep drops, for the journey is part of the
excitement. The voices that come pouring out of the text of the Bible are beautiful
and strong, but so often we jump to the New Testament without giving notice to those who came before. The time we spend in Genesis now will make the love and grace of the gospels even grander. So… hang on, we still have a few weeks to go, and I encourage you to enjoy every minute of the adventure.
