May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, he is with you

In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, he is for you
He is, He is

Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen

(The Blessing by Songwriters: Chris Brown / Steven Furtick / Cody Carnes / Kari Brooke Jobe; Blessing lyrics © Worship Together Music, Capitol Cmg Paragon, Be Essential Songs, Kari Jobe Carnes Music, Writers Roof Publishing)

What would we do for the love of our lives?  To what lengths would we go? Would our love be so great that we would do whatever it takes?  Would we work without pay for seven years for the privilege of marrying the one we loved?  And then, after being cruelly fooled, work another seven years to have and to hold the one we loved “at first sight”?  Only God working in and through the life of Jacob will his true love be obtained.  But obtaining the “one” brings a multitude of circumstances that challenge him. 

God is with Jacob. God is teaching Jacob His character traits while giving him wisdom, strength, and patience with plenty of opportunities to display these traits in challenging circumstances!  The Blessing plays in the background as we read the love story of Jacob and Rachel.  We hear the music swell as these two meet for the very first time!

Genesis 29

Jacob Arrives in Paddan Aram

Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. ² There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

⁴ Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?”

“We’re from Harran,” they replied.

⁵ He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?”

“Yes, we know him,” they answered.

⁶ Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?”

“Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

⁷ “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”

⁸ “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”

⁹ While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. ¹² He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.

¹³ As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. ¹⁴ Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, ¹⁵ Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. ¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

¹⁹ Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”

²² So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. ²³ But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. ²⁴ And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.

²⁵ When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”

²⁶ Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. ²⁷ Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”

²⁸ And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. ²⁹ Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. ³⁰ Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

Jacob’s Children

³¹ When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. ³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

³³ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.

³⁴ Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.

³⁵ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

There are bumps and pitfalls along the way in this love story of Jacob and Rachel because of a meddling father-in-law who is an opportunist. All kinds of sinful feelings of strong emotion explode between Rachel and her older sister, Leah. They both love the same man so their sinful traits grow and expand giving birth to jealousy, envy, greed, bitterness, selfishness, abuse of the innocent, which develops into hate between two sisters as they vie for Jacob’s attention and love.  That’s what sin does best—destroy relationships.  These sinful character traits develop quickly and easily when self-will is our first desire followed by action. 

Fun fact:  The Twelve Sons born to Jacob will comprise the Twelve Tribes of Israel.  It is this story of God that shows us yet again the way God can take a bad human situation and bring good from our mistakes and shortcomings, consequences and circumstances.

God intervenes and shows Jacob once more how deceit is evil and does not yield good results in the life of one who trusts and obeys God.  This teaching is valuable to anyone called to follow God.  If we remember, Jacob, following his mom’s orders, used deceit to get what he knew God wanted him to have, but the way of deceit led to banishment from his home.  Laban used deceit on the former “deceiver” who fooled his brother and father.  Laban used deceit to get both of his daughters married off! Laban was crafty in his methods but at the expense of those involved.  He used “this is our custom” as an excuse but what he really wanted was free labor from a “blessed man” of God!  All Laban’s efforts resulted in broken relationships–with God, each other, others, and Jacob.

But our God, our compassionate, all powerful, all-knowing God works all things good for those who believe, love Him back, with a desire to walk with Him.  God gave Jacob want it takes to live with broken contracts, jealous women in his household, while sons and daughters were born to continue the generational line by God’s hand as promised to Abraham.  The promise lives on through Jacob.  But wait!  There’s much more to the story!

PAUSE TO PRAY

So, if God is leading, the One who loves us most, what would you do for His love and the love of those God puts into our life?  This is a question worth pondering as we spend time realizing the depth of love God has for each one of us.  Spend all the time you need.  I am.  We humans, created in the image of God, himself, are a rebellious lot in challenging situations. We are in continual need of a Savior who wants to be our Lord.  And, know what?  Jesus is Lord, whether we choose Him to be or not.  He will have the last word for He is the Word.

Call on God in Jesus Name, with a desire to follow.  Surrender your will to the resurrection power and awesome leading of God’s Holy Spirit who lives in all who believe.  God, our father in heaven, loves to help us.  That is His unchanging nature and character! 

Lord,

Thank you for these moments in the lives of others that teach us more about who you are.  Your leading of imperfect people teaches us a perspective and view that we might not fully understand at first reading, but when your Holy Spirit speaks, we see and understand a more each time we study Your story of grace and goodness. 

Thank you for your compassionate love that saved us and set us free to love like you love—with gracious kindness. Thank you for your Word that clearly shows us the difference between good and evil thinking and behaving.  Even though the culture and traditions were different then, Your character of love, mercy, and grace has not changed. 

Thank you for you merciful kindness to us as we seek to develop your traits so that we may be more like you who saved us.  We call on your power and leading to transform from our sinful nature to your character.  You are our first love and you are the one I seek each morning! 

In Jesus Name, Amen