Genesis Chapters 29-30 – John Karmelich

1. Most adults are familiar with the expression, “What goes around, comes around”.

a) That expression refers to the idea that what you do to others, comes back to haunt you.

b) Most Christians have also heard of the concept of “reaping what you sow”.

i) (Reference: Galatians 6:7-9, et.al.). It is the same idea as “what goes around, comes around”. We’re going to see that lesson hit Jacob in these chapters.

c) In the last lesson, we read about “Jacob the conniver”.

i) We read how he deceived his father in order to get the “special blessing” that his father Isaac intended to give to Jacob’s brother Esau.

ii) By the end of the chapter, Jacob had to run away to avoid his brother’s anger. His mother, who was part of the deception, told Jacob to flee to Haran, his mother’s hometown, and get a wife for himself. This was roughly a 500-mile journey from what-is-today Israel to what-is-today Northern Iraq.

iii) Along the way, Jacob encounters God. It is the first we read of God speaking directly to Jacob. In a sense, Jacob becomes “born-again” at that point. Jacob commits his life to serving God, albeit in very immature ways as Jacob tries to bargain with God in exchange for future blessings.

d) Chapters 29 and 30 are the “further adventures of Jacob”. Jacob gets deceived by another the same way Jacob deceived his father. We’re going to watch Jacob’s life “come home to roost” as he learns of his own mistakes by being deceived himself.

2. It is always important as a bible student to not just read the stories, but to get the personal application. To me the most important aspect of bible study is not to learn history lessons, but to learn how they apply to our live today.

a) In the last chapter Jacob dedicates his life to serving God. The next four chapters are predominantly about the lessons Jacob had to learn in order to mature his faith.

b) When God first called you to serve Him, God never says, “You’re now perfect, I’m through with you, you are now free to go about your life as you see best!” J

i) When we first commit our lives to Jesus, we are “perfect” in the sense that we accept Jesus payment of our sins, past, present and future. In that sense, we are perfect from God’s perspective.

ii) On the other hand, God is constantly working in our lives to make us a better person here on earth. Part of the reason is God wants a better relationship with Him. He wants us to trust him more and more and He wants us to realize just how dependant upon God we really are. Further, he wants us to be a good witness to others. A mature Christian who is fully dependant upon God for his or her life, is a “better witness” than one who trusts in God but still acts no differently than a person who doesn’t trust in God to begin with.

c) When we read of Jacob’s escapades over the next few chapters, don’t just sit there and wag your head in disapproval at Jacob! J Stop and think about your own life and ask: What aspects of my life is God working on? God used events in Jacob’s life to remind him of past sins in his own life. What is God doing in my life now and what does God want me to learn from those lessons?

i) Sometimes the toughest moments in life are designed to teach us things. We tend to learn best from our mistakes. This is why God allows tragedies, deceptions, and pain in our life. It is to teach us to trust Him more. Often, it is also to remind us of past events or past sins that God wants us to deal with. I have seen God bring the same situation into someone’s life over and over again until they “get it” and learn what God is trying to teach us.

ii) One of the best prayers I have ever heard someone pray in times of tragedy is the following: “Lord, please teach us the lessons you want us to learn from this situation. Then, give us the strength, courage and focus to properly get through it and the discernment to make the decisions we have to make”.

iii) Which leads us back to Genesis 29-30. These two chapters focus on the life of Jacob after being “born again”. We’re going to read of high’s and low’s in Jacob’s life over the next four chapters. The big-picture idea is to see how God is working to mature Jacob in his faith-based relationship with God.

iv) During these two chapters, there is not one mention of God speaking to Jacob. There is no mention of any prayer by Jacob. God working in our lives is primarily through events and circumstances. This is not to say that direct revelations and prayer is not important. Think about how much time of your day is spent in prayer versus how much time is spent “doing things”. My simple point is God uses the events of our lives to help shape us into better people. To put our trust in God means that we are a “construction project” that God then molds and shapes through the daily events of our lives.

v) I should also add that I am not anti-planning. Jacob did a lot of planning during these chapters. Some of his plans came to pass and some did not. The point is God works in our lives. Sometimes He works through our plans and sometimes he doesn’t. Our job is to keep moving forward so we can tell if God is “blessing or blocking” whatever we are doing!

3. Chap. 29, Vs. 1: Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples.

a) One has to remember that this is a continual story. The Hebrew word behind “continued his journey” can be literally translated “happy feat”. It is the idea of walking in trust of God, and full of joy as one walks.

b) The last few verses of Chapter 28 were Jacob making a vow to God. Jacob said essentially, “If (or since) God is with me on this journey, I’ll give God 10% of whatever I make”.

i) As I stated in the last lesson, you can’t bargain with God. As to the “10%” part, the bible teaches that first 10% of whatever we make belongs to God anyway as a sign of trust. (Ref.: Leviticus 27:30, et.al.)

c) Remember that God works with us on our level. The commitment by Jacob was sincere, but was not “theologically correct”. You can’t bargain with God. What did happen here, is that God “got a foothold” on Jacob’s life. It’s a start. God didn’t correct Jacob at this point, as God just wanted the commitment. Over the rest of Jacob’s life God will work on maturing his relationship with him.

d) For the same reason, I am never critical of how one first becomes “saved”. I am interested in the fact that they fully put their trust in Jesus, even though they don’t understand all of the biblical implications of that statement. One of the great mistakes made by Christians is we expect too much from new believers. It is God’s job to fix their lives, not ours. They didn’t dedicate their lives to serving us, just God. Let God fix them and mature them!

e) Meanwhile, back to Jacob! J

4. Verse 2: There he saw a well in the field, 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.

a) These verses set the scene of Jacob’s encounter with his future wife Rachel.

b) When we think of a well, we think of a 4-foot high brick cylinder with a crank handle and a bucket. A well in those days was an hourglass shaped hole used to collect rainwater. It was sealed with a rock to keep dirt from entering the hole.

c) Next to this hole was a bunch of shepherds and sheep. They did not role away the stone until “everyone” (i.e., all the shepherds who usually came there) was there together.

i) Why they waited is unknown. Maybe it was just a tradition that to be fair, they waited for everyone to gather. This was the biblical version of “everyone gathering at the water cooler” for the social event of the day.

ii) It is also suggested that it may be that the shepherds were older children, and they needed everyone’s strength to move the stone.

iii) We’re also going to read of the “beautiful Rachel” coming with her flock. If I know men, maybe they were all waiting for Rachel to show up first! J

5. Verse 4: Jacob asked the shepherds, "My brothers, where are you from?" "We're from Haran," 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."

a) You have to remember that there are no road maps or billboards that say “100 miles to Haran! J Jacob didn’t know where he was. He asked a few of the locals about Laban. Remember that Laban is the brother of Jacob’s mother Rebekah. Therefore, Jacob would know about Rebekah and her parents, but not about any daughters. Jacob’s mother Rebekah told Jacob to get a wife from Laban’s family. Jacob didn’t even know at this point if that family even had any women available to be a bride.

b) One of the things I pondered is why is so much text spent on this particular story. The bible could have simply said, “Jacob met his cousin Rachel by the well, and they went to go meet her father Laban”. Instead, we have all of these details recorded about how Jacob first encountered Rachel.

i) My reaction is, “You always remember the details of how you first fell in love”. After years of marriage, you forget a lot of things, but you always remember how you first met and when you first saw your love. Maybe that is why the details of this story were passed on to future generations.

6. Verse 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 shepherdess. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, 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.

a) In Verses 7-8 we have the local shepherds again saying “We can’t water the sheep until all of us local shepherds are here together”. Again, the reason is not stated.

b) Jacob takes matters into his own hands and says in effect, “Look, I’ll move the stone. Start watering the sheep and get moving”.

c) This is “Jacob the schemer” at work. He wanted Rachel to himself and get rid of the crowd. Some commentators suggested Jacob had “super-human strength” to move the rock over the well. Personally, I think that God is working in the background again. God arranges the circumstances for Jacob to be alone with Rachel (not counting the sheep! J).

d) The key moment is in Verse 11 where “Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.”

i) Guys, if you are trying to make a good impression on your first date, don’t cry in front of the girl! J Jacob was doing ok and being macho by moving the big rock, and then he started crying!

ii) Actually, I think the crying was all the emotion sinking in of everything that has happened to Jacob so far. He traveled all of this distance alone. He realized God was with him and blessed this journey. Jacob “happens” to encounter Laban’s daughter, as per Jacob’s mother’s request. Jacob didn’t even know if he had a daughter at this point. Sometimes seeing God at work and realizing how God has fulfilled promises can overcome us with emotion.

7. Verse 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."

a) You have to remember that this is not our first encounter with Laban.

i) Laban is the brother to Jacob’s mother Rebekah.

ii) Back when Abraham’s servant went to go get a wife for Rebekah (Genesis 24), Laban and his father Nahor were the ones who greeted Abraham’s servant.

iii) We will discover that Laban, like Jacob are both the conniving type. The bible implies that Laban is very “money-oriented” in his life.

iv) Laban remembers that when Abraham’s servant showed up, he brought all sorts of gifts for Rebekah and for Nahor/Laban. Therefore Laban remembered that Abraham’s family was very rich. With that in mind, now read Verse 13b: “He (Laban) hurried to meet him.” Yes Laban did care it was family, but I suspect that a rich cousin just showed up and Laban was interested.

8. Verse 14b: 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."

a) This is our first of many clues that Laban is money oriented. This is Laban’s subtle way of telling Jacob to stop being a freeloader! Jacob has now stayed at Laban’s house a month. Laban is saying to Jacob in a sense, “Look, how much should I pay you for working for me”. It was subtle way to tell Jacob to stop being a bum! J

9. Verse 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 was lovely in form, and beautiful. ¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel."

a) “Leah had weak eyes”. Commentators vary as to what this means, but in summary, she was not as pretty as Rachel. Some say she was ugly, others say had a “lazy eye”. The main point is to remember she is less physically desirable than her sister Rachel.

b) What we are seeing here is a “dowry”. For a man to be married, he must pay a price to the father-in-law. The concept is that if he ever leaves her, dowry money is to be used to support the girl. Since Jacob traveled empty handed to Haran, he paid the dowry by working for Laban. Seven years is a very generous offer.

c) (I’m working my way pretty quickly through the this section of the text. It is mostly background for the key applications coming up. Stay tuned! J)

10. Verse 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.

a) Verse 20 is one of the most poetic love verses in the bible. It says that Jacob worked for 7 years for Laban, but it seemed like a few days because he loved Rachel so much.

b) I’m sure Laban made Jacob work hard. For seven years, Jacob had to wait to have Rachel as his bride. Every time life seemed tough to Jacob, he just looked at his wallet photo of Rachel and went back to work! J

c) Here is an application to keep in mind: If we are “God-focused” at any time, the “pain-of-the-moment” isn’t so bad if we have a God-centered perspective.

11. Verse 21: Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her."

a) The seven years may have “seemed like a few days”, but believe me, Jacob kept a calendar of the seven-year period! J

12. Verse 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 gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. ²⁴ And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.

a) Here is where the plot thickens. For those who don’t know this story, Laban, switched daughters on Jacob. In that culture, the bride was covered from head to toe, and the groom was not to see the bride until the wedding night.

b) In the next set of verses, we read that Jacob and Laban arrange to work another 7 years to get both brides now. What commentators suspect is that money-hungry Laban was getting blessed by Jacob. There are hints of that in upcoming verses. Therefore Laban arranges the bride-switch in order to keep Jacob around another seven years.

c) Based on this verse, it is a tradition in Jewish weddings for a groom to lift the veil to make sure the groom is marrying the right girl!

d) You also have to remember that in this culture, women are very submissive to men, and especially to their fathers.

e) You have to wonder what both daughters were thinking to go along with this deception.

i) Rachel was patiently waiting for this wedding day, and her father tells her that her sister will marry Jacob and not her!

ii) Leah, who was not wanted by Jacob, was ordered by her father to go along with this deception in order to be married!

f) We are also introduced to one of two new characters in this plot: Zilpah

i) As a wedding present Leah, Laban gives her a private servant named Zilpah.

ii) In a few verses, we will read how Laban gives another girl, Bilhah to Rebekah when she marries Jacob as well.

iii) It was from these 4 girls: Rebekah, Leah, Zilpah and Bilhah that Jacob gets his 12 sons. Those 12 sons become the founders of the “12 tribes of Israel”.

iv) More on this in Chapter 30, which we’ll get to in a few pages.

g) Remember there were no light bulbs. The only lighting came from torches, moonlight and the stars. It is conceivable how Jacob, who was so anxious to marry Rachel, got Leah in the dark and never looked closely enough to see it was the wrong sister.

i) I keep visualizing Leah: She was unloved, “ugly” and going along with this deception during the night, even if Jacob was saying how much he loved Rachel!

13. 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?"

a) Again, this is a male-dominated culture. Jacob didn’t yell at Leah, just at Laban.

14. Verse 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."

a) This is the key moment in the story, so pay attention! J Laban stated that it was not customary to give the second-born daughter in marriage prior to the first-born.

b) I am positive this verse hit home with Jacob.

i) Jacob deceived his going-blind-father into giving him the blessing of the first born by pretending to be his brother Esau. (Reference: Genesis Chapter 27)

ii) Jacob, in a dark room with Leah, was being deceived due to the “right of the first-born” daughter!

iii) Notice once Jacob realized Laban’s “logic”, he didn’t argue. I believe Jacob felt guilty about what he did to his father, and now it is “coming home to roost”.

iv) This verse gets back to my introduction of how God works in our life. He uses circumstances to remind us of our personality faults that God wants to correct.

v) God knew that Jacob was a deceiver by the way he lied to his father. God made Jacob aware of that sin by letting Jacob get deceived himself.

c) One bit of bible trivia, and then I’ll move on. Notice the word “week” in Verse 27:

i) Laban tells Jacob to “Finish this daughter's bridal week”.

ii) The Hebrew word for “week” can mean 7 years as well as 7 days.

iii) This is important when you get to Daniel 9, when God tells Daniel that from the day the order to given to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem until the time of the Messiah would be 62 + 7 “weeks”. (Ref.: Daniel 9:25) When Daniel was given that vision, the walls of Jerusalem were in ruins. If you calculate 69 times a seven-year period (483 years), that comes to the time when Jesus was there!

15. Verse 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 girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. ³⁰ Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

a) These verses say that Jacob had to wait another “week” (7-years) for Rachel. What this means is that Jacob could marry both girls now but he “owed” Laban seven more years.

b) This is a good spot to talk about polygamy, which is about marrying two or more wives.

i) God once told Adam, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife (singular!), and they will become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24 NIV)

ii) This implies that the ideal relationship is one man and one woman.

iii) The Old Testament is full of stories of men marrying multiple women. Every bible story involving polygamy is a negative experience!

iv) In fact, the bible says, “Neither shall he (a Hebrew man) multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; (Deuteronomy 17:17a, NKJV).

v) One has to remember that the bible is not just full of stories for us to model, it is also full of stories for us to learn, “Don’t do like they did!” The way to tell which is correct is simply to look at the results, or read passages like Deuteronomy and read what are God’s explicit instructions for our lives!

vi) The fact that Jacob takes multiple wives is nothing but trouble. Trying to make one woman happy requires a lifetime of work. I can’t imagine two or more! J

16. Verse 31: When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 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.

a) You had to feel sorry for Leah, the ugly-sister. She was married to a man who didn’t love her. God knew that, and provided some happiness through children.

b) Here we read of Leah having 4 boys, prior to Rachel having any children. This means that despite the fact that Jacob loved Rachel more, he still kept his commitment as a husband to Leah and had sexual relations with her. In fact, one of the four children mentioned is Judah, through which the Messiah comes!

c) You can sense the seeds of jealously “brewing” in these verses:

i) I’m sure Leah felt that she was the “blessed of the two wives” and she was having children. I suspect that in subtle ways, she taunted her sister.

ii) She may have also thought that, “Jacob will love me now that I have children”. Older adults know it doesn’t work that way, but many young women think they can win men’s hearts through children. Leah said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons”.

d) These verses are good reminders of how much God loves us, especially when we are in situations where we feel unloved by those around us. Notice it says that God opened her womb! God knew Leah was unloved and provided for her.

i) When one is going through trials, one can either focus on the pain of how others are treating you, or one can have the joy of knowing that God loves you and cares for you despite the circumstances you are going through.

e) Each of the sons have names that are prophetic. We’ll discuss that more in Genesis 49 when Jacob gives a prophetic blessing on each of the four kids.

i) For example, Levi means “attached” as stated in Verse 11.

ii) Of the 12 sons, God picked the children of Levi to be the priests of Israel. There is a “pun” involved as the name Levi means “attached” and they are the ones that represent (minister) between God and the Israelites.

iii) Also, we have Judah, which means “praise”. It would be through Judah that the Messiah comes. The prophetic implication is “praise of the future blessing”.

a) By the way, this is the first time that “praise” is mentioned in the bible. Usually the first mention of any word or topic in the bible is significant.

17. Chapter 30, Verse 1: When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!"

a) For those of you that think marrying more than one woman is a good thing, I present to you Verse 1 of Chapter 30: “So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!” J

i) You can just sense the rivalry between the one.

ii) They were both trying to win Jacob’s affection and favor through children.

18. Verse 2: Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?"

a) When we read of Jacob through most of these chapters, it is usually in a negative aspect. He is usually trying to “out connive” someone to get his way. In this verse, may be one of Jacob’s true shining moments.

b) I do believe it is up to God if and when we have children. If it is not God’s will for you to have children at any one time, then God will shut up a womb no matter how hard you try. Jacob is only guilty if he is not “trying” in the first place.

i) A pet peeve is Christians who never take action and then blame things as being “God’s will”! God guides our actions. He can’t guide us if were not moving.

c) So what was God’s purpose in shutting up Rachel’s womb? I suspect it was about humbling Rachel. She knew she was the favored one over Leah. God gave her the gift of beauty was the favored wife over Leah. Eventually Rachel did have children, but I suspect God wanted to get her to submit her life first. Further, at this juncture, God wanted to give Leah a special blessing over Rachel because Jacob favored Rachel.

19. Verse 3: Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family."

a) Here we see a practice that was “culturally acceptable” for that time and place.