There he saw a well…
Same well where Rebekah was found? Possibly. Same area, at least.
“…it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
Get out of here so I can talk to the pretty girl…
…he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.
Well, it’s probably a good bet to say that Jacob has heard the story about how his parents met. Or rather, how the messenger figured out that Rebekah was the woman he was after, to bring back to Isaac. Also, he would know that Laban’s family, and thus Rachel, would know the story as well. And with what we already know about Jacob’s sly and devious nature, it seems to me that not only is this an act of ‘oh, let me move this giant boulder for you’ showing off, but also a sneaky ploy to relate back to his parents experience. How did God reveal that Rebekah was the right woman? She came, and freely offered to water the messenger’s camels. What does Jacob do? Freely waters Rachel’s sheep(possibly even at the same well). If Rachel is paying attention, maybe she’ll see the hand of God at work, and fall hopeless in love with this perfect man that has been sent to her. And of course, moving a giant boulder surely can’t hurt his chances either, right?
…Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
So Jacob gets welcomed, and gets a chance to tell his story. About how he’s the best salesman ever, and got his brother to trade his birthright for a meal. About how he straight up duped his father, and stole the family blessing from under his brother’s nose. About how he came seeking a wife, and then…here he is. And Laban leans back in his chair, smirks a bit, and thinks about how much of his own slickness he sees in Jacob.
“Tell me what your wages should be.”
Hey look, Laban’s offering to pay him, that’s so considerate. And yet, instead of looking to help Jacob start a life of his own, what he’s actually doing is just turning him into another hired hand. Get some cheap labor out of the old family.
“I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Since Jacob really doesn’t have anything of value, he offers his service to earn the lovely lady. Of course, this means that after seven years, he still won’t have anything of his own, except a wife. Not exactly the best way to start building wealth, but hey, get the woman first, right?
Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife.”
When morning came, there was Leah!
Oops. And here we learn a valuable lesson. On your wedding night, take a minute or two to actually look at your partner, maybe even try to talk with them for a couple seconds or something, just to make sure you know who they are. Because if you’ve got some sneaky relatives, you never know what kind of shenanigans they might try to pull on you…Anyways, Jacob gets a taste of his own medicine and realizes what it feels like to be on the other side of a trickeration scheme.
“Why have you deceived me?”
“It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.”
Where you come from, you may be able to steal your older brother’s birthright, blessing, and whatever else, but that’s not how we do things here. The eldest comes first. Deal with it. You just got duped with your own scam in reverse. Isaac was blind, and his sons got switched, Jacob was…something, and the girls got switched.
“Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
Can’t turn back now, so just go ahead and finish Leah’s ‘honeymoon’ week, and then you can have Rachel also. If you stay and work for seven more years, of course. Now, he doesn’t have to wait those seven years, but gets Rachel after that week. He just can’t leave until he finishes the extra work.
Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah.
Aww, poor Leah, right? Pretty much every time I’ve heard this story taught, everybody feels sorry for poor Leah with the weak eyes, that nobody wanted. And while that’s all well and good, and she certainly must have faced some serious rejection issues, I simply don’t see her as helpless and innocent in all this. I mean, come on. While Laban might have been the one with the idea to switch the daughters, or even the one who really carried it out, Leah went right along with it. She played her part, and managed to trick Jacob through an entire night, and get him to accept her when she was obviously of a different statue than her sister. She had her own share of trickery and deceit in all this. And as we’re about to see, she’s not just going to sit by and let Jacob get taken away, but stand up to her sister and fight to earn her place in the family.
When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb…
And so it begins. Time to build a family. So let’s start a list of sons, with their corresponding quotes concerning their birth.
1 – Reuben – “It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”
2 – Simeon – “Because the LORD heard that I am not loved.”
3 – Levi – “Now at last my husband will become attached to me…”
4 – Judah – “This time I will praise the LORD.”
For the first three, Leah’s focus is all about winning the affections of Jacob. And then for the fourth son, she stops and simply give praise to God. As it happens, this fourth son, Judah, is the son through whom the blessing will continue. Coincidence? Hmmmm. Interesting, at least.
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