Payback time

Genesis chapter 29 finds Jacob the fugitive arriving at his eastern destination and starting to look for his relatives. After making a few initial enquiries, he finds his cousin Rachel, and we read the story of how he moves a heavy stone from the top of the well, so that she can give water to her flock of sheep and goats. Was this an admirable and chivalrous gesture on Jacob’s part, or was it evidence of cultural insensitivity - yet another example of Jacob’s bucking the system again, even though all the shepherds have told him that the local custom is to wait politely until all the flocks have arrived before uncovering the well.

Rachel takes Jacob home, where he is welcomed by his uncle Laban. When Laban hears Jacob’s story, he says, “You really are my own flesh and blood.” I can’t help wondering if this is just an innocent recognition that Jacob really is the nephew he’s never met, or is it a telling commentary on the stronghold of deception that was so characteristic of this family. (Like when we say that, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”)

It doesn’t take long for Jacob to fall in love with Rachel, and soon he’s making an agreement with Laban that he will work seven years in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage.

The seven years go by and finally the wedding day arrives. Generous uncle Laban throws a big celebration.... but then he shows his true colours and tricks Jacob by giving him Leah that night instead of Rachel. Like the script of a bad movie, Jacob wakes up the next morning and finds that the woman lying next to him in bed is not the woman that he thought he was marrying.

It’s horrifying, and yet there’s a certain poetic justice in it. With poor Leah as the victim (more about that in the post below) this is an ironic parody of how Jacob had tricked his own father. Just as he once pretended to be the other brother, Laban has now fooled him by pretending to give him the other sister!

Laban’s explanation for the trickery is that local custom doesn’t allow a younger daughter to be given in marriage before her older sister. Is Jacob reaping what he sowed when he flaunted local custom by uncovering the well? Is this why Laban chose deception rather than dialogue - because he didn’t expect  Jacob to show any sensitivity towards local cultural norms?

Jacob’s life illustrates the universal principle of sowing and reaping, and he finds himself in the unenviable postion of having to work another seven years in order to be married to the woman he loves. 

Not all “payback” happens quite so neatly, or so quickly, but the Bible does tell warn us, in Galatians 6: 7 - 10, that if we sow bad seed, we can expect somewhere along the line to reap bad fruit: “Don’t be misled; you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”  This is not to say that it’s always God who instigates the payback; God is good and can never be the source of anything evil. But He has created a universe where sowing and reaping, both in the agricultural sense and the spiritual sense, are part of the natural order of things. A sobering thought when it comes to the smaller things in our lives, and not only the big things!