WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 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."

Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.

Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel."

Laban said, "It's better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me."

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

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

So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.

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?"

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

And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.

Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

Genesis 29:14b-30

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

At the end of yesterday’s message, we left Jacob with his mother’s brother Laban, and Laban’s daughter, Rachel, who Jacob took an immediate liking to the first time they met at the well where Rachel had brought her flock for water. You may remember that Jacob was so emotionally moved when he saw Rachel that he kissed her and started to cry. After all, he had traveled a long way to find a wife that would please his father Isaac, a woman who wasn't a Canaanite (Genesis 28:6).

Yes, all seemed like it was going great for Jacob but little did he know that there was something sinister looming, something that would take his time of joy and turn it into a time of disappointment and betrayal, something that would teach a valuable lesson to him (and I hope all of us). Let’s look again at our scripture verses for today as we continue our study of Genesis, chapter 29:

After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 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."

Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.

Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel."

Laban said, "It's better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me."

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

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

So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.

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?"

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

And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.

Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. Genesis 29:14b-30

The scriptures tell us that Jacob had stayed with Laban for a month when his uncle showed a desire to pay him for his labor because they were related asking:

"Tell me what your wages should be?"

To which Jacob replied:

"I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel."

Well, we find Laban agreeing to this request and so Jacob gets to work, eager to reach the end of the seven years so he could have the wife he desired so very much. In fact, we read where the seven years "seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." And indeed, Jacob had to have a deep love for Rachel to wait and labor that long and it couldn’t have been easy but he did stick it out and reached the end of his many years of labor. So Rachel would now become his wife, right?

Well, not exactly.

You see, there was a plot brewing, a plot that was well off of Jacob’s radar screen. For he was so caught up in his love for Rachel and so trusting in her relatives, especially Laban, that he never would have dreamed that the very people he trusted would so easily cheat him.

But cheat him they did.

For we read where a great celebration and feast was held with "all the people of the place" in attendance and at the end of the feast, Jacob was to have received his dream girl, Rachel, for his wife but instead, Laban pulled a switcheroo and slipped his other daughter Leah into the dark room with Jacob. And unable to see that he was being duped, Jacob had sexual relations with her, thinking she was Rachel.

It wasn’t until morning when light was put on the matter that Jacob realized he had been tricked and given Leah in marriage, not Rachel. The deception would cost him another seven years of labor to get Rachel, the wife he really wanted.

Now, let’s rewind the Genesis story a bit to the place where Rebekah and Jacob conspired to trick Isaac into giving Jacob the birthright that belonged to the eldest son, Esau. While taking advantage of Isaac’s failing eyesight, they made Jacob smell and feel like Esau and then duplicated his cooking so Isaac wouldn’t doubt that he was dealing with the elder son when he was really dealing with the younger.

When it was all said and done, Jacob took away Esau’s blessing through deceitfulness and emotionally hurt his father and brother through his actions. And so maybe it feels all too fitting that Jacob now would have the tables turned on him. For while blind in the darkness of his room, just as Isaac was physically blind, Jacob ended up deceived by a relative who pulled off a sly exchange of daughters, taking away the woman Jacob wanted and giving him one he didn’t desire.

It seems that that the following old saying applies even to biblical times:

“What comes around, goes around.”

Through this story, we find how the Lord has a way of teaching us life lessons in rather unique and interesting ways. Jacob might have thought he was going to get away with deceiving his father but God had other things in mind. Leading Jacob to Laban only to have him duped and fooled was all part of God’s plan in the end and Jacob had plenty of time to think about it what had happened to him and what he did to his father and brother as he labored that additional seven years, just to get Rachel.

Friends, the next time we might think about of doing wrong to someone, especially deceiving them, we should think about Jacob and what he experienced. Through his story, we are reminded that we never get away with doing wrong for God will teach us a lesson in His time and in His way, a lesson that will place us on the receiving end of the way we mistreated someone else.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.