Jacob has worked seven years for Rachel's hand in marriage. It's time now for the wedding to take place and Rachel's father Laban deceives Jacob in a similar way to how Jacob deceived Isaac. If anybody thought Jacob had "gotten away" with his ill treatment of his father, he hasn't. He's about to reap what he's sown. This is an example of poetic justice.
Our passage today begins with what seems like a crude comment by Jacob to Laban. At the end of the seven years, Jacob somewhat graphically asks for the marriage to take place immediately. "Then Jacob said to Laban, 'Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.'" (Genesis 29:21) It's hard to imagine a man speaking this way to the father of his fiancee. I know it's a private conversation between two men, and I could understand Jacob making a remark to one of his male friends like, "I can't wait to marry Rachel and be alone with her." To speak this plainly to Rachel's father is a little shocking to me but it could be that Jacob has asked several times, since completing his service, for Laban to set the wedding date. It may be that he has to speak boldly to show Laban that he's tired of delays and that he intends to wait no longer for Laban to fulfill his promise.
For seven years Jacob has had to eat dinner every night with the woman he loves. He's had to watch her beautiful face by the candlelight on the table. He's had to smell her perfume as she works about the house. He's had to watch her walk back and forth to the well for water for Laban's sheep. I think Jacob is just about out of his mind by now from wanting to consummate his union with the woman he's so crazy about. He's a single man in the prime of his life and he naturally has physical needs, but he's not allowed to embrace or kiss the woman he thinks about day and night, much less go any further with her.
Laban may have resisted setting the wedding date in fear Jacob would return to Beersheba with Rachel instead of staying on to keep running the estate. But now he knows he has to do something because Jacob is fed up with all the delays. He arranges the wedding feast and invites all his friends and neighbors to witness the ceremony, but he has figured out a way to prevent Jacob from leaving his employ. He's going to pull a switcheroo and give Jacob the wrong bride.
"So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her." (Genesis 29:22-23) The bride would have had her face veiled during the legal ceremony, then she would not have been brought to Jacob's living quarters until after sundown. In the dark he didn't know he'd married the wrong woman. Leah doesn't speak up. I don't know whether it's because she is in love with Jacob, but later on the Bible appears to indicate that she does love him. I don't know whether her father threatened her into silence. A man in those days could give his daughter's hand in marriage to anyone he chose, regardless of his daughter's feelings on the matter. Leah would have been brought up to obey her father without question and to recognize him as the person who makes all her important decisions for her. If Laban instructed her to remain silent all night, Leah would have remained silent all night.
Leah's maid also keeps her mouth shut when she arrives with Leah carrying Leah's bag of clothing and other personal items. Laban, like other well-to-do men of his day, gives his daughter a maid from among his own servants. This maid will now leave his household and serve his daughter for the rest of her life. "And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant." (Genesis 29:24)
When daylight arrives, the woman nestled in Jacob's arms isn't Rachel. "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?'" (Genesis 29:25) Jacob marches out of the house in self-righteous indignation to find his father-in-law and demand an explanation. He says, "How dare you pull a trick on me like this? What have I done to deserve such treatment? I kept my end of the agreement by providing you with seven years of free labor. I was honest with you; why weren't you honest with me?" The reason I say Jacob is "self-righteous" is because he's being hypocritical. His father Isaac had the right to ask him the same questions he's asking Laban. After Jacob deceived his father, Isaac could have said, "Why did you not love and respect me enough to refrain from pulling a trick like this on me? What have I done to deserve such treatment?"
Laban's reaction is cold and unfeeling. He dismisses Jacob's words and justifies himself by referring to an ancient custom of Mesopotamia. "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.'" (Genesis 29:26-27) Even if this is a custom where Laban lives, there would be no excuse for not informing Jacob of the custom when making the original agreement with him. Laban only observes customs when it suits him. If a custom can be used for his benefit, he uses it. If a custom doesn't benefit him, he ignores it. When he and Jacob made the original agreement, it hadn't yet occurred to him that he could pull this switcheroo and keep Jacob around longer without paying him a dime. So during those seven years, or perhaps just during the last few weeks while Jacob insisted on a wedding date, Laban remembered the custom regarding the eldest daughter and he came up with the idea of deceiving Jacob.
It's not true that Jacob has to work seven more years before marrying Rachel, which is a common misconception. If Laban insisted on seven more years of work before giving Rachel to Jacob, he risked Jacob's refusal. Jacob might have wanted nothing more to do with Laban or his family and he might have packed his suitcase and departed. Laban is going to give Rachel to Jacob after Jacob spends a week being a husband to Leah. That way Jacob will have to work seven more years in order to keep his favorite bride. Laban isn't above taking Rachel back into his household if Jacob fails to fulfill the extra seven years. In those days a father could take his daughter back from a husband he deemed unworthy and then the couple would be legally divorced.
Jacob is trapped in this situation because of his enormous love for Rachel. Because he still wants desperately to be married to her, he has no choice but to agree to Laban's terms. But first he must live with Leah as her husband for a full week. This is his legal obligation. In Jacob's time it was the law that a man had to spend an entire week being a husband to his wife, even if it was a marriage made for financial or political reasons only. By being her husband (physically speaking) for a week, the man could never have the marriage annulled by claiming he didn't consummate it. This protected the woman from being thrown out of the house and perhaps not being able to find another husband to take care of her. The marriage week also provided her with an opportunity to become pregnant, which would solidify her position in her husband's household. Plus, being a mother was considered the ultimate achievement for women in those days. A woman who had been married but who had borne no children was deeply pitied. A woman who had no son to provide for her in her old age could easily end up homeless and begging on the street corners after her husband died. There were very few laws in those times to protect women, but this is an example of one that Jacob is obligated to obey, and he obeys it. "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 Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 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." (Genesis 29:28-30)
I don't think Jacob harbors any ill will toward Leah. He knows she's a pawn in her father's game and that she has no real say in the matter. It's not her fault she was used in Laban's deception. Jacob will provide for her all their married life and I don't think he will ever deliberately mistreat her, but he will never love her like he loves Rachel. The only person I truly feel sorry for in this mess is Leah. The Lord is going to feel sorry for her too and He's going to show her a great deal of compassion in the coming years. Not only will she be a better godly influence on Jacob than Rachel, but she will be more fruitful in bearing children than Rachel. The Lord will choose Leah for the honor of bearing a son who will be the ancestor of God's own Son. Leah will be the mother of Judah, whose line will be the royal line of Israel. She---not Rachel---will be in the family tree of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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