“Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.”
– Genesis 29:17
Hi James and Ellen,
What do you think that living on planet Earth was like about 4,000 years ago? Would you like to have lived on planet Earth 4,000 years ago? What do you think that life was like 4,000 years ago for a shepherd or shepherdess? A gal by the name of Rachel lived about 4,000 years ago in what is now Turkey’s southeastern region. Rachel was the shepherdess for a flock of her dad’s sheep and goats. Rachel’s dad’s name was Laban. Laban was Rebekah’s bro. Rebekah married Isaac. Isaac and Rebekah lived near where the city of Jerusalem was later settled. Rebekah was Jacob’s ma. Rachel and Jacob were cousins. Jacob was his ma’s favorite kid. When Isaac – who was Jacob’s dad, was about to die, Rebekah helped her kid fool her blind husband so that Jacob would get the birthright privileges that Jacob’s older twin bro – Esau, was to inherit. When Esau found out what his kid twin bro had done to get what he was supposed to get per the mores or customs 4,000 years ago, Esau became mad enough to kill his kid twin bro. When Jacob realized that nothing was going to stop Esau from killing him, Jacob took off north just as fast as he could towards the land area where his Uncle Laban lived. After trekking for probably over 500 miles for at least a couple of weeks on paths that headed north to northeast, Jacob ended up in the vicinity of where Nahor – who was his great-grandpa – and his ma’s grandpa, had lived – which was the city of Haran. When Jacob saw a well with three flocks of sheep resting near the well, Jacob asked the guys who were shepherding the flocks if they knew his Uncle Laban and if his Uncle Laban was well. As the guys were telling Jacob that they knew Laban and that Laban was fine, Rachel – who was one of Laban’s daughters, was seen in the distance heading for the well with a flock of her dad’s sheep. When Jacob told the shepherds to go ahead and water their sheep from the well – which meant that the shepherds had to roll away a massive stone that would take more than one guy to roll away from the mouth of the well, as there was still plenty of light left in the day and the shepherds still had plenty of time to graze their sheep after watering them, the shepherds told Jacob that they could not water their sheep until all the flocks had gathered at the well. When Rachel got close with the flock of her dad’s sheep to where Jacob was standing near the well, Jacob alone rolled the stone from the mouth of the well so that Rachel could water her dad’s flock of sheep. After he told Rachel who he was and after he kissed Rachel, Jacob began crying. Rachel immediately went looking for her dad who immediately went to the well where Jacob was. When Laban saw Jacob, Laban hugged Jacob, kissed Jacob and invited Jacob to stay in his house. After a month of living in Laban’s house, Jacob had gotten into the routines of being like a hired guy who did things for wages. When Laban offered Jacob pay for what he was doing, Jacob asked Laban that instead of him paying him a wage, that he would like to spend the next seven years working for him in return for getting his permission to marry Rachel – who Jacob had come to really want to marry.
Moses recorded Jacob’s love saga in Genesis 29. Laban had no problem with Rachel becoming Jacob’s wife but . . . Rachel had an older sis – whose name was Leah, who apparently had little if no prospect of ever becoming married. Verse 17 says, “Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.” Leah seems to have had a ‘wallflower’ appearance about her. After Jacob had worked the seven years for Laban, Jacob was all set to marry Rachel but . . . this time Jacob was the one who was fooled. The mores or customs in the region where Laban lived required an older gal in a family to be married before a younger gal in the family could be married but instead of telling Jacob that this had to happen, Laban slipped his daughter Leah into the wedding ceremony without Jacob realizing what Laban had done. When Jacob realized what his Uncle Laban had done, Jacob asked Laban again if he could marry Rachel. Laban told Jacob that he could but that Jacob would first have to wait until after his bridal week with Leah was over and then after he married Rachel, that he would have to work another seven years for him as one of his workers.
Rachel for some reason had a lot of trouble having a kid after she and Jacob were married. Leah did not have any trouble having kids. Leah named her first kid Reuben. Reuben means ‘because the Lord has seen my misery’. Leah knew that Jacob liked Rachel a whole lot more than he liked her. Leah was hoping that after Reuben was born that Jacob would begin to like her as much as he liked Rachel but . . . then Leah had another kid who she named Simeon. Simeon means ‘because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.’ Even though Jacob never really loved Leah, God would bless Leah with two more boys – Levi and Judah. God would have guys from the Levi tribal clan become His priests who served Him in His holy places. God would have the Judah tribal clan include David and David’s royal line all the way to Jesus. Even though Jacob’s life had crazy twists to it, Jacob became the Israelite people group’s patriarch. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that even though they grew up nearly 1,400 miles apart, that God – through His divine sovereignty, had them meet, marry and have kids for His greater plan of having your grandmaa and grandpaa serve Him as missionaries in Bolivia, Guatemala and Canada.
Genesis 29 (1010)