Jacob's Love Story

This is another one of my favorites, but before I get to that, today I read:

• Genesis 28:1-29:35
• Matthew 9:18-38
• Psalm 11:1-7
• Proverbs 3:11-12

Genesis's reading today is an account of Jacob's life after he stole Esau's blessing. That's a story I can't even begin to ubderstand, except maybe in terms of how important a dad's blessing is to kids, but in terms of why Isaac couldn't bless both his sons although he was incredibly rich, maybe I can just attribute it to the culture of their day because beyond that I don't get it. Any insights would be highly appreciated :-)

Anyway, to the part I understood, Jacob and Rachel.

So, Isaac tells Jacob not to marry a Canaanite, but to go look for a wife back home, and he finds Laban who had two daughters Leah and Rachel. Jacob met Rachel first, excited to meet someone from his family he gave her a big kiss and told her his story. Rachel went to tell her dad a kinsman had arrived, long story short, Laban invited Jacob to stay, Jacob offered to work, Laban offered to pay, Jacob already in love with Rachel offered to work 7 years to get her as his wife


Genesis 29:20  Jacob worked seven years so that he could have Rachel, and the time seemed like only a few days to him, because he loved her.




By the way, isn't this the first time in the Bible has mentioned someone being in love with someone? I mean, yeah I remember Isaac and Rebeka, but in that one, they were married first and then Isaac loved Rebeka. This one is in love then love. Anyway, I'm a T.V soap opera-holic so I notice such things :-)

Laban ended up tricking Jacob and gave him Leah instead telling him last minute - past last minute that the 1st daughter is always married off before the 2nd. So Jacob offered to work another 7 years and Laban gave him Rachel. So, he worked 14 years for this woman that he loved. It's like an encouragement, or a "been there, done that, you can do it too" story for us in present day, exercising this kind of patience, because that's one of the things that love is, patience.

Funny thing is, last night I prayed along these lines of how in the past I haven't been patient, and up till now I'm still not patient and content in God's timing, and I was concerned about not having patience even in the future, and it's so cool that I got to read this today, just to remind me that I'm not the first person in the world who's had to go through this and I won't be the last and it's the sort of thing God can handle.




Image from Mavuno Website