After the blessing fiasco in which Esau threatened to kill Jacob, Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob to Haran to stay with her brother for a while. But it was only supposed to be for a few days. Look back at Genesis chapter 27, verses 43 through 45. It says, Now therefore, my son, obey my voice and arise, flee to Haran to my brother Laban, and stay with him a few days until your brother's fury subsides.
until your brother's anger against you subsides, and he forgets what you did to him, then I shall send and get you from there. So as you can see, Jacob never intended to stay very long with his uncle Laban. In fact, he thought that mama was going to send a messenger at any time telling him that it's time to come home, Esau's over, everything's fine, come on back. And that's what he told Laban, that he was only going to be there for a few days.
But after a month and no message from mama, Laban's hospitality runs out. So Laban told him in a very polite way that he was no longer welcome as a guest. Now if you don't understand the culture and the customs of that time period, then you don't see that when you're reading through the Bible. Because it makes it sound like he's being so nice and friendly and he's saying, we're family, tell me what your wage is.
You know, it's not right for you to be in my home and not being able to earn money. So tell me what you think your wages should be. And we read that and we go, wow, that's so nice of Laban. But actually, if you understand the culture, if you understand the customs of that time, basically he was telling him, you have one of two choices.
You can either go to work for me or you can go home. But either way, you're no longer welcome to stay at my house as my guest. Because I'm not going to take care of you indefinitely.
And basically, he just said it in a nice way. And that's what he was doing. Now, during that 30-day period where he was staying with Laban as a guest, he fell in love with Rachel. But he didn't have any money to pay the bridal price.
Because remember, when he left, he left in a hurry. But not only that, he thought he was only going for a few days, and so did Mama, and so did Daddy. And so they just sent him off with enough supplies, enough money, take care of him. For a few days, well, he gets there and everything begins to run out. Well, he's fallen in love with Rachel, but he doesn't have enough money to pay the bridal price.
You see, in those days, if you wanted to marry a woman, you had to compensate the father for the loss of his daughter's service and for her potential offspring because he was losing a worker. So you had to pay the father of the bride a particular sum of money. And that was known as the bride price, or what we would refer to as the bridal price.
Now let me give you an example to illustrate what I'm talking about. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Exodus, the 22nd chapter. Let's read verses 16 through 17. If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to anyone and has sex with her, he must pay the customary bride price and marry her.
But if her... father refuses to let him marry her, the man must still pay him an amount equal to the bride price of a virgin. Now, this law was a strong incentive for young men to restrain from premarital sex.
Because if you had sex with a man's daughter, you were required to marry her unless the father didn't want you to. And there were times when the father didn't want that. And the reason he didn't is because maybe the young man came from a family that didn't have a good reputation.
Or maybe he was known to be abusive. Or for whatever the reason, he didn't want to marry her. And so, the father would say, uh-uh, I don't want you to marry my daughter.
But even then, you still had to pay the customary bride price. In other words, you had to pay a sum of money to the father of the bride as compensation for the loss of his daughter and potential offspring. Now, you might say, well, wait a minute. Even if he said he didn't want it? Yes, because he had violated a virgin.
And as a result of that, there would probably be less chance of another man coming in to marry her. So he was required to pay the bridal price even if he didn't marry her. Now, sometimes we look at this and we think, that's kind of funny, but we need to understand something in this culture.
Boys, or I should say men, were highly sought after. And the reason they were is because they helped to come in and earn the living. They worked on the farm. They did all of those type of things.
And so it wasn't very good. in a sense, to have a lot of women because they couldn't do the work that helped to be able to come in and to bring the money in. So what you wanted is you wanted to have sons. Because if you had a daughter, what was going to take place is she was going to grow up and yes, she would work around the home, but... She would move away.
And because families work the land together or they work their business together, every time you had a son and he married, you just brought another worker into the family. Not only that, she was going to have children, which were going to be more workers. And so you wanted to have sons, not daughters.
Now, Jacob wanted to marry Rachel, but he didn't have enough money to pay the bridal price. So Jacob offered to work for Laban for seven years in lieu of paying the bridal price. And Laban immediately accepted Jacob's offer.
And the reason he immediately accepted it is because it was a great deal. And let me explain why. First of all, seven years of labor was worth almost twice as much as the customary bride price.
Not quite, but almost. The second reason it was such a great deal for Laban was because he wasn't losing his daughter for seven years. He wasn't losing her as a worker.
You see, the official wedding ceremony wouldn't take place. until after Jacob had worked for him for seven years, which meant that she was going to be able to work for her father for seven more years. So he was getting two for the price of one, at least for seven years.
And that's why it was such a great deal for Laban, which brings us to verse 21. Finally, the time came for him to marry her. I have fulfilled my agreement, Jacob said to Laban. Now give me my wife so I can sleep with her. Now, I don't know if you noticed it, but Jacob referred to Laban's daughter as his wife prior to the wedding ceremony. You see, at that time, the woman was considered to be the wife of man at the time she was betrothed to him, or at the time they became engaged.
But even though they were considered husband and wife, they weren't allowed to have any type of sexual relationships, or even to be alone with each other until it was time to officially consummate the marriage at the wedding feast. So you were considered husband and wife, but you didn't live together. And you were never alone with each other until after the marriage was consummated, which gives us a little insight into the relationship between Joseph and Mary and the problems that it created.
She was betrothed to Joseph when she became pregnant with Jesus. And what was Joseph going to do? He was going to divorce her quietly.
Why? Because he knew it wasn't his child. He'd never had sex with her.
He'd never even been alone with her. And here she comes up pregnant, and she's considered his wife because they're engaged. Look at Matthew 1, verses 18 through 19. This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.
His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph... Her husband was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace.
He had in his mind to divorce her quietly. Now, Joseph and Mary were just engaged when she became pregnant with Jesus. But I want you to notice that he was referred to as what? Her husband.
And though they were only engaged, when she became pregnant, he was going to have to divorce her. They were considered. to be husband and wife, though it was not official. It had never been consummated.
They didn't live together. There was just that period of time in which they were engaged to each other. Now, this is kind of interesting.
And the reason it's interesting is because we don't think like this at all. But back then, they did. So, after Jacob fulfilled his obligation, he told Laban, now give me my wife so I can sleep with her.
Now, as every man knows, He's being direct because Jacob had been looking forward to this moment for seven years. Seven years. Ever since Laban accepted his offer of him working for her for seven years, he was looking forward to the time that she would officially become his wife, and he could sleep with her, and he didn't make any bones about it. His seven years were up, so he told Laban, give me my wife so I can sleep with her. Now, if you have the King James Version or the NIV, it uses euphemisms, but if you look up those words in the Hebrew, they all refer to sex.
Basically, he's telling his future father-in-law, he says, I made this agreement with her, she's to be my wife, and give her to me so we can consummate the marriage, which brings us to verse 22. So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood and prepared a wedding feast. Now, let me explain a little bit about the wedding feast. If the father could afford it, The wedding feast lasted for seven days.
That was tradition. And the first day was the big day. I mean, everything happened on the first day.
It involved the procession to and from the bride's home in order to bring her to the wedding feast. In fact, a lot of the parables of Jesus deal with the wedding feast. So if you don't understand the wedding feast, you don't understand those parables.
So it involved the procession to and from the bride's home to bring her to the wedding feast. It involved the reading of the marriage covenant or the contract. and a large meal that was attended by both families and neighbors.
And at the end of the day, the groom would wrap his cloak around the bride, who was veiled throughout the whole ceremony, and he would take her to the nuptial chamber where the marriage was consummated. But the feasting and the celebration continued for a whole week. Now, it didn't happen during the day. You need to understand what would take place.
On the first day, it would normally start late morning, maybe 11, 12 o'clock. They would go to the bride's home and they would pick it up and the wedding party would carry her to the feast. She's all decked out. She's ready to go.
But when they get there, it's just a wonderful time. It's a feast. It's drinking.
There's music. There's dancing. And this goes on all afternoon and towards the evening time.
Then they're going to get to the part where they're going to come in. and they're going to read the marriage covenant. They're going to have the couple come up.
They're going to do all the things that they do. Now, the other days, the neighbors would go back to work, and they would work during the day. When they came in from working, they would go clean up, and they would come back to the wedding feast. And during that day, the family was preparing another big feast with lots of wine, lots of music, lots of dancing, lots of eating, and that would continue on for seven days, which brings us to verse 23. But that night when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob and he slept with her.
Now, here's what's interesting. The groom did not get to choose when he took his bride into the nuptial chamber to consummate the marriage. Now, I know a lot of women are thinking, oh my gosh, I can't believe this would happen. But literally, he would take the bride into the nuptial chamber and they would consummate the marriage while all the guests are outside.
Yeah. That's the way it worked. But the groom didn't get to choose when he did that. If he did, it probably would have happened as soon as the wedding feast began, right? No, they didn't allow the groom to do that.
The groom had to wait until the father of the bride gave her to him. And this is the way that it normally occurred. After a toast by the father of the groom, the father of the bride would escort her to the groom and present her to him.
At that point, the groom would wrap his cloak around her, would escort her into the nuptial chamber. And that's where we get the tradition of giving the bride away. You know, we look at some of the things that we do at a wedding ceremony.
We don't understand why, but they're based upon Christian traditions. One of the reasons that you will have families sit on opposite sides is because it's a covenant. You're bringing two families together. And in the covenant, what you would do is that you would put one side.
or one family on one side and one family on the other side. And the couple would walk between them, symbolizing that in this covenant union, we're bringing these two families together into one family. And that's why we do that.
And it's interesting because once you come up, what does the minister normally say? Who gives this woman to be married? And the man used to say, I do. But now, because we want to include women as much as possible, he will say, her mother and I.
And then I'll say, please join the right hands. He steps back, they join the right hands. We did a little switcheroo. They're facing out towards you, and we start into the wedding ceremony.
But the majority of the things that we do are based upon the Christian traditions that actually goes back to Old Testament Judaism. One of the reasons, and we don't do rice anymore. It's not green, so we throw out bird seed.
But anyways, we used to do rice. Do you know why? We did that.
We did that because we wanted them to be fruitful. And so after that, on the second and third day, when they would come back, everyone knew they had consummated. They're enjoying the wedding feast too.
The neighbors, the family, they would bring fruit and lay it before them. And what they were saying is, we want you to be fruitful and have lots of children. And so when we're throwing that rice out there, what we're saying is, be fruitful, have lots of children.
And today people don't want to do that. But anyways, that's why we do all of those type of things. But that's where we get the tradition of the father giving the bride away.
But that's also why verse 23 says, but that night when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob and he slept with her. You see, without Isaac being there to make the toast, designating that now was the time, Laban could wait as long as he wanted to escort his daughter to Jacob. And trust me, he waited a long time because he wanted it to be really dark to pull off what he had planned.
Verse 24, Laban had given Leah's servant, Zepah, to be her mate. Now, in that culture at that time, it was customary for the bride's father to give her a wedding present. It's what we would call a dowry, but it was a little bit different back then. Yes, it was used as insurance, but the whole purpose of it was in case she became a widow or in case she was divorced because divorce was permitted.
As a result of that, there needed to be some type of insurance policy that was there for her not to have to pay for the wedding. to actually go into extreme poverty and to be able to make it until other resources were available and hopefully get back to her family. So it was customary to give what was known as a wedding present. And it's usually not mentioned in the Bible unless the gift was considered to be exceptionally generous.
Now, giving a handmaiden as a wedding gift was considered to be very generous, and that's why it's mentioned. If you remember, when Isaac received his wife, if you remember, she was given a handmaiden. That was a very generous gift.
And the reason it's put in there is because of that. But there's another reason that this is mentioned. And that's because Zilpah would become a concubine and would bear Jacob children at Leah's request. And that's why she's introduced here.
She's introduced so that later on we're going to know how and why she came into the picture. No, Jacob didn't marry a third woman. And he didn't marry a fourth woman. Remember, in their period of time, you wanted to have a lot of children because they were workers. And it produced strength.
If you were attacked by anyone else, you wanted to have a lot of males. So you wanted to have a lot of children. And it was a real shame if a woman couldn't bear children. It was almost considered to be, well it wasn't almost, it was, it was considered to be a curse from God if a woman couldn't have children. So this was an unusual for a man in that time, in that period.
to not only have wives but also have concubines and for the wife to give her handmaiden as a concubine. I just thought I'd throw that in there because sometimes as we're reading through the Old Testament it doesn't make sense. Verse 25, but when Jacob woke up in the morning it was Leah.
What have you done to me? Jacob raged at Laban. I worked seven years for Rachel.
Why have you tricked me? Now you see that? It was Leah. Those three words perfectly describe Jacob's shock, but also his panic. It was Leah in the morning.
Man, he thought he had this great wedding feast. This is great. I've worked seven hard years.
And in the morning, there's light. And it was Leah, not Rachel. In the Hebrew, it's just three words.
It. was Leah. Oh my gosh.
And it captured Jacob's shock in his panic. And I'll explain why he panicked in just a minute. Now, let's be honest, women. How in the world could Jacob not know? Think about that.
How many of you women are thinking, now wait a minute. How in the world could Jacob not know? Really? Really?
How many of you women are thinking that? Oh yeah. Well, let me explain why and how Laban was able to trick Jacob. First of all, it was really, really dark. You see, without Isaac at the wedding making the official toast, Laban could wait as long as he wanted before he gave his daughter to Jacob.
And he waited until it was nighttime. He waited until you couldn't see anything. I don't know if it was a cloudy night, so it was blocking out the moon and the stars, but it tells us that he waited until it was dark.
And in original Hebrew, it means pitch dark. Secondly, Jacob was really drunk. Now, I don't know if that's a good excuse or not, but you see, wine was a major component of all types of feast in those days.
You didn't have the feast if you didn't have wine. And if you remember, Jesus'first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana. How many of you remember the story? People, they had run out of wine, and it was a major catastrophe.
It was an embarrassment to the family. They had all these people coming to this marriage feast, and the implication is Jesus didn't really come on the first day. He came somewhere in the middle of the wedding feast, but the family hadn't planned. Maybe they thought they could pull off a seven-day wedding feast, but they had gotten to the point where there wasn't any wine, and it was horrible. And of course...
Mary comes to Jesus and tells him, he says, what have I to do with you? In other words, now wait a minute. I'm here to do God's will, not your will, mama.
You can't be sticking your nose into it because I'm here to do God's will. But guess what? Because he is an obedient son, he does that.
He turns the water into wine. But the reason he did it was because this was a catastrophe. And so they had all this wine here. And that was another reason that Laban waited so long before he gave his daughter to Jacob. It's because he wanted Jacob.
to be drunk. And so you can bet he kept pouring wine into Jacob's glass and he kept saying, drink up, drink up. It's a joyful time. Here, drink some more wine. And he waited until Jacob was where he needed to be to be able to pull this off.
And last but not least, the bride remained veiled through the whole time she was at the wedding feast on the first day. And she would have worn that veil into the nuptial chamber. So Jacob never saw her face until the next morning.
It's really, really dark. He's really, really tipsy. And she's wearing the veil.
And that explains why and how Laban was able to trick Jacob. Now, I want you to notice Jacob's response when he discovers he slept with Leah rather than Rachel. People, he panics.
Most people don't know that. But the reason they don't know that is because, again, they don't understand the customs. They don't understand the culture. So they don't understand what it meant for Jacob to look up and to turn over to his bride in its droopy eyes.
Oh, my gosh. He panics. Look back at verse 25. But when Jacob woke up in the morning, it was Leah. What have you done to me?
I want you to notice, that's the first thing he says. What have you done to me? You see, once Jacob had sexual intercourse with Leah, because she was a virgin, the action was irrevocable. People, it couldn't be undone.
Jacob was married to Leah whether he wanted to be or not. You see, when he turned and he saw that it was Leah, he understood the customs, he understood the culture. It was just a fact. She was a virgin.
He slept with her. It doesn't matter why. According to law, he not only has to marry her, and he has no say-so in this, but not only that, he can't divorce her.
So he comes to Laban and he says, what have you done to me? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 22, verses 28 through 29. I want you to understand how it was in Jacob's day. Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin, but is not engaged to be married.
Now this is different from Exodus. This is different. If they are discovered, he must pay her father 50 pieces of silver. What is that for?
That's a bridal price. That's the maximum bridal price because this is a penalty. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her.
And he may never... ever divorce her as long as he lives. See, this tickles me. How many of you men does this tickle?
It kind of tickles me. Because you have to admire Laban when you read this story. He didn't think he was ever going to be able to marry Leah off.
She had this medical condition called ptosis, remember? That's where either these muscles in the eyelids are severely weak. or they're paralyzed, and normally they're paralyzed. So you can't help it.
Your eyelids are always three-quarters of the way down. And this was a very great shame upon the family. And she's the firstborn. And because she's the firstborn, she has to get married. And so here Laban is, and he's wondering, how in the world can I get her married?
But there's this one little clause out here. Now, I know that this is the law, the Mosaic law. And this happened before the Mosaic Law.
But you need to understand that much of the Mosaic Law was actually based upon the laws of that time. It just made it according to God's will. Now, what's interesting about this, that was the law of the time.
And so he comes in, and Laban understands this law that if he sleeps with her, and it doesn't matter how, she is a virgin, he's violated her, he must marry her, and he can never divorce her. Not only that, you have to pay 50 shekels. So the seven years that he worked for Rachel doesn't count.
Did you hear what I said? The seven years he worked for Rachel now no longer counts. That's why to me it kind of tickles me because, man, Laban is a sly fox.
Leah was a virgin, so all he had to do was figure out a way to get Jacob to sleep with her. And it didn't matter whether he was tricked or not, it was a done deal. And there was nothing that he could do about it.
And Jacob, when he turned over on his wedding morning and he saw Leah there, He panicked. That's why he said, what have you done to me? Because it's a done deal. And then he wants to know why.
Now he hits that board. How many of you have ever been tricked and you want to know, you look at him like, what have you done? And then when it finally hits you, it doesn't really matter. Now you just want to know why.
That's Jacob. Now he wants to know why Laban did this. Look back at verse 25. But when Jacob woke up in the morning, it was Leah.
What have you done to me? Jacob raged at Laban. I worked seven years for Rachel.
Why have you tricked me? Now, let's look at Laban's answer because it's really interesting. Verse 26. It's not our custom here to marry off a younger daughter instead of the firstborn, Laban replied.
In other words, son, you know our custom. You don't marry off a younger daughter before the firstborn daughter is married. And people, that worked for both males and females.
It wasn't just for females. It wasn't just for males. This custom applied to both males and females. A younger daughter couldn't get married until the firstborn daughter had already been married.
A younger son could not get married until the firstborn son was married. People, that was the custom at the time. And what Laban said was true. Jacob knew the custom.
How do we know that Jacob knew the custom? Not only did his family come from them, remember, they're family. Actually, Jacob's marrying his cousin. I know a lot of you say, well, they must have been from Arkansas, but we say Oklahoma.
But remember, Rebekah is sending him back her brother Laban. So Jacob and Rachel... Our cousins, right? So they come from the same family. Not only that, there's a reason why Jacob is 47 years old and he's still not married.
Why would you be 47 years old and still not married? Well, we looked at that. The younger son could not get married until the firstborn son was married. And Esau wasn't mature enough.
So dad never arranged any marriages. until finally Esau said, I'm just going to take it in my own hands. You see, what Isaac and Rebekah were trying to do was to force Esau to grow up, to quit going around and hunting and fishing all the time, learn the family business.
One day, you're going to be in charge of the family. You are the firstborn son. You need to grow up.
But he never grew up. And like many parents, what do you do? You withhold something from your child, hoping that that will be incentive for them to do what you want.
How many of you who want your children to work withhold the keys to the car when they turn 16 until they go get a job? What are you doing? You're trying to give them an incentive to go out and do what you want them to do. So daddy had never arranged any marriages.
And at 40 years old, the scripture tells us, Esau takes matters into his own hands. He goes out and he marries two Canaanite women. Now, once he does that, Then Jacob can now get married. But now we come to the point of the blessing. So because of what this takes place, he's still an obedient child.
He hasn't taken anything in his hands. Esau's married. He can now get married. But Isaac and Rebekah haven't made arrangements yet. But it's very close to the time of the blessing.
And so what do they do? After they trick him and he receives the blessing, Esau threatens to kill him. They send him off to live with her brother for a few days. But they tell him, while you're there, find a wife. Find a good wife from our family.
You're 47 years old. You should know by now what it takes to make a good wife. Wow.
Now let me ask you a question. I want you to think about this. Would Jacob have married Leah willingly to get Rachel if Laban had been up front with him? Let me say that again so you understand what I'm asking. Would Jacob have married, would Jacob have married Leah to get Rachel if Laban had been up front with him?
Would he have done that? I think so. Personally, I really believe that. I think he would have done that.
But the way Laban did it was so deceptive and so cruel and hurtful. And I think that's when it hit Jacob. He had done the very same thing when it came to the blessing.
And he'd done it thinking that the end justified the means. And if he and Rebekah had gone to Isaac, and been upfront about it. In all probability, Isaac would have given Jacob the blessing anyway.
If you remember all the circumstances around that story, Esau was sent out to go kill something to eat. Why? Because they weren't doing a big feast. Isaac was trying to do it in secret.
And when you look at all the circumstances, Isaac knew... that Esau not only didn't deserve it, but he wasn't God's will. Because God had told him and had told Rebecca that the older would serve the younger.
In other words, the younger was to receive the birthright. And the truth of the matter is, if Rebecca and Jacob had gone to Isaac and just said, Dad, this isn't right. You know what God told Mom.
You know what God told you. You see the difference between our character. Not only that, he could care less.
He actually sold me the birthright. I truly believe that if Rebecca and Jacob had done the right thing, in all probability, Isaac would have done the right thing. But what goes around, comes around.
Jacob had deceived his father, and now his father-in-law had deceived him. He dressed up as Esau, and pretended to be Esau. And now Leah...
had dressed up as Rachel and pretended to be Rachel. He had taken advantage of his father's condition. Remember, his father was almost blind at the time. And now his father-in-law had taken advantage of his condition. It was dark, and he'd been drinking.
And I believe that when he realized that it was Leah and what his father-in-law had done, it hit him. If he'd just been upfront about it to his father Isaac, Isaac would have probably done the right thing. But he and his mother just didn't trust.
Isaac to do the right thing. So guess what they did? They tricked him. And now he knows how his father must have felt.
Why didn't you just come to me? Why weren't you truthful? Why weren't you up front? I would have done the right thing.
And that's what he's thinking about Laban. Laban, why? Why didn't you just come to me and say, son, I can't give you Rachel until Leah is married. If you'll marry Leah.
Then I'll allow you also to marry Rachel later. And I believe in all my heart that Jacob would have done the right thing. I think he would have married Leah to get Rachel, but to be tricked was so cruel and so heartless and so hurtful, and not just to him.
Trust me, I can guarantee you Leah was hurt. Rachel was hurt. Hurt the whole dynamics of the family for years afterwards. But this is a good lesson for us. The end does not justify the means.
Look at Romans chapter 3, verses 7 and 8. For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as the sinner? Now, let me explain what this is saying. If me telling you a story, and I tell you it's a true story, because I know that it's going to touch your heart, it's going to pull your heartstrings, and you're going to make a decision for God.
So in essence, it's going to glorify God. If I tell that story and tell you it's true and it's really not, that's a lie. So the question is, if God is glorified through my lie, then why am I still judged as a sinner? Why am I a liar?
This is what this is saying. The end does not justify. the means.
And then it goes on. And not rather as we be slanderously reported, as some affirm that we say, let us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just. You see, they were accusing Christians of saying that Jesus was resurrected when he really wasn't resurrected. And good came out of it because people had better lives, more moral lives.
And they're saying, you're just saying that because you want people to live a more moral life. They said, you don't understand the way Christianity works. You don't understand our God. In Christianity, the end does not justify the means.
And people, that's the difference between Christianity and the Islamic faith. The Koran tells you that you can lie to your enemies to further the Islamic faith. That's why their world and their culture is so messed up.
even today. You go there, they can lie right to your face. You can't trust them any further than you can throw them.
The president of Iran is not a rational man. And if you don't understand that, you're a fool. That's as simple as it is.
Now, the scripture says that they tricked Isaac, in order to get the blessing, in order to get God's will. But for Jacob, it hit him. The end doesn't justify the means.
You know what? If Laban would have just come to me, I'd have done the right thing. And if I'd have just gone to my daddy, I wouldn't be up here running from my brother afraid.
I wouldn't be up here penniless. I'd have a good relationship, and this would have been done right. I could have paid the bridal price.
I could have taken her home to my family. All of this wouldn't have happened if I'd just done things right. But let's get back to Genesis.
Let's read verses 26 through 30. It's not our custom here to marry off a younger daughter ahead of the firstborn, Laban replied. But wait until the bridal week is over, then we'll give you Rachel too, provided you promise to work another seven years for me. Why? You slept with Leah.
Maximum bridal price. So now that doesn't count. You want Rachel?
Another seven years. So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. A week after Jacob had married Leah, Laban gave him Rachel too. So he didn't have to wait another seven years.
He only had to wait seven days, finish out the bridal festivities, and then he brought to him Rachel, and he was able to have two wives within one week. Laban gave Rachel a servant, Bilhah, to be her maid. That's put in there so that we'll understand what takes place later on. So, after the bridal week was over, Laban gave Rachel to Jacob on the condition that he serve another seven years, which he did.
Now, here's what's amazing to me. Jacob never blamed Leah, ever. Not once did Jacob ever berate Leah. In fact, years later...
When he's got all of this pent-up anger towards Laban, and it finally comes out, and he accuses him of everything that he's ever done. He accuses Laban of deceiving him. He accuses him of changing his wages ten times. And he finally accuses him of trying to turn him away empty-handed by keeping what he had promised to pay him. But never once, even when he had let loose on Laban, did he ever say one bad thing about Leah.
Never. Ever. And I personally believe that the reason that he never blamed her is because he'd done the very same thing, all because he was trying to be obedient to his mother. If you remember, Jacob did not come up with the plan to trick Isaac.
That was Mama. And Jacob said, Mama, let's not do this. If he discovers it's me, he's going to curse me.
Let's not do this. And she tells him, you just do what I tell you to do. And here he is, a 40-year-old man. Knowing it's wrong, he listens to his mother because he wants to be obedient to her.
So he understands Leah's predicament, and he never held it against her. He didn't say no to his mother when he should have, so how could he blame Leah for not saying no to her father when she did? And I can imagine Leah.
I can imagine when Rachel finds out that Jacob wants to marry, and he's promised to work seven years, she says, But Daddy, what about Leah? I can't get married until she's married. And daddy says, don't worry about that. I'll take care of it. And Leah comes to him and says, daddy, I heard that you'll take care of it.
Well, how am I going to get married? You've already promised Rachel. And he says, don't worry about it. I've got a plan.
Just don't say anything. And for seven years, till they get to that wedding day, and Laban comes in and says, Rachel, take those clothes off. Leah, put those clothes on. And Rachel says, what?
And he says, do what I tell you to do. And Leah's put in this predicament. He says, honey, I told you, I got a plan. She can't get married until you're married.
This will all work out. Just listen to me. Why?
Because he didn't trust that Jacob would do the right thing. And that's why we do what we do. That's why we do things that we know is wrong, and we try to justify it in the sense that, well, the end justifies the means. Because we don't trust that God can work it out if we do what's right.
And look at the heartache it cost.