Seven Years for Rachel

A great stone lies over the mouth of a well. It is so heavy that the shepherds wait for every flock to arrive before they roll it away together. Then a dusty stranger sees a young woman coming with her father’s sheep, walks over, and moves that stone all by himself.

The stranger is Jacob, and he is on the run. He has tricked his older brother Esau out of their father’s blessing, and Esau is furious. So Jacob has travelled hundreds of miles north, to Haran, where his mother Rebekah’s family lives. On the way, God met him in a dream and promised to be with him wherever he went. Now Jacob reaches a field with a well in it, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, and a group of shepherds waiting in the sun.

“Friends, where are you from?” Jacob asks. “From Haran.” “Do you know Laban?” “We do. He’s well. And look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” Rachel is a shepherd, looking after her father’s flock. The moment Jacob sees her, he goes to the well, rolls the stone away, and waters every one of her sheep. Then he kisses her in greeting, and he bursts into tears. All that running, all that loneliness, and here, at last, is family. He tells her he is Rebekah’s son. Rachel runs home to tell her father, and Laban comes running too. He hugs Jacob, kisses him and takes him home. “You really are my own flesh and blood,” he says.

Jacob stays and works. After a month, Laban says, “You shouldn’t work for nothing just because you’re family. What do you want as your wages?” Now Laban has two daughters. The older one is Leah. Genesis says her eyes were weak, or perhaps tender; nobody is quite sure what the old word means. The younger is Rachel, and she is beautiful. Jacob loves Rachel. “I’ll work for you seven years,” he says, “for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban agrees. And here is one of the loveliest lines in the whole book. Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him only a few days, because he loved her so much.

At last the seven years are done. Laban throws a wedding feast and invites everyone. When evening comes, he brings his daughter to Jacob. But in the morning light, Jacob sees who it is. It is Leah. Jacob storms to Laban. “What have you done to me? I worked for Rachel! Why did you deceive me?” Laban doesn’t even blink. “Where we come from, we don’t give the younger daughter before the firstborn.” Firstborn. That word must have stung. Years before, Jacob had dressed up as his older brother to fool his blind father. Now, in the dark, he has been fooled by an older sister. Genesis doesn’t say “serves you right.” It just lets us notice.

Laban makes a new deal. “Finish the wedding week with this one, and we’ll give you Rachel too, in return for another seven years of work.” Jacob agrees. A week later Rachel becomes his wife as well, and Jacob works another seven years. It is not a neat, happy ending. Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah, and that hurts. But the very next verse says that God saw Leah, and cared for her. And from this tangled, unfair, hurting family, God would build the twelve tribes of Israel, just as he had promised.

Laban’s phrase, “fulfil her week,” points to a real custom. In the ancient Near East, a wedding was not a single afternoon. The feasting could last a whole week. The Bible shows the same custom later, when Samson’s wedding feast runs for seven days. As for how the trick worked, Genesis doesn’t explain. Many commentators suggest the bride was veiled, as Rebekah veiled herself before meeting Isaac, and that the evening darkness did the rest.

Jacob, Rachel and Leah. You’ll find their story in Genesis chapter 29, verses 1 to 30. Jacob found out how it feels to be tricked, and Leah found out how it feels to be overlooked, and God was at work in both of their lives. So here’s a question to carry with you. When life feels unfair, can you trust that God still sees you?