Wedding night Jacob is going to learn a lesson in the school of hard knocks.
Oldest Leah, weak eyes=poor vision(nearsighted), pale eyes, light colored= in a culture that valued dark, fiery oriental eyes, eyes were best feature compared to her beautiful sister, Rachel had a great figure( how could you tell under all those clothes?) Willing to work 7 yrs= seems incredible in our instant gratification culture to wait, for anything that long, but he does because READ Genesis 29:18-20 this should be a foreshadowing, he has to remind Laban, time’s up, I want to get married.Ĭ. Jacob came w/nothing, says he’ll work 7 yrs for Rachel. Sounds generous of Laban but actually saying “if you’re going to stay here, you’re going to need to work” Jacob was used to hard work but it was in the position of being the wealthy son of Isaac, now he would be the servant of Laban, his hard knock life begins. why aren’t you watering the animals= we can’t yet, whether the well belonged to Laban or it was the custom to wait until all the herds were there we don’t know but Rachel finally gets to the well, the first thing Jacob does is roll the top off the well and water her flocks and then READ Genesis 29:11 insight into Jacob’s character, tender and affectionate man, looking at Rachel perhaps thinking this is my mother’s family, this is my cousin, here is my uncle Laban, hugs, kisses but in about a month the party over. do you know my relatives= yes, here comes his daughter Rachel. To him this is unusual, thirsty animals and a covered up well, so he starts a conversation, where you from= Haran. Jacob finally reaches Paddam Aram (MAP) sees a well, sheep, shepherds waiting around to water the animals. Jacob determined flees from Laban - Genesis 31:1-55 I. Jacob dealing bargains for wages - Genesis 30:25-43 Jacob divided has children - Genesis 29:31 -30:24 Jacob deceived has double wedding - Genesis 29:1-30
It was that strong will that God took and put back on the potter’s wheel and through a series of hard knock life lessons, difficult circumstances, God is refining Jacob, God is using the 20 years of hard knocks in Laban’s household to prepare him to return home, to fulfill His purposes for this man. Last week we saw Jacob’s deception, his scheming, his manipulating to get the Blessing but even in those wrong methods God saw the potential in Jacob that never seemed to be in Esau, the potential to value the spiritual and yet God also saw in Jacob the strong will that was bent on doing things his way. He can mold us, make us, refine us as He chooses, “shaping as seemed best to him” Scriptures tell us Jeremiah 18/Romans 9 that we are like clay in God the potter’s hands. WATCH VIDEO Without the song and dance, if we were going to describe this period in the life of Jacob, it would be his “hard knocks” I love Broadway musicals don’t you? One of my all-time favorites is Annie, life of little orphan Annie, one of my favorite songs is it’s a “Hard Knock Life” describing the misery of growing up in an orphanage.