Love at first sight – and then seven years of waiting!

Challenge: Take fifteen minutes today to read Genesis chapters 29 to 31.

I promise you – you won’t be disappointed. This series of events would make a great film script. Honestly, you couldn’t make it up.

I’m not going to spoil your reading by retelling the story here – you really will have to find a Bible and read it yourself. And if you haven’t got one, do not fear – follow this link on Bible Gateway and you can read it on your phone or laptop!

You see – I told you it was good. I bet you’d never before considered the parentage of the sons of Jacob when singing along to ‘Jacob and Sons’.

What a love story….love at first sight, followed by seven years of waiting and working and longing…..

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Genesis 29:20

….and then deceit and disappointment and rivalry and seven more long years of work.

I’ve always felt sorry for Leah. We like that name when I was pregnant with Keir – Andy liked the idea of Luke and Leah (as in Stars Wars!) and I liked the sound of it – but we couldn’t get passed thinking of Leah as the ugly one, the unfortunate one, the one that Jacob didn’t love, the resentful one. Poor Leah. Everyone deserves to be loved.

And how did Jacob not realise he was in bed with Leah and not Rachel? It must have been some feast!

 When morning came, there was Leah! Genesis 29:25

Lol.

It is inconceivable for us to believe that God would allow one woman to conceive and not another – that would just be too cruel. Some women go through hell trying to conceive and longing for a child. To my mind, I think this is how the people of the day explained that which was inexplicable…..matters of science and weather and health that were beyond human understanding were blamed on the gods – or God.

Chapter 30 opens with the already familiar themes of jealousy and sibling rivalry –

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” Genesis 30:1

And what can I say? Mandrake plants must be pretty amazing – equivalent to a few bars of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk maybe!

To be honest, I don’t get the whole streaked and speckled and spotted bit, but deceit rears its head again and so does an early spot of genetic engineering!

I wonder if Jacob really did have a dream in which God told him to move on or was that just wishful thinking? And what on earth possessed Rachel to steal her father’s household gods? And not being able to stand up because she was on her period? A stroke of female genius! (how much do we get away with because of ‘the time of the month’ I wonder?)

At least all is well that ends well. For now. Many family feuds rumble on for years causing untold pain and suffering without any hope of reconciliation.

And so the stage is set for the all too familiar story of Joseph and his amazing technicolour dreamcoat. Bring it on!