Genesis 29:14-30: Jacob and His Wives
Bible Essentials: Set 3, Lesson 20
Opening
Individuals: Take time to think back about your past week. Where have you seen God work in your life or answer prayer? Write down any prayer requests you have.
Group: Open the study by sharing life updates, reviewing highs and lows of your past week, or sharing prayer requests and praises.
Icebreaker: What is the one thing in your life you have had to work hardest for?
All: Begin the study with a word of prayer, asking God to open your heart for today’s study. You can also pray for any prayer requests now, or save that for the end.
Study
Read today’s passage: Genesis 29:14-30.
After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”
22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. 24 And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.
25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
What is the context for this passage?
The last time we saw Jacob and Esau, Jacob had just stolen Esau’s blessing by disguising himself as Esau. This caused Esau to hate Jacob, and Esau consoled himself by promising to kill Jacob. Rebekah overheard this and told Jacob, sending him away to her brother Laban for safety. While he was on his way, Jacob had a dream, and in the dream, God confirmed to Jacob that he was now under the covenant that God had made with Abraham. God’s promise to Abraham would now extend to Jacob as well, including the promise of land, descendants, and blessing. Even more important, God’s presence would be with Jacob wherever he goes.
After the dream, Jacob promised to make God his God if God would grant him safety and success on his trip to live with Laban. Eventually, Jacob came to a place where some shepherds and their flocks were gathered, and he asked if they knew Laban. They pointed out Laban’s daughter, Rachel, who had just arrived with her flock of sheep. Jacob watered Rachel’s sheep and revealed who he was. Rachel ran back to her father and told him, and Laban embraced Jacob and brought him home.
Read the passage again.
Explore a different version if you have one available. If you are online, here is Genesis 29 in NIV through Bible Gateway. You can change the version by using the dropdown menu at the top right of the page.
Try to summarize the passage in your own words.
Answer these three questions about the passage:
1. What does the passage say about God?
God works even through the failings of humans to bring about his purposes. We don’t actually see God referred to directly in this passage, but it’s evident that God is still working. Despite Jacob’s preference for the “beautiful” daughter, and despite Laban’s deceit, God still worked to bring about his plan to make Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into a great nation.
2. What does the passage say about people?
People who work should get paid. While Jacob stayed with Laban, Jacob worked for Laban. Laban insisted on paying Jacob a wage for his work. Jacob had an interesting proposal: Instead of working for money, he would work for Rachel, Laban’s daughter.
People often judge others by their outward appearance. Jacob seemed to be somewhat superficial in his assessment of Laban’s daughters. He loved Rachel, who had a lovely figure and was beautiful. However, Jacob did not look as favorably on Leah, who had weak eyes. We don’t even know what the rest of Leah’s appearance was like, but it’s clear that Jacob favored the more beautiful daughter.
People are willing to work hard for love. Jacob loved Rachel, and he was willing to work for seven years for the opportunity to marry her. That’s a lot of work! And then when he was deceived and given Leah instead, he was willing to work another seven years for Rachel. If only people today were willing to work as hard to keep their marriages together!
People use deceit to get what they want. Deceit seems to be a theme in a lot of the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Both Abraham and Isaac used deceit when they claimed that their wives were their sisters. Jacob deceived Isaac to claim Isaac’s blessing before his death. And now we see Laban using deceit to get his first daughter married. Yet somehow, God works through it all.
People sometimes place their traditions above their word. When it came to giving his daughters away in marriage, Laban placed his traditions above his word. Laban had promised Jacob that Jacob could marry Rachel after seven years of work. But instead of honoring his word, Laban placed his traditions first. Tradition said that the older daughter must marry before the younger daughter. So Laban gave Leah to Jacob in marriage instead of Rachel.
3. What does the passage say about God’s plan?
God’s plan was for Jacob to be married to Laban’s daughters. God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would make them into a great nation, but Abraham and Isaac both had trouble bearing children. Abraham had to wait 25 years for Isaac to be born, and Isaac waited 20 years for Jacob and Esau to be born. This doesn’t seem like a good start to a great nation. But the great nation started to blossom with Jacob. Whereas only one son carried on God’s promise to Abraham and Isaac, all of Jacob’s sons would carry on God’s promise. For this, God gave him multiple wives—Leah and Rachel along with their attendants Zilpah and Bilhah.
How does the passage fit into the overarching story of the Bible?
Sometimes it’s easier to understand a passage if you have a little outside knowledge from other passages in the Bible. This section will help provide that outside perspective.
This story is where we see the foundation of God’s promise to make Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into a great nation being set up. God’s promise to Abraham only extended through one son—Isaac. God’s promise to Isaac only extended to one son—Jacob. Both Abraham and Isaac had other descendants through whom God’s blessing did not pass. But all that changes with Jacob. God’s blessing didn’t flow to only one of Jacob’s descendants. It flowed to all of them. Through Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, we see the 12 tribes of Israel be born. These tribes are the focus of the rest of the Old Testament and into the New Testament.
Discussion
Individual: Answer the following questions thoughtfully for yourself.
Group: Pose these questions for discussion.
All: If you are willing to share, I’d love to hear your thoughts to these questions. Feel free to use the comment section to start a discussion about this passage.
What else strikes you about this passage?
How does the passage affect how you view God? How you view yourself?
How does this passage affect how you will live your life?
Additional Study
For additional study related to this topic, read Romans 4:4, Luke 10:1-7, Matthew 20:1-16.
Premium Resources
For Bible Essential studies, you can use my thoughts as your devotional, or you can download and use the journaling sheet to work through the passage on your own. If desired, you can then compare your thoughts to mine. Journal sheets can be downloaded and used now or later. They can be printed and filled in by hand or saved and filled out electronically. Journal sheets are available for individual or group use.
If you plan to lead a group study, a PowerPoint presentation is also available.
You can access these resources by clicking here: Genesis 29 Resources
Or you can download the journal sheets here*:
*Substack doesn’t support PowerPoint file downloads yet, so if you want to access the PowerPoint file for group study, you will need to download it from the resource page linked above.
Karen's take on Genesis 29:14-30 was a rom-com rollercoaster! Jacob works 7 years for Rachel's hand, only to wake up with Leah. Classic mix-up! But love (and a bit more work) prevails. It's a biblical "How I Met Your Mother" with a twist.