Genesis 29

When Jacob finally reaches his destination in what is now southern Turkey and he meets a young lady that he discovers is his cousin, “Jacob kissed Rachel. Then he began to cry” (29:11). The Bible doesn’t say why Jacob did either of those things. Why do you think he might have kissed Rachel and cried?

When Rachel ran to tell her father, Laban, that Isaac’s son had arrived, Laban must have had a sense of déjà vu. Years earlier he was there to see a caravan loaded with riches, led by a man on the hunt for a wife for 40-year-old bachelor Isaac (24:10). The moment he got the news that Isaac’s son had just arrived, what do you think was on his mind?

When Laban realizes Jacob came alone, without a caravan or bags of gold, he says, “We’re family. No doubt about it” (29:14). If you had to make the case that he was not being sincere, what evidence would you offer? And as a follow-up counterpoint, how would you defend the argument that he was, in fact, being sincere?

After Jacob has stayed with his uncle Laban for a month, you would think it might be time for Jacob to go back home. Instead, he tells Laban, “I will work for you for seven years if you’ll let me marry your younger daughter Rachel” (29:18). The Bible doesn’t say how Jacob arrived at seven years. Does that stretch of time sound to you like it’s coming from Jacob, Laban, or perhaps Rachel?

Rachel had an older sister, Leah. Jacob didn’t seem to feel anything hormonal toward her. And there was something going on with her eyes. Bible experts make all kinds of guesses. Some are complementary: “Leah had nice eyes” (29:17 Message). Most are not. Leah may have been “wide-eyed, bug-eyed, or maybe even cross-eyed.” Best guess, what do you think it was about Leah that failed to excite Jacob?

Explain this: how on the good Lord’s green earth could Jacob have married a woman and spent the honeymoon night with her and yet never realize until daylight that he had hitched his wagon to the wrong horse?

When you get to the part of the story with Jacob waking up beside Leah, how do you react to that? “The next morning, after Jacob woke up beside Leah, he had a question for his father-in-law, Laban. ‘What on earth have you done to me? Didn’t I work for you for the right to marry Rachel? Why have you cheated me?’” (29:25).

When Jacob confronts his father-in-law about the switcheroo, Laban defends himself by saying, “It’s not our custom here to marry off a younger daughter before the oldest daughter” (29:26). If you had been Jacob, what would you have said?

Jacob and Laban cut a deal. Jacob would work another seven years for Rachel, but he would get to take her as his wife in a week—right after Leah had her traditional weeklong wedding celebration. What choice do you think Jacob had? If he had asked Laban for a discount, maybe working just a year for Rachel, what would that have said about the value Jacob placed on Rachel? Can you think of a better deal Jacob could have worked out?

The Genesis writer says “The LORD saw that Jacob didn’t love Leah like he loved Rachel” (29:31). So God made Leah fertile enough to produce four boys in what seems to have been quick succession. Rachel, nada. Do you think the Genesis writer actually had the inside scoop on God intervening to help Leah? Or do you think it’s more likely that the Genesis writer simply presumed God did that because the writer, like many Jews of Old Testament times, believed that God was in control of everything that happened—the good, the bad, and the messy?

When you look at the names Leah gave her four sons, how do you react to those names (29:32-35)?

LIFE APPLICATION. This chapter in Genesis has four main characters: Jacob, Laban, Leah, Rachel. Without giving us names, if that would embarrass the person, tell us about someone you know who reminds you of one of these characters.