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Let me remind you of where we finished off last time.

“And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant. When morning came, there was Leah!” (Expand)

(Genesis 29: 24)

How do you explain that? This is this is where it gets to be fun to read how all the different commentaries try to explain this. Let me give you some of the possibilities as to what people think has gone on here. 

One - it was dark, which is probably true, by the way. Two - Somebody suggested that Jacob ate too much food or drank to much and fell asleep when Leah arrived at his tent. Somebody even had the creative idea that Leah put on Rachel’s clothes and perfume. One commentator suggested that a number of factors may have contributed to his unawareness. There was absolutely no reason for suspicion, they say Jacob would have he had no reason to think that this was going to happen, and she was brought in under the cover of darkness. The two sisters had a similar physical resemblance and stature. Another says perhaps Jacobs was intoxicated and all the drinking at the feast had clouded his mind. I know of some experts who say she would also have been veiled. I knew of someone from India, and he says that his father told him he did not see his mother’s face until three days after the wedding. I believe it was still customary among some in India for the bribe to remain veiled until after the completion of the marriage ceremony. Interesting it still happens today. Can you imagine what Jacob was feeling when he found he was with Leah not Rachael, out he must have been furious? Verse 25 will tell us how he felt, and we will pick it up there.

“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”? Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”

(Genesis 29: 25-27)

That is one of the major points of this story, you deceived me Jacob says. Interesting to me that Jacob previously deceived his father to get the blessing instead of his brother, and this is a case of the deceiver getting deceived. Is it really appears to be a case of what goes around comes around, well we unpack this further next time.

Jacob accuses Laban of deceiving him and Laban says it is not their custom to give the younger before the first-born daughter. I did it because the oldest has to be married first. Jacob says, why didn’t you tell me that seven years ago instead of tricking me on the wedding night? You deceived me. Laban says finish you final week for Leah and serve me for another seven years for Rachael. You promise to work for me for seven more years and you can have Racheal as well. So, Jacob fulfilled his week, and he gave him his daughter, Rachel as his wife also. They got married, but he had to spend the next seven years working for Laban to fulfil the contract because he got her ahead of time.

“And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 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.

(Genesis 29: 28-29)

This all will becomes significant in the next chapter late, but here is what is going on up until this point. The deceiver was deceived, Jacob had pretended to be the older brother, and now Leah, pretends to be the younger sister.  Leah and her father deceived Jacob, just as Jacob and Rebecca had previously deceived Isaac.

Jacob had deceived Isaac by taking advantage of his inability to see due to his poor eyesight. Also, Laban takes advantage of Jacob by taking advantage of his inability to see in a dark tent. Laban and Leah were just as deceitful as Jacob had been. One commentator says this is about one of the meanest tricks ever played. Let me sum this up and let me make some observations. The sum is simple enough, . The Lord led Jacob to his relatives so that he could get away and at the same time the Lord allowed the deceiver to be deceived maybe in order to teach him not to deceive. 

What I want to do now is break this story down into some simple observations. The things I believe we should take away from this message. For example, I think one of the things is that’s here is God blesses his children. That is clearly going on, he promised that he would give the land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob., how many times have we heard this going through the Book of Genesis. That’s what’s going on here and in order for God to fulfil his promise, Jacob has got to have a wife. In one sense, he’s providing a wife so that he can fulfil his promise. What’s fascinating to me is God worked through human deception in order to get that done. No matter what people do, God is faithful to his promise to bless his children. The second lesson I would take from this is God blesses his children and disciplines his children. In the context of the Book of Genesis, you cannot read this story without being struck by the fact that he deceived his father. Somebody once  said Jacob was getting exactly what he deserved and had to work the seven extras’ years as a payment for what should have been his by ordinary means.

The writer begins to draw an important lesson from these narratives. Jacobs deceptive schemes for obtaining the blessing did not meet with divine approval. Through Jacobs plans God’s will still be accomplished, the writer is intent on pointing out as well that the schemes and tricks were not Gods plan. The Bible makes that statement over and over again in.  Proverbs 11 and proverbs 22 and Hosea 810, and 11/6 verse 7 all show human plots and schemes being used by God to bring about his purposes. What Jacod did to Esau was underhanded, despicable, and mean and what Laban did was also underhanded, despicable, and mean, in other words. What goes around comes around. However, it should be noted that that principle, while it’s often true, is not always the case. It’s true, in this case, it may be true in our case, but it’s not true necessarily in every case.  In other words, there are exceptions. Some people do not get caught in this life, but they have to face the judge of all the earth in the next life. God blesses his children, God disciplines his children. Maybe we could re-phrase that by saying God teaches his children, sometimes through discipline. 

At Bethel, in the the previous chapter, Jacob wrestled with the Lord, and he learned some things about God. Now he’s in Haran and he learned some things about his own wicked heart. God is in the business of teaching his children about himself and about themselves. When I’m about to say I think is often misunderstood but important. I just said, God bless his children, right and God disciplines his children, right? I’m going to add he often does both these things at the same time. And that’s what this story is really teaching us.  We tend to think that God either blesses you or disciplines you. The truth is that in the process of blessing, he sometimes disciplines. I want to say God remains faithful to his promises to bless his people, but in the process he may well be disciplining you also. Sometimes bringing to bear the consequence of previous unresolved sins.

We think we tend to think in black and white. When in reality all of these things sometimes happen at the same time. I think the great illustration of that is what happened after the children of Israel refused to go into the land at Kadesh Barnia. God said, because you wouldn’t go into the land like I told you, you’re going to wander in the wilderness for the next 40 years. That was the discipline to teach them to obey.  In the meantime, as they wandered around, he fed them, supernaturally blessed them also. Therefore, God blesses his and disciplines them all at the same time.  All those observations I’ve made I think are in this passage, and I think they’re worth noting, but the one great lesson is, the deceiver got deceived.  Therefore, take note and be careful what you do, because like a boomerang it may come back to you. The cheater can gets cheated. The liar gets lied to and the thief get robbed and the deceiver gets deceived. Sometimes those who live by the sword, dies by the sword.What goes around? Comes around.

How can I illustrate this? You know my love of illustrations and stories. The story is in the books in the Genesis sends the message in its own right. But there is another story, and I thought I would end with it. 

Remember Aesop. He lived 600 years before Christ and he’s very famous for creating what we call Aesop’s Fables. Aseop tells the story of the Fox, the donkey and the lion.  As he told the story, the donkey and the fox, entered into partnership together for their mutual protection, went out into the forest to hunt. They had not proceeded far when they met a Lion. The Fox, seeing imminent danger, approached the Lion and promised to contrive to help him capture of the Donkey if the Lion would pledge his word not to harm him, the fox. He said if I fix it so that you can get the donkey without stalking him, can I go for free? And the lion said, yes. So, the fox goes back to the donkey and says come on, let’s go, and then he led him to where he knew where someone had dug a trap and he fixed it so that the donkey fell in the trap. Then the box goes to the lion and says done deal, the donkey is trapped for you. The lion looks in the hole and sees he’s got the donkey now and that donkey is not getting out of the hole, and he ate the fox right away saying I can now eat the donkey later at my leisure.

So the trickster was tricked, he was trapped by his own treachery. Well that one way to illustrate this but this story in its own right in the book in the Genesis sends the message in its own right better than any other I have ever read. The con man got conned. So be careful what you do, because what goes around may just come back around and God may teach you and disciplining at one and the same time so that he might bless you in the future. 

Amen.