TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 29:15-28
TO CHEW ON: "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?'" Genesis 29:25
Jacob eventually found his mother’s relatives in Haran. There he got work with his uncle Laban. He also fell in love with Laban’s beautiful daughter Rachel. Laban told Jacob he could marry Rachel if he worked for him seven years.
Seven years pass quickly. Now it was the wedding day. But after the party was over, Jacob found his uncle had married him to Leah, Rachel’s older sister. (In that time women’s wedding clothes included veils to hide their faces.)
“Why did you deceive me?” Jacob asked his uncle. Now Jacob found out how Esau felt when he was tricked.
Jesus said, “Whatever measure you use will be used towards you and even more than that.” (Mark 4:24 Phillips). As Jacob discovered, the way we treat others becomes the way others treat us.
PRAYER: Dear God, help me to treat others the way I would want to be treated. Amen.
SUPERSIZE IT: Two Wives!?
In Bible times it was common for men to have more than one wife. This is called polygamy.
Even though many people had more than one wife, it led to problems. Usually the husband liked one wife more than the others. There was often jealousy and quarreling among the wives.
Sometimes kings had several wives for political power. They married foreign princesses to make alliances with other nations.
Later in the Bible, most marriages were monogamous (one wife, one husband). They followed God’s plan for marriage given in Genesis: “...a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)