000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

68 Proper 12 [17]/Year A
At a well—a symbol of generativity and a place where couples met one
another for the first time (Proper 9/Year A)—the shepherdess Rachel
appeared. Women were seldom shepherdesses in those days, so we realize
that she exercised unusual agency, like many other women in Genesis.
Rebekah, for instance, acts as decisively as Abraham in responding to the
possibility of going to the promised land (Proper 9/Year A).When Rachel
realizes that the newcomer is her cousin, she tells her brother Laban, who
receives Jacob (Gen. 29:9–14).
Commentators are divided on the meaning of Laban’s questions in Genesis
29:15. Does Laban express genuine concern for Jacob? Or does he fake
concern with an eye toward taking advantage of Jacob’s remarkable strength
and skill (Gen. 29:10)? Or does Laban degrade Jacob to the place of a hired
laborer? Regardless of the interpretation of that issue, it is soon clear that
Jacob pays the price for the deception that he visited on Esau and Isaac.
The Bible seldom mentions romantic love between women and men,
and previously has only spoken of such love between Isaac and Rebekah
(Gen. 24:67). Thus the reader recognizes the depth of feeling Jacob has
for Rachel when the text says simply, “Jacob loved Rachel” (Gen. 29:18;
cf. v. 20). Jacob, not having a bride price, agreed to serve seven years for
Rachel. Here is another irony: Jacob, who was accustomed to other people
serving him, agreed to serve for Rachel.
At the end of seven years, a wedding occurred. Jacob spent the night
with the bride and in the morning was dumbfounded to find “it was Leah”
(Gen. 29:25), Rachel’s older sister. While contemporary folk may not
undersand how Jacob could have made this mistake, the narrator either
assumed that ancient people would be familiar with how such a thing
could happen (the bride wore a veil; it was night) or was not concerned
about such details. The point is that Jacob has been duped in the way that
he duped Esau and Isaac.
When Jacob protested, Laban noted that in Haran the older daughter
was married prior to the younger. Jacob, the younger brother, has now
been supplanted by custom. Jacob then worked another seven years for
Rachel.
Leah suffered an indignity when Jacob expressed a preference for
Rachel, and the text ends on the plaintive note that Jacob “loved Rachel
more than Leah” (Gen. 29:30). Ironically, Rachel was initially barren while
Leah gave birth to Levi and Judah (from whom descended the priests and
the Davidic line) as well as Reuben, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah,
and Leah’s maid bore Gad and Asher. Rachel’s maid gave birth to Dan and
Naphtali, and eventually Rachel herself bore Joseph and Benjamin.