In today’s passage, the trickster is tricked. Remember, he and Rebekah had conspired to trick his blind father, to make Isaac bless him instead of his twin brother Esau. Well, on the morning he woke up to discover Leah in his bed instead of his beloved Rachel, Jacob realized he had met his match in his uncle Laban. And Laban knew his lovestruck nephew well enough to know that, in this way, he could marry off both of his daughters and get 14 years of free labor in the bargain.

But that wasn’t the only difficult hand Jacob was dealt. His uncle’s trickery guaranteed that strife would continue to mark his family. Because Jacob loved Rachel and overlooked Leah, his two jealous wives would spend years jockeying for his attention. We cannot doubt there would be little peace in his household.

How do we respond when things happen to us that just aren’t fair? Well, if we’ve done the same sort of thing to others, our suffering can move us to repentance and help us resolve never to cause such pain to others again. We can only hope that Jacob’s experience led him to be sorry for the way he had treated his twin brother Esau.

But if we think life has been unfair to us, we can just as easily become hardened in our sin. After all, Jacob had to have resented the way his father preferred Esau. But instead of learning from that experience and resolving to treat everyone in his family with equity, Jacob openly preferred Rachel to Leah, thus reproducing the same sort of family conflict in which he himself had grown up. His attitude thus reveals a lingering bitterness, a wish that things had gone his way, and that he had only married Rachel.

As difficulties face you today, which path will you choose? Will you let them lead you down the road of repentance? Or will you go on in bitterness and resentment?

Genesis 29:15-30 (ESV)

15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
18 Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.”
20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.”
22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.
23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.
24 (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.)
25 And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
26 Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.”
28 Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
29 (Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.)
30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.