"Here Come the Brides"

 

Genesis 29:15-28

July 26, 2026

 

Then Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?"  Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.  Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was graceful and beautiful.  Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."  Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me."  So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

 

Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed."

So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.  But in the evening he  took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.  (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.)

 

When morning came, 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?"  Laban said, "This is not done in our country--giving the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years."

 

Jacob did so and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.

 

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            I’m going to ask David Bryant to play through a piece of music I downloaded this past week. It was recorded in 1968 by everyone’s favorite rapper: Perry Como.  The title is “Seattle”.

 

            So what does this have to do with Jacob and Laban and Rachel and Leah (and Zilpah, not to forget her)?  This music was the theme song for a TV series set in the early days of Seattle that ran for two seasons.  The series was called “Here Come the Brides”.  That would be a good title for this further incident in Jacob’s life.

 

            Having gone on the run for having scammed his brother one time too many, he reached his uncle Laban’s house, where his mother had assured him he would be safe.  Well… yes and no.  He was safe from his brother’s threats to kill him but he was not safe, as it turned out, from Laban taking advantage of Jacob’s affection for his daughter Rachel.  Jacob worked seven years for Laban as the bride-price to marry her, only to discover after it was too late that it had been her older sister Leah beneath the bridal veil and that he would have to work another seven years for Laban to rectify the situation.  During that seven years, Jacob (and not Laban) would be supporting Leah, his unexpected second wife, so that would have been a bonus for his now father-in-law.  Laban may have softened any hard feelings that Leah had by giving her her own slave, Zilpah, to take care of her.  Jacob would have to support Zilpah, too. 

 

This marriage had become a windfall for Laban and a serious financial burden for Jacob.  It made Jacob’s trickery toward Esau look like the work of an amateur.  If you read on, as I hope you will, you’ll see that Jacob’s response was, “Game on!”  He had seven years to break even at Laban’s expense, and he set about it right away.

 

Now, I am not endorsing the practice of fraud or deceit.  We have all seen the harm they do.  Everybody has a story about the relative or neighbor who was taken to the cleaners, or almost, by a fake letter from the IRS or a phone call from a non-existent credit bureau.  Last year I had to deal with a check stolen from a mailbox at the Exton Post Office that somebody altered and tried to deposit at a bank in Delaware.  It is not possible to guard against every single bad actor.  Laban and Jacob’s back-and-forth contest ultimately hurt both of them and depended (in the part of the story we heard today) on the exploitation of women who were treated as property or at best as financial investments.

 

Nevertheless, this story illustrates a couple of observation that Jesus made.  He saw that

 

“The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” [Luke 16:8]

 

So he warned his disciples,

 

“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” [Matthew 10:16]

 

Which is to say, “You have been given great gifts.  Use them always for good and never for evil.”

Street smarts are not necessarily a bad thing.  They can do some good.  In fact, you may need them.

 

            Jesus had to handle some delicate situations and there were people who wanted him out of the way, Luke tells us.

 

“So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.  So they asked him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth.  Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’  But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, ‘Show me a denarius.  Whose head and whose title does it bear?’  They said, ‘The emperor’s.’  He said to them, ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’” [Luke 20:20-25]

 

Know the people you’re dealing with.  Laban did.  Soon Jacob did, too.  Others have used the same ability, too, and for better ends than theirs.

 

Paul wanted to get the attention of the Greek philosophers when he visited Athens, so he went where they gathered, and he spoke in their terms.  In the synagogues he would begin with the scriptures, but here he began with a quotations about an overarching god taken from a Stoic philosopher and another Greek playwright.

 

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’” [Acts 17:28]

 

He didn’t win many over, but they did listen, which was more than most outsiders got.  It was worth a try.  Again, as Jesus said when he was using parables to teach,

 

“Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” [Matthew 52]

 

            If only Jesus’ followers used all of our creativity and ingenuity to share the good news – the way he did, looking around him at how people behaved in the marketplace or at a wedding or noting how seeds grow or which houses hold up when there is a flood. He took bread and wine left over after the Passover meal and turned them into a pledge of his ongoing presence. 

 

Surely he’s given us plenty of examples of how to understand and experience God’s love, which is all around us to be known and shared.  Maybe even an old Perry Como tune from an unsuccessful TV show could somehow be repurposed.  Who knows?  God is a real artist at that.

 

 

 

 

“God the Artist”   (Tune: Seattle)

 

There’s a rhythm to this world

the Lord has given.

There’s a timing to the whirlwind

that we live in.

When we listen we hear

through each laugh and each tear

how God’s love is breaking through

with a symphony that’s new –

maybe jazz, or even blues –

songs of heaven,

songs of heaven.

 

There’s a story God will tell

if we let him.

There’s a poetry as well

            rhyming heaven.

When we’d spoiled the plot,

            graceful language forgot,

Then the Word came down to earth

            and his love restored our worth.

Now he offers us new birth and

            resurrection,

            resurrection.

 

There’s a texture to the way

            God’s hand shapes us.

From the basic dust and clay

            he awakes us.

Then his brush decorates

            our lives with a glaze

that will shimmer and will shine

            and reflect his light divine;

God’s own glory in his time

            overtakes us,

            overtakes us.