Genesis 29 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Genesis 29:1-14

1 Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

4 Jacob asked the shepherds, ‘My brothers, where are you from?’

‘We’re from Harran,’ they replied.

5 He said to them, ‘Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?’

‘Yes, we know him,’ they answered.

6 Then Jacob asked them, ‘Is he well?’

‘Yes, he is,’ they said, ‘and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.’

7 ‘Look,’ he said, ‘the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.’

8 ‘We can’t,’ they replied, ‘until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.’

9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. 12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.

13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, ‘You are my own flesh and blood.’

A. Find Out:

1. Who did Jacob first encounter in this new land? v.4
2. Who arrived shortly after? v.6
3. What did Jacob do for her? v.10
4. How did he seem to feel about her? v.11
5. What did she do? v.12
6. How did Laban receive him? v.13,14

B. Think:

1. Why would flocks be important to the people of Haran?
2. Why would water be so important to them?
3. How was Jacob’s action in watering Rachel’s sheep apparently a bold one?

C. Comment:

Jacob has travelled many miles and now approaches Haran where he comes across a well, the watering point for the local shepherds. Rachel is a shepherdess and shortly after he arrives, she brings her sheep to receive drink. A chance encounter? No, there aren’t “chance” encounters with the Lord! Years before, Abraham’s servant had come to this same area and had had a “chance encounter” with Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, and he had recognized the hand of God in it then (see Genesis 24:10-27 esp. v.27)

Jacob stands in stark contrast to the shepherds that were already there. They were cautious and would not remove the stone until all the flocks were there; there was a certain community spirit about them. Jacob, on the other hand, acts boldly and as a loner. Here is his possible cousin and he is going to bless her straight away with his help. It is as if he puts her at the head of the queue. As he reveals to her that he is her cousin he is deeply moved and weeps at having found her. This twister and deceiver reveals he can be moved emotionally, schemer though he may be.

D. Application?

1. Alert to “divine appointments” rather than “chance meetings”?
2. Ask the Lord to help you have free emotions that can weep for joy as well as in sadness.

Passage: Genesis 29:14-30

After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, ‘Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.’

16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder one was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, ‘I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.’

19 Laban said, ‘It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.’ 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.’

22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. 24 And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.

25 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?’

26 Laban replied, ‘It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the elder one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.’

28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 30 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What was Jacob obviously doing? v.15
2. How were Laban’s two daughters different? v.16
3. How long did Jacob work to “earn” Rachel? v.20
4. Who did Laban give Jacob on the feast night? v.23
5. What did he say was the reason for that? v.26
6. So what did Jacob have to do then? v.27

B. Think:

1. What does this passage show about Jacob?
2. What does it show about Laban?
3. How long did Jacob work for Laban for his wives?

C. Comment:

Our tendency today is if we want something, to want it instantly. In this respect, Jacob is a challenge to us, for he was prepared to work for seven long years to get his heart’s desire.

Laban is Rebekah’s brother. She is a schemer. So is he! Without saying anything he lets Jacob work for seven years and then, presumably in the dark and when Jacob may be influenced by drink, he sends Leah to Jacob as his bride. The old man has a perfectly logical and right sounding answer, so Jacob agrees to work a further seven years to get Rachel. His perseverance must have made Rachel feel good, but what must Leah have felt like, being given and then rejected?

It is ironic that Jacob, the twister, meets his match in his uncle, Laban. Very often the Lord confronts our sin or our failing by allowing us to be affronted by someone doing exactly the same to us as we have a tendency to do! God sometimes brings discipline or judgement in the same way as blessing, as Jesus said, “Do to others what you would have them do to you” so God sometimes chastises His children in this same way as well.

D. Application?

1. Do I have perseverance to keep working to achieve the goals of my heart? (see Psalm 37:4)
2. Ask the Lord to highlight any areas you need to deal with, rather than have Him have to deal with them through somebody else.

Passage: Genesis 29:31-30:8

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, [Reuben sounds like the Hebrew for he has seen my misery; the name means see, a son] for she said, ‘It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.’

33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.’ So she named him Simeon.[Simeon probably means one who hears.]

34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.’ So he was named Levi.[ Levi sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for attached]

35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.’ So she named him Judah.[ Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.] Then she stopped having children.

1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I’ll die!’

2 Jacob became angry with her and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?’

3 Then she said, ‘Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.’

4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, ‘God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.’ Because of this she named him Dan. [Dan here means he has vindicated]

7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, ‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.’ So she named him Naphtali. [Naphtali means my struggle]

A. Find Out:

1. What was Rachel’s problem? v.31
2. Write down the names of Leah’s first four sons & the reason she so named them.  v.32-35
3. How did Rachel respond to this? v.1
4. How did Jacob respond to her? v.2
5. What solution did Rachel suggest? v.3
6. Write down the names of the two sons from Rachel’s servant girl & the reasons she so named them. v.6-8

B. Think:

1. Observing the footnotes, how do the names given by the two sisters indicate their feelings?
2. How did the one who was unloved become fulfilled?
3. How did the one who was loved come to a place of desperation? What perhaps should she have done (see 1 Samuel 1:10 )

C. Comment:

We are seeing here the origins of one of the most famous nations in the world’s history, and from a human point of view it’s not a very good start! Note that the Lord steps in on the side of the unloved (just like Jesus when he came). The Lord is attributed as having enabled Leah to have children while Rachel remains barren. The names Leah gives the first two indicates her thankfulness to the Lord. With the third she hopes for her husband’s love but by the forth she determines to praise the Lord despite the absence of that love.

This state of affairs creates greater tension between Jacob and Rachel, who is now so desperate she is willing to get children even if it is via her maid. How amazing that God should have chosen THIS family to become His covenant nation. He takes what is humanly bent and makes something glorious out of it, but then that is what the Lord does with every one of us who becomes a Christian!

D. Application?

1. Can you praise the Lord even in difficulty? (see Habakkuk 3:17,18)
2. When it is not all working out well, do you seek the Lord or just use  human wisdom and endeavor?