When Work Is a "Win-Win"
The story of Jacob's "Great Resignation" begins in Genesis 29 with Jacob leaving his home and setting out for Paddan-aram, his mother's hometown. His uncle, Laban, welcomes him in, and he works for Laban while he is staying at Laban's home. After one month, Laban approaches Jacob and tells him that he does not want to take advantage of the fact that Jacob is a family member, so in addition to providing room and board, he insists on paying Jacob additional wages, and asks Jacob to set the wage.
Jacob has fallen in love with Laban's younger daughter, Rachel, and wants to marry her. The custom in that culture at the time would have been that Jacob would have to pay Laban some type of "bride price". This is different than a dowry; a dowry is money or property that a bride's family brings into a marriage. However, in a culture where a bride price was paid, women did a significant amount of the work and the bride price was compensation paid to the bride's family for the loss of her labor when it was expected that she would reside with her husband and/or his family. In some cases (as in this one), paying a bride price (or a dowry) also affected the bride's future inheritance.
Because Jacob has no money or assets with which to pay Laban for Rachel's hand in marriage, Jacob offers to work for Laban for 7 years in exchange for the right to marry Rachel. Although it's not specifically stated here, other verses imply that there were other tangible wages paid to Jacob as well, though we are not told what they are.
The 7 year commitment Jacob offers to make is significant. The number 7 symbolized completion in the Old Testament, and later in the Old Testament, bond servants (someone who worked for someone else in order to pay off a debt, as Jacob was proposing here) were typically relieved of their debt/obligation every 7 years.
Laban agrees to this arrangement, and the first 7 years of employment seem like a win-win for everyone; Jacob works for Laban for 7 years in exchange for room, board, some wages, and the opportunity to marry the love of his life, Rachel.* In fact, in verse 20, it says that Jacob's love for Rachel was so strong that 7 years seemed like a few days!
Unfortunately, things don't end well. After 7 years and a wedding feast (which I am guessing probably involved a significant amount of alcohol, although we are not specifically told that), Laban tricks Jacob into sleeping with his older daughter, Leah, instead of his younger daughter, Rachel, claiming that it is customary to marry off the older daughter before the younger one. Jacob is furious! And he is now in a dilemma; if he fails to recognize Leah as his wife, she will be disgraced. But he is in love with Rachel, and worked for 7 years so that he could marry Rachel.
Whenever I read this portion of scripture in the past, I always assumed this was about Leah; that Leah had few marriage prospects and Laban wanted to make sure she was married. But that doesn't add up. Leah was an asset to Laban - a worker in his business; he had every reason to want to keep her with him, unmarried. In addition, Jacob had already met his obligation to Laban; if all Laban was concerned about was finding a husband for Leah, he could have just allowed Jacob to marry them both (polygamous marriages were very common at that time). But Laban insists on a second term of employment for Jacob; Jacob can marry Rachel too, but he has to work another 7 years for Laban!
The truth is, this isn't at all about Leah. It's about Laban. His goal is not a husband for Leah ... his goal is to exploit Jacob for Jacob's labor.
* When I say a "win-win for everyone", it could actually be said that it was a win-win for everyone except Rachel (and, eventually, Leah) - at least financially. Fortunately, both Rachel and Leah seemed to be in love with Jacob, so I don't think either one had concerns about marrying him. However, both women express displeasure toward the end of the story at the way that their father treated them. "He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you (Jacob) paid him for us." (Genesis 31:15) They openly objected to the fact that their father had treated them like a commodity and, by agreeing to a bride price, had eliminated any potential inheritance for them. That's pretty "progressive" for roughly 2000 years B.C./B.C.E.! In the end, their love, affection, and loyalty is with Jacob and they willingly leave their father and their homeland to be with him. And, in the end, God ensures that they are able to take all that they would have potentially inherited with them. (Genesis 31:16)
© I Lift My Voice, 2022.
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