COME AS A CHILD LESSON 79 FOURTEEN YEARS AND TWO BRIDES

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

In the next season of Jacob’s life, he comes to some very hard circumstances.  Sometimes our hard circumstances are not our own fault.  Often they are set into motion by the actions of others and we are simply caught in the middle.  It is our reaction that makes all the difference.  This is exactly what happened to Jacob.   His  own actions  had caused him to flee to his mother’s relatives in the first place, but; it was the actions of Laban that caused him to stay so long.

There are people who come along in history who seem to have been put there simply to cause chaos, confusion and trouble.  Laban was one of those people who by way of his family had been strategically placed in a position of power that he had not acquired from his own efforts.  He had earned nothing.  Everything was simply given to him.  As a child, being the only son, he was probably a spoiled brat!   He came into this comfortable place without logic or reason because he was simply born in the right place at the right time.  This was the man who was allowed to control the destiny of Leah and Rachel; his two beautiful and gifted sisters.   

Laban simply had all the family connections.  He was Rachel and Leah’s brother. He was the son of Bethuel, who was born of Nahor, who was Abraham’s oldest brother.   He was  Abraham’s great nephew, Isaac’s cousin and brother-in-law and Jacob’s cousin.  Jacob had to deal with Laban and it was Laban who caused all the troubles to happen.

Laban was a very busy and industrious man as he lived out his days in the land we now know as modern day Iraq/Syria/Turkey between the two rivers called the Tigress and Euphrates. Laban was ALWAYS plotting.  He was ALWAYS scheming.  He looked for every opportunity.  He was constantly asking himself; ” how can I get something from nothing?”  With Laban, money and possessions were the key to everything.  He could never get enough.  

 Not only was Laban materialistic and greedy; he was also evil and pagan.   Some of the pagan practices of Laban had to do with the culture that he grew up in.  This place where Laban lived was his inherited home.  He had inherited it from Abraham's family of origin.  Abraham had stepped out in faith and journeyed from Ur, then the whole family had come to the place Laban now called home.  God had brought Abraham to this area for awhile but God had commanded Abraham to move on.  Many of Abraham’s relatives had been traveling with him until he arrived in this particular part of the earth where they then decided to quit traveling with Abraham and stayed in the area.

 These relatives of Abraham had chosen to live in a land that knew nothing of The One True God.  Laban, living in this same pagan place, had spent years and years of his life surrounded by idolatry.  He showed an outward appearance of worshiping Jacob’s God from time to time, but it was not true.  He also worshiped other gods.  He thought nothing of it.  This practice of idolatry in the land had been a detestable thing to Abraham, however; and even if it meant departing from his family of origin, Abraham and Sarah had chosen to move on.  They had left their relatives and moved to the next place that God commanded them to live. 

Laban is known in Midrashic literature as Laban HaRamai.  It means “Laban the Deceiver.”   He truly lived up to his name!  Though Jacob himself had previously been guilty of the evil sin of deception, this time it was Laban, not Jacob, who was to blame.  

As we follow the scriptures through the formation of The Great Family  we will discuss later in more detail a story concerning a wall that was erected by Laban and Jacob at another time when they were agreeing to a truce.   I only vaguely bring this up now because it is interesting to note that according to the Midrash; Balaam the Aramite prophet in this later story  was summoned by the Moabite King Balak to curse the Children of Israel on the eve of their entry into the Holy Land.  This person we hear called Balaam the Aramite prophet is the very same Laban living under a different identity.  It is simply another time of deception for Laban.  Of course this all happened years and years later than our story today, and it remains another story of its own.  However, our bibles, in telling of Balaam and Balak and the Children of Israel do not point this out, perhaps to keep the story simple and easy to follow.  I wish to point it out here simply so you can better see the continuous pattern of deception in the life of Laban, even after Jacob. 

It is also explained that the wall (or pillar) against which Balaam’s ass crushed the prophet’s leg in this later story (Numbers 22:25) is the very pillar erected by Laban and Jacob on Mount Gilead.   According to this story written in the Midrash; Laban/Balaam was more than 400 years old when he was finally killed in Israel’s war with Midian.  It would seem from reading these much later facts that Laban never repented from his deceptive ways and never changed in the eyes of God.

The whole point in giving you those pieces of history so early is to clarify just how very deceptive Laban was.  This man carried deception to an art form.  He was the expert!  Jacob had met his match in the area of deception when he came to know Laban. 

Reading between the lines we can easily determine that Laban was evil.  He worshiped idols and had a house full of them.  He had inherited them from Abraham’s father who was an idol worshiper that had actually sold idols for a living before converting to worship The One True God he learned about from his son Abraham.  That was not the case with Laban.  Laban had not converted at all.

So we see this pagan idol worshiper who is greedy and evil inviting Jacob to come into his home and calling him flesh and blood.  He quickly realizes that Jacob has fallen for Rachel.  Jacob is so distracted and carried away with his love for Rachel that he isn’t paying attention to much of anything else.  He fails to see the horrible character of Laban and he falls for every trap that Laban lays in his path.

Many Christians today are very much like Jacob in this story.  If we are distracted and not watching carefully with discernment for those things the devil plants in the minds of evil people; we too will fall into a trap that is hard to escape.  This “trap” is a place that is full of illusions.    God does not want us basing our lives around falsehood and illusion.  We must pray for discernment!

Laban, the king of deceptions;  is a perfect picture and shadow of the false religion and idolatry Jesus describes to his followers in the Olivet discourse of Matthew 24:4. 

Jesus warns:  “Watch out that no one deceives you.”  It seems that when end-times are near the Bride of Christ, His true church, will go through the same types of times that the original Children of God have been through; only in slightly different ways.  The main difference will be that they went through these things in ancient days and cultures.  God followers in the modern world will see these things come to pass in modern ways and in the ways of modern cultures. The old is just a shadow of the new.  God gave us patterns to observe and meditate upon.  The answers are the same, whether you are living in the ancient world or living in today’s modern world.  God’s answers are timeless and they never change. 

 If you are not watching and waiting for the return of Christ, you will miss some of these very obvious messages that God gave us in the lives of his ancient people.  That is why it is so important that we see Laban for who he really was.  Through Laban God is showing us what deception is.  Most deceptions happen right before our very eyes, but we do not notice.  That was what happened to Jacob on his wedding night.  That is what is going on inside some of our churches today. 

With the ancient shadows of the stories of Laban and Jacob, we can see a picture of the deception that will cover the earth in the last days.

 Christians wake up!  Be alert!  Do not be deceived!  Do NOT give your devotion to the wrong bride!!!!!

The seven years were up and Jacob went to Laban to claim Rachel as his wife. 

Laban “forgot” to tell Jacob something very important.  It seemed that it was not customary to marry off a younger daughter before the older daughter was married.  How could Laban have forgotten to mention this at the beginning of their agreement?  Why had it taken him seven years to bring this up?

Here I bring another word of caution for modern-day Christians.  Watch out for extreme Zionist, beware of deceptions.  God loves Israel and will always bless Israel.  Jerusalem is a mirror image of a heavenly place, but there are enemies who wish to deceive us in the same way that the Pharisees deceived the ancient people.  Jesus spoke loudly against such people.  Some of our modern leaders are false and deceptive like Laban.  Never follow them blindly.  The rebuilding of the next physical temple is only a trick to deceive you.  The new temple that Jesus Christ has built is your physical body.  God lives inside you and you carry Him wherever you go and whatever you do.  God has sent His Holy Spirit into the world and He can no longer be contained in a building designed and built by men.  It didn’t work the first two times, and it will not work the third time.  If you have become one of these modern-day Pharisees, please look inside your white-washed sepulchers and cleanse your souls.   I love Hebraic things and the ancestors of Abraham more than anyone. What a blessing Israel has been to those of us who follow Christ and know God through Him.   Just be sure when you listen to them and follow them that they are listening to God and not to Satan. The deceivers are out there and they are many.  Jesus told us “even the elect may be deceived.” 

There is salvation and restoration for Israel, but it will come in the form of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  He is the way, the truth and the light.  He is the ONLY door to heaven.  The next Holy Temple is a heavenly one that comes down from heaven to Jerusalem.  There will be seven years of tribulation on this earth; then Christ will return for his bride!  

Decide right now to be a TRUE over-comer.  Do not fall for falsehoods that will be rampant in these times.  Stay focused on the REAL Bride, not the false one.  Beware of false leaders and false prophets that say “go here” and “go there.”  Know that they are experts at illusion.  Keep your eyes planted firmly on the face of Jesus, your faithful Bridegroom.  It is by His blood that you will be able to overcome the world.

Laban decided to trick the trickster (Jacob) and have him marry Leah instead of Rachel.  He convinced Rachel’s father to go along with this because of the custom.  Many a man has fallen into the trap of tradition.  Just because something is customary and people have traditionally done it for years and years; that does not mean it is right!  

For many profitable reasons of their own, Laban and Rachel's father did not tell Jacob about this custom!

Laban prepared a huge feast and invited everyone to come.  Jacob thought he was marrying Rachel.  It was customary in those days for wedding celebrations to last a whole week.  A special place was prepared for the bride and the groom to spend their honeymoon in the midst of the celebration. 

The haunting question that comes to mind in this part of the story is the question that seems to remain hidden from our eyes and it is not spelled out or explained in the words of the scriptures.  Where was Rachel during this time?  Did she not cry out to Jacob?  What did she know and what did she NOT know?  Did she let this deception go on?  Did she play along with it?  Was she also deceived in some way so that she could not speak out? What was going on with her?  Did she grasp the fact that she was being manipulated?  

Does the church grasp the same fact?  Are we too blind to see?  God forbid that we let ourselves be married to the wrong bride groom!  Sometimes everything looks right, but is all wrong.  Satan loves to hide in the pews of our churches.   Church is the easiest place of all for Satan to do his work. He loves to spin his fascinating stories and steal us away with false tales.  He knows we are lazy and that we sit back and relax while we are fed junk food instead of meat.   Please do not let this happen to you!  After the wedding night, when the next morning dawns and the light appears; it will be too late!

That evening, after dark, Laban brought Leah to Jacob and made a big production of the fact that he was also giving Leah, Zilpah as her servant and attendant as a wedding gift.   Here again we have to ask, how did this go on without Jacob realizing who Leah was?  He just kept walking blindly toward the wrong lover!   It was dark and Leah was heavily veiled.  It was also customary to give the groom strong drink before the marriage was consummated.  There is a picture in The Revelation of John where a description of The Whore of Babylon is given.  She is drunk with the power and deceptions of the world.  She has indulged in a horrible cup that the church is warned away from.  We must not fall into a drunken stupor and not respond with the ways of God when the world would have the opposite.    

Morning came and there was Leah! 

Jacob was outraged to find this out. 

He had served seven years for Rachel! 

Jacob, the great deceiver had been deceived. 

Jacob asked Laban; “What is this you have done to me?  I served you for Rachel, didn’t I?  Why have you deceived me?  Of course Laban gave him the prepared logic and told him that it was not their custom to let the younger daughter get married before the older.  He advised Jacob to finish the bridal week with this older daughter and he would give him the younger daughter later, in return for seven more years of work. 

Jacob had his heart set on Rachel.  He agreed to work for another seven years!  True love will do anything for the one who is the object of their love.  Is Jesus the object of your love?  Would you do anything for Him?  We are coming to a place where every Christian may have to make this decision.  Are you willing to continue on the right path in your journey to your groom?  

After Jacob’s wedding week with Leah, Laban gave Rachel to Jacob as a wife.  He also gave Rachel a servant named Bilhah for an attendant. 

So both sisters were then married to Jacob.  There will come a place and time in history when many of God’s ancient chosen people and many gentile Christians will together become the bride of Christ.  We will all be one family just as Jacob, Leah and Rachel were. 

Jacob’s love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah.  This part of the story is a whole story unto itself.  The revelation of this fact will unfold more and more as we move through the life of Jacob.  What will happen to poor Leah?  What will happen to the cheated Rachel? 

In the meantime, Jacob found himself working for that evil, scheming Laban for seven more years.  Everyone in the family was subjected to his greed and thirst for power and wealth.