Well, Rebekah decides to help God's plan, just like Sarah did....Can you imagine how life would have been different if they had left God to fulfill the promise like he desired to? We have some dysfunctional family issues with favoritism and deception...remember that Jacob means "Deceiver",but don't worry, his name will change...after all, he is the third Patriarch. Esau wept and asked his father if there was any blessing left for him......I almost feel bad for him....but he bears a grudge (the root of the Hebrew word is the same as Satan...interesting) and he wants to kill Jacob, so Rebekah sends him to her brother Laban's family.
Jacob has a dream.....(did anyone ever do that string game when they were little called "Jacob's Ladder?) and he dreams of a staircase/ladder in which celestial beings are going up and down......this is the connection between Heaven and earth......Jacob cradled his head on a rock (God says that His church will be built on a rock) and when he awakes he knows he is in a Holy Place because God has been there......the covenant between God and Abraham/Issac will go through Jacob......is Jacob ready yet? His faith is still immature, but there is time!!!!
Jacob immediately falls in love with Rachel (another hot woman). He has no traditional dowry to give since he is on the run and all, and agrees to work for seven years to earn her hand in marriage and then...oops....the Deceiver gets deceived.....Miss Weak Eyes, the older sister is his wife. Traditional garb dictated that the wife be all covered up, and you know that there was probably some drinking going on....Poor Leah, she is never loved by her husband...but note the names of her children....they are the tribes of Isreal. Laban gives Rebekah to Jacob, but he has to stay there for 7 more years to work off the dowry price.
Ok. I'm sure this is a supid question but it looks like God is blessing Jacob with 2 wives. But later when Moses records the 10 Commandments, commiting audultary is wrong... so why is ok now?
ReplyDeleteI am like Lindsey.....how can Jacob have so many wives and be allowed to take maids and so forth to have children.......this seems against anything God would want......and was the extra seven years of waiting for Rachel a way to teach him a lesson......he seems to not ocmpletely have faith in God, but have conditions.....
ReplyDeleteExcellent questions! Here are a couple of Web sites that give some opinions..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gotquestions.org/polygamy.html
http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/1301-6.htm
http://www.letusreason.org/Biblexp185.htm
Once you read some of that...tell me what YOU think....
...and Bonnie, each of the "sessions" having to work seven years represented the dowry price that Jacob owed (one set of seven years for each wife)....he had no material possessions since he was sent away by Rebekah to avoid Jacob killing him...see....multiple wives is "a lot of work"...lol
ReplyDeleteoh...heavens...I mean Esau killing him.....not Jacob killing him...sorry!
ReplyDeleteOk.....the people at this time were large societies of one family.....am I right......
ReplyDeleteand the way the society grew is by marrying within the family and having more than one wife.....am I right again..........
should I take this that God knew there was alot of work to be done to get mankind to follow his rule and worship Him so he ignored, not allowed, the multiple marriages because this was just one of many steps to get His word out to mankind.....
Was this kinda like God's baby steps for what he needed to do........not do everything at once but threw a process......
Please correct me if I am waaaaayy off!!
You got it!!!!
ReplyDelete