Genesis 28: Isaac calls Jacob to bless him and direct him to take a wife from his uncle’s daughter- here we are with the inbreeding in again haha. Esau chooses to have several wives. Jacob is visited by God in a dream and is promised his presence, protection, and his promise that he and his children will be leaders. Jacob creates a place to worship and names the place ‘Bethel’ which means house of God. This reminds us to pay attention to the names we speak over our homes, our family, our work. We need to change the narrative and take captive our thoughts with how we refer to people and places. Here we also see ‘tithe’ come to fruition.

Genesis 29: Jacob goes on his journey and arrives to the land of his family. He meets Rachel and it was essentially love at first sight and promises to work 7 years in trade for his daughter’s hand in marriage. After 7 years, he was given Leah- Laben’s other daughter, because it wasn’t custom to marry off daughters out of chronological order- perhaps karma for tricking HIS first-born brother’s birth right and his blessing? He was told he could work for Rachel for an additional 7 years. It was said that although Jacob served 7 years, it only felt like 7 days because he loved her so much. Sadly, Rachel was favored over Leah… even tot eh point of saying that Leah was hated. God saw this unfair treatment and made Rachel baron. Leah gave birth to three sons with Jacob, and the first two times hoping that it would make Jacob love her. At the time of her third son’s birth, she chose to dedicate her love to God instead of Jacob and gives up on hoping he will love her. 

Genesis 30: In this chapter we see the power struggles between Rachela and Leah, as well as Jacob and Laben- Rachel and Leah’s father. Rachel throws a tantrum and blames Jacob for not giving her a child. She demands that Jacon use her servant, Bilhah as a surrogate and additional wife, which was a very common practice- following in his father’s footsteps once again. Leah now sees that she cannot conceive any longer and feels like she needs to show-up her sister and give her servant, Zilpah, to Jacob as an additional wife to give him more children. Rachel finally becomes pregnant and immediately asks God for more children. This was an example of how polygamy cannot work long-term without envy and hate. We then see Jacob haggling with Laben and asking him for permission to leave and start a life with his wives and children in a place that is ‘his own,’ not working for Laben any longer. Laben agrees to let Jacob take all of the animals that are not pure white instead of paying him, and considered the animals his paycheck- speckled and spotted were considered at lesser value and undesirable, while still continuing to care for Laben’s animals. Jocob continues to work hard for Labels animals but put more work and love into his own herds and was shown to be much more successful in his breeding of animals.

Genesis 31: After Jacobs wealth from success for breeding his undesired animals- animals his father didn’t want anyways- Laben’s sons declare that Jacob took all of their family’s animals and their success. Moving forward, Laben had changed Jacob’s pay over ten times as he saw Jacob’s success grow- all the while Jacob was following through with his commitment to Laben. God visited Jacob in a dream again and sees that the wealth that Laben used to have is no more and his ‘perfect’ herd has fallen smaller and smaller. He secretly fled with his flock and family and got a 3-day head start. Laben followed with his men, because he feels he was cheated- when in actuality Laben had tried to trick him as well. Laben catches up with Jacob and he shares that he fled because he feared his family would be taken. We learn that Rachel had stolen her fathers’ “gods” or likely statues that he prays to, and Laben thinks that it was Jacob who stole them. Jacob declares that over the past 20 years, 7 for each daughter and 6 for the “reject” flock, and that everything Jacob has belongs to him. Laben declares that all that Jacob has is all thanks to Laben, which means that all that is Jacob’s (his family and Flock) should rightfully belong to Laben, because it was all thanks to him. They make a covenant that declared a literal boundary that separates Jacob’s rightful things from Laben’s rightful things, and separation was now apparent. Laben leaves to go home, and everyone should be at peace with the agreement.