Today's reading: Genesis 29-30, Job 19-20, and Proverbs 3:5-8.
.jpg)
I. Jacob meets up with Rachel, the younger daughter of Laban, whom he falls in love with (29:1-14). His past deceit catches up with him, as he himself is deceived by Laban when he asks to marry Rachel and agrees to work 7 years for him. Instead, he is secretly given the elder daughter, Leah. He then agrees to work 7 more years for Rachel, which he does. Leah bears four sons to Jacob (29:15-30). Poor Leah! She tries hard for Jacob's love, seemingly to no avail. As the BIY Companion, Vol 1, states:
While Jacob loves Rachel, Leah has to suffer the wound of being merely tolerated by him... God sees Leah's pain in being unloved, so he opens her womb while Rachel remains barren. As Leah bears children, she keeps expecting Jacob to grow in love for her and for that love to surpass his love for Rachel, but this does not happen... Eventually, Leah gives up the hope of Jacob loving her and chooses to praise the Lord instead. (p. 36)
During this competition of sorts between the sisters, servant girls are used when needed, as well as "aphrodisiacs" such as mandrakes (30:1-24). So basically, we have the whole mix that we've seen before, and Laban deceives Jacob like he had done to his brother Esau.
Today's reading ends with an odd story of how Jacob became wealthy at Laban's expense, from his herd of goats and sheep (30:25-43). It's difficult to know what to make of this, except maybe some kind of foreshadowing of much later Temple requirements on unblemished animals being used for sacrifice.
II. Poor Job gives another desperate plea to his friends, though has some interesting insight. As the Ignatius Bible notes in the footnotes:
This discourse is one of the highpoints of the book where Job arrives at a new perception of his situation. Not only does he break down and plead for the pity of his friends (19:21), but for the first time thus far, he expresses the hope that God will vindicate him after death (19:25-26). (p. 804)
Yeah, Job's pleas have no effect on his "friends". Zophar is offended and gives another rebuke of how the wicked are justly punished by God, which clearly Job is one of, and that's why he is in such misery (20:1-29).
Again, poor Job needs better friends! With this, the miserable Job is done for the day.
III. In Proverbs, another tiny morsel when something more would be fitting. Still, there is a good verse from the father to his son that he should always "trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight" (3:5).
That's it for today!
