Jacob Has a Family

TLDR: A guide for having a family discipleship time on Genesis 29–30 based on the ACT Bible Study Method.

Act 3: God Promises Jesus

Scene 16: Jacob Has a Family

Genesis 29:1—30:24

Analyze the Passage

Step 1: Introduce the Passage

Genesis was written by Moses sometime between 1445–1405 BC to help the Israelites leaving Egypt understand their history with God. It’s one of the five books of the Law that Moses wrote, which we also call the Torah, or the Pentateuch, which means “five books.”

Today’s true story finds Jacob arriving in his parents’ homeland, and starting a family of his own. This is a major part of what God had promised him, but God makes good on this promise in a rather confusing way. Today’s story is the sixteenth story of Act 3: God Promises Jesus.

Step 2: Read the Passage

Genesis 29:1—30:24 (Note: this story includes Jacob marrying two women, and Jacob having children with both and their two maids. If you have younger children, you might want to read much less of the text and summarize it broadly as God giving Jacob a big family.)

Step 3: Summarize the Passage

When Jacob arrived in Haran, he met some people at a well and asked if they knew Laban, his mother’s brother. They answered that they knew him and indeed his daughter Rachel was at the well. He suggested they take the sheep back out to graze but they told him they couldn’t until after they watered the sheep.

As they were talking, Rachel came by and Jacob uncovered the well and watered her sheep. He told her that he was a relative and she ran to tell Laban. When Laban heard, he rushed to the well and Jacob went to stay with him.

Laban told Jacob that he shouldn’t work for him for free and asked what he wanted as payment. Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, so he said he’d work for seven years if he could marry her. Laban agreed.

When it was time, Jacob asked for Rachel as his wife and Laban held a feast. That night, however, instead of bringing Rachel to Jacob, he brought his older daughter Leah. In the morning, Jacob learned what happened and asked Laban why he had tricked him. Laban explained that it isn’t customary for the younger daughter to marry first. Laban said if Jacob agreed to work seven more years, he could marry Rachel too. Jacob agreed and ended up marrying both sisters and worked a total of fourteen years. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.

When God saw Leah was unloved, he gave her sons—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Leah hoped that these sons would cause Jacob to love her, but it didn’t.

Meanwhile, Rachel couldn’t have children. So, she became jealous and she gave her servant to Jacob and they had sons—Dan and Naphtali.

When Leah couldn’t have children any more, she gave her servant to Jacob and they had sons—Gad and Asher.

One day, Reuben collected some mandrakes, and Rachel and Leah made a deal for them and Leah had another son with Jacob—Issachar. Then Leah had another son—Zebulun. She also had a daughter—Dinah.

Finally, Rachel ended up having a son—Joseph.

Step 4: Interrogate the Passage

Questions you and your family ask might include:

Why do so many of these stories include wells?
Why did Jacob tell the shepherds to go back into the fields?
Why did Jacob choose seven years as the time to work for Rachel?
Why didn’t Laban let Jacob marry Rachel before working seven years?
Why didn’t Jacob know Laban had brought Leah?
Why did Jacob agree to work seven more years for Rachel, even if Laban had tricked him?
Did God approve of Jacob having two wives?
Did God approve of Jacob having children with the two maids?

Step 5: Wonder about the Passage

Wonder statements you and your family make might include:

I wonder how Jacob felt being tricked, especially since he liked to trick people himself.
I wonder if Jacob understood how favoritism can be so hurtful considering that had been a problem in his family.
I wonder if Rachel and Leah had always been competitive and adversarial with each other.
I wonder why the mandrakes mattered so much.
I wonder if these children got along with each other.

Connect the Passage to Christ

Step 6: Find the World in Front of Text

The family is a central part of God’s design for the world, but not exactly in the way we see it in this passage. While things start well, with extended family members who didn’t even know each other connecting, bonding, and showing hospitality, it all quickly unraveled with Laban tricking Jacob (the tricker himself), Jacob marrying two women and favoring one, and the two wives competing for children for attention, love, and value. In the end, Jacob had the large family God promised, but it was another broken, hurting family This isn’t what God intends for families. He intends for committed, loving, unified families that flourish.

Step 7: Find the World of Jesus of the Text

Love is at the center of this story, but not in a good way. It’s a story about a lack of love and conditional love. It’s a story about family love that isn’t strong enough for people to trick one another and compete with one another. It’s a story of what love can be, but seems to be so far from. This is heightened by a verse in the middle of the account of Jacob working seven years as if they were nothing because of his love for Rachel.

This all points us to a longing we too have for love, a love that we can find in Jesus. Jesus shows us what perfect love looks like—he isn’t manipulative. He isn’t conditional. He pours out his love on us in full measure. That’s what we want from him and that’s the same kind of love we should extend to others. We are to love with a deep and true love, nothing like the shallow love we seem to see in this passage.

Translate It to Your Context

Step 8: Connect the World of Jesus of the Text to Your World

Who can you show the love of Jesus to this week? What are some ways you can love your family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers with the amazing and powerful love of Jesus?

NEXT: Act 3: God Promises Jesus; Scene 17: Jacob and Laban (Genesis 30:25—31:55)

Learn more about this family discipleship method here.