Deborah Carpenter

I was just thinking about how ironic the story of Jacob’s marriages is. Isaac warns his son, Jacob, to stay away from pagan Canaanite women who will lead him into idolatry. Instead, he advises him to go to Laban’s house, because Laban is in their family and supposedly loves God. Heh. Laban turns out to be super controlling, manipulative, and deceptive (probably what we’d call a narcissist today). He makes Jacob jump through ridiculous hoops to marry Rachel, and then tricks Jacob into marrying Leah instead. Jacob ends up marrying both sisters in exchange for 14 years (!?) of labor on Laban’s land. Avoid the pagans, Isaac said, they’ll cause you trouble. 🙃 Not that Jacob should have married a pagan woman, but good grief! Trusting Laban, the supposed man-of-God, turned out to be a Jerry Springer level soap opera nightmare. It’s an interesting commentary on the trustworthiness of men who are supposedly believers, but in reality are wolves and deceivers.