Jacob-The Original 90-Month Fiancé! Series

(Full disclosure: Sermon Central has accepted two messages of mine in a series about Jacob dealing with his situation here, namely, how he got his two wives. They’re “Jacob-What He Did For Love” and “Jacob-Finding True Love--And More” but this message is not simply an edit of these two messages.)

Introduction: Besides the “Married at First Sight” series, there is also a similar format called “90 Day Fiancée.” This is where American citizens arrange for a foreign-born prospective spouse to come to the USA, under the K-1 visa program. Once the prospective spouse arrives on American soil, this person has 90 (calendar) days to either be married or returned to their homeland. So far, all those who came have remained married. If there are any that married but aren’t now or were divorced later, I don’t know the identities.

With this in view, it’s a natural step (okay, leap) to consider Jacob’s seven years of labor in order to marry his true love. Seven years is only 84 months, but let’s not forget Jacob had a journey of over 400 miles, by some estimates, between the land of his father Isaac and the land of his uncle Laban. Let’s say Jacob could walk 20 miles a day—that’s a lot of days! Plus, he was at Laban’s for a month before he was encouraged/guilted/tricked (take your pick) into working for his uncle. We can add a few days for good behavior, and besides it fits the parody of the title better, so we can call Jacob the original 90-month fiancé!

The text comes from Genesis 29:13-20, in the New American Standard Version (NASB):

1 The woman whom Jacob loved

Text: Genesis 29:13-20, NASB: 13 So when Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things. 14 And Laban said to him, “You certainly are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month. 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in figure and appearance. 18 Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days because of his love for her.

There’s a lot of background for this message. We’d need to go back to Genesis 25, where Jacob got Esau, his twin brother, to sell him the birthright. Esau was the firstborn but gave it away, literally, when he traded this birthright for a bowl of stew or whatever Jacob had cooked.

Then, some years and two chapters later, Rebekah schemed for Jacob to get the paternal blessing from Isaac. Again, this was reserved for Esau but that didn’t stop Rebekah from plotting how to get it for Jacob. It also didn’t stop Jacob from going along with the plan and cheating Esau out of this blessing as well as the birthright.

Genesis 27 has the story, sordid as it was, and Moses didn’t water down the, we may as well call it, evil done to Isaac and Esau by Rebekah and Jacob. The story finishes with Esau furious with his brother, enough to kill him; Isaac upset that his own son would trick him as he did; Rebekah wondering how to keep what little peace remained in place; and Jacob, wondering what he was going to do. Where could he go? How long, if he stayed, would he remain alive?

Isaac decided to divide the two sons. Esau was already married (to two women, Genesis 26:34) but Jacob was still single. Isaac told Jacob to leave, to find a wife from where Rebekah was from originally, and absolutely NOT to marry a Canaanite woman (Gen. 28:1-4). Jacob did leave, and had an encounter with God at Bethel, a good distance away from Isaac’s home, and Jacob made his first decisions to serve the God of Abraham and Isaac.

Eventually he arrived at Laban’s territory, spoke with the other shepherds, and once these shepherds said, “Here’s Rachel, his daughter, and her own flock.” Jacob was overwhelmed, we might say, and was immediately smitten with Little Rachel (interestingly, “Rachel” is the Hebrew word for “ewe” or “sheep”; (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7353.htm )

Some comparisons and contrasts are in order: Rebekah was indeed from this area, as was her niece Rachel (and, Leah) but there is no indication Rebekah tended sheep or anything else—she only brought water from the well to wherever it was needed. Moses wrote nothing about Rachel bringing anything but her own sheep to the well. Jacob brought nothing with him except his staff, but Abraham’s servant had brought ten camels loaded with some of the best stuff Abraham had to offer the prospective bride. One can only imagine Jacob’s thoughts when he saw Rachel—he might have said something like “I hit the jackpot!”