Bible Stories for the Young
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After Jacob left his rock pillow, with a spring in his step, he kept traveling to his mother’s old homeland. He got very thirsty, so he stopped at a well.
Some shepherds were there getting water for their sheep. Jacob asked them, “Do you know Laban? He is my mother’s brother, and I am looking for him.”
One of the shepherds at the well said, “Yeah, we know him. Look, there’s Rachel, Laban’s daughter, coming now.”
And there Rachel was, bringing the sheep to the well, for she was a shepherdess. Jacob was delighted to see Rachel, and Rachel was thrilled to find out who Jacob was. She ran all the way back to her father to tell him the news. “Father, father, Rebekah’s son Jacob is here!”
Jacob stayed with Laban and worked for him on his farm. But one day, Laban said, “You know what, Jacob, you’ve been working for me for free! How about you work for pay now. What would you like?”
Laban had two daughters, Rachel and Leah. Jacob really liked Rachel.
“I’ll work for you for seven years, Laban,” Jacob said, ”and then after that, I get to marry Rachel! Deal?”
“Deal!” Laban said.
Jacob worked for seven long, looong, loooooong years. But because he loved Rachel so much, it only seemed like a few days.
Finally, their wedding day came. Jacob was so excited. After seven years of working he finally gets to marry Rachel.
Before we get to the wedding though, there is something you need to know about Laban. If Jacob was a tricky man, Laban was a SUPER tricky man.
“Ah-ha,” Laban thought, ”if Jacob was willing to work seven long years for Rachel, I’ll bet he’ll do it again. And I’ll get more free work done on my farm!”
So instead of sending Rachel to the wedding, Laban put a veil over his older daughter Leah’s face and sent Leah instead! Jacob couldn’t tell it was Leah. He married the wrong lady! He’d wanted to marry Rachel, not Leah!!!! Not cool!
When Jacob found out, Jacob ran to Laban and said, “What have you done to me?! I worked for you for seven years so I could marry Rachel, not Leah!”
“Too bad,” Laban said. “You’ll have to agree to work another seven years if you want to marry Rachel.”
That’s crazy sounding, isn’t it? But, Jacob thought, “Ughhh! I have been a tricky guy, and now I’ve been tricked myself! Ohhh… I had that coming.”
Jacob had hurt people by tricking them before, and now he felt how much it hurt to get tricked. You see, if you plant an apple seed, you get an apple tree. That means a person always harvests what they sow.
God was still with Jacob and blessed him, but He was not going to just ignore Jacob’s choices to trick other people. God is not mocked. There is no way around it. A man always reaps what he sows.
