Faithbase

After God reveals himself in a dream to Jacob, Jacob awakes and continues on to find refuge in Haran with his uncle Laban. Laban had two daughters, the older daughter Leah and the younger Rachel. Jacob had fallen madly in love with Rachel and Laban said, you may have my daughter as your wife but you have to work for me for seven years first. After seven years Jacob is ecstatic to finally get to marry Rachel. However Laban had a few tricks up his sleeve to manipulate or trick the trickster himself Jacob. If you'll remember from two days ago we learned that Jacob's name means manipulator and he has manipulated many a situation to receive the blessing that was supposed to be his older brothers. After Laban tricks Jacob into marrying Leah he says, I will give you Rachel, however you need to work for me another seven years before you can have her. Another seven years passes by and he finally marries Rachel. So now Jacob is married to Leah and Rachel and also has children with their maids servants. So there are four women that Jacob has children with. God does not condone polygamy, that's a different story for a different time. However what the important thing to take from this story is Jacob now has 12 sons. These 12 sons will become the 12 tribes of Israel that we will be studying throughout the rest of the Old Testament. It is through Jacob that God is able to bless the world with a nation in which he can reveal himself to mankind and it all starts with one man.