Nicole’s e-Pistle “Jacob and Rachel”

July 22, 2026

Greetings, Friends!

This Sunday, one of our passages will be from Genesis 29, when Jacob meets his first cousin Rachel at a well, falls in love with her, works for seven years to earn the right to marry her, is tricked by his uncle Laban into marrying her older sister Leah, then agrees to indenture himself for another seven years to gain Rachel. This is one of the scriptures when I was young that seemed like a fairy tale love story of a hero who longed for his lady love and worked hard to make their happy ending come true.

Now that I have grown and seen much more of the world, stories such as this one trouble me. If read only as a story, I can easily remind myself that this was a different time and different kind of society, one built around patriarchy in which women were commodities for which to be auctioned, bartered and negotiated. The women themselves seem to be of little consequence, and scripture rarely gives them voices of their own. For example, in this story, Rachel never speaks for herself. We have no idea if she was equally attracted to Jacob… not to mention how poor Leah felt at having been overlooked for her younger, prettier sister. Perhaps she felt she had gotten off the hook until her father tricked Jacob by depositing Leah into the marital bed in Rachel’s place. As messed up as this story is from the perspective of the women (although perhaps they were resigned to the societal norms in which they had been reared), it is still just a story…

Except that this story is scripture. This is God’s Holy Word. This is where I often get stuck. What exactly are we to take from a message such as this? Surely, we are not meant to follow the literal examples laid out by the human actions and choices taking place. As a sidebar, something I will likely never preach on is “Biblical womanhood.” I’m no longer on social media, but one of my professors in seminary posted something about Biblical marriage being an argument in favor of “traditional” marriage in the U.S. Her post brought up all the scenarios of marriage in the Bible, especially polygamy and incest, to make the point that when people call something “Biblical,” what they really mean is “what my grandparents taught me was a good ‘Christian’ model, akin to a ‘Leave it to Beaver’ type family.” Likewise, when people talk of Biblical womanhood, they often forget some of the feisty women of the Bible who were crucial to God’s story – prostitutes, warriors, prophetesses, and even murderers. (I’ll never forget the image of Jael driving a tent spike into Sisera’s temple while he slept in her tent… see Judges 4.)

I went back and forth over whether to include this story of Jacob and Rachel in a worship service. I thought perhaps it would be better to wrestle with its themes in a safer context – one that was a little less holy and a little more open for discussion. The problem is that for most of my life, the sermons I have heard have been safe and domesticated, rarely tackling difficult subjects and skimming over uncomfortable passages. While there are still passages that I will likely never preach on from the pulpit (such as the rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19-21), I think it is helpful for people to hear a pastor wrestle with scripture. It gives all of us a chance to ask our own questions, to push back on certain interpretations, and to delve more deeply into our own relationship with God and his Word, with the help of the Holy Spirit, of course! I truly believe that God speaks to us, even in difficult passages of scripture.The Spirit moves in the reading of the words on the page, the interpretation and proclamation through sermons and discussions, and in our own hearts as we absorb the deeper messages of love and reconciliation that tie everything together.

So, friends, I invite you to come on Sunday morning or to watch online as we explore together “A Love Worth Waiting For!” See you then!

Blessings and Peace,