Love Will Find a Way

The Obscure Biblical Character is… Jacob!
Genesis 29:9-14
Now while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative and that he was Rebekah’s son. So she ran and told her father.
Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. So he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month.

So Jacob sees this girl (his cousin, but that wasn’t illegal yet, since this was before Moses) and immediately falls in love with her. This really isn’t a story about star-crossed lovers, this is a story about when love actually works out.

Her father liked Jacob, and Jacob stayed with them for a month (and then served 7 years and was tricked into marrying Leah, and then served another 7 years for Rachel, and then another 7 for good measure). But in the end, love worked out. Jacob and Rachel were married. They got to be together.

In movies and TV shows, and even in our own lives, we see others and sometimes ourselves complain about how our parents won’t let us date this one or that one, or they just don’t like us back, or whatever. While these things may be important to us now, true love will work itself out, like it did for Jacob and Rachel.

So this next week’s Obscure Biblical Character:
-judged Israel 22 years
-had many sons
-took over judging after Tola the son of Dodo

He’s in the first 10 chapters of Judges. He really is obscure this time, though. Doing a www.bible.com keyword search of ‘Tola’ or something might not be a bad idea.

In His Service,
Joyce