SHADYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Holy God, you knew that Jacob was head-over-heels in love with Rachel.  Earlier we are told that he “wept aloud” when he saw her for the first time.  But after working for her father for seven years to marry her, he got snookered and found himself married to her older sister Leah.  Then the conniving father also allowed him to marry Rachel, but only after Jacob agreed to work for his father-in-law for another seven years.

So now Jacob has two wives.  There is the one he wants and the one who comes with the one he wants – as if that is not a metaphor for all marriages.  There is always the husband or wife we thought we were marrying and the stranger who shows up shortly after the wedding.

There is a confusion in your holy scripture about Leah’s eyes.  Half of our translations say that her eyes were “weak.”  The other half claims they were “lovely.”  I’ve spent enough time trying to figure this out to discover that our scholars just don’t know the correct word to use for the Hebrew.  I wonder if this could be a Holy Spirit-inspired confusion.

Our scholars have to make a choice about Leah’s eyes.  So did Jacob.  So do we, when we look deep into the soul of the stranger who came along with the spouse we thought we were marrying.  Will we see the weakness or the loveliness?  Apparently, it’s our choice.  Amen.