Q1. Decieving the Deceiver

[Old Jerry]

I think that God allowed Jacob to be tricked into 14 years of labor for two wives because he has given us a free will. It wasn’t God that provoked the circumstance it was man. God didn’t want this polygamy relationship but He did allow it to happen.

I think that God, even though He didn’t like this relationship, is going to make the most of it by showing Jacob that deceiving is the best policy and that a family life is the best.

[Ms. Green]

God is cleaning Jacob up. He's getting the deceptive spirit out of him and also this another consequence of his actions.

[Ms. Green]

Q1. (Genesis 29) Why do you think God allows Jacob to be tricked into 14 years of labor for two wives?

That is the consequence of his action of deceit against his brother. At the same time God is using the 14 years to humble Jacob and cleanse his heart. God can't fully use Jacob in his current state. He has to refine him.

What purposes do you think God is working out through these circumstances?

For His Glory. Just like his father and grandfather set an example of how to live for the Lord, Jacob will have to do the same. The Lord is raising up a nation through him. They are to set the example of who God is and how to live for him. Jacob is key to that.

[Bernie Kim]

God is Sovereign in his wisdom and Omniscient. He is also omnipotent and through his Foreknowledge he had was working in the life of Jacob according to the Covenant God had made with Abraham about the promise of the "Seed", that all nations of the earth shall be blessed through him. God was preparing a nation through Jacob and for God to glorify himself, he had mold the vessel and prepare Jacob for his divine purpose. This was not about Jacob and all these women in his life, but God's grace been revealed in a weak vessel for God's glory. It was God fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant through Jacob and not just his character. God was allowing all these things to happen in his life, so that he could learn how to depend on God and not on his human ingenuity or carnality. It was about growth in his relationship with God and transformation in his belief system. He hadn't experienced the walk with Jehovah God and his spiritual journey was just beginning. At Luz he had a dream, God appeared to him through divine grace as an escapee, but he didn't know much about this God of Abraham and Isaac. God was preparing him for the divine Lessons and getting him ready for purpose of his calling as a patriarch.

[Irmela]

Q1. (Genesis 29)

Why do you think God allows Jacob to be tricked into 14 years of labor for two wives?

What purposes do you think God is working out through these circumstances?

God's ways, are not our ways, but they far surpass ours.  What we know of Jacob so far, is that he desired the right things and bent the rules to get them.  Now he was at the place where he was learning that he would need to do things the way they were generally done, and this was not necessarily the way he approved of them or wanted  them to be.  Leah , as older daughter, had to marry first. He was a good choice to marry her to, as he would still desire Rachel. This way a good worker was secured for a further 7 years.

Back at home God was also working in Esau's life.  So the time away from home was a time where both Jacob and Esau were being reformed as it were. When they met again, there was no bloodshed but rather forgiveness.

God also knew that through Rachel there would be only 2 sons and through Leah many more and the Redeemer would ultimately be through her line and not Rachel's.  

What God has said will be, we do not need to get there through trickery and scheming.  Jacob needed to see or learn this first-hand.  Laban was indeed a master-schemer.  Jacob was  going to learn that he could not out-scheme God.

God uses what we see as bad circumstances, for good, or to get to fulfill His plans or to reach His ultimate goal.