"Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another 7 years." Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. And Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel, as a maid. Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served Laban still another seven years. When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, "the Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me." Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, "because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also." And she called his name Simeon. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, "now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, "now I will praise the Lord." Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing. Genesis 29:27-35 NKJV
At the end of the week of wedding celebration for Leah, Jacob marries Rachel also. It says that he loved Rachel more. God sees Leah is unloved and comforts her with children. In this culture, it would also be cause and celebration to lift her head. It would appear that she has prayed about this, for in the names of her sons it says, "looked on my affliction, heard that I am unloved, now this time my husband will become attached to me, and now I will praise the Lord." If our spouses are meditating on such things, or wondering where they stand, in the hierarchy of others in our lives, it is a depressing thought.
This would seem to have strayed from the image in which man was created. The Apostle Paul writes,
"So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." Ephesians 5: 28-33 NKJV
Marriage was yet another picture. It was the covenant between God and His people, and the relationship between Christ and the church. This is not the picture we see here with the sister wives of Genesis 29. They have become a house divided and will divide again. Women have become property and leverage. Men have exchanged the image of Christ for the gratification of self, and I don't think it even occurs to them. It is socially and culturally acceptable.
Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25&26 NKJV
It is easy to pick apart the sins of our ancestors, and to judge those that commit acts in accordance with their lack of conviction. If the sins and choices of others result in shock value for you then you have not laid your eyes upon the cross.
