Rights & Obligations

I know, generally speaking, we preachers are supposed to get up here and provide you people with answers about the Scriptures. But, I just have to say, about this Scripture, in particular, I have a lot more questions than answers.

Why are Leah and Rachel are exchanged, like property, for labor?

Why is it that Leah and Rachel’s value seem to come primarily from their perceived physical appearance as judged by two men or from their birth order?

Putting aside the women as property-in-exchange-for-labor thing, it kind of seems like Jacob gets ripped off here.

Did Laban have this in mind all along, did he intentionally hide it, or did he think he could marry off Leah during the first seven years of Jacob’s labor?

And, I’m sorry, but how can Jacob not recognize his wife on the night of their marriage? Was he that drunk? Was Leah veiled? Was it that dark? I asked my wife, out of curiosity — how would you have felt, if I got you confused with your sister on our wedding day? Let’s just say that even asking the question, put me on the defensive and having to explain that I was only doing a bit of research for my sermon.

And what about Zilpah and Bilhah? If Rachel and Leah are property, they are property of property.

And what exactly is the point of this story? There doesn’t seem to be a hero. How can a preacher turn this into a lesson that you all take home and apply to your lives?

But we’ve come here to do our thing. I’m a preacher, your shepherd. And you people are my flock and it is your right to have a lesson provided to you, by your pastor, drawn from the Scripture of the day. That’s the deal we have implicitly made together — yes, you and me. You tune in for an hour, perhaps you give a tithe. And I provide Biblically inspired guidance for your life taken from a specific Bible passage. That’s what you pay me to do, after all.

That is what you deserve.

It’s what you paid for.

It is your right.

Perhaps it would be a little unsatisfying then, if I were to pull a bait-and-switch on you and just kind of deconstruct the text with all these questions and not leave you with what you’ve come to expect. You know, the way Jacob works for 7 years, expecting to end it with a wedding to Rachel.

And if anyone knows something about getting what he feels entitled to, it is Jacob.

Recall that Jacob leveraged his brother’s starvation to trade him a bowl of red stew for his birthright.

And he covered himself in hairy animal skin to trick his father into giving him his brother’s blessing.

In these formative stories of Jacob’s youth, he gets what he wants by hook or by crook. And so in our story this morning, it is a surprising and ironic turn of events that it seems Jacob is the one who is tricked and does not recognize a family member. Jacob is used to getting what he feels entitled to. And here, he had actually worked hard for something. Seven long years. The women of the story notwithstanding, this wasn’t taking advantage of an imbalance of power, as it was with Esau. Nor was it trickery as it was when disguising himself to his father, Isaac. Jacob clearly stated to Laban, he would work seven years, as a bride price for Rachel. And Laban agrees. He worked for something and expected to receive the benefits of his labor.

And while I do think there is evidence of spiritual progress here, in the life of Jacob, I believe there is still deep spiritual poverty in his life.

Jacob is focused solely on his wants. The text tells us that Jacob loves Rachel. But what does Rachel want? What does Leah want? Jacob’s focus is on getting what is coming to him. And this morning, I want us to ask — what happens to us when we focus solely on getting what’s coming to us. Even when we’ve “earned” it.

I believe something spiritually toxic often happens when we exchange our cost for some reward. That might be an exchange of our labor for wages. Our or wages for a product or service. Even if that exchange is part a larger group, such as a family or a nation. And that group pays something for some product, right, or privilege.

Something different happens when you pay for something as opposed to when you receive it for free. If someone gives you a gift, often we receive it with gratitude. If someone does something nice for you, the same. Pays you a genuine compliment. We naturally feel grateful. At our best, we receive it as free grace. Of course, we can screw this up too — as Jacob did earlier in his youth. What should have evoked a sense of deep gratitude — the free gift in his portion of a birthright and a blessing, still left him envious of others. And so we can act entitled even to the free gifts in our life. Yet, it is far more likely that we’ll be focused on what we’ve got coming to us when we pay for something. We’re less likely to think of what we receive in turn from it as grace. We’re less likely to be grateful for it. After all, we paid for it.

When we look at the stories of Jacob’s life, I think most of us are turned off by both his actions in taking advantage of Esau with the soup when he is famished and in tricking Isaac out of Esau’s blessing. But, putting aside the way women were used as part of a “bride price” in the ancient world, we can really understand Jacob’s complaint that he received the wrong wife. Because he worked for it, he was entitled to it. It was his right. And that was, after all, what he and Laban had agreed to.

I’ve been thinking about the limits of rights lately. Of course, I’m all for basic human rights. Rights that guarantee basic dignity and sufficiency in life. Of course, there has been a considerable amount of discourse around rights with regard to the mask mandates that have been put into place in various locations, including our city and state. Some have argued, this is governmental overreach that violates an individual’s right to not wear a mask. Others argue, this is necessary for public heath — we have to balance the rights of the public as a whole against the rights of the individual. In thinking about this, I went back and listened to a famous speech that I read in college that deals precisely with the limits of rights. The exiled Russian author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave a commencement address to Harvard in 1978. It has become a classic speech in what was basically a critique of Western society as he saw it. Solzhenitsyn had a unique perspective on Western society — having been forced from Russia for his forceful criticism of Communist Russia. He was sentenced to spend eight years in the Gulag — the forced labor camps of the former Soviet Union for criticizing Joseph Stalin in a letter. Reforms under Nikita Khrushchev freed him from the Gulags, but his continued criticism of the Soviet Union in his writings angered those in power and he was stripped of his citizenship and eventually made his way to the United States. Yet, it was in America that Solzhenitsyn also found the freedoms of the West to be problematic and he shared much of that in this speech. A line from that speech, as I listened to it again, really struck me and I think represents the core of what Solzhenitsyn was trying to warn the “free” Western world about in his speech. Solzhenitsyn said,

“The defense of individual rights has reached such extremes as to make society as a whole defenseless against certain individuals. It is time, in the West, to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.”” REPEAT

The notion of asserting our individual rights, in the West, Solzhenitsyn said, has the effect not of providing basic human dignity to everyone, but of being used to justify our individual rights to do things that harm the whole. An example he uses is the right to view pornography. Too much emphasis on rights, leads to extremes, without consideration of our obligation to the whole community. Solzhenitsyn also links to this to a lack of courage in Western society, which he maintains is the beginning of the end of any civilization

When one has power, standing up for one’s rights, is not really a Christian concept. It is an American one, a Western one, but Jesus never urges us to be like Jacob and make sure you’ve got what’s coming to you. No, Jesus says, take up your cross daily.

When one has power, standing up for other people’s rights, by contrast, is a Christian concept. But this isn’t a focus on rights at all, but rather, as Solzhenitsyn says, on our obligations.

Ultimately, a focus on my individual right is a focus on self. Whereas, if we focus on the rights of others, then that is love. That is obligation. I wonder how the character of our nation might be different, without even changing the content of the document, if our Bill of Rights was titled, the Bill of Obligations. Could it shift our focus away from what am I due, what is coming to me to, to what can I do for you?

It is hard to say for sure, but I think there is evidence that Jacob was starting to grow in this direction. He does protest after receiving Leah as his bride, but after Laban explains, this isn’t done in our country — giving the second born away before the first born, Jacob says no more and goes about working another seven years for Rachel. Now, maybe, that’s the only move he had left was to just do his time. But, I wonder, if something shifted in Jacob that day and he grew up a little. And instead of focusing on his rights, what was coming to him — Rachel, who was “graceful and beautiful,” he started to think about his obligation — to his family. It may require us to put aside some major cultural differences between now and then, but what about his obligation to Laban and that such a thing was not done in this place. What about Leah’s feelings and dignity? After that moment, it seems, there was an important spiritual shift in Jacob’s heart. His obligations to those he is connected to around him are now important too. And so he takes on both women as his wives, works the additional week of years for Rachel. I know, we have to set aside some of these major cultural gaps between our era and theirs to see this. But had Jacob insisted on his rights and taken Rachel then to be his wife, it would have brought great shame to both Laban and Leah, and likely strife between this side of the family and Rebekah’s, that’s Jacob’s mother’s side.

And friends, it would have been Jacob’s right. That was the deal he and Laban struck. But it is not the way of Christ. Each time, he is tempted in the wilderness, Satan offers Jesus a right unto which he is entitled. But Jesus responds — no he has a higher obligation that conflicts with that right. His ministry is filled with miracles, not that benefit himself, but that help others. His teachings are filled not with commands like, “stand up for your rights,” but rather do this for those that hurt you, hate you or persecute you. Do this for those who are lost. And he is obedient, or to put it another way, remains obligated to God the Father, all the way to the cross. And he laid down his life for us. Not that we now have rights to assert, but so that his kingdom might take shape in this world by his followers walking that same path. Living for the sake of others and not for self. As the Apostle Paul said, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,” in other words, he did not assert his divine rights, “but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient, [obligated], to the point of death — even death on a cross.”

Well, perhaps, like Laban, I pulled a bait-and-switch on you all after all. I’ve handed you not a new tool you can use in your everyday life, but rather a new obligation. A life of obligations. Just more work. A cross to bear.

But friends — here’s what happens when we’re not focused on ourselves, when we pour our love outward on to other people. What seems like an obligation, is no longer work, but is transformed into a labor of love. Work worth doing. A life’s passion or avocation or mission — these are the words we use for engaging in our Christian obligation. That’s what happened for Jacob too. His work was a light yoke. The Scripture says, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.”

Friends, this morning, hear this invitation. Put your care not in what you can get out of something. What is coming to you. Even what you’ve paid for. Put your care, your love, into the lives of those around you. Your rights will probably be violated. But your life will be much more meaningful, deep, and rewarding because your work is about far more than yourself. It is about the precious other people in your life, it is about God and God’s kingdom. And time will go by fast — as it so often does when we’re meaningfully engaged — it will seem but a few days because of the love you have for your world. Friends, this is the gospel, this is the Good News. And it is a good deal. May you have the courage, the vision, the wisdom, the faith to trade your individual rights, what you’ve got coming to you, for obligations, for the rights of others, for the cross. Amen.

Would you pray with me?