Laban tricks Jacob into working another seven years for the woman he loves, Laban’s daughter Rachel. We don’t know from the passage what kind of worker Jacob is. We know that the first seven years seemed like a “few days” to Jacob because of his great love for Rachel.
Most of us work hard when the work results in some direct and tangible benefit to us. We work for recognition, more money, the ability to give others a life we didn’t have, to climb up another rung of the proverbial ladder. I hope that every Christian works hard to honor God with his or her ethic and theology of work.
Jacob works for fourteen years in order to marry his love. We learn in Genesis 30 that under Jacob’s care the family wealth has grown exponentially. (Read verses 25-30.) Jacob the deceiver met his match. However, he worked hard and per- sisted, giving all he had for the love of his life.
What if we worked hard for many years without seeing the results we hoped for? Would we still honor God with the way we put our hand to the plow, so to speak, in our efforts to work diligently? God calls us to care for creation, which goes well beyond our personal interests and rests on God’s interests. After Jacob marries Rachel, he works for Laban another seven years—twenty-one years in total. Would that our commitment to kingdom work were so focused.