II. THE FRAUD CONSIDERED AS A RETRIBUTION. There are sins which in this world are often punished in kind. (T. H. Leale.)
Lessons
1. The day revealeth that evil usually which the night covereth, sin may hide itself a little while till the morning.
2. Seeming Rachel over night is found Leah in the morning. Fair offers to be deceits.
3. Honest souls, though drawn into error, are full of indignation against it, and the cursors of it when discovered.
4. Plain covenant work is sufficient to convince deceivers that forsake 2:5. Service for Rachel should have Rachel for its reward.
6. It is gross falsehood and deceit to deny covenant reward, and adulterate it with worse (Gen_2:25). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Laban’s deceit
This discloses a baseness in Laban’s character, arousing contempt and aversion; but it ought not to blind us against the redeeming qualities of his heart. In the human mind, fragrant flowers often blossom surprisingly by the side of noxious weeds. The deceit of Laban was practicable, on account of the custom by which the bride is, on the day of marriage, conducted veiled to her future husband. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Evil result of Laban’s fraud
But the fraud of Laban was not only a moral offence in itself; it was the more deplorable, as it destroyed the principle of monogamy to which the patriarchs on the whole adhered. Jacob had intended to marry Rachel alone; and when he found himself, against his will, allied with Leah, his heart could not renounce her from whom he expected the best part of his happiness; he took her to wife besides Leah; nor was he permitted to dismiss the latter after the solemnization of the marriage. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
