I do. marriage, trust, and God

So i have this story i want to tell you, its a good story, and it comes from Genesis chapter 29. Jacob goes out and he is on a trip and he comes to "the land of the eastern peoples". He stops and asks some shepherds where they are from, and they reply Haran. Something is familiar about that to him so he asks "Do you know Laban, Nahors grandson?" and they say "Yes, look he is coming.". Laban was the son of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, who was Abraham's brother. He lived in Haran, a city in Mesopotamia which is today part of Syria. Laban's sister was Rebekah, who married Isaac; Laban was therefore Jacob's uncle. Now this makes the story a little weird but disregard the family relations. Jacob sees Rachel, Labans daughter, and he kisses her and tells of their relation. She runs to tell her dad and he comes and embraces jacob saying, "You are my flesh and blood." Jacob stayed and worked for him for a month, and at the end of the month Laban said,"just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? tell me what your wages should be?". He had two daughters, the younger Rachel, and the older Leah. The Bible says that Rachel was beautiful and lovely in form, but Leah had weak eyes. Its not talking about vision, its a nice way to say someone is ugly in Hebrew.......in Hebrew Leah means cow...... so enough said. Jacob asks for Rachel and offers 7 years of service for her, 4 times more than required by the law, and it says they passed like days because of his love. Finally when Jacobs service is over he says to his uncle "Give me my bride, my time is up, i want to make love to her." Now i don't know about you but i find Jacob is very rude and disrespectful to Laban and to his soon-to-be bride. Had i been Laban i probably would have busted Jacob in the mouth....Anyways... Laban gathers together a bunch of things for a feast and gets Jacob smashed beyond belief and sneaks Leah into his room. Jacob is so inebriated he doesn't even realize!  The word says 


^25"So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?"

 26But Laban said, "It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.

 ²⁷"Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years."

 ²⁸Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

 ²⁹Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.

 ³⁰So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years."

So the Lord sees that Leah is hurting and gives her a son and she names him Reuben which means, see a son. Because the lord gave her the son. Then she has another son who she names Simeon, which means He hears. She did this because the Lord heard that she was suffering and was not loved. Then she had another son and named him Levi, which means joined, because she thought, "Now that we have sons my husband will love me.", but it was not the case. She had another son and named him Judah, which means praise. She offered praise to God. Jesus came from this lineage, from Judah and Leah, not Rachel. God blessed the unloved in her praise to him.
So i want to talk about some things, when Jacob first sought Rachel he was impatient and tried to rush his marriage by offering a ridiculous and absurd amount of time, and never once was God in his thoughts nor did he seek Gods will in the situation. He also was wrong in his love. He did not love Leah and mistreated her like a concubine. God was not in the relationship with Rachel either, he burned with worldly passions and lust. Leah, on the other hand, was blessed by God and recognized that he was Good. She glorified God with all of her children's names and gave God the glory. She put God first in her marriage and was blessed for it. i think i can say that in relationships we do outlandish things to earn peoples love and approval and often lose sight of what is good. i urge you to make God a priority in your relationships, the largest priority, and he will bless your relationships. Put him first and pray often and your relationships will flourish. The best marriage you can have is based on a foundation in God, because he is immovable, and if you are founded in him your relationship will be unshakable. Grace and peace.