And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.
Read Chapter 29
John Chrysostom
AD 407
See in this case too, I ask you, his keen discernment and how he had no desire for accumulating money. Far from haggling with Laban in the manner of a hireling and demanding something more, Jacob remembered his mother and his father’s directions and showed his extraordinary meekness in saying, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” You see, on seeing her from the outset at the well, he fell in love with her. See the man’s right attitude: He sets a time for himself and by means of this period of years he provides himself with an adequate incentive for his own continence. Why are you surprised, dearly beloved, that he promised to serve seven years for the maiden he loved? To show, in fact, how his great love reduced the labor and the period of time, sacred Scripture says, “Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and in his eyes they were but a few days when measured against his love for her.” The period of seven years, it is saying, was counted but a few days because of his surpassing love for the maiden. You see, when someone is smitten with love’s desire, far from seeing any problem, he easily puts up with everything, albeit fraught with danger and much difficulty besides, having in view one thing only—obtaining the object of his desire.
