With the seven years of his agreed contract with Laban up, Jacob is ready to receive his payment. Jacob served his uncle for seven years, which to Jacob, seemed like only a moment because of his love of Rachel. It is interesting how love tends to skew our perception of time. You may have known your love for a short time but you feel as if you have always known them. If you are apart from your love sometimes it seems like forever even though it’s been a day. And sometimes when you are apart from your love time flies because the only thing you are focused upon is being with your love. This is where Jacob is. He has a love and that is his one purpose in life. All else falls from view when you are in a labor of love. This is true of our relationships with other people but it is also true of our love for God. When our love is focused on God and being with him all the things of this earth seem to grow dim. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18). According to custom, Laban gathers all the people of the place together and makes a wedding feast. We often complain of the expense of the complexity of wedding ceremonies today, but if you were to study the traditions of other countries and ancient practices, you find that weddings are an elaborate and expensive event. Many of the ancient weddings would last for days with singing and dancing and feasting. And so, on the night that Jacob and Rachel are to consummate their marriage, Uncle Laban is working out a scheme. He takes his oldest daughter Leah, dresses her in the wedding veil, and takes her to Jacob. It was dark in the tent and Jacob had been celebrating all night. In the morning, when he woke up and the sun is shining into the tent he realizes that it is not Rachel that is next to him but Leah. Jacob has just woken up to another consequence, and one of the most far-reaching, of his lying and cheating. The cheat has become the cheated. This will have ripple effects throughout his entire life until his death. We cannot underestimate the impact of this consequence and Jacob’s response.