Jacob is a deal maker and a manipulator. He knows what he wants, and uses his words to slyly get it. In short, he is a scoundrel. But in Laban, he meets a scoundrel with twenty years more experience.

What happens: He makes a deal with Laban, but Laban never exactly agrees to it. The night of his wedding finally comes, and Leah arrives in his tent, under the darkness of night, dressed as Rachel. He was left to trust only sound and touch, and he was deceived.

In the morning: Behold it was Leah.

Jacob had set his heart on Rachel, once he had Rachel everything would be great, all his travail would be worth it. He trusted his ability to make deals to get what he wanted. But his savior failed him, in the morning it was Leah.

Derek Kidner says those words describe the disillusionment we all feel after being kicked out of Eden. We keep expecting a fulfillment, a lasting pleasure, a joy that never comes. My mom described it as the after Christmas blues.

Don’t just look at Jacob as being deceived, even Rachel ended up failing him. She tortured him with her inability to have children. She traded him for mandrakes. She makes him marry her maid. When she finally has a son, he spoils him to the point that the other children hate him and sell him into slavery.

Every morning after: Behold it was Leah.

What do you do when you realize your dream isn’t coming true. When you realize this good thing isn’t fulfilling you.

1) Blame the thing itself. So you keep blindly pressing on, looking for a bigger car, a better job, a cuter wife, a nicer home, a better school. You stay on the treadmill until you die a disillusioned fool.

2) Blame yourself. I saw so many depressed students as a campus minister. They had been told that college would be the best years of their life. They weren’t enjoying them, they were not fulfilled so it must be their fault. They ended up in Despair.

3) Blame the world. Maybe it is everyone else’s fault, or maybe the world itself is just so broken that happiness can never be found. The best you can hope for is to be left alone. You become a cynic.

4) Blame your desires. If nothing in this world can please you, please consider the possiblity that you were created for something bigger and better than anything this world has to offer. Maybe the creator of this world made you for himself, and maybe you will be restless until you find your rest in Him.