Like most of the Old Testament, Rachel and the people around her were just examples for us; written for our admonition, as Paul informs us (1 Corinthians 10:11). To unravel this particular one is pretty simple, although to my knowledge it’s not been done before.

The children of Israel (who used to be named Jacob) – are God’s people, and His children (Exodus 5:1, etc). The mothers of Israel are Rachel and Leah, and their respective handmaids. The father of Israel, and therefore the husband of Rachel and Leah, is therefore Jesus. Make sure you’ve digested that before we go further.

The entire story that you’re about to read was written as an allegory to explain another concept. It really happened to Jacob, Rachel, Leah and Laban, but those people were just actors, acting out a much larger cosmic story so that WE could learn from it. And in this play, Jacob played Jesus; Laban, Jacob’s evil uncle, played Satan, Jesus’ evil “uncle”, and Rachel and Leah played… well, just wait and see. But I will say that Rachel means “ewe”, a she-sheep, which would be a perfect wife for a “lamb of God”…

Jacob was sent by his father, Isaac, to go and work under Laban; there to receive his wife. And in exactly the same way, Jesus was sent by His Father, to go and work under Satan, to receive HIS wife. Yes, that’s shocking, but it’s a fact. Jesus worked UNDER and AROUND Satan whenever He worked on Earth, as long as Satan was the god of this world.

Luke 4:5-7 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

The devil was able to give that authority to Jesus, because it had been DELIVERED to Him. And Jesus did not contest that, for it had been! He IS the god of this world. But this also tells us that Jesus did not already HAVE that power which the Devil then held, for He was here as a man, “of no reputation” and in “the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). He had no personal power over the devil, and the casting out of demons and the miracles He did were done by the Father, not Jesus. (John 14:10).

So Jesus and Jacob both had an evil “uncle”, under whom they served to receive their wives. Jacob had Laban and Jesus had Satan. And both served 7 years for each of their wives.

Genesis 29:20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

Similarly, Jesus is serving this 7,000 years under Satan to purchase His bride. And since a thousand years are as one day with Him (2 Peter 3:8), these 7,000 years seem to Jesus as “but a few days, for the love He has for her”. But both Jesus and Jacob were cheated out of their wives by their uncle!

Verses 21-25 And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. … [the next day after the marriage] … And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?

Jacob loved Rachel; but his uncle tricked him. He served him 7 years, and then instead of the wife he loved, he got the wife he hated. And just as Rachel was the wife Jacob loved, Rachel, the female lamb, represented the Church Jesus loved and was going to marry.

Revelation 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

But Jesus was tricked! He thought He was marrying this church, the one in Revelation that had made herself ready, when He led them across the red sea and they sang the song of Moses (Exodus 15) – the song of the firstfruits (Revelation 15:3). And then He led them up to the mountain, and there He married Israel whom He had bought with 7,000 years of work under Satan – or one week, just as Jacob worked for Rachel.

But after He married her He discovered that this woman that he had delivered from Egypt wasn’t Rachel at all! He had paid the price for Rachel, just as Jacob had, but He woke up next to Leah! She had been bought under the new covenant, the covenant of faith, the covenant of a circumcised heart, the covenant of Sarah/Rachel/Jerusalem, but it turned out that the wife He had bought hadn’t wanted to obey God at all! She just wanted out from under the evil uncle Egypt/Laban/Satan, and saw this eligible bachelor as a way out!

Jeremiah 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

This bride, Leah, made herself ready by leaving Egypt, and obeying the outward things – but she refused to change her heart and was only passing herself off as Rachel until she was safely away from Egypt! And as soon as they saw God, and what God really was like, they were afraid, and rejected Him…

Exodus 20:19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

They agreed to be bound by the outward covenant, the covenant that used Moses as a mediator, but they would not be bound by the inward covenant, that had the law written on their hearts. And so Jesus hated this wife, just as Jacob hated Leah, so each worked out a new deal to pay again for the wife He ACTUALLY wanted. 7 more years. Jacob served this time in Laban’s house, and Jesus will serve it on what’s left of Satan’s earth – during the great white throne period, 7 thousand-year weeks spent saving the secondfruits.

Genesis 29:27-28, 31 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. … And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Jacob hated Leah. And so God made Rachel barren for many years. But Leah gave Jacob many sons. And Jacob loved his sons, and honored them, even though He had to disqualify the first three (Reuben, Simeon, and Levi) from the birthright because of their sins. (Genesis 49:4-7). But eventually…

Genesis 30:22-23 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:

So Rachel was under a reproach; she was barren; she was the younger sister; she was beautiful, and she was loved by Jacob. Jacob only stayed married to Leah because it was too late for an annulment, so that marriage was not one of promise, but one of bondage. And with that we can compare this to another parallel story…

Galatians 4:22, 24, 26 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. … Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. … But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

So Paul explicitly tells us that these are an allegory; that Sarah was a type of Jerusalem, of the new covenant of faith, and that Hagar was a type of the old covenant, the covenant of works. Simply put, for the old covenant the law need only be obeyed outwardly, but the new requires obedience to the law both inwardly and outwardly.

Verses 27-29 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

That specifically is talking about Sarah, who was barren just as Rachel was. But the fact is, both Rachel and Sarah are types of the same thing – the true church of God, the bride of Christ. Think about it; Rachel was barren; but then she had more children than all the other tribes combined. Ephraim and Manasseh were by far the most populous nations in Israel, and in the world today as the US and British Commonwealth countries.

But Leah’s children, who were born because Jacob was bound to Leah, not because of his love for her, always hated Joseph and Benjamin; remember, they all conspired to kill Joseph, then compromised at selling him into slavery! So “he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit”, as it says.

So what we have here is two wives; the wives of Jacob; these wives represent the old covenant, and the new covenant. Jesus is even now working for these wives, and both are married to Him – although He’s currently separated from his old testament wife, Leah (they’re having marital issues).

The old covenant church is… older. The new covenant church is younger. Right? And that is the exact excuse that Laban gave for tricking Jacob!

Genesis 29:26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.

Laban wouldn’t given Jacob Rachel because she was younger, and he had to marry the older girl first! Likewise Christ wasn’t allowed to marry the new testament church first, he had to marry the old testament church at Sinai! (Acts 7:38)

Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

So, due to promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He married the children of Israel, offering them the new covenant of God speaking directly to them as He did from Sinai; expecting them to be Rachel. But that church rejected him and demanded Moses as a go-between, thereby opting into the old covenant and proving that they were in fact Leah.

But God knew that Jesus would love Rachel, so He made her, the other wife, barren for all this time; so that Leah would be given a fair chance (1500 years or so) to prove herself. She failed, and so God opened the womb of Rachel, the new covenant, at Pentecost in 31 A.D.

Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

Thereby giving her the promise of far more spiritual children than Leah had ever had in the old covenant; and that even though her children were few at first, compared to Leah’s – two vs. six – that in a few generations, they would come to far outnumber Leah’s before the end.

Verses 2-4 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

For this new covenant included not only her own children, but the children of all the gentiles who would be grafted into Rachel’s household. And Leah had to stumble so that this could happen – which is why Leah completely stopped bearing children before Rachel had any at all.

Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

And through that fall, Rachel and her children of promise, and the covenant of faith, will inherit the birthrights, even though Leah and her children of bondage were the eldest. But God still has plans for Leah, as He says later in that same chapter…

Verse 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, …