Keep rockin', and keep knockin'/Whether you Louis Vuitton it up or Reebokin'
You see the hate, that they're servin' on a platter/So what we gon' have, dessert or disaster?
There are so many reasons to hate Jacob. He was a mama’s boy. He stole his brother’s birthright. He stole a blessing from his brother by deceiving his dying father. And when his brother wanted to snuff him out in retaliation, Jacob ran.
However, Jacob is the originator of the hustle. He was willing to do anything to get what he wanted. Lie. Cheat. Steal. But when it came to love, Jacob got hustled. Solomon & Sampson are both examples of love making you stupid. In the case of Jacob, it wasn’t his woman that hustled him. It was his father-in-law. It’s all in Genesis 29.
Jacob made a deal with his father-in-law: He would work for 7 years to “earn” the hand of the love of life, Rachel. Now Ne-Yo’s verse in this song is all about losing his pimp game: I used to be commander and chief/ of my pimp ship flyin' high,/Til I met this pretty little missile that shot me out the sky...
Now we’ve established that Jacob was a conniving, hustling, American Gangster-type dude. But it all fell apart when he met Rachel. He met her, kissed her and “wept aloud.” Now I haven’t read The Pimp Handbook or anything, but I’m pretty sure crying loudly is against the rules. Unless you are Prince. But that is sooo ‘80s. Then again, the scriptures say she was lovely & beautiful (v.17). Jacob worked for 7 years and, to him, it seemed like only a few days (v. 20). That’s how much he loved her.
I never thought I'd be in love like this/When I look at you my mind goes on a trip/Then you came in, and knocked me on my face/Feels like in I'm a race/But I already won first place...
The wedding day came, the wedding night came and…the next morning, Jacob wakes up next to Rachel’s ugly, older sister. Seems like good ol’ dad pulled the “fake-me-out” on Jacob. TKO. Talk about getting knocked down. What would you do?
Sometimes love comes around/And it knocks you down/Just get back up/When it knocks you down...
Jacob got back up. He didn’t dishonor Leah. And he worked 7 more years to make Rachel his wife. Now, this isn’t an entry about the implications of polygamy. That’s another blog. God blesses Jacob by giving him the love of his life. And God blesses Rachel by giving her a partner who thinks she hung the moon.
Can you imagine being treated like Celie in The Color Purple? When a man came to buy a cow, her father made this offer, “if you take Celie, I’ll give you the cow.” Her father didn’t see her beauty. And he doomed her to living with a spouse that didn’t love her. TKO. Talk about getting knocked down. What would you do?
Leah gets back up. God steps in and blesses Leah by making her the mother of 4 sons. Now, it is noteworthy that originally Leah was having children in hopes of winning over Jacob. (Rachel, though loved more, couldn’t have kids.) But in the end, she realized her children were a gift separate and apart from her marriage and she thanked God for each of them. She loved them and they loved her.
I never thought I'd fall for you as hard as I did/ You got me thinkin' bout our life our house and kids, Every mornin' I look at you and smile/'Cause boy you came around and you knocked me down...
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