Jacob's Steadfast Labor as a Model of Faithfulness

"And he went in also to Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with him yet another seven years" (Genesis 29:30). It is the way of the world that a laborer works for a householder faithfully for two or three years, and in the end he grows lazy. But here, just as the first years were complete, so were the latter years complete; just as the first were in faithfulness, so were the latter in faithfulness. Rabbi Yochanan said: It is written, "Jacob fled to the field of Aram, and Israel served for a wife" (Hosea 12:13). He said to them: Your pattern resembles Jacob's. Just as Jacob, before he married a wife, was enslaved [in labor], and after he married, was enslaved, so too you: before the redeemer was born you were enslaved, and after the redeemer was born you were enslaved.