Genesis 29

"So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her."

Genesis 29:20

Jacob worked for seven years without pay.  The only payment he received was a wife at the end of those seven years.  I'd say that's worth it - for the right woman.  However, Jacob is deceived into sleeping with Rachel's older sister Leah.  How agonizing would it be to work seven years for the woman you love, and then be given someone else?  Thankfully, the father of the women gave Rachel to him before his next seven years' work, so Jacob didn't have to wait again.

Instead of getting into a semantic debate about polygamy, I wanted to focus now on love.  Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, and so God had compassion on Leah.  Even after bearing four sons, Jacob loves Rachel more.  It is written that he loved Rachel because even though her sister had delicate eyes, Rachel had a beautiful and shapely body.  What role does physical appearance truly play in the love shared between a man and his wife?

Anyone who has ever been in love with a woman would probably agree with me that looks are more important than we want to let on.  Men are very physical creatures, and we have certain physiological responses when we someone is pleasing to look at, touch, smell, etc.  Our senses form our first impressions, and sight is usually the first and most common sense used to interact with another person.  Vision forms our longest-lasting concepts of who a person is.

This is not to say that a man will stop loving a woman after she turns old and gray.  Quite the contrary.  When a man truly falls in love with a woman, and spends time knowing her more intimately than just through physical senses, the emotional connection overcomes physical sensation.  In the case of Jacob, I think that his seven years working for Rachel's father, he would have had more emotional contact with her than physical.  However, since he had already formed that first impression based on looks, he wasn't interested in getting to know Leah the same way, even though she lived in the same household.