“Jacob meets Rachel at the well. He serves Laban seven years for her. Laban gives to Jacob first Leah then Rachel in marriage. Jacob serves another seven years.”
See Genesis 29:1–30.
President George Q. Cannon said:
“So you see that in those early days the same sentiment pervaded the minds of the servants of God, respecting the families with whom they should intermarry. You will remember also that this same Rebekah afterwards, when fear was begotten in her heart respecting her son Jacob, and the enmity of his brother Esau, said to Isaac in substance: ‘I do not want Jacob to marry the daughters of this land, I want him to marry the right blood, to marry into the right families’ [see Gen. 27:41–46]. Isaac sent Jacob back to his mother’s people, and commanded him not to take a wife of the daughters of Caanan; but to marry into his mother’s family [see Gen. 28:1–5]. He did so; he married his two cousins, Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, his mother’s brother [see Gen. 29:1–30]. And from these families and from that blood sprang the promised seed. It was the lineage through which the priesthood ran; it was the lineage that was entitled to the blessings of the Father, and on this account they were very particular as to whom they should marry. Isaac was the promised seed, and his father and mother were exceedingly desirous that he should marry in the right direction, and if you will notice that this is the same sentiment that God inspired His servant Moses to speak unto the children of Israel. They were commanded to marry among themselves, and not to marry among the outside nations that had not the faith that the children of Israel had.”
(In Journal of Discourses, 25:363–64.)
