20 Years of Life with Laban
Genesis 28:
Providentially, Jacob encounters God has he travels to his mother's homeland. Jacob will need all the spiritual support that meeting provides as he spends the next twenty years under his uncle's "roof."
Read God's wonderful promise to Jacob: "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you" (28:15). This reminds me of the Lord's promise recorded in Matthew 28: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (28:18-20).
Genesis 29:
Jacob--the deceiver--meets Laban, who also appears skilled in dishonesty. I would think that Laban knew soon that Jacob was smitten with Rachel. Jacob proposed marriage to Rachel and served seven years for her. Then Laban pulled the first of many "fast ones" where Jacob would be concerned. First Laban sent Leah in, instead of Rachel, and then explained the custom of the country. They made a deal: a week with Leah and then Rachel for another seven years.
It was obvious to all that Jacob only agreed to stay in his marriage to Leah because then he could also marry Rachel. What heart ache!
Providentially, the Lord saw and made Leah fertile while closing Rachel's womb. Leah hoped with each son she bore to Jacob to win his heart. That was never to be. He would always prefer Rachel.
Genesis 30:
Although Rachel was the more loved, her continuing childlessness drove her to accuse Jacob of withholding children from her. Her envy of her sister strangely did not dispose her to wrangle with Leah but take her frustration out on their husband. And the same custom which Sarah and Abraham fell back on with Hagar came into use here.
Rachel determines that Bilhah will be surrogate. Bilhah bears two sons to Jacob: Dan and Napthali.
Leah then gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob as surrogate and she has two sons by Jacob: Gad and Asher.
A sad story is included at this juncture: Rachel trades a night with Jacob for some fruit which Leah's son Reuben found in the field. Imagine how Jacob felt when he heard this: "When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, 'You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes'" (30:16)
What happened? "So he lay with her that night. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son" (30:16-17).
Leah bore Jacob not only a fifth but a sixth son and then a daughter, Dinah. After that, after six sons and a daughter born to Jacob by Leah and four sons by his wives servants, then "God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb." What joy she felt when she finally conceived a son. Yet one son was not enough for her. She named him Joseph, saying, "May the LORD add to me another son!" (30:24).
While all this was going on, Jacob had faithfully served Laban as a shepherd. What a change for a man who had preferred tent life when he was growing up!
Both during the 14 years Jacob served for Rachel--Leah being thrown into the deal--and for another six years after that, Jacob labored for Laban. And Laban prospered. We know that during those 14 years Laban became even wealthier than he had been from his response to Jacob when Jacob wanted to leave.
The deal they struck for the wages Laban would now pay Jacob is baffling to a non-agrarian society such as ours. And when Laban tried to keep Jacob from getting the promised livestock, Jacob found a way to not only get what he was promised, but also the best of the stock, both sheep and goats.
Deceivers deceiving! Yet God oversaw and sovereignly caused all things to work together.
Genesis 31:
What brought matters to a head and caused Jacob to decide to go home? For one, he overheard Laban's sons complaining that he had taken (not earned) all their father's wealth. And Jacob also realized that Laban did not "regard him with favor as before" (31-1-2). But what made Jacob have the confidence to go? "Then the LORD said to Jacob, 'Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you" (31:3).But Jacob could not just trust that. The old conspirer met secretly with Rachel and Leah. He taught them what could be considered applied theology. For everything he rehearsed that Laban had done, he pointed out God's intervention. Finally he relates the dream. Rachel and Leah agree. They have seen Laban's change of attitude toward them also. They encourage Jacob: "Whatever God has said to you, do" (31:16).
Jacob must have been planning for this as we see him move quickly to get his wives, children, livestock, and all other property to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.
Even a three day head start on Jacob's part is not enough to dissuade Laban from chasing after them. We learn that Laban pursued them for seven days. "But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, 'Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad'" (31:24).
"And Laban overtook Jacob" (31:25). That must not have been hard. Jacob had all his family and livestock and other belongings, and could not travel at any speed.
What concerned Laban when he finally confronted Jacob? Someone had stolen Laban's household goods. That worried him more than the loss of his daughters or grandchildren or the flocks. Why? He may have counted on their spiritual power.
What a scene ensues as Jacob permits Laban to search for those gods! In Genesis 31:36-42, Jacob confronts Laban for his deceitfulness and rightly concludes: "If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night" (31:42).
What could Laban say or do in response? He made a peace of sorts with Jacob, with a covenant and agreement that neither would act to harm the other. An oathis taken, a sacrifice offered, bread broken, a night spent, a blessing given, and eventually Laban departs and returns home.
Jacob no longer lives with Laban, but next must somehow live at peace with Esau.