God tells Jacob to head home and to take his stuff with him. This departure from Laban also brings a sort of truce between the two connivers. We also see Jacob take a first step away from plain legality toward morality - the beginning of a code morality.
Jacob learned that Laban's sons were talking behind his back: “Jacob has used our father’s wealth to make himself rich at our father's expense.” At the same time, Jacob noticed that Laban had changed toward him. He wasn't treating him the same.
It seems that Laban had no sons when Jacob married into the family. This would have make Jacob the male heir to Laban. But during the 20 years of service to Laban, it looks like Laban now has sons of his own - thus Jacob is no longer the heir.
That’s when God said to Jacob, “Go back home where you were born. I’m with you.”
God is with Jacob, that's the best kind of start. When God says, "I am with you," why the urge to sneak away? Why not meet Laban, tell him that he's heading home, take all of his stuff, and leave? Jacob reasons that he is walking away from a fight that would certainly lead to bloodshed, and that (in the natural) Jacob would not win.
But now to get the rest of the family moving, too.
So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were. He said, “I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn't treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn't changed; he’s still with me. You know how hard I've worked for your father. Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me.
Well, twenty years of being regarded as nothing can hurt.
When Jacob asked Laban for Rachel as his wife, Laban basically said, "I guess so, you're no worse than anyone else she could marry."
When Jacob asked Laban for Rachel as his wife, Laban basically said, "I guess so, you're no worse than anyone else she could marry."
If he said, ‘Your wages will consist of speckled animals’ the whole flock would start having speckled lambs and kids. And if he said, ‘From now on your wages will be streaked animals’ the whole flock would have streaked ones. Over and over God used your father’s livestock to reward me.
This version of the breeding of the flock is a bit different than the one we read about earlier.
“Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates. In the dream an angel of God called out to me, ‘Jacob!’
“I said, ‘Yes?’
All of Jacob's pole gathering and peeling and segregating were of no profit whatever. A careful look at the words describing the dream will make this clear. Notice how God drew Jacob’s attention to the fact that the males that were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled
“He said, ‘Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban's been doing to you. I’m the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.’”
All of Jacob’s efforts were of no benefit. All that time peeling poles and separating flocks and striving to outdo Laban was all for naught. What seemed at the moment to be the work of Jacob’s hands and the outcome of his schemes was nothing of the sort. It was the hand of God in spite of his scheming, not because of it.
Rachel and Leah said, “Has he treated us any better? Aren't we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he's spent all that. Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children's. Go ahead. Do what God told you.”
Remember that phrase, "...wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father..." I think Rachel is getting a bit worked-up.
Jacob did it. He put his children and his wives on camels and gathered all his livestock and everything he had gotten, everything acquired in Paddan Aram, to go back home to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
It's time for a Cannonball Run.
Laban was off shearing sheep.
Shearing a large flock takes several days, and it's usually set within a festival. It adds truth to the family's complaint that Laban had changed toward them - the whole family should be a part of the get-together.
Rachel stole her father’s household gods.
The image gods were an identifiable object representing (and sometimes displaying) the household wealth. Worth a lot of money, and easy to identify. Also, whomever inherited (or had possession of) the teraphim essentially held the deed to the family estate. Rachel isn't just stealing a cash equivalent in gold or silver, she was taking the rights to everything Laban owned.
Maybe she considered Jacob to be the rightful heir - even though Laban now had sons, Jacob was the initial male heir and the eldest.
And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on—he was totally in the dark. Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead.
A clean getaway. Head for the border.
And now, Laban has gained some extra baggage in his name - "the Aramean." I think this denotes the upcoming split in the family.
Three days later, Laban got the news: “Jacob’s run off.” Laban rounded up his relatives and chased after him.
Gather the posse. Saddle up the fast camels.
Seven days later they caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Take heed that thou speak not to Ya’akov either tov or rah."
I'm having a difficult time decoding this warning from God. After reading through several translations, my thought is that God is telling Laban not to "bless" Jacob, nor "curse" him. Other commentaries say not to make a threat or a promise; or don't speak from good unto evil (whatever that means); or don't say anything to Jacob, good or bad.
When Laban reached him, Jacob’s tents were pitched in the Gilead mountains; Laban pitched his tents there, too.
“What do you mean,” said Laban, “by keeping me in the dark and sneaking off, hauling my daughters off like prisoners of war? Why did you run off like a thief in the night? Why didn't you tell me? Why, I would have sent you off with a great celebration—music, timbrels, flutes! But you wouldn't permit me so much as a kiss for my daughters and grandchildren. It was a stupid thing for you to do. If I had a mind to, I could destroy you right now, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, ‘Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.’ I understand. You left because you were homesick. But why did you steal my household gods?”
Laban begins a tirade against Jacob, derogating him before his household - using phrases like "prisoners of war" and "thief in the night" and "stupid" - finally culminating in "I could destroy you..." Laban does not regard Jacob as an honored family member, much less an equal.
And everyone there knew that Laban was lying. He had no concern for his daughters once their ransom payments had been depleted, and he had no intention of giving Jacob and his family a celebration.
Except for the household gods. Laban was sweating that, because whomever had those held the deed to the family farm (and that means money). And Laban closes his speech with the topic of the idols - the thing foremost on his mind.] - the literal bottom-line.
Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me by brute force. But as far as your gods are concerned, if you find that anybody here has them, that person dies. With all of us watching, look around. If you find anything here that belongs to you, take it.” Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
Jacob and Laban are both sneaky deceivers - but it must really sting to be accused of a crime that he didn't commit.
Jacob is so intense in his promise, "... that person dies ..." that I'm surprised no one heard Rachel gasp. And, in a manner similar to what we'll see later in David's pronouncement of death upon the man "who stole the sheep" resulting in the death of his son by Bathsheeba; Jacob's oath of death results in Rachel's death in childbirth.
Laban went through Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two maids but didn't find them.
Is the sequence of searching based on least trust to most? Or a storytelling device to let the suspense build?
He went from Leah’s tent to Rachel's. But Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. When Laban had gone through the tent, searching high and low without finding a thing, Rachel said to her father, “Don’t think I'm being disrespectful, my master, that I can’t stand before you, but I'm having my period.” So even though he turned the place upside down in his search, he didn't find the household gods.
Laban honors his household idols, and assumes his daughter does too, and would not sit on them during her period. It appears Rachel has learned some trickery from her father and her husband.
Now it was Jacob's turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: “So what's my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this? You've ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that’s yours? Let’s see it—display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us.
Time to air things out. 20 years is a long time to keep things bottled up.
“In the twenty years I've worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock. I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket—actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not. I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night. For twenty years I've done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flock and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict.”
A couple of things here: Jacob has not yet come to the place where he can call the Lord, "My God" - so he names him the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac. That's fear as in awe and respect. I think that name gives us some insight into the stories that Isaac told his family about God. From the time Abraham took him to the mountaintop, Isaac has understood (at a deep level) what it means to live a sacrificial life before God.
There's also the thought that Jacob uses this name to help remind Laban about his dream and God's warning.
Laban defended himself: “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock—everything you see is mine. But what can I do about my daughters or for the children they've had? So let’s settle things between us, make a covenant—God will be the witness between us.”
Laban is still asserting himself over Jacob. He is claiming that everything that belongs to Jacob actually belongs to him - like a slave-master asserting that he owns all the slave's possessions since he owns the slave.
Jacob's wives are his wives, the children are his children (promised by God), and the flock is Jacob's promised wages. Everything we see was promised to Jacob by God.
But, after the posturing, Laban is ready to make a covenant.
Jacob took a stone and set it upright as a pillar.
Jacob called his family around, “Get stones!” They gathered stones and heaped them up and then ate there beside the pile of stones. Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument).
They ate together to seal the covenant.
Laban said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me.” (That’s why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument.) It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us.”
Laban continued to Jacob, “This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won’t cross this line to hurt you and you won’t cross this line to hurt me. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (the God of their ancestor) will keep things straight between us.”
Laban swore the covenant by the God of Abraham and the (local) God of Nahor.
Jacob promised, swearing by the Fear, the God of his father Isaac.
Jacob swore by the God of Isaac, and purposely omitted the God of Nahor.
Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and worshiped, calling in all his family members to the meal. They ate and slept that night on the mountain. Laban got up early the next morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, blessed them, and then set off for home.
That encounter started out a bit tense, but seems to have ended okay. Now Jacob will need to return his attention to going home, and that brother who wants to kill him.
These days, we can receive a lesson that Religion is as distinct from Christianity as Jacob’s pole-peeling was from God’s sovereign grace in the life of Jacob. Countless men and women are trying to work their way into God’s heaven by their own efforts. Some of these include church membership, baptism, confirmation, communion, church leadership, charity, and so on. Now any of these activities may be a blessing to someone who is already a Christian, but they are useless in trying to win God’s approval. The appearance of benefit may be there but not the reality of it. People may think we are Christians. They may commend our devotion to duty. But self-effort is mere pole-peeling so far as God is concerned.
The only way to enter God’s heaven is to recognize that we are undeserving of it and accept it as the gift it is. The work of salvation is God’s sovereign work. It has been accomplished by His Son, Jesus Christ. He bore the penalty for our sins. He provided our righteousness to us. Salvation comes when we trust in nothing more and nothing less than the sufficiency of Jesus Christ for our eternal blessings.
This version of the breeding of the flock is a bit different than the one we read about earlier.
“Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates. In the dream an angel of God called out to me, ‘Jacob!’
“I said, ‘Yes?’
All of Jacob's pole gathering and peeling and segregating were of no profit whatever. A careful look at the words describing the dream will make this clear. Notice how God drew Jacob’s attention to the fact that the males that were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled
“He said, ‘Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban's been doing to you. I’m the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.’”
All of Jacob’s efforts were of no benefit. All that time peeling poles and separating flocks and striving to outdo Laban was all for naught. What seemed at the moment to be the work of Jacob’s hands and the outcome of his schemes was nothing of the sort. It was the hand of God in spite of his scheming, not because of it.
Rachel and Leah said, “Has he treated us any better? Aren't we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he's spent all that. Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children's. Go ahead. Do what God told you.”
Remember that phrase, "...wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father..." I think Rachel is getting a bit worked-up.
Jacob did it. He put his children and his wives on camels and gathered all his livestock and everything he had gotten, everything acquired in Paddan Aram, to go back home to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
It's time for a Cannonball Run.
Laban was off shearing sheep.
Shearing a large flock takes several days, and it's usually set within a festival. It adds truth to the family's complaint that Laban had changed toward them - the whole family should be a part of the get-together.
Rachel stole her father’s household gods.
The image gods were an identifiable object representing (and sometimes displaying) the household wealth. Worth a lot of money, and easy to identify. Also, whomever inherited (or had possession of) the teraphim essentially held the deed to the family estate. Rachel isn't just stealing a cash equivalent in gold or silver, she was taking the rights to everything Laban owned.
Maybe she considered Jacob to be the rightful heir - even though Laban now had sons, Jacob was the initial male heir and the eldest.
And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on—he was totally in the dark. Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead.
A clean getaway. Head for the border.
And now, Laban has gained some extra baggage in his name - "the Aramean." I think this denotes the upcoming split in the family.
Three days later, Laban got the news: “Jacob’s run off.” Laban rounded up his relatives and chased after him.
Gather the posse. Saddle up the fast camels.
Seven days later they caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Take heed that thou speak not to Ya’akov either tov or rah."
I'm having a difficult time decoding this warning from God. After reading through several translations, my thought is that God is telling Laban not to "bless" Jacob, nor "curse" him. Other commentaries say not to make a threat or a promise; or don't speak from good unto evil (whatever that means); or don't say anything to Jacob, good or bad.
When Laban reached him, Jacob’s tents were pitched in the Gilead mountains; Laban pitched his tents there, too.
“What do you mean,” said Laban, “by keeping me in the dark and sneaking off, hauling my daughters off like prisoners of war? Why did you run off like a thief in the night? Why didn't you tell me? Why, I would have sent you off with a great celebration—music, timbrels, flutes! But you wouldn't permit me so much as a kiss for my daughters and grandchildren. It was a stupid thing for you to do. If I had a mind to, I could destroy you right now, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, ‘Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.’ I understand. You left because you were homesick. But why did you steal my household gods?”
Laban begins a tirade against Jacob, derogating him before his household - using phrases like "prisoners of war" and "thief in the night" and "stupid" - finally culminating in "I could destroy you..." Laban does not regard Jacob as an honored family member, much less an equal.
And everyone there knew that Laban was lying. He had no concern for his daughters once their ransom payments had been depleted, and he had no intention of giving Jacob and his family a celebration.
Except for the household gods. Laban was sweating that, because whomever had those held the deed to the family farm (and that means money). And Laban closes his speech with the topic of the idols - the thing foremost on his mind.] - the literal bottom-line.
Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me by brute force. But as far as your gods are concerned, if you find that anybody here has them, that person dies. With all of us watching, look around. If you find anything here that belongs to you, take it.” Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
Jacob and Laban are both sneaky deceivers - but it must really sting to be accused of a crime that he didn't commit.
Jacob is so intense in his promise, "... that person dies ..." that I'm surprised no one heard Rachel gasp. And, in a manner similar to what we'll see later in David's pronouncement of death upon the man "who stole the sheep" resulting in the death of his son by Bathsheeba; Jacob's oath of death results in Rachel's death in childbirth.
Laban went through Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two maids but didn't find them.
Is the sequence of searching based on least trust to most? Or a storytelling device to let the suspense build?
He went from Leah’s tent to Rachel's. But Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. When Laban had gone through the tent, searching high and low without finding a thing, Rachel said to her father, “Don’t think I'm being disrespectful, my master, that I can’t stand before you, but I'm having my period.” So even though he turned the place upside down in his search, he didn't find the household gods.
Laban honors his household idols, and assumes his daughter does too, and would not sit on them during her period. It appears Rachel has learned some trickery from her father and her husband.
Now it was Jacob's turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: “So what's my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this? You've ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that’s yours? Let’s see it—display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us.
Time to air things out. 20 years is a long time to keep things bottled up.
“In the twenty years I've worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock. I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket—actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not. I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night. For twenty years I've done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flock and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict.”
A couple of things here: Jacob has not yet come to the place where he can call the Lord, "My God" - so he names him the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac. That's fear as in awe and respect. I think that name gives us some insight into the stories that Isaac told his family about God. From the time Abraham took him to the mountaintop, Isaac has understood (at a deep level) what it means to live a sacrificial life before God.
There's also the thought that Jacob uses this name to help remind Laban about his dream and God's warning.
Laban defended himself: “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock—everything you see is mine. But what can I do about my daughters or for the children they've had? So let’s settle things between us, make a covenant—God will be the witness between us.”
Laban is still asserting himself over Jacob. He is claiming that everything that belongs to Jacob actually belongs to him - like a slave-master asserting that he owns all the slave's possessions since he owns the slave.
Jacob's wives are his wives, the children are his children (promised by God), and the flock is Jacob's promised wages. Everything we see was promised to Jacob by God.
But, after the posturing, Laban is ready to make a covenant.
Jacob took a stone and set it upright as a pillar.
Jacob called his family around, “Get stones!” They gathered stones and heaped them up and then ate there beside the pile of stones. Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument).
They ate together to seal the covenant.
Laban said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me.” (That’s why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument.) It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us.”
Laban continued to Jacob, “This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won’t cross this line to hurt you and you won’t cross this line to hurt me. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (the God of their ancestor) will keep things straight between us.”
Laban swore the covenant by the God of Abraham and the (local) God of Nahor.
Jacob promised, swearing by the Fear, the God of his father Isaac.
Jacob swore by the God of Isaac, and purposely omitted the God of Nahor.
Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and worshiped, calling in all his family members to the meal. They ate and slept that night on the mountain. Laban got up early the next morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, blessed them, and then set off for home.
That encounter started out a bit tense, but seems to have ended okay. Now Jacob will need to return his attention to going home, and that brother who wants to kill him.
These days, we can receive a lesson that Religion is as distinct from Christianity as Jacob’s pole-peeling was from God’s sovereign grace in the life of Jacob. Countless men and women are trying to work their way into God’s heaven by their own efforts. Some of these include church membership, baptism, confirmation, communion, church leadership, charity, and so on. Now any of these activities may be a blessing to someone who is already a Christian, but they are useless in trying to win God’s approval. The appearance of benefit may be there but not the reality of it. People may think we are Christians. They may commend our devotion to duty. But self-effort is mere pole-peeling so far as God is concerned.
The only way to enter God’s heaven is to recognize that we are undeserving of it and accept it as the gift it is. The work of salvation is God’s sovereign work. It has been accomplished by His Son, Jesus Christ. He bore the penalty for our sins. He provided our righteousness to us. Salvation comes when we trust in nothing more and nothing less than the sufficiency of Jesus Christ for our eternal blessings.
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