Jacob married two of Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel, and he had worked a total of 14 years to earn their hands in marriage (29:15-30). Although Jacob had been deceived into marrying Leah (29:15-26), he faithfully fulfilled his commitment so that he could rightfully marry Rachel (29:27-30). Since God never intended for men to have more than one wife, Jacob experienced much hardship in his relationships with these two sisters (29:31-30:24). Rachel’s barrenness and Leah’s feelings of being unloved by Jacob caused many problems in the family. When Jacob’s commitment to Laban had finally been completed and Rachel had given birth to Joseph (30:22-24), Jacob decided that it was time to take his family and depart from Haran to return to the land of Canaan (30:25). Canaan was the land God had given to Jacob and he was determined to take his family back there so that they could settle in the land that God had promised to him through Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3).
When Jacob approached Laban to ask for permission to return to Canaan (30:26), Laban responded by asking him to stay because he knew that he had been blessed for the sake of Jacob (30:27). Laban’s request further highlighted his selfishness. He only wanted Jacob to stay so that he could acquire more wealth and possessions. Jacob agreed to stay with Laban and said, “Don’t give me anything. Just do this one thing, and I’ll continue to tend and watch over your flocks. Let me inspect your flocks today and remove all the sheep and goats that are speckled or spotted, along with all the black sheep. Give these to me as my wages” (30:31-32, NLT). The animals marked as such would not be a big loss to Laban since they were often the least desirable. Jacob’s choice of the spotted, speckled, and black animals also enabled them to keep their flocks separate (30:33). Upon making this agreement with Jacob (30:34), Laban “…went out and removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted or had white patches, and all the black sheep. He placed them in the care of his own sons, who took them a three-days’ journey from where Jacob was” (30:35-36). The actions of Laban were an attempt to make sure that Jacob’s flock would not experience significant growth. Although Laban limited Jacob’s flock, Jacob’s background with animals guided him to use a breeding method which increased his flock and made him more prosperous than Laban (30:37-43). Laban’s deceitful practices were finally repaid with Jacob’s skill and dependence on God (31:7,9).
Dear God, help me not to be characterized by selfishness.
Its interesting to read how you have wonderfully brought out the connectivity of Jacob to the promised land and his determination to return thither. Laban indeed exercised selfishness;but it begs to denoted that Jacob, who tells Laban in that same 30th chapter of Gen, that my honesty will testify of me uses craftiness to manupilate the non-speckled animals to become speckled so that he finally ends up with more animals and becomes richer than his uncle! His ‘skill’ is deceptive and isn’t genuine in this regard-this unfortunately taints our blessed Jacob;if one has to call a spade a spade, its realisable that he had once tricked his dad for his brother’s blessing, he gets cheated in marriage but he cheats back in wealth acquisition! Its true God had blessed him but he blundered a lot-perhaps he thought the blessing wouldn’t get fulfilled, if no trickery is involved! Its a sad moment to note that we have others who claim honesty, when they cunningly have acquired possessions or better still ‘tramped’ on others to increase their personal profiles. The definition of honesty is changing fast as humans progress to the day of the Lord’s return and now what more shall I say? Its just that not so long ago, the shepherd’s saw the glorious light, that overshadowed their light, its only then that they saw the star and knew,hey, we don’t have good news-its far from us let’s begin the journey with the star! We need the glorious light that comes from above, that shines enough to make us find a new way’ led by the Bright morning star! Its only then that we shall our sin in its true light; our self conceItedness and selfcenteredness that causes like Jacob even to delay to go to the promised land. May God Help…
I do appreciate your comment and thank you for reading!