June 19, 2005 Episode III - Jacob and Laban - Genesis 30-31
A part of the job of a teacher or a trainer is to look for the weaknesses in your pupil in order to strengthen them. The job of a student or trainee is to then LISTEN to the assessment of the teacher and to then follow the regiment that is prescribed for him or her. If a student is not willing to work or to listen, the student cannot grow.
Imagine God as your trainer. He knows your weaknesses. He knows the temptations that are bound to make you fall - when you are at your weakest - where you really have a potential for the devil to attack. If you’ve got a problem with letting your emotions overrule what you know is right, he knows it. If you have a tendency to get really angry over seemingly small things, he knows where you need more strength. The only way you can make a muscle stronger is if you exercise it. So if you have a weakness with patience, He knows when and how to test it. If you have a weakness with emotions, he works on it. He doesn’t confer with you on your training program. He doesn’t ask for your permission. He simply allows and guides the way your life goes in order to TRAIN you.
Some of our greatest lessons come from experience - especially in dealing with people. I think I’ve personally learned more about patience and love through my children and wife than I could through a thousand books. When we are thrown in situations where we have to deal with people - sinful people - including ourselves - it can really teach us a lot about ourselves and others as well.
Do you wonder why, then, people love to resign to a television or a computer instead of just talking to their family and spouses when they get home? Why? Because these relationships take work. They take patience. They take the usage of weak spiritual muscles, like patience, care, concern, and just plain love - that most of us would rather leave lie on the couch. A strong faith says to God, “I know I’m a weak person - and I need your training. Send me parents and teachers, children and family, parents and neighbors - do whatever you need to so that I can grow in faith and in godly living.” A strong faith is willing to be put in different experiential situations where we can grow in experience. Oh, for such a faith.
As we look at Jacob’s dealings with Laban, we’re going to see how God dealt with some of Jacobs greatest weaknesses - by having him deal with OTHER people - weak and sinful people. As Jacob dealt with these cousins of his, God helped him to grow. As we look at Jacob’s story continue, perhaps the Holy Spirit will help us to grow as well.
It’s Time to Go Through Some Troublesome Training
I. Training through Laban
If you look at the first two lessons, you can denote one main weakness in Jacob the heel-grabber. It was his idea that he needed to try and control how and when God would give him his blessings. God had to change this attitude in him that wouldn’t allow God to be God on his own time and his own terms. The first problem that God had to deal with in Jacob was his tendency to deception.
When Jacob arrived at Haran - after 500 miles and several months - being in his 70’s - mind you - he was overwhelmed with joy. While he was sitting by a well, one of the first people he ran into was Rachel - Laban’s daughter. I don’t know if it was love at first sight, but at any rate, Jacob couldn’t contain himself. Genesis 29:11-12 says, “Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.” He was so happy to see his cousins after this long journey.
This happiness wouldn’t last long, however. After working for Laban for a month, he finally got around to asking him what he could pay him for his work. Since Jacob was attracted to Rachel, he asked to work for his daughter - for seven years! Imagine that, young fellas. How would you respond if you met a gal that you really liked and her father said, “you be my slave for seven years, then you can marry her. But you can’t touch her until then!” This was an offer Laban couldn’t refuse! This was no easy work, either. He was put in charge of the sheep, goats and rams. Jacob later on described what he had to do. “This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household.” (Ge 31:40-41) When animals are calving, the farmer has to get up in the middle of the night and make sure they are wiped off and clean, and that the mom does not need help getting the baby out. It is a very difficult and time consuming time of year. This is the way Jacob had to live for 20 years.
Usually when you work hard, you should get some wages. Yet after seven years Jacob clearly found out what kind of an employer Laban was. On his wedding night Genesis 29:20-25 says, “ Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant. When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” The marriage ritual most likely prohibited the husband from really seeing the bride - and so Laban somehow had so much power over his daughters that he was able to switch Leah out for Rachel. The only excuse Laban could come up with was that this was part of the custom. If that was so, shouldn’t he have said something SEVEN YEARS ago? So what was Laban’s solution? Jacob was able to marry Rachel a week later, but he also had to work 7 more years for the daughter he wanted in the first place. Forget about the fact that he didn’t want to work seven days for Leah much less seven years.
When Jacob finally finished his 14 years, he was ready to head home - with his wives and children - no more - no less. Yet Laban’s flocks were prospering under Jacob - and Laban wanted to ride the wave a little longer. So he agreed to only allow Jacob have the speckled and spotted animals. During the following 6 years however, Laban decided to change the wages of Jacob ten times - looking for excuse after excuse as to why Jacob shouldn’t get what they had already agreed upon. It was like working for an employer who tells you, “yeah, I’ll give you a raise after 6 months,” but then they conveniently forget about the raise when six months come and go. There’s nothing more frustrating than working with such schnooks. We’d love to wring their necks.
As Jacob had to deal with dear old Uncle Laban, being lied to again and again, how did he respond? With a tremendous amount of patience. Think about it, even though he had been hoodwinked, he agreed to marry Leah after she had been defiled, knowing that noone else would want to marry her after he had slept with her. He could have demanded that he get to marry Rachel without working one more year - yet he agreed to Laban’s terms. He worked for six more years under this miserable father-in-law - even in the midst of ten rate changes. How many of us would have responded in such a way - working for 20 years for a man who was about as generous as the IRS at tax time? I don’t think too many of us would have put up with it - not for more than a week.
How was Jacob able to deal with it in this way? Imagine what went through Jacob’s mind every time that Laban lied to him. He would have said to himself, “if I hadn’t lied to my father, then I wouldn’t be here in the first place. If I hadn’t stolen from my brother, then I wouldn’t have Laban stealing from me. I deserve every lie I receive. Yet, Lord, you have forgiven me. Help me to have the strength to deal with Laban in a loving way - as you have deal with me. Now I know what it feels to be on the receiving end of such deceit. No wonder Esau was so angry with me. Help me never to deal with anyone in this way again.” As Jacob lived with Laban, he was reminded of what a liar he had been. He learned from Laban what his own sin was like, and he GREW through it. Laban was a tremendous blessing to Jacob, teaching him what lying was and what it felt like to be lied to. Jacob probably never would have realized his lies if he hadn’t had the opportunity to work for Laban the liar for 20 years.
II. Training in works
Jacob’s training wasn’t limited to Uncle Laban. It also was carried on through those within his own household - his own wives - Leah and Rachel. When Jacob got in from a hard day and night’s work in the field, he certainly wasn’t privy to a quiet night in front of the TV. He had to return to two sisters who were fighting not only for his affection, but also for his children. Genesis 30 is one of the most difficult chapters to comprehend in the Bible. It features two women having a baby contest with their husband. Leah - the one with weak eyes - starts out of the gates strong with four boys. Rachel then gets angry with Jacob and says in vs. 1, “give me children, or I’ll die!” When she doesn’t have any, she decides to throw her slave girl Bilhah at Jacob. Bilhah sleeps with her. She then has two children, and Rachel thinks in her mind that she is catching up with Jacob. Then Leah, realizing she isn’t having kids like she used to, gives her slave girl Zilpah to Jacob - and Zilpah has two more boys. Some time later Leah sells Rachel some mandrakes - some sort of a love plant - in exchange for a night with Jacob. He gets in from the field and she says, “you have to sleep with me. I bought you from Rachel for some mandrakes.” How romantic! As a result she has another boy, and then later on has another boy and a girl. Finally, Rachel has Joseph and eventually down the line she is given Benjamin.
What a mess this is! Jacob almost seems like a patsy in the whole thing - although he’s certainly not innocent of it all. However, it’s not as if he’s a sexual addict - a college kid just looking for the next piece of meat he can get his paws on. Jacob was in his 80’s by this point. Since he lived to be 147 years old, (47:28) this might be equal to our forty or fifty year olds. All of this had the purpose of children, children and more children. The women wanted children. Why? It was a cultural sign of blessing from God - bringing respect and honor from the clan. Also, remember that the promise of the Savior was to come through the offspring of Jacob. Therefore, the more children they had, the better odds they would have that one of them would carry the line of the Savior. In order to get this blessing, they found themselves wrapped up in an ugly competition that involved adultery and selfishness and anger in order to get what they wanted.
Does this remind you of someone in his earlier years? As Jacob dealt with Rachel’s demand for children, Jacob had to answer her by saying,“Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” (30:2) Notice that answer. What was he saying to Rachel? “I’m not God! I’m not in charge of giving you such a blessing! It’s out of my hands!” I wonder if while he blurted this out, he realized again his past sin - of thinking that he had to work for the blessing - by putting on goat skins and deceiving his father. As Jacob had to live among this ungodly rivalry of two women trying to work the blessing out of Jacob by their breeding tactics, maybe Jacob then realized that his methods at getting God’s blessings were not in keeping with the way God wanted things to be done. During this time Jacob was also going about his own trickery of uncle Laban - using breeding tactics on Laban’s goats in order to build up his own flock. It’s an ugly practice.
That’s the way our best intentions look like in God’s eyes. We see heaven off in the future so we say, “I want that!” So we get in a competition - trying to be more righteous than our brothers and sisters - giving more - raising a “better” family - being more “friendly” than our associates - giving more than anyone else. Isaiah once wrote in Isaiah 64:6, All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Even when we think we’re being better - when we think we’re really earning some blessings - it doesn’t look to impressive to God - no more impressive than a woman’s menstrual cloth that is good for nothing but the garbage. What a disgusting picture Isaiah draws for us! What a disgusting picture Jacob and his wives paint for us! It shows us the grandest and finest works of God’s foremost saints! God have mercy on us all! Imagine if God had a tape recorder of all the promises and sweet talk we offered to our spouses in order to win their approval! Imagine if the world examined the way we act at church and in public - the persona we try to put on - if they really knew our hearts! What hypocrites we would look like! What ugly rags we would have to offer. That’s where our works get us when we try to impress God. Whenever we try to earn our goods from God, we would provide a much uglier chapter than this thirtieth chapter of Genesis.
III. Training in Mercy
There’s one Person that stands out in the middle of this whole ugly and rotten story - and it’s NOT Jacob - though he does have a few commendable features. The Person is Jesus Christ - the angel of God. How in the world could God have allowed this big old mess to continue? How in the world could he not have said, “I think we’ll find a different patriarch”, or at least a different wife! Yet God, in His unbelievable mercy - granted children to Leah, Rachel, and even the slave girls. Within these offspring, God provided a future priesthood in the Levites, and a future Savior through the line of Judah. Think about that, he gave a woman who wasn’t loved by her husband - who deceived him into marrying her - the most wonderful gift of all! Why? In 29:31, when God saw that Leah was NOT LOVED, he decided to have mercy on her. When Rachel all but given up on children, it says the LORD also REMEMBERED her and LISTENED to her. Neither Rachel - who stole Laban’s gods or Leah - who lied and attributed to the adultery of their husband - deserved any blessings from God. Yet he still gave them children and kept the line of the Savior alive. Therefore, it had to go back to pure mercy.
Look at Jacob also. Why did God decide to bless Jacob with all these children, as he was sleeping with these four women? Mercy, mercy, and more mercy. This is the most amazing thing in this whole chapter. Several years ago my two now older children decided to try and wash our mini-van with one of the bricks in the garage. When I got home, I was pretty angry - demanding to know what in the world happened? When they explained to me their intentions, I just couldn’t punish them - even though they had ruined the paint job. Their intentions were well - they just didn’t realize that bricks were not the best utensils to wash with - I guess. There was no pastor present to guide Jacob and his wives and show them their foolishness. Since they were acting in ignorance, God did not condemn them. Instead, he stuck to His promise and gave them their blessings IN SPITE OF their foolish and harmful works.
So Jacob - after 20 years of striving and hard work - was learning some difficult lessons. In spite of his sins, God still blessed him in the end. He ended up with a huge flock of speckled sheep, goats, and lambs. After God had accomplished these lessons of life in Jacob, God said to him in Genesis 31:3, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” It was time for his freedom from Laban. Even when Uncle Liar Laban tried to pursue him and guilt him into staying, the LORD prohibited him from the powerful influence he had exhibited up to this point. With a powerful dream, Laban was left with nothing but idle babbling at the departure of his daughters, grandsons, and son in law. God had used this heathen’s offspring and land and animals to bless the person he wanted to bless - and that was Jacob. When Jacob realized this, it empowered him to leave Laban for good.
Take a moment now and think about the person in your life that is really irritating you the most - getting under your skin - making you want to run away. Who is cheating you? Lying to you? Being honest with you? Trying your patience? Who is your Uncle Laban? Your Rachel? Your Leah? It may be your spouse - your boss - your child - maybe even me - your pastor. The natural reaction for us is to pray, “God, please get this person out of my life!” Either that, or the natural reaction is just to run, give up. Hence the divorces, the change of jobs, the change of churches - anything that can be done to GET AWAY from the person that is irritating the life out of you. That’s not the solution!
Remember that God is in charge. Don’t try to take things into your own hands. As these people wrong you in life and demand more than you can give, let it be an opportunity for you to take some time for deep reflection. Ask yourself, “how have I done this same thing to other people?” Say to yourself, “how have I done this to God? Am I deserving of this kind of behavior?” As you do this, it will make you appreciate how PATIENT and FORGIVING God has been with you. When you remember that God sent Jesus to die for you - knowing that you would act the way you have acted - and knowing that God has continued to give you his Holy Spirit in spite of your sins - it will make you cling all the more to His mercy. It will also then remind you that God is still in charge. If He could use a greedy uncle and some jealous wives to produce 12 children and plenty of cattle for Jacob - God can use that liar Laban in your life to bless you in some way. NOTHING is beyond Him. Instead of running from your Laban, give him a big kiss on the lips. Thank God for him. Thank God for your Rachel and Leahs. They are blessing you in some way.
“It’s not fair. It’s not fair!” My daughter learned that word this past week from a friend of her’s. I imagine I will hear it much more throughout life. You know what my answer to that is? Life isn’t fair. Live with it. We live in a sinful world. You can’t expect sinful people to treat you fairly - especially when you yourself haven’t been fair to people. Keep in mind from today’s story that God doesn’t need fair people to administer his justice. If he really wanted to be fair with us, he would have sent us to hell. Yet God isn’t just about being fair. He’s about also being merciful. That’s what we love about him - and that’s what we love about Jesus. We know, that through faith in Christ’s death on the cross, God’s justice and mercy has been carried out. We know that God works all these things out for good - we’ve been trained to see that in the death and life of Christ and of Jacob. Remember your training from the life of Jacob. When God calls on us to leave this Haran, we can know that we’ve still been blessed with the Savior, just as Jacob did. We can know that we’re heading to the Promised Land - and there’s nothing any Laban or Satan can do about it.
