When Is Enough Enough?

Pray

Father,

Open my eyes so I can see Your truth.

Open my ears so I can hear Your voice.

Open my mind so I can understand Your Word.

And open my heart so I may receive all that You want me to receive.

AMEN

When is enough enough?

This is an age old question.

Although these exact words are not found in the Bible, I believe that it has been asked many times. I am sure that Job must have thought this when he was going through his trials.

I bet Noah thought it when he was building the ark.

Moses had to think it when he was leading the Israelites to the Promised Land.

When Jonah was in the belly of a fish he had to think to himself, “When is enough, enough?”

And in Genesis chapters 28 through 31 we see that Jacob got to a point in his life when he thought enough is enough.

Let’s look at his story so that we can determine for ourselves when is enough enough.

Jacob was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham who was the first to receive the promise of God that though his seed a great nation would be born.

Abraham made a covenant with God and he became the father of the nation of Israel.

It happened like this, Abraham’s wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

Isaac grew up and married and his wife Rebekah gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob. Through a series of events, Jacob became the one through whom God was going to build a nation.

Jacob had tricked his brother and his father so that he could receive the blessing of the first born, even though he wasn’t the first born. Because of his brother’s anger, Jacob ran off to his Uncle Laban’s place.

While he was there Jacob married two women who were his uncle’s daughters. Their names were Leah and Rachel. Now Jacob was head over heels in love with Rachel, but Leah was the older daughter and she was supposed to be married first.

So Jacob made a deal with Laban. Jacob agreed to work for 7 years so he could marry Rachel. When the 7 years were up Laban tricked Jacob and gave him Leah.

Jacob had to work for Laban another 7 years for the privilege of marrying Rachel.

There was a bit of a competition between Leah and Rachel in regards to how many children they could give their husband.

Thankfully times have changed!

Jacob not only had the two wives, but each wife had a maidservant that also bore children to Jacob.

In all, Jacob had 12 sons and 1 daughter. Leah was the leader in the births with 7. These 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel.

During this time Jacob continued to work for Laban and was able to increase his own assets during that time. As a matter of fact, Jacob acquired a great deal of possessions during that time.

Because of this, Laban’s attitude towards Jacob began to change and the Lord commanded Jacob to return to the land of his fathers.

So Jacob packed up everything, all his children, all his servants, all his possessions, and all his livestock and they set out to go back to his home.

There were two problems to this exit strategy.

First, Jacob didn’t tell Laban that they were leaving which made Laban mad because he did not get to say goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren.

Second, Rachel took some things that did not belong to her and Jacob didn’t know this.

So Laban chased them down.

This brings us to the Scripture I want to read.

36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.

38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. 40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”