Learning About God's Faithfulness - Genesis 29:1 - 31:55

Having spent my life in the field of public education, I have heard the term ‘slow-learner’ used many times and I have been able to help identify students so classified. Usually there is a test available from the many different sources in the field of special education that will locate the source of the problem and sometimes materials are available that will correct the problem. Thinking back over the cases that I can remember, I do not remember ever dealing with a case as severe as the one Jacob had; and I certainly never got one as early in life—which was during the few minutes that he was being born. Jacob held on to his brother’s heal and let him help drag him into this world, instead of depending on the faithfulness of his mother and God for a normal and natural child birth.

Jacob’s name tagged him as a cheating deceiver but he was a slow learner, and soon was caught using a bowl of soup to cheat Esau out of his birthright. With his mother’s help he used the same tactic to deceive his blind father into giving him the blessing that should have gone to his brother. He still had not learned that God would not bless his means of getting the things from life that he wanted for himself. He finally did realize that Esau was mad enough to kill him if he didn’t get out of town, so to speak; and he did.

With all of his belongings in a nap-sack on a shoulder pole and no money in his pocket he slipped away during the night, on foot, and with no dowry with which to buy his wife. [It was a custom in those days for a man to pay a father a sum of money, jewels or live stock for the right to marry his daughter.] Jacob found Rachel at the well, watering her father’s herd and it was love at first sight, even though she was a young girl, maybe 12 at most. He greeted her, told her that he was her kin folk, and invited himself to go home with her. He had no wealth with which to pay the dowry, so he agreed to work seven years for hand in marriage.

Seven years of work on the farm passed, and it was time for him to receive his new bride, Rachel whom he loved very much. He went to Laban and claimed the fulfillment of his contract. Now this young man, who had practiced the deception upon his old, blind father, has a deception practiced on him. The wedding party was planned to be at night. Remember there were no electric lights; buildings were usually dim to dark inside after sun down. The formal way for the father to give his daughter in marriage was to veil the girl and in a formal way she was simply presented to the new husband and that ended the ceremony. So ended this ceremony and Jacob accepted the woman and slept with her that night, only to arise in the morning to find that Laban had deceived him into accepting Leah and not Rachel. Jacob was very indignant at the cheating perpetrated upon him, for he had worked seven years and was still in love with Rachel and not Leah.

Laban forced the evil of polygamy upon Jacob by refusing to undo the evil already perpetrated. He told Jacob that he must work seven more years in order to receive Rachel. After one week had passed, Laban presented Rachel to Jacob on credit—that is he was to work seven more years for his right to her. In the wedding agreement, Laban gave each of the girls their personal maid servants to take with them into the new family. There were problems in this marriage from the beginning, jealousy between the two sisters [wives] and both gave their maid servants to Jacob to be his concubines.

Fourteen years at hard labor have passed and Jacob is still broke. All he has at this point is four wives and thirteen children…twelve boys that became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, and one daughter. Think about this—fourteen years of labor and still as broken as a glass jug on a rock pile.

Jacob was the descendent of Abraham, servants of God, and worthy or not, he was heir to the birthright and blessings of is father. Laban and all his family were religious but worshipped other gods. It is my contention that after fourteen years and nothing to show for it, Jacob must have started thinking about getting God involved in his life. As is the lesson title, he had to start realizing that God is faithful and will at the proper time intervene in our lives.

Jacob agreed to continue working for Laban, but insisted that he be allowed to share in the increase of the flocks. God proved faithful and helped Jacob devise a plan that would be profitable to him. Jacob must have finally committed his life to the Holy God, because the plan worked and after six more years of labor, Jacob had compiled considerable wealth. The agreement was that Laban would keep the solid colored animals, and Jacob would own all that were striped or speckled probably from mixed breeding. At the beginning of the bargain the flock was predominantly pure bred. In the six years that followed, the majority of the new born were off-color and belonged to Jacob. Laban and his boys were growing suspicious of Jacob as they watched most of their wealth strangely crossing over into Jacob’s pasture. Jacob realized the tension was rising and decided that it was time for him to take his family and flock and go back to the country of his father. The bible says in Genesis 31:3 that The Lord told Jacob to “Go back to the land of your fathers and your relatives and I will be with you.” This is another example of God speaking to man and it does not say how or what means God used.

There is one reference in this scripture that says that Jacob had a dream and an angel told him to observe that all of the male goats breeding at his water troughs were not solid color, and for this reason in just one season over half of the heard became multi-colored and belonged to Jacob as per their agreement. Jacob gave God the credit for making him rich…Laban and his boys accused Jacob of intentionally breeding the solid colors out of the flock. Some where is these six years Jacob, repented of his deceptive past and started giving God the Glory. He finally learned that GOD WAS FAITHFUL.

Jacob waited until Laban and his sons left home to go to their other holdings to care for their flocks there. He knew they were to be gone three days and this gave him the time needed to prepare his family and flock to travel, and he left Laban and headed home. Visualize this caravan of travelers, Jacob, his four wives and thirteen children and a vast heard of animals to be fed, watered and protected against any enemy they would meet.

When Laban returned home and found that Jacob and his daughters had fled and he was angry and prepared immediately to pursue them. He took all of his men relatives with him, without women or any other hindrances and riding on swift dromedaries [1-hump camels] seven days later he caught them near the mountains of Gilead. During the night before he caught them Laban had a vision unlike he had ever experienced. Not his god, but Almighty God came to him in a vision and warned him not to speak either evil or good of Jacob—but “Keep your hands off of him.” No doubt that this vision is the reason why the encounter did not include Jacobs’s murder.

The argument began with charges and counter-charges and all seemed to be going in Jacob’s favor until Laban accused them of stealing his “Idols of Worship from his house.” Rachel had gone back to the house and hid the idols in her clothing without anyone else knowing she had done this. Jacob surely did not know because he invited Laban to search everyone and see if they had his gods. Rachel was able to hide the idols in her underclothing and Laban could not prove that they had stolen them.

Both parties built an alter upon which they entered a treaty agreeing that there would be no more contention between them. Laban bade his daughters and grandchildren farewell, and returned to his home.

Very seldom do I enter a discussion involving the stories of the OT that someone does not wonder out loud, ‘why do we study this? What meaning does it have for me? I will answer by saying that four thousand years has not changed the heart of man and how people should respect each other and thee are some lessons for us all wrapped up in the life of Jacob up to the day that Laban turned away and left him to follow his God.

We need to learn what each person in this story experienced, and we should use this knowledge to prevent making the same mistakes.

1. Jacob finally learned that his practice of deception on his father and brother would not go without him paying a price for his sins. Why should we make the same mistake when we already know it will cost.
2. Leah must have learned that it would have been better for her if she had refused to be a part of Laban’s deception of Jacob.
3. Rachel learned that the false gods are not to be condoned, they bring problems and trouble.
4. Laban learned that the God of Jacob was able to bring wealth to Jacob that would have been shared with him if he had been honest.
5. The four wives learned the problems that come from mixed marriages.
6. We all have learned that God can bring good out of the worst of circumstances.
7. One of the main lessons here is that we have found that God keeps his promises for the leaders of the twelve tribes were born during these confusing days.
8. The greatest lesson probably of all is that Rachel became the mother of Joseph the greatest of the twelve boys. God kept his promise to Abraham that through him the world would be blessed and his family would be many on earth.
9. We have all learned more about GODS FAITHFULNESS.