Chapter 19. Genesis 29-31. Jacob and Laban.
JACOB went on his way from Bethel to Padan-Aram where his uncle Laban lived. He soon came to a field in which there was a well, around which flocks of sheep were waiting to be watered. The shepherds rolled away the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the sheep and put the stone back again. Then Jacob asked the men, “Do you know Laban?” They said “Yes, we know him. He is well, and his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep.” Jacob was glad to see her, and told her his name and watered her sheep for her. Then Rachel went and told her father, who ran to meet him and invited him to stay with him.
Jacob loved Rachel and wanted his uncle to give her to him for a wife. Laban promised her to him if he would work for him for seven years. At the end of that time, instead of giving him Rachel, he brought Leah, his eldest daughter to Jacob, telling him, when he remonstrated, that in his country the younger daughter could not be married before the elder. But Laban said if he would work for him for seven more years, he would give him Rachel also.
Jacob kept on working for Laban after this, and God blessed him and gave him children, and much cattle and sheep and goats and camels, so much so that his uncle became quite jealous, and did not feel as kindly toward him as before. But God did not allow Laban to hurt Jacob for He remembered His promise at Bethel, “I am with thee,” even though Jacob often forgot it, and planned and schemed to get rich. God told Jacob to leave Laban and to go back to the land of his fathers and He would be with him. Jacob went and called his wives and told them how their father had deceived him, ten times changing his wages, and of his jealousy. Leah and Rachel were willing to go with him. So Jacob and his wives and their children, with all the cattle and possessions left Laban secretly. Three days after, Laban heard that he was gone, and ran after Jacob and overtook him in Mount Gilead. But in the night God came to Laban and told him not to hurt Jacob. So they made a covenant, and taking a stone for a pillar, promised each other they would not pass the place to harm one another. In the morning Laban rose up and after kissing his daughters and their children and blessing them, he returned to his place.
Poor Jacob! When he was so deceived by his father-in-law, he must have often remembered his own like sin toward his father and brother. We remember that in Jacob’s dream, God said to him: “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed (children) and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south, and in thee and in thy seed (children) shall all the families of the earth be blest.” Gen. 28:13-1413And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 28:13‑14). Jacob, very soon forgot this great promise, for instead of trusting in God, he plans everything for himself. Is not that just like our own hearts? After God has shown His great love for us in giving up His own Son to die for us, and telling us in His Word, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. s:32), He wants our full trust and confidence, and truly He is worthy, “For He is faithful that promised.” Heb. 10:2323Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) (Hebrews 10:23).
ML 06/30/1909