Northern Kentucky's Evening Interdenominational Community Bible Study Text of Presentation, Lesson 17-18a, Gen 30:25-32:32 Click Here for Lesson 17-18a Photos Click Here to return to GENESIS Home Page

Genesis 30:25-32:32
Jacob vs Laban: Rivalry and It’s Results

Last week’s lesson discussed Jacob’s flight from Beersheba to avoid the wrath of his brother Esau; he has stolen Esau’s birthright and blessing, but he flees penniless. Jacob goes to his Uncle Laban in Haran, where he hopes to find a proper wife, and binds himself out to Laban for 7 years as the bride price for Laban’s attractive daughter Rachel. But Laban tricks him, and marries Jacob to Rachel’s her older sister Leah as well as to Rachel, and forces him to work another 7 years. The sisters then compete for Jacob’s sexual attention and – together with their slave girls – produce 11 sons in 7 years.

This week’s lesson begins when Jacob’s 14 years of service to Laban are concluded: “Jacob said to Laban, ‘Send me on my way so that I can go back to my own homeland’” (30:25). With his contract completed, Jacob ought to be free to go home, where his inheritance is waiting. He only wants what belongs to him: his “wives and children” (30:25-26). But Laban protests; Jacob is indispensable to his prosperity. Laban was barely getting by before Jacob came, but now he is wealthy . . . based on God’s blessing and Jacob’s expertise as a shepherd. The young Jacob was described as “a quiet man, staying among the tents” (25:27) – which may mean he was a conniving “girly-man” who avoided work – but now Jacob is astute and industrious; and because of God’s blessing he has “greatly increased” Laban’s sheep and goats (30:30). Jacob has become a cash cow, and Laban doesn’t want to let him go. “Please stay,” he says; . . . . “Name your wages, and I will pay them” (30:27-28). But Jacob has heard that before (29:15) . . . and was cheated (31:7). The bible doesn’t say why Jacob even considers a new contract, but it implies Laban may have threatened him (31:29); perhaps he also exerted pressure through Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel. So Jacob agrees – but dictates verifiable contract terms that Laban can’t spin or redefine.

Laban was the one who insisted on a new contract – so now Jacob sets about to make himself wealthy from Laban’s herds. Based on his expertise as a shepherd – and/or on what an angel of God said in a dream (31:10-13) – Jacob takes for himself the “inferior” sheep and goats – the black sheep, and any which are speckled or spotted – and leaves the “best” for Laban. While Jacob continues to tend Laban’s flocks, he actually increases his own flocks by making them produce speckled or spotted offspring. He thinks this is caused by putting pealed poplar branches in front of the watering trough when the flocks mate (30:38-39), but what’s really going is selective breeding. By concentrating the “perfect” animals together and removing every “imperfect” offspring from the herd, over six years (31:41) Laban’s herd becomes smaller and weaker – even though more “perfect” – and Jacob’s herd is larger and stronger. Laban doesn’t seem to have a clue; he may be one of those people so busy plotting and scheming to cheat someone that he has no concept of productive work. But Laban’s sons notice. They resent Jacob’s success, and openly worry about their inheritance: “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father” (31:1). “And Jacob notice(s)” he is falling from grace with Laban (31:2).

After 6 years God tells Jacob it’s time to go home and collect his inheritance and his blessing; God promises “I will be with you” (31:3). This is exactly what Jacob wants. So he sends for his wives Leah and Rachel to come out to the fields for a secret family meeting. There he reviews how their father Laban has cheated him . . . yet how his current contract with Laban has made him wealthy with God’s blessing . . . and how God has now told him to return home. If perhaps Laban kept Jacob in Haran by putting pressure on Rachel six years ago, she and Leah now realize their father is treating them like “foreigners” and cheating them by denying them the part of the bride price which was supposed to be theirs (31:15). So they agree to go; their husband has most of their father’s wealth anyway. And when Laban is away shearing sheep (31:19), Jacob makes his escape; without telling Laban, he flees with everything he owns and crosses the Euphrates River en route to Canaan (31:20-21).

It takes Laban 3 days to learn Jacob has fled – but he leaves in hot pursuit with a posse of relatives (31:22-23). Perhaps concerned about Laban’s threats (31:29), Jacob moves quickly – even burdened by family and livestock. It takes Laban 7 days to catch up, 350 miles away (which means the 3 days and 7 days are probably figurative). Fortunately for Jacob, God comes to Laban in a dream, and tells him not to mess with Jacob. So rather than doing “harm” (31:29) to Jacob when he catches him, Laban is reduced ludicrous accusations that Jacob deceived him (by leaving) and kidnapped his daughters. He plaintively complains Jacob did “a foolish thing” by running off “secretly” . . . not allowing him to “kiss (his) grandchildren and (his) daughters good-bye” and give a lavish send-off (31:27-28) – the last thing on Laban’s mind.

But then Laban makes the serious accusation of the theft of his household gods (31:30). These not only “protect” the household, but are passed down to successive heads of household to represent the birthright and father’s blessing. Rachel took them while her father was away shearing sheep (31:19) – perhaps because she thinks they will bring her fertility or protection on the trip . . . or she takes them to represent the dowry Laban is denying her.

Jacob responds to these charges by revealing he was afraid what Laban might do to him if he tried to leave . . . but he denies theft of the household gods – which is true, because Rachel did not tell anyone she was stealing them (31:31-32). He confirms the seriousness of the charge and – with their relatives as witnesses – promises to kill anyone guilty of the crime (31:32). But Rachel hid them in her saddle bags, and now she is sitting on them – and begs her father not to search her, because it’s her time of the month (31:34-35). So after a thorough search of everything else in Jacob’s caravan, Laban comes up empty (31:33-34, 37), and the shoe is on the other foot. Jacob righteously condemns Laban. He details how hard he worked for Laban for 20 years – driving himself to exhaustion, not stealing anything from Laban, and bearing casualty losses himself. He claims his wealth is because of God’s blessing – something Laban concedes (30:27) – and that Laban’s dream occurred because “God (saw Jacob’s) hardship and the toil of (his) hands” (31:42). Incredibly, Laban responds that everything – everything – Jacob has belongs to him . . . but laments he is unable to do anything about it (31:43). This charge is not worthy of a response.

Laban proposes a covenant. Jacob sets up a stone pillar, and Laban’s relatives make a pile of stones representing witnesses to the covenant (31:48). Laban says:

“May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other” (31:49)

These words are often used as a benediction today, implying God will keep watch over us when we are apart . . . but it’s actually out of context, because Laban goes on to say:

“If you ill-treat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters . . . remember that God is a witness between you and me. . . . I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. May the God of Abraham . . . judge between us” (31:50, 52-53).

Ironically, Laban – who has mistreated both Jacob and his daughters – now worries Jacob will mistreat his daughters. So the essence of this so-called “Mitzpah” blessing is that Jacob and Laban swear they will no longer cheat one another, even though they are too far apart to check; and with God as witness, they will keep the promises they have made to one another.

Jacob offers a sacrifice to God and shares a fellowship meal with all his relatives. Then “early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them . . . and returned home” (31:55). Note Laban does not say goodbye to Jacob.

Jacob resumes his trip to Canaan, and is met by “angels of God” (32:1) – presumably they are here to welcome his back to the Promised land . . . but they may also emphasize God’s promise of protection, because the next thing he must do is the thing he fears most: reunion with his brother Esau, whose birthright and blessing he stole. Jacob apparently reasons he had best make peace with Esau as soon as he returns to Canaan . . . so he need not fear the murder Esau plotted 20 years earlier (27:41).

Esau has settled in Seir, east of the Dead Sea and outside Canaan . . . “away from the earth’s richness,” as Isaac’s blessing had prophesied (27:39). Jacob sends messengers to Esau, indicating he wishes to make peace; he mentions the great wealth he has obtained, and suggests it is Esau’s for the taking (32:3-5). The messengers return with the response: “Your brother Esau . . . is coming to meet you (with) four hundred men” (32:6). This is more men than Abraham took to rescue Lot, and Jacob receives this message “in great fear and distress” (32:7). Why is Esau bringing 400 men? In Jacob’s mind, there can be only one purpose: to extract the vengeance he thwarted by leaving Beersheba 20 years before – and this may be exactly what Esau wants Jacob to believe!

So what does Jacob do? He divides his household and his flocks into two groups; he wants to buy his way out of the problem, but if this fails, he also reasons: “If Esau . . . attacks one group, the group that is left may escape” (32:8). Then he does what seems most logical in the context of his story over the last 20 years: he prays . . . and pray a prayer of great humility – quite different from the vow a barely-believing Jacob made to God in Bethel as he was fleeing Esau (28:20-22). He recalls God’s instructions to return to Canaan, and evokes God’s promise to be with him and watch over him, to prosper him, and to bring him back home (28:15). He humbly admits his unworthiness, but recounts how God’s blessing has brought him from nothing to great wealth; he asks God to “save (him and his family) from the hand of . . . Esau” (32:11), so that God’s covenant promises may be fulfilled: a clever appeal which intertwines God’s interests with Jacob’s.

Jacob gathers large herds of goats and sheep and camels and cattle and donkeys, and puts them in the care of his servants – with space between each herd. To each he gives instructions: “When my brother Esau meets you . . . you are to say, ‘(these animals)’ . . . are a gift sent to my lord Esau (from your servant Jacob, who) is coming behind us’” (32:17-18). He reasons: “I will pacify him with these gifts; . . . later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me” (32:20).

Jacob had traveled to the ford of the Jabbok River, boundary of Esau’s territory, in the time it took his messengers to go to Esau and return. Now he sends his servants and their herds across the river, while he encamps on the north side. But his anxiety apparently produces insomnia, and at night he decides to send his family across the river, followed by “all his possessions” – while he alone remains on the north bank (32:23-24). Jacob has appealed to God’s promises, but he doesn’t seem willing to trust God; his family and all he owns are across the river, but he remains on the other side . . . like a coward.

Then a man comes out of nowhere and wrestles with Jacob. Remember . . . although Jacob is acting like a coward, he is an exceptionally strong man! 20 years earlier he single-handedly lifted a large stone from the well at Haran (29:10). He can beat most ordinary men in a contest of strength . . . but he is unable to overpower this stranger – and vice versa – though they wrestle until daybreak. So the man “touched” – or “struck” – “the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched” (32:25). But Jacob still isn’t beaten; he refuses to let the man end the contest until he blesses him. It may be dawning on Jacob who the man is, because the greater always blesses the lesser – never the reverse. The man asks Jacob’s name for the blessing . . . but when Jacob tells him, he says: “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome” (32:28).

We’ve discussed the character change that came with a name change in the cases of Abraham and Sarah; and the same is true here. When Jacob left Beersheba, he was aptly named: “supplanter” or “deceiver”; but after his dream in Bethel, 20 years at Haran, and now a wrestling match with what we are led to believe is a theophany, he is a different man. We’ve watched him develop . . . from a manipulator always in control, to someone who relies on God’s blessing – yet still tries to maintain control – to what he has become tonight after his wrestling match. He can’t control what Esau will say or do to him with his 400 men; he needs to rely on God. He has now learned to trust God, and deserves a new name. Although the exact meaning of “Israel” is unclear, it seems to be something like “God’s fighter” or “may God strive (for him).”

Jacob courteously asks the stranger’s name, and receives the answer: haven’t you figured it out yet? So Jacob rejoices: “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (32:30). Then he limps across the ford of the Jabbok to face his brother.

Next week is the confrontation between Jacob and Esau. Afterward, Jacob enters Canaan and goes to Shechem – where Abraham entered Canaan and built his first altar (12:7). He apparently intends to settle there permanently – but when his daughter Dinah is raped and two of his older sons take vengeance, he is forced to leave. He passes through Bethel – where God appears to him again – then tragedy strikes as his favorite wife Rachel dies in childbirth near Bethlehem.