Genesis 31.36-42-God Vindicates Jacob
Thursday July 27, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 31:36-42-God Vindicates Jacob
Lesson # 186
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 31:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Genesis 31.
Thus far in our study of this chapter, we have noted the following:
In Genesis 31:1-2, we saw that Jacob hears of Laban’s sons’ antagonism towards him and also sees a change of attitude by Laban towards him.
In Genesis 31:3 we noted the Lord commanding Jacob to return home and promising him protection.
In Genesis 31:4-16, we saw Jacob informing his wives that the Lord has commanded him to leave Laban and his wives agree to leave with him.
Then, in Genesis 31:17-21 we saw Jacob departing from Paddan Aram and heading towards Canaan.
Genesis 31:22-24 records God protecting Jacob by warning Laban in a dream to not stop Jacob from returning home to Canaan.
In Genesis 31:25-31 we studied that Jacob left Laban secretly out of fear that Laban would take his wives and children from him.
This fear was due to a lack of faith in the Lord to honor His promise to protect him from Laban.
Then, we studied Genesis 31:25-30 where Laban confronts Jacob and makes three accusations against him.
Last evening we studied Genesis 31:31-35, which presents to us Jacob’s response to Laban’s accusations as well as Rachel’s deceiving her father Laban.
This evening we will note Genesis 31:36-42, which contains Jacob’s speech before Laban and all their relatives, which is delivered with ferocious intensity and summarizes his twenty years with Laban.
In Genesis 31:36-38, Jacob demonstrates his innocence from being wrongly accused of stealing the teraphim in the present and his innocence in the past in not stealing from Laban’s flocks.
In Genesis 31:39-40, he presents to his audience the difficult conditions he had to work under.
In Genesis 31:41-42, Jacob appeals to God’s vindication of him in the past and in the present in Laban’s dream.
Genesis 31:1, “Now Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, ‘Jacob has taken away all that was our father's, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.’”
Genesis 31:2, “Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly.”
Genesis 31:3, “Then the LORD said to Jacob, ‘Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.’”
Genesis 31:4-5, “So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, and said to them, ‘I see your father's attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me.’”
Genesis 31:6, “You know that I have served your father with all my strength.”
Genesis 31:7, “Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me.”
Genesis 31:8, “If he spoke thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth speckled; and if he spoke thus, ‘The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock brought forth striped.’”
Genesis 31:9, “Thus God has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me.”
Genesis 31:10, “And it came about at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled.”
Genesis 31:11, “Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’”
Genesis 31:12, “He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.’”
Genesis 31:13, “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.”
Genesis 31:14, “Rachel and Leah said to him, ‘Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house?’”
Genesis 31:15, “Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price.”
Genesis 31:16, “Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.”
Genesis 31:17-18, “Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.”
Genesis 31:19, “When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's.”
Genesis 31:20, “And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing.”
Genesis 31:21, “So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.”
Genesis 31:22-23, “When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days' journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.”
Genesis 31:24, “God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, ‘Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.’”
Genesis 31:25, “Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead.”
Genesis 31:26, “Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?’”
Genesis 31:27-28, “Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with timbrel and with lyre; and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly.”
Genesis 31:29, “It is in my power to do you (plural form of pronominal suffix meaning, “every one of you”) harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’”
Genesis 31:30, “Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house; but why did you steal my gods?”
Genesis 31:31, “Then Jacob replied to Laban, ‘Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.’”
Genesis 31:32, “The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself. For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.”
Genesis 31:33, “So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent.”
Genesis 31:34, “Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them.”
Genesis 31:35, “She said to her father, ‘Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.’ So he searched but did not find the household idols.”
Genesis 31:36, “Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?’”
Genesis 31:37, “Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.”
Genesis 31:38, “These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks.”
When Laban’s search does not turn up anything, Jacob flies off the handle.
Jacob’s emotions had been building up over the years and all of a sudden they come to a boiling point.
Even Laban, who probably was a bully and a rough character, is taken back momentarily.
Both men know that Jacob is under divine protection.
So Jacob can afford to blow up.
Genesis 31:36-42 are Jacob’s testimony of twenty years of pent-up emotions.
He has been cheated and used and treated as dirt.
Laban had been a hard taskmaster and Jacob a very conscientious servant.
So we see Jacob reveling in his innocence in addi¬tion to the assurance he gained from Laban’s report that God had spoken to him in the night, preventing harm to Jacob.
In the light of these events Jacob now seemed to have the upper hand or in other words, he held the winning cards, and he planned to use them to greatest advantage.
The years of friction between these two men now boiled over as Jacob scalded Laban with righteous indignation.
Jacob was angry and called for a judgment scene.
He knew he was totally innocent and he felt the suspicions of his father-in-law were unfair and unjustified.
He felt that Laban had made up the story of the stolen teraphim as an excuse to search his possessions.
In Genesis 31:36-38 Jacob presents his case to his household and Laban’s clan, thus before all their relatives.
Jacob presents several rhetorical questions to his audience in order to present his innocence and to assure that his reputation in Paddan Aram remains intact.
In Genesis 31:36, Jacob’s questions, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?” demonstrate his innocence before God and that his conduct towards Laban in the eyes of God has been impeccable.
Genesis 31:37, “Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.”
Jacob’s question, “Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods?” appeals to his audience that Laban’s accusation that he stole his household gods has been proven wrong, and that he is innocent.
Jacob proposes that if Laban found anything that belonged to him, he should set it before all their relatives and let them judge what to do.
The tables have been turned where Jacob has gone from being the accused to being the aggrieved party.
Genesis 31:38, “These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks.”
Jacob’s statement recorded in Genesis 31:38 indicates that just as Laban cannot justly accuse Jacob of stealing his teraphim so he cannot fault Jacob in the care of Laban’s flocks.
Jacob reveals that none of Laban’s ewes or female goats miscarried, which was due to his conscientiousness and tender care of Laban’s flocks as well as the Lord’s blessing.
Jacob reveals that he never ate from Laban’s flocks and thus has not stolen any of Laban’s property.
Genesis 31:39, “That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night.”
Jacob reveals further of his great integrity in dealing with Laban and that he states that he even bore losses that were really not his fault, and for which he was not legally responsible according to the law of Hammurabi coming from this period demonstrates and from the Mosaic Law as well (See Exodus 22:10-11).
Genesis 31:39 reveals that Jacob is not taking credit for doing more than the law demanded but rather he is accusing Laban of violation of Near Eastern law and custom, which absolved a shepherd of personal responsibility in a case of a beast killing a sheep, provided he could supply the carcass of the dead sheep.
Though he was liable for lost or stolen sheep, he was not liable for sheep torn by predators.
Henry M. Morris, writes, “It was customary that when a shepherd brought a torn animal to his master that this was regarded as evidence that he had defended the sheep and had driven the beast away and that he had done all he could to save the sheep; under these circumstances, the master bore the loss, rather than the shepherd. Jacob however had borne all the losses himself, evidently by replacing lost animals from Laban’s flocks with animals from his own flocks” (The Genesis Record, page 488, Baker Book House).
Genesis 31:40, “Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.”
In Genesis 31:40, Jacob reveals the terrible conditions he had to work under at times and that he was very conscientious in tending to Laban’s flocks.
The fact that Jacob had been exposed to extreme weather conditions reveals that Jacob who once was a homebody and a momma’s boy has been toughened up under Laban’s school of hard knocks and has been trained for leadership away from home.
Genesis 31:41, “These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times.”
Jacob demonstrates great tactfulness and consideration for his wives in that he does not mention Laban sending Leah and not Rachel into his tent on his wedding night after he had just worked seven years for Laban to marry Rachel.
Jacob’s statement that Laban changed his wages “ten” times is a figure implying “enough is enough” since in the Bible the number ten signifies the perfection of the divine order, thus implying that from God’s perspective, Laban had cheated him long enough and now God is intervening and commanding him to leave Laban.
Throughout Jacob’s twenty years of service for Laban, he never once was rewarded for his conscientious and faithful and diligent service but rather was cheated time again by Laban.
Genesis 31:42, “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”
In Genesis 31:36-42, Jacob has presented evidence that the real thief in his relationship with Laban is not himself but rather Laban.
Jacob states that even though Laban has been unjust in his treatment of him, God has not and has blessed him despite Laban’s unscrupulous behavior.
Even though Laban had not rewarded him for his hard work, God had done so.
God overruled Laban’s intention to send Jacob away empty handed.
The expression “the fear of Isaac” refers to the fact that Isaac reverentially worshipped God and had a relationship and close intimate fellowship with God who has ruled in Jacob’s favor.
Jacob’s statement that if God had not intervened on his behalf that Laban would have sent him away empty handed reveals that Laban is guilty of not paying his workers.
Jacob’s statement “God has seen my affliction” is Jacob’s acknowledgement that God has demonstrated that His love is “compassionate” meaning that God intensely desired and did act to alleviate Jacob’s pain and suffering and was removing its cause, which was Laban (See Genesis 16:13; 1 John 3:16-17).
This statement echoes Hagar’s statement recorded in Genesis 16:13 where the Lord delivered her in Ishmael in the desert after the two were dismissed from the home of Abraham and Sarah.
It also echoes the statement made by Leah recorded in Genesis 29:32 when she named her firstborn son Reuben.
Jacob’s statement “so He (God) rendered judgment last night” refers to Laban’s dream the night before, which is recorded in Genesis 31:24, and which dream Laban acknowledged to Jacob as recorded in Genesis 31:29.
Jacob’s statement “so He (God) rendered judgment last night” means that God has ruled in his favor by intervening on his behalf by means of a dream, and prohibited Laban from speaking anything positive or negative to Jacob that would prevent his leaving Paddan Aram and heading back home to Canaan.
This statement indicates that Laban’s dream confirms to Laban that it was God’s will that Jacob depart from Paddan Aram and leave for Canaan.
Jacob’s statement recorded in Genesis 31:42, reveals that Jacob acknowledges that the God of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac has ruled in his favor and provided for him and protected him.
Jacob’s experience in Paddan Aram with Laban foreshadows his descendants, the nation of Israel experience in Egypt under Pharaoh.
Jacob’s experience of servitude for the hard taskmaster Laban and the blessing he received while in service to Laban as well as his deliverance from this servitude by God anticipates and foreshadows the experience his descendants, the nation of Israel, will experience while in Egypt under Pharaoh.
Just as Jacob served a cruel and hard master, Laban, so Jacob’s descendants, the nation of Israel will serve Pharaoh of Egypt.
Just as Jacob was blessed by God during this time of servitude to Laban so Israel will be blessed during their time of servitude in Egypt.
Just as Jacob was commanded by God to leave Laban and was thus delivered from his servitude so Israel was commanded by God to leave Egypt and was thus delivered from the hardship of Egypt and the hard taskmaster, Pharaoh.