Lesson 15: Twenty Years of Struggle

 Read: Genesis 28: 10 – 31: 55

Bethel: Where God Dwells
Jacob has to flee because his older brother threatens to take revenge for his deceit and robbery. So, upon the advice of his scheming mother and the approval of his ailing father, he leaves home and heads north to his mother’s home town and family.

Forty or fifty years earlier, Abraham’s servant had made this journey. Both trips were used by God to build Abraham’s seed- without intermarriage with Canaan. Yet, there are important differences. Abraham’s servant was sent on a mission, and he knew his dependence on God. Jacob is on the run, and he chooses to struggle on his own. Even after God reveals Himself to him in a dream, Jacob hardly talks to God. Rather, he mostly talks to himself about God. Only after God has blessed him, will Jacob accept the Lord as his own God! Jacob sets as condition his safe return- indeed, only when Jacob is on his safe return (twenty years later!) is he changed from a strong struggler to a man who knows his dependence upon the Lord. Interestingly, Abraham’s servant came with servants and camels and treasures, while Jacob appears to be alone: a young man on the run; like a lonely fellow with a backpack. The story seems to suggest a decline into spiritual as well as material poverty. The future does not look so promising, yet God is in control. So, he appears to Jacob in the dream. He makes it clear to Jacob that God has not abandoned his great plans and his promises to father Abraham! Now, all people of the earth will be blessed through the seed of Jacob. The Lord Himself will protect and guide and bless him in the years to come. Appearances easily fool us: here is not just a lonely man with little hope: God’s plan of restoring the whole creation as His Kingdom is intimately connected with the wellbeing of this one man! Therefore, God Himself will make sure that this young man, who travels lonely and poor, will one day return with a large family and great wealth!

The Open Heaven and the House of God

Jacob saw Heaven open and angels moving between him and Heaven. At the top stood God, and He gave Jacob his promises. “All people groups will be blessed through you. I am with you, and I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Jacob is to be the father of God’s people! Jacob called this place Bethel: the house of God!

Yet, later Jesus claims this story for himself! In John 1: 51, he says, “I tell all of you the solemn truth – you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” And, indeed, even the Samaritan woman asks Him in surprise: Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”

Jesus is the “new Bethel”; He is the better revelation of God Himself. And in Jesus, the true Son of Abraham, all nations are being blessed! Jesus indeed claims to be the Temple of God, for in Him God dwells with his people; therefore He is called “Immanuel” (God with us). And when Jesus, by His Spirit dwells in us, we too are called “temples of the Living God!”

Paddan Aram: The Meeting at the Well

Jacob continues his journey, and after a while he arrives at a well. Several shepherds have gathered there, waiting for others to join them, so the heavy stone can be rolled away to access the well and to water all the sheep. Perhaps the big-stone protection was used to ensure that only the townspeople could use the precious water, while travelers were denied access. Jacob learns from the herdsman that Laban lives nearby, and indeed soon afterwards his daughter arrives with her father’s flock.

Perhaps there is love at first sight when Jacob sees Rachel. Whether it is to serve her or to impress her, Jacob ignores the traditions of the region and demonstrates his strength by removing the stone to water his uncle’s sheep. Notice the contrast with Abraham’s servant, who prayed for God’s guidance and was served by the right girl. Jacob is pictured as the man who does things his own way. During the next twenty years this attitude often has undesired results. Yet, Jacob in his blundering zeal cannot prevent God blessing him; somehow everything works out for Jacob’s good, because God has decided to build His Kingdom from Jacob’s offspring.

So, Rachel runs home to tell her father, and Laban hurries back, probably remembering the precious
gifts that Abraham’s servant brought. He must have been disappointed when he saw the lonely traveler; no servants and no loaded camels now! Yet, his sharp business sense tells him that this strong young man could be of good service as manager of his possessions (flocks). Such a relative is always welcome, of course!

After a month, the men make a deal. Jacob is going to serve his uncle for seven years to get his younger daughter, Rachel, as his wife. A little while later we learn that Leah is her older sister. Was Rachel the right woman for the father of God’s people? In 31: 32 we learn that Rachel steals her father’s idol so she can continue to worship it in Jacob’s family; also she cannot give her husband a large offspring...

The Cheater Cheated

After seven years, Jacob needs to remind Laban of his promise; he has worked and waited long enough. So, Laban organizes a party with the community. But, at the end of the party he lets his older daughter Leah sleep with Jacob. Jacob must have drunk a lot of wine, for he does not realize what happened until the morning light. And so, in his blindness he is cheated as the older and younger and older daughter are switched... Seven years earlier his mother helped him to profit by cheating his blind father by switching older and younger sons. This time his mother’s brother profits from him! Laban had declared, “You are my flesh and blood”, but community customs and/or personal business benefit are more important. So, Laban pretends that he committed no wrongdoing by failing to pay the promised price. Yet, he quickly comes up with a solution; “Just pretend everything is fine, and after the week of celebration is over I give you what I promised; only work another seven years for her!”

So, Laban uses Jacob’s ignorance of local tradition to milk him for another full period of seven years. God uses the scam to give Jacob a large family, so that he can continue on his plans and promises to Abraham: “I will bless you and make you into a great multitude!”

The Struggle Continues

“Struggle” is a background theme in this story. Instead of waiting for God, Jacob struggled with the stone at the well. Just before this happened, the stone at Bethel was seen as evidence of God’s presence. Therefore, there may be a hidden message in the story when we read of another stone. Instead of praying to God, Jacob struggles with the stone: Jacob struggles with God!

Next, Jacob struggles (works hard) for seven years to get his wife, yet when he thinks the struggle is over he finds out he needs to go on for another seven years!

And when those years are over, he must struggle for his own business. Jacob and Laban: two shrewd men, trying to outwit each other in the gathering of wealth! Meanwhile, there is also struggle in the family. Jacob loves Rachel the best, but Leah gives him sons. So, the struggle is also felt at home between the women! The names of Jacob’s sons betray the struggle between their mothers, as in Naphtali: “I have struggled greatly with my sister, but finally I won!” Life is a struggle, but God is in control. And he builds for himself a nation to model the Kingdom of God!

God is using the struggle of the sisters to build a family, but he also seeks to give Jacob material blessings. Laban recognizes that God is blessing him because of Jacob’s presence, so he hates to see him leave. So, when Jacob plans to go, Laban once more makes a deal to keep him in his service. Jacob tries to cheat on his uncle, and this trickery seems to make him rich. Yet, towards Laban and his daughters (31: 6-9, 41) Jacob later blames his uncle of cheating, for he always changed the wages in his own favor. So, finally he does not attribute the blessings to his own clever tricks but on the intervention of God. Jacob finally confesses that the covenant God of his fathers has turned his fate to bless him. Whatever Laban did to serve his own business and impoverish his son in law, God turned around so that Jacob prospered!

Exodus from Laban

So, Laban realizes that his plan to steal God’s blessing has backfired. Instead of prospering from Jacob’s blessings, he gradually sees his flocks decrease while those of Jacob grow. So, Laban no longer pretends to be the friendly, reasonable businessman, and his sons now call Jacob a robber and a thief. Therefore, Jacob realizes that the time has come to leave and head back home. God confirms this to him, perhaps in a dream.

Yet, Jacob is afraid to confront his uncle, and so he secretly prepares his family, servants, and sheep to depart from Paddan Aram. When Laban is at the annual sheep shearing fest, Jacob leaves with his family, servants, and flocks. It takes three days before Laban realizes their departure, but then he

quickly calls some relatives and immediately they pursue them. It takes them a week to catch up, but just before they do so, God warns Laban not to hurt or harm Jacob.

Rachel, however, has done a foolish thing. She has stolen one of Laban’s “household gods”, probably a small stone statue used to worship some non-existing god. This betrays her lack of faith in God, and she also (without knowing it) threatens the wellbeing of herself and her family by giving her father an excuse to take revenge in anger for his sudden loss of face and value. Yet, she has inherited the family’s art of trickery and deceit, and God protects her and her family from further harm. So, Laban cannot prove just cause for his anger, for he fails to find the household gods. Therefore, after the men have vented their anger and defended their actions, they make a peace treaty and swear allegiance in the face of God. They mark the treaty with a monument, hold a farewell dinner, and the next morning Laban says farewell and returns home.

Now Jacob has safely departed he can start to think and worry about cause and consequences of his earlier flight- from his brother. Is it safe to return home?

Food for Thought

1. 1  Compare the twelve sons of Jacob with the twelve tribes in Israel. What is different; why?

2. 2  Apparently prayer was not an easy thing for Jacob. He, nor his wife, seemed to consider the power of God in opening the womb. This is rather sad, for Jacob’s birth had been the result of his father’s prayer and God hearing this prayer. Rachel and Jacob are good at planning and scheming, but they put little hope and trust in the Living God! It’s pretty sad then to see that this Jacob is to be Israel; the head of the people of God and the royal priesthood which God has chosen as a light for the nations! It has been a sad decline from Abraham via Isaac to Jacob, but we have not yet reached the lowest point. Although God will change Jacob, the long term trend continues downward until God exiles his people from the Promised Land into the land of Egypt.

3. 3  Note that God’s Kingdom of Israel is built through barren women! Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel are all reported to have been ‘barren’; unable to get children. Yet, God used them to build a nation. Interestingly, when we read about the next major stage in God’s Kingdom building project, we again read about women who cannot get children: Elizabeth because of old age, and Mary, because she has not had sexual intercourse with a man. Again, God demonstrates his power. Also, Mary (when she hears the angel’s news) praises God, for He “has lifted up the humble, but he has sent the rich away empty (Luke 1: 52, 53).” Indeed, this is what God did to Jacob’s wives, “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren”(29: 31). God just loves to turn things around; his Kingdom building project is a whole chain of revolutionary events!