JACOB IN THE HOUSE OF LABAN

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible…. 

JACOB IN THE HOUSE OF LABAN                       

Genesis 31:41 NKJV

⁴¹ Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 

Jacob is a son of his mother.  Her cunning and easy use of the truth is evident in his character and personality.  He also is one of, if not the most, intriguing characters in the Old Testament.  We know a great deal about him and his family.  At times it seems true that we know God loves him and no one but God and his mother could love him. 

As he states he spent 20 years in the house of Laban and came away very wealthy in family and livestock.  But this was no accident.  We have his word of God’s blessing and enriching him.  There is no reason to doubt this.  The most interesting thing about his time with Laban and his shepherd experience is the advanced animal husbandry Jacob demonstrated. 

Jacob was a very intelligent man.  Often that intelligence is demonstrated in a self-serving shrewdness.  Nonetheless he demonstrated an outstanding ability to observe and learn.  His observation of the breeding habits of sheep and goats demonstrated what we know to be dominant characteristics.  His inability of explaining this in modern terminology does not prevent the fact of what he did. 

He also came to understand that the breeding cycle of his animals could be influenced by a certain vegetable substance.  The peeled rod secreted some vegetable chemical that affected both goats and sheep to encourage estrus.  Jacob saw this as a form of magic or he at least explained it in this way.  This does not change his brilliant observation and application.  And it also demonstrates his cunning self-serving character. 

If we forget that Jacob was the elect of God who had his safety and material well-being as a direct result of this relationship then Jacob truly is the scoundrel he often appears to be.  But there is much more to Jacob.  He was a spiritual man.  He was the covenant head of God’s house and the successor through Isaac to Abraham. 

Jacob has the two features that will always mark God’s people.  He had an unfailing faith in the spiritual God who called him.  He unfailingly in all his extremities relies on that faith.  Any who have the same faith know it is not just handy in the time of need.  We can rely on it in need because it is a constant in our life.

Secondly, Jacob, when called, was without exception obedient.  He was sometimes fearful, sometimes he was hesitant but never disobedient.  I know of no instant of God’s instructing Jacob when he did no obey. 

Application:

1.  The Scriptures are always true and timely.
2.  The Scripture truth that every man stands or falls to his own master is a strict prohibition to unnecessary criticism of God’s servants.