Transcendence

Fourteen: Hot Pursuit

With the scheming going strong on both sides Jacob began to notice that Laban's attitude toward him was not the same. Maybe Laban was feeling ashamed about how unfairly he had treated his nephew, or maybe he was starting to get suspicious that Jacob wasn't treating him with complete honesty. Either way Jacob was concerned about his uncles attitude, and he also heard that Laban's sons had said, "Jacob is gaining wealth off of what belongs to our father! He has taken everything our father owned and using it for his own gain." Jacob understood it was just a matter of time before things got worse.

Laban saw that his pure animals were producing spotted or striped offspring. As he saw this happening, he reacted by changing Jacob's wages accordingly. Each time Laban changed Jacob's agreement of wages, God changed the way the animals produced their young, making sure to bless Jacob with each outcome.

Then God told Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you." Jacob knew it was time!

Jacob made a plan. He knew Laban would not give him the blessing to go peacefully, so he sent for Rachel and Leah to meet him in the fields where his flocks were. He explained to his wives that their father's attitude toward him has changed and that he felt the only option was for him to sneak off to avoid the conflict sure to come. He reminded them of all the years of work he had put in for Laban. He had worked with all his strength, yet Laban had changed his wages ten times. Jacob explained that even so, through it all, God was always on his side. He never let anything Laban tried to do cause him harm. Jacob gave credit to God, knowing full well he had been blessed because if Laban said the speckled ones were his wages then God caused the animals to produce speckled young, and if he said the striped ones were his wages then God would allow the females to produce striped young. Thus, God had taken away Laban's livestock and given it to him, blessing him over and over.

Jacob then told Leah and Rachel about a dream he had in which an angel of the lord told him two things: one, that God had seen Laban's dishonest dealings with him and had made the animals produce the blemished livestock in order to punish him for the wrong he had done. And two: that God is telling him to leave at once and go back to his native land.

Leah and Rachel trusted their husband, and they agreed he had worked very hard and was treated unfairly. They also agreed that since their father basically treated them like foreigners they were willing to go, even if it was without his blessing. Besides, the two sisters agreed it wasn't right how their father had been dwindling away their inheritance over the years, thus they believed that any wealth God had given to Jacob was rightly theirs and their children's. Ultimately they agreed that Jacob should do what God has told him to do.

Anticipating a quick departure Rachel began to think about her father's household gods, which were small idols believed to protect the family from harm. The gods may have also served as a form of title deed for family inheritance. They were very important to Laban, and Rachel knew this. Before she fled she wanted to take something from her family home, she wanted to take the gods for herself. Therefore she waited until her father was out sheering his sheep, snuck in and stole them without telling anyone, not even Jacob.

Jacob and his family quietly and quickly fled. He put his children and his wives on camels, and drove all his livestock ahead of them. He took all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram and headed out toward the hill country of Gilead. He was on his way to go back to his childhood home, to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

It was three days before word got back to Laban that Jacob had fled. Laban was heartbroken, and angry. He immediately packed up a few things, then gathered some of his relatives and quickly went in pursuit of Jacob.

God was keeping his promise to protect Jacob so when Laban stopped to sleep God appeared to him in a dream. He warned Laban to be careful not to say anything to Jacob when he closed in on him ,neither good nor bad. The dream shook Laban, but he stuck to his pursuit, traveling much quicker than his nephew because he carried less baggage and had no flocks or children to attend to. It took him seven days to catch up to Jacob in the hill country of Gilead.

Laban waited until Jacob stopped to pitch his tents one evening before approaching, intent upon surprising him. When he showed his face he immediately asked Jacob, "What have you done? You deceived me, and then carried off my daughters like captives in war. You ran off secretly. Why didn't you let me send you off properly with music and celebration? You didn't even let me kiss my children and grandchildren good-by. You have done a foolish thing! Don't you know I have the power to overthrow you?" His anger was obvious, but it subsided somewhat when he remembered his dream and said, "However, last night the God of your father told me in a dream not to say anything to you, good or bad. Now I have no choice, I must let you go off to your father's house. But I must know one thing, after all of this, why did you steal my gods?"

Jacob answered Laban, "I snuck off in secret because I was afraid you would take your daughters away from me by force if I told you I was leaving. I knew you wanted me to stay. I didn't think you would ever send me off in peace." Jacob was thankful for God's protection and wanted to show Laban some respect by adding, "Regardless, I did not take your gods! And if you find anyone here who did he shall not live. You can search us all, see for yourself if anything here belongs to you, you may take it."

Laban and his people searched the tents of Jacob, Leah, and the maidservants. They found nothing. Then Laban started into Rachel's tent. She, of course, had the gods, and had hid them inside her camel's saddle and was sitting on them. He searched everything around her before she said, "Please don't be angry that I am not able to stand in your presence. I am having my period." So though he searched he couldn't find the gods. (In those days a woman having her period was considered unclean - a smart lie no doubt. Laban would not have dared touch her or her saddle or ask her to stand as a result. Also he believed his daughter, and thus looked very foolish for making the unproven accusation that they had stolen from him. )

When Jacob saw that the gods were not found he was angered by Laban's charge and wandered if it was yet another scheme of some sort so he asked, "What is my crime? What have you found against me? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine so that everyone can see why you have hunted me down and searched through all my things. Let them all be the judge between the two of us. I worked for you for twenty years! In the heat, in the cold. I brought to you healthy animals. If anything was eaten by wild beast you made me bear the loss myself. You demanded payment from me when anything was stolen, day or night. I lost sleep and worked for you fourteen years for your daughters then six more for your flocks. You continued to change my wages ten times! If it hadn't been for God's blessings you surly would have sent me away empty-handed! But God has seen my hardship and toil of my hands and he has rebuked you!"

Laban still felt like all Jacob had was because of him. He answered, "Look all around, everything you see is mine. These flocks, my daughters, my grandchildren! Yet I can do nothing because God is protecting you. Come now and lets make a covenant between you and me. (Laban's hands were tied, he knew there is no use in trying to compete with one who is blessed by God. Therefore he asked for a covenant as protection for himself.)

So Jacob and his people gathered some stones and set up a pillar. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha and Jacob called it Galeed. He also called the place Mizpah because Laban said it was a witness between them two and asked that God watch over each of them when they were apart from each other. They agreed neither of them would pass the pillar to harm the other. Laban told Jacob if he mistreats his daughters or takes other wives that God would judge him. Jacob took an oath there and offered a sacrifice. After they ate, and spent the night, Laban woke the next morning and kissed his grandchildren and then blessed his daughters. Then he left and returned home.

Laban said on his way out, "This pillar is witness between us."

(Life question: Jacob was being blessed and protected by God and Laban saw it, plain and clear. Because of that he wanted to make peace with Jacob, to avoid God's wrath.  Does your light shine so bright that others know without a doubt God is blessing you? Do people ask you specifically to pray for them because they know the relationship you have with God is strong? )