A Watchtower

Read Genesis 31:36-55

Laban was never much of a savory character; always looking out for himself, even sometimes to the detriment of others –including family members. So it’s really no surprise that after 20 years of being conned by Laban’s cunning antics and unjust treatment Jacob has built up some intense frustration with his father-in-law. Then you add on top of that when Jacob leaves in fear of his well-being and that of his family, Laban chases them on their way back to Canaan for over a week before giving his family a good frisking to make sure they hadn’t stolen any of his false gods, I’m sure by then Jacob had just about had it. So he calls him out on it and throws it all in his face. Did Jacob have valid arguments?

vs. 39 “What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.” –It was acceptable in the ancient near east for a shepherd to bring the remains of a torn animal to the master if they had been attacked as proof that they had tried to rescue the animal. Technically it was not right or nice of Laban to require repayment by Jacob.
vs. 41 “I served you fourteen years for your two daughters” – Ouch! A nice way to say you swindled me out of Rachel the first time so I had to work an extra seven years for her.

vs. 42 “ If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.”- Considering Laban’s legacy this is not altogether inconceivable, especially since Laban’s attitude towards Jacob had recently been affected by his own jealous sons. However we should realize that in his own defense Jacob does not yet recognize Yahweh as his God, but only as the God of his fathers. Jacob’s got some good points. Laban’s a jerk, and impudent at that to suggest that he really still owned everything. They decide to make a covenant and it goes something like this: vs. 48-50 "This heap is a witness between you and me today." Therefore he named it Galeed, 49(M) and Mizpah,[c] for he said, "The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see,(N) God is witness between you and me." Does this mean that they made a treaty? Hardly! Laban makes an agreement that if Jacob never comes back across the line of the watchtower that he won’t kill him. So ends what little we know of the life of Laban. It comes and goes with deceitfulness, greed, and violence with no noticeable change of character, and why should it? Laban is never humble enough to recognize the true character of God. It is something worth learning from. Yet Jacob, we know, struggles a lot of the same problems greed, deceptiveness and yet in the end he is redeemed by God. How humble are we allowing God to make us in order to remake our lives in his sight? Ask God to humble you so that he can create in you the person he wants you to be. Ask him to reveal to you the places of sin in your life that he wants to change.