When Jacob asks Laban to send him home to Canaan, Laban tries to talk Jacob into staying. Laban says he has “learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” But Jacob offers Laban a deal concerning the flock that Laban can’t refuse. Laban assumes Jacob’s offer is in Laban’s favor. However, when Jacob’s breeding plan by the streaked, speckled, and spotted flock proves to be successful, Laban’s sons accuse Jacob of stealing from Laban. Then the Lord tells Jacob to “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.” So Jacob obeys God and packs up his household and flees.
Rachel apparently doesn’t have the same trust in God with this move because she snags her dad’s household idols on the way out the door. There was another lady in this Story that had a hard time letting go of things in the past and moving forward with the Lord. Remember Lot’s wife? Yeah, that didn’t end well. Anyway, Rachel’s idol problem causes more family strife but the Lord intervenes and protects Jacob again.
While in pursuit of Jacob, God tells Laban in a dream “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.” Then Laban awakes and overtakes Jacob asking him why he fled. Jacob tells him “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. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
Jacob and Laban end up departing in peace but tomorrow Jacob encounters his brother Esau. Remember, Jacob fled his home 20 years because Esau wanted to kill him. I wonder if Esau has forgiven Jacob? Keep reading to find out.
(Genesis 30:25-31:55)
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Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 