Genesis 31: 43-55: “And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap. And Laban called it Jegarsahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed. And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount. And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.”
Laban had really lost the chance to call the daughter’s, that is Jacob’s wives, his daughters because he had already sold them to Jacob. He had no right to claim all the cattle as his because he had already arranged to sell these cattle to Jacob in payment for the six years that he worked for Laban after he had worked for his two daughters. He may have had a claim to the grandchildren but that is questionable. In Exodus 26: 1-7 we read that a man who becomes a slave was to be set free after six years, that is, in the Sabbath year. However, if that man was unmarried when he became a slave and then was married afterwards the wife still belonged to the owner of the slave. If Laban had sold his daughters to Jacob then they belonged to Jacob and so did the children, according to the Law, however Jacob lived before the Law so we can only make an assumption about this. In the end, after the Lord intervened, Jacob and Laban decided to live in mutual exclusivity. They made a marker and agreed that each one would stay on their own side of the marker. It is probably a good thing for any Christian to set a mark and leave their old ways behind and live a new life for Christ. (Compare Phil 3: 13, 14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”)
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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