Genesis 31: 4-9: “And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock, And said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me. And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me. If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked. Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me”
Jacob realised that he would not be able to do anything to stop his father in law’s desire to keep him enslaved forever unless he escaped. He was already committed to leaving but his father in law was committed to keeping him there. Even though there were many spiritual, long term reasons for him to leave he still was interested in getting as much as he could before he left. He called his two wives away from the town and spoke to them in private. Even though Rachel was his favourite, he didn’t want to leave Leah out as he wanted her to be on his side as well. If Leah had heard that Rachel was conspiring with Jacob he believed that she would have reported to her father. However, Jacob judged Leah by his own standards and assumed that she would have done what he would have done. Leah, on the other hand, was totally committed to Jacob and would have done anything to gain his respect. We know this from the childbirth experiences that both Leah and Rachel went through. It is very hard not to judge people by anything other than our own standards but usually people can tell more about us than about other people when we talk about other people. Jacob was distressed because Laban kept changing his word about the payments that he would give Jacob but God was faithful throughout Jacob’s life and didn’t change in any respect. We may feel that our circumstances are constantly changing and that no one is on our side but we can be sure that God is always on our side and He is always faithful.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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