No more dept. ready to bargain

Now Jacob had been with Laban for 14 years, he had labored for both Leah and Rachel, he bought Rachel on credit, and however, now she belonged to him, fully paid for. Jacob wanted to go home to Canaan to his family there. Laban however wanted him to stay and pasture his goats and sheep. Nevertheless, this time he had to give Jacob salary and asked Jacob what he wanted for the work.

Nothing

This deal between Laban and Jacob is not easy to understand, and Hebrew is not always easy to translate, however if we get the keywords it could be done. Jacob answered Laban, “You shall not give me anything. But if you will do this one thing for me I will again pasture and keep your flock:” This was the essence of the agreement; that Laban shouldn’t give Jacob anything, only agree and do what he proposed.

Greedy

Jacob wanted to separate all the not pure white goats and sheep and give them to Laban and that was what they did. Laban took all the speckled, spotted and dark among the sheep and goats and gave them to his sons. Laban left with Jacob only the pure white goats and sheep. For Jacob to earn salary those white goats and sheep had to produce “not white” offspring, Laban knew that this was impossible, he was a greedy human and the deal pleased him.

Hard work for nothing

Laban knew that Jacobs God was YaHaWaH and that this God blessed him because of Jacob, Laban believed in many gods, but those gods hadn’t blessed him as Jacob’s God did. Laban used God’s name, however he didn’t know Him, Laban was happy with the deal to give Jacob “nothing” for the hard work, as it was to pasture goats and sheep in all kinds of wetter. 

Timing

However, God had prepared Jacob for this deal; God had given him 4 wives, 11 sons, and one daughter, some of them old enough to help looking after the flocks. Jacob had been patient and understood God’s timing, the wives worked in the camp, looking after the small ones and made the food ready when Jacob and the boys came back from the field, everything was in good balance, and Jacob was prepared to receive from God.

Questions

1. Are you ready to receive from God?
2. Does the preparation of being ready take time?
3. Do you detect what God is doing for you?
4. When you ask God for help and He helps you, do you end up saying, “look I did it” or “we made it”?