Title: Jacob Breaking Up with Laban
Contents
Jacob breaks up with Laban
Genesis 31 1-20
Jacob left his father, mother, and brother, and fled to Laban's uncle's house.
Perhaps our life is also a life of constant fugitives. Pupils run away from schools and teachers, disobedient children flee to their parents and families, and criminals flee from countries and regions.
And the sinner flees from God. You can find happiness when you return to Hananmi, but it is human nature to fight with happiness in front of your eyes.
Dear saints,
From Genesis 25 onwards, we learn about the human form through a man named Jacob.
Jacob lived with Laban's maternal uncle for 14 years and had 4 wives and 11 children. Who knows the pain and loneliness you've been through? Eventually, Jacob decides to return to his hometown.
God did not forsake Jacob, but blessed him, and Jacob's wealth increased, causing problems in life again. Look at verses 1-2.
Jacob hears rumors accusing him. If you don't leave when you need to leave, these hardships will begin.
And Laban's attitude toward Jacob has changed and he feels that he is being colder than before.
Eventually, the relationship between Jacob and Laban became a relationship of hatred and suspicion rather than a relationship of love and respect as a son-in-law relationship. Both Jacob and Laban have a habit of deceiving others.
Like the law of reaping where they sow, they are both now reaping together.
They forget the rule that if you do good to others, it will also come back to you. As a result, they resented each other, and the relationship ended in an unhappy one.
For the past 14 years, the two have been living on each other's bills. An unhappy relationship has continued that appears to be respectful on the outside but doubts on the inside. Even in the church, there are cases where they pretend to respect each other, but they resent each other, complain, and the relationship deteriorates, leading to an unhappy life.
Seeing this life, God speaks to Jacob. Look at verse 3.
The time to return to his hometown has passed, but Jacob is calculating and knowing that he is trying to satisfy his desires, he says.
Jacob is not actually in the land God wants him to be. Because he ran away because of his own mistake.
In fact, Jacob had too many personal problems to become the father of faith. Our perspective and God's perspective are different. Therefore, God does not give up and continues to make Jacob in order to use him as the father of faith. We, too, are troubled. Although we lack in many ways, God does not give up and protects us with God's love, in order to use each one of us as God's tools, even if we sin, make mistakes, and live according to our own heart.
Jacob is actually a fearful man. That is why God knows his heart in verse 3 and says, “I will be with you.” Hearing the voice, Jacob made a decision and first called Rachel and Leah to confess his heart. In the meantime, tell me how you feel.