Being Treated and treating

DEVOTION

GENESIS

BEING TREATED, AND TREATING

Gen 30:29-36

29 Jacob said to him, "You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?" 31 "What shall I give you?" he asked. "Don't give me anything," Jacob replied. "But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen." 34 "Agreed," said Laban. "Let it be as you have said." 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks.

NIV

There seems to be a little confusion as to what is happening here. But first we should note that Jacob has been in the service of Laban now for fourteen years and has a rather large family of his own which he is not really acting in the patriarchal manner customary of such a large clan. He has two wives, twelve children, eleven sons and one daughter plus all the maidservants and other servants within his clan. Yet as such he has no wealth, no provision for caring for his own family. He and his are solely dependent on Laban. Jacob decides it is time he make his own way in life, leaving Laban and heading back to his own land. Having nothing of his own, he makes sure Laban knows that his great wealth is a result of his efforts. This may have been an effort to make Laban feel as though he owes Jacob and it certainly appears Laban does feel he should pay him something. The bargain they strike at first seems as though Laban was trying to cheat Jacob from his due, but that may or may not be the case. What we are seeing here is after Jacob says that all the specked, spotted, dark-colored sheep and goats will be his wages, Laban removes them all from his flocks and puts them under the care of his sons, leaving Jacob to care for all the plain white sheep and goats. Then he puts three days journey between the two flocks. Why after Jacob asks that all the speckled, spotted and dark-colored would be his wages, did Laban remove them and give them into the care of his sons? Now all the flock that Jacob had was just plain white. It is as if Laban said, alright here is my flock and you can have all the speckled, spotted and dark colored ones, except there was none in the entire flock he put in the care of Jacob. What we are seeing is that when the bargain was struck it did not include that which was already the property of Laban. Yet it still appears Laban did not act in all honestly. It does seem by the dialog between them, Jacob's wages were all the speckled, spotted and dark-colored sheep and goats that now existed in the flocks. Laban has acted deceitfully before with giving Leah to Jacob before Rachel instead of honoring the agreement. Nevertheless Jacob does not response with anger, or challenge this act of Laban, taking what should have been his wages and leaving him with a pure white flock to gather his wages from.  We will see the results next, as Jacob uses his wisdom, given by God, having the blessings of God on his life turns this flock of white into a large amount of wealth for himself. What we learn here is that although the world might not treat us as fairly as we think it should, we having the blessings of God on our lives will always be cared for. God will always see that we are provided for. There will always be people who try keep to us from something. Yet, God gives us wisdom as to how we should respond, not in anger, or with vengeance, but simply go about doing want we need to do. Jacob could have responded, “Hey wait and minute, you are taking all my wages, all that we agreed upon for yourself, leaving me nothing but a white flock” But he did not, he just went on his way doing what he needed to do and God gave him the ability to turn this to his advantage. We may feel at times that we have been either taken advantage of, or cheated in some way, but we need to remember that God will take care of us. We cannot expect everyone always be honest and act with integrity toward us, but at the same time we should always act in that manner toward them. All that Jacob ever did for Laban was to make him a wealthy man, always acting on Laban’s behalf, least as far as the business aspect of their relationship which we are seeing here. We need to always be honest and act with integrity in our business and working relationships within the world. We should not be concerned about how they treat us, but we should be concerned how we treat them.