GENESIS 31 JACOB REBUKES LABAN
GENESIS 31
36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”– Genesis 31:36-42
GENESIS 31 JACOB REBUKES LABAN
A poem inspired by these verses by ILMA
After twenty years of service to Laban, he didn’t appreciate Jacob
When Laban pursued Jacob and accuse him of stealing his gods
Jacob finally spoke and rebuked Laban for all that he did to him
Without God on his side, he would have been empty handed.
Finally, Jacob speaks up to Laban about all that he had abused him for. It was amazing how God was always on his side and prospering Jacob despite all the dishonesty and cheating that Laban did to him. At this rebuke, Jacob points out that his silence all those years was God’s way of growing him into endurance and hard work. Those twenty years paid off because Jacob grew the little that he had when he came to Paddan -Aram. He was empty handed when he arrived, but he worked hard to grow whatever little he had. Now that he had prospered and also made Laban’s flock grow, he had to speak up and rebuke him already. All those years, Jacob kept quiet and let God deal with Laban’s dishonesty and all the tricks he had played on him. God had already rebuked Laban and yet he did not follow God’s warning.
REFLECTION
- What were the proofs that God was always with Jacob all those twenty years?
