028. Jacob--Seeks Remuneration
Jacob--Seeks Remuneration
Gen 30:25-30. And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place and to my country. Give me my wives, and my children for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy eyes, tarry, for I have learned by experience, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou hadst before I came: and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also?
There is no subject of contemplation more pleasing, more instructive, more composing to the mind, than the wisdom and goodness of the Divine Providence, in adapting and adjusting, with such consummate skill, the understanding, the dispositions, and the exertions of men, to their various and successive situations, relations, employments, and fortunes. What so feeble, so helpless, so necessitous as a new-born infant? But its proper aliment has accompanied it into the world. Its first cry has awakened ten thousand fond affections in one, who, at the hazard of her life, brought it forth, and at the hazard of her life, is ready to preserve it. What so giddy, rash, inconsiderate as youth? But the father is proportionably thoughtful, serious, and attentive. Man, of all animals, stands longest in need of support and protection; therefore natural affection in man is more intelligent and of greater duration than in any other creature. Instinct and reason unite their force, in aid of the lengthened infancy and childhood of the human race. Parents often, and unjustly, complain, that their care and tenderness meet not with reciprocal returns of attachment and affection from their children; not considering, that this current sets continually downward, and that the love which we bear to our offspring nature has intended they should repay, not to us, but to their offspring. Do our children grieve and vex us with their levity, and thoughtlessness, and folly. Let us have a little patience. By and by they shall become fathers and mothers; and then shall they be cured of what now gives us so much uneasiness; and then shall they be grieved, vexed, and mortified, in their turn. The anxieties which Jacob’s dissension with his brother occasioned to their fond parents are now thickening upon his own head. In the last period of his life, we saw the honest shepherd following his simple employment with cheerfulness and joy; drinking delicious draughts of love from the approving eyes of his amiable shepherdess; and beguiling the tedious months of servitude in converse with his Rachel, and with the prospect of that bright hour, which was to crown his hopes, and to reward all his toil. But those soft moments have passed away, and vanished like a dream; their flight was not perceived; their value is understood and prized after they are forever gone. The cares, and troubles, and apprehensions of a father now occupy his mind. Jealousy and strife disturb his repose. Why multiply elaborate arguments against the practice of polygamy. Look into the wretched disorder and discord of those families which have been built upon that unnatural system, and be assured it is not, it cannot be, from Him, who loves the children of men, and all whose institutions aim at making them happy. The rival sisters, rather than not mortify each other, voluntarily mortify and degrade themselves, by raising their handmaids to a participation of their husband’s bed. Envy and revenge, if they can but hurt an adversary, regard not the wounds which they inflict at home. Unhappy Jacob! my heart bleeds for him. His time, and labor, and strength, are at the disposal of a selfish, hard-hearted, insatiable father-in-law; his very person and affections are insolently settled, disposed of, and transferred at the pleasure of two jealous, wrangling sisters: while, behold a family rising and increasing upon him, without the power or means of making any provision for it. The mind of his beloved Rachel, whom he had earned at the hard price of fourteen years painful service, is soured and chagrined by the want of one blessing. The labors of the field through the day, are not relieved at night by the tenderness of sympathy and love, but embittered and aggravated by womanish altercation and strife. What could have supported him but religion?
Leah has, at various intervals, borne Jacob six sons and a daughter: and Rachel’s grief and despair are at their height, when God, whose counsels move not, nor stand still in complaisance to our desires or caprices, thinks meet to remove her sorrow and reproach; and she becomes the joyful mother of a son. What ingenious pains the silly mothers take to perpetuate the memory of their jealous sentiments and contentions, in the names which they impose upon their children; impiously presuming to drag in Providence as a party to their quarrel; foolishly and wickedly transmitting their contemptible hatred and animosity to the disturbance and distress of their posterity; and madly sowing the seeds of a plague, which might one day break out and consume them! O how different the jealous spirit which at first dictated the names of the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel, from that prophetic spirit which foresaw and predicted their future characters and situations, as it breathed from the lips of their dying father; and, from the mind of God, who was employing female spleen and passion, to declare his own purposes and designs.
About the time of Joseph’s birth, it would appear, the term of Jacob’s servitude had expired. He now therefore naturally thinks of the home which he had left so long before, and of the obligations which he lay under, to exert himself in the maintenance and provision of his numerous family. He therefore modestly applies to Laban for his dismission. That greedy kinsman, well aware of the advantages which had accrued to him from Jacob’s diligence, fidelity, and zeal, expresses much regret on hearing this proposal. But, it is not regret at the thought of parting with his daughters and grandchildren: it is not the tender concern of bidding a long farewell to a near relation and faithful servant. No, it is regret at losing an instrument of gain it is the sorrow of a man who loves only himself.
Hitherto, the profits of Jacob’s industry had been wholly his uncle’s. He had most ungenerously taken advantage of his nephew’s passion for his daughter, to reduce him into a mere drudge for his own interest. From a sense of shame, as well as a regard to interest, he is at length constrained to Jacob’s sharing the fruits of his own labor with him. Laban’s craftiness had proved too hard for Jacob’s candor and integrity; but the wisdom of Heaven, at last, proves more than a match for even the cunning of a Laban. Jacob, whether prompted from above, or instructed by natural sagacity, aided by experience, proposes as his hire, such a part of the flocks which he fed, as should be, in future, produced of a certain description, “the ring-straked, speckled, and spotted,”--which were so few in number, that they might rather be reckoned the sportings than the regular productions of nature. Laban acquiesces without hesitation in this proposal; wondering in himself, I doubt not, that Jacob should be so simple as to make it. An entire separation is accordingly made, without delay, between the cattle of the description which had been stipulated, and the rest of the flock. They are removed to prevent all occasion of suspicion and complaint, to the distance of a three days’ journey; and delivered into the custody of Laban’s sons, men too like their father to throw any thing into Jacob’s scale, either through good-will, neglect, or carelessness. Jacob continues to tend the remainder of the flocks, pure from all mixture, and they were by far the greatest part of the flock, for his father-in-law. The device which he employed, and which seems to have been suggested to him in a dream, is well known to all who read the Scriptures. It has been disputed, whether the success of it was in the ordinary course of natural cause and effect, or was entirely produced by a miraculous interposition in favor of our patriarch. Indeed, there seems in it a great deal of both the one and the other. That the female, in the moment of conception, should be more than usually susceptible of strong and extraordinary impressions, and capable of transmitting that impression to her young, so as clearly to mark and distinguish it, is too fully proved by experience to be denied. But this happens too seldom in the usual walk of nature, to permit us to suppose that the extraordinary increase of Jacob’s cattle was in the mere current of thins, aided a little by human sagacity and skill. That one lamb, or kid, should be marked with “the streaks of the poplar, hazel, and chestnut rods,” or, that one here and there through the flock should be thus distinguished, we can easily believe to happen without a miracle. But, that the great bulk of the young should bear this signature; that, as the impressing object was exhibited or withdrawn, the dams should conceive uniformly and correspondently, is, on no principle of nature or of art, to be ac counted for. The finger of God is therefore to be seen and acknowledged in it. Thus was the condition of Jacob speedily and wonderfully changed to the better: “And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants, and camels, and asses.”[*]Gen 30:43 And thus, the world is instructed, that he who fears and follows God, will sooner or later find his reward. But it seems determined of Providence, that Jacob should never find a place of rest. Lately, he was poor and dependent, and thence anxious in his own mind, and liable to insult, and unkindness, and oppression from others. Now, he is rich and prosperous, and thence exposed to hatred and envy. And envy, like a plague or a torrent, sweeps every thing before it. We may easily conceive with what watchful jealousy Jacob’s carriage and his charge were observed by such men as Laban and his sons. With what astonishment and indignation did they behold the best and most beautiful of the ewes and she-goats bringing forth nothing but “speckled and spotted!” Their rage and discontent are, for awhile, expressed by sullen looks and secret murmurs only. At length they become too violent to be suppressed, and break forth into open scurrility and abuse. The tongue of the gloomy father indeed says nothing--What can he say? But his averted looks, his glaring, dissatisfied, indignant eyes, fully declare the anguish that preys upon his heart. I confess I am malicious enough to enjoy it. I love to see the envious man goaded and stung by the lashes and snakes of his own dark, empoisoned conscience; because I love to see mankind happy. It gives me pleasure to see the generous rival of a sordid miser, surpassing him in wealth, eclipsing him in estimation and success: galling him by his prosperity and liberality.
Jacob, however, is unable to stand it. And, judging it better for all parties that they should separate, to save himself the distress of encountering the bitter words and sour looks of unkind relations, and to spare them the misery of witnessing his growing prosperity, he proposes to return to his aged, kind parents, from whom he was certain of meeting with a cordially affectionate reception. The dialogue which passed between Jacob and his wives upon this occasion,[*]Gen 31:4-16 lets us deeper into the distresses and discomforts at his present condition; and exhibits the picture of a covetous man in still livelier, but therefore the more odious colors. From it we learn, that the sordid father, not contented with exacting of his son-in-law the rigorous performance of his hard bargain, according to the rules of strict justice, (and the justice of a miser is stern, unfeeling, and severe indeed) frequently had recourse to trick and chicane to over-reach and defraud him. No fidelity could please, no submission mollify, no attachment subdue, no tie of justice bind, no call of nature awaken his impenetrable, selfish heart. “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.”[*]Gen 31:6-7 “And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion of inheritance for us in our father’s house? Are we not counted of him strangers! For he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.”[*]Gen 31:14-15 Whom do men commonly cherish and love with peculiar tenderness! Their daughters and grandchildren. For whom do men usually save, and gain, and lay up in store! For their daughters and grandchildren. But behold, here is a father who has sold his daughters for hire, who treats them as strangers to his blood, defrauds them of their undoubted right! Behold a grandfather taking pleasure, not in the innocent prattle, not in the dawning genius, not in the increasing stature of the young ones who descended from his own loins; not in smoothing for them the rugged path of life, not in extending and brightening their prospects, not in rearing and establishing their fortunes! but, in diverting the streams of their subsistence; but, in grasping to himself the hard-earned fruits of their father’s industry; but, in undermining, counteracting, destroying their interests and their hopes! How happy it is for the world, that this vile passion is neither immortal nor omnipotent God is, in spite of Laban, fulfilling to Jacob the covenant and promise which he entered into at Bethel. Jacob had stipulated but moderate things for himself, “bread to eat and raiment to put on,” whilst he was from home; and a peaceable and safe return to his father’s house: and lo, an indulgent Providence has far exceeded his expectations, and even his desires. But, if he be increased, he is also encumbered; if his stock be larger, so is also his care; have his comforts multiplied! he is but the more vulnerable. A retinue, consisting of two wives and as many concubines; twelve children, the eldest but thirteen years old, and the youngest under seven; of the servants necessary to a family so numerous; of a live stock so extensive, to be removed, and of the attendants absolutely needful for that purpose; a family such as this, was in a condition very unfavorable to the journey which they are about to undertake, especially, liable as they were to be pursued and overtaken by incensed Laban; or, intercepted and cut off by the way, by the equally incensed Esau. But, Jacob is following the direction of Heaven, and therefore proceeds with humble confidence. What a destroyer of human comfort is wealth, that universal object of pursuit! See, it has alienated the affections of one man from his own family; it has driven another to flee from that person as an enemy, whom he had once sought unto as a friend. In one shape or another, this evil affection, the love of riches, is, I am afraid, at the bottom of most of the ill we do, and of most of the ills which we suffer.
Jacob, having communicated his intention to his family, and obtained their hearty concurrence, takes advantage of Laban’s occupation in the business of his sheep-shearing, to steal away homeward. And he has the felicity of gaining three days’ journey, before the news of his flight have reached the uncle. But encumbered as he was, this is but a slight advantage, if a pursuit were attempted; and he must be indebted for his safety, after all, to the protection of that God whom he was following, and not to his own wisdom, foresight, speed, or force.
Jacob, I dare say, was scrupulously careful to remove nothing but what was, by a clear and undoubted title, his own. He who had repeatedly and patiently submitted to imposition and oppression, for the sake of quietness, was not likely to provoke enmity, and justify vengeance, by robbery and plunder. But Rachel, in what view, and for what reason, it is not easy to determine, has “stolen away the images which were her father’s.” Many solutions have been attempted, of this strange and unaccountable piece of theft. Some of them I shall just mention, leaving you to form your own judgment of the matter. It is alleged by some Rabbis, that she carried off the Teraphim or idols, lest her father, by consulting them, should discover the route which Jacob had taken, and so pursue with the greater certainty of overtaking him. Some ascribe her conduct to piety and natural affection, as if she meant to make Laban sensible of the weakness of deities which would suffer themselves to be stolen away, without giving notice of such a design, and were incapable of making any resistance; thereby hoping to detach her father from the absurdity and impiety of idol worship. Others, less charitably disposed towards her, represent her as a true daughter of Laban, instigated by covetousness, to purloin the deities, for the value of the precious materials of which they were composed, or whereby they were ornamented. And Chrysostom, with almost equal severity, accounts for the robbery from her predilection in favor of idolatry.
Thus Jacob left his father-in-law: or, to use the marginal reading, which is sufficiently warranted by the Hebrew words, “stole away the heart of Laban the Syrian;” that is, either he acted with so much prudence and caution, that Laban suspected not, fathomed not his design; or, he stole away that which was dear to him as his heart and soul, his precious, precious wealth. The sequel abundantly justifies this latter interpretation. For Laban is no sooner informed of his son-in-law’s escape, than, without the shadow of a pretence to molest him on his way, or to force him back, makes after him with a powerful body of his friends, if not to plunder and murder him, at least, to oblige him to return. After seven days’ hasty marching, he overtakes him and his cumbersome train, in Mount Gilead; and he is ready to seize on his defenseless prey. But the God in whom Jacob trusted, plants around him a fence more impenetrable than the Adam and the rock. Laban’s gods could not hinder themselves from being stolen away by a simple woman, and packed up among other lumber, to be conveyed off: but Jacob’s God is watching and protecting him night and day; nay, watching his enemy too, to check and repress him. For, the vision of the Almighty, is not only with them that fear him, to direct and comfort them, but sometimes also with them that fear him not, to restrain, to threaten, and to terrify them.
God, in a dream by night, charges Laban, in a manner which he could not but understand, feel, and remember, charges him at his peril to offer Jacob any injury in word or deed: “for when a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemy to be at peace with him.” Thus warned, he comes up with his nephew next morning; and, like many, who, when they are galled by an ill conscience, endeavor to ease themselves of its reproaches, by transferring the blame from themselves to the persons whom they have wronged; he reproaches Jacob with a conduct, which, he well knew, had resulted entirely from his own harshness and severity, and upbraids him with unkind behavior to his daughters, fully convinced all the while, that they had no ground of complaint against any one, so much as against their own unnatural, unkind father, who had counted them as strangers: “for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.”
It is pleasant to hear a miserly wretch talk of the liberal and generous things which he intended to have done, after the call and occasion are over, and his generosity is in no danger of being brought to the test.--Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me! and didst not tell me that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp? And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly, in so doing.”[*]Gen 31:27-28 But truth will appear through the closest disguise. With all this pompous parade of kindness and affection, he is weak enough to avow the violent purpose with which he had undertaken the pursuit, and, from his father-in-law’s own lips, Jacob has the satisfaction to learn that he owed his safety to the kind interposition of a heavenly, not to the altered mind of an earthly parent.
But, figure to yourselves Jacob’s surprise, when charged by Laban with having stolen his gods. If there was a thin g about Laban’s house more odious and contemptible than another in his eyes, it was his Teraphim. He would justly have reckoned such an impure mixture among his goods as the corrupter and destroyer of the whole. His defence therefore is simple, yet forcible; because it is the language of genuine truth, and of conscious innocence and integrity. I like Jacob’s speech throughout.[*]Gen 31:36-42 It is the language of a good and honest heart. Your time permits me not to make any commentary upon it. Indeed it needs none. Observe only, in general, how generous is the fear which he expresses, lest Laban should violently resume the wives whom he had given him. Some of them had been obtruded upon him by fraud, others by persuasion; but they are the mothers of his children, and therefore he cannot bear to think of parting with them, though he might have been permitted. How noble is the disdain and indignation which he, expresses, on being charged with the theft of Laban’s gods! How manly the recapitulation of his past services and sufferings! How bold the defiance he bids to malice and resentment! But, it discovers too much of a great and generous spirit, to be passes: over thus slightly. I must therefore take the liberty to resume it, and to enlarge a little upon it--and now hasten to conclude, with this single idea, of the analogy which we never wish for a moment to lose sight of Jacob, leaving Canaan, solitary and poor, banished from his father’s house, and degraded into slavery: and Jacob, returning, loaded with the spoils of churlish Laban, and blessed with a numerous, prosperous, and increasing family, without a violent stretch of thought, prefigures to us--Jesus, descending from heaven, and the original splendors of his nature; voluntarily depressing himself into the form of a servant, and meekly submitting, for a season, and to accomplish a great and important purpose, to the want of the smiles of his heavenly Father’s countenance: and “the glory that followed”--his triumphant return to heaven, adorned with the spoils of death and hell, and attended by an innumerable train of spiritual sons and daughters, acquired in a strange land, adopted into the family of God, constituted the heirs of glory, and in due time to be exalted, together with their glorious Head, to heavenly thrones, May we, beloved, swell the triumph of that day, and find eternal rest from the toils and dangers of the way, in the bosom of our Father and our God. Amen.