Genesis 31:36–42 (ESV)
Jacob Flees from Laban
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.”
Laban has searched for the household gods and has not found them. Jacob thinks he is being falsely accused, but…
Rachel is sitting on the household gods. Jacob lashes back at Laban and has some very valid points. He has served Laban for 20 years under changing terms. God has blessed Jacob’s herds and Laban has benefitted from God’s blessings
too. How much has Laban cheated Jacob out of pay… perhaps it is more than the value of the household gods. Both are guilty and both fall short of the glory of God.
I pray: O Lord, help me to deal with people fairly and to not cheat others. Help me to love my neighbors as myself. Amen.