Laban deceived Jacob many times to pay for his wives and his liberty. Jacob was the husbandman of Laban’s cattle – his sheep, goats, and the like. As a husbandman, Jacob was the “Father” figure in this account, and Laban would be a type of Satan. Laban was cunning and deceitful in all his actions with Jacob that affected the children of Jacob.
Haran, the homeplace of Laban, was symbolic of the world for it was outside the Promise Land. In the New Testament it is learned that “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23). Haran sinned against Jacob by deception. He, like Lucifer, wanted all things to belong to him even when they rightfully belonged to Jacob who prospered him.
Laban wanted to keep Jacob, his children, and Jacob’s children captive there in the world. He was keeping them in bondage with his ways. Laban still sacrificed to foreign gods. His “master” was not the LORD GOD but wooden images. Like the Serpent of long ago, Laban mixed truth with falsehoods.
The Serpent outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted Adam; and Laban was prepared to do the same with Jacob. He would offer what was not his to Jacob; the same thing that the Serpent did when it offered to Adam God’s fruit.
The Serpent deserved death, but God was lenient because He had further use for the services of Lucifer. Rather than die the death that he deserved, God punished Lucifer by causing his Serpentine image to crawl on its belly. [i] In theory, that was what Jacob would do to Laban when he escaped with his daughters, grandchildren, and even his gods!
Jacob deceived Laban. That too sounds as if it was sinful;
does it not? But that is divine justice: “And if a man cause a blemish in his
neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; breach for breach, eye
for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be
done to him again” (Deut 24:19-20). Well, Laban breached Jacob, so although he
deserved death, Jacob would be allowed to breach Laban, and breach him he did:
31 And he (Laban) said, “What shall I give thee?” And Jacob said, “Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock.”
32 “I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.”
33 “So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.”
34 And Laban said, “Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.”
35 And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.
39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.
40 And Jacob did separate the lambs,and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle.
41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.
42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.
43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses. (Gen 30:31-43)
True, Laban seemed generous (v. 31) but his motives were to keep the “House of Israel” in bondage. Jacob knew that he had become a slave to Laban and in alliance with God, they planned their freedom.
Jacob was a servant, but it took some time to come to that conclusion. Jesus much later had something to say to the Jews about freedom: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They (the Jews) answered him, ‘We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?’” (John 8:32-33).
Jacob was the second generational seed of Abraham, and he had unwittingly been enslaved. It was so gradual and cunning that he never thought of his indenture to Laban as slavery until he wanted freedom to “plant” his seed in the Promise Land to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant. He had been a slave to Laban (as Satan) all those years and was naïve to that until he wanted his freedom.
Even in the time of Jesus, the Jews thought that they had never been in bondage! In truth, the Abrahamic Covenant was servanthood as well. God would be their “Master” but his indenture was easy. They could do as they willed or come and go as they pleased so long as they trusted God. Their “fence” was the property of their Master — the world. They were free to sojourn in Sodom, Gomorrah, or anywhere they chose, and Abraham and Jacob did just that, even going to Haran!
Laban’s land at Haran, by then, had a fence around it. That “fence” was the “will” of Laban. God’s “Fence” had been His Will as well, but His Will was that they be free to come and go as they desired.
With that background, Jacob also was gracious. Rather than kill Laban, he blemished, not Laban, but his cattle. They made a covenant. Their freedom with owed wages to take the most undesirable cattle and leave. The natural shade was solid, specifically shades of brown. They would be the purest of the domesticated beasts. The cattle with blemishes would be less desirable because there would be something diseased or mutated and revealed by their recessive genes.
Well, God provided a Plan for Jacob: He would change their genetics and so gradually that it too would go unnoticed. As the lambs, goats, and other cattle were born, God’s “secret ingredients” were revealed to Jacob. He would make the cattle spotted and speckled as they were born in front of the drinking trough.
All Jacob need do was to remain the husbandman. He separated the good sheep from the feeble and made the good sheep appear to be undesirable. In other words, the nature of the cattle could not be determined because Laban would see only the outside.
Well, that is how God still works. Jesus said, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). Well, Jacob was bringing in the other sheep as Jesus would do for his followers. Laban was not the shepherd, but Jacob was the “one shepherd”. Jacob would be the husbandman and Laban the feeble man.
Jacob judged the sheep. He set apart the feeble ones from those with good qualities. Only Jacob decided that and only Jacob judged. That role is now assigned to Jesus:
27 And hath given Him (Jesus) authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:27-29)
Like Jacob, Jesus will determine the quality of the “sheep”. He will look at their genes to determine whether they are “hybrids” or not — having both good and evil DNA, so to speak, with the seed of Lucifer intermixed with the seed of God. Christians must be pure in the sight of Jesus, and that was the same for Jacob.
Jacob as much as made cattle with new images — images that were pure and healthy on the inside but seemed corrupted on the outside. That corruption would wash off when the time came, and when Jacob reached the Promise Land, perhaps the corruption had faded.
In the same way, Christians have “spots” and other “wrinkles”, according to Jesus: “That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephes 5:27). Christians may be as undesirable as sin on the outside, but Jesus will judge by what is inside. Is the heart pure? Not, have the “sheep” been sheared or even washed with water, but has their hearts been circumcised?
Circumcision is a Jewish ordination. It sealed the Covenant with God. The Jews missed the point; it was not the foreskin that God was asking for, but the hearts of the Jews to be His! [ii] He made that plain to Moses that to be Jews, the Jews would require circumcision.
Circumcision of the foreskin does not make pagans Jews as Shechem and his soldiers soon found! [iii] Paul identified the true Jew: “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Ephes 5:27).
Jacob, working with God, judged the sheep, and then set them apart by their qualities. The good sheep were made to look as bad as the feeble sheep, and Laban, not being a husbandman, could not see the difference!
Laban’s daughter, Rachel, had brought in all Laban’s sheep [iv] and Jacob had sorted them. Laban, just as Satan long before, had been part of the judging process and both were unwittingly despite their cunning. They both served God’s Purposes.
Jacob had selected the Hebrew sheep that would become Jewish sheep. He looked at their hearts. Were they feeble with heart worms or was their hearts healthy? Jacob paid no attention to their outside but by the purity in which God had made them.
In like manner, Jesus does the same. Jacob presented to God in the Promise Land many cattle without spot or wrinkle because by then their blemishes had faded by God’s slow process as they traveled the road to the land of milk and honey. He made those cattle, Jewish cattle. Jesus had a purpose just as Jacob, and to repeat it: “That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
When Jacob entered the Promise Land, he was presenting to God a “glorious church”, his seed and the good cattle from Laban’s herds. Just when was the Church founded? Was it at in Israel? It was founded in Haran by Jacob but the foundation was laid in the Promise Land, according to Paul:
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. (Ephes 2:19-21)
One of those “prophets” was Jacob, laying the foundation of the Church. By painting the images of Laban with God’s “paint” he identified the cattle with good “hearts.” That process continued with the seed of Laban’s sheep until this day! Jesus still makes the pagans clean whose hearts are clean despite what is seen on the outside. God’s Plan remains the same as when the Church foundation was laid!
(picture credit: THe Scripture Says;"Increased greatly flocks")
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