Genesis 31:14-16

2009.Feb.20 17:00

What You May Lose

Read Genesis 31:14-16 | Full Chapter

Rachel and Leah said to Jacob: There's nothing left for us to inherit from our father. He treats us like foreigners and has even cheated us out of the bride price that should have been ours. Now do whatever God tells you to do. Even the property God took from our father and gave to you really belongs to us and our children.
(Genesis 31:14-16, CEV)

Or, requiem for Laban. Yes, we’ll see some more of Rebekah’s brother before this story is done, but this statement by his daughters is a fitting but terribly disappointing eulogy for a man who really plays such a significant role in the formation story of the people Israel. Like Lot, Laban is both integral to the story and yet easily forgotten. I think the reason that both these men are so easily forgotten is there not the sort of ancestors one really wants to talk about. Like the proverbial trust-fund fool, they have every opportunity and manage to turn out somewhere between mediocre and failure. There not even interesting “bad guys”.

Not only has Laban lost what little respect he previously commanded of his son-in-law, but now his daughters are outright rejecting him (Rachel will take this one step farther later in this narrative). And they have good reason to. When he has noticed them, it’s been (or so appears to me) primarily to use them as a means to keep Jacob around. Now that Laban’s plans to take advantage of Jacob’s success keep backfiring, he probably resents his daughters.

Leah and Rachel also note that their father, whether or not intentionally, has turned over all their inheritance to Jacob anyway. For them, he is both a cheat and a failure. Again, relationships. A number of these folks have been failing at them, but Laban seems to have exceeded even the high standards set by Jacob. Greed seems to be his primary, if not entire, motivator. He has now lost a good chunk of wealth, and is about to lose a large part of his family. Gosh, that sounds like stories we hear all the time, doesn’t it? Greed leads to loses all around is the theme.