Written by This is an important lesson that every son in law should learn. Jacob flees his household because he listened to his mother Rebekah’s counsel and thus in doing so created a severe rift between him and his brother Esau.
Now, the only shelter that Jacob has was from his uncle, this is according to his mother Rebekah’s counsel. So, he heads off to his uncle’s place and the minute he sees Rachel, his uncle’s daughter, he falls in love head over heels. Jacob was clearly aware that the only way to get Rachel would be to serve Laban, and he rationalizes the slavery thrusted upon him by Laban.
Love is truly blind, for Laban knew that he could control Jacob right from the very start. You see, when people know your weakness, you literally become their slave and this what exactly happened to Jacob. He let his uncle control him through his daughter Rachel and not only that, fleece him, exploit him, deceive him and what not, all up until the time Jacob had nothing left in him.
Being naive and ignorant, won't help you
But, Jacob was naïve, so naïve that just as he walked right into Rebekah’s plan to avenge her elder son Esau, all for what? Because Rebekah was not happy with Esau’s choice. But who suffers, Jacob. Now there seemed no stopping to Jacob’s woes.
In more or less similar manner, he walks right into the trap laid out by Laban. Just in this case the hook was provided through Rachel. In all honesty, Jacob could have saved those 20 years of hard Labor and bondage if only he had applied some common sense.
But he didn’t. He was blinded. It is also imperative to understand for us that relatives are not so milk and honey as they appear to be. In fact, strangers would be more helpful that our own relatives, and there are countless stories of exploitations and abuses are meted out by ones own relatives.
But Jacob had the choice yet he hearkened to his mother’s voice which engulfed him with fear that he decided never to return, confess and submit to his brother Esau. This decision caused him to suffer 20 years, up until the yoke of bondage fettered by Laban almost got him to finally realize his foolishness.
Many of us are no different from Jacob, we have our eyes blinded, not the physical ones, but the inward ones. We fail to differentiate the goodness of brotherly love bestowed by the Almighty through our blood bonds only to realize when the hour of time has elapsed the foolishness we have been living in.
Never allow love to dictate you
Never be led by your emotions and never give your heart away. If you do that, you will spend the rest of your life in slavery and bondage as Jacob did.
Laban knew the weakness that Jacob had, and he also knew that Jacob was his trump card which he could use in the way he wanted to. Imagine you are being used by your own uncle and you have no clue about this, and yet you have buried your head in the sand of love for this woman who would be barren for the major part of her live.
This is no isolated story but a story that is more so too frequent even in this day and age. Where scores of young men lose their focus in life, fall in love and do everything in their capacity to keep the girl satisfied, and that would mean even if they ought to sell themselves into slavery.
Twenty years is not a small time
Jacob looses 20 years of his youth to his uncle Laban who scales to become a prince, all because of Jacob’s weakness. Now, there are several instances where young men have thrown their lives all for the girl of their choice even without a second thought.
This is called as heights of youthful foolishness. The Bible clearly warns young men about this, yet even in the very first book this has been so much extensively dealt with along with the consequences of ignoring advice.
Of course falling in love is good, but don’t fall into the love valley of slavery as consequence.
Story time
I remember a situation when a friend of mine was head over heels in love with a pretty young lady. The love was so strong that he married her with all of the conditions laid by the girl’s father.
One of them would be for the young man to live with the girl’s family all their lives. Would you believe this? Even without a second thought, the young friend says okay and abides.
And as times goes by, due to some uneventful situations, the girl’ father gets sick and becomes incapacitated. Now the girl being the eldest, shoulders the responsibility and starts dawning the role of care giver even while the mother shrugs off the responsibility.
Now our friend just couldn’t bare seeing his wife being shuttled around and even at times literally supporting her dad with her feeble body. Now as always he wants to show how much he loves her, so he steps in to aid and help.
Now as days roll on, the young man literally becomes the door mat for the family. When the members of the family head out to dine and wine and follow their heart, he stays there by his father in law to answer to his call.
Now, of course this is nice and good when it comes to helping someone in need but the burden shouldn’t be on one single man while the rest get to enjoy the colors of life. Its been 15 years since at the time of writing this post, and the last thing that I heard was that his legs are now more securely fettered by the fancy word called, a responsible son in law. The girl whom he married has left him for another man, the mother has left, girl’s siblings have left.
Moral: It all appears great until you realize you are now in burning hot water.
Conclusion
Of course, life is not fair and we all know that, but life gives every individual the choice. That would be to not follow your heart driven by emotions and get enslaved.
The story of Jacob and the sufferings that he faced at the hands of his own uncle, though told in a mere single chapter, should in fact become a full-fledged Bible study course run for one academic year to save and protect young men.