A Convenient God
Having come to an arrangement (or fixed things to their satisfaction) Jacob and Laban no longer stop to consider how it is working out. Perhaps they are happy with it. If it suits them they probably are. Sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others is hardly high on the agenda of either. Unfortunately, the next generation is less accepting, sees what is happening and (after all) has itself to think about. Once Jacob senses what is going on he is off, supported by his two wives who probably have little choice but who know where their future lies anyway.
If the sudden decision to leave needs any defence Jacob is ready with an explanation, and God, who until now has been singularly left out of the narrative, suddenly appears as responsible for it all. Jacob of course could not be held responsible for anything. Laban had cooled off, the brothers were murmuring against him, and as for his successful breeding programme this was all God’s idea conveyed in a dream and all Jacob did was what God told him to do.
So who is this new-found God who suddenly arrives on the scene as Jacob’s benefactor. What sort of God is he and where did he come from? Hardly from Abraham because, far from rewarding success and egging him on, Abraham’s God was a master at obstruction, frustration and disappointment, constantly putting Abraham to the test with one challenge after another. Jacob’s God isn’t even a crude God who rewards success. He is a God who creates success, even to the extent of transferring the stock from father to son-in-law.
Is Jacob really such a slippery customer or has he found (perhaps even created) his own god as a way of escaping from the God of his grandfather, possibly even without realising it? If he has he certainly seems to have found a very convenient one and his subsequent dream (vv 10ff) does much to help us to understand Joseph, his favourite son.
Of Laban’s God we hear even less but on this occasion he seems to have found himself in a world where winner takes all and losers are left to manage for themselves. The family is split, as they all go their separate ways. But in which half do we want to be?
