Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #21 of Genesis 30, and we will read Genesis 30:25-36:

And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that JEHOVAH hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and JEHOVAH hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also? And he 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: 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. 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. And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word. 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. And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

I will stop reading there.  We had begun to discuss the spiritual situation or the spiritual meaning, and I mentioned that some light or understanding is beginning to come concerning Jacob’s service to Laban.  Laban has been a difficult figure to understand, as far as who he is typifying or representing.

I think the language here helps us a lot.  When we read of Jacob’s service and his desire to go, it reminds us of what we read in Genesis 15:12-14:

And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

Here, God is revealing some information to His servant Abram concerning his seed, and when we look at the things He said, we find they match up very well – Jacob’s stay in Haran and Israel’s stay in Egypt.  For example, when we read, “Know of a surety that thy seed,” we know that Jacob was Abram’s seed.  Actually, Jacob will shortly have his name changed to “Israel.”  So when we think of Israel in Egypt, they were all Jacob’s descendants.  They were all children of Israel.  And here, Jacob (Israel) is in Haran doing service to Laban.  Also, it says, “thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,” and Jacob was a stranger in Haran.   He came from the land of Canaan, and he was sojourning there as a stranger.  He was not at home, and that is why he desired to go home.  So that fits.  He is Abram’s seed, and he is a stranger in a land that is not his.

Then it says, “and shall serve them.”  Now let us look at some Scriptures having to do with Israel’s time in Egypt, regarding this word “serve.”  Let us go to Exodus 1:13-14:

And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

God was telling Abram that they would be a stranger in a land that was not theirs and they shall serve them.  That is, they will serve the people of that land, and we know how that applies historically to Israel while in Egypt.  Everything that is said here applies to them and fits with them.  And, of course, there is also a deeper spiritual meaning that applies to the people of God in this world.  But, historically, it does point to Israel’s stay in Egypt, but the very same language can fit with Jacob in Haran. 

Again, he is the seed, and he is a stranger in a land that was not his, and he is doing service.  That is what we was emphasized in Genesis 30:25-26:

And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.

Then it says in Genesis 30:29:

And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.

So the entire time Jacob had been working.  First, he worked seven years for a wife.  Then when his wage was changed when Laban gave him the older daughter, then he worked another seven years.  Following that there was 20 years of service in Laban’s house, whatever that entailed, and then he wanted to go.  So there would a final contract worked out between him and his father-in-law Laban for six more years, a total of 40 years.

If we go back to Genesis 15, after telling us that they will be a stranger in a land not theirs and serve them, it says, “and they shall afflict them four hundred years.”  Here, we might find a problem, right?  Jacob was not afflicted like Israel was afflicted in Egypt.  They were slaves.  They were under cruel taskmasters.  That is what God tells us in Exodus 1:9-12:

And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

There was the fulfillment, on one level, of what God had said to Abram.  They would be afflicted 400 years, and we find that was very accurate.  They were afflicted with taskmasters set over them, and the very purpose was to afflict them.  And in their affliction, they multiplied and grew.

We wonder, “Can we apply that to Jacob?”  Of course, it was not to the same degree.  It was not the cruel and harsh bondage in his case, but this is like another mini parable, like we saw earlier in the book of Genesis when Sarah was taken by Pharaoh in Egypt.  Then she was set free when God plagued Pharaoh’s house.  That was a mini capsulation of the whole period of bondage of Israel in Egypt for centuries, and then God plagued Pharaoh and his house in order to deliver His people. 

We also saw it twice regarding Abimelech, the king of the Philistines.  First, he took Sarah, and then later he took Rebekah, and they were similar pictures where God warned him, and then there was deliverance of the wife or woman, and that would point to the bride of Christ.  And Israel being delivered out of Egypt is also a spiritual picture of God delivering His people out of the kingdom of Satan and, therefore, picturing the bride of Christ. 

So this is a picture that God had painted previously in different ways, and now he is depicting it from another perspective, this time with Jacob’s service to Laban, where Laban is the one Jacob is doing service to, and, therefore, Laban is in the role of “pharaoh,” or Satan.  He would be a picture of Satan in that sense, and that is what I meant when I said we are getting a better understanding of who Laban represents.  Now I would not say that Laban always represents Satan, but in this particular picture, he would be a type of Satan that causes Jacob (Israel) to experience affliction in his bondage or servitude over the course of 40 years.  And we will get to that issue of time later, but let us go back to Genesis 31:41:

Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

There is the number “40,” and we have talked about that.  The 20 years is a separate period of time from the 14 years and the 6 years, for a total of 40 years.  And that was the  span from his age at 60 to his age at 100, and it was the point he fled Haran and Laban pursued.  Laban pursued.   Is that not interesting?  Again, when we look at Israel coming out of Egypt, Pharaoh had relented and let them go, but then he had a change of mind, and he pursued after them.  He pursued them to the Red Sea where he ended up perishing.

Everything is not a perfect “type,” but we can see spiritual pictures that have less tie-ins than this one does, as this one has several tie-ins, like being a seed; being a stranger in a land not his; doing service; and being afflicted.  Then we read in Genesis 31:42:

Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

He said, “God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands.”  The word afflict used in Genesis 15:13-14 is Strong’s #6031, and this word is #6040.  It is a related word.  So Jacob experienced affliction and tribulation and being troubled.  Just imagine that you worked hard for marriage to one woman, and then you wake up, and you find you were given a different woman.  That kind of thing is not a minor thing.  It was a grievous affliction, and it caused all kinds of trouble for him in the years following and for the rest of his life.  He had two wives that were sisters and were in competition with one another.  Besides that one change bringing all kinds of turmoil, we are told that Laban changed his wages ten times.  This resulted in affliction, and he said, “Surely thou hadst sent me away now empty,” but he did not go away empty, which is another similarity to Israel, as God said in Exodus 3:21-22:

And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

In essence, Laban’s house was spoiled as all the strong cattle became Jacob’s cattle, and he had a multitude of them.  And, therefore, he had tremendous riches that he took out of the house of Laban.  And Laban even said to  him in Genesis 31:43:

And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born?

Again, for all intents and purposes, Jacob spoiled Laban’s house, and this is another key tie-in with what Israel did in coming out of the land of Egypt.

Regarding the 400 years and the promise God gave to Abram, it said in Genesis 15:13-14:

…Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

With the 400 years, we can see the relationship to 40 years.  It is just lacking a multiple of ten, so it is “4 x 10,” versus “4 x 10 x 10.”  The number “4” points to universality, and the number “10” points to completeness,  And then God brought Israel out of Egypt, as He brought Jacob out of Haran.

We know that Israel’s actual time of stay in Egypt was 430 years, but God is specifying that they would be afflicted 400 years.  That is, Israel was not afflicted in the beginning, under Joseph’s care in Egypt.  But we could say that after thirty years, they began to be afflicted. 

This also helps us to understand that affliction is not necessarily cruel bondage or being under cruel taskmasters.  Jacob was not in that kind of situation, but we read that he was afflicted.  It could have started out with the Egyptian getting the job, and not the Israelite, or the Egyptian would get more pay, or the Israelite would be given the dirtiest job, and these kinds of things.  And maybe their bosses changed their wages, and it got worse and worse until it reached the point of slavery.  When God finally came to deliver them, we see just how terrible it had become. 

So 400 out of the 430 years, Israel was afflicted.  You know, that was the error that Moses made when he was 40 years of age,  He knew the timeline that Israel had been in Egypt, which was 390 years at that point, and he sought to deliver them.  But it was too early because there were still 40 years go to.  He wanted to be the deliverer.  And God would actually use him by bringing him back to deliver His people Israel 40 years later.  At the point of 390 years, there were 40 years to go, and we wonder if there is any kind of relationship to Jacob’s 34 years in Haran, and having 6 years to go.  It could be, as it is fairly close when we look at the percentage.  When we look at 34 years in relationship to 40, it is 85%, with 15% of his time remaining.  And if we look at the percentage of 390 to 430, it is a little over 90%.  Or if we look at the percentage of time remaining, in Moses’ case it was 10%, as 40 is 10% of 400.  But in Jacob’s case, the last six-year contract was 15%.  So it is fairly close, and maybe close enough to make a connection.

But with the overall time of 400 years of affliction for Israel and 40 years of affliction for Jacob, that is a very direct tie-in that we can see pretty easily.

Then there are the words of Jacob in Genesis 30:26:

Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.

The phrase, “Let me go,” is almost unmistakable, and was the first thing that stood out for me.  You know, as we go through these passages, we have to find a spiritual meaning.  We sometimes cannot see it, but we know there is a spiritual meaning, and we have to be consistent.  We cannot just look for major pictures like Abraham bringing the knife down to slay his only son and then God stopping him, and then the ram caught in the thicket.   It is a very obvious picture of God the Father about to slay His only Son.  These are very obvious pictures, but we know that Christ spoke in parables, and without a parable He did not speak, which means that in every verse there is spiritual meaning.  It is in everything we are reading, and that is why we spent time looking at the children born to Leah and born to Rachel, and the fact that Jacob loved Rachel, but Leah was hated, and we related it to the Gospel because that is our job.  That is what we are to do as Bible students.

And here, Jacob’s desire that he is expressing to Laban is for Laban to let him go with his children and his wives, and that would relate to what we read in Exodus 3:16-18:

Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, JEHOVAH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, JEHOVAH God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to JEHOVAH our God.