Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/194

162 Those that trust in God, and in his providence and promise, though they have great families and small incomes, can cheerfully hope that he who sends mouths will send meat. He who feeds the brood of the ravens, will not starve the seed of the righteous.

II. Laban's desire of his stay, v. 27. In love to himself, not to Jacob or to his wives or children, he speaks fairly and gently, that he may engage him to continue his chief shepherd; entreating him, by the regard he bore him, not to leave him; If I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry. Note, Churlish selfish men know how to give good words, when it is to serve their own ends. Laban found that his stock had wonderfully increased with Jacob's good management, and he owns it, with very good expressions of respect both to God and Jacob; I have learned by experience, that the Lord has blessed me for thy sake. Observe, 1. Laban's ''learning. I have learned by experience.'' Note, There is many a profitable good lesson to be learned by experience. We are very unapt scholars, if we have not learned by experience the evil of sin, the treachery of our own hearts, the vanity of the world, the goodness of God, the gains of godliness, and the like. 2. Laban's lesson; he owns, (1.) That his prosperity was owing to God's blessing; The Lord has blessed me. Note, Worldly men that choose their portion in this life, are often blessed with an abundance of this world's goods. Common blessings are given plentifully to many that have no title to covenant blessings. (2.) That Jacob's piety had brought that blessing upon him; The Lord has blessed me, not for my own sake, (let not such a man as Laban, that lives without God in the world, think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord, Jam. 1.7.) but for thy sake. Note, [1.] Good men are blessings to the places where they live, even there where they live meanly and obscurely, as Jacob in the field, and Joseph in the prison, ch. 39. 23. [2.] God often blesses bad men with outward mercies, for the sake of their godly relations, though it is seldom that they have either the wit to see it, or the grace to own it, as Laban did here.

III. The new bargain they came upon. Laban's craft and covetousness took advantage of Jacob's plainness, honesty, and good nature; and, perceiving that Jacob began to be won upon by his fair speeches, instead of making him a generous offer, and bidding high, as he ought to have done, all things considered, he puts it upon him to make his demands; (v. 28.) Appoint me thy wages; knowing he would be very modest in them, and would ask less than he could for shame offer. Jacob accordingly makes a proposal to him, in which,

1. He shows what reason he had to insist upon so much, considering, (1.) That Laban was bound in gratitude to do well for him, because he had served him not only faithfully, but very successfully, v. 30. Yet here observe, how he speaks, like himself, very modestly. Laban had said, The Lord has blessed me for thy sake; Jacob will not say so, but, The Lord has blessed thee since my coming. Note, Humble saints take more pleasure in doing good than in hearing of it again. (2.) That he himself was bound in duty to take care of his own family; Now, when shall I provide for mine own house also? Note, Faith and charity, though they are excellent things, must not take us off from making necessary provisions for our own support, and the support of our families. We must, like Jacob, trust in the Lord, and do good, and yet we must, like him, provide for our own houses also; he that does not, is worse than an infidel, 1 Tim. 5. 8.

2. He is willing to refer himself to the providence of God, which, he knew, extends itself to the smallest things, even the colour of the cattle; and he will be content to have for his wages the sheep and goats of such and such a colour, speckled, spotted, and brown, which should hereafter be brought forth, v. 52, 33. This, he thinks, will be a most effectual way both to prevent Laban's cheating him, and to secure himself from being suspected of cheating Laban. Some think he chose this colour, because in Canaan it was generally most desired, and delighted in; their shepherds in Canaan are called Nekodim, (Amos 1. 1.) the word here used for speckled; and Laban was Willing to consent to this bargain, because he thought if the few he had that were now speckled and spotted, were separated from the rest, which by agreement was to be done immediateiy, the body of the flock which Jacob was to tend, being of one colour, either all black, or all white, would produce few or none of mixt colours, and so he should have Jacob's service for nothing, or next to nothing. According to this bargain, those few that were party-coloured, were separated, and put into the hands of Laban's sons, and sent three days journey off; so great was Laban's jealousy, lest any of those should mix with the rest of the flock, to the advantage of Jacob. And now a fine bargain Jacob has made for himself! Is this his providing for his own house, to put it upon such an uncertainty? If these cattle bring forth, as usually cattle do, young ones of the same colour with themselves, he must still serve for nothing, and be a drudge and a beggar all the days of his life; but he knows whom he has trusted, and the event showed, (1.) That he took the best way that could be taken with Laban, who otherwise would certainly have been too hard for him. And, (2.) That it was not in vain to rely upon the Divine Providence, which owns and blesses honest humble diligence. Those that find men whom they deal with unjust and unkind, shall not find God so, but that, some way or other, he will right the injured, and be a good Pay-Master to those that commit their cause to him.

37. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar and of the hasel 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 ring-straked, speckled, and spotted. 40. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring-straked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not into 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 maid-servants, and men-servants, and camels, and asses.

Here is Jacob's honest policy to make his bargain more advantageous to himself than it was likely to