Now, verses 25, And it came to pass,
when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said
unto Laban, Send me away, that I may
go unto mine own place, into my country.
Give me my wives, my children, for whom
I have served thee, and let me go,
for thou knowest my service, which I have
done thee.
Well, this is quite remarkable here, by the
way, because we're going to see that this
man, Laban, had really mistreated his son-in
-law and his nephew, Jacob.
And listen to Uncle Laban here.
You see, he's not going to be through.
You can be sure of that.
Jacob wants to get away.
And now Uncle Laban says in verse 27,
And Laban said unto him, I pray thee,
If I have found favor in thine eyes,
tarry, for I have learned by experience that
the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.
Now, this is something quite interesting.
This was something that you will recall that
Abimelech, king of Gerah, found out when Isaac
was in his midst.
He was blessed because of his presence.
And this is something now that Uncle Laban
has discovered that God is with Jacob and
he's blessed him.
And Uncle Laban said, Now, look, my boy,
don't rush off.
Don't leave me.
Just hang around.
And I've been blessed and I want to
raise your wages.
I'll pay you more.
Listen to him in verse 28.
And he said, appoint me thy wages and
I'll give it.
And I tell you, Jacob ought to know
by now that anytime Uncle Laban made a
deal that he was the one that came
off the winner and not the other fella.
But Jacob's learned the lesson.
Jacob wants to leave.
Uncle Laban says, I'll pay you more.
And now he said to him, Thou knowest
how I've served thee and how thy cattle
was with me.
For it was little which thou hadst before
I came.
It's now increased unto a multitude in the
Lord.
It's blessed thee since my coming.
And now when shall I provide for mine
own house also?
In other words, listen to Jacob.
You talk about a man complaining.
He's really, he's singing the blues.
In other words, he's saying here, all I've
got out of all of this service for
you are two wives and two maids, maids
to the wives, and I've got a house
full of boys.
In fact, he's got 11 boys now.
Now, what in the world is he going
to do?
How's he going to feed them?
And he says, God blessed you and he
prospered you, and I don't have anything.
In other words, you are the one that's
prospering and I'm not.
And now Jacob says, and will you listen
to him?