Laban, Jacob’s uncle, had kissed him upon his arrival. That’s interesting because Jacob had kissed his father when he tricked him out of giving the blessing to Esau instead of himself. After Laban’s welcoming kiss, he proceeded to trick Jacob into marrying his oldest daughter after Jacob had served for 7 years to win Rachel. Laban then exacted another 7 years from Jacob to get Rachel. Besides this there were disputes between the two and Laban attempted to keep the richest parts of the flocks and harvests from Jacob. But God would have none of that. Genesis 30:43 says, “Thus the man (Jacob) increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.” However, don’t forget that Jacob was plotting to plot to mate the flock before some kind of reed that would guarantee their health and color. The blessing of prosperity and wealth came to Jacob, not because of his reeds and rods but because someone was watching over him. If Laban would have had his way, Jacob would never leave and would end up with little or nothing. Fortunately, as Boice observes, “Jacob had an ally who was open-handed, upright, straightforward, generous, and compassionate. His ally was God. The secret of Jacob’s success in working for Laban is that even in the unpleasant earthly relationship, he was really working for God, who would protect him and prosper his efforts.”

The Handbook for translators disagrees with Boice’s interpretation and thinks that his wealth had to do with his conniving nature associated with his name Jacob, which means trickster or supplant. It reads, “Thus the man grew exceedingly rich: thus marks a conclusion to this story, which has been told to explain that Jacob became a rich man because he was more clever than his uncle. We may say in English, for example, ‘And so it happened,’ ‘In this way,’ ‘By doing these things,’ ‘as a result.’ Grew … rich translates a Hebrew verb that describes something bursting or breaking forth, and so in this context describes Jacob’s wealth as developing suddenly and greatly.”1 Regardless, both Laban and Jacob got what they deserved from each other. Ryle summarizes the contest between Jacob and Laban for us. He writes “In this passage and in the following chapter Laban is depicted in the Israelite narrative as the typical Aramaean, a crafty, selfish, grasping man of business. Jacob, however, in spite of Laban’s duplicity, prospers exceedingly. By greater cunning he outwits Laban himself, and God gives him protection and prosperity.”2

It seems that based on the promises that God had made to Abraham, Isaac and they passed on to Jacob, the wealth that Jacob acquired had much less to do with his own cleverness than it had to do with the promises of blessing that he tricked his father Isaac into giving to him rather than his brother Esau. Romans 9:13 makes it clear that God’s blessing was freely bestowed on Jacob not Esau. Why God chose Jacob over Esau was simply a matter of His promises to Abraham and Isaac. He could not go back on his promise. It wasn’t Jacob’s cleverness. Butler suggests, “Success accompanied the scheming but success did not result from the scheming. Sometimes when God blesses us in spite of ourselves, we have a tendency to credit some evil scheme.” 3

1 William David Reyburn and Euan McG. Fry, A Handbook on Genesis, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1998), 705.

2 Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version with Introduction and Notes, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921), 306.

3 John G. Butler, Analytical Bible Expositor: Genesis (Clinton, IA: LBC Publications, 2008), 301.