Dreams #4 & 5 - Jacob's Move Home

Dream #4

When Jacob wanted to leave his uncle and Father-in-Law Laban, he wanted to convince his wives that staying at their father's place was not in their best interest and that it would be better to move to his parents many miles away. His uncle and he had been battling for the cattle, and even though neither one of them were playing fair, Jacob ended up with more cattle than his uncle, which created problems with Laban and his sons.

To convince his wives to leave their father and to move to his parents' place, he shared with them the long history of their dad's cheating him and topped it off with telling them about a dream he had. In his dream an angel came to him and told him that because God saw the way his Father-in-Law cheated him, God made sure that things went well for Jacob. The angel also told him that it was time to return to his parents' home.

I've never known if this dream really happened or if Jacob made it up to put the pressure on his wives to leave their home. The dream sounds very much like it comes from God, but two clues suggest otherwise.

First of all, this dream is placed in a different setting than all the other dreams in Genesis. Most of the other dreams are revelations of things to come or are given by God to be between God and the individual. No other dream is used for the purpose of convincing others to to do something.

Secondly, the the timing seems a bit odd, or should I say too convenient. No mention is made as to when Jacob received this dream. If he did receive a dream from God, it may have come days or even years earlier, but was held back until the time was ripe. And with all the deceiving and tricking that went on with Jacob's mom and her family, I wouldn't put it past Jacob to pull a fast one, either by waiting to tell his wives about the dream until this time or making up the dream to make sure his wives to leave their home.

Dream #5

Jacob and his family left Laban's house without any warning because he was afraid that Leban would take his wives by force thus not allowing them to leave. Jacob had a good head start, but could not get far enough away to outrun Laban. It could very well be that Jacob had wanted to leave for quite some time but had to wait for the best time - a time when hoped he could get out of the reach of Laban's persuit. In other words, he would need a time when he knew Laban would not miss them for several days. As it happened, Laban was told 3 days after the fact. I think Jacob had expected a much longer time to be able to escape.

Sure enough Laban pursued, but before he reached Jacob he got a dream in which God tells him to say neither good or bad to Jacob.

This whole episode shows us that the relationship between Laban and Jacob was very intense. Jacob felt trapped, cheated and afraid while living with his uncle. Add to this that in the end of his life he told Pharoah that his entire life was "evil." In other words, in his own mind he thought his life was depressing, difficult and full of struggle.

His 20+ years with his uncle Laban was not easy.