When we have been cheated and abused, the Lord has a plan to release us from our suffering by redeeming the pain we have experienced. It may take longer than we thought to reach a final resolution, but the waiting is worth the outcome.

One of the most dishonoring people in Scripture was a man named Laban. Jacob was sent on a journey to find a wife and was introduced to Laban. Laban was the father of Rachel and Leah. After Jacob met Rachel, he fell in love with her. Laban arranged by deception to have Jacob marry his older daughter, Leah, by an act of trickery. Laban’s trickery and dishonesty caused Jacob to labor for 20 years to gain both women’s hands and accumulate an immense herd of livestock.

After 20 years of laboring under the conditions of Laban’s deception, it was finally time for Jacob to escape the control of Laban.  Jacob told Rachel and Leah to meet him in a field to let them know his plan of escape, “You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me” (Genesis 31: 6-7).

When the time came to escape Laban’s control, Jacob gathered all his flocks, his two wives, and his children and began his journey home. When Laban learned what Jacob had done, he became enraged and began to pursue Jacob. In a dream, the Lord appeared to Laban and said, “I am warning you – leave Jacob alone!” (vs. 24).

When Laban caught up with Jacob, they aired their grievances. Jacob told Laban, “I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night, he rebuked you.” (vs. 41-42).

 Jacob built a memorial of stones establishing a boundary line between both men that neither would cross to harm the other. They parted ways with both men returning to their homes. 

“Laban got up early the next morning, and he kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home” (vs. 55).

The story of Jacob and Laban reveals several things to us.

 THE LORD WILL PROTECT US IN OUR PLACE OF SUFFERING 

Jacob said, “God has not allowed him to harm me.” Jacob was still abused, but his faithfulness to God prevented a deeper harm from taking place.

THE LORD WILL WARN THOSE WHO WANT TO DO US HARM 

The Lord said to Laban, “I am warning you – leave Jacob alone!” The Lord was inviting Laban to a redemptive process he did not think was possible while punishment was still on his mind.

THE LORD UNDERSTANDS THE HARDSHIP OF OUR SUFFERING

“God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands.” The Lord sees and understands what we are going through. He is the God of mercy. His mercy has a time and place to intervene in our suffering.

In God’s Kingdom, the innocent always pay for the guilty, just as Jesus did for us, paying for our redemption with the sacrifice of His life. A life of faith is not without hardship and suffering, many times at the hands of others. There is something taking place in our suffering that is always greater than the pain we are experiencing. It is God’s heart to reveal to us that greater thing.