Story of jacob’s secret escape – जैकब के गुप्त बच निकलने की कहानी

Once upon a time in the land of Paddan Aram, Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, lived with his uncle Laban. Jacob had come to Laban’s household many years earlier to escape his brother Esau’s anger and to find a wife. During his time there, Jacob had married Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel, and had become prosperous with many children, servants, and livestock.

Despite his prosperity, Jacob was not happy with Laban. Laban had deceived Jacob many times, changing his wages and making his life difficult. God had seen Jacob’s struggles and blessed him despite Laban’s treachery. Jacob longed to return to his homeland, where he could live in peace and fulfill God’s promise.

One day, God spoke to Jacob, saying, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.” Jacob knew it was time to leave. He called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flocks were and explained the situation to them. He said, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 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.”

Rachel and Leah agreed with Jacob and supported his decision to leave. They understood that their father had not treated Jacob fairly and believed that God had blessed them through Jacob. They said, “Do whatever God has told you.”

So Jacob prepared to leave. He gathered his children, wives, servants, and livestock and set out secretly to avoid confrontation with Laban. He knew that Laban would not easily let them go. Jacob chose a time when Laban was away shearing his sheep, so they could leave without being noticed. Rachel, meanwhile, took the household idols that belonged to her father without telling Jacob.

Three days later, Laban was informed that Jacob had fled. He took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob for seven days, catching up with him in the hill country of Gilead. However, God appeared to Laban in a dream at night and warned him, saying, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

When Laban finally caught up with Jacob, he confronted him, saying, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing, to the music of timbrels and harps? You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing.”

Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; if so, take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

Laban searched through Jacob’s tent and then Leah’s tent and the tents of the two female servants, but he found nothing. When he left Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.

Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household idols.

Jacob became angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “What sin have I committed that you hunt me down? Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.”

Jacob continued, “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. 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.”

Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”

So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”

Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.”

So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.

Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.

Jacob continued his journey, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

 

Story of jacob’s secret escape – जैकब के गुप्त बच निकलने की कहानी