Later when Jacob had fled with his household and Laban had pursued him angrily, there was a confrontation in which Jacob apparently spoke his mind for the first time in two decades. It is the most we are told that Jacob ever spoke on any one occasion. It had been bottled up in him for twenty years.
Laban was stunned by this speech, but he reacted with mere bluster. He said that the daughters, children, and flock were all his. What an obvious lie, but it is significant that he did not dispute Jacob’s claims to be self-sacrificing, upright, and industrious.
Now there is a third principle that contributed to Jacob’s prosperity. In Jacob’s impassioned speech before Laban in Genesis 31, Jacob trusted God for his prosperity and this of course is the most important of the principals and points.
In Genesis 31 is the passage where Jacob finally has had enough, and Laban will not let him go, but God has told Jacob that he needs to go. And so, finally, Jacob decides to just pick up and go. But Laban comes chasing after him, and finally catches him, because Rachel had stolen his household gods. And he went after Jacob to get them back. He searches high and low, but cannot find them because Rachel is sitting on them, and she makes an excuse to him that it is her time of the month. And Laban is in a huff—and Jacob is angry too.
Jacob did not know what Rachel had done. She did this on her own.
