Here, we learn that God has been providing for Jacob during his entire ordeal with Laban and has exercised justice against Laban by taking the wealth he amassed during the 14 years Jacob labored for him. Yet, despite all of Jacob’s sin, he is chosen and blessed by God.

I see two very important notes, here. 1) Laban treated his daughters like property. Jacob, though,  accepts their counsel as equals. 2) All of Jacob’s flock is spotted, striped, or mottled. Jacob, who will be renamed Israel, is not spotless. No lamb in the flock with which the nation of Israel begins is spotless. Yet, God requires a spotless lamb to atone for sin.

This flock foreshadows the insufficiency of the sacrificial system and of human work and human-centered religion. Israel is God’s spotted flock, stolen from the unjust world, as is the church (cf. Matthew 12:29).

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