THE MENTALITY OF JACOB AND HIS DESCENDANTS, ISRAEL: DRAWING THE RELEVANCE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRESENT DAY EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

BASED  ON THE BIBLICAL STORY OF JACOB DEPARTING FROM LABAN -GENESIS 30: 25 (NLT)

It is citical that the context of this lecture is understood well before the principles are drawn and that is why starting with the Biblical narrative is very necessary.

THE TEXT

"Soon after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Please release me so I can go home to my own country. Let me take my wives and children, for I have earned them by serving you, and Let me be on my way. You certainly know how hard I have worked for you."

"Please listen to me," Laban replied. "I have become wealthy, for the LORD has blessed me because of you. Tell me how much I ow e you. Whatever it is, I'll pay for it."

Jacob replied, "You know how hard I've worked for you, and how your flocks have grown under my care. You had little indeed before I came, but your wealth has increased enormously. The LORD has blessed you through everything i have done. But now, What about me? When can I start providing for my family?" 

"What wages do you want?"Laban asked again.

Jacob replied, " Don't give me anything. Just do this one thing, and I'll continue to tend and watch over your flocks. Let me inspect your flocks today and remove all the sheep ad goats that are speckled or spotted, along with all the black sheep. Give these to me as my wages. In the future, when you check the animals you have given me as my wages, you'll see that I have been honest. If you find in my flock, any goats without speckles or spots, or any sheep that are not black, you will know that I have stolen from you."

"All right," Laban replied, "It will be as you say." But that very day, Laban went out and removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted or had white patches, and all the vlack sheep. He placed them in the care of his own sons, who took them on a three days journey from where Jacob was. Mean while, Jacob stayed and cared for the rest of Laban's flock.

Then Jacob took some fresh branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and peeled off strips of bark, making white streaks on them. Then he placed these peeled branches in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, for that is where they mated. And when they  mated in front of the white-streaked branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked, speckled and spotted. Jacob separated those lambs from Laban's flock. And at mating time, he tuned the flock to face Laban's animals that were streaked or black. This is how he built his own flock instead of increasing Laban's.

Whenever the stronger females were ready to mate, Jacob would place the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of them. Then they would mate in front of the branches. But he did not d this with the weaker ones, so the weaker ones belonged to Laban and the stronger ones were Jacob's. As a result, Jacob became very wealthy, with large flocks of sheep and goats, female and male servants, and many camels and donkeys.

CHAPTER 31

"But Jacob soon learned that Laban's sons were grumbling about him. "Jacob has robbed our Father of everything!" they said. "He has gained all his wealth at our Father's expense." And Jacob begun to notice a change in Laban's attitude towards him.

Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the Land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there and I will be with you."

So Jacob called Rachel and Leah out to the field where he was watching his flock. He said to them, "I have noticed that your father's attitude towards me has changed. But the God of my father has been with me. You know how hard I have worked for your father, but he has cheated me, changing my wages ten times. But God has not allowed him to do me any harm. For he said, "The speckled animals will be your wages, " the whole flock began to produce speckled young. And when he changed his mind and said, " The stripped animals will be your wages, " then the whole flock produced striped young. In this way, God has taken your father's animals and given them to me.

"One time during the mating season, I had a dream and saw the male goats mating with the females that were streaked, speckled and spotted. Then in my dream, the angel of God said to me, "Jacob!" And I replied, "Yes here I am."

The angel said, " Look up, and you will see that only the steaked, speckled, and spotted males are mating with the females of your flock. For I have seen how Laban has treated you. I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth."

Rachel and Leah responded, "That's fine with us! We won't inherit any of our father's wealth anyway. He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you paid him for us. All the wealth that God has given you from our father legally belongs to us and our children. So go ahead and do whatever God has told you to do."

LESSONS AND PRINCIPLES

a) It is critical to transition from a "consumer" mindset which is comfortable to the "producer" mindset which demands hardwork.

When Jacob asked his employment relationship with Laban to be concluded, he was just implementing a simple principle, thus, "When you stop being a consumer and you go on to producing, terms of engagement change." For Africa in general and Uganda in particular to transform, we must be willing to transform our desires from those that consume other people's finished works to producing our own. We import all sorts of finished products and yet export a few. Although he had long been comfortable with good wages from Laban, Jacob made a critical mindset shift when he decided to join the ranks of a producer and leave the comfort of a consumer.

b) Freedom is demanded by those who have exhibited faithfulness.

While giving approval to Jacob's decision to leave, Laban made the exit conditions difficult.  It is important to note that, "Freedom is never given, It is taken." In fact, it is demanded. However, you do not and must not demand freedom until you have been faithful where you are. It is through your faithfulness that you will create your capacity(skills) and networks to help you when you launch out. Be faithful with the skills you have and it shall be the lauchpad that God will use when you take the bold step to launch out on your own.

In our society today, there are many people who desire to short circuit or leap frog their way to success and good performance. They are not interested in going through the process of learning the processes, procedures and principles required to move them to and sustain them at the top. Many people are also guilty of desiring new responsibilities without giving an account of their stewardship at previous postings of responsibiliy. As long as they can pay their way up the ladder, it doesn't matter. This is wrong. The principle from the story of Jacob tells us that the only people with a right to demand freedom are those who have been faithful or who have a track record of faithfulnes at their previous posting. Anything short of this spells inadequacy or incompetency.

c) Faithful employees are not let go easily.

There is an advantage of keeping good and faithful employees. No employer celebrates when a good and faithful employee leaves. Employers like Laban, are willing to give productive and faithful employees any perks or blank cheques as long as they stay. No wonder when they are asked, "Just mention, what do you want?" For many people, this would be an opportunity to ask a "fat" salary, cars, mansions or whatever it is that they deem valuable to them.

At World stage, in many Internatonal conferences and meetings, representatives of many African nations are comfortably negotiating for more salaries, cars, aid and all sorts of "petty comforts" while Africa is rotting away. It is also a shame when people sell their children, sisters, brothers, friends, etc into prostitution and all sorts of enslavement just for petty conveniences.  This is the Laban mindset which causes people to view their chldren and relatves as commodities to meet their selfsh ends. For the transformation of the Cradle of man, this must stop and we must create an environment where every person of age can produce, add value to their work and lobby for market for their products. This is how we can now speak of free trade.

When Jacob was asked to name his price, he declined and instead asked Laban for a new contractual relationship where both are Patners instead of the former arrangement where one was inferior to the other. For as long as Africa negotiates from a standpoint of "Weakness" and not strength or patnership, then others will, always perceive us as slaves and treat us as so.

d) Achieving your destiny requires risk.

Jacob had a destiny. Destiny has to do with purpose. He understood that the time he was living in required a transition. That is why he had to leave Laban's work place. The birth of Joseph signalled to him that the time for hanging onto the convenience of a salary and perks was over. It was transition time from consumerism mentality to production. Little wonder that the name Joseph means "God has removed my distress... May the LORD add yet another son to my family." 

It is critical that Africa and specifically Uganda undestands what time it is for her otherwise, Jesus will weep over us like he did over Jerusalem because they did not understand the time of their visitation (Luke 13:34). The ignorance of the church is responsible for the enslavement of Africa. We must transition from the mentality of waiting on "more aid and grants" and move to our destiny where we speak to others like partners. This is especially so because Africa has much more than what others out there have. No other place on earth is as resource endowed as Africa. We must break free from the "slavery" mentality" and replace it with the "Jacob mentality." This is our destiny but it is risky business. We do well to remember that like Jacob,
"CHANGE AGENTS ARE GALLANT RISK TAKERS." Leaving a secure job and go on your own yet you have a  family to look after is a great risk.

e) Case for a paradigm shift:

Jacob had to make a critical paradigm shift especially in his attitude. The way in which he viewed Laban and how he viewed the work he did had to change although Laban and the animals didn't change per se. Jacob's mental picture of the environment had to change if he was to make a critical shift from consuming to production. For example, He had to mentally elevate himself and see himself as a potential partner in the franchise of Laban. He had to view himself as an equal to Laban in all things for them to partner. This involved hardwork. If Laban had a PhD, Jacob had to elevate his reasoning to that level or beyond. Jacob had to specialize his skillset in order to maintain a competitive as well as a comparative advantage over Laban and his sons. This would guarantee him a market. To arive at this, he had to transition his mental attitude to

"MY SEASON OF EARNING SALARY IS OVER. I AM ENTERING A NEW DESTINY. FROM NOW ON, IT IS NOLONGER A MASTER-SERVANT RELATIONSHIP BUT A PARTNERSHIP. Mr LABAN SIR, WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, CASE CLOSED.
Africa needs to have a mental shift like Jacob did if we are going to see transformation on our continent. Shall sons and daughters of man's craddle rise to the ocassion and break the continent free from the spirit of servanthood to make way for our uniquenness as Africa using a new thought pattern?

f) New contractual Arrangements

Jacob told Laban that if he desired to have any business relationaship going forward, it was to be on a new arrangement. The old arrangement of wages was done away with, the new contract was to deal with a seed. That is, loan me your spotted sheep and goats. In otherwords, in the patnership arena, "I give you what I have that you need, in exchange for what you have that I need."

This is a mindset that will create new Africa. We should stop the habit of accepting pennies in exchange of our resources(both human and other natural resources). We need to rise to the ocassion and start negotiating favorably with what we have in order to get what we need. We must put in place and support structures that show strengthen our credibility and faithfulness. In so doing, we shall be able to adopt Jacob's mindset who said to Laban and I paraphrase, "I will keep your flock on a NEW CONTRACT.  If you want me to do a business with you, I do not want wages but a seed. Loan me your spotted sheep and lamb."

In your former employment or aid-dependent relationship, you developed expertise required for the new journey. Like Jacob, you shall be able to say, "My righteousness (expertise) will answer for me in time to come." Righteousness in this case can be expanded to refer to my faithfulness, ability, skills, and my knowledge will answer for me. However, it should never be a bitter end of the former relationship. When announcing our transition to a former employer, we should do it in a manner similar to this, "Thank you for the privilege, education. I feel it is time to move on to new challenges."

g) Invitation to son-ship

In the heat of difficulty and hardship, servants take to flight, sons fight and contend. For example, When Moses became of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh. He preferred to identify with his own countrymen in slavery. Sons take charge of the future while Children depend on others to feed them. For Jacob, the Father-child relationship that he had with Laban had to give way for Jacob to contend with a new spirit and heart of a Son and not the timid soul of a slave. His was a lneage of men of faith and as a son to Isaac and Grandson to Abraham, it was only a matter of time before he could rise up and take responsiblity of a true son. He discussed his new wages in light of his faithullness to his work and not to the apparent "glitter" of the blank cheque and perks before him. Can your previous assignments speak of your credibility and fathfulness? The nations of Africa need to realize that although Israel is commonly referred to as "God's first born," they too are sons waiting to be born. The patriachs of Israel give us a blue print of how this happens. We must desire to create a record, a legacy and a standard that can speak for us wherever we go. We, like Jacob, must be glad to refer to it. The Headmaster of the High school I attended once told us, over morning assembly, "If no one else is willing to blow your trumpet, take it and blow it as loud as you can."

h) Hardship is often breeding ground for invention and innovation.

Laban removed everything that Jacob asked for and gave them to his sons. All the animals Jacob had asked as start-up capital were taken by Laban's sons.  Laban separated Jacob's request from him within a three days journey. Laban's challenge to Jacob was simply thus and I paraphrase, "Let us see how you will survive without me."  Is that not wickedness?

Today, there are many employers, who for want of their employees' stagnation deny them their wages and benefits. At nation level, countries which demonstrate a given level of ability to cater for their own needs are given all sorts of names by the so called "world powers." Many are thrown into civil unrest and thousands of their citizens are killed and dsplaced.  In this mess, their assets in foreign institutions are stolen in the name of "freezing assets" and as their citizens kill each other in the ensuing political contestations, these "world powers" siphon out their resources at very cheap prices or even worse, at no cost at all. This is typical of the Laban mentality which benefits from the pain of others with no willingness to making a fair compensation or reward. To Britain, which colonised a large chunk of Afirca, Africa is still a child that needs them for nurturing. Independence was just a change of slogan to, "Yes you are a brother, but you are not a man."

There is no doubt that Laban stole in order to put Jacob at a disadvantage. However, this did not dissuade Jacob. NOW THAT THE OPPORTUNITY HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU, WHAT DO YOU DO?

Jacob saw this as an opportunity to invent and innovate. He got Almond trees. He crafted the spotted and speckle on a tree back since Laban took them away. The initial arangement was that the animals given to him as a loan would reproduce after their kind. Now that Laban had given them to his sons, Jacob had two options. Either to mourn his loss and use it as an excuse why he did not progress or to innovate his way out of the dilema. The former is appealing to many people and nations. For people, they stay at the same post in life because dynamics in the environment changed significantly and put them at a disadvantage. They have scars, and all sorts of evidence to show any avaliable sympathisers. Many nations of Africa, too are ready to show the scars of slave trade, colonialism, coruption and all sorts of excuses to explain why they have never transitioned to modern economies after many years of their independence.

The example of Jacob tells us that innovation is a better way. In their book Start - up Nations: The story of Israel's Economic Miracle, Dan Senor and Saul Singer note that Israel, having realized that their nation was founded near very hostile neighbours who slapped all sorts of economic sanctions against them, did not sit back and sulk. They innovated ways how to survive and prosper in such a region which had a hostile climate and equally hostile climate. To date, they are among the countries with the highest export volumes for fruits and other agricultural products. In the same book, Shimon Peres wrote that, "The seeds of a new Israel grew from the imagination of an exiled people. We have to create ourselves anew and discover the riches of scarcity. The only capital at our disposal was human capital. Kibbutz became an incubator and the farmer a scientist. They are also a technology hub albeit the hostile neighbors it has had to bear with various wars it has had to fight...
Agriculture in Israel is 95% sciebce and 5% work."

Jacob too, also had to innovate ways of using what he had(Laban's flock) to get what he desired (His own flock). It involved a lot of hard work. He had to study Laban's animals, know when they mate, and move the poplar sticks to a position where they could be seen by the mating animals. In case they mated at night, Jacob had to leave the comfort of his bed, and keep watching to make sure that they mate while looking at the sticks. In case, when mating, they turned their backs to the sticks, Jacob had to move the sticks to a new location where they could see them. In case the animals ran away from the watering area to mate from another place, Jacob had to chase after them and bring them back. As their number grew, so did such and many other challenges multiply.  Hardwork was a citcal part of Jacob's life in his new role as Enterpreneur. It affected not just his pay but his family relationships. Imagine leaving your wife and children at mid-night to go and catch up with animals probably matin! He had to anticipate where the animals would be mating so that he set the poplar for them to see.

ARE YOU A NO-EXCUSE LEADER? IN THIS SEASON, AFRICA EITHER FOOLS ITSELF OR GETS TO DO WHATEVER WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO.

i) Results are worth it:

In spite of the challenges, the life of Jacob shows that the results were worth the hardword and the sacrifice. I quote, " As a result, Jacob became very wealthy, with large flocks of sheep and goats, female and male servants, and many camels and donkeys." This was earned through hardwork. Jacobs application of these principles saw him out - compete Laban. In fact, because of Jacob's resilience, hardwork and committment to his destiny, he was able to attract God's liking and support. It is why in Chapter 31:12 God spoke to him and gave him a revelation. This is what encouraged Jacob to work even harder.

In light of this, I believe that God has many ideas to reveal to Africa and I believe he actually reveals them. The problem is that there are only a handful of people who are willing to do whatever it takes to make those ideas work, like Jacob did.

Shall you be the man or woman who stands out to be the difference for the sake of Africa?

For God and my Country

God bless the Pearl of Africa. God bless the cradle of man.

By Peter Katuramu

Peter Katuramu is an Oak Seed and Vice President of Class 17, INT Uganda

peter.katuramu@yahoo.com

Much of what is shared in this article is extracted from a lecture given by Professor Vincent Anigbogu, The Director General of Institute for National Transformation(INT) International at the 3rd Biennial INT Conference held at Silver Springs Hotel, Kampala - Uganda from 2nd to 6th November, 2015.

"INT is not just a training institution, It is a Transformational institution that nurtures no - excuse leaders of Responsibility, Integrity, Compassion and Excellence who will play an active role in leading their families, organizations, communities, nations and Africa to their highest level of performance and achievement in God."

For more visit www.intuganda.com