These chapters are filled with conflict and negotiation. Leah and Rachel fight over the children and their husband. God is drawn into this row as well. Somehow his presence seems aloof. His sound is through the others or through the birth of the children. Jacob and Laban invoke God as the cause of their actions. God neither confirms nor denies…
Jacob gets the better of the wily Laban and Laban’s actions unite Leah and Rachel as they speak in one voice against their father. Rachel follows Jacob in his grasping by stealing Laban’s gods. Jacob and his cohort flee.
Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre.
Laban complains. But would he? With these two grasping, deceiving men, no sound is what it seems. The sounds of mirth, songs, tambourine and lyre are so far away from the story and almost serves as a dissonance. It’s a sound that could have been. Deep down this is the sound that we all want.
But lies and deception are the sounds that surround us.