The moment Rahel gave birth to Joseph, something shifted in Jakob. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us that the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, settled upon him, and he looked ahead across centuries. He saw the house of Joseph rising like a flame, and the house of Esau as dry stubble waiting for the spark.
Only then did Jakob turn to Laban and say the words he had been holding back for fourteen years: send me away. The prophecy had given him the courage. He saw that his descendants would not be consumed by Esau's legions, because one of his own sons would be the fire that consumed them first (Genesis 30:25).
The Maggid teaches: Jakob did not ask to leave because he was tired. He asked to leave because he finally knew who his children would become. Sometimes the courage to leave comes only after the vision of what you are leaving toward.