Jacob Turns to God for Protection -- Genesis 32:9-12

And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,' I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. For You said, 'I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.'"

Jacob eventually does turn to God as he knows that He alone can protect him from what he believes is coming down the road. But he doesn’t do it until after he fears and after he has made human arrangements that he thinks will guard him from the enemy. How much better would it have been had he gone to God first and sought His wisdom and guidance as to what action to take? Nevertheless, as always, better late than never.

In his prayer, he once again recognizes God as the God of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac, as well as the God who spoke to Jacob himself. In my over six decades of life, I never realized how important it is for us to remember that the God we relate to today is the very God that our parents and grandparents related to, assuming they were God-fearing people. We often tend to forget that the God we approach on our behalf has been around forever.

While Jacob reminds God of what God had told him, he does so with humility as God’s servant. “God, I’m following your instructions and I know you have already shown me more love and kindness, and more faithfulness than I deserve. I know I left home penniless and now I return with two whole companies accompanying me, all because of your blessing. If you are reading this today, I admit I do not know your circumstances but I do know this: all of us came into the world penniless without a stitch of clothes on our back. Somehow this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw to it that we got fed, clothed, trained, educated to some extent (or we couldn’t be reading this), and much, much more if we take the time to consider it all. Truly we are all unworthy of any of it. What we may have accomplished, we owe it all to Him, whether or not we realize it or even accept His existence.

Jacob asks for deliverance from the hand of his brother, the man whom he stole from and cheated. While it is easy to read this passage very quickly and skip over it, we would do well to stop and realize the real fear and trembling that Jacob was undergoing. In Jacob’s mind, Esau was on his way to attack him and the women with all the children. Living with that kind of fear must be an awful experience. I think of those that live in areas where wars and tyranny and genocide take place regularly. I think of young children or spouses who fear the coming home of a drunk or worse, a physically or sexually abusing parent or relative. Or, I think of Christians who have made a stand for Christ in their homeland where such a decision may mean death. What a horrible experience to know that each moment one must be on guard for the safety of oneself and one’s family.

But with all this fear, Jacob relies on the knowledge of what God had said. That’s the lesson for us when it comes to each and every issue. No matter what our fear, we need to be mindful of what God has told us in His word or in our hearts.

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Jacob Prepares To Defend Himself -- Genesis 32:6-8

And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two companies; for he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.”

What I find interesting is that we have no record of the actual conversation between Jacob’s messengers and his brother Esau. Clearly God and the human author He used for this portion of scripture wanted the focus to remain on Jacob. The messengers reported just three things. First, they got to Esau personally. Second, Esau is coming to meet you. Third, he’s bringing four hundred men with him. That’s all they said. When you consider how ‘lords’ traveled in those days, was there anything in any of those three short messages to warrant Jacob’s reaction? Jacob wanted the men to meet Esau. Esau was willing to meet him and would even come to him (remember Jacob’s route and destination did not have him going directly through Esau’s place of residence). And yes, he was bringing lots of men with him, but could that not have been for the sake of welcoming Jacob, taking care of Esau, and doing whatever needed to be done with respect to their customs and reconnection? Why did Jacob react the way he did?

The Bible says that Jacob “was greatly afraid and distressed” when he heard what his messengers told him. Thoughts of fear came right away regardless of his knowledge of God’s covenant with him. As much as someone has done well and has become wealthy and mighty in a distant country, when he/she finally comes back to the place of their sin, there is always the fear that they will not be forgiven by those that they had offended. Like any one of us who has committed a serious sin, its memory often continues to haunt us, even if we know both God and some of those involved have forgiven us. The comfort of God’s promises does not easily come to mind when that fear sets in. That perhaps is natural. What really matters once again is what we do with that fear and how quickly we turn to the God that has made a covenant with us.

In Jacob’s case, he took serious human steps to avoid potential military-type defeat. He divided all those that were with him, including all the animals into two parts. He felt that Esau could only attack one part and the other would escape in the process. Man fears, man plans, man hopes; but only God can save.

As I write these words, Canada and the world are in the midst of the greatest inoculation program we have ever experienced to date. The race is in to produce enough ‘swine flu vaccine’ to protect us all from the now famous H1N1 virus. There is great controversy over the vaccine’s ability to protect and whether or not its side effects, including possible death, are worse than the H1N1 flu itself. To date, there have been deaths both from the flu and from the vaccine. Many, my family included are not taking it. But here’s what’s interesting: out of fear, men make the best laid plans, and then they sit and hope, remaining in fear until the danger totally passes. Yet God provides us all with assurances about the things that really matter in life so that we need not fear, we need not plan outside of His will, and we need not just hope, but we can know what our ultimate future holds.

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Jacob Tries To Connect with Esau -- Genesis 32:3-5

Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He also commanded them saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now; and I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.”’”

As Jacob approaches Canaan, he decides to send messengers on ahead to contact his brother Esau who is now living in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. We first came across the name Seir in Genesis 14:6 where we read about the battle of first the nine kings, and then later another group of four kings. The text spoke of ‘Mount Seir’ as being the home of one of these, namely the kingdom of the Horites. The mountain was named after the patriarch of the Horites, Seir. And the word actually means “hairy or shaggy”. (You will remember that Esau was referred to as a hairy man and that is why Rebekah had to cover Jacob’s arms with animal pelts when he went to Isaac to be blessed in Esau’s place.) The Horites were the inhabitants of Edom before all of Esau’s descendants came on the scene and became known as the Edomites. Edom itself is south of the Dead Sea. The mountain range of which Mount Seir was a part extends southward from there as well.

We first heard of the word ‘Edom’ which means, “I will praise him” in Genesis 25:3. Esau was named that, probably by his brother Jacob, when Esau, being famished, asked for a “swallow of that red (stew)” that Jacob had made. Esau had indicated he would praise Jacob for giving him the stew. With that background, we now find Esau and his people residing near Seir in the land of Edom.

Some commentators state that Seir was not directly on route to Canaan, but off to the side of where Jacob otherwise would have traveled to get to his father Isaac’s place. Yet, he wanted to pay respect and try to be reconciled with his brother Esau. So Jacob gave instructions to his messengers to give his ‘lord’ Esau a very specific message. For the message was to be a direct quote from “your servant Jacob”. The Hebrew word used for ‘lord’ is ’adown and when it refers to man rather than God, it is simply implies or refers to a superintendent of a household, a master, or a king. Here Jacob was recognizing his brother’s leadership of his own household. The word used for ‘servant’ is ’ebed and is translated servant, slave, and subject. Jacob realizes that he will now be in a place where his brother is indeed lord, and he just a subject. His very long absence and the conditions under which he had left had brought this about. You will remember Esau wanted to kill Jacob twenty years earlier, so now Jacob has to humble himself before Esau.

It is also possible that by using the ‘lord and servant’ image here, Jacob is trying to give Esau the message that he personally will not demand the rights of one who had received the blessing that was rightfully Esau’s. There is also the possibility that Jacob wanted to reconnect with his brother and with his family. So what exactly does one have his servants say to his brother after all that has happened knowing full well that the success of his leaving Laban and returning to Canaan pivots around whether or not his brother Esau is prepared to welcome him back or still wants to kill him?

The basic message to Esau that Jacob’s servants were to pass on was this: All these years he had lived with Laban and had become very wealthy in possessions. He wanted Esau to know that in order that he would view him with favor rather than as a prodigal son returning empty-handed to his father’s home. He wanted to make sure that Esau would not see him as someone who had to be supported by him in order to live. He wanted to be acceptable to Esau.

In the last little while, I have reached out and tried to reconnect with some relatives that we have lost touch with and was received most pleasantly. Life is indeed too short to not do so. Furthermore, one cannot do the work of God well when he or she has not first obeyed the word of God in being reconciled with others.

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The New Atheism and Their Agenda

I read with interest about Robert Wright in this month's Foreign Policy magazine. Wright is an agnostic and the author of The Evolution of God. His main idea is that as civilizations get prosperous, they become more open-minded about things like God, I assume. Well, he's right on that score.

But Wright is not to be confused with that group of New Atheist promoters like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Instead Wright proposes that religion is indeed a force, but a force for ill. He predicts that ultimately religion will settle down and marry "modernity" based on the fact that us believers will come to our senses eventually given what is happening in the world, and we'll ignore messages that come from on high, that is, God.

But Wright has a very insightful take on the actual New Atheist group. He shared it in Foreign Policy, Special 2009 Issue. Here's what I gleaned from what he wrote:

1. New Atheism was launched as a "crusade against belief" started by Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris (Hitchens joined them later).
2. Their main short-goal (aimed at intellectuals) was not to turn believers into atheists. Instead, now get this, it was, according to Wright to "turn atheists into New Atheists -- fellow fire-breathing preachers of the anti-gospel. The point was to make it not just uncool to believe, but cool to ridicule believers."

That's startling news, perhaps equivalent to the fact that scientists plan and actually manipulate data to prove their theory. [In fact, I've written elsewhere that Dawkins does just that -- ridicules unbelievers. I said he has the audacity to say evolution is a fact; his book proves it; no respectable scientist will deny it; and no one reading his book can close it without believing in evolution. Not so, Mr. Dawkins. But let's see how well the New Atheists' main short-term goal is really doing.

According to Wright, intellectuals who aren't religious or conservative, and some among the secular left, are starting to doubt the real goal of the New Atheists. They're seeing there's a difference between being "a progressive force" and ending up abetting fundamentalists and reactionaries here at home and around the world. How's that you say?

Well, Wright suggests, if you're pushing evolution in the public school, you try to appease conservative Christians by convincing them that their children won't be turned into atheists when they sit under such teaching (yeah right). A zealous promoter of Atheism who ridicules believers, like Dawkins, doesn't help the cause at all.

On the global stage, Wright argues that the idea of anything "Western" being linked to "aggressive atheism" [remember that's where Allah is cherished] doesn't go over too well in enticing the radical Islamists to buy in to our peace efforts.

Wright believes that the New Atheism also proposes that "religion is not just factually wrong, but the root of evil." Wow, you didn't know that did you? By association, it is Believers in the world who are the source of evil according to the New Atheists. That thinking, Wright suggests, would imply that if we could somehow remove the religious factor from the Israeli/Palestinian situation, we would soon be able to settle the differences involving the land involved in the Israeli/Palestinian dispute with perhaps a really good mediator. As long as religion plays a part, peace will be elusive according to the New Atheists, especially the likes of Sam Harris.

According to Robert Wright, all the great religions "have shown time and again that they're capable of tolerance and civility..." when their believers are not threatened or disrespected. He seems to imply that first comes the non-threatening and respect of a religion's adherents and they in turn become tolerant and civil. Think of that with respect to Christianity. The secular world today shows very little respect for Christianity and its believers. In many parts of the world, their lives are being threatened. In North America, our freedoms are evaporating. Yet, are true Christ-like, non-fanatical or dogmatic Christians intolerant or uncivil? I think not.

Yet, if Wright is correct, and certainly many would support him, it is possible that we're treated the way we are because the main picture that the world has of us is being delivered to them via the likes of the Crusaders of old, the Residential School masters, the fallen priests, and more consistently the radical fanatics that don't know when to stop.

And if that's the case, what can Christ-like Christians do? Wright started his piece in Foreign Policy by saying the New Atheist crusade is in trouble but not "because the citadels of faith are rolling back the tide of unbelief." But we should be. We should be showing the world that 'believing' makes sense. And we should be doing it with how we treat each other, how we treat those that are not in agreement with us, and how well we know our 'stuff'. At the same time, we need to know our rights and to pursue them legitimately.

Yes, the New Atheist movement may have a faulty goal, but make no mistake about it, while the intellectuals may have some problem with it, the majority of the rank and file in this world do not. They see it as a great opportunity to knock the holy people. In fact, I just realized that a major conservative national paper in Canada just started an on-line section called "Holy Post" to address religious issues. How sweet. Thanks but no thanks, for the sarcasm.

-- Ken B. Godevenos, Presentalogist (bringing you today's news that may well impact your tomorrow). Check us out at http://www.accordconslting.com and http://www.twitter.com/pappou . You can sign up for this blog elsewhere on this site.

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Jacob and the Angels of God -- Genesis 32:1-2

Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him. And Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

At the end of chapter 31 we have Laban returning to his own land and now here we see Jacob continuing on his way to where his parents lived and where he grew up, the land of Canaan. I love the first sentence of this chapter, “Now as Jocob went on his way, the angels of God met him.” So often in times, as we go on our way, God arranges to meet us. There usually is no pre-arranged times for these visits. But when God comes, He comes to comfort or to guide. Sometimes, as we’ll see later on in this story of Jacob, He comes to correct an attitude. And His timing is perfect.

Sometimes He sends angels – as angels or as men. Other times, He speaks to us directly – either aloud or in our hearts. But there is no mistaking it -- it is God. Sometimes He comes in a dream at night and sometimes in a vision during the day.
In Jacob’s case, he actually sees the angels, although when and how we do not know. Once he sees them, he utters “This is God’s place.” Jacob’s attitude was not one of “God has come to me” but rather “God is here with me in His camp.” That’s exactly where we need to be as believers – in the presence of God; where He is. He should not have to come after us, although He would, but we should be moving towards Him and with Him, into His camp. The Hebrew word used for camp implies an army camp. Jacob was recognizing that with the presence of the angels (who by the way had been with him all along but were now visible) he was in the midst of God’s host of guardians sent there to protect him and his family.

As I often fly across the continent, and sometimes overseas, what a feeling of comfort and security I sense knowing that God’s host of angels is not only with me but also with my loved ones I leave behind. There is nothing that calms anyone’s flying jitters more than the realization that we are where God is, that he knows the purpose of what we are doing, and that we are living for Him.

Interestingly, Jacob names this place where he sees the angels ‘Mahanaim’ which literally translated means ‘two camps’. Why this name is not known for certain. Some believe it was a recognition of the two hosts of angels he imagined were involved in his life. First, those that were with him and protected him up to this point in and from the land that belonged to Laban. They delivered him safely to the second host of angels that would be protecting him in the land of Canaan. Another way to perceive this may be to think of it as one unit of angels guarding him from Laban behind him and another protecting him from Esau in front of him. We cannot be certain as to why Jacob used this word, but at least this explanation is a possible one.
What matters for each of us is the realization that God is with us and that He has available a host of angels that He places all around us as we walk in His ‘camp’.

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Laban and Jacob Part -- Genesis 31:54-55

Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. And early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

After swearing to the covenant with Laban, Jacob offers a sacrifice on the mountain they were on. This sacrifice likely involved peace offerings. What is interesting here is the idea that making peace with one’s friends or relatives can only really be maintained if we are at peace with God. It is God that does indeed make the reconciliation work between man and man. And with the sacrifice of course comes a celebratory love-meal, a practice that ratified the covenant and one that had been going on for some time in the region.

Earlier in this chapter (vs. 25) we learn that Jacob and his kinsmen had camped in the hill country and that is where Laban had caught up with them. Later in verse 37 we read that both Jacob’s and Laban’s kinsmen were with them as they rehashed what had happened between them in the twenty years that had just passed. In verse 46 after Jacob agrees to the covenant, he asks his kinsmen to erect the memorial for it. They were either there all the time, or they were called back to do this. We were not able to discern which it was. And verse 54 does not help us either. While it states that Jacob “called his kinsmen to the meal”, that does not imply they were not present when they were called. In fact, I would suggest that either his servants and/or possibly some of his kinsmen who had helped build the memorial, were also instrumental in the preparation for both the sacrifice that Jacob made and the meal he was about to host.
‘His’ kinsmen is not just a reference to those on his own side of the family, but included all of Laban’s family and kinsmen. In fact, the celebration went on into the night and they all ended up spending the night together on the mountain. Making peace with one’s adversary was indeed a great cause for real joy and extensive ceremony.

Finally, in the morning, and here comes the most practical, non-ceremonious demonstration of what had occurred, they part friends. It is fair to assume that Laban and his kinsmen also stayed on the mountain that night with Jacob and his relatives and household. In the early morning, Laban gets up and kisses his grandsons and granddaughters, blesses each one, and says good-bye. No matter how tough a person you are, good-byes to your grandchildren with little chance of seeing them again or not for a long time is very difficult. I go through that every time I visit my grandsons in South Carolina, knowing it will usually be three months before I see them again. Laban’s experience, I am sure had an emotional impact on him. The bible is not really clear as to whether or not the word ‘daughters’ in this particular instance included Leah and Rachel. I believe that in light of the covenant just witnessed and its celebration, Laban was also loving, at least in demonstrative actions, towards his two daughters when he said good-bye. Hopefully, they were gracious enough to return his show of affection, although the text is silent on that. All it says is that Laban left and returned to his place. In peace.

I know from personal experience that sometimes when one is at odds with another, and a peace accord has been reached, the best thing that can follow is distance and space between them. Establishing that distance or space, having left in peace, leaves it wide open for a coming closer together sometime in the future as the Lord may bring about. So be it. Laban and Jacob parted in peace.

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Laban’s Terms for the Covenant With Jacob -- Genesis 31:48-53

Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me this day." Therefore it was named Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, "May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me." Laban said to Jacob, "Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.

In the case of Jacob and Laban’s agreement, we can note several things. First, notice that Jacob allowed Laban to establish its terms and conditions. Laban was clearly driving this arrangement, perhaps in an attempt to save face and to cut his losses.

Second, while there were relatives around, the actual heap was to serve as a reminder to Laban and Jacob themselves. No matter who witnesses a promise (as guests do at a wedding), the promise must be kept by and between those that have actually made it. The responsibility of keeping a promise lies with the promise-makers. Other witnesses may encourage us to keep our promise, but it is us that have to keep it.

Third, Laban referred to the heap of stones as not only Galeed (the Hebrew name Jacob had given it) but also as ‘Mizpah’ which is translated a beacon, or a watchtower. Laban wanted Jacob’s Lord to watch over the two of them, especially when they were absent one from the other. More particularly, he wanted God to make sure that Jacob didn’t do anything to hurt Laban’s daughters as indicated by the next condition.

Fourth, Jacob had to be a good husband to his two wives, and not mistreat Laban’s daughters in any way. That is something every father should expect of his son-in-law. It’s interesting how sometimes the things we do ourselves, we expect others not to. (Laban had misused his daughters for his own gain, yet he demands that Jacob treat them well.) Given the culture of the time, Laban goes one step further.

Fifth, Laban insists that Jacob not marry other wives besides the two he has. And although Jacob may never have intended to do so, or to be a mean husband, he accepts these terms and conditions. For one who would have been a good husband on his own account, the requests of Laban are not so demanding. But they sure made Laban both feel and appear good in demanding them. Wise Jacob lets him have his moment of glory. There is a lesson here for us. When we get into these circumstances, we must always allow others to save face. There is no need for us to beat them into submission or to always win on every point.

And then Laban once again invokes Jacob’s God as a witness to their agreement on these terms. At this point in the text, the phrase “although no man is with us, see God is witness” appears and seems somewhat perplexing given that we believed all the kinsmen on both sides were present. (Unless of course, the kinsmen were sent away following their work in verse 46.) So, the phrase then must reflect the future tense, that is, “even though no man may be with us, God will be our witness”. And indeed, some commentators do take that position on this phrase. I am not convinced that the text reads exactly like that however if we take the New American Standard at face value. It is very possible that all the kinsmen and servants were indeed sent away at this point. And that God was indeed their only witness at this point in the making of the agreement. When all others are absent, God is always present both to witness and to protect.

Sixth, Laban insists that Jacob never be a bad neighbor to Laban. Neither of them are to act with hostility towards each other. More specifically, the heap of rocks would act as a border between them that either could not be crossed over period (as some maintain) or that could not be crossed over with the intent of harming the other person (what I believe to be more likely). As I studied this portion of scripture today, I also had to write an email to someone at our church. He and I had exchanged words some time ago and I had tried several times to get us together to clear the air. He kept promising he would do so, but never did. So, today I wrote to him again reaching out one last time. In so doing, I had to read and revise my email several times making sure that I was not in any way conveying a message of wanting to harm him. Instead, I sincerely wanted the matter between us cleared up. As Christians we may sometimes end up agreeing to disagree with one within the Body, but in no way are we at liberty to go on hurting one another.

Clearly God was their main witness. Laban wanted God to be aware of every thing that either he or Jacob did to violate the covenant they were making. God was to act as a judge between them for Laban saw Him as not only the God of Jacob’s ancestor Abraham, and the God of Laban’s ancestor Nahor, He was also the God of Abraham and Nahor’s father, Terah, from whom both Jacob and Laban descended through Abraham and Nahor, respectively. Scripture clearly shows a relation between God and Abraham. However, there is no text that specifically points to Abraham’s brother Nahor’s faith in the same God. Neither do we find any references to Abraham and Nahor’s father, Terah, being a worshipper of God. In fact, much later in the Old Testament we will find out that both Nahor and Terah served “other gods”. Clearly, Laban was being a little too liberal with his attributions to their ancestors.

Yet Jacob was moved enough to agree to the covenant. Not so much by Laban’s references to who Nahor and Terah worshipped, but by the fear of his father Isaac. The word ‘fear’ as used here is in reference more to a “reverence” of someone, be it God or be it as in this case, the fear, respect, and awe that Jacob had of his father Isaac. It was by that fear that Jacob swore with respect to this agreement between himself and his uncle Laban.

There have been many times as a child and as a youth I agreed to do things out fear of my dad. It wasn’t always a terrorizing kind of fear, although sometimes it was. Other times it was out of respect for him, and in reverence to him as a father. I know my own children have done just that for me. I can safely say I did that right up to the day my father died in his tenth decade of life. As I got to know God better in my teen years and right up to today, I often do things or agree to things or sometimes not do things that I would prefer to do out of my fear of the Lord. Really knowing His love for me, however, makes it more out of my reverence and awe of Him as my God.

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Preparing for Reconciliation -- Genesis 31:45-47

Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Now Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

Notice that when Laban had finished speaking, Jacob said nothing; at least nothing of significance for the author to have recorded it. Instead, the Bible says he selected a rock and somehow repositioned it upright in such a way that it looked like a pillar. When it comes to relationships, there is a time to talk and a time to say nothing. There is a time to take action and a time to sit still. In what Jacob had heard from Laban, he caught a semblance of an olive twig being extended to him and he decided to accept it. And he did so without insisting on an apology from, or that any form of penalty be imposed on, Laban.

That takes a very big man. Recently I was assisting a party resolve some issues another party had pursued legal assistance with. It was clear that the party I represented had erred on two significant counts. The actions of two individuals from my client group had, and in the case of one, continued to, make matters worse. This apparently was a pattern it seemed on the part of the two negative contributors to this situation. My common-sense human nature told me these two had to incur some personal consequence in addition to apologizing yet once again. I tried to convince myself that this would be for their own protection and personal development, as well as for the good of the party I was representing. Perhaps censure or release from their position in the client’s organization would be appropriate. And then I had to deal with this section of scripture. What was I supposed to learn from this? Could I be a big enough person to simply make my point to the individuals and to the group as to what was done in error, express the consequences to the organization of any such further recurrence, and indicate that we needed their genuine assurance that this would never occur again? Certainly that was what Jacob settled for. I had no choice but to do likewise and leave the matter to God. And the outcomes of such a decision on my part, I believe, will indeed have its rewards – including with those two individuals.

When quarrels occur and peace is being offered, we have a responsibility to accept it, and it is to our benefit. That does not mean we have to work directly with or become bosom buddies with the individual. In today’s legal world, parties who settle their disputes often sign a joint ‘release’ that includes a ‘non-disparagement’ clause. That is they agree that they will not speak negatively of each other, but it does not mean they will have to partner in business or friendship. They live and let live. That is the least we can do.

Jacob simply instructs his own relatives to gather the stones needed to make a heap for the makeshift monument that would serve as a memorial to this covenant Laban was proposing. Once that was completed, everyone sat down and had a meal together. In the culture of the day, as is the case still in many cultures, having a meal together is the ultimate indication of a sealed agreement between the parties. Think of if as having a drink after a deal is signed or having an engagement dinner after a couple promises to marry. Sometimes, even if we may not work or live or be close friends with someone again, we need to take the time to participate in things that go with the peacemaking that we enter in. We do that out of courtesy or respect and we do it to formally communicate to others that we indeed intend to keep our covenant.

It was also traditional for parties to name the place where a covenant was sealed. As you would think, two parties that had come to a major agreement could, if they were really of one mind, agree on a single name for the location. That was the case for Laban and Jacob. They both decided to call the site the ‘witness heap’ -- Laban using the Aramaic word ‘Jegar-sahadutha’ and Jacob the Hebrew word ‘Galeed’. Truly there were many witnesses around to testify to their pact, including the pile of stones themselves. Some of us have gone through similar experiences in life. Perhaps it would have been appropriate for us to have our own ‘witness pile’. As I reflect on this, I think of the host of witnesses that observe the coming together of two people in holy matrimony. They are supposed to, and in fact, often promise to, help keep the two newlyweds together. But alas, too many become distant and uninvolved, often contributing with their apathy, to a broken home. Both making a covenant and being a witness to one is an awesome responsibility.

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Laban’s Compromising Response -- Genesis 31:36-43-44

Then Laban replied to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me."

How embarrassing all this must have been for Laban in front of all his kinsmen? It is possible that many may not have been aware of the ‘whole’ story as Jacob told it. I could see them all now turning to Laban with a look that basically said, “and what do you say to that, Laban?” Well, we have Laban’s response, but the meaning behind what he said is not totally clear.

He starts off by saying “the daughters you refer to are indeed my daughters”. Laban wants it to be clearly understood by Jacob and everyone present that he has a right to his daughters. He does the same with respect to the children claiming they are his inasmuch as they are his grandchildren. Then he throws in his flocks and everything else that is around – according to him, everything that Jacob possesses is his. A person’s self-worth in those days, perhaps not unlike today, was measured in terms of property owned and their ability to boast about it. One supposes today somebody in the crowd would say about Laban, “the man just doesn’t get it, does he?” In fact, everything was indeed all Jacob’s, because God Himself had seen to it that it become rightfully his.

Either under this grand illusion or outright ownership or as the master compromiser that he is, Laban indicates that he cannot do anything that would hurt or upset his daughters and their children. He has nothing else to say to Jacob. He cannot condemn Jacob. He cannot deny what Jacob has said. He cannot justify himself. Some believe he was convicted by his own conscience for what he had done. I’m not so sure. All indications are that he realized the public predicament he was in and wanted to prevent Jacob from saying anything else. He admits no fault and does not ask for any forgiveness from Jacob or his daughters.

Instead, Laban wants to look like the magnanimous grantor of good things once again so he offers this great gesture of kindness in that he “won’t take any more action against Jacob”. In fact, he wants to go one step further as evidence of his newly expressed ‘kindness’. He invites Jacob to make a covenant with him as a witness between their agreement to be at peace. Have you ever experienced anyone with that kind of gull? Someone who has hurt you deeply and almost ruined you and then when finally exposed, wants to make peace with you and appear as the righteous one? I have and it is very difficult to contend with. You have all these witnesses just waiting for you to agree to the offer. Yet, deep down you know there’s more to look out for.

In Jacob’s case, Laban wants an agreement or covenant between them. In the verses that follow, we find out more about this and Jacob’s reaction.

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Angry, Jacob Seeks Closure -- Genesis 31:36-42

Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, "What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night."

Now you would think that after Laban could not find the idols he was looking for, he would be the angry one. But instead, we read that it is Jacob that becomes angry and starts to ‘contend’, that is, argue, debate or dispute the issue with Laban. To get things rolling he asks Laban to tell him exactly what crime he is being accused of or what law, command, or moral code he may have violated that gave Laban cause to pursue him in such an intense and committed way. With reference once again to the so-called stolen idols, he tells Laban that he had searched and found nothing of his that Jacob’s household had taken.

Jacob wants to have the matter settled once and for all right there and then. He asks Laban to state his case before his own kinsmen and those of Jacob so that they could decide who is in the right. Jacob had faith in the approach. He believed that the kinsmen would indeed side with what is honorable and true. This is a far cry from the partisan politics that are exhibited these days when two sides are in dispute and often a third party that has no personal interest or stake in one side or the other is required to resolve an issue. It is important for us, whenever we are given the opportunity, to side in favor of what is right and honorable, even if it means that we might be going against the wishes of those that mean a lot to us. I find that often many would rather shirk their responsibility to do so by either not getting involved or going against their better judgment.

Now both sides of the family were all gathered around and Jacob just commences to relate his side of the story. He tells how he had been with Laban for twenty years. Unfortunately at this point we have no way to connect this date precisely in our chronological chart.

Jacob is aware that Laban has nothing on him. After all, Laban came after his ‘idols’ not his flocks. He knew better. He knew that Jacob would have taken only those animals and herds that were rightfully his when he left. In fact, Jacob shares how Laban’s sheep and goats have not miscarried during his tenure as head-shepherd and how certainly none of Jacob’s family ever took any of Laban’s animals to slaughter for their own food. “In fact”, Jacob says, “I even had to make up for any of your animals that were destroyed by wild beasts and I did that from my own herd. I had to repay you for anything that was stolen by others during my watch.”

We learn from these verses that Laban was not as gentle a master as we may have believed him to be from earlier chapters. Jacob continues, “I had to work for you in the heat during the day and sleep in the cold outside at night to take care of your flocks. In fact, with all the perils of the outdoors endangering your flocks, I could hardly sleep at all.”

All in all Jacob had been in Laban’s house for twenty years. He was now at least sixty years of age and likely more. All we know is that it had been at least twenty years since Esau had married Judith and Basemath (Genesis 26:34). Assuming for now, only twenty years between then and now, we can now present the following chronological chart:

• 3371 Esau at age 40 marries Judith and Basemath (Genesis 26:34)
• circa 3391 Jacob and his family leave Laban’s home (Genesis 31:41)
• 3394 The death of Ishmael (based on his birth in 3257 and Genesis 25:17)

Not only did Jacob work for Laban for twenty years, but he reminds him and everyone listening that he was a part of Laban’s house for those twenty years. He served him fourteen years in exchange for Laban giving him his two daughters to marry. Yet Laban still made him work another six years for his share of the flock. And during that time as he became either jealous or suspicious of Jacob’s success with his flourishing flock, he changed Jacob’s wages ten times – either by reducing them or by making him do more for what he got paid. The harshness of Laban as a master continued to be exposed by Jacob.

Things were so bad Jacob said, that if it weren’t for the fact that Laban realized that the God of Isaac and Abraham was with Jacob, and if it weren’t for Laban’s fear of Isaac, Laban would have sent him away with nothing, perhaps even taking what was now Jacob’s back. But instead, God saw the misfortune that had fallen on Jacob and the hardship he had to endure, and allowed him to escape with his family. God is always aware of what we are going through. At some point, when He deems it appropriate, when we have been molded to His will and experienced and become what He has planned for us, then He comes to our rescue and renders judgment on our oppressors. We cannot forget that as we live our lives in these difficult times. The story of Jacob’s family leaving his twenty-year bondage is an excellent reminder.

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Laban Searches For His Idols -- Genesis 31:33-35

So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. She said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me." So he searched but did not find the household idols.

Having been given permission by Jacob to try and find his idols among Jacob’s caravan, Laban begins to search starting with Jacob’s personal tent, then Leah’s, and then the tent of the two maids belonging to Leah and Rachel. As was to be expected he found nothing.

What is not known is why he left Rachel’s tent last. It could have been coincidence. It could have been location. Nevertheless, that is what he did. What is not clear from the text, however, is the order in which he checked the first three tents. While the order given first is that of Laban checking Jacob, Leah, and the maids’ tent, the passage goes on to say he went into Rachel’s tent right after leaving Leah’s tent. One possible explanation is that he had gone back Leah’s tent for something before going on to Rachel’s tent.

Having had sufficient time to figure out what to do with the stolen idols, Rachel put them in her camel’s saddle and sat on them in her tent. Laban enters her tent and goes searching through it. I wonder if he and Rachel exchanged any greetings or other words. What an experience that must have been to have one’s father come into your room after you’ve left his household without saying goodbye, to look for something you may have stolen? It was bad that you had left unannounced. It was worse that you possibly may have been the one that had stolen his idols. To that, add the fact that he cannot find anything in your room, and you have one very angry father.

Rachel tries to ease the tension by speaking first. She asks Laban not to be angry that she does not stand up to greet him as would have been expected of daughters when their father enters their presence or when a visitor visits them in their home. But her excuse was possibly another lie, namely, that she was in the midst of her menstrual period. Respecting that, Laban continued his search speechless and found nothing of what he was looking for. Once again, God protects His own for His plans regardless of their short-comings.

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The Cost of Honesty/Dishonesty -- Genesis 31:31-32

Then Jacob replied to Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Jacob begins to answer Laban’s question but first addresses why he left like a thief in the night rather than why someone may have stolen Laban’s idols. In his answer, Jacob admits fear and that if he had tried to leave openly, Leah and Rachel would not have been allowed to go with him. Sometimes we do things out of our fear. We’re afraid that if we do things the way we want to do them, we’d lose out on something or someone that we value greatly. As we study Jacob we need to remember that he, as with Abraham and Isaac before him, was not perfect by any means. God did work with and use them all in spite of their own stubbornness and often their fear which caused them to take matters into their hands. Sometimes by lying as to ‘who their wife really was’ and sometimes by ‘fleeing in the night’ as in Jacob’s case. This does not change the fact that the preferred way to live is to do the right thing in our fear, trusting God to get us through any situation. I understand this is often easier said than done. I believe much of it has to do with how far we have moved in our journey from being in the wilderness as a saved but carnal Christian to being in the land of milk and honey across the river Jordan as a spiritual man or woman of God, where He alone rules in our lives.

The next thing we notice is that Jacob was not aware of the fact that Rachel had stolen her father’s idols when she fled with Jacob. In fact, he was not even aware that the idols had been stolen at all. We note two things: As much as Rachel may have loved Jacob and vice-versa, they certainly were not totally open and honest with each other when it came to their actions. Rachel had kept the theft from her husband. This past week, my adult family and I watched a movie on television entitled Duplicity with Julia Roberts – some of you may have seen. It was an excellent depiction of just that – the fact of being deceptive, dishonest, or misleading. The pursuit of duplicity was being carried out between corporations, individuals, and even those who were supposed to be in love with each other. In the end, the key characters were left with nothing.

Secondly, I wonder whether Jacob would have been as readily agreeable to have the individual with whom the idols would be found be put to death had he known they were indeed stolen by a member of his own household. Would Jacob have indeed allowed Laban’s relatives to search his caravan? Perhaps he believed Laban was just bluffing. No matter what his reason was, with this offer, the plot certainly thickens.

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Laban Demands Answers -- Genesis 31:25-30

Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with timbrel and with lyre; and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.' Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house; but why did you steal my gods?”

Can you imagine all the things running through old Laban’s mind as he and his relatives pursued Jacob? What were his original plans of action? What did his relatives expect? What, given God’s warning, will he do now? What would he say to Jacob and to his daughters? What feelings would he have towards his grandchildren? This reminds me a little of the times I’ve been very angry with someone and I was on my way to deal with the matter. I rehearsed in my mind exactly what I would say or do. I could never get it just right. And when I finally would get to where I really had to take action, my so-called plan had to contend with the other person’s words or actions as well. If only somehow we can discern what God would have us do in each case, how much easier that would be.

In this passage, Laban catches up with Jacob’s caravan. They had pitched their tents in the hill country and Laban does likewise close by. Then he goes to Jacob.

It should be easy for us to understand Laban’s approach. He can’t be hard on Jacob, but he can ask “why?” and he did. “Why have you deceived me by stealing away my daughters? Why did you go secretly without giving me a chance to send you off with a feast? Why wasn’t I allowed to kiss my grandchildren? Jacob, you acted very foolishly.”

There are two interesting points of view brought out here. First, when we do what God tells us to do and it affects others, we can expect to be asked ‘why?’. Parents or relatives, or employers, may even have a natural right to ask that question. Certainly, if our actions have impacted them in what they consider to be a hurtful or negative manner, they have that right. And we need to be ready to respond.

Secondly, we need to be prepared for the eventuality that, in their estimation, what we are doing is deemed foolish. After all, as Christians we are acting from and on a totally foreign worldview from their own. Our value systems are non-comprehensible to them. Finally, we’re acting out of obedience to God and motivated by our desire to please Him. They’re expecting us to act out of self-gain motivation and a desire to take the kind of steps that they would. There is no doubt they will have difficulty understanding.

Not only does Laban ask why, and tells Jacob he was foolish, but he goes on to make sure that Jacob knows what Laban could have done to him. He could have done him harm (which was likely his original intention). Men who use other men for their own purposes and even trick them into marital relationships with their own daughters will not stop at harming them if that would get them what they want. Unless of course, God stops them as He did in Laban’s case. And Laban accepts that. He even offers a plausible excuse as to why Jacob did leave, saying it was because he “longed greatly” for the house of his father. That may have been true, but it is not why Jacob fled. Sometimes people cannot accept our reasons for taking certain actions. Then they provide their own rationale just so they can accept what has taken place. Laban was doing just that. But there are things he still does not understand. One of those was why someone (he thought Jacob) stole his gods.

Before we move to the next section to get an answer from Jacob, we must point out that while we surmised what role these statues played in Laban’s house when we addressed Rachel’s taking them, we now have the additional information that to Laban, they were indeed perceived as being his ‘gods’. This further clarifies our thinking with respect to the whole situation between Jacob and Laban. It is important for us to know at all times where people stand before God before we consider what may and may not be right in any given action we could take in such a situation. We would do best to consider this before we even try to determine why they themselves acted or did not act in a given way.

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Laban Pursues and Catches Up to Jacob -- Genesis 31:22-24

When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days' journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, "Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad."

The first thing we notice in this passage is that Laban did not hear Jacob was gone for three days. That timeframe causes us to wonder about several things: how far away did they live from each other? how soon did anyone notice Jacob’s entire family was gone? if they did notice early on, why did it take them so long to tell Laban? and finally, if Laban’s idols stolen by Rachel when she fled were used in Laban’s worship, how often did he consider them as he had not missed them for three days? Interesting questions left for us to ponder on our own.

What we do know is that as soon as Laban found out Jacob and his family had fled, he gathered a number of his relatives to join him and they took off in pursuit of Jacob. In fact, the text indicates they chased him a distance of “seven days’ journey”. By my calculation, that means Laban used four days to travel the distance Jacob did in seven. Of course, that’s doable considering there were no women and children in Laban’s group to slow him down and he was a man on a mission.

This episode reminds me of Abimelech and his officers pursuing Isaac as recorded in Genesis 26 because he wanted peace with Isaac. Abimelech had seen that God was with Isaac and feared that he could overpower Abimelech if he chose to. Now Jacob is being pursued but for a slightly different reason.

The scripture says “God came to Laban…in a dream of the night….” Clearly, even Laban’s group had to rest for a while each night as they pursued Jacob’s caravan.

There are at least two things to notice and learn from this event. First, God does not only speak to His followers but he communicates also with those who yet do not know Him personally. Recently we were driving in South Carolina and listening to the radio. Someone who gave no evidence or credit to God in his account of his experience, was saying he had a dream about a murder that had indeed occurred two days later. I turned the radio off and asked my wife this question: “Suppose one does not believe in God at all, where would such premonitions, dreams, feelings, come from?” I continued, “If they stopped to think long enough, they would realize that there’s a God who actually does this.” She wisely responded, “They would tell you it is ESP, energy forces in the mind, the body, etc. But I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, there has to be a Supreme Being behind all of that – connecting it and making it happen.” Yes, that’s exactly it. Both believers and unbelievers can have a spiritual communication with God, but the latter just do not realize who is on the other end of line.

Secondly, God can give direction to both believers and unbelievers. In this case He warns Laban not to say anything good or bad to Jacob. It is possible that Laban had different plans as suggested by the fact that he took a posse with him and pursued Jacob at great speed. Perhaps he wanted to take back everything by force. But God instructs him otherwise. He was not even to say anything negative or positive to Jacob, let alone do anything. I believe that God protects His own by directly communicating to our enemies. His awesome power works wonders on changing their plans.

The likelihood of Laban having intented to harm Jacob physically is very small. You will remember that Laban had clearly admitted earlier that he knew it was because of Jacob that God had blessed Laban. So that would still be in his mind and he would be careful not to anger God by acting violently towards Jacob. Nevertheless, it is safe to assume he intended some very strong words. Except now, God says “Be careful not to....”

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Jacob Leaves Laban -- Genesis 31:17-21

Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's. And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

With the full support of both of his wives, Jacob packs up the family on camels, takes all his livestock and other possessions he had acquired while working for Laban in preparation for the trip to the land of Canaan from whence he had come many years ago.

To a certain extent this was reminiscent of the trip that Abraham his grandfather (called Abram at the time) took as recorded in Genesis 12. It too was at God’s command. He took his family and all his possessions. But Abram also took Lot, his nephew, along although God had specifically told him to go alone with only his own family. Still God blessed him.

In one verse we have Rachel telling Jacob that he needs to obey God and in the next, she steals the household idols (or teraphim) that were her father’s. The Bible does not tell us why she does that. Many have offered different reasons including: the possibility that she worshipped them herself; she wanted to prevent her father Laban from using them to divine where Jacob had taken the family and come after them (you will remember there is reference to divination in Genesis 30:27); because such items were used as deeds to property and somehow Rachel wanted to cause difficulty in this regard later on; or simply because she wanted to get back at her father for the way he treated his daughters and son-in-law all these years.

It’s interesting to note that as small statutes, some think they were representations of ancestors of the family whom Rachel was very fond of and she simply wanted something of her history with her. Recently, I remember helping my son-in-law and eldest daughter place an old travel trunk on a huge front hall shelf in their home. It was one my father built in 1950 to store his carpentry tools as he crossed the Atlantic by boat the next year to start a new life in North America. Besides being a fan of antiques, my daughter wanted to keep a bit of her history close by.

Finally, others think that by taking the ‘gods’ she could convince her father that worshipping idols that cannot protect themselves was indeed folly. Jewish tradition supports this option, indicating Rachel wanted to keep her father from idolatry. Given her response to Jacob when he told his wives about his plans, I doubt this to be a plausible conclusion. Simply put, we can only assume, but not know, why Rachel took the seraphim.

Meanwhile Jacob, like his grandfather and father before him, now employs his own version of deception. He flees from his employer without any notice when Laban is absent shearing his flock.

Here is Jacob, his two wives Rachel and Leah, their children, servants, livestock, and earthly possessions fleeing from the only home they knew together, across the Euphrates River and on towards the hills of Gilead, heading for the home of Jacob’s people where he left his father, mother, and brother’s family many years previously. He does not leave well, but perhaps he had no choice. One of his wives, the chosen one, Rachel, has also stolen from her father as they fled. Certainly, there would not be much chance of a family reconciliation in the future under these conditions. Yet, Jacob himself must have been very excited about the prospect of seeing his mother and father again.

This is also the first mention of “Gilead” in the text. The area is a rocky, mountainous region bounded on the west by the Jordan river, on the north by Bashan, on the east by the Arabian plateau, and on the south by Moab and Ammon. We will be reading more of Gilead as a place or people later as it is used 132 times in the NASB version of scripture.

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Laban’s Daughters Respond -- Genesis 31:14-16

Rachel and Leah said to him, "Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house? Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you."

You have just poured your feelings out to your wives about their father and told them that you want to take the families away and back to the land of your parents. Now you wait for their response. Just how will Rachel and Leah react? What’s the best you could hope for? What’s the worse? What’s the godly response?

As I read this short passage, I noticed a number of interesting things. Note that except for the first phrase, the rest of the words in these three verses are all in quotations. But notice the first phrase before the initial quotation mark. As you do that, you may be challenged about your beliefs regarding how Scripture is to be interpreted at times. Take a closer look. The Bible says, both Rachel and Leah said to him. And then my New American Standard Bible at least proceeds to give us sixty (60) words that these two sisters reportedly uttered in unison out loud. Now, I do not know about you, but personally while I believe that God could have had them do exactly that, I believe it is unlikely that this was indeed the case. There is no real need for it to be the case. Is the Bible less true because it may not be the case? I do not think so. What I believe the author is trying to get across to us is that both Rachel and Leah expressed similar feelings and ideas and basically, each in their own way, and one after the other, responded to Jacob along the same lines. So the quotation does not need to be taken literally as spoken in unison by the two women. But we would miss out on Scripture’s intent if we failed to agree that both women were of one mind as to their response to their husband. The reality is that this example of Scripture text is one of many where we need to take a similar approach.

And what exactly was the reaction of the sisters? Furthermore, was it a surprise to Jacob? It certainly was a surprise to me. Maybe I have been tainted by the awareness of so many women who today would not yield agreeably to those types of wishes from their husbands. But Rachel and Leah did so for their own reasons. This text gives us some insight to the questions we asked earlier in our study when we wondered how Rachel felt being passed over by her father Laban in order for him to marry off Leah first. Or, how Leah may have felt to be part of a marriage of trickery knowing that her husband Jacob was getting her instead of Rachel, the woman he expected and loved. Perhaps they responded the way they did because they too had realized, before Jacob told them, how their father had cheated him time and time again. So they respond the way they did.

The first concern that was verbally identified was whether or not either of them had any inheritance coming to them from their father. What exactly did that mean? The way the question is asked and especially when considered with the next question “are we not considered as foreigners to him?” clearly implies that Rachel and Leah have not been happy campers as Laban’s daughters. When a child considers him/herself a “foreigner” to his/her father, the implication is that the father has stopped being a true father. He stops showing any fatherly affection towards his child. A modern day example comes to mind and it is that of Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s father in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and later a play/movie entitled My Fair Lady. Clearly, Alfred P. wanted to be known as Eliza’s father only when she had came across some considerable means of financial support.

As far as Laban was concerned, his daughters no longer considered him the father he should have been. Although they were not looking for any financial gain from him, it ws clear he had nothing more to offer them emotionally or socially. In fact, they felt used by him, considering themselves as having been sold in a marriage for his own welfare. Rachel and Leah feel that way since Laban had been handsomely rewarded for them over and over again through Jacob’s labors.

Jacob’s wives believed the wealth they now had that originally may have stemmed from their father, was indeed theirs, and his losses were indeed warranted. They believed this was God’s doing. They saw His hand in all this and they now count their blessings, not the least of which was their households and children. Because of this, both Rachel and Leah give their whole-hearted consent to Jacob following the voice of God.

Here in these verses, we see a family that has strived for many years (from Jacob’s striving with his brother Esau and then with his uncle Laban and his cousins to Rachel and Leah striving and competing for Jacob’s affection and for children) becoming a family that is finally united in God’s purpose. Together they agree to move back to the land of Jacob’s family. What a goal for all of us with our own families. But it takes for each of us to see in fact the blessings that God has given us and what He has brought us through and protected us from before this can happen where it currently does not exist.

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Jacob Tells His Wives What God Told Him -- Genesis 31:4-13

So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,
and said to them, "I see your father's attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength. Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me. If he spoke thus, 'The speckled shall be your wages,' then all the flock brought forth speckled; and if he spoke thus, 'The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock brought forth striped. Thus God has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me. And it came about at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.' "

Jacob hears the murmuring of his cousins against him, sees the change in his uncle’s attitude towards him, hears God telling him to return to his homeland, and now he has to act. How many times have we been in that kind of situation? We know what’s happening in our own little world and it’s not good, we know what God wants us to do about it, and now what’s left is for us to act. Of course that’s not always easy. For starters there’s other members of the family to consider. What will they say? How will they feel and react? What about my work? My friends? My comfort? My routine? Can I really change my environment as much as God wants me to at my age? And so on.

Lately, many of us have started using the name ‘Christ-follower’ where we otherwise would have used ‘Christian’ in the past. Many use it interchangeably but to those who prefer the term ‘Christ-follower’ there are more and more distinctions being identified between the two nomenclatures. I believe a true mark of a Christ-follower is the desire to act, once we have clearly and unambiguously heard the direction God wants us to take, in a way that exhibits total acceptance of, and obedience to, that instruction, no matter what the cost or the inconvenience to ourselves or to those that we have accountability for.

So how does Jacob act? He calls (likely through others) Rachel and Leah to come and join him in the fields. That makes sense as they are sisters and this is very much about their father and brothers. And besides why have to go through the whole story twice. The fields are a good place to meet since we have no idea when the two sisters likely last saw each other. The most likely alternative location would have been either Rachel’s or Leah’s house; probably not a good move as the two sisters have really been competitors for Jacob’s love and attention for years.

And Jacob begins to tell his story to his wives. He relates not only how he perceives Laban’s attitude is no longer friendly towards him, but also that God, who has kept His own eye on the situation, is with him. That’s the privilege of a Christian – to know that no matter how we see and feel about what is happening to us, we realize that God is aware and is with us, we need not fear life, or death.

Jacob tells Leah and Rachel what they already likely know – that he has served their father well but that Laban has cheated him many times. These are harsh words for daughters to hear, especially when it comes from someone they love. In so doing, we learn his wages had been changed many times, not just the times we read about as recorded in the earlier text. (Recognizing this helps us understand how Scripture’s truth and verification is sometimes explained or proven by what is missing in the manuscript or story, rather than always looking for what is included only. What is included is something we know with one hundred per cent certainty. What sometimes seems to be missing in order to make an account believable to many may in fact have occurred and we need to allow for that possibility. Perhaps another way of getting this across is that in either case, the Bible’s authenticity may not always be proven to man’s satisfaction, but it can never be disproved. The person of faith then can and does accept it as God wrote it.)

Jacob also sees that God did not allow Laban to hurt him in any way, either physically or economically, as ultimately Jacob became very successful while working for Laban. God also worked around whatever decisions Laban made to assist Jacob. In fact, God used Laban’s trickery against him and arranged it so that Laban’s livestock were taken from him and given to Jacob. And then Jacob tells his wives, Rachel and Leah, about the dream that he had.

God spoke to him in that dream and called him by his name, “Jacob”. And Jacob answered God saying, “Here I am.” Then God told Jacob that He was fully aware of what was going on, how Laban had treated him all this while, and his current attitude towards Jacob. Then God says, “Listen to Who I am Jacob. I’m the same God that you met at Bethel where you anointed a pillar before you made a promise to Me.” You will remember in Genesis 28:18 we read how Jacob had slept under the stars with a stone as his pillow and the next morning he poured oil over that stone, named the place Bethel, and gave thanks to God. Now God reminds him again of that experience, telling him that He is indeed the same God.

Sometimes God has to remind us of experiences in our past when we knew or felt beyond any doubt not only God’s existence, but also His presence with us. It is as if He is saying, “If I was real then and I was with you, and you believed in me then, you can trust me now and do whatever I tell you to do.” And Jacob did trust God now.

Jacob tells his wives he has no choice but to get up, leave this land (of their father’s), and return to the land of his birth. Now, imagine for a moment how these two daughters felt when they heard that.

How would you react? Had the man already made up his mind? Was he asking for their input or concurrence? There’s no evidence in support of either. What if you didn’t want to leave you father’s land? The fact of the matter was that in those days a woman had very little choice but to do what her husband wanted to do.

Today in the twenty-first century, Christians still hold on to New Testament teaching that says “Wives, obey your husbands.” But neither the New Testament nor full followers of Jesus Christ stop there. The passage they refer to goes on to say, “Husbands, love your wives” or as some translations have it, “Husbands, consider your wives.” Husbands can have the final say in a decision, but not until after they have considered the impact of the decision on their wives. They do this by evaluating the various options available against the welfare of their wives. And each husband knows what his wife wants by asking for her input, listening to what she has to say, and then exercising his love towards her in all that he decides.

Recently, I had the sad experience, as President of a Mission, to hear that one of our missionary couples had separated. While no such circumstance is ever simple to explain, nor can we assign blame to one party over the other, there was something in that situation that is relevant to our discussion here. In my talking with both of the individuals involved, it came to light that one of the main reasons for the wife leaving the husband was that he made all the decisions in their almost three decades of married life. He saw a problem, or an opportunity, and he simply announced to the family what they were going to do about it starting immediately. No discussion, no input, no consideration. The wife could no longer live like that. The husband admits to this and wishes he had acted otherwise, but unfortunately it seems to be too late.

Wives do indeed obey your husbands. But husbands give full consideration to your wife and children as you make decisions. This is how your love for them will show.

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Jacob Learns of His Cousin’s Complaints -- Genesis 31:1-3

Now Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that was our father's, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth." Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly. Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

Jacob heard about what was going on behind his back. We all hear sooner or later. Those of us who have an ear for this kind of thing, who stop long enough to think about situations, and have a knack for putting two and two together or finding ways to join separate clues into a bigger picture, sooner or later find out what is going on.

It’s one thing to get a wind of what’s going on behind one’s back, but it’s another to actually correctly assess the right cause. Experience has taught me that many times, it is either conscious or unconscious jealousy. That was certainly the cause behind what Laban’s sons were saying. For starters, they accuse him of “taking away all that was (their) fathers”. The real jealousy comes in when they detest the fact that Jacob’s wealth was built on what originally was their father’s. They completely leave out the reality that what Jacob got was indeed part and parcel of a fair trade and an arrangement with Laban.

As I spend some portion of my time each day communicating what I am passionate about on various social media networks, I realize how easy it is for people, myself included, to have incomplete and sometimes erroneous perspectives on things. Sometimes these are unavoidable. What is crucial for success, however, is that once these are identified, we are willing to take the different or additional perspective into consideration and not only revise our thinking accordingly, but also our actions. Not doing so, not only limits our ability to see the external world correctly, but also impacts our relationships and influence on others in the future.

In the case of Laban’s sons, we note that greed is one of the key driving forces behind the faulty or incomplete perception. Were they really worried about the fact that Jacob may have taken their father’s herds for their father’s sake, or was it for the sake of their inheritance?

Interestingly enough, most children are impacted by the attitudes of their parents. Girls in particular are impacted by what they see their mother say, do, and feel. Boys likewise often end up mimicking their fathers in taking on certain attitudes. But here in Genesis we see that the father Laban was indeed impacted by what his boys were saying and feeling. As a result his attitude changed towards Jacob. He became unfriendly and Jacob was fully aware of it. Another reason why perception must be as close to reality as it possibly can is that it impacts relationships. One or both of the parties involved have stopped many a great friendship in its tracks because of blurring perceptions. This often happens in marriage as well if we do not take the time to bring the perceptions into a clear and common focus to the extent possible.

I once shared on one of the social media the following, crediting Bill Hybels with the idea: “Are people of your past still living in you, rent free? Kick them out. Do ‘forgiveness business’ with God today and be set free. I dare you to forgive those people.” One reader replied, “Once we’ve forgiven are we prepared to invite them to dinner?” It was a very good point, but the answer I would provide may not have been what you would expect. I wrote, “I believe there are times when that is most necessary and there are times, when it is best not to. Remember, it's just you that has forgiven them. So, if it's family, you take the risk and have them for dinner. If it's some other scenario, and having them for dinner will only hurt them and you more, just forgive them.” Another reader said it much better, “Sometimes you just have to forgive and move on - it is not acceptance. You do not have to spend time together but you can choose not to hate, and dwell in the hurt.” I think she was right. There are times like that. And I believe our passage supports it for look what happens next.

Just when Jacob was feeling down in the dumpster given the change of attitude that his uncle and cousins had, God speaks to him and gives him divine direction. God says, “Jacob get home where you belong and I am going to be with you.” That is all the instruction that anyone can ever need. The source is God; the directive is clear; and the promise is God will go with him so we know he’ll make it there.

Have you ever felt so low in life that you wish you had a message like that? I have and I am sure if you were honest, you would say you have as well. Well, the good news is that you and I have a message just like that. Yes, from God. The entire Bible is God’s rescue message as well as His love letter for us. All we ever have to do is “return home” where we belong. He created us and He wants us to be in close relationship with Him. We need to leave “where we’re at” in trying to run our own life and “go home”. And here’s the greatest part of this direction – we get to “go home with Him”.

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