Genesis 31--Jacob Flees From Laban

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Jacob Flees from Laban​

31 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's he has gained all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 5 and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. 10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’” 14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. 16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

17 So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. 19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. 20 And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. 21 He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? 28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. 29 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 say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house, but why did you steal my gods?” 31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. 34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.

36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For 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. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 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 have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? 44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight. 50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53 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, 54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.

55  Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.

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Things have reached their breaking point between Jacob and the servants of Laban.  This story should sound familiar as we've seen it a few times before with the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, the Isaac and the Philistines, and now Jacob and the servants of Laban.  Each time, God has used these disputes to separate his people from those who would corrupt them and and to push His people back towards depending on Him and remembering the covenant that He was responsible to provide and supply, and part of that covenant here is getting Jacob back to the Promised Land.

In a vision God reminds Jacob of the place where Jacob had seen the staircase to heaven--at Bethel.  God called Himself the God of Bethel and charges Jacob to remember the promise that he made to God there.  Do you remember it?  In case you don't, let's go back and review.

Genesis 28:10-22
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

God is not just trying to remind Jacob of the promise Jacob made to God, but the covenant and promises that God made to Jacob.  Recall that this happened when he was in the process of running for his life from his brother Esau and God promised that He would not let anything happen to Jacob and would bless him and the land, and descendants, and blessings that were promised to Abraham and Isaac were now promised to Jacob.  Since they were not there to see and hear this, it was important for Jacob to share this with Leah and Rachel before they left their father's house and headed back to the Promised Land--the same God that had provided for him at Laban's house was the God that promised to provide and take care of him wherever he went, but that he needed to return to the land of the His fathers, the land of Canaan.

We see that Jacob had intended to leave without saying goodbye to Laban, but the idolatry of Rachel (remember how I hinted she would get Jacob into trouble?  This is one of the times I was referring to) would send Laban after him because Rachel stole Laban's household gods believing that she needed them to provide her with safety, security and protection.  Even after everything that Jacob had conveyed to her, she still clung to her old beliefs and was, at least for a long time, not what I would call a "true believer" of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  We've already seen her turn to fertility rituals that were associated with the fertility gods and goddesses.

Laban pursues Jacob, but God intervenes and tells Laban to take his original position that we saw so many years ago when Eleazar had come to the house of his father to ask for Rebekah to marry Isaac and Laban said, "I can say nothing good or bad" because it was clearly the will of the Lord.  God tells him to say nothing--good or bad--to Jacob, hinting that Laban doesn't have a clue what's really going on here and that God is at work in this situation.

Laban doesn't heed God's advice though, and when he finds Jacob he accuses him of essentially kidnapping his daughters (which were no longer his because he had given them away in marriage to Jacob, so we see the heart of Laban here that while he gave away financial responsibility, he never meant to give away control or access to his daughters), He pretends that he would have thrown a big going away part for Jacob if Jacob had only told him what was going on, but we know from history that he would have simply tried to take that which had belonged to Jacob and hidden it from him, and Laban tries to say that he didn't even get to kiss his grandchildren goodbye--while this may seriously have been something he wanted to do, I again seriously doubt this was the first thing on his mind.

Then we get to the crux of the matter.  Laban repeats to Jacob the words God had spoken and said that he understands that Jacob had left to return back to the land of his fathers because Laban imagines that he is homesick (probably partially true, but Laban can't really understand the importance of returning home for Jacob), but is confused as to why Jacob would take his household gods and what interest he would have in them.  Jacob thinks this is simply another trick of Laban to try to get him to come back, so he declares his innocence and gives permission for everything and everyone to be searched--assuming Laban would find nothing.  Jacob makes uses his words carelessly here though and says that anyone that is caught with Laban's gods would be treated as a thief and would be put to death.  This may seem harsh to us, but it was a just punishment at that time.  It was said in the hearing of all, and the guilty party had a chance to come forward, but instead, Rachel tried to hide the thing she had done by putting the idols in a saddlebag for the camels and sitting on it and pretending that she could not get up because she was having her period.

Jacob is angry at Laban and imagines this was all a ploy or ruse of some kind--remember that Laban and Jacob are both deceptive in nature and Jacob thinks this is yet another plan to take advantage of him, his wives and his children.  Jacob reminds Laban that he has been faithful and good to Laban for 20 years, even when it meant taking a loss himself to replace sheep or goats that did not belong to him but were attacked by predators when the flocks and herds of Laban were under his care.  Jacob would replace the sheep and goats that had been attacked or killed with sheep and goats from his own flocks and herds so that Laban would incur no losses.  He argues that he isn't the type of man (or maybe is better to say that he is no longer the type of man) to steal something.  Seven years he served for Rachel but got Leah, then another seven years he served for Rachel to finally get her, then another six years he served to receive nothing but the sheep and goats that he had left with, but Laban changes his wages 10 times during these 20 years, and now he comes after him accusing him of theft--a capital punishment--with what appear to be fabricated charges and zero evidence.  Then Jacob "calls a spade a spade" and said that if it wasn't for Lord whom he calls the Fear of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, that Laban would have sent Jacob back exactly the way he came--empty-handed.  There was no intention of a feast or any goodbyes on Laban's part, and Laban had already shown his true colors multiple times.  While Laban may have gotten offended by this, the evidence was there to support these accusations, but Jacob did not know that the theft that Laban was speaking of was real and that the one that he had worked 14 years for was to blame.  Again, it's interesting to imagine how things might have been different if Jacob had never gotten involved in a multiple marriage situation and had simply take the wife he had in Leah.  Things would certainly have been different.

Jacob takes the attention off of himself though and points Laban back tot he fact that he has sinned against God.  God is the one who had seen Jacob's mistreatment and God is the one who spoke to Laban to warn him not to open his big mouth, and Laban came fuming and spouting accusations anyways.  Jacob essentially points out that Laban had no respect for him because he had no respect for God and God's people.  But Laban still doesn't get it and in his own selfish way tries to profess his love for his daughters and grandchildren whom he claims he has loved as if they were his own children.  

They are going to make a different kind of treaty with a different kind of pillar/altar.  Instead of a treaty of peace that would allow them to live together, they will make a physical boundary and set a marker that neither one of them should ever cross.  Maybe you recall that God had originally promised the land all the way to the Euphrates river to Abraham and his people.  Notice that is is exactly where the boundary marker is laid.  The people of Padan-Aram, the ancient land of Abraham, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel, are to never again cross that boundary, and the people of Jacob are to never again cross that boundary--they will only do so later when being taken as slaves by the Babylonians.  The only way that these two people see to make peace with each other is to never see each other again.  What a dysfunctional family that this is the way that things had to be left!

Laban makes Jacob swear that he will take no other wives from among the Canaanite peoples and will not mistreat his daughters, and that he will answer to God if he does.  Again, I'm not sure that Laban even truly fears the Lord, but he knows that Jacob does.  They say that the pillar is there as a reminder to not go to war against one another, but like I said before, it will be a boundary that will completely separate their peoples as God is going to tell Jacob not to go back.  We see that Laban is a little messed up in the identity of who he thinks God is. He understands that Jehovah is the God of Abraham, but he imagines that this is the same pagan god worshiped by Abraham's ancestors.  While it is true that God spoke to them despite their paganism, it seems that the ancestors of Abraham did not know God and did not fear him, at least not in the same way that Abraham did.  Abraham knew God and had a relationship with Him and was called The Friend of God.  We see that Laban imagines that he worships the same God and that he was born into a family of people that have always worshiped the right God and that God would judge between Laban and Jacob, but God already had.  God's covenant, the birthright, and the blessing had all been given to Jacob.  Laban would only get the crumbs that feel off the table like a dog that hangs around waiting for something to get dropped.  His blessing came by staying close to Jacob and that opportunity was gone now.  Remember the covenant with Abraham?  "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you."?  The time of Laban's blessing is over because he has ceased to continue to bless Jacob and because he has cured Jacob, Laban and his household will no longer receive the blessing of the Lord.

But what about the fact that Laban was right about the theft of his family gods?  We won't read about that now, but that will be part of the next chapter in the story as Jacob is going to discover that Rachel had stolen these gods   his reaction is telling to me, but we'll get there next time.  For now we see a broken dysfunctional family saying goodbye to each other, probably for the past time and setting up walls and boundaries between them and being okay with never seeing or talking to each other again, because this is the only way they know to keep the peace.  Does this sound like anyone's family that's reading this?  Is it possible that maybe God keeping you away from each other is actually part of his plan?  Is it possible that He has even better things for you in store in the place that He has commanded you to go and be faithful to?  Remember though not to bring things from your past (like the idols) along with you on the journey.  God wants to work in and through you in a new way, and you must be completely surrendered to him, even if it means leaving behind everything that is familiar to you--family, friends, and your old religion.

Yes, God is a God of peace, but this peace comes at a price of being submissive to Him and His will.  Those that live in rebellion to him do not find blessings and peace.  Those who mistreat and abuse His people will get what's coming to them, if not now, then in the coming judgement.  I may be wrong, but I don't think that we'll see Laban in heaven.  It doesn't appear that he ever turned away from his gods and feared the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and we never see the "bad blood" between these two peoples go away, but praise God that Jesus was sent to break down these barriers and to make peace with God and man so that man could be at peace with each other once again.  Through the Church, those who are descendants of Jacob and those who are descendants of Laban can once again be brothers and sisters as adopted children of God with God as our Father and Christ as our Brother.​