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Genesis 31: 43-55: Truce

^“43 Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? ⁴⁴ Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.” ⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶ He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸ Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. ⁴⁹ It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lordkeep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.” ⁵¹ Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. ⁵² This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. ⁵³ May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there. ⁵⁵ Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.” NIV

Someone pointed out that Jacob and Laban called a truce, which is better than all out war. But it is best of all when brothers ‘’dwell together in unity!’’ (Psalm 133:1). It wasn’t that these two men were now going to pursue friendly relations. They just agreed not to harm each other, and recognised that God was watching/listening to their commitment. It is a good thing to try to live consciously before God, recognising that He is the unseen observer of our thoughts, motives, actions…of everything.

‘Though these two men were far below the Christian ideal of character, it is evident that they lived in an habitual recognition of God and the eternal sanction of his presence. The Lord was to watch between them. God was to be witness and judge. They looked back on the days of Abraham with reverential awe and loyalty, and commemorated Abraham’s God.’ F.B.Meyer: ‘Devotional Commentary’, p.27.

Genesis 31:38-42: Telling it like it is.

^“38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. ³⁹ I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. ⁴⁰ This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes.⁴¹ It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. ⁴² If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”NIV

Maybe Jacob cast himself in the best light possible, but it is an insight into his suffering under the hand of Laban. He was put into a furnace, but God had a purpose for him being there. He was in a refining process and the Lord was changing him.

That didn’t justify Laban’s dodgy behaviour though, and there is a time for laying it on the line; for telling someone the unpalatable and (maybe) unwanted truth. May God give us courage for direct speech when it is necessary, and wisdom to know the right time and the correct way. Truth delivered badly may not receive the hearing we would wish.

When people treat you unfairly, remember that God knows and cares, and He is able to intervene. We have seen this before, and it’s good to be reminded afresh this day, because it’s a tough world out there.

Genesis 31:30-37: ‘Be careful little lips…’

^“30 Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?” ³¹ Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. ³² But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods. ³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing. ³⁵ Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods. ³⁶ Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? ³⁷ Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.” NIV

A children’s chorus, probably from my Sunday School days, comes back to me:

‘Be careful little eyes what you see…be careful little ears what you hear…be careful little hands what you do…be careful little feet where you go…’ Each line is repeated twice, then followed by the words: ‘There’s a Father up above who is looking down in love, so be careful little….etc.’

But there is another line which goes: ‘Be careful little lips what you say…’  Words are powerful. Once spoken they cannot be unspoken. They can bless, but they can also blow up in your face. When Jacob asserted his innocence he was of course expressing a clean conscience re the theft of the gods (By the way, who would find much security in a god that could be nicked?!!) However the extreme statement in (32a) might have come back to haunt him. But for Rachel duping her father, who knows what the outcome might have been? The story of discreditable behaviour goes on, but in it all God was working out His eternal purposes and looking after His own. It clearly was a matter of grace, because they weren’t earning his His goodness by exemplary conduct.

Thought: ‘God has given us one mouth that closes and two ears that don’t; this should tell us something!’

PRAYER: Lord, please help me to ‘’be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry’’ (James 1:19)

Genesis 31: 25-30: Divine protection.

^“25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. ²⁶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. ²⁷ Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrelsand harps? ²⁸ You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. ²⁹ I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ ³⁰ Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?” NIV

I had a conversation with a friend recently, and we were talking about how God’s protection is real, but we are only protected from death for as long as God wants us to remain in the world. In this story, Jacob experienced the very real protection of God.

Now it has to be admitted that, although Jacob suffered much at the hands of his wily old fox of an uncle, he was not entirely innocent. He himself, as we’ve seen, could be duplicitous. It seems he tried to match Laban chess move for chess move. But when he ran away, he wasn’t thinking that his uncle would send him on his way with music and the popping of champagne corks (27)! It was more that he knew that this man had ‘’the power to harm’’ him (29). He was aware of the threat.

Nevertheless, God’s hand was heavily upon Laban to hold him back, and we can take comfort from this knowledge (29b).

Genesis 31:22-24: God in control.

^“22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³ Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” NIV

We fear people partly because we do not fear God more. In the story of Jacob’s return home, we have seen, and we now see again, God’s Hand firmly on circumstances to make this possible. It was a journey the Lord wanted Jacob to make, and He ensured that the man could make it. I want to say again, God is REAL. He is there, even though we can’t see Him. Like the wind, or like electricity, He is invisible, but we can see something of what He does. He can speak to surprising people in surprising ways. He can restrain individuals if He chooses to do so. Perhaps we believe over much in bad men, and not enough in the good God.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, when you have made the path clear to me, may I not fail to take it.

Genesis 31:14-21: Mixture.

^“14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? ¹⁵ Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. ¹⁶ Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.” ¹⁷ Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels, ¹⁸ and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.¹⁹ When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. ²⁰ Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. ²¹ So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.” NIV

Jacob himself was a bit of a mixture. He heard from God and he obeyed, but he was still, to some extent, living by his wits – or trying to. It was also good that Rachel and Leah supported their husband in doing the will of God (16). But Rachel too was a bit of a mixture (19). She probably thought the idols she stole would afford them some protection on the journey. She had obviously not given up all the pagan beliefs of her family background.

Like dead lives on an autumnal tree, it may take time for some things to ‘drop off’. However, once we become aware that something is wrong, we should not compromise with it.

‘The secret departure was very undignified and unworthy of the heir of the promises. The command to return was of God, and what he commands he becomes responsible for. Besides, had not the Almighty promised to keep him in all places? See 28:15. When we are on God’s plan, we may reckon on him absolutely.’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Devotional Commentary’, p.26.

PRAYER: Lord show myself to myself, that I may turn to you from every form of idolatry.