Genesis Chapter 31

Jacob Flees Haran

31:1-2

As Jacob increased in his family size, flocks, herds and wealth, Laban’s wealth decreased. Laban’s sons, who would inherit his wealth, began to blame Jacob for ‘taking’ all their inheritance. Laban also changed his former favorable attitude toward Jacob to one of hostility because of the decrease in his wealth. Remember, Jacob had been the instrument God used to bless Laban for the past 20 years. During all this time Laban NEVER changed his attitude of greed, nor thanked God for his blessings, nor did he accept, or turn to, the Lord God. Do we thank God for all our blessings on a daily basis? Or do we take credit for our wealth ourselves. A ‘self made man’ is a delusion. There IS no such thing. It is the same as foolishly thinking WE are ever in control. Everything comes from God. Think about it: God created you, your talents and abilities, your body, EVERYTHING! So, exactly what can you take credit for? Who is always in control?

31:3-4

God clearly speaks to Jacob, telling him to return to Canaan with the promise that He would protect and guide him safely back to the Promised Land. When God calls us to do something, He will guide and protect us. If we refuse, we are out of His Will and out of His protection. Think carefully, and prayerfully, about all your decisions. (4.) Jacob believes God and calls Rachel and Leah to come out into the field where his flocks are; presumably to make certain no one overhears the discussion he plans to have with them. We must be willing to obey God, yet be discerning and careful about who we tell about God’s direction for our lives. Remember when you told the wrong person something God had told you, and that person discouraged you and indicated they thought you were not rational? Sharing God’s Will for your life should be done only with those who love you and who also believe in God’s sovereign Will for our lives.

31:5-9

Jacob summarizes the current situation with Laban and his sons to Rachel and Leah. He no doubt tells them he loves them and has worked hard to provide for them. He then recounts his faithful years of service for Laban and Laban’s deceitful changing of wages, greed, and doing everything he can to leave Jacob, Rachel and Leah, and their family, with no choice but to remain under his control. He clearly tells them that God has blessed him and caused him to become wealthy, and, at the same time, caused Laban to have a great deal less wealth.

31:10-13

Now Jacob reveals the dream God gave him regarding the offspring of the flocks and herds, and which to claim, before they were born. God told Jacob that He sees everything that has been done to Jacob by Laban, and He will bless Jacob and remove blessings from Laban. Jacob now reveals that God has again appeared to him and told him that He is the God of Bethel, the Eternal, Almighty Creator of the Universe, the One True God Whom Jacob worshiped at Bethel and anointed the rock as a vow and commitment to always follow the Lord. Jacob shares with Rachel and Leah that God told him to now leave the land of Padan-aram, Haran, and return to Canaan, the land of his family.

31:14-16

Both Rachel and Leah clearly have seen the greed of their father, how he treated them as hired hands, as worthless strangers, and gained wealth by ‘selling’ them to Jacob for his hire. Instead of giving the dowry earnings back to Rachel and Leah, Laban kept everything for himself, giving them nothing. They both acknowledge that there is nothing they would ever receive from their father, Laban. Whatever dowery they should have had was never given to them. Laban left them with absolutely nothing. They both agree that all the riches God has given to Jacob is theirs, and their children’s, only because they are the wives of Jacob. Both realize that Jacob loves and cares for them and their children. Both responded in Faith to Jacob’s sharing of God’s Will for their lives, by agreeing to leave their homeland and go with Jacob to his land, as God had directed. Laban’s treatment of his daughters clearly showed he did not truly love them. Yet Jacob’s sacrificial service for 14 years showed his great love for both of them.

31:17-19

Jacob had carefully planned to leave Haran when Laban and his sons were off shearing their sheep. Since we know that Laban had separated their flocks by a three days journey, Jacob chose that precise time to leave with his wives, children, servants, herds and all his wealth, for the land of Canaan. To keep his plans secret, he obviously waited until Laban, his sons, and their hired hands were all gone before revealing his plans to Rachel and Leah to obey God’s call to return to Canaan. (19.) This verse confirms that Laban and his sons were all gone from the area when Jacob and his family, servants, flocks and herds all set out for Canaan. We are told Rachel stole the household images from her father’s house. She may have taken them out of resentment for her father depriving her of being the first wife of Jacob, and his callous treatment of her. In any case, it nearly brought disaster upon the whole family. The reason? Excavations from 1925 to 1931 of the Nuzi Tablets give detailed insights into the life and culture of the people of this region in the years about 2000 B.C. The household gods, or images, could be used by a son-in-law as proof of being the principal heir over any sons.

31:20-21

Jacob’s reasons for leaving secretly were well founded. He knew from bitter experience that Laban would strongly object to his leaving Haran. He knew that if he tried to leave, Laban would send him away with nothing; not even his wives and children. He had obviously been well prepared in advance to leave with all he had the day he revealed his plans to his wives. He knew that he had to have sufficient provisions and strong healthy camels and healthy animals ready and able to make a grueling 400 mile trek across the desert lands back to Canaan.

31:22-23

The fact that laban was ‘told’ about Jacob’s leaving three days later, confirms that someone from Laban’s household had to make the three day journey to where Laban was having his flocks sheared. Laban immediately organizes his sons, as well as strong servants, and pursues Jacobs caravan. Since it takes him seven days to overtake Jacob, Jacob is now in the hill country of Gilead.

31:24-25

Yet God had come to Laban the night before in a dream and commanded him sternly to not speak peaceably, or good, to Jacob; and then go to violence, or bad treatment of Jacob. When Laban caught up with Jacob, his caravan had pitched their tents on a hill. Laban then had his tents pitched on the same hill of Gilead.

31:26-28

Laban now confronts Jacob asking him why he left secretly, taking his daughters and children off like ‘captives’, and taking all the flocks and herds and wealth with him? Laban states Jacob had deprived him of sending them off with a celebration of joy and gladness. Further, Laban states he was not even ‘permitted’ to kiss his grandchildren and daughters good-bye. He chided Jacob stating he had acted foolishly by running off like this.

31:29-30

Laban tells Jacob he has the power to do great harm to him, but the ‘God of your father spoke to me and warned me not to speak good then do any harm to you’. So Laban’s fear of God caused him to restrain himself from threatening or harming Jacob. Laban goes on to state that Jacob was returning to his father’s house because he was ‘homesick’. His final accusation was that Jacob had stolen his household images (gods). This last charge is most serious, as this offense, if valid, could cause death to the offender.

31:31-32

After Laban finishes speaking, then, and only then, can Jacob speak. It was the custom that when one leader was speaking no one ever interrupted. So when Jacob begins to speak Laban cannot interrupt his answers and counter charges. Jacob immediately tells the truth that he was afraid that Laban would demand his daughters and grandchildren stay in Padan-aram; and Laban would send him back alone. Jacob immediately addresses the next most serious charge of stealing the household images. He says that Laban may kill the person he finds with the idols, not realizing that his beloved Rachel was the one who stole them! Jacob demanded that, before all their families, they could search everything and then show what had been stolen.

31:33-35

Laban wastes no time in beginning his search with Jacob’s tent. Laban and his men then search Leah’s tent, and then the tent of the maids, then they go into Rachel’s tent. Rachel had hidden the images in the camel’s cushion, or saddle, and was sitting on the cushion when her father came into her tent. She stated that she was ill because of menstrual pain and could not stand to honor her father when he entered her tent. They searched, but did not find the images. A woman, during her time of period, was considered ‘unclean’. Thus Laban would never have considered that an ‘unclean woman’ would ever even touch an idol and cause it to become worthless, thus he never thought to demand to search the cushion she was sitting on.

31:36-37

Jacob realizes they have found nothing and he now becomes angry with Laban and demands to have proof of his fault and sin. He states that they have searched through all their possessions and yet found not one thing that they can claim belonged to Laban.

31:38-41

Now Jacob really stands up to his father-in-law. Recounting how he had worked twenty long hard years for Laban. He stated that he never brought Laban the carcasses of animals destroyed by wild beasts, or reported stolen animals, but instead made up for it himself. He goes on to tell Laban of how he suffered in the heat of the day and suffered with the cold of night that was so bad often he could not even sleep. He continues by recounting that he faithfully served Laban 14 years for his daughters and then six more years for his flocks; and then he brings up the deceit and greed of Laban that he had illegally changed his wages 10 times!

31:42

Jacob now tells Laban that the only way he has been able to be successful and not be sent away empty-handed, was because the One True God of his fathers was with him through all his sufferings and efforts. God alone had made him successful. Laban had previously admitted that he knew God had made Jacob successful in all he did. Jacob made his final stab at laban by telling him: ‘This is the same One True God who spoke to you last night and rebuked you!’

31:43

Laban had never been spoken to and confronted in this manner by Jacob in twenty years! Despite all the proofs and facts Jacob has just presented to Laban before all their families; Laban really loses it and then says that these were his daughters, his children, his flocks, and all that you see is mine, mine, mine! We can be sure that he was not speaking in a calm controlled voice; in fact he was probably screaming and yelling by this time. Yet, suddenly, he remembers God’s stern warning to him and then says “But what can I do today to these daughters and children?” Before Jacob can respond, he goes on to demand a covenant or permanent peace treaty between his family and Jacob’s family.

31:45-46

Jacob then sets up a large stone for a pillar, or monument. Then Jacob has all his people gather stones and they make a large monument, or platform around the pillar. They then eat together on that platform, or monument. This would indicate that each member of the family and the servants, are all part of the covenant. Each contributed a stone and each person has partaken of the meal.

31:47-49

Laban names the monument ‘Jegar-sahadutha’ or ‘witness heap’ in Aramaic. Jacob called it ‘Galeed’ in Hebrew. Laban states that this monument, or heap, is a witness to their covenant. The Pillar was also called Mizpah, or watchpost, because Laban said ‘May the Lord watch over you and me when we are gone from one another.’

31:50-52

True to his character, Laban now adds more conditions by stating that if Jacob should afflict, humiliate or divorce his daughters, or take other wives, that God would be a witness to those acts. Laban knows very well that Jacob would never harm his daughters, yet he probably wanted to look good before his daughters. Laban states that God is a witness between you and me. Then Laban says he has set up the pillar between them, and they are not to ever pass by the pillar to each others land without being put to harm, meaning being killed. It is amazing that Laban takes ‘credit’ for the pillar even though we are told that Jacob set it up. Laban is obviously concerned more about the missing images that might be used so that Jacob could come and claim his lands and household, then he is about his own daughters. Greedy people care about material things, and wealth, more than their own family members. How about you?

31:53-54

Laban swears to the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor and the god of their father Terah. Obviously, Laban does NOT really know the one True God. Yet Jacob swears only by the One True God of his father Isaac. Jacob then offers a sacrifice on the mountain and calls all his family and servants to eat a meal together as a sign that they are all part of the covenant. Jacob’s family group all eats together and stays all night on the mountain.

31:55

Early the next morning Laban gets up, kisses his grandchildren and daughters and asks God’s favor on them. Laban has never sought God himself, yet he knows God has blessed Jacob and made him successful; he’s seen it for 20+ years! He also fears God, yet fails to seek Him. Then he returns to his own land and home. This ‘Boundary and Treaty’ marks a break with the East for the family of Israel.

We clearly see why seeking God with all your heart, mind and soul is CRUCIAL to finding the One True God AND in having a personal relationship with Him. Love seeks what is best for the person one claims to Love; even if it means sacrificing oneself for the one you claim to Love. Anything else is NOT True Love. Our society has demeaned Love to mean ‘usability’ or ‘usefulness’. We see those who claim to Love someone, yet their own interests, lusts and demands come before the best interests of the one they ‘claim’ to Love. True Love is ALWAYS sacrificial in nature. Love is NOT something that just “happens”. True Love requires sacrificial effort and careful thought and consideration. Jesus tells us to Love one another just as He has Loved us. Keep in mind that He laid down His life for you ~ all because of His immeasurable TRUE Love for you.