August 14, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Numbers 1-4, 1 Chronicles 5-9

Weekly Memory Verse: Romans 8:1

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

I apologize for missing the study yesterday.  I went to the beach with the Youth group at our church, and it just didn't work out. 

Genesis 31:1-21 (NASB95)
¹ 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.” ² Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly. ³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” ⁴ So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, ⁵ 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. 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; however, God did not allow him to hurt me. ⁸ “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. ⁹ “Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. ¹⁰ “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. ¹¹ “Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹² “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. ¹³ ‘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.’ ” ¹⁴ Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house? ¹⁵ “Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. ¹⁶ “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.” ¹⁷ Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels; ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s. ²⁰ And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹ 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.^[1]

In the last chapter, we saw the bargain that Jacob had made with Laban.  It would have been a rotten bargain if God had not got in on the picture.  God had blessed Jacob's life of faith, and caused the animals to bring forth offspring with imperfections in color.  Regardless how often Laban would change the wages, God would bless Jacob in his endeavors.  The sticks that Jacob was using in the past chapter was not what caused the increase in his flock, God caused the increase. 

As Jacob increased in wealth, he became more and more of a threat to Laban.  Also, God dealt with Laban because he was not dealing fairly with Jacob, therefore his flocks weren't doing so well.  As a result of that, the prosperity that Laban had experienced with Jacob running his flocks was suffering.  Laban was no longer friendly with Jacob.  I would imagine that this was because he suspected foul play.  The text seems to indicate that Jacob lived his life honorably before God, and God blessed that relationship.

Hebrews 11:1-2 (NASB95)
¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the men of old gained approval.

Romans 10:17 (NASB95)
¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NASB95)
¹⁷ For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 (NASB95)
⁹ Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ^[2]

In the vision that Jacob had, God verified that He certainly was the one that was behind his prosperity.  Notice though, Jacob had already given God credit for the increase in the flock in verses 8-9.  Jacob had made an observation based upon the knowledge that he had about God, and knew to be true.  In other words, Jacob made a statement of faith by stating that God had increased his flocks over Laban’s.  I say that because Jacob had no way of knowing if there was a quirk in the breeding, food supply or whatever.  He didn't know for certain that God had caused the increase, his statement was based upon the what he had heard and learned about God.  In that vision God also called Jacob back to the land of his birth.  It had been 20 years since Jacob had left the land.  He had left as a rebel, a deceiver, and was returning after God had taught him some very hard lessons.

One other thought on this, Jacob may not have left the country if there was not any conflict with Laban.  That may have been the very thing that urged him to make the step to return to his country.  It may also have been the catalyst that caused him to think about God's ultimate will for his life.

The reason that Laban was so shook up regarding the household idols is because these idols were more than just chunks of wood.  They represented the actual right to inheritance of the land.  Therefore, Rachel had not just stolen religious artifacts, she had stolen the right to the inheritance by owning these idols.  To Laban, Jacob had stolen his flocks, and to make matters worse, Jacob had stolen his land by having the idols which guaranteed the right to the estate.  Add to that the religious belief behind the idols, Jacob had also stolen the protection of the gods.  Laban had no way of knowing that it was Rachel that had stolen the idols. 

Genesis 31:22-55 (NASB95)
²² When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, ²³ 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. ²⁴ 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.” ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷ “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; ²⁸ and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? 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 speak either good or bad to Jacob.’ ³⁰ “Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?” ³¹ Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. ³² “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. ³³ 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. ³⁴ 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. ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ 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? ³⁷ “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. ³⁸ “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. ³⁹ “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. ⁴⁰ “Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost 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 changed my wages ten times. ⁴² “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.” ⁴³ 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? ⁴⁴ “So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.” ⁴⁵ Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶ Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷ Now Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸ Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, ⁴⁹ and Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. ⁵⁰ “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.” ⁵¹ Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold 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 by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for 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 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. ⁵⁵ Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.^[3]

Remember, Laban had insisted that Jacob's flocks were to be kept three days journey away.  By the time that Jacob had decided to flee and someone traveled back to Laban with the news, it took three days.  For Laban to have caught up to him in seven days, he would have really had to be making some time.  Jacob had the flocks and herds of animals holding him back, it's hard to make quick time when you are driving animals ahead of you. 

It must have looked doubly suspicious as Jacob took his possessions and fled the land.  He must have looked like that he was trying to get away with something.  Laban's anger quickly was brought into check when God spoke to Laban in the dream.  Can you imagine what Jacob would have felt like if he had known that his beautiful wife had been the one that he had issued a death sentence on?  Yet she sat upon the idols, thus demonstrating to the ancient world that these idols did not have any power.  It demonstrated that the idols were made unclean by a woman who claimed to be on her menstrual cycle, and they couldn't do anything about it. 

Jacob must have been convinced that Laban would not have let him leave, and he was probably right in the assessment.  It is interesting to read the confusion that Laban communicates.  He has just chased them for seven days, and then reprimands Jacob as a father would a son.  The two actions don't make sense, Laban was like a toothless lion.  Jacob was frustrated with Laban at this point and speaks up as to the way that he had unjustly treated him over the past twenty years. 

Jacob built an altar to bring the Lord into the covenant that they had struck together.  Note that Laban never mentioned the name of the Lord, Jacob did.  This devotion to the Lord demonstrates where Jacob's heart was at, and where his security was at.  Laban did not have his gods to swear by, so his only option was to swear by his own word.  In light of Laban's past, which person would you have believed?  It seems that Laban did not demonstrate that he was trustworthy in light of his past track record.  Jacob demonstrated a change in the past twenty years; that he was worthy to be trusted on his word alone, yet he swore by the name of the Lord.  I believe that this demonstrated that He was humble enough to know that he was a servant of the Lord, and there was no trust in his own flesh.

In the end, a covenant was made between them.  This covenant was more than just an agreement between them.  It is a guarantee to Laban that the missing idols will not be used to lay claim to his land.  In the end, Laban was protecting his interests.  Rachel was protecting her interests.  Jacob was insuring his protection by setting a barrier with God as the protector of it.  This split the old family from Jacobs descendants from that point on. 

I am going to close here.  It is a short study, I always welcome your views and your comments.

Father, as we consider Your word today, open our eyes and enable us to understand the lessons in it. 

In Him,

Joe Turner.