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BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday January 20, 2019
JACOB
FLEES FROM LABAN
Genesis
31:1-21
In Genesis 31 we see Jacob
continuing to oversee Laban’s herds and flocks, but only now he is being
compensated for his work. Jacob’s personal herds, with divine intervention from
GOD, continued to increase, despite the cheating and conniving by Laban and his
sons. And the more Jacob prospered the more hostility Laban began to show
toward him. Even so, Jacob continued to work for Laban for six more years
earning his flocks and herds, in addition to the fourteen years that he had
already worked to earn the rights to marry Leah and Rachel (20 years in all).
In the opening lines of this chapter we see
that even Laban’s sons, who administered most of their father’s trickery and
dirty deeds upon Jacob, had now began to grumble against Jacob. Noticing the
attitude change that was now being overtly displayed even by Laban himself,
Jacob begins to become concerned for himself and his family’s safety. It was at
this time that Jacob receives a word from the LORD in a dream to return to the
land of Canaan, the land that had been promised and given to his grandfather
Abraham, and to his father Isaac. There he could live peacefully and securely among
his closest relatives in the west.
After hearing from the LORD, Jacob
consulted with his wives, Leah and Rachel, and he shared with them the dream
that he had had earlier. This passage (Vs.6-13) is significant, because, if we
remember earlier, Jacob had tried to use witchcraft (that he probably learned
from Rachel), to give himself an advantage over Laban, concerning the deal he
had made with him regarding payment for his services (Genesis 30:37-43). He was
probably thinking for a while that it was the witchcraft that brought him
success, but here in this passage we see that GOD had later visited him in a
dream, letting him know that it was HE, and not his “human ingenuity” or “witchcraft”
that brought about his success in his dealings with Laban.
Leah and Rachel both agreed to leave the
house of Laban where there was nothing left for them as an inheritance (v.14).
Their father had, by then, reduced their rights down to equal those of foreign
women, and had already spent the dowry that Jacob had earned for him through
his labor (14 years) as payment for the right to marry them (v.15). The ladies
also knew that the riches that GOD had given their husband, Jacob, was also legally
theirs and their children’s too.
And so Jacob loaded up his family on camel’s
backs, and left immediately, driving his herds in front of them. At that time
Laban was away from home shearing his sheep, and Rachel, who was still enamored
by Laban’s pagan god’s and witchcraft (remember the mandrake roots), took the
opportunity to steal some of those gods on the way out, and take them with her.
Jacob was unaware of what she had done. They left without telling Laban, or
anyone else for that matter, and they crossed over the nearby Euphrates River
traveling in the direction of Gilead.
LABAN
PURSUES JACOB
Genesis
31:22-42
Laban didn’t learn of Jacob’s
departure until he returned home three days later, and he was very angered by
the fact that Jacob had left without telling him, and had also stolen some of
his idol gods called “teraphims”, which were “Semitic household gods”. And so
he gathered up a group of his close relatives, and went after Jacob. He caught
up to him seven days later in the hill country of Gilead, however, he had to
show a lot of restraint because GOD had warned him in a dream the night before
not to harm Jacob, and in fact, GOD cautioned Laban to be careful what he even
said to Jacob (v.24).
After confronting Jacob about taking his
daughters away without giving him an opportunity to say goodbye (Vs.26-29),
Laban finally reveals the real reason he chased so intensely after Jacob. In
verse 30 Laban states, “I know you feel you must go, and you long intensely for
your childhood home, but why have you stolen my household gods?” (NLT)
Jacob did not know Rachel had taken Laban’s
household gods for herself, and he unwittingly put the death penalty on her
when he became very angered by Laban’s accusation. He allowed Laban to search his
entire camp, but because Rachel was sitting on the idols, Laban didn’t find
them. Rachel lied and told her father that she couldn’t stand up because she
was in the midst of her menstruation period (v.35).
When Laban failed to find his household gods
among Jacob’s belongings, and ended his search, an angry Jacob lambasted him
for old and for new. He ranted on and on to Laban about all the hardships that
he had put him through over the last twenty years, particularly how he had
constantly cheated him out of his wages (Vs.36-42).
JACOB’S
TREATY WITH LABAN
Genesis
31:43-55
In verse 43 of this passage Laban
responds to Jacob’s tirade by claiming that he had a legal right, so to speak,
to take the position that he took. Here he claims his rights as a father,
grandfather, and property owner, but he ignored his wrongdoing of Jacob over
the years. He failed to see that, just because something is legal by man’s law,
it doesn’t necessarily make it right or moral in the eyes of GOD, WHO he did
not take into consideration. His spiritual ineptness did not allow him to
understand that, the pursuit of his rights, does not excuse his wrongdoing, and
trampling over others, in the process.
However, fearing that an angry Jacob might
later try to seek revenge on him for his mistreatments, Laban suggests that
they make a peace treaty, and that each of them swear to live by its terms. So
Jacob agreed and he took a tall stone and set it up as a “witness monument”, or,
“a visible symbol” as a witness to their agreement.
Jacob then told his men to pile up “a heap
of stones” all around the taller stone, and the two men, Jacob and Laban, sat
down by there and shared in a meal together. They named the monument, the
“witness pile”, which is in Laban’s Aramaic tongue “Jegar-sahadutha”, and in
Jacob’s Hebrew tongue, “Galeed”. The place was also called “Mizpah” because
Laban said, “May the LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent, one
from another” (KJV).
Laban explains this quote further by saying
in verses 50-53a that, “I won’t know about it if you are harsh to my daughters
or if you take other wives, but GOD will see it. This heap of stones and this
pillar stand between us as a witness of our vows. I will not cross this line to
harm you, and you will not cross it to harm me. I call on the GOD of our
ancestors, the GOD of your grandfather Abraham and the GOD of my grandfather
Nahor to punish either one of us who harms the other” (NLT).
This treaty between Jacob and Laban
actually officially marked a split between Abraham’s old family in the east
(Padan-aram) and his new family in the west (Israel). It also established
lasting borders between them in the hill country of Galead. GOD’s earlier
visitations in dreams to both Jacob (v.3) and Laban (v.24) were geared toward
their coming separation, and interestingly enough, in the end, they called on
the LORD HIMSELF to watch between them, and hold them to their agreement
(v.49).
To consummate the deal, Jacob, after taking
the oath, presented a sacrifice to the LORD and invited everyone to attend a
feast. They spent the entire night there in the hill country, and early the
following morning, Laban arose and prepared to leave. He kissed his daughters
and his grandchildren goodbye, and blessed them, and then, started on his way
back home.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
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