So one
day Jacob called Leah and Rachel out to the fields and explained to them that
he had received a dream from The LORD and The Angel of The LORD had told him to
gather his things and go back to the place of his birth. Jacob explained to his wives that Laban was
now treating him bad, and their brothers were jealous of him. Jacob had dealt fairly with Laban and now
they were claiming that he had cheated them with Laban’s livestock. He explained to his wives that God was with
him, and everything that Laban did for harm, God had turned it for good for
Jacob.
I can
never hear this part of the story without thinking of all the good-hearted
people who slave away at their jobs, hoping to better themselves, putting in a
good days work for a low wage, never seeing an increase, trudging along taking the blame for everyone else’s mistakes because they are the lowest man on the scale and have no one else to blame. All the blame for everything comes to this person who innocently gets up, goes in every day and does his job. When things go wrong and the people at the top complain, it is this guy who does not sit in on the conversations of management that gets the blame. One day he looks up and he has spent a lifetime working for low wages without a raise or even a "thank you" and they kick him out on the street for someone else’s sake.
Some people, like Jacob in this story, just don’t get any breaks. However,
these are the people on whom God looks down and sees in their suffering. The things other’s do to them do not
matter. God always repays what the
locust eats. He has a record of right and wrong, and he knows who did what. He helps those who live
righteously and can’t help themselves.
He brings them more than they need and they receive joy in the end. Jacob had a situation just like this typical
one of the common man after years of working for Laban and being true to the love of his
life. All of Jacob's good intentions had
been used by others at this point and God was watching. God always watches. He watches and He waits until the time is
right to restore the broken. Don’t think
for a minute that Jacob was the only unhappy person either!
Rachel
and Leah were also very unhappy with the way Laban had treated them. They had no desire to stay with their father
or to share their family with him any longer.
They learned long ago that they were merely profit to him and nothing
more. They agreed with Jacob to pack
their bags and move away.
So,
they packed up the kids and the camels and the livestock and Jacob and his
wives headed back to the land of Canaan to live with Isaac.
Jacob
knew if he told Laban his plans he would try to trick him into staying
again. He wasn’t going to fall into that
trap! He concealed his plans from Laban
and decided to leave in the night while it was dark. Fortunately, Laban and his sons were very busy
sheering their sheep, about three days away from the flocks of Jacob.
What
Jacob, and everyone else, didn’t realize was that Rachel went in to her father’s
house before they left and took his household gods with them.
When it
was good and dark Jacob headed down the road with his family and flocks. All his possessions were happily headed for
Canaan. It was three days before Laban
and his sons discovered Jacob was gone.
Jacob and his family caravan crossed the Euphrates River and headed
toward the hill country of Gilead. It
was there, seven days later, that Laban and his sons caught up with them.
Before
they reached Gilead, Laban had a dream from God. In the dream he was told: “be careful what you do to Jacob, whether it
be good or bad.”
This
must have troubled Laban and he paused not knowing what to do next. He pitched his tents next to Jacobs. He
confronted Jacob as a hurt man.
“Why have
you run off like a thief in the night without consulting me? Why did you not let me say goodbye to my
daughters and my grandchildren? I would
have thrown you a party, a great celebration, but instead you left without
notice!”
Laban’s
words were dripping with honey as he said them.
He told Jacob that he had been very angry with him but God had appeared
to him in a dream last night and told him that Jacob left because he was
homesick. “But why,” said Laban “Did you
leave with my household gods?”
This
question took Jacob by surprise. He had
no idea that Rachel had stolen the gods.
He answered Laban that he was afraid he would take his daughters from
him by force and so he left without warning, but he declared that no one had
taken his household gods. He told Laban
if he found anyone in his camp had them; that person would die with everyone
looking on. He welcomed Laban to look
around and see if they had anything that belonged to him and if they did, for
Laban to take it back.
Laban went from tent to tent looking for his
gods. He did not find them. He looked in Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and
Rachel’s tent.
Rachel
had hidden the gods in a camel cushion and she was sitting on top of it. She explained to her father that she was not
being disrespectful in not getting down to greet him, but she was in “the time of
the way with women,” and she continued to sit upon the cushion that held the
pagan gods.
Laban
didn’t have a clue.
Neither did Jacob!
What on
earth was going on inside the mind of Rachel?
After
Laban had ransacked the camp and turned everything upside down without finding
any evidence, Jacob lit into him. He
had been holding back for a long time and just about everything that Jacob
could think of to say to Laban about his bad feelings came out!
“Did
you find anything?
You have destroyed
our camp and wrecked our homes, but we are innocent!
Let our family’s judge between us!”
Jacob launched into naming all the many ways
that Laban had abused him over the years and how he would have sent him off
penniless had God not come to him in a dream.
Jacob explained that God had prospered him in spite of Laban’s selfish
abuse.
Laban
would not own his abuse. He still
claimed the daughters and the children and the flocks, but he said there was
nothing he could do because of the children that had been born to his
daughters, probably indicating that he did not want his grandchildren to
perceive him as a mean old man, and he asked Jacob if they could make a
covenant between them.
At that
point Jacob set up a pillar. He called his wives and children together and
asked them to pile up stones in that spot.
They heaped them up around the pillar and ate a meal there together. Laban called the place Yegar sahadutha (which
means Witness Monument in Aramaic.)
Jacob called the place Galeed (which means Witness Monument in Hebrew.)
Laban
said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you
and me.” (That is why it is called
Galeed – witness Monument.)
It is also
called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and
me when we are out of each other’s sight.
If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one
around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us. This monument of stones and this stone pillar
that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won’t cross the line to hurt
you and you won’t cross the line to hurt me.
The God of Abraham and The god of Nahor (the god of their ancestors)
will keep things straight between us.”
Jacob
promised and swore by the fear of God on his father Isaac, and Jacob offered a
sacrifice upon the mountain and worshiped, calling all his family to come to
the meal.
They
all slept on the mountain that night and the next morning Laban kissed his
daughters and grandchildren, gave them a blessing and left for home.
