Rolling Stones

Pray

Good morning, Reliance. Would you pray with me this morning?

Father, as we approach Your Word this morning, I ask that you give me a clarity of thought and speech. Let me be empowered by Your Spirit to communicate clearly, and for all of us to hear from You without distracted hearts and minds.

May you work in a mighty way in our hearts this morning to see Your faithfulness and blessing despite our sinful hearts. We admit that we have all fallen short of your standards and laws and we need Jesus Christ for our righteousness and salvation. Thank you for fulfilling Your promises to Your people.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Ready, Set...

ILLUSTRATION

God has made Jacob, the son of Isaac, quite prosperous. Despite Laban’s attempts to trick him from having a flock of his own, Jacob has taken all of Laban’s flocks. Jacob, the trickster, has been tricked by Laban long enough and has been given Laban’s wealth by God’s hand. Laban’s sons aren’t happy about this, and Jacob begins to realize that he isn’t as favored in Laban’s eyes as he once was.

Remember how Laban first greeted Jacob in Genesis 29?

Genesis 29:13–14 ESV

13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.

When we contrast what once was with what is twenty years later, the tensions are high.

Genesis 31:2–3 ESV

2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

Even Rachel and Leah agree. They see how they have been mistreated and deceived by Laban, and how God has provided for Jacob despite this.

Genesis 31:15–16 ESV

15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. 16 All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

The relationship is thin and strained because of Jacob’s prosperity and Laban’s jealousy. But God sees Jacob’s affliction and will see His covenant blessing fulfilled through Him. So, He commands Jacob to return to the land of his fathers.

…Leave! (17-21)

Jacob and his family don’t even say goodbye. They just up and depart after Laban leaves to Shear his sheep.

Genesis 31:17–18 ESV

17 So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.

Genesis 31:19–20 ESV

19 Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee.

Wordplay (19-20)

There is a lot of wordplay here that shows that Jacob and Rachel are acting out of one mind. Another way of reading this passage would be to say:

“Rachel stole her father’s household gods. And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramean.”

We’ll get to the household gods later.

Wordplay: Laban “the Aramean” (20)

Here’s some more wordplay. We read here that he’s no longer just called, “Laban,” but rather “Laban the Aramean.” Aramean in Hebrew rhymes with the same word for “to deceive.”

Laban has been a deceiver. (Sarcastically) In w hat way?

I’m Kidding.

I’m sure that if we asked Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, they could think of a time when Laban deceived them.

Genesis 29:25 ESV

25 And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”

Jacob and Laban were made for each other. Jacob’s trickery with his father Isaac and brother Esau was matched by Laban the Aramean’s deception.

Laban is about to receive what he has been dealing out these last 20 years and about to lose all that he believed he had control over.

And Jacob is going to grow in his trust in the God of Abraham and see His commitment to His promises.

We are beginning to witness the separation of a people. Laban is no longer merely Laban, but now he is known as “Laban the Aramean.” A man of a people that is separate than Jacob’s people. A people led by Laban who is known to deceive, and a people led by Jacob who will not be known in this story by his deception, but by his trust in God.

Laban’s Confrontation (22-35)

After shearing sheep, Laban comes home to see that Jacob, Jacob’s family, and all that Jacob acquired legitimately from Laban have all gone. Laban is upset. No, it’s beyond that. He’s ready and willing to go to war over this. Read what it says in vs. 22-25 with me.

Genesis 31:22–25 ESV

22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead.

Military Terms (22-25)

We just read the terms:

Fled

Pursued

Overtook

Pitched Tents

These are military Terms. Laban is in hot of pursuit of Jacob and is ready to make war over his fleeing. After all, they left with his daughters, grandchildren, and the wealth that he lost.

God’s Protection (24)

If God hadn’t intervened through the dream He gave to Laban, warning him not to speak good or bad to Jacob, blood would have been spilled.

But God did intervene. Things could have been much worse for Jacob, but God wouldn’t allow that because of His covenant faithfulness to His promised people. God restrained Laban from evil.

Our God restrains sin for His purposes.

As Christians we know this is true.

Laban’s Words (26-30)

So, what’s a deceiver to do at this point? He waits until the next day to talk to Jacob and makes him sweat in the meantime.

I know what anxiety is like, but I can’t imagine the conversations Jacob was having with God on that sleepless night.

While Jacob is anticipating violence, he receives what a deceiver deals best:

Words. Laban just can’t drop it.

Genesis 31:26 ESV

26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword?

Driven away his daughters like captives of the sword?

This is a lie. Rachel and Leah went willingly and agreed with Jacob to leave Laban to follow God’s call.

Genesis 31:27 ESV

27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?

Sending away with songs and tambourine and lyre? I’m having a hard time believing you with the weapons, pitchforks and torches in your son’s hands Laban. Do you even play the tambourine?

Genesis 31:28 ESV

28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly.

He is posturing as a victim and a hurt father. He still considers his daughters and grandchildren as his property. He doesn’t acknowledge them as Jacob’s wives and children.

Genesis 31:29 ESV

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 say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

Even though he’s not supposed to say anything good or bad to Jacob, he still can’t help but open his mouth.

Laban is stretching the truth. He’s now accusing Jacob of kidnapping Leah and Rachel and assumes that they would never leave him! He is masking his ill intent towards Jacob by playing the victim and Jacob isn’t buying it.

Jacob explains why he leaves Laban so quickly. He doesn’t justify himself but is matter of fact.

Genesis 31:31 ESV

31 Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.

Something about Laban has changed. Maybe Jacob just realizes the kind of man he really is. He is no longer the welcoming man who warmly embraced Jacob into his home. He is vindictive and controlling. He is manipulative. He is dangerous. Laban’s means of arrival is only proving Jacob right.

God, who called Jacob back to his father’s land sees what is happening. He is in control.

But Laban is not in a good spot. He needs vindication. And he may just get it.

Household gods (32)

You see, even though God told Laban not to speak good or evil, the fact of the matter was that the household gods went missing and it just so happens that it was days ago when Jacob fled.

Laban mentions how he won’t do harm to Jacob because he respects Jacob’s God. But he believes that Jacob doesn’t respect Laban’s gods seeing as he stole them, and he is going to snatch the opportunity to be seen in the right. He is accusing Jacob of theft, expecting to find the idols in his camp so he can be vindicated.

In Jacob’s ignorance, he offers a vow:

Genesis 31:32 ESV

32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Here is Jacob, confident in his dealings with Laban while being completely oblivious to the fact that Rachel stole Laban’s gods.

Reading this up to this point is like watching a car accident about to happen. You want to yell “Stop!” But all that comes out is a “eah!” And the drivers can’t hear you anyways so it’s just a matter of watching a disaster.

But God has seen what is happening and isn’t blind or ignorant to what Rachel has done and His plans won’t be thwarted.

Laban’s Search Begins (33-35)

He begins his search:

Genesis 31:33 ESV

33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.

He starts his search in Jacob’s tent because he suspects him as the culprit from the start. Rightly so. “Just who does he think he is? I know he’s got them.”

It’s funny. Jacob, a man who was once touched and searched by his father Isaac is now having his tent and Rachel’s tent touched and searched by Laban.

He searches through Leah’s tent, the two servants Bilhah and Zilpah, and out through Leah’s tent before suspecting Rachel’s tent.

He doesn’t care about Leah. In fact, she’s probably in on it with Jacob. “They’re both out to get me.”

No they’re not there.

It’s not the wretched maid servants either.

“Could it be in Rachel’s tent?”

“Surely not. She would’t take them. Not her”

Rachel’s Tent (35)

Genesis 31:34–35 ESV

34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.

Laban the Aramean could not imagine Rachel was sitting on his precious gods. That she would deceive him! Even worse, that she would defile his gods with such an impurity as “the way of women.” That would be sacrilege in the eyes of the ancients. He never really suspected Rachel anyway, and Rachel saw her act as both deception towards her father and contempt for his gods. Perhaps she learned deception from the best. Whether she was telling the truth or not, and whether she intended to communicate this or not, she is despising where she came from by treating the household gods as worthless and unclean. Filthy rags.

Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (Steinmann) (i. Laban Pursues Jacob (31:22–35))

What kind of god allows himself to be desecrated like this? Only a god who is no god, an idol that has no life and no real existence, would allow this to happen

Laban never found that which he was going to use to accuse Jacob of dealing wrongly with him.

God prevented Laban from finding the idols, even though there was sin in the camp. Jacob is protected. God is restraining Rachel’s sin in this instance by not directing Laban to these false idols. Things could have been much worse for Jacob, but God wouldn’t allow that because of His covenant faithfulness to His promised people.

Our God restrains sin for His purposes.

Jacob Confronts (36-42)

That nothing was found in Jacob’s tents is proof of Jacob’s innocence. Having all his property searched through falsifies Laban’s claims, Jacob is about to let loose twenty years of anger, deceit, and mistreatment against Laban the Aramean:

Court Hearing (36-37)

Genesis 31:36–37 ESV

36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For 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.

Let’s have a court hearing right here and now Laban. Between my people and your people. Let’s decide who is right. Show us the proof that I stole your idols.

Hardships as a Shepherd (38-40)

His hardships as a shepherd under Laban are brought to the surface:

Genesis 31:38–40 ESV

38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

Jacob has been a good shepherd. He has been faithful to his flock and to Laban by taking the burden of loss and hardship. Laban’s flock prospered because of God’s blessing on Jacob.

Laban’s Dishonesty (41-42)

He continues:

Genesis 31:41–42 ESV

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 have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”

Laban is so depraved that God intervened. God is putting an end to Laban’s revenge by humiliating him in front of his people and Jacob’s people. He was willing to rob not only Jacob but his own daughters and grandchildren, but God intervened in Laban’s life more than Laban even realizes and protected him from making a terrible mistake.

Throughout the whole story of Genesis, we’ve seen God’s faithfulness to His covenant people. Can you imagine what God would do to Laban if he sought to harm Jacob and his family? This intervention spared Laban from God’s wrath as well.

Jacob is giving God the credit for everything here. He is a man who has experienced God’s covenant faithfulness through His giving a people, and possessions.

Jacob is growing in his righteousness.

The Last Ditch (43-55)

Laban is sputtering at this point. He’s living in a fantasy and is in denial.

Genesis 31:43 ESV

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne?

These are empty words from an empty man. He is speaking from delusion, especially after this confrontation.

Covenant Time

Laban’s last-ditch effort in doing something for himself is to make a covenant of nonaggression with Jacob. With his militaristic pursuit right behind him, Laban quickly turns his heart and mind to making this covenant.

Why should Jacob believe him though? Laban has made pacts with him previously only to have broken them.

The wages for Rachel, only to receive Leah

The wages for Rachel again

The promise of a flock, only to have his opportunity stripped from him

But God was kind to Jacob in this. All that was Laban’s became his.

Why cut a covenant with Laban only to be cut a raw deal again? He has God on his side. What more can Laban offer? But Laban is proposing something different this time.

Genesis 31:43 ESV

43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne?

Laban is angry, and realizes that there is nothing else he can do to save face.

Genesis 31:44–49 ESV

44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight.

There were these Christian cards or embroidered pillows I would see that would have the KJV translation of this last verse. It would say “The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another.” That sure sounds nice doesn’t it? Like, we’re old friends longing to see one another or something. That’s not a great translation though. A better way of understanding this is more along the lines of, “Because I don’t trust you out of my sight, may God watch your every move.”

Jacob was a Rolling Stone

We know that Jacob doesn’t need this treaty though. He knows it too. God had already protected him from Laban. However, this treaty makes it official that Jacob, and his people, are their own people. God has brought Jacob out of Laban’s fields with his own people, and possessions promised by God through His covenant with Abraham. He is now ready for the land that God is calling him back to.

Jacob’s first interaction with Laban was rolling the stone from the well’s mouth to water his flock.

Genesis 29:10–13 ESV

10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. 13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things,

It was so obvious that God was at work back then. He found family at his lowest point of fleeing from his brother. He met his bride to-be and was embraced and brought into the fold of this man. It was a sweet time then. Things have changed.

Genesis 31:46 ESV

46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

Jacob’s only response is to “gather stones.” He has no more words for Laban. Where he once was eager to move a stone, eager to begin his life with Rachel and Laban, he now orders others to gather stones to end his time with Laban. Jacob’s life with Laban begins with rolling a stone from a well, and ends with rolling stones to solidify themselves as wholly different peoples.

Genesis 31:50–55 ESV

50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” 51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and 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 over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do 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 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. 55 Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.

When Laban swears by the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, Jacob swears by God, the “Fear of his father Isaac.” Jacob sees God working amidst his life even in this moment. He offers sacrifices to God as a sign of his righteousness and placing his trust in God. He eats, sleeps, and leaves.

Our Convictional Response

This is an awesome work of God. Amidst the sin of Laban, Rachel, and Jacob we see how God is creating the people of Israel. He takes a poor man who was enslaved and exploited and makes him rich. And Jacob is growing in righteousness.

This is a shadow of what life in Christ is for us too. We are called to be a people of God, and all things work for His purposes.

Turn to Romans 8:28-32 with me.

Romans 8:28–32 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

God works all things together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. For the believer this is equally true. How is it that amidst our sin and the sin of those around us God still works in mighty ways in our lives? As we go home to our dinner tables with family and friends let God’s Word serve as a reminder that He is always faithful.

Would you pray with me?

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