When It's Time to Go...

You ever had that feeling on a Sunday night? You’re sitting on the couch, the sun is going down, and you’ve got this heavy, sinking pit in your stomach because you know that in about twelve hours, you have to walk back through those double doors at work.

Maybe it’s a boss who keeps moving the goalposts. Maybe it’s a crew where the talk has turned toxic and it’s starting to rub off on how you treat your family when you get home. You know it’s time to go. Your gut tells you. Your prayer life is starting to sound like one long "Get me out of here, Lord."

But you stay. Because the unknown is scarier than the miserable "known."

As we jump back in to Jacob’s story, we see the time to leave has come. It is incredibly difficult to know exactly when God is calling you to move. It’s even harder to have 100% certainty that it’s Him doing the calling.

But let’s be honest: if we were always certain, if we had a certified letter from heaven for every move we made, we wouldn't need faith. Faith lives in the gap between "I think it's time" and "I'm terrified to go."

Eventually, the writing is on the wall. Whether it’s a job, a town, a relationship, or even a season here at church—there comes a point where the current situation has to end so the next one can begin.

So I want to ask you, as we open up Genesis 31: In where you are in life right now, is it time to leave something behind?

Let’s look at three things to help you navigate that path.

God prepares the way before He calls you to leave.

For Jacob, the writing was on the wall. He had spent considerable time breeding flocks that would belong to him. Laban didn’t like it. Jacob heard Laban’s sons talking about this.

Genesis 31:1–3 NASB95

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.” Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly. Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

Trouble is brewing. Laban is not happy. His attitude toward Jacob changed. How do you know when it is time to go? Someone’s attitude toward you has changed. They used to think of you favorably, but now it is with animosity. There’s conflict that goes unresolved.

Second, you get a word from the Lord that it’s time to go. Jacob received word from God that it was time to return home. Those last five words are extremely important: “I will be with you.” God has given his personal guarantee that Jacob doesn’t go alone. The presence of almighty God will be with him.

God spent the last few years preparing Jacob for the journey by multiplying his wealth. His herds grew, he had a bunch of servants, and he was now capable of standing on his own two feet economically speaking. God had prepared the way before calling him to leave.

You need to know that whatever God is calling you to do, he has already prepared the way for you to do so. I wrote an article this week on the importance of emergency funds and how $1,000 changed the outlook of real people when the unexpected hit. One couple had gone out Christmas shopping. With their trunk loaded up with Christmas gifts, they drove home but got a flat tire. Further inspection revealed they didn’t need one tire. They needed four. Their emergency fund (or Peace Fund) provided them the opportunity to address the need for tires without having to return Christmas gifts. For the first time in their lives, the choice to cancel Christmas or finance a set of tires wasn’t on the table. God had already prepared the way.

When it is time to go, whatever going may look like, rest assured God is preparing the way for you to go before it is ever time for you to leave.

Trust God’s presence while the trouble is still present.

Jacob called his wives out to his field and shared the news with them. Through God’s providence, they saw their father had wasted what fortune he had, and their inheritance was all but gone. In verse 16, they agree to their husband’s plan to leave by saying, “now then; do whatever God has said to you.” They were ready.

So they loaded up and left with everything they had, but Rachel makes a move nobody saw. She stole her father’s household gods. These would have been little figurines that represented whatever gods Laban worshipped. But unlike statues of Jesus or a crucifix, these figurines were worshipped as if they were the gods themselves. Rachel’s reason for taking them is unknown. Some believe she was taking them for religious purposes since she grew up in a polytheistic household. Some believe that this was her final attempt at claiming an inheritance from her broke father. Some believe that since these gods would have been seen as some form of divine protection for Laban, she was stealing them to open her father up to some form of divine retribution. Whatever her motive is, she puts her husband in a difficult situation. She multiplies the problem.

Laban discovers that Jacob is gone along with his wives, his children, and everything he owns, along with these now stolen household gods. He saddles up and rides after Jacob and finally catches up with him in Gilead, the territory just east of the Jordan River. Jacob is almost home before Laban shows up. Laban confronts Jacob offended that he would leave without notice and that the gods were stolen. Jacob doesn’t know this, so he lets Laban search everything. He goes through every tent until he gets to Rachel’s. She’s sly, and uses the “the manner of women is upon me” line as reason not to stand up and let him search the saddle where she hid the gods.

Now, Jacob said that whoever was found in possession of these gods would not live. He doesn’t know his beloved bride has them. God is not blessing the theft of stolen false gods. He’s keeping his promise to be with Jacob even amidst the trouble Jacob faces because of his wife.

Think how differently this confrontation would have gone if nothing was stolen. What I want you to see is we can’t wait for the trouble to be gone before we make a move. It is usually the presence of trouble that finally gets us to move! But God promises to be with us even in the trouble. You might be facing a degree of trouble and you know it is time to pivot something, but rest assured God is not waiting for you on the other side of the trouble. He’s right there with you in it!

Jacob and Laban’s relationship descended into chaos. Things got intense. After Laban searched the entire camp and came up with nothing, Jacob couldn’t take it anymore. He let Laban have a piece of his mind.

Genesis 31:36–42 NASB95

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? “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. “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. “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. “Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. “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. “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.”

God was with Jacob. All of his success was because God made it so. But notice that Jacob didn’t wait for the trouble to subside before he left. He trusted God and left anyway. When it is time to go, don’t wait for peace. Let God lead you to peace.

Our chaos cannot cancel God’s promises.

Take note that even in the midst of Rachel’s own version of deception, this didn’t alter God’s plan for Jacob. Laban sees that he is not getting his children and grandchildren back home. The two men create a covenant together, putting up a large stone and a heap of stones to serve as a memorial and a physical boundary marker. It was meant that neither man would cross that line. They are agreeing to stay out of each other’s business. Laban leaves and Jacob is now free to set his eyes toward home, but in going home he has another challenge to face: Esau.

You and I have the benefit of reading biblical accounts after they had been written. We know the end of Jacob’s story. Living it is something else entirely. You don’t get to read your own story as you are living it. You have to experience it and then look back at God’s providence in the moment. God promised to be with Jacob. And with Jacob God was. Has God not promised the same to you?

Does Jesus not promise us in Matthew 28:20 that he will be with us until the end of the age? Did he not promise to send the Holy Spirit to be with us forever and to teach us all that Jesus commanded? Do you and I not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit wherever we go? Do we not have access to the very power and presence of almighty God? We do.

We are not required to sort out our life before God welcomes us into his presence. Don’t you know you are already his child? You are not waiting to be his child. That’s already done! Just because you have trials in this life doesn’t mean that you are somehow abandoned by God. He has always kept his promises. Our future has always been in his hands.

Because our futures are in God’s hands, we must maintain faith that he will bring us home.

Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn’t change. As the second member of the Godhead, he shares the same character and nature of God because he is God. God is an unchanging God. He has kept his promises from the very beginning. If God kept his promises to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Israel, to David, to the prophets, doesn’t it make sense that he would keep his promises to you?

You will always end up where God wants you to if you will hold on to him and take seriously living out the principles you find in scripture. But no matter the chaos in your life, your experiencing of that chaos does not negate God’s promises. Instead, we should trust that he is walking with us through the fire and that the fire is a sign that it is time to move. That move may mean a real physical move to a new location. That move may mean a job or career change. That move may be putting some distance between you and another person.

Spoiler alert: God brought Jacob home safe and sound. He’ll do the same for you. What are you afraid of saying yes to in light of today’s message? That might just be the next right move you need to make.