Genesis 31.43-55-Laban's Non-Aggression Pact with Jacob
Sunday July 30, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 31:43-55-Laban’s Non-Aggression Pact with Jacob
Lesson # 187
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 31:43.
This morning we will complete our study of Genesis 31.
Thus far, by way of review, we have noted the following in this chapter:
In Genesis 31:1-2, we saw that Jacob hears of Laban’s sons’ antagonism towards him and also sees a change of attitude by Laban towards him.
In Genesis 31:3 we noted the Lord commanding Jacob to return home and promising him protection.
In Genesis 31:4-16, we saw Jacob informing his wives that the Lord has commanded him to leave Laban and his wives agree to leave with him.
Then, in Genesis 31:17-21 we saw Jacob departing from Paddan Aram and heading towards Canaan.
Genesis 31:22-24 records God protecting Jacob by warning Laban in a dream to not stop Jacob from returning home to Canaan.
In Genesis 31:25-31 we studied that Jacob left Laban secretly out of fear that Laban would take his wives and children from him.
This fear was due to a lack of faith in the Lord to honor His promise to protect him from Laban.
Then, we studied Genesis 31:25-30 where Laban confronts Jacob and makes three accusations against him.
In Genesis 31:31-35, Jacob responds to Laban’s accusations and we see Rachel deceiving her father Laban.
In Genesis 31:36-38, Jacob demonstrates his innocence from being wrongly accused of stealing the teraphim in the present and his innocence in the past in not stealing from Laban’s flocks.
In Genesis 31:39-40, he presents to his audience the difficult conditions he had to work under.
In Genesis 31:41-42, Jacob appeals to God’s vindication of him in the past and in the present in Laban’s dream.
This morning, we will complete our study of Genesis 31 by noting Genesis 31:43-55, which presents to us the record of Laban’s response to Jacob’s scathing rebuke, which is to propose a non-aggression pact with Jacob at Mizpah.
Up to this point in our study of the book of Genesis, this non-aggression pact between Jacob and Laban will be the third non-aggression pact that the patriarchs have agreed to (See Genesis 21:22-24; 26:26-33).
Genesis 31:43, “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?’”
Now that Laban has been publicly exposed by Jacob’s testimony recorded in Genesis 31:35-42, Laban pitifully attempts to cover his loss of face with empty rhetoric, hypocrisy, and self-righteous arrogance and emotion.
Laban attempted once again to turn the tables on Jacob and make him out to be the bad guy by diverting attention from Jacob’s embarrassing facts by changing the subject.
Laban’s first claim, “the daughters are my daughters” is a true statement but they are now married to Jacob and are no longer under his authority but Jacob’s since he is husband of both Rachel and Leah now.
Laban’s second claim, “the children are my children” is true only in the sense that Jacob’s children are Laban’s grandchildren but that does not give Laban the right to take these children back with him.
Laban’s third claim, “the flocks are my flocks” is also false since it totally ignores the contract that he made with Jacob in which he agreed to Jacob’s proposal that Jacob would receive all the “striped, spotted, speckled” sheep and goats and dark colored sheep that were born of Laban’s solid colored animals (See Genesis 30:25-43).
Laban’s claim “the flocks are my flocks” demonstrates Laban’s failure to acknowledge that God had blessed Jacob and was responsible for Jacob’s prosperity from this contract (See Genesis 31:11-12).
Laban’s fourth claim, “all that you see is mine” is also totally false and therefore another lie from his lips since all the prosperity that Jacob had, came from God and not Laban.
As we saw in Genesis 30:25-36, Laban had provided Jacob with nothing and had given him no property and had cheated Jacob on his wages.
The property that Jacob left Paddan Aram with was accumulated during his last six years of service to Laban and was part of the contract that Laban agreed to with Jacob, which is recorded in Genesis 30:25-36.
Therefore, the truth of the matter is that Laban gave Jacob nothing and that God had prospered Jacob and had given Jacob everything.
Laban has been attempting to make himself appear as the reason for Jacob’s success and so in effect he is saying to Jacob, “you were nothing until you met me and worked for me!”
Laban’s rhetorical question, which demands a negative response, “But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?” expresses Laban’s frustration at not being able to take revenge on Jacob since God had warned Laban in a dream to not harm Jacob, which is recorded in Genesis 31:24 and acknowledged by Laban as recorded in Genesis 31:29.
Genesis 31:44, “So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”
By proposing a covenant, Laban is in effect capitulating to Jacob and acknowledging his defeat in his case against Jacob.
A foundational concept of a covenant is the notion of a legal contract, which was developed to establish and regulate a relationship where none previously existed.
Therefore, we see Laban seeking to establish and regulate a peaceful coexistence between himself and Jacob where one previously did not exist.
Genesis 31:45, “Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.”
“Pillar” is the noun matstsevah (hb*x@m^) (mats-say-vaw), which denotes a single upright stone pillar set up as a monument and a memorial to mark the boundaries between Laban on the north and Jacob on the south.
Jacob erected three pillars in his life to mark the three great turning points in his life: (1) His first encounter with the Lord at Bethel (Genesis 28:18) (2) Departure from Laban and return to Canaan (Genesis 31:45) (3) His second encounter with the Lord at Bethel (Genesis 35:14).
In Genesis 31:45, Jacob erected a memorial to stand as a witness to the oral contract between him and his uncle Laban and called it “Galeed,” which is the Hebrew term for “witness heap.”
The employment of piled stones serves as an eternal witness against one who would dare to break the treaty made between the parties, a common Near Eastern practice.
This treaty was a formal one, employing several elements: (1) The grounds delineated by the treaty (2) Invoking divine witnesses (3) A curse for breaking the agreement, which was insured in the case of Jacob and Laban by the presence of God (4) A meal before the witnessing heap, confirming the acceptance of the terms by both parties.
The stones used in this passage also represent another common ancient Near Eastern legal practice, namely that of establishing boundary stones to demarcate territory.
These stones marked the extension of territory under the jurisdiction of a ruler, the extent of a private plot, and in some cases, served as a public proclamation that land had been transferred.
Presumably, the boundary marked by the stones was the limit of Jacob’s property as Gilead would later become part of the nation of Israel.
Genesis 31:46, “Jacob said to his kinsmen, ‘Gather stones.’ So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.”
Genesis 31:47, “Now Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.”
In his native language, which is Aramaic, Laban gave the heap of stones the name “Jegar-sahadutha,” which means, “witness heap.”
In his native language, which is Hebrew, Jacob gave the heap of stones the name “Galeed,” which also means, “witness heap.”
The fact that Jacob gave the heap of stones a Hebrew name indicates that he is identifying himself with the Promised Land, the land of Canaan.
The fact that Laban gave the heap of stones an Aramaic and Jacob a Hebrew name reveals that Laban and Jacob are now two distinct people, each speaking their own language.
Genesis 31:48-49, “Laban said, ‘This heap is a witness between you and me this day.’ Therefore it was named Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, ‘May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other.’”
Genesis 31:50, “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.”
Genesis 31:51, “Laban said to Jacob, ‘Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me.’”
Genesis 31:52, “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.”
By invoking the name of Jacob’s God, Laban was implying that Jacob was the one who needed to be watched and this was the responsibility of the God of Jacob.
Laban’s gods would not need to do anything since he was a man of his word, which of course was a joke.
The witness heap was also given the name “Mizpah,” meaning “watchtower” since Laban did not trust Jacob, which is a case of Laban projecting onto Jacob his own failure and the fact he himself can’t be trusted.
Therefore, Laban is saying, “I do not trust you Jacob and since I won’t be hear to watch you, then may the Lord keep watch.”
This treaty was not a promise between friends but a warning between antagonists who did not trust each other.
They called on God to keep each other true to the terms of the covenant they had just made and so therefore, this covenant is a “non-aggression” pact.
Laban’s statement “If you mistreat my daughters” is hypocrisy on his part again in the sense that he made a pretense of having concern for his daughters’ safety, which he did not possess as demonstrated by his treatment of his daughters as expressed by his daughters in Genesis 31:14-16.
Notice in Genesis 31:51 how Laban states that he claims to have built this pillar and heap of stones when in reality it was Jacob and his family according to Genesis 31:46 and so we see that once again Laban always claims what he has not done or does not belong to him and is therefore delusional.
Genesis 31:51-52 manifests another element of a treaty common in ancient Near Eastern legal practice, namely, that of establishing boundary stones to demarcate territory.
The boundary marked by the stones was the limit of Jacob’s property as Gilead would later become part of the nation of Israel.
Genesis 31:53, “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.”
Genesis 31:53 manifests two more elements of a treaty in ancient Near Eastern practice, namely the invoking divine witnesses, a curse for breaking the agreement, which was insured in the case of Jacob and Laban by the presence of God.
Laban added an oath to the covenant by calling on the God of Abraham and the gods of Nahor, the gods of their father to judge between Jacob and Laban, which indicates how great a split this is between the two families of Laban and Jacob.
The phrase “the God of Nahor” should be translated “the gods of Nahor” for two reasons: (1) Laban was still a polytheist as evidenced by his household gods that Rachel stole. (2) The plural form of the verb shaphat (fp^v*) (shaw-fat), means “they will judge.”
Jacob ignored the gods of Nahor and took his oath only in the name of the true and living God who was worshipped by Isaac, his father and grandfather Abraham as indicated by the statement that “Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.”
This statement expresses Jacob’s faith in the God of his father Isaac indicating that he is identifying with the God his father Isaac who reverentially worshipped God and possessed an eternal relationship and close intimate fellowship with Him.
Genesis 31:54, “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.”
Genesis 31:54 manifests the final element of a treaty in ancient Near Eastern practice, namely that partaking of a meal between the parties before the witnessing heap, confirming the acceptance of the terms by both parties.
Genesis 31:55, “Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.”
So we see the covenant ceremony has been concluded resulting in peace between Laban and Jacob.
Laban’s chase of Jacob has ended in a covenant guaranteeing respect for each other’s family and territory in the future and so therefore, Laban heads home to Paddan Aram and Jacob to Canaan.
Laban did not altogether lack affection for his own family as demonstrated that he kissed his grandsons and daughters goodbye and to gave them a blessing.
He must have known that his daughters had come to resent him and he was probably feeling guilty about that.
Notice, he was so arrogant and proud that he could not bring himself to apologize to his daughters and Jacob.
So Laban walks off the pages of Scriptures here since never again do we hear of him.
He was governed and controlled by the old Adamic sin nature and the cosmic system, which he loved.
Laban encountered the true and living God in a dream and had witnessed the reality of God in the life of Jacob and was even blessed by God due to his association with Jacob.
Unfortunately, this did not lead to the bowing of his will and trusting in Christ as His Savior since he continued in idolatry and covetousness and involved in the god of materialism.
