Jacob Flees from Laban (Gen 31)

Daniel L. Arter

Genesis: The Book of Beginnings • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago

Genesis 31

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Introduction

If you have your Bible and haven’t already, please turn it to Genesis 31.

Our text is rather long and we could’ve divided this chapter into several weeks, but I think by doing so, we’d miss the overarching idea of this chapter and we would risk moralizing different elements of the text instead of seeing the big picture.

Because we read the text as part of our Scripture Reading, let me explain how we’re going to break down the chapter before I pray and we’ll jump right in.

As we study Genesis 31, we’re going to break it into three parts: (1) The Decision to Leave (1-16), (2) The Departure and Confrontation (17-42) and (3) The Resolution (43-55). The text is long—so I want to be abundantly clear of what the point of the text is before we start digging in—the entirety of the text really drives home the point that even when we fall into sin, even when we revert back to sinful lifestyles or attitudes, God’s still providentially protects us and leads us, which gives us hope that should push us away from our sin.

Prayer for Illumination

The Decision to Leave (1-16)

The tension between Jacob and Laban’s Household (1-3)—our text starts by showing us the tension that is increasing between Jacob and Laban’s household, which really, shouldn’t really surprise us when we consider all that had happened in the previous text.

Jacob had noticed a relational change between him and the others (1-2)

His in-laws were making statements such as “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s [Jacob] has gained all this wealth.”

Of course, with the benefit of Scripture, we know that there is a little more to it than that—God had providentially worked in the flocks of Laban through the deal made between Laban and Jacob to cause Jacob’s flocks to increase and Laban’s to decrease.

Jacob’s in-laws make it sound almost as if Jacob had stolen from Laban, but again, that’s not really the case.

In addition, Jacob noticed a change between Laban and him in that “Laban did not regard him with favor as before.”

It’s interesting that Jacob would make a statement like this when Jacob had already made the argument multiple times that Laban had tricked him, that Laban had stolen his wages, and so on.

It’s interesting because despite the trickery of Laban, it’s clear that Jacob still felt as if Laban had shown him some amount of favor.

Regardless, through this, God calls Jacob to “return to the land of [his] fathers and to [his] kindred.” (3)

Remember, that was always the intent—Jacob was really only to go for a short while—to find a spouse and to wait out Esau’s anger towards him.

Jacob had already made the realization that he had been there for quite some time (20 years to be exact) and had already started making arrangement for his departure, including the whole issue with the flocks of Laban.

Of course, leaving a place that you had called home for twenty years can be a nerve-wracking, terrifying situation, but God’s call for Jacob includes a promise that ought to lessen the nerve-wracking, terrifying elements of this situation.

God says to Jacob in v. 3 to return to the land of his fathers, “and He will be with him.”

Really, out of the entire situation—after all that Jacob has gone through because of Laban, after being told that it was time to leave his home—this simple statement from the Lord would have definitely made it clear to Jacob that it has all been worth it.

Here’s why—if we were to look at the same situation with some adjustments—there isn’t discord between the families, Laban hadn’t spent 20 years tricking Jacob or anything like that; and Jacob had everything that he had right now with the benefit of no familial discord, but he didn’t have God, he would be far worse off.

How do we know? Because of something that Jesus says in Matthew 16:24-26, “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

Jacob’s situation could be different in the sense that perhaps he wouldn’t have had to deal with the family issues that he had with Laban and he could’ve remained in that situation for the rest of his life, but if God wasn’t with him, he gained the whole world, but lost his soul.

For sure, times were difficult for Jacob in this situation, but not all is lost—God promises to be with him through all this.

Jacob starts planning for their departure in vv. 4-16—of course, Jacob still has his own nuclear family to care for. Unlike when he went to Laban, he now has wives and children and flocks and various other things. So, unlike before, he can’t just get up and leave.

So, he calls for his wives to come to him and he explains the situation at hand (4-13)

Part of the explanation shows Jacob’s understanding of God’s providence through the situation (5, 7, 9, 10-13)

In Genesis 31:5, we read this statement that “the God of my father has been with me.” Jacob realizes that throughout it all, God hasn’t abandoned him.

Genesis 31:7 speaks of God’s protection over Jacob, “But God did not permit him to harm me.”

Genesis 31:9 speaks of God’s provision for Jacob, “9 Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.”

In vv. 10-13, Jacob recounts a dream in which God makes it clear that despite Jacob’s attempt to change the results of the births of livestock in the previous chapter, it was really God who handled the situation for him, “10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’ ””

On the flip-side, Part of the explanation of the situation shows Jacob’s own desperation (5, 6-8)

Again in Genesis 31:5 “5 and [he] said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before.” Jacob points out the familial discord at hand.

In Genesis 31:6–8 Jacob speaks of how Laban had cheated him and deceived him, “6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times . . . 8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped.”

His wives note their own frustrations in vv. 14-16—mind you, Jacob’s explaining the situation, but he’s not the only person in the situation that’s been treated poorly by Laban. His wives also note their own frustrations.

They make the claim that Laban treats them as foreigners in vv. 14-15. That instead of actually caring for them as if they were still his daughters, that he treats them worse than he would treat someone who wasn’t of his own family, who he didn’t really know at all.

They also mention that whatever should be their’s in terms of an inheritance has been spent by Laban—he has already devoured what was theirs.

Essentially, they’re making the statement that even in terms of normal familial care, there’s really nothing left for them in Laban’s home.

In addition, they point out that God, in His providence has taken from their father and given to Jacob (16)

Or, in other words, they’re realizing that there’s more going on than just Laban blowing their inheritance.

They’re recognizing that in God’s divine providence, Jacob has been blessed by God taking from Laban and giving to him.

So, they agree to go with him. In particular, they agree to do “whatever God has said to [Jacob].”

Now, once they decide to depart, the action of departing occurs rapidly. They don’t really wait around, they go as they said they would. The issue is that the abrupt nature of their departure caught the attention of Laban and Laban chases after them and confronts them.

The Departure and the Confrontation (17-42)

Again, the departure itself is rather quick (17-21)

Jacob gets up after this conversation with his wives and he sends his children and his wives out on camels (17), he drives out all his livestock and property (18)

You can only imagine how big of a procedure this really is—again, remember that by this time Jacob had received quite a bit in terms of livestock and wealth. His family includes twelve children at the moment.

And, it’s not like it is today, where you can load everyone up in a car (or, actually, for them it would be a fifteen passenger van) and hook a trailer to it with all their stuff in it.

They have all this livestock, they have servants, they have themselves and everything else that all needs to go with them.

And you notice, that this is done in a veil of secrecy. v. 19 says that Laban had gone to shear his sheep—that’s when all this is occuring.

In the midst of all this, we get a small detail about Rachel and we see Jacob’s deceit towards Laban in vv. 19-21.

Rachel at the end of v. 19, “stole her father’s household gods.” We’ll get back to that.

Jacob in vv. 20-21 tells Laban that he wasn’t going to run and then immediately runs.

So, even in the midst of their departure due to their recognition that Laban hadn’t treated any of them right, they turn around and mistreat him in various ways.

Now, it takes a few days, but Laban does eventually notice that everyone disappeared and once Laban notices what had happened, he pursues Jacob (22-42)

Don’t be surprised by the fact that it takes a few days for him to notice.

It isn’t like today where technology makes it so easy for us to keep track of each other—they can’t use the Find My app to track each other’s cell phones; they don’t have AirTags on the sheep or anything like that.

And remember, the households of both Laban and Jacob were still rather large.

Laban does eventually make the realization in vv. 22-24

He actually makes the realization because someone tells him that Jacob had ran—so Laban gathers up his kinsmen and followed Jacob for seven days—you have to consider that Laban had to be particularly motivated to be able to catch up to Jacob so quickly.

Even though Jacob is traveling with a much larger group of people and livestock—it’s not like they’re meandering, they’re fleeing, so they aren’t taking their time and they had three days of traveling before Laban even started.

The fact that Laban caught up so quickly, is actually kind of impressive.

Laban catches up to Jacob, but before he confronts Jacob, he receives a dream from God in v. 24.

The dream is simple and it includes a quick message from God, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

The issue is that we need to clarify some things about this sentence. It must not be a clearcut command for Laban not to speak whatsoever because Laban does speak to Jacob in a few verses.

Since it isn’t a clearcut command (or at least, Laban doesn’t treat it as a clearcut command not to speak), the meaning of the message must be in the phrase, “either good or bad.” And if you look at this passage in a few commentaries, you’ll notice that that’s the focus on this statement from God.

Perhaps it could help to see this passage in a different English translation—this is from the NET, which is more of a functional translation. v. 24 says, “But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, ‘Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’” And then, in the translator’s notes for the NET, it explains this, “Heb “lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil.” The precise meaning of the expression, which occurs only here and in v. 29, is uncertain. Since Laban proceeded to speak to Jacob at length, it cannot mean to maintain silence. Nor does it seem to be a prohibition against criticism (see vv. 26–30). Most likely it refers to a formal pronouncement, whether it be a blessing or a curse. Laban was to avoid saying anything to Jacob that would be intended to enhance him or to harm him.”

It’s actually reminiscent of the dreams that Abimelech received in the past—not necessarily in content, but in purpose—God is protecting his people from harm.

Laban does catch up to Jacob and he does confront him—and vice versa, Jacob confronts Laban.

Laban confronts Jacob (25-35)—he calls out Jacob for tricking him and driving away his daughters.

He actually makes the argument, “why wouldn’t you tell me that you were leaving so that I could send you away with mirth (or joy) and songs, with tambourine and lyre.” Why would Jacob not allow him “to kiss [his] sons and [his] daughters farewell.”

Laban actually mentions the dream—that because of the way that Jacob left (in their culture), Laban could hurt Jacob for acting this way, but the “God of [Jacob’s] father spoke to [him]” and warned him not to speak from good to evil.

Now, Laban does bring up the issue of someone stealing his gods, but remember, at this point, Jacob doesn’t know who stole the gods, in fact, v. 32 clarifies, “Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.”

So, Laban searches all their property with the exception of a camel’s saddle because Rachel was sitting on it, which housed these false gods.

After Laban searches all of Jacob’s property, Jacob confronts Laban (36-42)

Jacob berates Laban for the confrontation in general—essentially his argument is that he hasn’t done anything to Laban to warrant Laban chasing him and searching all his property--now, you might not agree with his argument, but that is how Jacob feels about the situation.

He then speaks of the many years of service that he offered to Laban, his willingness to eat the cost of animals which were stolen or destroyed by animals. He confronts Laban for changing his wages several different times.

And he makes the point that if it were not for God being on his side, he’s certain that Laban would’ve left him empty-handed. In fact, he’s certain that if God hadn’t warned Laban in the dream, the confrontation itself would’ve been different.

The confrontation itself is rather intense. And in all of this, you see some reoccurring themes dealing with Jacob’s trickery, God’s providence, and adversity. However, the text doesn’t end with just dealing with the confrontation, we see a resolution at play and in my mind, I wonder how much of this resolution is a result of the dream that God gave to Laban because it involves a covenant

The Resolution (43-55)

In the last section of the text, Laban makes a proposition (43-44)

The foundation for the proposition (43) is the fact that Jacob’s wives are his daughters and that the grandchildren are his grandchildren; however, you notice that in the statements that Laban makes here, he’s still acting as if he has legitimate control over his daughters, the grandchildren, and the flocks.

He probably still thinks of himself as the cultural patriarch who has complete control over these things, but it’s contrary to what Jacob has already said and it’s really contrary to what God has intended for the family group.

In a way, what Laban is saying that Jacob is the problem—that Jacob had taken from him the livestock, that Jacob had turned his family against him, but the reality is that his family turned against him because of the way Laban treated them, not because of anything Jacob had done—and Jacob didn’t take from Laban’s livestock, God took from his livestock.

Regardless, that’s what brings about the foundation for this proposition and the proposition is that of a covenant. Laban says, “Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” in v. 44.

In the swearing of the Covenant (45-54) we then see the preparations for it in vv. 45-47 and the covenant itself in vv. 48-54.

The preparations for the Covenant (45-47) are pretty common for the era and culture (45-47)

Jacob makes a pillar, has his kinsmen gather stones to make a heap. They share a meal together before Laban speaks.

This is what Laban says for the Covenant (48-54)—that “the Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 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 . . . [this pillar is a witness]” and in v. 52, “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. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” The conditions of the covenant are actually rather simple:

First, Jacob cannot take any more wives nor can he hurt Laban’s daughters—I think that’s a fair assertion.

Second, Jacob swears not to harm Laban and Laban swears not to hurt Jacob—again, I think that’s a fair assertion.

What’s interesting in all this is that Laban places the judgment of this covenant in the hands of God himself—it might give the impression that he now believes in Yahweh, but don’t make that assumption.

Remember, part of the confrontation in the first place is that someone had stolen Laban’s gods.

It’s also worth noting that throughout the statements given by Laban, he never calls God by name—he always uses the term Elohim, which is a generic term for a god and he never calls God Yahweh, which probably confirms that he doesn’t necessarily follow Yahweh—despite receiving communication directly from Yahweh.

If anything, it’s simply Laban utilizing the highest authority that Jacob believes in and follows as the basis for the covenant.

Jacob swears to uphold this covenant by “the Fear of his father Isaac [fear referring to God himself,]” Jacob then offered a sacrifice and they ate and spent the night in the country.

Laban then Departs (55)—and it’s a simple and actually sweet departure, “Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.”

Despite the confrontation, despite all of the things that occured that led up to this point, when it all came down to it—Laban simply blesses his children and grandchildren and goes back home.

Personally, I think this is the result of that dream from God—and while we can’t know for sure, since Scripture doesn’t tell us otherwise, I think this situation probably would’ve ended differently had God not stepped in and spoken to Laban in that dream.

Remember, up to this point, Laban was not a greatest person—he was morally destitute, a trickster, a deceiver.

Until God stepped in, it seemed Laban’s primary motivation in pursuing Jacob was anger, not simply because he wanted to bless his children and grandchildren.

It’s worth considering, though, of course, we cannot be too dogmatic about it—since Scripture doesn’t tell us for sure.

Now, in the last few minutes, let’s take some time to consider application. As I’ve stated before, sometimes narratives like this are difficult to apply, but I think once I show you the overarching idea at play, you’ll grasp the application rather quickly.

Application

Remember, what’s going on now isn’t something random—this is a culmination of several different events in the life of Jacob—from the days of his youth, where he tricked and deceived his brother, to the time he spent being tricked and deceived by his father-in-law. In some ways, we’ve come full circle—to where Jacob is again acting in deceit and trickery. Essentially, the stress of his situation has caused him to revert to his old ways and that’s where our application comes into play. There are two ideas that I think you can see from this passage: (1) stressful situations can cause us to revert to our old ways and (2) God still protects us even when we fall back into our sin. Let’s talk about those two ideas:

Highly stressful situations can cause us to revert to our old ways—consider Jacob tricking Laban

Jacob was in a situation in life in which he felt it necessary to trick his father-in-law mostly because of the way that his father-in-law had treated him for 20 years.

This wasn’t a situation in which Jacob just woke up one day and decided to revert to his old ways—this was a situation in which he felt that he had no alternative—of course, that doesn’t absolve what he chose to do, but it gives us some insight into why he did it.

Laban had regularly lied and tricked him; and despite the significant amount of growth that Jacob showed since being a deceiver and trickster himself, in the stress of the moment, he goes back to how he was before.

Instead of trusting the Lord to handle the situation, he sins by taking the situation into his own hands—by lying, by deceiving, and by tricking.

Likewise, we do similar things when it comes to our previous sinful lives. For instance:

If we’re thinking purely in terms of high stress environments—the high stress could cause us to fall in drunkenness or substance abuse rather easily.

In fact, even in the secular world—when dealing with addiction, the secular world teaches those struggling with addiction to identify their triggers because certain things in life could very easily push people back into their addictive behavior.

And just to clarify, when I’m talking about the idea of stress, I’m talking about the state of mental, emotional, and spiritual strain or tension that results from difficult situations.

When we deal with situations that push us we find ourselves stressed. And stress has a tendency to push us back into our previous sinful lives.

But truthfully, if we’re thinking in terms of just everyday life—if we run into old temptations, we could very easily fall back into those sins—particularly, if we’re dealing with life-besetting sins (e.g., addiction, sexual sin, etc.)

That’s not meant to cause you to lose hope, that’s meant to be realistic—life is filled with great stress and life is filled with temptation.

Ideally, we’d recognize when we’re being overwhelmed with stress or overwhelmed by sinful situations.

Ideally, when we make that realization, we’d cry for out for help:

We immediately fall on our knees in prayer, we put our trust in Jesus, we focus our hearts on Him.

We might seek help from trusted friends and spiritual leaders.

But we don’t always recognize those situations before we succumb to our sin.

And our tendency when we do fall back into sins that we thought we had worked through and eliminated from our lives—can be to despair.

There is an element where that is good—we should grieve when we fall into sin.

There should never be a moment in your life where you fall into sin and you think, “that’s fantastic.”

But, there is clearly an element in this in which we could easily go too far in our grief—if we allow our sin to push us into more sin, for instance.

If we fall into a sin and just think, “well, I already sinned, I might as well keep sinning.”

Or, if we fall into sin and then in unrighteous anger start blaming other people for our sin.

Ideally, when these sorts of issues come up in our lives, we recognize that we’re falling into sin, we repent and we get back on track before we succumb to those temptations and before we continue to fall deeper into sin.

However, the beauty of a passage like Genesis 31 is that it teaches us that even when we do fall into old sins, it doesn’t destroy God’s plan for our lives—in fact, God still cares for us and protects us even when we do fall into sin.

Notice how God still protects Jacob even in the midst of his reversion to sin—consider Laban’s dream

Laban’s dream is God’s intervention to prevent further issues from occuring. And by interceding on Jacob’s behalf through the dream given to Laban, God gives Jacob the opportunity to make things right with his father-in-law.

This doesn’t negate the fact that Jacob still succumbed to his temptation to act in deceit again or anything like that; it simply shows us that despite Jacob’s reversion to his prior sinfulness didn’t cause God to reject him or stop working in Jacob’s life.

Likewise, God does the same for us to this day.

For instance, consider one of the Holy Spirit’s roles within our lives—to seal us until the Day of Redemption.

Consider God’s promise to complete our sanctification

Consider God’s promise to hold us in His hand, to care for us, to shepherd us.

Just reminding ourselves that God doesn’t get rid of us when we fall back into sin—should give us the hope that we need to get back out of that sin.

Not that we can do it on our own, but the fact that despite our sin, Jesus is still there, He’s still holding onto us, He’s still working within us.

As Paul states, God’s grace isn’t a means for us to continue to sin, but rather, His grace is what empowers us to leave sin behind.

So, friends, when you fall into sin, which you will.

Don’t allow it to be a reason to keep sinning.

Refocus your heart on Jesus Christ, whose grace sets you free from sin and empowers you to stop sinning, get back up, make things right, and keep going.

Pastoral Prayer

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