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Jacob Flees from Laban - Fulfilling the Call of God

[Part Three of Three]

Genesis 31: 1-55

So, we have reached the point in the story were everyone has said their piece. So, let’s see if they can make their peace and pick up the story at verse 43 and goes to the end of the chapter. What you need to know about these verses is they made a covenant a solemn agreement with each other, in fact in most translations of the Bible these verses are given the title, Laban’s covenant with Jacob.

Let’s pick it up at 43 

£And Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and this flock is my flock; 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 therefore, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”

(Genesis 31: 43-44)

“So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. Then Jacob said to his brethren, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. And Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore, its name was called Galeed, also Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another”. 

(Genesis 31: 45-49)

So, without going into a great deal of detail, what goes on next is simply that they make the covenant, and they pile up a pile of stones.  And on one pile they have a sacrifice. It’s like saying they signed the contract, they use another pile of stones as a table to have a celebratory feast, and they gave names to the places, and this is the covenant. I think what’s important is the terms of the covenant, describe in verse 50 onwards.

“If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us—see, God is witness between you and me!”Then Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap and here is this pillar, which I have placed between you and me. This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac

(Genesis 31: 50-53)

And so, they set up a marker on the land and they say I will not pass this, and you won’t go past this either. And that is the agreement they make together. The next verse then tells us;

“Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. And early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place”.

(Genesis 31: 54-55)

They offered a sacrifice, they ate bread. They had a celebratory meal.  Then the story closes in verse 55 with them saying their goodbye’s and each going on their separate ways.

So, what’s the point of this story?  What’s going on in this story, I really had to meditate on this for a while when I looked at this story and I decided there’s several things going on here. I get two main things out of this. I think what jumps off the page is that the Lord remains faithful to his promise.  Back in Chapter 28, he said to Jacob I will be with you. The Lord had made a covenant with his grandfather Abraham with his father Isaac.  One that said I’m going to give you this land, so that is why he wants Jacob back in the land.  I think the reason this story is recorded in the Book of Genesis is because the overall scheme of things revealed in the Book of Genesis, is that the Lord remains faithful to his promises. He was faithful to his promise to be with Jacob, to protect Jacob and to bless Jacob. He did this by not only appearing to Jacob in and telling him to return to the land of Bethel, and he also did it by also appearing in a dream to Laban and telling him to make peace with Jacob. It’s as if the Lord threw a protective bubble over Jacob and  said to Laban, don’t touch him.  So, the Lord. Protected Jacob. 

I read a story years ago, set in Victorian times of an Englishman who while traveling abroad and had the misfortune of being seized by local warlords who held him hostage under the threat of death.  A diplomat from the British Council, asked to see the prisoner , as a prelude to negotiations the British diplomat stepped forward and threw a British flag over the fellow, and said, fire on that flag, if you dare and you fire on the whole British nation. Not sure this would work today, but it worked back in those days. 

Well beloved it’s almost as if God, threw his banner over Jacob and warned Laban not to touch him. One of the great lessons that comes out of this Bible story is that God protects his children.

When I introduced this study of chapter 31 I previewed it by making the statement that I felt there was a surprise at the end. That surprise for me is found in the conclusion we can draw here. Remember at the beginning of the story God wanted Jacob to go home. The call of God on his life at that point was to return to his homeland, but how did God get Jacob to do what he wanted him to do. What did God use to motivate and convince Jacob to go home? Do you remember? it’s in those opening verses.  It’s one the first things I said. What’s the motivation to get out of town at the beginning of this chapter?  Of you have forgot I don’t blame you, it was 55 verses ago.

“Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has acquired all this wealth.” And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not favourable toward him as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.

(Genesis 31: 1-3)

The first thing that happened is Laban’s sons gets jealous. Then Laban became ill disposed to Jacob. It is the negative actions of the unbelievers around him that were instrumental in convincing Jacob to get out of town. He then to his wives and said, have you heard what your brother are saying about me? Have you seen the expression on your father’s face? I think we should leave.  

Here are the main points I would like to make in the story. Number one is God protects his children. Number two, God keeps his promises. But the sting in the tails is that he sometimes uses strange or even what we perceive as negative motivators as ways to get us to do what he wants us to do. Have you ever heard anyone say, “God works in mysterious ways”. What did God use in this case? God uses, in this case the jealousy of his brothers-in-law to motivate Jacob do what he ought to be doing. God used a hostile attitude signalled by and angry disapproving father to persuade Jacob to get out of where he shouldn’t be, and to get to where God wanted him to be. Does God do that kind of thing?  Will God sometimes use negative scenarios around us to get us to move on. Will God sometime use jealousy anger and hostility in other people to sometimes to get his will done in us? I think this is important because we need to understand is God is always wanting to speak to us, even among the craziness of life.

If somebody is being hostile towards you, maybe the Lord want to teach you something, who knows, maybe the Lord will use that to accomplish his will for you. If someone is jealous of you, envious of you, upset with you? I It should not bother you, because who now know God will still be in the process of doing His will even in the midst of jealousy and anger, and all kinds of other stupid stuff.  If you know that the Lord is working in your life, it doesn’t matter what other people are doing around you, including getting jealous of angry or even out and out hostile towards you. That’s their problem, not yours. We just have to trust the Lord to work and maybe even use the persecution of others to get us to where we need to be in life.

Can you think of any other example like this elsewhere in the Bible? I’m going to close with an illustration, from the New Testament, in Philippians, chapter one. I’ll never forget the first time I read this I scratched my head and said you gotta be kidding me. God doesn’t work like that, but that’s what the text says and sure enough when I studied it in more depth I discovered that that is definitely what the text means. 

First, let me give you a little background to what’s going on here. We need to understand that this letter of Paul was written while he was in jail.  When Paul was in jail in Rome, he wrote four letters, he wrote, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon, all from jail. This is one of what are referred to as his four “prison letters”.  He’s in jail, so he's got to explain to his followers, what's going on and say how he’s handling his situation, and that’s what he says. 

12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. [I’m in jail. But you know what? The way this has turned out, I’ve had an opportunity to preach the gospel]. 

13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

[He was being guarded by the Palace guard, called the Pretorian guard. In fact, he has four guards at a time and he was handcuffed to two them at any one time. So here are these soldiers handcuffed to Paul and he gets to witness to a new set of 4 soldiers every 4 hours. That’s 24 guards every day 24/7. 

 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

So, he says, because I’m in jail, the gospel has spread throughout the whole Pretorian guard, the elite soldiers of Rome. The gospel has spread through the Palace Guards and the news has reached the Christians outside in the city. See that I’m doing it in jail, he says.  And he then says, well, if he can do it in jail, we can do it out of jail, so be encouraged. Then he says

“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice”.

(Philippians 1: 15-18)

Does that blow your mind? He says let me tell you something else.   Some out there are preaching the Gospel out of jealousy or selfish ambition. Some are out there preaching the gospel, thinking because Paul’s in jail, I can preach the gospel and take his place as a leader of this Christian community. And Paul says, you know what, as long as I preach Christ and they preach Christ,  I don’t care whether it's done, even out of false motives, truth or jealousy. I don’t care. God gets his work done just as long as the word is preached.

Sometimes we all see things in the world, and we wonder what the motives of the Christian in might be doing what they are doing, well be encouraged, the main thing is that the true Gospel is preached. Sometimes when we face criticism or even persecution, be encouraged because can still use these things to get us to where we need to be. Sometimes God has to use strange ways to get us to do his will. So, don’t let jealousy or envy or somebody else doing things in a different way bother you. Just figure out what the Lord wants you to do and do it. And as Paul says, do it and rejoice.