February 5, 2026 - Genesis 31 & Psalm 27

We trace Psalm 27’s bold answer to fear and set it beside the turmoil of Genesis 31 where envy, gossip, and family wounds collide with God’s protection. Courage grows as we fix our eyes on God’s character and walk level paths shaped by His word.

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

Chapters

• 0:00 Jacob Leaves Laban: Genesis 31
• 2:36 Psalm 27 Read Aloud
• 4:44 Joy, Sports Hype, And True Hope
• 6:16 Resisting Fear With Trust In God
• 11:04 Walking Level Paths In Scripture
• 15:22 Envy’s Ripples In Jacob’s Story
• 21:06 Laban’s Victim Pose And God’s Care

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light By Wording Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Thursday, February 5th, 2026. Here's a quick summary of Genesis 31. Now, the title of your Bible perhaps says Jacob flees from Laban, and that really is just a short summary of what we read in Genesis 31. It opens with the sons of Laban kind of uh really hashing out their and airing out their grievances with Jacob. They feel like he is stealing uh their father's blessings, and even you know, in terms of monetary gain or the livestock and the animals and things like that, that they're upset and they are making it known, and Jacob seems to overhear that the sons of Laban are upset and he uh is fearful because he believes that Laban intends to harm him, and so he gathers uh Rachel and Leah, gets all their stuff, and uh they head out, they head out and start to go towards the promised land of Canaan that God had promised to Abraham and Isaac before him. And so uh he gets his two wives and all of his children, and they head in that direction. But Rachel, on her way out, just with her sticky fingers, decided to steal her father's household gods. And it says in verse 20, Jacob tricked Laban, the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. And so they ended up on their way and they stop, and Laban pursues him. He's angry, and they catch up, and there's this whole exchange between Laban and Jacob about who was in the wrong, basically. They were pointing fingers at each other. Why did you deceive me? Jacob saying, You were gonna harm me. God intervenes in a dream, and uh, to cap off the chapter, they make a covenant with one another to not harm the other. Or Jacob's covenant is that he will not harm Laban's daughters uh or take on another wife for himself, and from Laban's side, he would not pursue them and would not bring any harm uh to them. So it says in verse 55 Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his gat grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them, then Laban departed and returned home.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31

Listen intently to God's written word. Psalm twenty-seven. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is a stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and my foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble, he will conceal me under the cover of his tent, he will lift me high upon a rock, and now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, Seek my face, my heart says to you, Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me, turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help, cast me not off, forsake me not. O God of my salvation, for my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, nor false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Now Pastor Josiah, there's going to be shouts of joy, there's gonna be celebrations this upcoming weekend, and it's all revolved around a sporting event. And in the Psalms today, in Psalm 27, we see David singing, I will make a melody to the Lord. We see David singing, I'm gonna seek your face, I'm gonna be making sacrifices with shouts of joy, and I'm gonna make offerings in your tent. So this is a different kind of environment where we see David in the presence of danger when evildoers are all around, he's looking to God as his stronghold, he's looking to God and saying, I have no f need to be afraid because God, you are my salvation. And in the midst of that, he's waiting on the Lord, he's trusting on the Lord, he's anticipating with with an active anticipation, God is his salvation and he will deliver him. What what a contrast between the the the hopes the hopes of uh of David's life and as I think about this event coming up this week in the Super Bowl, people's people's hopes, people's livelihoods, it seems like sometimes it's all revived.

SPEAKER_01: 6:09

The bets that are being made.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01: 6:11

I totally forgot that the Super Bowl was this weekend. My my head has been so in other places, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 6:16

The the highs and lows of life um are determined by one weekend for some people, but for David, his highs and lows are are irrelevant as he keeps his face fixed on the Lord.

SPEAKER_01: 6:27

Yeah, and uh one thing that stuck out to me is especially in the first couple of verses, is and even as we've been reading through the Psalms, a consistent refrain has been, I will not fear. And that's an interesting thing. And it struck me today because the way that David talks about fear, it's as if it's an enemy. It's something that he is trying to shirk, uh, he he is trying to rid himself of. He is consistently in almost every psalm, it feels like even in the Psalm 23, the famous Psalm that we were talking about, uh, you know, what does he say? Uh the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Yeah, um, fear is is a constant refrain for David. And I think it's because fear is something to be resisted in the Christian life, because when it comes down to it, fear is doubt in God that is sort of deep in your soul, and what's coming out is uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. And I think David rightly understands that and wants nothing to do with it. And so we see that in verse one. The Lord is my light, right? The darkness isn't present. What does light do? It dispels darkness and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? There's the idea of fear, even in the second part of the verse, the Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Verse three is another example of that. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. And even how the psalm ends in verse 14 wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage, which is the opposite of fear. Wait for the Lord. And so I think fear is something that David he makes uh uh a lot of comments about, he makes a big deal out of, and he's always seeming to attack fear because I think at the root of fear it is a doubt in God. And what David's calling us to in Psalm 27 is to have a godly confidence that's rooted in an unwavering trust in God and his promises. And that's where David gets to, right? That's a process, it's not something that happens overnight for him, but he gets to this place where there's an unwavering commitment and trust in who God is and the promises that he's made. And as a result, he's saying, Because I trust in God, my heart knows no fear.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

Yeah, something that I think we all can learn from here, as you point to David's consistent battle, and he's even voicing, voicing the things that would weigh him down, the things that would get in his way of worshiping and honoring the Lord is a sphere. I'm definitely making that connection. And I and how do we go about combating that? How do we go about um attacking sin in our life? We need to make it known, we need to reveal it, we need to let others in on this fight, on this battle that we have. And there's a personal weight and a personal responsibility. We we look to verse 11 teach me your ways, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Our sometimes uh we are our own worst enemies, and we find we find ourselves getting in our own way often, and we need to keep mining the truths of scripture, mining the the promises of God as we we seek to stand on a on a level path. Um we want to have a firm foundation in ver uh in Psalm 26, uh yesterday's psalm, David says, My foot stands on level ground. Our our rock, our our firm foundation is is the word of God, and without it, we we might as well be drowning, we might as well be dead.

SPEAKER_01: 10:10

That reminds me of my daughter sometimes when we're in Shields, and you know, those not to be confused with Sheol, yeah, not Sheol, Shields, the the sports department store, I guess you could call it. It's got a fair swell in it, it's kind of a it's fun. But when we go up those big stairs, she she does fine until we get closer to the top, and then suddenly fear grips her little heart. And it'll be funny because we'll we're actually standing on level ground, but she walks, and the way that she kind of contorts her body acts as if she's on the edge of a cliff. And so that's the mental image that I had where David's like, hey, I have security and comfort and confidence because I'm walking on a level ground. And again, that speaks to the idea of fear. Uh, fear is a heart gripped by doubt. That's honestly the root of it. And Psalm 27, again, it just reminds us okay, who is our light? Who is our salvation? Even if we're waiting on the Lord, we do that with great patience and with great confidence. There's joy in that. One thing I have asked of the Lord is one of the things said here that that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, uh, which again, that's a callback to Psalm 23, right? That's some of that same language. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, things like that. Uh, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple, we we have this confidence and this trust and this level ground that God's character and his promises provide us. And as a result of that, we should have a godly confidence, not in ourselves, not in what we know, not in what we do, but in who God is. And so, yeah, fear is something that needs to be targeted, it needs to be resisted. And I think as Christians, we we don't talk about fear enough, to be honest. I think David seems like it was always on his mind. It was something that he was trying to actively combat. And I think we as Christians today at Compass Bible Church South Valley, we need to be thinking about how are we fearful and how do we rid ourselves of that? Because fear is at heart gripped by doubt, and God is so worthy uh of our trust and he's so worthy of uh just our confidence because he is the faithful. Now, Genesis 31. I want to just continue the conversation that we started yesterday about envy. We recommended that book, Envy, uh Big Problem You Didn't Know You Had by Pastor Mike Fabres. We see that still kind of some of the ripple effects of envy in the beginning of chapter 31. It says, Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our fathers, and from what was our fathers, he has gained all his wealth. So I just imagine, Tyler, they're sitting around the coffee pot in the office, uh, or maybe maybe they are around the fire outside with the sheep, or wherever they are, and they're just they're airing their grievances. They're they're griping, they're complaining. Can you believe Jacob? Who does this guy think he is? He he's stealing from our father. He's he's just riding off the the coattails of Laban. Well, and they're just gossiping. And where does that come from? It's it's an envious heart, an envious heart that feels entitled is always gonna lead to bitterness or it's gonna lead to gossip, it's gonna lead to slander, and that produces a level of tension. Now, whether or not the things that they said are reality, whether or not that's how Laban felt, we don't know. You know, they don't seem like too reliable of narrative uh narrators here uh in the uh in the text. But uh Jacob hears this and he is afraid, and so he he starts to fear for his life, and uh obviously God intervenes and directs him to leave. Um, but there's that sense of there is words that are being spoken, gossip and slander, envy kind of at the root of it, fueling it all. And it just reminded me of how important uh our words are, and how, as Proverbs says, death and life are in the power of the tongue. And uh we see an example here of Laban's sons just using their words uh to suit their own purposes, to fulfill their own desires, and it creates another mess for Laban and for Jacob and for Rachel and Leah. And so I think this is just a great example. It's sort of a of a of a test case of what envy looks like and what it does in a family. And of course, we already looked at how envy just destroyed Rachel and Leah's relationship and caused them to do all kinds of weird things. Well, let's let's get the mandrakes and let's go the medicinal route. And uh, what if uh you sell you know you're your son, and like it's just weird, it's all all just strange. Uh but that's what again, envy's at the root of it all, and uh we see that again here in Genesis 31.

SPEAKER_00: 14:50

Yeah, I'm trying to put myself in the in the uh the sandals of uh the brothers here. They're they're looking at they're looking at sister, the brother-in-law over here, gotta be stealing from dad, gotta be too well off. He's hustling, he's hustling us somehow. We're getting manipulated, we're getting swindled here, and uh, and and they're looking at they're looking at Jacob like what this this can't be. This isn't right. No. This isn't right. Where's ours? Yeah, you're not that smart. Where's where they're they're thinking like, man, Jacob's only increasing? They what's our inheritance? Like, I I want to be one of Jacob's sons. I want to be in this family. Maybe they're they got some FOMO or they got some some uh some comparison struggles where they're they're they're they're thinking, I I want that.

SPEAKER_01: 15:42

You know what I love about this too is is Laban just plays the victim, it feels like in this text where he's like, You deceived me, Jacob. I mean, Laban has been stringing this man along for 14 years plus. Yeah, he's uh Jacob has been serving and and helping Laban for 20 years, it says. And he Laban's like, Well, why'd you leave without telling me? I was gonna give you the myrrh, and uh we were gonna pull out the lyre. I was gonna send you off properly. Yeah, we were gonna have a fanfare. Why did you like okay? We don't know if that's true. Maybe that is how he felt. Again, Laban's not the most reliable of characters that we've seen. He is a deceptive trickster. Uh, so we have just a lot of those dynamics, and and God intervenes sovereignly because it does seem like there was potentially some ill intent by Laban, the way he was hounding and hunting down the you know, Jacob's party. Uh, that doesn't necessarily feel like he was he was doing that to give him a kiss on the cheek and a farewell. Um, and so God intervenes, uh, tells Laban, uh, you know, don't say anything good or bad, and and um it's just a it's another example of God providing and protecting and being true uh to his uh promises. And even in verse five, uh when Jacob is, you know, if we back up to verse four, so Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was and said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before, but the God of my father has been with me. I think this is a callback uh to the ladder dream, where he puts his head on the rock and there's the ladder uh coming from heaven, and there's the angels ascending and descending, and uh he wakes up, well, God in the dream is basically saying, I will be with you. And um Jacob wakes up and he's amazed. And we we talked about how that that was kind of the the thing that allowed Jacob to turn the corner from a trickster to trusting in the Lord, and and Jacob's remembering that here and using the same language, the God of my father has been with me. I mean, that's what um Jacob even talked about during that that's that dream, and he awoke and and poured oil on the rock to to commemorate that. And so we we see another example of Jacob uh seeking to be faithful, seeking to uh exemplify and demonstrate faith in God. Uh, but there's just a lot of interesting details here. Rachel stole her father's household gods, and that almost feels like we were just talking before the podcast, that feels like almost just one last little jab that Rachel could get at her dad. Because if you think about it, yeah, her dad, her dad kind of, or not even kind of just wronged her in some pretty significant ways. It seems like Rachel and Jacob had a mutual affection for one another. And of course, her dad threw in the variable of Leah, and then like she wasn't able to have children, and there's tension between her and her sister now, and and so it does feel like a little bit like she's just like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take this and uh be on my way. Uh and so there's just all these interesting little it's it's a it's intertwined with both uh God's sovereignty and him protecting and him providing, but also just the mess of uh people kind of doing their own thing, going their own way, and even you know, the envy that seems to be at the root of it all.

SPEAKER_00: 18:47

Another another evidence of God's God's people, God chosen, has chosen and their families just continuing to to struggle, continue to struggle along, yeah, to to please the Lord, continuing to um to forget the promises, um and and forgetting to to think about the way that God has been kind. Like we don't we don't need we don't need a a clap back on the way out to to get at people when we are feeling wronged and like our pound of flesh. Let me have the the final word here and uh that'll make me feel good about the situation now that we're equal, now that I got mine in. You know, it's it's a it's a good example for us to to think about the way that our words and our actions uh affect people. We need to be uh thinking about the people that are around us, and we think about the especially the people of uh in the household of God. Um we need to we we spoke about this yesterday, we need to operate in in a a spirit of of unity, of oneness, of of togetherness, and um really keep short accounts. So if if this is uh if this is uh a father and a son or a mother and a daughter, a dynamic, it's he's there mom or dad. Before I go, is there is there anything that is between us? Is there anything that we need to reconcile? I'd love to just address that now and lean into the tough stuff. God is honored when we do the hard work of of reconciliation. I really do think that's worth the effort.

SPEAKER_01: 20:19

Yeah, and even theologically speaking, in Genesis 31, if you remember the Abrahamic covenant had those three primary things, land, seed, and blessing. Uh God has not forgotten the promise of land. And so God is leading Jacob to the promised land. The land of Canaan. To the land of Canaan, and he's protecting, he's providing. So he he's uh even the the whole idea, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you. We see that. Um Laban is blessed as a result of his connection with Jacob, uh, even though, in a sense, like Laban uh has not been uh abundantly kind to Jacob. It seems like even Jacob's presence has uh obviously been favorable uh to Laban and just that that whole concept of God providing, protecting, land, seed, blessing. Uh, there's been children. Uh, of course, we talked about the origin story of the 12 tribes of Israel, all of their names that get connected to just the circumstances of Rachel and Leah's lives. And uh, of course, all of those stories are uh bound up in just the humanity and and some of the heartache associated with Leah being hated and Rachel being envious and all of those things, but through that mess, God's at work. And that's such a great encouragement for us because a lot of times we just can't see the ways that the Lord is working in our lives through uh the details, the the sometimes uh conflicting, confusing, and and and hurtful details that we get bogged down by. Uh, but Genesis 31 is a great example of God's working, He's working in the details, big and small. Um, and even the promise of Romans 8 28 that God is working all things together for good to those who love him. And what a great example! Example that Genesis 31 is of that. And I pray that that would cause us to not be fearful, as we were talking about in Psalm 27, that we see that even in the mut the mess and the muck and the uncertainty of it all, that God is clearly at work. He's providing, he's protecting. It may look in in ways that we may not may not expect or perhaps we don't even appreciate. But God is always working together for our good. And I think that should give us that godly confidence in the character of God. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.