Injustices are many in this world, yet if we try to find justice in our own power, we may make matters even worse. Is it best to wait on the Lord? Let’s look at Genesis 31.
Did Laban’s attitude towards Jacob worsen? Did God protect Jacob? What did Jacob say to Rachel and Leah?
Now Jacob used to listen while Laban’s sons kept on complaining, “Jacob has taken over everything our father owns! He made himself wealthy from what belongs to our father!” Jacob also noticed that the way Laban had been looking at him wasn’t as nice as it had been just two days earlier. Then the Lord ordered Jacob, “Go back to your father’s territory and to your relatives. I’ll be with you.” Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come out to the field where his flock was and informed them, “I’ve noticed that the way your father has been looking at us hasn’t been as nice as it was just two days ago. But my father’s God has been with me. You know I’ve been serving your father with all my heart. Even so, your father has cheated me. He broke our wage agreement ten times. However, God didn’t allow him to harm me. (Genesis 31:1-7 ISV)
To whom did Jacob give credit for his blessings? To whom do we give credit?
If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked. Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. (Genesis 31:8-9 KJV)
What did Jacob dream about? Did God bring him justice from his father-in-law’s swindling?
And it came about at the time when the flock was breeding that I raised my eyes and saw in a dream—and behold—the male goats that were mating were striped, speckled, or mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob’; and I said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Now raise your eyes and see that all the male goats that are mating are striped, speckled, or mottled; for I have seen everything that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’” (Genesis 31:10-13 NASB)
What did Rachel and Leah say to Jacob? Were they fed up with their father’s mistreatment?
Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.” (Genesis 31:14-16 NIV)
Did they finally leave, without telling Laban about their departure?
Then Jacob rose and set his sons and his wives on camels. And he carried away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gained, his acquired livestock which he had gained in Padan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father’s. And Jacob stole away, unknown to Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee. So he fled with all that he had. He arose and crossed the river, and headed toward the mountains of Gilead. (Genesis 31:17-21 NKJV)
What did Laban do when he found out? How did God warn him in a dream?
Three days later, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. So he gathered a group of his relatives and set out in hot pursuit. He caught up with Jacob seven days later in the hill country of Gilead. But the previous night God had appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and told him, “I’m warning you—leave Jacob alone!” (Genesis 31:22-24 NLT)
What happened a week later? Was he worried about the family idols?
Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead. Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp; and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly. It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.’ Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?” (Genesis 31:25-30 WEB)
Did Rachel lie to her father? What happened next?
Jacob responded to Laban, “I was afraid and convinced myself that you would take your daughters away from me. Whomever you find with your divine images won’t live. Identify whatever I have that is yours, in front of your brothers, and take it.” Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them. Laban went into Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and her two servants’ tent and didn’t find them. So he left Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s. Now Rachel had taken the divine images and put them into the camel’s saddlebag and sat on them. Laban felt around in the whole tent but couldn’t find them. Rachel said to her father, “Sir, don’t be angry with me because I can’t get up for you; I’m having my period.” He searched but couldn’t find the divine images. (Genesis 31:31-35 CEB)
Did Jacob finally confront his double-dealing, swindling father-in-law?
What have I done wrong? Have I committed some crime? Is that why you hunted me down? After searching through everything I have, did you find anything of yours? If so, put it here, where your relatives and mine can see it. Then we can decide what to do. (Genesis 31:36-37 CEV)
What did Jacob accuse Laban of? Was he a selfish father-in-law?
These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold 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 have changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.” (Genesis 31:38-42 ESV)
What was Laban’s answer? Did he come to an agreement?
Then Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters; the sons, my sons; and the flocks, my flocks! Everything you see is mine! But what can I do today for these daughters of mine or for the children they have borne? Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between the two of us.” (Genesis 31:43-44 HCSB)
What did Jacob do? Did he condescend to an agreement between the two?
So Jacob took a stone and raised it as a pillar. Then Jacob told his relatives, “Go gather some stones.” So they picked up stones and stacked them one on top of the other. Then they had a meal together there by the stack of stones. Laban named the place Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed. (Genesis 31:45-47 ISV)
What was their covenant? Was it not to do each other harm?
And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; And Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee: This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. (Genesis 31:48-53 KJV)
Did they eat a communal meal? Did Laban finally depart?
Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his relatives to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. Then early in the morning Laban got up, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place. (Genesis 31:54-55 NASB)
Injustices are many in this world, yet if we try to find justice in our own power, we may make matters even worse. Is it best to wait on the Lord? You decide!
