Back to the Beginning: Genesis 31:1-30

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 31:1-30

Read the passage in your Bible or online. Click the link above to read on BibleGateway.com.

There is no guessing on Jacobs end, only patience and trusting in God’s timing and now it is finally time for him to leave this hiding place and return to the promised land. With little convincing, Leah and Rachel agree to follow their husband and leave their father’s land. So the caravan is packed and they sneak away… but not before Rachel steals the idols from her father’s house.

Imagine Laban’s reaction when he returns from shearing his flock and finds them gone! Not one to let things go, he assembles a posse and sets out in hot pursuit. With seven days of travel, he has plenty of time to stew over his anger for Jacob, but that is interrupted by a stern warning directly from God.

When he catches up to Jacob, Laban bombards him with questions:

How dare you drag my daughter’s away like prisoners!
Why did you slip away secretly?
Why did you deceive me?
And why didn’t you say you wanted to leave…? I would have thrown you a going away party! (WHAT?!)

Oh, the irony of a deceiver being so put out when they are the one being deceived!

But his focus really comes down to one accusatory question: Why have you stolen my gods?

This is a man who has heard the voice of God first hand and seen the prosperity of Jacob through the Lord, yet his main concern is the idols. Worthless, time consuming, dead-end idols. How does He not understand? How does He not see, I mean really see, what he is missing?