Laban caught up with Jacob after he quietly left Haran. This devotional reading looks at the covenant the two made.
Nuggets
- I wonder if Jacob would have sentenced the thief to death if he would have known it was Rachel.
- Jacob unloaded because years of pent-up frustration came spewing out.
- Laban again staked his claim but accepted defeat.
- Jacob and Laban made a covenant and had a meal to seal the deal.
- On the surface, it looks like Laban and Jacob are swearing by the same God, but they may not have been.
- Jacob and Laban entered into a covenant agreement, but it doesn’t seem like their relationship was mended.
Things had gone downhill between Laban and Jacob. When Jehovah had told Jacob to return to Canaan, he rounded up the flocks and herds, put his wives and children on camels, and set off.
The problem was that Jacob set off in secret without telling Laban. What did Laban think of that?
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Jacob the Patriarch series
Rachel and the Teraphim
“‘But as for your gods, see if you can find them, and let the person who has taken them die! And if you find anything else that belongs to you, identify it before all these relatives of ours, and I will give it back!’ But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the household idols. Laban went first into Jacob’s tent to search there, then into Leah’s, and then the tents of the two servant wives — but he found nothing. Finally, he went into Rachel’s tent. But Rachel had taken the household idols and hidden them in her camel saddle, and now she was sitting on them. When Laban had thoroughly searched her tent without finding them, she said to her father, ‘Please, sir, forgive me if I don’t get up for you. I’m having my monthly period.’ So Laban continued his search, but he could not find the household idols” (Gen. 31: 32-35 NLT)
I wonder if Jacob would have sentenced the thief to death if he would have known it was Rachel.
Rachel had taken the figurines on her own. Jacob knew nothing about it.
Because of that, Jacobs reaction to Laban was totally honest. “What are you talking about?”
Did Jacob make a vow before sovereign God? We can look at it that way. We know the rest of the story.
Rachel got as far as Bethlehem in Canaan. There, she died in childbirth.
Was this because Jacob made a vow to God that the person who took the idols would die? Was this just Sovereign God punishing the thief?
We talked about the different possible reasons why Rachel took them.
- These figurines were connected to inheritance rights.
- Rachel could have seen that as a transfer of clan leadership from Laban to Jacob.
- She may have taken them for worship purposes, if she retained a mixed allegiance like Laban did.
Moses didn’t pass judgment on Rachel’s actions either way. He did not justify them, but he did not condemn them either.
But once we connect this to Rachel’s death in Genesis 35, the question hangs in our minds.
Back to 1703 BC. Laban searched.
It is interesting he saved Rachel for last. Did he think she was the last one to take the idols? Or did he think she did and saved her for last in order to increase the humiliation he would think he was heaping on Jacob?
The Teraphim were in the camel saddle while Rachel sat on them. Was this a way to subtlety Laban’s gods? The excuse of her claiming menstrual impurity would have been symbolic humiliation.
Remember, Rachel and Leah had felt like Laban had treated them as foreigners. They felt that they had been sold off to Jacob (Gen. 31: 14-15).
They were not expecting to be written into dear old dad’s will.
In Rachel’s mind, this would have been great payback. Her manipulative father would be searching, powerless, without his gods — outwitted by a woman.
Jacob’s Defense Speech
“Then Jacob became very angry, and he challenged Laban. ‘What’s my crime?’ he demanded. ‘What have I done wrong to make you chase after me as though I were a criminal? You have rummaged through everything I own. Now show me what you found that belongs to you! Set it out here in front of us, before our relatives, for all to see. Let them judge between us! For twenty years I have been with you, caring for your flocks. In all that time your sheep and goats never miscarried. In all those years I never used a single ram of yours for food. If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, I never showed you the carcass and asked you to reduce the count of your flock. No, I took the loss myself! You made me pay for every stolen animal, whether it was taken in broad daylight or in the dark of night. I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and through cold and sleepless nights. Yes, for twenty years I slaved in your house! I worked for fourteen years earning your two daughters, and then six more years for your flock. And you changed my wages ten times! In fact, if the God of my father had not been on my side — the God of Abraham and the fearsome God of Isaac — you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen your abuse and my hard work. That is why he appeared to you last night and rebuked you!” (Gen. 31: 36-42 NLT)
Jacob unloaded because years of pent-up frustration came spewing out.
Can we read that tirade and not feel sorry for Jacob?
- 20 years of service
- Heat by day, frost by night
- Losses absorbed personally
- Wages changed ten times
This is another place that we can’t forget that this is clan business. Jacob was putting putting forth a formal legal defense.
I think this is the only place where it does not read as some form of the “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob” the patriarchal line.
This talks about the “… fear of Isaac …” (Gen. 31: 42 NLT). Remember, this was the son who Jehovah told his father to bind and sacrifice (Gen. 22: 1-19).
Oh, yeah, some of the terror was probably there. But in the end, it was replaced by the revenant awe that he was saved. I am sure that shaped Isaac’s relationship with Jehovah as well as his outlook on life.
Bottom line here is Jacob acknowledged Jehovah’s watch care and His provision.
Laban’s Counterclaim
“Then Laban replied to Jacob, ‘These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks — in fact, everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and their children? So come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment’” (Gen. 31: 43-44 NLT)
Laban again staked his claim but accepted defeat.
I am sure when Laban left Haran, he thought that he would be victorious. He would avenge the slight leveled toward his clan and, most importantly, get back his wealth.
Even though in clan culture Laban would have been able to justify his actions, he deferred to Jehovah’s command. So, instead of violence, he and Jacob made a covenant.
The Covenant of Mizpah
“So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument. Then he told his family members, ‘Gather some stones.’ So they gathered stones and piled them in a heap. Then Jacob and Laban sat down beside the pile of stones to eat a covenant meal. To commemorate the event, Laban called the place Jegar-sahadutha (which means ‘witness pile’ in Aramaic), and Jacob called it Galeed (which means “witness pile” in Hebrew). Then Laban declared, ‘This pile of stones will stand as a witness to remind us of the covenant we have made today.’ This explains why it was called Galeed — ‘Witness Pile.’ But it was also called Mizpah (which means ‘watchtower’), for Laban said, ‘May the LORD keep watch between us to make sure that we keep this covenant when we are out of each other’s sight. If you mistreat my daughters or if you marry other wives, God will see it even if no one else does. He is a witness to this covenant between us” (Gen. 31: 45-50 NLT)
Jacob and Laban made a covenant and had a meal to seal the deal.
In the Complete Jewish Bible, stone pillar and stone monument are the same word — standing stone. I think that is another instance where modern translators used modern words for our ease.
A standing stone (or Matstsebah) was an ancient custom where a large stone was placed to commemorate sacred covenants or important events. They were used in the Bronze and Iron Ages (3150-586 BC). This practice was banned in Deuteronomy 16: 22 NLT).
In our vernacular, we would say Jacob and Laban erected a memorial. It is interesting that Jacob’s family was in charge of gathering the stones.
We see a difference of language with Laban and Jacob. While both are Semitic languages, they were distinct languages. I won’t bore you with the grammatical similarities and differences.
We know Hebrew was the language of ancient Israel. Most of the Scriptures were written in Hebrew.
Aramaic began in Laban’s neck of the woods – Aram (the region of Syria) – but became the diplomatic and trade language of the Ancient Near East. So, it became an international language, much like English is today.
In fact, by Yeshua’s time, the everyday spoken language had shifted to Aramaic.
We see several elements of a covenant here. Covenants are agreements, contracts, or promises between two parties to perform the responsibilities listed in the covenant.
- A bond was formed to mutually benefit both parties.
- Both accepted the responsibilities of the covenant – not crossing the line.
- The covenant fellowship meal was had.
- A sacrifice was made.
- I don’t know if the covenants was written on stone pillar or not.
In verse 49 when Laban said “… May the LORD keep watch between us …” (Gen. 31: 49 NLT), he called Jehovah by name. He wanted to be sure that Jehovah saw that he kept his end of the bargain.
But that also stemmed from Laban’s distrust of Jacob. “May God keep watch over you so you don’t come back and get me.”
Oath by Different Gods
“‘See this pile of stones,’ Laban continued, ‘and see this monument I have set between us. They stand between us as witnesses of our vows. I will never pass this pile of stones to harm you, and you must never pass these stones or this monument to harm me. I call on the God of our ancestors—the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of my grandfather Nahor — to serve as a judge between us’” (Gen. 31: 51-53 NLT)
On the surface, it looks like Laban and Jacob are swearing by the same God, but they may not have been.
Laban invokes the name of Abraham and Nahor’s God. Yes, Abraham’s God was Jehovah. We aren’t really told that Nahor worshipped the same God once they stopped worshipping the false gods in Ur.
But Nahor’s side of the family tree produced the women (other than Sarah who was Terah’s daughter) who were the matriarchs of the covenant line. I don’t see Jehovah picking a family that did not follow Him.
Still, Laban is calling on the broader ancestral deity. Jacob is calling on the God of the covenant.
There is a theological divide there.
Garris had an interesting article on this. I am just going to leave you the address, and you can read it for yourself if you are interested.
I know there is the debate on whether Nahor went with Abraham and Terah when they first left Ur or if they came later. Either way, Nahor’s — and eventually Laban’s — walk with Jehovah was different. Different people, different experiences, different levels of faith and obedience.
In the end, Garris wasn’t really sure what Laban meant. He wrote, “Thus, when Laban spoke of the elohim of Nahor and Terah in Genesis 31:53, he could have meant the false ‘gods’ of Nahor and Terah, or he could have meant Yahweh the ‘God’ of Nahor and Terah. The verse is ambiguous.”
Resource
It is safe to know that Abraham’s family knew of Jehovah. I would say probably Nahor did serve Him also. Laban always has struck me as taking a more worldview approach — which in his world would mean hedging his bets by worshiping many gods.
Departure
“So Jacob took an oath before the fearsome God of his father, Isaac, to respect the boundary line. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice to God there on the mountain and invited everyone to a covenant feast. After they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain. Laban got up early the next morning, and he kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home” (Gen. 31: 54-55 NLT)
Jacob and Laban entered into a covenant agreement, but it doesn’t seem like their relationship was mended.
When Jacob left Haran, he left in fear. When Laban chased Jacob, he did so in anger.
When they separated to go their different ways, there was no warmth or reconciliation. They had just made a formal – conditional – peace.
Jacob was now free to truly become a patriarch.
Making the Connections
Jacob sure wasn’t on the same spot on the Sanctification Road when he left Paddan-Aram compared to when he got there. We see a lot of spiritual growth.
Laban — not so much. Even after he recognized the blessings came from Jehovah, he didn’t really choose to serve only Him.
That is sad. “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money” (Mt. 6: 24 NLT).
Straddling the fence isn’t going to cut it. We have to be totally faithful to Jehovah.
How Do We Apply This?
- Submit totally to Jehovah.
Father God. You watch over us and care for us through the good times and the bad times. You are there when we are pursued and when we worship. Thank You for never leaving us. Amen.
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