I know what it’s like to return home after being away for many years. Returning to my home state after being away for thirteen years evoked joy and comfort. Home again! I was coming home to work and live in a place I loved. Mom, Dad, my siblings, and others I had known from childhood were here. While I was able to adjust well to being away, there’s no place like Tennessee to me. It’s home.
We continue the interesting story of Jacob in Genesis 31. It’s time for Jacob to go home. At this point in the story, he had worked seven years for Rachel and Laban tricked him by substituting Leah into the marriage bed. However, Jacob’s love for Rachel was so strong that he worked another seven years for her. He will stay and work for Laban for six more years.
Jacob’s work has increased Laban’s wealth and he doesn’t want him to leave. Laban makes a deal that enables Jacob to build his flock. God blessed Jacob so much that he was becoming very wealthy, his flock was growing much faster than Laban’s.
Laban’s sons accused Jacob of stealing from their father and Jacob realized the Laban’s attitude was souring and the agreement was no longer workable. It was time to leave and God confirmed this conviction, “Go back to the land of your fathers and your relatives, and I will be with you.” Genesis 31:3
Jacob is heading home. Can you imagine the thoughts and emotions Jacob experienced as he gathered his large family and flock to make the long journey home?
Jacob left his mother, father, and Esau twenty years ago and there is no indication he has seen or heard from them. This may seem unimaginable, but no cell phones, telegraphs, or computers were available, not even a fast mail service. Are Isaac and Rebekah alive? Does Esau’s anger burn against him, does he continue to harbor the desire to kill him?
Returning to Beersheba may be fraught with all kinds of challenges and dangers. Going back is a major risk but Jacob is “fed up” with Laban’s treatment and is ready to take the risk. His willingness to change points out something true in many of us; it may take a crisis to convince us to take the risk to change. He is caught in an unbearable situation with Laban but faces the potential of getting killed if he returns home.
What does Jacob do? He sends word to his wives and servants to bring the children and all he owns and meet him in the fields where the flocks are. He explains all the dirty tricks their father has played on him and they agree with Jacob’s plan. Genesis 31: 17-18 tells us what happens next, “Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go back to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.”
Jacob and his family were gone three days before Laban realized what had happened. Seven days later he and his relatives caught up with them in the hill country of Gilead. Before confronting Jacob, God warned Laban in a dream to be careful about how he would deal with Jacob about what had happened, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” Genesis 31:24.
The remainder of Genesis 31 details the open discussion and settling of the issues between them and the covenant they made. They gathered stones and set up a monument to their agreement that they would not come past this place to harm the other. The next morning Laban kisses his grandchildren and daughters and goes home. His bad treatment of Jacob has resulted in losing contact with his daughters and grandchildren. To my knowledge, he will never see them again.
“And Jacob also went on his way…” Genesis 32:1. What’s going to happen next? Where is Esau and what will happen should they meet? How will God’s promise “Go back to the land of your fathers and your relatives, and I will be with you.” play out as he continues toward home?
How has God given directions and shown His faithfulness when you have faced major changes or challenges?