Scripture Daily

Context No. 214 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 31:1-13: in context

1Jacob heard Laban’s sons’ words, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. He has obtained all this wealth from that which was our father’s.” 2Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. 3The LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” 4Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, 5and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. 6You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. 7Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me. 8If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked. 9Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me. 10During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. 11The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you. 13I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

Jacob has worked for his uncle Laban for twenty years, and the arrangement has gone sour. He came with nothing, married into the family, and built up large flocks, and now Laban's sons are saying he has taken what was theirs. Jacob reads it in Laban's face, which no longer looks at him the way it used to.

Into that tension God speaks a plain instruction: return to the land of your fathers, and I will be with you. Jacob calls Rachel and Leah out to the field, away from the household, and makes his case to them. Their father has cheated him and changed his wages ten times, and through all of it, Jacob says, God kept turning the flocks in his favor, the speckled and streaked animals coming to him no matter which way Laban set the terms. He has grown rich under a man trying to keep him poor.

Then the angel of God names himself in the dream, and the name is a place. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow. Twenty years earlier, running from a brother who wanted to kill him, Jacob had poured oil on a stone and promised that if God brought him home, the LORD would be his God. God has been keeping that appointment the whole time. What did I promise God once while I was running, that he has not forgotten even though I have?

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