Genesis · chapter 31 of 50
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Genesis 31 tells how Jacob, at the Lord's command, slips away from Haran with his wives, children and flocks without telling Laban. Rachel steals her father's household gods. Laban pursues him for seven days, but God warns him in a dream not to harm Jacob. After a heated argument, they make a covenant at Gilead and part in peace.
After twenty years in Haran, Jacob is rich, but he has suffered Laban's constant deceit. Genesis 30 ended with his prosperity; Genesis 31 shows the break. It is a story about God's faithfulness, who protects Jacob from a powerful father-in-law and reminds him of the promise at Bethel, and about what Jacob and his family carry with them: an unresolved past and Rachel's idols.
Jacob hears that Laban's sons are saying he has grown rich at their father's expense, and he sees that Laban no longer looks at him as before. The Lord tells him to return to the land of his fathers and promises to be with him. Jacob calls Rachel and Leah to the field and explains that their father cheated him many times, changing his wages ten times, but that God did not let him harm him. He tells them the dream in which God showed him how he was at work. They answer that they no longer have a share in their father's house and ask him to do what God has said.
While Laban is away shearing sheep, Jacob puts his children and wives on camels and flees with all he owned toward Gilead, crossing the river. Rachel steals her father's household gods. On the third day Laban learns of it and pursues him for seven days until he overtakes him in the hill country of Gilead. The night before, God appears to him in a dream and warns him not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad.
Laban complains that Jacob fled secretly and stole his gods. Jacob, not knowing Rachel took them, says that whoever has them will not live. Laban searches the tents, but Rachel, sitting on the camel's saddle with the idols beneath it, says she cannot rise because she is in her period. Jacob grows angry and protests twenty years of hard work and changed wages; if the God of his father, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with him, Laban would have sent him away empty-handed. Laban proposes a covenant. They set up a heap of stones called Galeed and Mizpah and swear not to cross it to harm each other. Jacob offers a sacrifice, they eat together, and early in the morning Laban kisses his daughters and grandchildren, blesses them and returns home.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord tells Jacob to return to the land of his fathers and promises to be with him. It is the same promise given at Bethel, and it gives Jacob the assurance to leave a house where he was no longer welcome.
God appears in a dream to Laban, an Aramean, and warns him not to speak to Jacob, good or bad. The Lord protects his servant even from a powerful pursuer, and does it without Jacob having to act.
Jacob states that if the God of his father, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with him, Laban would have sent him away empty-handed. He acknowledges that God saw his hardship and his labor and vindicated him.
Mizpah, meaning watchtower, recalls that the Lord keeps watch between Jacob and Laban when they are out of each other's sight. More than a warm blessing, it is a reminder that God sees every promise.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: To return to the land of his fathers and his kindred, and he promised to be with him. — Genesis 31:3
Answer: That they had no share or inheritance left in their father's house, and that he should do what God had told him. — Genesis 31:14-16
Answer: Laban's household gods. — Genesis 31:19
Answer: Not to say anything to Jacob, good or bad. — Genesis 31:24
Answer: In the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. — Genesis 31:34
Answer: They set up a heap of stones as a witness, swore not to cross it to harm each other and ate together. — Genesis 31:44-54
Genesis 31 reminds us that God cares for those who obey, even when they are in an unjust situation. Jacob cannot defend himself against Laban alone, but God steps in. In a Sunday school class, this chapter helps those who suffer abuse at work or at home: God sees, and he can open a way out.
It also warns about carrying with us what we have not surrendered. Rachel carries her father's idols, and this will still be a problem in Genesis 35. Ask what habits, fears or dependencies you bring from your past, and what you need to leave behind when God calls you to a new beginning.
Genesis 31 ends with Laban returning home and Jacob continuing toward the promised land. The obstacle of Laban is settled, but in Genesis 32 comes the one Jacob fears most: meeting Esau again.
They were household figures, called teraphim, which in that culture could be linked to the protection of the home and perhaps to rights of inheritance. The text does not explain why Rachel took them, and it makes clear that this is not conduct God approves.
It is a title for God that Jacob uses in verses 42 and 53. It probably means the God whom Isaac revered and before whom he stood in reverent fear. Jacob uses it to swear, rather than invoke the god of Nahor.
The text says Jacob deceived Laban by not telling him he was leaving, because he feared Laban would take his daughters back by force. The departure was commanded by the Lord, but the way it was carried out was secretive out of fear.