A Turn Toward the Future

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Opening Prayer

Eternal God, Alpha and Omega, my beginning and my end, my life is in You. I lift my heart in praise.

Read Genesis 31:43-55

^[43] Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? ^[44] Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.” ^[45] So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ^[46] He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ^[47] Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. ^[48] Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. ^[49] It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. ^[50] If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.” ^[51] Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me. ^[52] This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me. ^[53] May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. ^[54] He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there. ^[55] Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

Choose a favorite hymn or song that expresses God’s love for us, and use it to lead you into worship.

Think Further

Although he still insists that all Jacob’s possessions, both human and animal, belong to him, Laban finally comes to a point of acceptance–or defeat–about the situation. He proposes a covenant, a non-aggression pact. The accompanying rituals, setting up a pillar, building a mound of stones, feasting together, making an oath and offering a sacrifice, are typical of such ceremonies, and the names given to this one are indicative of its significance. Those in v. 47 (one Aramaic, one Hebrew) show its purpose–a reminder of what they have covenanted together. The third name, Mizpah, signifies the emotional bond between these two people, and between the respective nations each represents. The covenant also acts as a territorial agreement (52). This brings to a close Jacob’s twenty-year absence from his own family. He is able to consign to the past the turmoil of the complicated relationship with Laban. He can turn toward the future and deal with the complicated relationship with his brother, Esau, from which he had run away.

When Jacob calls on God to be witness to his covenant with Laban, he calls him “the Fear of his father Isaac” (53). This, perhaps, tells us something about Isaac’s relationship with God. It’s interesting to wonder whether Jacob was reminded of what he had asked of God at the beginning of his journey, and whether these events helped him choose to go ahead actively with God, rather than passively ask God to go along with him.

Covenants make a regular appearance throughout the Bible, sometimes between people, as here, and sometimes between God and people. The latter type fall into two categories, conditional and unconditional, and lead up to the promise of the new covenant which, mediated by Christ, fulfills the old (Heb. 8).

Apply

What have been the significant spiritual turning points in your life? How were they marked? Thank God for them.

Closing prayer

God of new beginnings, Lord of all the seasons of my life, I thank You I am not adrift on the journey. You are with me, keeping me on track, assuring me of Your presence and leading.

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