PROMISES, PROMISES
Opening Prayer
Shepherd God, keep me alert and receptive to Your wise and surprising ways. To You be all the glory, forever!
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.[a]
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,[b] 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.[c]
Footnotes
- Genesis 31:47 The Aramaic Jegar Sahadutha and the Hebrew Galeed both mean witness heap.
- Genesis 31:49 Mizpah means watchtower.
- Genesis 31:55 In Hebrew texts this verse (31:55) is numbered 32:1.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.’1 Bring any situation of conflict to the Lord, seeking His forgiveness and compassion.
The novelist PD James characterized her detective novels as mysteries ‘bringing order out of disorder’.2 Not so much ‘whodunnit’, more ‘whydunnit’. As the Jacob–Laban story draws to a close, some resolution emerges. Each has complaints about the other – but apportioning blame is not going to solve anything. Rather than allowing animosity to last, it is better to find some means of agreeing to part on reasonable terms. The result is a solemn agreement, witnessed by a pillar of stones, expressed in the fellowship of a common meal, and sealed by oaths. It is not a statement of loyal, committed friendship, but more a commitment not to cause each other trouble in the future. Sometimes a low common denominator is all we can attain. When Christians of different stripes commit to speak well of one another,3 it is not the highest expression of unity, but it’s considerably better than we sometimes manage! The contrast between this covenant and the grace-filled, loyal, and permanent covenant of the Lord is there for all to see.
There is another contrast in the way the two men affirm their covenant. Laban, in an ambiguous oath, calls on ‘the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor’ (53). Nowhere else is the Lord linked to Nahor, the brother of Abraham.4 Laban has experienced the Lord speaking to him (24)but he has also retained household gods (19). Is the reference to Nahor a nod to the godsthat Abraham’s family worshipped prior to the Lord calling him? It certainly sits awkwardly alongside Jacob’s unadulterated oath ‘in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac’ (53), accompanied by the offering of a sacrifice. No other gods must come before or even alongside the Lord.
Apply
Are there lessons for us here, as we seek to chart a path in our relationships that aims to live in peace with everyone while rejecting the idols they worship?
Closing prayer
Mighty God, I need to learn such lessons from Jacob’s mistakes: trusting You to intervene rather than fleeing in fear. Open communication is better than scheming. Help me Lord.
1 Rom 12:18 2 Interview in Salon, 1998 3 James 4:11 4 Gen 11:27
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