August 10th, 2013
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

What's Yours Is Mine…

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Faithful God, You keep Your promises to me. May I faithfully keep my promises to You and others, too.

Read Genesis 31:22-42

[22] On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. [23] Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. [24] Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” [25] Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. [26] Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. [27] Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? [28] You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. [29] I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ [30] Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?” [31] Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. [32] But if you find anyone who has your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods. [33] So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. [34] Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing. [35] Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods. [36] Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? [37] Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us. [38] “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. [39] I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. [40] This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. [41] It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. [42] If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”

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

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). That is some challenge!

Think Further

With Jacob’s flight and Laban’s pursuit, the animosity between them escalates into something that’s variously described as either a restrained negotiation or an all-out fight! Some commentators refer to the anger clearly present in the discussion between them; others refer to Laban’s moderation (due to his dream warning him not to harm Jacob). Reading the biblical text, it’s not easy to decide what Laban is most upset about. There’s Jacob’s deception in leaving, no doubt with the loss of his and his family’s labor. There’s Laban’s being unable to provide a suitable celebration and loving farewell. At the last, there’s the theft of something very important to Laban: the teraphim, which he seems to have used for purposes of divination. It’s often the case that in the heat of the moment the matter of most concern finally bursts out under pressure. Here, it turns out to be an argument about what can only be viewed as a crudely comic description of Laban being unable to find what was stolen by Rachel. Jacob, ignorant of what really happened, and in his innocence of the true situation, is righteously angry and responds to Laban’s accusations with a tirade of his own, detailing his own grievances and hardships through the previous two decades. He again attributes what he now has to God’s oversight.

Many years ago I had an experience of family conflict and I know that dealing with such matters can be fraught with tension. They require delicate handling, especially by those closely connected, even if they are not the ones actually involved. It wasn’t for quite some time, and with someone being willing to keep communications open during that time that, through prayer and by God’s grace, both acknowledgement of fault and forgiveness could be expressed, and loving relationships gradually rebuilt. 

Apply

Today, pray for anyone you know who is caught up in a difficult family situation. Ask God for sensitivity and grace in whatever involvement you have.

Closing prayer

Patient Lord, in relational struggles, I love to win. Forgive me. By Your grace, may I always take the humble, forgiving way.

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