Read with Me
Genesis 3130-35 (HCSB)
Now you have gone off because you long for your father—but why have you stolen my gods?”
Jacob answered, “I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. If you find your gods with anyone here, he will not live! Before our relatives, point out anything that is yours and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.
So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two female slaves, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.
She said to her father, “Sir, don’t be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence; I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.
Listen with Me
God had ordered Laban to issue no threats to Jacob for leaving (verse 24) because he was under God’s protection, and Laban obeyed that commandment, attributing to Jacob only positive motives. He wasn’t trying to abscond with Laban’s flocks and his daughters, he was simply overcome with intense longing to see his family. It was completely understandable.
But then Laban suddenly dropped the explosive charge that in the process of leaving, Jacob had stolen the family gods. This was a very serious charge, and could easily become the grounds for a death sentence. Everyone gasped and looked at Jacob. But Jacob just looked confused. Rachel was the one who had taken the gods, but she had not told Jacob that she had done so. Her silence was not to give Jacob “plausible deniability”, but simply because she knew that Jacob served a different God and didn’t care about the gods served by her and her family.
Jacob’s immediate response was suspicion and anger. It felt to him that Laban was trying to fabricate charges in order to take back what Jacob considered his legitimate and hard-earned wages, and he was not going to let him do that. They were no longer in Haran where Laban was a big man. They were nearly back to Canaan, and that emboldened Jacob.
Jacob’s oath that anyone found in possession of the stolen gods would be put to death was rash, but he had no idea that his beloved Rachel was the culprit. However, Laban accepted the terms, believing that it was Jacob himself who was the thief. If the gods were found in his tent or among his things, Laban could kill him using his own rules, and could then take his daughters and flocks back home.
Rachel shows that the genetic predisposition for craftiness shown not only in Jacob, but also in her aunt Rebecca, had definitely been passed down to her. Through sly lies she deceived her father, sending him out of her tent empty handed.
Pray with Me
Father, the deceptions just continued to build on each other, with Laban’s own deception bouncing back upon him in the end. Again, I find it odd that out of the whole family line, Jacob is the one who we consider to be the deceiver, when he was far less deceptive than many of those around him! Lord, our character is so important, and You can do so much more in and through us when we simply align ourselves with your purposes and work in your moral purity. Help me to live that way today. Amen.