Genesis
31:17 ¶ Then Jacob rose up, and set his
sons and his wives upon camels; 18 And
he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the
cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his
father in the land of Canaan. 19 And
Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her
father’s. 20 And Jacob stole away
unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled. 21 So he fled with all that he had; and he rose
up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.
22 And it was told Laban on the third
day that Jacob was fled. 23 And he took
his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey; and they
overtook him in the mount Gilead. 24 And
God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed
that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
In
the last passage we saw that God had kept Laban from doing Jacob harm.
7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed
my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
We
also saw in Abraham and Isaac’s lives how God had protected them from the power
of others to do them harm. Jacob and his family are going to make their escape
from Laban on camels, a common conveyance in those days. He drove the sheep he
had won for himself and carried all of his goods with him. His intention was to
return to Isaac in the land of Canaan. Laban,
not aware that his daughters and son-in-law had taken off went to shear his own
sheep and did not know for three days that Jacob left. He took off after
Jacob’s party with plenty of backup. Laban’s force overtook Jacob’s party at
Mount Gilead. But, God came to Laban in a dream, as He had come to Abimelech
reported back in chapter 20, and warned him not to harm Jacob. In fact, just
leave him alone.
Rachel
had stolen Laban’s household gods, little figurines used for worship in this
world. See comments on 4:16-18. Remember that there were gods a family
worshipped and a god the community worshipped if they lived in a city. Each
family had their own gods which represented the worship of ancestors. Living
under the government of the family with the father as head and priest, the
chief domestic divinities were formed from this ancestor worship for protection
and success. They were intensely personal to the family and their theft would
have been regarded as a great sin against the father of the family. It is also
important to note that after the Flood when these gods were formed it was also
possible to believe in a more powerful god, a unifying entity, such as a Zeus
or a Baal or even Jehovah God, the LORD of the Bible, creator of all things, as
well as your household images.[1] This is what happened and
this is part of what Jehovah God was undoing by bringing men back from this
idolatry after the Flood based in part on the added worship of mighty… men of renown, the giants from
whom one can suppose that the famous gods of the ancient world were formed, and
ancestors like Noah and Shem.
So,
you can see that Rachel had committed a grievous wrong in that world.
[1]
Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The
Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and
Rome (1874, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 123.
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