"Whatever God Has Said To You, Do It"

Jacob’s Departure from Haran and God’s Command to Return

Well, that was an extensive reading this morning and for the most part, very well done. What Laban named the heap of stones, could have used a little work perhaps, only Tony really nailed the pronunciation on that one.

But Aramean is a very difficult language, it's not Western Semitic, it doesn't roll off the tongue. Well, this morning we look to complete chapter 31. Last week we considered the speckled blessings of the Lord and we talked about how often the blessings of God and the lives of His people are speckled, streaked and spotted.

They don't initially look like the kinds of things that are intended for our good, for our benefit, for our growth. But just as we saw Jacob's flocks increase and bring abundance and even bring assurance to Jacob that God was with him, so often in the Christian's life, speckled blessings have the same effect.

This chapter began with the hostility of Laban's sons. While Jacob is increasing, they are dwindling, they're watching the inheritance that should be coming to them, waste away as it travels, makes its way downstream toward Jacob.

And now even Laban's countenance has fallen toward Jacob and the cue is clear, it's time.

To go.

We're reminded that even six years earlier, when Jacob had completed his 14th year of service to Laban, had now officially paid off the dowry for both Rachel and Leah, that he said, I want to return home, I want to have something for myself.

And so for six years, this desire to return to what he calls my country has been growing in Jacob's heart. He has a desire to head back to Canaan. And God has now even prompted Jacob. Where we left him last week was out in the field, standing mid-sentence as it were, explaining his dream to Rachel and Leah.

And we'll pick up there in verse 11. The angel of God spoke in a dream saying, Jacob, and I said, here I am. He said, lift your eyes now and see all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted, for I've seen all that Laban is doing to you.

I am the God of Bethel. Very enigmatic. He's saying, do you remember the vow you made to me at Bethel? Do you remember what I promised to you? I have fulfilled all that I promised to you, I've provided for you, protected you, I've given you increase, and now it's time for you to fulfill your vow to me.

You'll obey what I command. It's time now. Arise, get out of this land, return to the land of your family. Jacob had been weathering the storm now for six years. He was not led by prosperity. He was not led by trial.

He was both grieved but also blessed, and yet neither blessing nor trial ultimately moved him. He was not moved until God gave him revelation. Perhaps he was prepared to leave at many different points when it was really difficult or when Laban had changed the wage for the eighth or ninth or even tenth time, but Jacob was patient.

Jacob was also afraid, afraid of confronting Laban and also afraid to inevitably confront Esau. This is hovering over the entire chapter. Then we read verse 14, Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, he's explained the vision to them.

Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not considered strangers by him? He sold us. He's completely consumed our money, and all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours and our children's.

You see the division that Laban had introduced with his own daughters. Please keep that in mind as we make our way through the rest of the chapter. They feel no loyalty to him. He said, he treated us like cattle.

You're not the only one who was deceived. You're not the only one that was used. He sold us, and what actually belongs to us, he spent on himself. He only ever served himself with our relationships, with our futures, and so they have complaints of their own on top of the complaints of Jacob.

He's completely consumed our money. Literally in the Hebrew, devouring, he devoured our money. It's emphatic. The precise nature of this complaint is not entirely clear. It could be a reference to the dowry.

All that Jacob had worked for 14 years to provide, that's all been spent away. Instead of him building up a dowry that would in some sense be a protection for them, something that would belong to them, Laban spent it on himself.

That's possible. It's also possible to understand it as all that belonged to Jacob has been cheated away from him by Laban, and if you cheat Jacob, you cheat Jacob's wives. Verse 16, perhaps the greatest godly advice a woman could give, whatever God has said to you, do it.

That's a great little line to say to your husband whenever he comes to you with some impulse, some concern, some word, and you feel like God's doing this in your life, just good to hear, take Genesis 31, 16 to heart.

Whatever God has said to you, husband, do it. Whatever God has said to you, do it, and we'll be circling back to this thematically. Jacob, as we see beginning in verse 17, is doing what God had said to him.

Arise, get out of the country, and leave. Verse 17, Jacob rose, set his sons and his wives on camels, and carried away all of his livestock, all of his possessions which he had gained, all his acquired livestock which he had gained.

Do you get the emphasis there? Livestock, possessions, gain, acquired livestock, gain. This is how much God has blessed him. This is more than a U-Haul. This is not loading up a 20-foot box truck. This is quite a move.

God has abundantly blessed him over the course of these six years, and now he loads up everything that belongs to him, and he prepares to return to his father, Isaac, in the land of Canaan. Every word here is significant for us.

He's preparing to enter into the land of Canaan, to return to the inheritance of his father. When Moses is writing this, Israel is on the precipice of returning to the land of Canaan, to the inheritance of their forefathers.

Now if all we had was the description of verse 17, and we could stop there, and then move on, it would be great. It would be fantastic. But as we've said, Jacob is afraid. He's afraid to go. He's afraid to stay.

He's afraid to confront Laban with what God has told him he must do. And so he obeys what God says to him, but in a less than honorable way. He sneaks away. He doesn't deal with Laban head on. He doesn't confront his fear.

And just like Isaac, and just like Abraham, God is now going to have to intervene to deal with the mess that this creates, because he only half obeys what God had told him to do. Remember, with Abraham and with Isaac, there was a command to go.

There was a revelation to go. And yet, in going, they didn't truly trust God. So in obeying, there was a lack of trust. And then God intervenes to nevertheless protect his promises. Jacob's loading up his family.

He's got a fleet of U-Hauls open. The boxes are being wrapped, moving blankets on the dresser drawers. He's loading up his wives, all four of them, perhaps his maidservants. He's got toddlers through adolescence, if you figure six years plus seven years, so you've gotten perhaps infants all the way up to that awkward 12, 13-year-old age.

Sorry, 12, 13-year-olds, it's an awkward age. He's loading them up on camels. Remember, this is sort of the Corvettes of the ancient world. So here's this fleet of Corvettes and all of these animals in his train.

How many animals? Well, we don't have a record, but if we turn to the next chapter, we see the gift that he gives to Esau, and it's supposed to be a very elaborate gift. But remember, this isn't everything that he owns.

This is just part of what he owns. Chapter 32, 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, 10 male donkeys, over 560 animals, and that's just the gift.

So this is quite a move. This is quite a train. This is like the town of Hubbardston making its way south toward Canaan. These of course are all emblems of God's blessing, emblems really of God's protection.

These are the things that should have steeled his heart and his resolve. Look at how God has blessed me. Will he not protect me? I can boldly go and confront Laban and say, I have fulfilled my service.

It's time for me to depart. Say goodbye to your daughters. Say goodbye to your grandchildren. It's time for me to leave. But rather than looking at how God had blessed him, rather than taking the time to reflect on how God has guided and prepared his way, he turns himself over to fear, just like Isaac, just like Abraham.

Though God has shown him supernatural, providential protection and provision, he gives in to this fleshly fear. And so he's on the run. He times it, verse 19, when Laban had gone to shear his sheep, which is actually quite an event.

This would have been something that would have taken perhaps several days to accomplish, and it would have been spread out wherever the flocks were found, and it would have been really a community effort, Laban with his brethren.

This is not like the kilt makers in the highlands of Scotland where it was sort of a man-to-sheep.

Job.

And then we read another complicating factor, Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's. Household idols here, sometimes you'll read a translation where they just transliterate the Hebrew, terephim.

It appears throughout the Old Testament. For instance, King David's wife, Michal, she has terephim, and so this household idol seems to be common, especially in this part and at this time. Why did she steal them?

We're not given an explicit reason. We can only speculate. There's several possibilities that have been expressed. Perhaps it was because these idols, these statues, they served almost like a deed to property.

In other words, a pledge or an emblem of the inheritance. And so the idea was she's taking the inheritance that would have belonged to Laban's children. These things are ours. These things are our children's.

I find that unlikely, but it's a possibility. Another possibility, perhaps Rachel stole the terephim simply to get back at her father. He robbed us. We're going to rob him. He dishonored us. We're going to dishonor him, sort of a tat for tat.

Again, possible, unlikely in my mind. According to rabbinical tradition, Rachel took the terephim because she wanted to keep her father from idolatry. She had come to believe in the God who was blessing Jacob.

She became a follower of Yahweh. And so she wants Laban to follow after the God of Yahweh and she's taking away, as it were, destroying the idols within her father's household. Again, that's possible.

It's also possible, and perhaps this is the most likely, she did not want her father to engage these idols, which often terephim are connected to soothsaying or oracle revelation. And it seems to be the idea was in her concern, in her fear of running away, she thought, I should take these lest my father consult them and find out where we're going and catch up with us.

And so there's some perhaps superstition here. What we must say is that she shows utter contempt for these idols. She shows utter disdain for them, and we'll get to that in a few verses. So Rachel has stolen the terephim, the household idols from Laban.

Verse 20, Jacob stole away, unknown to Laban the Syrian, and that he did not tell him he intended to flee. Jacob stole away. It's a very interesting expression here. It's literally Jacob stole the heart of Laban.

And it's used as an idiom to parallel Rachel stole his gods. Jacob stole his heart. Verse 21, he fled with all that he had. He arose and crossed the river and headed toward the mountains of Gilead. Notice Laban the Syrian.

When Jacob had arrived, he said, you are flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood. You know, we're kinsmen. And look at the separation here. Laban the Syrian. He's not the Canaanite. He's not the one who will go on to inherit the land.

He's a Syrian, an Aramaean. We're going to see that again in how they use different names in different languages to note the same place, the same pillar of covenant. We have Rachel stealing Laban's gods, Jacob stealing Laban's heart.

I don't think that's meant to be, you know, his heart, his girls. It's like my possessions, that's his heart. This is sort of a Bonnie and Clyde effort. This has not put Rachel and Jacob in good light.

God had told Jacob to go. God had blessed him with provision, promised him safe passage. I will protect you. But Jacob gave in to fear. Jacob, as it were, slithered away. He lacked confidence in God. He was distrusting the promise of God, just like Isaac, just like Abraham.

He turned back to his own wisdom, his own ability. And so though he was obeying God's command to leave, he was not trusting. He was not trusting. Donald Gray Barnhouse, the great preacher of 10th Prez a few generations ago.

Jacob could have announced his departure and gone in the glory of an army with banners, but fear made it impossible to reap that blessing. And so he snuck away, following the will of God, rather than departing in triumph.

He's on the run. He's a fugitive, as it were. It didn't have to be this way. He made it this way. And this is important as we head into chapter 32. Jacob shows that when it comes down to it, he's afraid.

He's afraid to confront these difficult relationships, difficult people where there's been injustice, where wrong has been done, and he doesn't want to go and stir the pot. And so he sneaks away, and God won't let him sneak away.

This is necessary to prepare him for that encounter with Esau. He's leaving Haran in Padim Aram. I wish I could have printed out a map. It's such a far journey. If you're kind of down in the southwestern part below the Dead Sea, where Beersheba would have been, even all the way up past the Dead Sea, even to the Sea of Galilee, it's relatively short span.

Almost twice as long as that is where he is in Haran. It's a massive journey. He's coming south, almost parallel to where the Sea of Galilee is, and we're going to come to the river Jabbok. And that's where the mountains of Gilead are, Ramoth Gilead, which becomes very significant later in the Old Testament.

It's a 300-mile journey, a massive undertaking. We read, beginning in verse 22, Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. Remember that they had separated by several days' journey, their flock.

So it makes sense that he doesn't hear for several days. Verse 23, he took his brethren with him. He gathered the tribe, he gathered the boys, they're on the hunt. He pursued him for a seven days' journey and overtook him in the mountains of Gilead.

Now this pursuit, this is not the pursuit of a grandfather. It's I just want to say goodbye. Can't I just say goodbye, one last hug, a few more kisses? This is not, what about my animals? We need to make sure that this is all done properly.

This is a pursuit of vengeance. And we'll see as much, not initially in the way Laban approaches Jacob, but by what he confesses when God confronts him in a dream. It seems that even Laban is so caught in his web of self-deception that he's not able to discern his motives.

Laban pursues him 300 miles. He pursues him with this band of mercenaries that he's put together. Night by night, finding place to water their animals sleeping under the stars, and he's fueled by this desire for revenge.

He won't let up. I can imagine that Jacob, after a 10-day journey, seven days plus the three initial days that it took for Laban to find out, that he had been hauling it, maybe pushing 30 to 40 miles a day.

He was on the run, and he probably figured, if I can just get far enough, Laban's going to give up. He's going to be stretching himself too thin. I'm not worth all that effort. But revenge just makes you irrational.

Laban will spend himself to the bone if he can exercise vengeance against Jacob. So he's motivated out of this hatred, out of this desire to have revenge. His single-minded resentment is glowing off of the page.

And then it's almost this dramatic moment when he overtakes him, meaning he's finally caught up to him. He's actually gone out ahead of him to kind of say, you can stop just there. A confrontation is going to take place.

And of course, they are lined up, as it were, opposite one another. We look at verse 25. We're going to come back to verse 24, but look at verse 25. Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountains, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mountains of Gilead.

They're lining up like armies, about to have the decisive battle. But what happens in verse 24? God intervenes. God comes to Laban. The Syrian. Again, that emphasis. We haven't seen it with Laban until now.

It's setting up the trajectory of who belongs where. God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him, be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad. In Hebrew, literally, watch yourself.

Watch yourself. Be on guard that you don't do anything wrong. Be very mindful and very careful lest you speak good or evil to Jacob. Most likely, it's hard to necessarily understand, most likely it's saying don't curse him, but neither flatter him and bless him.

Don't approach him as you typically would, as a trickster, looking to bless and flatter and manipulate. Don't do that. But you better not rebuke. You better not curse. That's God's warning to Laban. In other words, he's saying leave him be.

Speak neither good nor evil. Don't try to be his friend and don't be his enemy. And so most likely the word here is, it's a warning against some sort of formal pronouncement of either blessing or curse.

He's not allowing Laban to manipulate the situation, and that's the divine warning that comes to Laban. And that preludes verse 25, where now they're lined up like armies, as it were, in the mountains of Gilead.

Laban's got his brethren with him, his whole clan with him. He's got military superiority. And yet God was sovereignly protecting Jacob. He doesn't have, you know, his boys aren't able to go to bat for him.

Maybe he has some armor on his, you know, 13-year-old. They're kind of getting ready for battle. But Laban clearly has the upper hand, if it weren't for God's intervention. This brings us back to Genesis 12, Genesis 20 with Abraham, Genesis 26 with Isaac.

You can picture the scene almost on that very morning, Jacob not knowing that God had intervened by night, the dread he would have felt when he saw Laban and this band ahead of him, knowing what they're capable of.

And he's going to say as much, I thought you would take my wives from me by force. That would have been a night of no sleep in the tent of Jacob. What he tried to sneak away from, what he tried to run away from, that confrontation that he hoped would never have to take place is now staring at him.

And as they approach each other to meet, and Laban, as we'll see, begins to share what had happened to him in that night when God intervened by a dream, how instantly Jacob would have been struck by the protection of God.

Knowing that he had obeyed God, it was time to return, but he did it in the old way. He did it in a twisting, deceitful, sneaky way. He didn't do it out of trust for God. And just like Isaac, just like Abraham, he would have been humbled.

And I think we can even see the evidence of that in how he speaks through the remainder of this chapter. In this encounter, he learned just how powerful God was, how as fiercely devoted to vengeance as Laban may have been, pursuing him for 300 miles, God was far more fiercely devoted to protecting and blessing Jacob.

And so it is with his people. Now think about this. If Jacob had not left Haran, and God just intervened, and before Jacob even left, God came to Laban in a dream and said, let him go, you know, don't bless him, don't curse him, just let him go.

Jacob would have never had this experience of the divine grace that was following him. Even in his dishonorable ways of relying on the flesh again, he would have never seen that he didn't have to fear man, that he could trust in God as his shield and his refuge.

He would have never received this lesson that was vital for him to learn as he was approaching Esau. And he hasn't even fully learned the lesson yet. Jacob would never have known just what God's protection looked like if this encounter had not happened in this way.

God, as it were, allowed Laban to catch him. We don't read the providence as, why didn't God just turn Laban back? It was important that God allowed Laban to overtake Jacob so that in intervening, Jacob would see the presence and power of God in his life.

And so just like God protected Abraham, if you touch Sarah, you're a dead man. That's essentially what he says to Laban. He's with me. You better not touch him. Watch yourself. And you take a big step back, remembering the context, Israel re-entering Canaan, this lesson that Moses is hoping will sink into their hearts so that they will walk not only in a broad, generic, ambiguous obedience, but that they would trust God.

Trust Him.

When those two spies come back and they say, we can trust in God,.

Look what He's done.

This journey is foreshadowing Israel and their exodus out of Egypt. What do we have when we read chapter 31? Jacob and the tribes, as it were, in seed form, departing because God calls them out of that land.

And He wants them to come and worship Him in the land of Canaan. And so they plunder their adversary, as it were. They take all the wealth of that foreign land. They even take, as it were, the gods away.

And they have this slow-moving procession, taking them closer and closer to that land of their deliverance and promise. And yet the enemy comes with ferocity and vengeance and overtakes them, cutting them off at the pass.

And God miraculously intervening to deliver and protect His people. What are we reading? Is it Exodus or Genesis 31? Well, that's the point. And so as Israel stands at the borders of Canaan and they're reading these things, they're meant to rehearse.

God has done this. God has done this. God will do this again. This is the same guide and protector who is leading us into the promised land today. Maybe you've experienced this in a smaller way. Maybe not in a national, theocratic way, but in a small way, personally, even in your own life.

You've been through some horrific experience. Something has overtaken you, and yet you've seen the way that God has intervened to show you His presence and His care and concern for you, His power to gird you up and take you on that journey another step.

This is how God works in the lives of His people, whether it's an individual here this morning or a whole nation many thousands of years ago. God is at work in the lives of His people. And just like His people, just like Jacob, and just like Israel at the borders, we're so slow of heart to believe all that God has promised.

Laban’s Pursuit, God’s Warning, and the Mountains of Gilead

Well, we come to the encounter beginning in verse 26. Laban says to Jacob,.

What have you done?

Doesn't that just grit your teeth?

What have I done?

What have you done to me? For 20 years, what have you done to me? But Laban says to Jacob, what have you done? You've stolen away, unknown to me, stolen my heart, unknown to me, carried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword.

That's not his wise perspective. He wants that to be true.

He wants a daddy, daddy.

Oh, please deliver us from this evil husband, Jacob. How do they view it? Captives to the sword? He's the one that treats us like cattle. He's the one that uses and manipulates us. We were more than willing to go.

Why did you flee away secretly, he says. Steal away from me, not tell me. I might have sent you away with joy and songs, timbrel and harp. Would he really have done that? Here's the Mad Max posse, and they've all got baseball bats and axes.

Does it look like he wanted to send them off with joy and timbrel and song? And the fact that Jacob says in verse 31, I was afraid, it tells you everything we need to know. The fact that God had to warn him, you better not touch him.

It tells us everything we need to know. Laban is so deceitful and manipulative that he's not able, I mean this genuinely, I don't think he's able to discern his motives. I don't think he's capable of rightly reflecting on himself, on why he does things and how he treats people.

I think the way that he speaks in the remainder of this chapter, he almost really thinks it's true. And so there's this very pathetic image and example that is set before us in the life of a manipulator, in the life of Laban.

And frankly, Jacob would be no different if it were not for the grace of God in his life. Not only is he completely delusional about his relationship to his daughters,.

About the way that he's treated Jacob.

And what's warranted Jacob running away, he's also delusional about what he would want to do. You did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters. You've done foolishly. And now here comes some truth.

It's in my power to do you harm. By the way, that's why I traveled 300 miles. But the God of your father spoke to me last night saying be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad. And now you've surely gone because you greatly long for your father's house but, and here's the charge, why did you steal my gods?

And Jacob answered, because I was afraid. I said perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force. The evidence would seem to indicate that was the case. But then Jacob is indignant. I did not steal gods from you.

That's the charge. And he's about to really dishonor Jacob by saying I don't take your word. I don't take you at face value. I'm a schemer. I can smell a schemer and I'm bound to find them as I search your possessions.

Of course, Jacob is indignant. With whomever you find your gods, do not let him live. Talk about a gulp moment for Rachel. Can you imagine how her heart would have started pounding in her chest? Jacob, of course, is innocent.

He's saying you can look wherever you'd like. I have nothing to hide. In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you. And we have the narrative comment, Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

And so Laban begins his furious pursuit. He goes into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, into the two maids' tents. Now that's just the description. You can picture what it would have looked like. An hour, two hours, opening up shoe boxes, dumping things out, going through the billfold, looking at the wallet, patting down his pockets, sneakers get emptied.

He was erratic. He was convinced he'd find those teraphim. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered into Rachel's tent. Now he's getting a little warmer,.

A little closer.

Rachel, perhaps, is looking a little nervous. Sweat's coming down her forehead. Rachel, we read, verse 34, had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Now here's where we're getting a little closer to the contempt she shows for these idols.

She doesn't think they have any real divine significance. Otherwise, she would not sit on them. The camel's saddle most likely would have been a woven basket that you also could use for storage. Laban doesn't seem surprised by this at all.

He expects to be able to look in this saddle-like container. And of course, we have to keep in mind in the ancient Near East, if you steal something associated with a temple or divine cultic use, that's a capital offense.

You get killed for that.

Verse 34,.

Laban searched all about the tent, but did not find them. Have you had an experience like that? Searching all about, and I had, this was some weeks ago. My phone has a little compartment that opens up in my driver's license and debit card, and all my major cards are there.

And one of my girls opened up that little compartment, and I didn't know it until one day I looked and it was empty. And I sympathize with Laban.

I looked everywhere,.

Humanly conceivable to look. Lampshades, couch cushions, cabinet drawers,.

The refrigerator.

I'm like, where could these cards be? And I could not find them. I didn't check the camel's saddle, but I could not find them. I sympathize with Laban. He's frustrated. He's angry. He's spent. There's one place left to look.

Verse 35, she said to her father, let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise before you. The manner of women is with me. And he searched, but did not find the household idol. So Rachel had the manner of women.

We all understand what that is a euphemism for. And of course we understand the law later codified the ceremonial uncleanness of menstruation, Leviticus 15. Now just because it was later codified doesn't mean that the same issue of ritual impurity was at play here.

It certainly was. This would have been true across ancient Near Eastern culture, and even all the way through even in Western culture.

Still we have the echo of that.

Menstruation brought ritual impurity. So the idea was let me not dishonor or make you as it were ceremonially unclean. Let me not rise before you. The way of women is upon me. And of course this is showing the contempt for idols.

We have no reason to think that she's making this up. It may well have been the case. And it shows either way just by her act of sitting upon them the contempt she has for these idols. And so just like Genesis 27 we have a child deceiving the father.

So here's another literary mirror. Then we have this contrast that we're not meant to miss and the Israelites are not meant to miss it. We have gods that can be hidden, gods that can be sat on, gods that are carved and sit on a shelf, gods that cause Laban to furiously search through the trunks and chests of the tent.

And these are no gods at all. It's laughable. It's Isaiah 42. It's just like this is a joke.

Do you have God?

A famous sermon by W .A. Criswell, the old Texas preacher. Can your gods be stolen? What kind of god is that? Someone can steal your god. Is that a god worthy of your service and worship? Is that really a powerful god?

If your god can be stolen, the Israelites are meant to kind of mock their Canaanite and pagan neighbors. Yeah, you're serving statues and you're all very worried and bent out of shape when your little statue goes missing.

And by the way, you're the one that actually made the statue that you're bowing down in worship. You took it just like Isaiah 46, right? You took a piece of it, you burnt it, you cooked on it. And then whatever that little third piece of that log was left, that was the god that you created to worship.

This is foolishness. You're meant to mock this. Can your god be stolen? But then we're also meant to see a larger truth to idolatry and idol worship in the Old Testament as it relates to us. We see Laban completely bent out of shape, frustrated, irrational, looking for these little statuettes and we mock, we go, that's so ridiculous.

But our idols have the same power over us. And when they're threatened, we get all bent out of shape and frustrated. And it's good to be aware of what has that power in your life. What causes you to go upside down, to act erratic and even irrational because it has a grip on you.

It offers you security, meaning. It promises you blessing and protection. It may not be a statuette, but it is still an idol. Verse 36, Jacob became indignant. See, I told you. You accused me of lying to your face, scheming just like you.

And now he's going to let Laban have it. If he snuck away because he was afraid of the confrontation, now he's emboldened. He's seen how God has protected him and what Laban said about coming by dream at night.

And now Jacob's going to unload what's been building, not just on this 300 mile journey, but actually what's been building for 20 years. He was angry. I think this is a righteous anger. I don't think this is necessarily sinful, Jacob.

He doesn't make the cattail whip and flip over tables. But I think this is righteous anger. He rebukes Laban. Laban needed to be rebuked. Jacob answered and said to Laban, what is my trespass? What is my sin?

Why have you so hotly pursued me?

Why did you come screaming like an F1 300 miles to overtake me? What was your intention? What sin have I done? Did you not look through the tent and see that I have not wronged you in any way? Although you searched all of my things, what part of your household things have you found?

Everything I have, I worked for against what you've done to me. Set it here before my brethren, your brethren. Let's gather witnesses around. Let them judge between us both. Who is in the right here, Laban?

These 20 years I've been with you. Your ewes, your female goats, they've not miscarried their young. In other words, I've been diligent to care for them. I have not let them dwindle away and waste away.

I've done everything I can to protect, nourish, and strengthen. I've not eaten the rams of your flock. That which I perhaps had privilege to do, I refused. That which was torn by beasts, I did not bring to you.