CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 31:7. Changed my wages ten times.] Probably to be understood as a round number, meaning any number of times—as often as he could. The expression “ten times” is used for frequently, in Numbers 14:22, and in other passages.—
Genesis 31:11. The Angel of God.] This is, as elsewhere, the angel or messenger who speaks in the person of God himself. (Genesis 31:13).
Genesis 31:19. Images.] Heb. Teraphim. “This word occurs fifteen times in the Old Testament. It appears three times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the Pentateuch. It is always in the plural number. The teraphim were symbols or representatives of the deity. They seem to have been busts of the human form, sometimes as large as life. (1 Samuel 19:13.) The employment of them in the worship of God which Laban seems to have inherited from his fathers (Joshua 24:2), is denounced as idolatry (1 Samuel 15:23); and hence they are classed with the idols and other abominations put away by Josiah. (2 Kings 23:24.) (Murphy.)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 31:1-21
JACOB’S DEPARTURE FOR CANAAN
I. It was hastened by persecution. Laban’s sons began to envy the prosperity of Jacob. They are sure that his riches have come out of their father’s estate, and suggest that he has employed unfair means. (Genesis 31:1.) Such is that spirit of envy which cannot bear to see another thrive. Laban was also of the same mind as his sons, and his conduct towards Jacob had become quite altered. (Genesis 31:2.) Jacob foresaw the coming storm of persecution, and made up his mind to avoid it by flight.
II. It was prompted by a sense of offended justice. Jacob consults with his wives upon the situation of his affairs, complains of their father’s unjust treatment and of his changed manner towards himself. He had served their father faithfully for many years, and yet he had often been deceived and defrauded in the matter of wages. (Genesis 31:17.) Laban had agreed to a bargain, and now is displeased at the result. Jacob ascribes his prosperity, not to himself alone, but to God. (Genesis 31:9.) His wives agree that Jacob’s cause is just. They confess that their father had treated them shamefully. They were little better than slaves. (Genesis 31:14-16.) These continued acts of injustice could be tolerated no longer. Jacob’s righteous soul must rise up against this unjust oppression and shake it off.
III. It was at the command of God. There were prudential reasons why Jacob should suddenly quit the service of his uncle, but he justifies his conduct by alleging that he was acting by the express command of God. (Genesis 31:13.) The Lord was making good his old promise “to be with Jacob, and keep him in all places whither he went.” The time arrives when the word of God becomes to us more than a general promise or command, when it summons us to some special duty. Jacob’s way was now plain, as he had clear divine direction. By this command of God it was intended to make Jacob feel that he was but a stranger and pilgrim here, and that this world was not his rest. Trials are sent to us so that we may not make this world our home. They are to us the voice of God telling us that here “we have no continuing city.”
IV. It illustrates the imperfections as well as the virtues of Jacob’s character. It was right in Jacob to avoid persecution by flight, to feel keenly the injustice done to him, and above all to obey the command of God that he should return to his kindred. But in carrying out these high principles of duty, Jacob reveals the inherent faults of his character. He “stole away unawares.” (Genesis 31:20.) He practises his wily arts, as of old, pretending all the while as if he would remain, when he knew that he had arranged for sudden flight. The assertion of his own rights was, regarded in itself, noble, and yet it is marred by deceit. God’s commandment is good, but man’s obedience is marked by many flaws.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 31:1. How often what a man hears said of him determines his course in life! This was probably a report to him of what his cousins had said, as they were three days’ journey distant. They were dissatisfied with Jacob’s large share of the flocks, and no wonder. He had gotten so much of their father’s property, and all with nothing of his own to start with, that they are incensed, and intimate that there must be the overreaching of Jacob in it all.—(Jacobus.)
All this glory. That is, all this wealth, which easily begets glory; and goes, therefore, joined with it. (Proverbs 3:16; Proverbs 8:18.) This regina pecunia doth all, and hath all, here below, saith Solomon, (Ecclesiastes 10:19.) Money beareth the mastery, and is the monarch of this world.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 31:2. As the wicked have no peace with God, so the godly have no peace with men; for if they prosper not they are despised, if they prosper they are envied.—(Bp. Hall.)
He said little, for shame, but thought the more, and could not so conceal his discontent, but that it appeared in his lowering looks. And this was plain to Jacob by his countenance, which had been friendly, smooth, and smiling, but now he was cloudy, sad, spiteful. The young men could not hold or hide what was in their heart, but blurted it out and spake their minds freely. This old fox held his tongue, but could not keep his countenance.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 31:3. Like a watchful friend at his right hand, the Lord observes his treatment, and warns him to depart. In all our removals it becomes us to act as that we may hope for the Divine presence and blessing to attend us; else, though we may flee from one trouble, we shall fall into many, and be less able to endure them.—(Fuller.)
Laban’s frowns were a grief to Jacob; the Lord calls upon him, therefore, to look homeward. Let the world’s affronts, and the change of men’s countenances, drive us to Him who changeth not; and mind us of heaven where is a perpetual serenity and sweetness.—(Trapp.)
To the godly, all the changes and afflictions of life are Divine calls to the true home of their souls.
Genesis 31:4. He called his wives, the daughters of Laban, and explained to them the whole case, and appeals to their knowledge of the facts, and declares the favour of God towards him. Observe—
(1.) The case is clear for his return when God so commands.
(2.) He shows himself to be a kind and faithful husband.—(Jacobus.)
He sends for his wives into the field, where he might converse with them freely on the subject, without danger of being overheard. Had they been servants, it would have been sufficient to have imparted to them his will; but, being wives, they require a different treatment. There is an authority which Scripture and nature give the man over the woman; but everyone who deserves the name of a man will exercise it with a gentleness and kindness that shall render it pleasant rather than burdensome. He will consult with her as a friend, and satisfy her by giving the reasons of his conduct. Thus did Jacob to both his wives, who by such conduct forgot the differences between themselves, and cheerfully cast in their lot with him.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 31:5. This is the world’s wages. All Jacob’s good service is now forgotten. Do an unthankful person nineteen kindnesses, unless you add the twentieth all is lost. “Very rarely grateful men are found,” saith Cicero. “No one writes a benefit in the calendar,” saith Seneca.—(Trapp.)
It is wisely ordered that the countenance shall, in most cases, be an index to the heart; else there would be much more deception in the world than there is. Sullen silence is often less tolerable than contention itself, because the latter, painful as it is, affords opportunity for mutual explanation. But while Jacob had to complain of Laban’s cloudy countenance, he could add, “The God of my father hath been with me.” The smiles of God are the best support under the frowns of men. If we walk in the light of His countenance we need not fear what man can do unto us.—(Bush.)
Genesis 31:6-7. How often men reprove in others the very wrong of which they are guilty themselves. Often God punishes sin in kind, allowing the deceiver to be deceived.—(Jacobus.)
Laban, the churl, the richer he grew by him, the harder he was to him; like children with mouthfuls and handfuls, who will yet rather spoil all, than part with any. It is the love, not the lack of money that makes men churls.—(Trapp).
Genesis 31:8-10. Jacob, we are to remember, left his hire to the providence of God. He thought himself bound at the same time to use all legitimate means for the attainment of the desired end. His expedients may have been perfectly legitimate in the circumstances, but they were evidently of no avail without the Divine blessing. And they would become wholly ineffectual when his wages were changed. Hence he says, God took the cattle and gave them to me. (Murphy).
Genesis 31:11-13. When at Bethel, the Lord said, I am Jehovah, God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. He might have said the same now; but it was His pleasure to direct the attention of His servant to the last, and to him the most interesting of His manifestations. By giving him hold of the last link in the chain, he would be in possession of the whole. In directing Jacob’s thoughts to the vision at Bethel, the Lord reminds him of those solemn acts of his own, by which he had at that time devoted himself. It is not only necessary that we be reminded of God’s promises for our support in troubles, but of our own solemn engagements, so that in all our movements we may keep the end in view for which we live. The object of the vow was, that Jehovah should be his God; and whenever he should return, that stone should be God’s house. And now that the Lord commands him to return, He reminds him of his vow. He must not go to Canaan with a view to promote his own temporal interest, but to introduce the knowledge and worship of the true God. This was the great end which Jehovah had in view in all that he did for Abraham’s posterity, and they must never lose sight of it.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 31:14. By “portion” is to be understood such voluntary gifts and presents as he might be induced to make to them; and by “inheritance,” that to which they might expect to succeed by law or common usage.—(Bush.)
Genesis 31:15. Instead of dealing with us as daughters, disposing of us with honourable dowries, he has bargained us away like slaves, and applied the proceeds to his own use, instead of bestowing any portion of it upon us.
The “selling” was Laban’s compact with Jacob for fourteen years’ service. As this service was in lieu of a dowry, which would naturally have accrued to the wives as a right, they jointly complain of being excluded from all participation in the avails of it. Their crimination of their father is not to be reckoned a breach of filial reverence, for they are not traducing him in the presence of strangers, but merely stating the reason which justified them to their own consciences in leaving him.—(Bush.)
Genesis 31:16. As to their acknowledging the hand of God in giving their father’s riches to their husband, this is no more than is often seen in the most selfish characters, who can easily admire the Divine providence when it goes in their favour.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 31:17-18. The people in the East prepare for an entire removal with great expedition. In a quarter of the time which it would take a poor family in England to get the furniture of a single room ready for removal, the tents of a large encampment will have been struck, and, together with all the movables and provisions, packed away upon the backs of camels, mules, or asses; and the whole party will be on its way, leaving, to use an expression of their own, not a halter nor a rag behind.—(Bush.)
Genesis 31:19-21. It is not the business of Scripture to acquaint us with the kinds and characteristics of false worship. Hence we know little of the teraphim, except they were employed by those who professed to worship the true God. Rachel had a lingering attachment to these objects of her family’s superstitious reverence, and secretly carried them away as relics of a home she was to visit no more, and as sources of safety to herself against the perils of her flight.
It is hardly probable that Rachel intended, by a pious and fanatical theft, to free her father from idolatry, for then she would have thrown the images away. She appears to have stolen them with the superstitious idea that she would prevent her father from consulting them as oracles, and under their guidance from overtaking and destroying Jacob. She attributed to the images a certain magical, though not religious, power (perhaps as oracles). The very lowest and most degrading supposition is that she took the images, often overlaid with silver, or precious metals, from mercenary motives. Jacob himself had at first a low rather than a strict conscience in regard to these images (Ch. Genesis 35:2), but the stricter view prevails since the time of Moses. (Exodus 20; Joshua 24:2; Joshua 24:14.) The tendency was always hurtful, and they were ultimately rooted out from Israel. Laban had lapsed into a more corrupt form of religion, and his daughters had not escaped the infection.—(Lange.)
It is not a chance that we meet here in the idols of Laban the earliest traces of idolatry in the Old World, although they had doubtless existed elsewhere much earlier and in a proper form. We can see how Polytheism gradually developed itself out of the symbolic image worship of Monotheism. (Romans 1:23.) Moreover, the teraphim are estimated entirely from a theocratic point of view. They could be stolen as other household furniture (have eyes but see not). They could be hidden under a camel’s saddle. They are a contemptible nonentity, which can render no assistance. The zeal for gods and idols is always fanatical.—(Lange.)
The teraphim were used for two reasons: first for the purposes of divination and fortune telling; but secondly for the deeper reason of the inseparable tendency in human nature to worship God under a form. Wherein lay the guilt of this? Not in worshipping God under a form, for we cannot worship Him otherwise; but in this—that the form was necessarily inadequate and false, and therefore gave a false conception of God. There are but two forms in which we, as Christians, are allowed to worship God; to worship Him through the universe, and through the humanity of Jesus Christ.—(Robertson.)