Laban’s sons’ words in verse 1, and Laban’s own face in verse 2, showed Jacob that his uncle’s house was not the home of friends any more. They were jealous of him because he had increased so much in herds and flocks, and Laban’s animals were not nearly so many by this time as they had been. There is only one Friend that never changes; that is Jesus, God’s beloved Son. In Hebrews 13:8,8Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8) we read about Him that He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” How good it is to know Him, and put all our trust in Him. He is my best, my truest Friend. Is He yours too? He is the One about whom the hymn was written which says,
“Earthly friends may fail or leave us,
One day soothe, the next day grieve us,
But this Friend will ne’er deceive us,
O, how He loves!”
But now God said to Jacob to go back to the promised land, and to his father’s home, and “I will be with thee.” So Jacob sent and called his two wives to come out to the field to talk with him, and there he told them what God had said. “The God of my father hath been with me,” said Jacob to Rachel and Leah, “and ye know that with all my power I have served your father. And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God suffered him not to hurt me.... God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.” And Rachel and Leah answered, complaining about their father, and telling Jacob to do whatever God hath said to him.
So, secretly, for Jacob’s trust in God was not very great, and he was afraid of Laban, Jacob got camels ready and put his twelve children and his wives on them, and started away from Padan Aram for home, with all the cattle and all the goods that he had. Laban was away seeing about the shearing of the wool from his sheep, and did not know anything about Jacob’s leaving until the third day. Then he took his “brethren” with him, and went after Jacob for seven days until he caught up with him in Mount Gilead. The land of Gilead was the name of the country east of the Jordan from about the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, so I suppose Jacob and his family were by this time about half way home.
No doubt Laban would have been very mean to Jacob, because God, who knows every human heart, and had undertaken to see Jacob safely home, spoke to Laban in a dream as he slept the night before the two men met in Mount Gilead. “Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.” No mother ever watches over her children as God watches over and takes care of those who receive the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. God was training Jacob, and letting him have a good deal of trouble in order to make him trust, and let God lead him, but He would not let anyone harm Jacob, for he was one of the children of God by faith.
When Laban got to talking with Jacob about his going away (verse 26 to 30) he tried to make his nephew think that he would have made a big feast and had music and a good time if he had .known that he wanted to leave his service, but Jacob evidently didn’t believe what he said. Laban said too that the reason Jacob was going away was that he was very homesick for his father’s house, but Laban couldn’t have really thought so for he must have had a conscience about his mean ways with Jacob. What perhaps worried Laban the most, though, was that the stone or metal images he had, for he was an idolater, had been stolen.
The nineteenth verse tells us who had taken them, for I am afraid that Rachel prayed to idols still, although she had been Jacob’s wife for thirteen years. Surely she knew the true God, but I think that her early life, having been spent without knowing about Him and His love to us, poor lost sinners, had left a deep impression on her heart.
O, boys and girls, come to Jesus now, while you are young. Don’t delay a moment! The Lord Jesus wants to be your Saviour, wants you to know His love, that He died for you, and He wants to have you with Himself, and made like Himself, in His own glorious home in the sky.
Because Rachel had hidden the images under the saddle of her camel, and sat on them in her tent, telling her father when he came in where she was that she was sick, and couldn’t get up, Laban never found his gods. Of course Jacob could not have known that, Rachel had brought Laban’s gods with her, and had them in her tent, when he spoke to his father-in-law again. He wanted to know what his sin was that caused his father-in-law to so hotly pursue after him, and after he had searched all his stuff there was nothing found. Then he went on to tell Laban how long, and how faithfully he had worked for him, while Laban had treated him hardly, and changed his wages ten times in six years, trying to get the best of him. No doubt it was true that Laban would have robbed Jacob of everything he had earned, and Jacob told him that it was only God that had kept him from doing that very thing.
Laban could not answer Jacob’s true words, except to say that Jacob’s wives were his daughters, their children were his grandchildren, and all the animals were his, but what could he do? “Now let us make a covenant.” So they made a sort of treaty of peace, each promising the other that he would not pass the heap of stones they made there on the road to do harm to the other, and the next morning Laban said goodbye, and went back to his home.