[Text: Gen. 31] “Lessons in Defense – Part II”

When we left Jacob last week, we saw how Yahweh had defended him from Laban’s greed by meeting Jacob’s needs. But now the jealousy of a dangerous man has been roused and Laban turns on Jacob.

[Read and Pray] – Father, we are a people with an enemy who pursues us and accuses us at every turn, an enemy who only wants to steal our hearts, kill our bodies and destroy our souls. But you have promised to defend us, Father. Help us to believe how you do that for us now in Jesus and help us to worship you with the bodies and souls you have rescued. Amen.

Last week we talked about the overarching theme of Genesis 30:25 through the end of chapter 31 being Yahweh’s defense of Jacob. In the first part, that defense looked like Jacob’s needs being met in the face of Laban’s greed. But now that Yahweh has given the flocks of Laban to Jacob, we see that Yahweh’s protection will have to look a little different.

That’s because Laban’s sons didn’t acknowledge Jacob’s wealth as justly coming from Yahweh. They simply spoke jealously of Jacob as a thief who became rich at their father’s expense. And even Laban, who once affirmed that Yahweh was the One blessing Jacob, now gave Jacob dark looks and did not regard him with the same favor as before even though Jacob was the favored one of God. Laban had become Jacob’s enemy, although perhaps he was really an enemy all along.

It might seem difficult to connect to this story since many (but not all) of us don’t normally think of ourselves as people with enemies. But we’ve already been introduced in this Story to a couple of enemies. One is the enemy of all people, especially to the people of God, together with all those who willingly remain in rebellion against Yahweh. The other enemy is a bit closer to us. The first enemy was the dark power behind the serpent in Eden and only later in the Story do we learn his name: Satan. Satan pretended (and still pretends) to be concerned with my happiness but actually wants me to die in rebellion against the Lord and Giver of Life. He is the one who, like Laban here, often looks fair and friendly on the outside but inside is wishing our destruction all along. The other enemy – there’s really no other way to put this – the other enemy of my body and soul is me. That’s what the Scriptures mean when it talks about humans being sinful. It means that my rebellion against the LORD and my stubborn refusal to submit to how He says life works best makes it so that all of my attempts to make myself happy are only to my harm. Any time we run after things that are not God and try to put them in His place – things like family or success or power or influence or acceptance or comfort or security – even good things that we try to make into ultimate things, we find ourselves to be our own worst enemies. And what’s worse we find that we have made God into our enemy – that’s the only way to describe the relationship between a rebel and the Master he rebels against - and unless He acts mercifully, we cannot have hope of rescue…kinda like Jacob and his family in this story.

The reality is this: left alone, we do have at least three enemies and, like Jacob, we are helpless to defend ourselves against Satan, against ourselves and against the Righteous Judge of the earth. But we have every reason to hope for help because Yahweh has acted, in Jacob’s story and in ours, to protect us from all of our enemies and turn our most dangerous enemy, Yahweh himself, into our Loving Father and Defender. And He did it all through His Son, Jesus. So I want us to consider three truths from this story so that we can better embrace our Savior, Jesus, and trust in the work he accomplished and still does for you now.

- Yahweh protects us from our enemies

- Yahweh protects us from ourselves

- Yahweh protects us from His own wrath

First, let’s consider how Yahweh protects us from our enemies as He acts in Jacob’s life. In order to make any sense of what Yahweh is doing here, we have to remember the larger context of the relationship Yahweh had established with Jacob – the relationship called a covenant, which God had first established with Jacob’s father, Isaac, and his father before him, Abraham. Yahweh had established a relationship with them, promising to bless them and through them to bless the whole world, bringing restoration to His creation that was marred and twisted by human sin. Now to Jacob, the LORD had come promising to be with him and bring him home again back to the Promised Land. And the only way that was going to happen was if Yahweh was defending Jacob from Laban.

In the face of jealous words and dark looks from Laban and his sons, we hear words of direction and comfort from Yahweh for Jacob. The LORD comes to him and says (in v. 3), “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” The promise of God’s presence with Jacob wasn’t anything new, but wouldn’t it have been an immense comfort to him as fear and anxiety began to rise in Jacob’s heart?

And with that word from Yahweh, Jacob knows he needs to act. So, he calls his wives into the field where they can talk alone. He tells them all that is in his heart, essentially comparing their father’s mistreatment of him to Yahweh’s gracious provision for him through the giving of Laban’s flocks to Jacob. He told them of God’s instructions to go back to the land of his family and God’s reminder of Jacob’s own vow made after Yahweh first met Jacob on his way to Laban’s house. Jacob had said,

“If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” (Genesis 28:20-22 ESV)

It seems as though Jacob was growing in his trust in his God. He tells his wives in v. 4, “…your father does not regard me with favor…. But the God of my father has been with me.” Yahweh had indeed kept him during this long exile from home. Yahweh had indeed provided for more than all of Jacob’s needs by giving him Laban’s flocks. Now Yahweh was telling him to go home to his father’s house and Jacob was willing to listen and obey because he’d already seen how faithfully the LORD had dealt with him in everything else. His wives agree with him down in vv. 14-16. Laban has abandoned and mistreated them. They say, “…whatever God has said to you, do.”

So Jacob and his family make their exodus to Canaan, although secretly because of their fear of Laban. As God would have it, Laban was away shearing his sheep so that Jacob would have a three day head start. But Jacob’s wife, Rachel, took advantage of the situation and stole Laban’s household gods, probably some small, valuable representation of the local deities. And in some clever wordplay preparing us for what comes next, Jacob is said to have “stole(n) the heart of Laban… (that is, tricked him) by not telling him that he intended to flee.” So Jacob made it out of Mesopotamia and ten days later arrived in the hill country of Gilead, on the edge of the Promised Land.

But Laban was not far behind. He was in hot pursuit for a week with his kinsmen and no matter what he says, you get the idea that he wasn’t coming in peace. Most likely, especially because of what happens next, he was coming to carry at least his daughters and the flocks and everything – maybe even Jacob – back to Haran by force.

But then God came to Laban in a dream with a message saying, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” That is, Yahweh tells Laban, “Be careful, Laban. This is all from Me and you’re on dangerous ground if you try to change what is happening here.” And here in this one act, we see the second way Yahweh defends his people from enemies. Yahweh stands himself between Laban and Jacob as a Defender so that Laban can do nothing to him.

So as Laban walks into Jacob’s camp after catching up and complains that he’s been wronged, what we see is Laban posturing himself as a “family man” even though that isn’t how his family knows him. We hear Laban accusing Jacob of holding captives when it was he who was coming to take captives. We hear Laban telling Jacob he has done foolishly when Jacob was being obedient to Yahweh! Incredibly, we see Laban claiming the power to do Jacob harm, when Yahweh has stripped that power from Laban through the message in the dream! Finally, Laban says in essence, “I can forgive everything because you wanted to go home so badly, but why did you steal my gods?”

Ah, Rachel’s sin comes into the light. I don’t just mean the theft of the idols. Yes, that was wrong. Jacob says that himself as he unknowingly sentences her to death while proclaiming his innocence. Rachel’s sin runs deeper than that, however. Just consider why she stole the idols. Some say that it was right of her to rid her father’s house of false gods. She was trying to save her father from worshiping false gods. But if that’s the case, Calvin points out, she should have simply thrown them into the Euphrates River as they crossed over.

No, Rachel kept the idols because she couldn’t let go of them. Whatever hope they gave to her – security, prosperity, love or power – she could not part with them. Her heart was divided between her love of the idols and her commitment to Yahweh who was leading her to a better home.

But Yahweh’s heart was not divided in His commitment toward Rachel. Even though she wavered between false gods and the Living God, the Living God defended her and protected her even in her sin by guarding her life. Although Laban searched intensely, he did not find the idols. That’s more of Yahweh’s defense on display. So great is His love and commitment to His people in the covenant that He is even willing to protect them from themselves!

What we see next is more of Yahweh protecting His people from their enemies. In v. 36, Jacob is furious and lays into Laban and for the first time fully tells Laban what he thinks. He recounts all of his faithful service and Laban’s mistreatment but most importantly, notice how he concludes. In v. 42 he sums it all up saying, “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac [that is, the God whom Isaac reveres and worships], had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.” (Genesis 31:42 ESV) Jacob has come to trust that Yahweh has been his Defender all along. Yahweh, and not the gods of Laban, is his God, just as Jacob vowed as he left the Promised Land twenty years prior.

But ever the self-preserving schemer, Laban tries to save face again by claiming all Jacob has as his own. But he is as powerless to harm Jacob as the gods he couldn’t find hidden under his daughter. So he suggests they make a covenant.

So they do. In the custom of the day, they set up stones as witnesses, both as reminders and boundary markers, of the covenant. Laban sets the terms. He wants justice and faithfulness to his daughters (interesting that he forbids what he himself had done, namely giving Jacob multiple wives) and he also wants protection, assuming in Jacob the vengeance and violence that is in himself. Laban is distrusting as he says, “Yahweh watch between you and me when we are out of one another’s sight…”

But it’s important to note that Jacob doesn’t seem to hold anything against Laban from this point forward. He willingly enters into the covenant with Laban, going so far as to eat a meal with Laban in the conclusion to the covenant ceremony. I think what we’re seeing in Jacob here is an expression of his faith in Yahweh and his recognition that his God is giving him peace with his enemy.

But notice (in vv. 45 and 53) that Jacob sets up a single stone as a witness and then swears to the covenant only by the Fear (the God) of his father, Isaac. Laban, on the other hand, sets up many stones and swears by multiple gods, including Yahweh, the God of Abraham, as one among the gods of his fathers, possibly the very ones whom Rachel was sitting on in the tent. Jacob knows there is only one true God. He knows who his Defender is. And as the story closes, Jacob’s Defender has protected him so well, that Laban does nothing but kiss his children and grandchildren, bless them and then leave them to go home.

What we see in this story is Yahweh continuing to set the patterns for how He will ultimately deliver on His promise to bring blessing to the whole world and remove the curse that humans brought on themselves through their rebellion. The defense against their enemies, the defense against their own sin is what Israel would experience time and time again as the Story went forward.

They would see it as they cried out in Egypt and were heard by Yahweh, who told Moses in Exodus 3, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…” (Exodus 3:7-8 ESV) They would see how Yahweh defends his people from their enemies as they left Egypt only to be pursued to the shores of the Red Sea by the chariots of Pharaoh. But there Yahweh came down as a pillar of fire and stood between the people of God and their enemies, holding Pharaoh back as Yahweh opened the Red Sea for Israel to pass through.

They would see how Yahweh would protect them in spite of their own sin as time and time again their hearts would run after other gods and be divided in their loyalty to Yahweh, which means they were wholly unfaithful to the God who was so faithful toward them. But His promises to them in the covenant included protection from themselves, ultimately from Yahweh’s own wrath against sin as He provided for them sacrifices. The fire of His anger would consume the bulls and lambs and as they looked on the ashes of their guilt offerings, they would see that there was no anger left for them. In the covenant, they were no longer enemies of Yahweh. He was their God and they were His people, just like Jacob and his family here.

God would always deal with His people that way, but there would come a day when the sins of humans would need to be fully dealt with because the Scriptures testify that blood of animals cannot actually remove the guilt of our sin. What those sacrifices anticipated was the coming of the perfect Sacrifice, the one promised throughout the Old Testament and arriving in the New Testament in the person of Jesus. Jesus is Yahweh himself come in the flesh to save His people from their enemies, from themselves and from the wrath of God himself.

For Paul, our hope is always based on Jesus and on his death and resurrection as he writes, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.“ (Romans 5:6-10 ESV)

Above all, the finished work of Jesus defends us against the wrath of Yahweh because all the wrath of Yahweh against our sin was fully spent on Jesus on that cross. As you look upon the crucified Jesus with the eyes of faith, you can see the fullness of what the people of God in the Old Testament saw as they looked on the ashes of the lamb that died in their place. Horatius Bonar wrote of that sight, “…the work is done The fire has consumed the sacrifice and the ashes which remain are not the prolongation of that sacrifice but the palpable proof that the fire has exhausted itself, that wrath is spent and that nothing can now be added to or taken from the perfection of that sacrifice through which pardon and righteousness are [from not on] to flow to the condemned and the ungodly.”[1] In the body of Jesus on the cross, you can see the shocking horror of our sin, the terrifying, righteous anger of God and the overwhelming beauty of His grace in the spent body of your Rescuer.

And if Jesus has rescued you from your sin and from the wrath of God himself, how will he abandon you to your enemy? Like Yahweh in the pillar of fire, like Yahweh in Laban’s dream, Jesus is Yahweh standing between His people and Satan who accuses them. That was Martin Luther’s hope – that he was so united to Christ, that God’s wrath toward Luther’s sin was so fully satisfied by Jesus – that the accusations of Satan could not stand against him or any of God’s children. Luther instructs those who feel the painful accusations from our enemy,

“You should tell the devil ‘Just by telling me that I am a miserable, great sinner you are placing a sword and a weapon into my hand with which I can decisively overcome you; yea, with your own weapon I can kill and floor you. For if you tell me that I am a poor sinner, I, on the other hand, can tell you that Christ die(d) for sinners and is their Intercessor… You remind me of the boundless, great faithfulness and benefaction of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The burden of my sins and all the trouble and misery that were to oppress me eternally He very gladly took upon His shoulders and suffered the bitter death on the cross for them. To Him I direct you. You may accuse and condemn Him. Let me rest in peace, for on His shoulders, not on mine, lie all my sins and the sins of all the world.”[2]

That is the Gospel that we preach. That is the Gospel that saves us. We are helpless against our enemies. We are helpless against ourselves. We are helpless before the wrath of God because of our rebellion. But we have a Savior who died to rescue us and now lives to defend us.

Jacob would need to hold on in faith to Yahweh to defend him in the troubles ahead. He was going home and that’s what he wanted so deeply, but Esau was waiting. His brother wanted him dead twenty years ago. Had he forgotten his wrath? Jacob didn’t know, but He knew Yahweh was with him.

So you, too, need to hold on to Jesus. Abandon the false hopes of security and protection in wealth. Abandon the false god we call “what other people think about me.” They are as powerful to save and defend you as those little gods of Laban who could not even cry out to him from beneath Rachel! Run to Jesus and find just how close your Defender is to you – as close as His Holy Spirit inside of you – defending you from all of your enemies and leading you safely home to be with him.

Benediction:

“May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:11-14 ESV)

[1] Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness; or, How Shall Man Be Just With God?, 38.

[2] Luther, WLS, 1:403.