When Jacob asks Laban to send him home to Canaan, Laban tries to talk Jacob into staying. Laban says he has “learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” But Jacob offers Laban a deal concerning the flock that Laban can’t refuse. Laban assumes Jacob’s offer is in Laban’s favor. However, when the Lord increases Jacob’s flock by breeding the streaked, speckled, and spotted animals, Laban’s sons accuse Jacob of stealing from Laban. Therefore, God says to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.” Jacob obeys the Lord, packs up his household, and flees.
Rachel apparently doesn’t have the same faith in the Lord as her husband. Before leaving her father’s house, she steals her dad’s household idols. There was another lady in this story that had a hard time letting go of things in the past and moving forward with the Lord. Remember Lot’s wife? Not trusting the Lord always results in harmful consequences. Rachel taking matters into her own hands by taking the idols and not trusting God causes more family strife. However, the Lord intervenes and protects Jacob once again.
While in pursuit of Jacob, God says to Laban in a dream, “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.” Then Laban awakes and catches up with Jacob where they are camped. When Laban asks Jacob why he fled, Jacob responds, “Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
Jacob and Laban eventually enter into a covenant of peace with each other and depart ways. But tomorrow Jacob encounters his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him twenty years ago for stealing his blessing from their father Isaac. Will the Lord restore Jacob’s relationship with Esau? Keep reading to find out. (Genesis 30:25-31:55)
Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 