I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 31-32.

There are several things in this passage I want to comment on, but I don’t see a connection between them.  So, I am going to start writing about them and see where this goes.  When Jacob decided to leave Laban he called Rachel and Leah to join him in the fields away from Laban’s household.  It was only after they joined him that he told them what he intended.  Yet, Rachel must have had some idea of what he intended.  Otherwise, why did she steal her father’s household gods?  As he explained his decision to leave, Jacob connected the guidance to that which gave him the insight to build his flock…and he credited both of those to God.  Jacob mentions the vow he had made to God at Bethel.  I read this as Jacob telling his wives (and perhaps his children) that this return would commit him, and them, to worshiping God and following His commands.

I find the references to God in the discussion between Laban and Jacob interesting.  Laban first refers to the One who warned him not to harm Jacob as “the God of your father.”  A little further in, Jacob refers to the One who aided him against Laban’s deceit as “the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac.” Then when they took the oath not to make war on each other, Laban called on “he God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father” to witness their oath.  Meanwhile Jacob took the oath in the name of “the Fear of Isaac.”  Both recognized God as having the power to enforce their oath, but neither acknowledged God as their God.