October 19, 2025: Jacob’s Flight - Genesis 31

Oh, we have a doozy of a passage for us this morning.

If you have your Bibles with you, please do turn to Genesis

Genesis 31 · chapter mention

chapter 31. We're asking these questions

again. What am I, who am I, and why am

I here? They are fundamentally religious

questions. And if we don't go to the Bible

for answers to these questions, we're going to go somewhere,

some other religion, some other idolatry, some other idolatrous

ideology. We demand answers to these most

fundamental questions and the cultures in a roiling boil amid

competing ideas as to what this means, and we feel divided and

unstable and afraid. But friends, Christians, the

Bible does deliver stable answers to life's deepest

questions. God provides for these according

to his precious promises, promises he made to Abraham land

to make him to have a place to live, a land, a special place to

have a people, a family, a place of belonging, not only to bless

themselves, but to mediate blessings to the world.

Sadly, sin is a massive disruptor to these things.

So Adam and Eve, they're exiled from the Garden of Eden.

And in our story now, Jacob is on the run from Esau, exiled

outside of the Holy Land. He's gone to another place, and

we're nervous about if and when he'll return.

Instead of family and belonging, we have rivalry.

Murder in the case of Cain and Abel, the worry of murder in the

case of Esau and Jacob. Intense rivalry between Leah and

Rachel. How will these be overcome to a

people who love one another as God loves?

Sin also disrupts our purpose in life.

So instead of mediating blessing and being agents of redemption,

we are tempted, Tempted to hurt and harm and to mediate curses

instead of blessing. We need to review before we get

into chapter 31 how the Lord has been dealing with Jacob up into

this point. Remember, he's on the run from

Esau and in chapter 28, he's completely alone.

He doesn't have an intent. He's helpless, hopeless,

friendless. God meets him in his place of

need, gives him a vision dream of a stairway to heaven and an

Oracle that reiterates the promises made to his father and

his grandfather before him, promises about a land and a

nation to be a blessing. Jacob responds in chapter 28

this way. Then Jacob made a vow saying 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, returning to the land,

then the Lord shall be my God. And when we went through this,

we noticed that he's praying for provision, looking for

protection, and looking for a future of peace back in the

land. Provision, protection and peace.

We learned that Jacob, what he thought was going to be a short

errand to Uncle Laban to find a wife and hopefully return, has

turned into a long drawn out ordeal.

Laban wasn't what he had hoped. And now Jacob the deceiver is

having the tables turned on him. He's given a dose of his own

medicine as Uncle Laban turns out to be more than his match.

Yeah, God keeps working in his life.

And as Pastor Brighton so well preached last week, we see even

in the midst of sin and rivalry, God making good on his promises,

promises to build the family. There's all these kids, promises

to provide for him, all this wealth accumulating.

But there's still a lot of tension in this story, and it's

about to ratchet up quite a bit. Hopefully it's not too familiar

for us this morning. Have you heard it too many

times? What's your favorite movie in

the Blosser House? One of our favorite movies that

we watch over and over and over again is called The Princess

Bride. Some of you have heard of it.

It can be a kind of a hard sell. In the story, the young boy is

sick and his grandfather comes. He's going to read to him a

storybook while he's sick. And the little boy is like, not

very enthusiastic. And so the grandfather tries to

tell him that this is a book that he's really going to want

to hear from. He says, when I was your age,

television was called books. And this The Princess Bride book

is a special book. It was the book my father used

to read to me when I was sick. And I used to read it to your

father. And today I'm going to read it

to you again. The little boy is not impressed,

so he goes on trying to hook him on the story.

He goes on to describe its contents, which include fencing,

fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases,

escapes, true love, and miracles.

The Bible has all of this and so much more this morning.

There is a very intense chase and a showdown and a resolution.

Hopefully we can hear it together.

As if for the first time in the intro that was read so well a

minute ago, we find out that things are not quite what they

had been. The sons of Laban are starting

to complain. Situation is getting a little

bit intense, so Jacob has to call a family meeting and

rehearse the story first. We're going to see that Jacob

finally flees, that this situation deteriorates and it's

time to go, Which is some relief to us because remember, we've

been in suspense since he left the Holy Land, haven't we?

How is he ever going to get back?

We're going to find out. So if you read with me, we're in

chapter 31, as I said, calls a family meeting.

Verse 4. So Jacob sent and called Rachel

and Leah into the field where his flock was and he said to

them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as

he did before, but the God of my father has been with me.

Remember, as he promised, you know that I have served your

father with all my strength, that your father has cheated me

and changed my wages 10 times, but God, But God did not permit

him to harm me. If he said the spotted shall be

your wages and all the flock bore spotted, and if he said the

stripes shall be your wages and all the flock bore striped.

Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and

given them to me. In the breeding season of the

flock, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats

that made it with the flock were stripes spotted and modeled.

Then the Angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob and I said,

here I am. And he said, lift up your eyes

and see all the goats that made with a flock or stripes spotted

and modeled. For I have seen all that Laban

is done to you. I am the God of Bethel.

Were you anointed? A pillar made a vow to me.

Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your

kindred and stop right there. How are Rachel and Leah going to

respond? Are they going to be more loyal

to their homeland and to their father or to their husband?

Jacob is rehearsing the story, telling his testimony,

explaining how God met him in Bethel and now it's time to go.

Will you follow? We leave together.

It's time. Verse 14.

Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there any

portion or inheritance left to us in our Father's house?

Are we not regarded by him as foreigners?

For He has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money.

All the wealth that God has taken away from our Father

belongs to us and to our children.

Now then, whatever God has said to you, do so now.

These sisters, who have been in such a competitive rivalry that

is so sad and so broken, are united sadly under a common

contempt for their father who has cheated them.

They are ready to leave. It's time they will follow.

Follow Jacob. But the suspense ratchets up

considerably as they hatch the plan.

So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels.

He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had

gained, the livestock and his possession that he had acquired

in Padan Aram to go to the land of Canaan to his father.

Isaac Labid had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her

father's household. Gods and Jacob tricked Laban the

Aramean by not telling him that he intended to flee.

He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates

and set his face toward the Hill Country of Gilead.

Whoa. So imagine Laban coming back,

went back after shearing the sheep, and everybody's gone.

No warning, they just disappear. Oh, and where are my gods?

My gods are missing Jacob, so we're all set up for this chase

scene. When he was told Laban on the

third day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and

pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into

the Hill Country of Gilead. But God came to Laban the

Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, be careful not to

say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.

Jacob finally flees. He's on his way home and God is

the one over and over and over again that is seen to be the

prime mover, the primary actor. Jacob rehearses the story.

They leave, Rachel decides to steal the gods and off they go.

Laban is in hot pursuit, and if you had never heard this story

before, you would be super worried, super nervous.

What is going to happen when Laban catches up?

There's going to be a showdown. What's going to happen?

And we learned in the second-half of the chapter that

Laban, that we expect him to become violent and angry or

maybe bring them all back. He leaves in peace.

Let's continue hearing a story from the word of the Lord, verse

25. And Laban overtook Jacob.

Now Jacob had pitched his tents in the Hill Country, and Laban

with his kinsmen pitched tents in the Hill Country of Gilead.

And Laban said to Jacob, What have you done?

Remember, that's an echoing refrain through Genesis, usually

in response to some dastardly deed.

What have you done that you've tricked me and driven away my

daughters like captives of the sword?

Remember, the daughters were not captives.

They left of their own free will.

Laban's twisting everything. Why did you flee secretly and

trick me? He's going to act like he has

the high ground and did not tell me that might that I might have

sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and liar.

Why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughter's

farewell? Now you have done foolishly.

It is in my power to harm you. But there's that lovely little

word that changes everything. But the God of your father spoke

to me last night, saying Be careful not to say anything to

Jacob, either good or bad. And now you have gone away

because you longed greatly for your father's house.

But why did you steal my gods? Jacob answered and said to

Laban. Because I was afraid, for I

thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.

Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live in the

presence of our kinsmen. Point out what I have that is

yours, and take it now. Jacob did not know that Rachel

had stolen them. So are you following?

Are you feeling the suspense ratchet up even more now there's

a death warrant on whoever the culprit is forever stole the

gods. The text slows down and gives

all these details. Verse 33.

So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into

the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find

them. See how we're narrowing it down?

What's going to happen? He went out of Leah's tent and

entered Rachel's. Now Rachel had taken the

household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on

them. Are you visualizing this?

Laban in his search begins groping.

Laban felt all about the tent, but he did not find them.

And she, Rachel said to her father, Let my Lord, let not my

Lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women

is upon me. So he searched, but did not find

the household gods. This, ironically, is meant to be

very funny. These gods, holy scripture mocks

idols. Have you noticed this before?

And this is a grand old mocking right here.

These gods are totally powerless.

They were powerless to keep themselves from being stolen.

Now, amid the search, they can't even say, here we are.

We're in the saddlebags and the camel underneath Rachel, they

can't talk, they can't save themselves.

And now the text has them in an extremely disgusting situation.

Because you see, from the Jewish perspective, a camel is a very

unclean animal. And then we're going to keep it

G rated. Rachel's sitting on him too.

Good, strong mocking of the idols.

We're not giving Rachel's heart in this, but it's probably a

sin. We know it's a sin to steal.

We don't know if she's motivated by the value of the idols or if

she herself is some kind of idolater.

We don't know. But the point is, is the point

of the text is that God topples idols.

He does. He makes fun of them.

He mocks them. Throughout Holy Scripture, Jacob

finds nothing. So in verse 36 we find out how

Jacob is becoming angry. Then Jacob became angry and

berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, What is my

offense? What is my sin that you have

hotly pursued me? For you have felt through all my

goods. What have you found of all your

household goods? City here before my kinsmen and

your kinsmen, that they may decide between us. 2 These 20

years I've been with you, your ewes and your female goats have

not miscarried, and I have not eaten the Rams of your flocks.

What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you.

I bore the loss of it myself from my hand.

You required it. Whether stolen by day or stolen

by night, there I was by day. The heat consumed me and the

cold by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

These 20 years I've been in your house.

I served you 14 years for your two daughters and six years for

your flocks, and you have changed my wages 10 times.

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of

Isaac 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.

Quite the speech. How's Laban going to respond?

Verse 43 Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, in the height of

all arrogance, listen to this The daughters are my daughters,

the children are my children. The flocks are my flocks.

All that you see is mine, greedy Laban, mine, mine, mine.

But what can I do this day for these my daughters, or for their

children whom they have borne? Come now, let us make a covenant

to you and I, and let us be a witness between you and me.

So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

And Jacob said to his kinsmen, Gather stones.

And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the

heap. Laban called it whatever that

says, and Jacob called it Ghalid.

Laban said, This heap is a witness between you and me

today. Therefore he named it Ghalid and

Mitzpah. For he said, the Lord watch

between you and me when we are out of one another's sight, if

you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my

daughter, daughters, although no one is with us.

See God is witness between you and me.

Then Laban said to Jacob, See this heap and the pillar which I

have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the

pillar is a witness that I will not pass over this heap to you,

and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me to do

harm. The God of Abraham and the God

of Nahor, and the God of their father judge between us.

So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac, and Jacob

offered a sacrifice in the Hill Country and called his kinsmen

to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the

night in the Hill Country. Early in the morning, Laban rose

and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them.

Then Laban departed and returned home.

The scene resolves in peace against all hope because of what

the Lord is doing and has done. Let's look for glimpses of

Jesus. And this text has been our

custom in these passages. How is it that we see Jesus?

It's interesting to me that Jacob, when he defends himself,

gives his resume as a Good Shepherd.

Did you see that lambs didn't miscarry?

I was exposed to the cold and to the heat.

Our Lord Jesus is a Good Shepherd, doesn't lose any in

his care. He was exposed to hardship for

you and for me. We also see Jacob in this text

as a leader of an escape. You can think about Moses

leaving Egypt. It's probably a nice story to

have on hand to tell the kids as you're leaving Egypt.

Remember, Jacob had to flee from Uncle Laban the guy, and God

protected them. They were even chased by Uncle

Laban and God protected them. Jesus is a leader of escape from

sin and death. He's a leader of a new exodus.

But not only is he a leader from escape from bondage in the life

of servitude, he's also a bringer.

Home welcome. It's time to go home.

So in the gospel we see both released from servitude to sin

and death, but also he's preparing a place for us at

home. In this text, we see idols

toppled. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the

great toppler of idols. He throws down our idols of

greed, idolatry, and we see in this text a table prepared and a

meal of peace between two bitter enemies that don't trust each

other, but because of God they are able to come together in the

Lord Jesus the Good Shepherd was it, say in Psalm 23, He prepares

a table before me in the presence of my enemies and in

his life he gives us the bread of peace, doesn't he?

Some applications before we conclude.

First, we need to rehearse the story.

Isn't that what we're doing now? And even if we have to do it

again and again and again, it's a generational story.

It's like the The Princess Bride, may it be ever fresh.

May the apathy and the boredom that we feel with something that

is over familiar not be a form of contempt, but turn into a

rekindled joy for the greatest story ever told.

I love talking to older Saints. They'll say to me, I never saw

this before. I've read it.

I've heard it more times than I can.

I've even preached it, and I never saw that before.

Friends, it's an inexhaustible treasure.

You can never mine it to its end because it proclaims the truth

of an inexhaustible God and a story that is beyond words.

We have to rehearse this story in our homes.

We have to rehearse this story in our church home together.

So we're doing even now this morning.

Rehearse the story, my friends. Two, you have to ransack the

idols. That's hard because we're very

committed to them. Laban cares more about the idols

than anything else in the text. Why'd you take my gods?

He's searching. He's grew up.

You care at all about the grandkids here.

You seem to, but really, what you're searching for are your

idols. Idols, they grab on, they latch

on, they stick there. And we need divine power to

throw them down. And it's harder in our day and

age in some ways, because most of you, I don't think, literally

have little idols that you bow down to.

Our idols are harder to see, harder to understand, harder to

diagnose, but they draw off our attention from holy things.

They draw off our attention from holy people into countless,

countless wasted hours doing nothing, playing in the mud.

We need to ransack our idols with God, through the precious

power of the gospel coming through to help us topple

things. Let's ransack our idols. 3

Receive peace, Receive his peace.

Friends, there is nothing at all we can do for ourselves.

We are totally helpless in our sin.

We are totally helpless in our frailty.

Our wills are bent against the only one that can heal us, So

what is needed is a miracle of divine intervention coming in,

breaking in and changing our hearts of stone into hearts of

flesh, allowing us to receive the bread of peace from the Lord

Jesus. Who says this is my body broken

for you, this is my blood spilled for you.

And until we receive His peace, we will remain just as trapped

and as broken as ever. So we're going to conclude,

we're going to praise God for His provision, for His

protection, and for His peace given to us in the person work

of Jesus Christ. Will you join me?

Father in Heaven, it's only through your grace that we can

rehearse the story, throw down our idols, and receive your

peace. I pray for those in our

congregation that desperately need this, which is every single

one of us. Will you meet us in our need

just as you met Jacob and his family, And pray this in a

strong name, Jesus Christ the righteous, and by his Spirit one

God forevermore, Amen.