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Genesis 31c:

Reading #129 

The vow

At Gilead, Jacob and Laban made a promise.

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Genesis 31:

43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my  [grand]children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that you see is [rightfully] mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children which they have born? 44 Now therefore come you, let us make a covenant, I and you; and let it be for a witness between me and you.”

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Laban [like Satan] would not acknowledge that the people and animals were rightfully Jacob’s, but he bowed to God’s authority as shown him in his dream.  See Philippians 2:10. Following the custom of the times, Jacob and Laban then made a formal peace treaty.

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Genesis 31:

45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar [monument]. 46 And Jacob said to his brethren, “Gather [other] stones; and they took stones, and made a heap [a tabletop]: and they [Jacob and Laban] did eat there upon the heap [in a religious feast]. 47 And Laban called it [in Aramaic] “Jegarsahadutha” [“the heap of witness]: but Jacob called it [in Hebrew] “Galeed” [which means the same]. 48 And Laban said, “This heap is a witness [of restricted anger] between me and you this day.”

Therefore was the name of it called “Galeed” [“Gilead”, from the heap]; 49 and “Mizpah” [“Watchtower”, from the pillar]; for he [Laban] said, “The LORD watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another. 50 If you shall afflict my daughters, or if you shall take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us [as an official avenger]; see, God is witness [avenger] between me and you.” 

51 And Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast between me and you; 52 this heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you shall not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53 The God of Abraham [the living God], and the god of Nahor, the god of their [our] father, [see Joshua 24:2] judge between us [they will do it].”.

And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac [God Almighty].

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This was not a benediction, but a curse.  They called on their own deities to kill them if either of them should break the agreement, with the pillar and heap of stones as the historical evidence that they had agreed.  In doing this Jacob acknowledged his Saviour as a punisher and killer!  How much he still had to learn!  In the light of his own behaviour it is also strange that Laban should make a condition that Jacob should not marry any other wives, but presumably, it was OK within the family but not out of it!

That he accepted the God of Jacob as a party to the covenant merely indicates that he saw Him as a local God of that area, but below is shown the difference.

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Isaiah 10:

8 … the stock [an idol] is a doctrine of vanities. 9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder [the idol maker]: blue and purple is their clothing [on the idols]: they are all the work of cunning men.

10 But the LORD is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King: at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. 11 Thus shall you say to them, “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.”

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The living God = the God who gives life, compared with the false gods.

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Genesis 31:

54 Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they [the church] did eat bread [in another special religious feast], and tarried all night in the mount. 55 And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his  [grand]sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned to his place. 

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The whole church, by partaking of the supper, agreed with the terms of the covenant made by Jacob with Laban.  Although all had been affected by Laban’s greed and policies, they contracted that they would not attempt to avenge themselves, and in fact, all family contact with the religious relations in Syria ceased from that moment.  Jacob’s multitude were learning that it was not their work or place anymore.  They had to deal with Esau now. 

Later, the Son of God was to say, “To Me [only] belongs vengeance, and recompense [payback]; their foot [that of the rejecters] shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” (Deuteronomy 32:35), but He meant it in a completely different way than humans do, for His way is not like ours. Isaiah 55:8-9.

From this point on, there was a large group of strong Christians operating in the land of Canaan and there would be no need for adventures into the wild to find a wife for any of them.  The dwellers in Mesopotamia (“between the rivers”), with their mixture of truth and error, their professed love of the living God and yet also of their idols, were to be classed as belonging to the enemy from then on, one of the “daughters” of Babylon.  See Revelation 17:5.  And how do Christians behave towards those who hate them?  By loving them.

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Matthew 5:

44 But I say to you, Love your enemies [those that hate you, not those you hate – there shouldn’t be any of those!], bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just [converted ones] and on the unjust [the rejecters]. 

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But with that love comes recognition - a knowledge that such cannot be taken into the hearts and lives of Christians until they are converted. Therefore, all the energies of the followers of God are to be channelled, as was the strength of Jesus, into helping them find the truth.  Upon many is a spiritual sickness which no earthly drug can reach nor doctor heal.  As you meet them, pray for these folk, that the Spirit may be able to use you in their defence to bring them to a place where they can see Jesus. Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead and a Physician there.  Jeremiah 8:22.  And if they reject that knowledge, leave them to their choice for the Son of God to deal with!

It was amongst the mountains of Gilead that Elijah lived many hundreds of years later.  It was he who led out in the great movement of truth during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.  (1 Kings 16:30-33 and 17:1).  It is he who is used as another description of those who will welcome Jesus at His return.  The last words in the Old Testament are:-

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Malachi 4:

4 Remember you the [ceremonial] law of Moses My servant [have another look at it], which I commanded to him in Horeb [Mt. Sinai] for all Israel, with the statutes [the Ten Commandments] and judgments [daily advices].

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD [Consider Matthew 12:11-14]: 6 and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers [a unity of the old believers with the new], lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

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Far removed from any city of renown, and occupying no high position in life, Elijah the Tishbite nevertheless entered upon his mission confident in God's purpose to prepare the way before him and to give him abundant success. The word of faith and power was upon his lips, and his whole life was devoted to the work of reform. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness to rebuke sin and press back the tide of evil. And while he came to the people as a reprover of sin, his message also offered the balm of Gilead to the sin-sick hearts of all who desired to be healed.

To Elijah was entrusted the mission of delivering to king Ahab heaven's message of judgment. He did not seek to be the LORD's messenger; the word of the LORD came to him. And jealous for the honour of God's cause, he did not hesitate to obey the divine summons, though to do so seemed to invite swift destruction at the hand of the wicked king. 

It was only by the exercise of strong faith in the unfailing power of God's word that Elijah delivered his message.

Had he not possessed implicit confidence in the One whom he served, he would never have appeared before Ahab. On his way to Samaria to see the king, Elijah had passed by ever-flowing streams, hills covered with greenery, and stately forests that seemed beyond the reach of drought. Everything on which his eye rested was clothed with beauty. The prophet might have wondered how the streams that had never ceased their flow could become dry, or how those hills and valleys could be burned with drought. But he gave no place to unbelief. He fully believed that God would humble apostate Israel, and that through judgments they would be brought to repentance, for he knew that was the Son of God’s intent.

The command of heaven had gone forth; God's word could not fail; and at the peril of his life Elijah fearlessly fulfilled his commission. 

It was towards this type of work that Jacob travelled, although, unlike Elijah, it was not without many misgivings that he retraced the road which he had trodden as a fugitive twenty years before. His sin in the deception of his father was ever before him.  Even though he had long been forgiven for his actions, he knew that his exile was the direct result of that sin, and while he pondered over these things day and night, the reproaches of an accusing conscience made his journey very sad.

As the hills of his native land appeared before him in the distance, the heart of the patriarch was deeply moved. All the past rose vividly before him.  But with the memory of his sin came also the thought of God's favour toward him, and the promises of divine help and guidance. 

So it will be in the last days just before the second coming.  Those who follow the LORD’s leading in that day may be assured that all of their past transgressions will come back to their minds.  (See Zechariah 3:1-10.)  Both the Spirit of God and Satan will be pointing out their deficiencies, but with very different motives.  This will have an effect on the Elijahs and the Jacobs.  Two different men are used to portray the experiences of Christians of that time because although we may be sure of God’s word in our public life, we will also see the problems in our private one - that tension will be great.

While Satan will be trying to discourage and prevent the call to judgment, the Spirit will be endeavouring to strengthen the Christians for their work by assuring them that He knows all about their lives and yet He still wants them to be His witnesses for Jesus.  They, in their turn, will eventually be glad to join in with the publication of their past sins because then they can lift Him up before others as their Saviour, Cleanser and Forgiver.  See 1 John 1:9.

Thus they will be walking in the footsteps of their great spiritual ancestor, Jacob, into his “trouble”.  So when the religious ones restrict their power to persecute, there will still be “Esau”, Satan’s other power, the state, to meet.

More next week?    Ron

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