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Bob Davis: She wants her husband to have the authority in things those little gods give him that authority. These gods being stolen meant that Laban and his household would be without protection from their gods. Their little idols got taken. We have nothing to protect our home. They were little gold things that couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't walk, couldn't do anything, and he's counting on them to protect him.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Continuing in Genesis chapter 31 verse 31, Jacob and Laban finally confront one another. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Laban is crazy. Poor guy. But he's there for his gods. Where are they? I want them. Watch verse 31. Jacob answered because he said, "Why'd you do this? Why'd you steal? Why'd you do all this?" Jacob answered in verse 31 and said to Laban, "Because I was afraid." Why did I leave without telling you? For this very reason. You're standing and looking in my face right now because I was afraid, for I said, "Peradventure you would take by force your daughters from me." I figured if I said I'm leaving, you would take them away from me and then kick me out with nothing.

"With whomsoever you find those gods," he says. That's why I left and to answer your second question, I didn't take your gods. I'll prove it to you. "With whomsoever you find the gods, let that person not live. Death penalty." If you find your gods somewhere, kill the person that has them. "Before our brethren discern that which is thine with me, and take it to thee." For Jacob did not know Rachel had stolen them. Oopsie. Death penalty.

And Laban went into Jacob's tent. Of course he would go there first. Why? Because one weasel to another, he knows weasels are lying. He's going to go ransack that tent and look everywhere. He couldn't find it. Then he went into Leah's tent and into the two maid servants' tents, and he couldn't find those little gods anywhere. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered into Rachel's tent.

Now Rachel had taken the images, and she put them in the camel's furniture—in other words, in the blanket—under the camel saddle. And she sat on them. Laban searched all of her tent but he couldn't find anything. And she said to her father, "Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee, for the custom of women is upon me."

Look at this. Jacob gives such a cool answer. Why did I not tell you? Because I was scared by force you would take everything that was mine away from me: my wives, the kids, everything. I couldn't risk it. I was afraid, period. That's the truth. And then I left right away. I didn't steal your gods. I'll prove it to you. Search. You search everything that we have. Search anywhere and everywhere. See if you can find those. If you find them, we'll put to death the thief that has them. He does not know Rachel has them.

So now what's going to happen? Well, it was easy. Jacob had no idea his wife had stolen those idols. Laban checked Jacob's tent first, of course, and found nothing. He went to Leah's tent and to some of the maid servants' tents. Finally he goes to Rachel's tent. And she says to her father, "Please forgive me if I don't stand up. It's my time of the month basically. I'm not feeling that well. Do you mind if I just sit here? You're welcome to look all over the place."

He looks. Of course she's sitting on the camel's saddle. She's got a blanket over it, and the little gods are hidden under the saddle, under the little chair she's sitting on, which is the saddle. Laban found nothing in the tent, so he walked out. Jacob doesn't know that they're in there. Leah doesn't know they're in there. The kids don't know they're in there. Jacob doesn't know it's in there. But Rachel does. She needs those if she wants her husband to be important.

I wonder how often we forget what God's word says and we start to rely on superstitions and on things that my mother taught me. If you step on a crack, you break your mother's back. All those little things that you had to remember. I wonder when are we going to let that stuff go and quit fooling around with all this silly stuff and actually listen to the Word of God and walk in that way instead.

So we read this in verse 36. Jacob was angry and he chided, he chode with Laban. He yelled at him. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, "What is my sin? What have I done wrong? Where's my trespass? What is my sin that you have so hotly pursued after me?" I mean with force and violently coming after me, not even resting your horses hardly just to catch us. What did I do?

"Whereas you have searched all my stuff," I let you look. You've just ransacked and messed up everything. "Searched all my stuff and what have you found of all the household stuff? What do I have of yours? Set it here before me and my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge between you and me." I told you they weren't here. They're not here. We don't have them. Don't you hate it when you're standing on your own principles and you know for a fact and then your kid goes, "Oh yeah, Dad, I broke that. We didn't break your window." Okay kid, practice falling down over there. I'll be right there. How embarrassing is that? He doesn't know. He does not know.

So he thinks he's got a right to be uppity and puffed up and now bold to speak. "This 20 years," verse 38, "or these 20 years I have been with you. I served you. With your ewes and your she-goats, and I have not cast their young. And the rams of thy flock I have not eaten. That which was torn by wild beasts—the ones that got killed by wild beasts—I did not bring to you. I took the loss myself. Of my hand did you require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. I paid you back if sheep or goats were attacked by wild animals and they're yours. I'm watching yours."

"Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. Thus have I been 20 years in your house. A servant in your house. I served you 14 years for thy two daughters and six years for the flocks and herds. And you've changed my wages ten times. You cheated me. I was supposed to get this and you changed it and made it that. Cheated me ten times."

"Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me, surely you had sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands and has rebuked you last night when He spoke to you." Jacob decides he's got the right to rebuke Laban.

You know Laban is older than him. Laban deserves respect, not because Laban's not a weasel—he is a weasel—but he deserves respect because he's an elder. You show respect where respect is due. Whether you respect that individual or not, you respect the position. So if you're going to tell him something, you're going to do it respectfully, even if you're telling him he's wrong. Good, you do it respectfully. But he thinks, "I got a right. You're spitting nails, I'm spitting some too." Well, both of them are weasels, that's why.

Jacob decides, "I got a right to rebuke you, Laban." So what exactly is my crime? You hotly pursued me, threatening me for what? For nothing. What did you find after rummaging through all our tents? You found nothing. I served you 20 years. I took financial losses the entire time. I took care of your flocks, your herds, and they were cared for very well in the scorching heat in the summer days and the freezing cold of the winter nights. He says it was my God who blessed me the entire time. And if the Lord my God hadn't spoken to you last night, you'd be beating us up today, maybe killing us and taking everything that you think is yours.

Now he's right. Everyone, I'll say it again. It's hard to get this into our heads. You can do the right thing the wrong way. It's easy to do. I do it a lot. I'm sure you do too, if you're willing to think through. You can do the right thing the wrong way. And God is always watching me, always, not just when I'm doing well, but always.

So this brings up a question for me and for you to consider, to ponder. Is that the word? To consider. It brings up a question after I just read what Jacob did for 20 years. I have to look at me. You ought to look at you. We're Christians, saved by grace through faith. Are we faithful to our employers? Are we faithful to our supervisors even if they're jerks or jerkettes?

Because Laban was a terrible supervisor. Yet he said, "I worked honestly. I did it. When I even got cheated by you ten times, you changed my pay. Ten times you did this and it was wrong. But I did it." Well, you blew it all now by whining about it, but still. That's interesting. Here's the question: are we faithful at our jobs? Are we faithful to our employees, no matter who they are, or our supervisors, whether we love them and they love us or whether they can't stand us and that's the job that we have?

And we're representing God there. How are we doing with our employers, our supervisors, our bosses, or managers? Does the blessing of God rest upon my work like it did Jacob? Does the blessing of God rest upon your work just like it did with Jacob? Jacob was cheated. Jacob got ripped off. He knew it. And I'm sure there were times when his heart wasn't right. But yet he trusted God.

And he even says it. He says it right here. He says, "You know, if the Lord God hadn't spoken to you last night, I'd be dead right now. I'm pretty sure of it." So God, he said, the Lord God, all that 20 years was with me. And he's still with me. And so it just brings up a question in my heart and yours. When you get a few moments when you're all by yourself: am I doing the best I can do because I'm representing Jesus Christ in it?

You say, "Well, my job is to walk around and hand out little silly samples." Man, be the best sample hander-outer that you could be because you're doing it for the Lord, right? It's hard to keep that heart and mind. But does the blessing of God rest upon our work like it did on Jacob's? Now God's going to bless in spite of me and in spite of you. But where are our hearts? That becomes the key.

Well, let's finish this. Verse 43. Laban answered and said to Jacob, "These daughters are my daughters. These children are my children. These cattle are my cattle. All that you see, all that you're looking at, all that you're calling yours is really mine. And what can I do this day unto these my daughters or unto the children which they have borne?"

In other words, he says there's nothing I can do about it now. God told me I couldn't. God said, "Be nice." Now therefore, Jacob, come, let us make a covenant. We're going to cut a covenant here. Make a deal. And they're going to do it in the presence of God, the God of Jacob. So it's a binding covenant between themselves and God, right?

"Now come, let us make a covenant, me and you, and let it be for us a witness between you and me, me and you." And Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar. He just grabs—he did that before way over there at Bethel. Just grabbed a pretty good-sized stone that he was sleeping, had his head laying on, and he stands it up.

Well, he did it again. And Jacob said to his brethren, all the people that were with him, "Gather stones." And they took stones and they made a big pile, a heap. And they did eat there upon the heap. They shared a meal. And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. I like his better. It's easier to say.

And Laban said, "This pile, this heap, this bundle—it's pretty good-sized now because they piled a bunch of rocks—is a witness between you and me this day and forever." Therefore the name was called Galeed and Mizpah, for he said, verse 49, "The Lord watch between you and me, or me and you, when we are absent from one another."

"If you shall afflict my daughters or if you shall take other wives besides my daughters, no man is with us. See, God is witness between you and me. I don't trust you. You're taking my daughters and I don't know what you're going to do with them, and I don't know where you're going and I've never been. And I don't trust you."

"The only thing I can do is call upon your God to watch you." And Laban said to Jacob, "Behold this heap, this pile, and behold this pillar which I have cast between you and me. This heap be witness, this pile, and this pillar be witness that I will not pass over this heap to you. I'll never cross this far again. I will not come over to get you."

"I will not pass over this heap to you, and you shall not pass over this heap and this pillar to me for harm. In other words, you'll never come back to where I live, and I'll never go to where you live. If we do, we'll kill each other. For harm—in other words, you come back past this little point, I'll put you to death. If I come back on that side, you can put me to death."

That sounds loving. Great deal. "The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac—in other words, the reverence of the Lord. Then Jacob offered sacrifices upon the mount and called his brethren to eat bread, and they did eat bread and they tarried all night in the mount. They all ate together.

And in the early morning Laban rose up, kissed his sons—all the kids—and his daughters, and he blessed them. And Laban departed and returned to his place. I can't trust you out of my sight. You're a weasel. God watches you. You come back too close, I'll kill you. You come back over here, you're dead. I go over there, I'm dead. It's a deal.

We hate each other. We always will. Laban simply blows all that Jacob just said. He just blows it all away. "These are my daughters, these are my grandchildren. I don't care what you say. I would never harm them ever," said one weasel to the other weasel, right? He says, "I cannot trust you."

Laban says, "I can't trust you." Jacob says, "Well, I can't trust you. We just don't trust each other," said one weasel to the other weasel, one cheater to the other cheater, one sneaker to the other sneaker, right? It is not a friendly deal. It is not a contract filled with mercy and grace for each other. It is a contract between two weasels, two men who'd hate one another and vow to kill each other. "If you come past this, I'm going to put you to death. You come back over here and I'll put you to death." Well good, we understand. Shake hands. We understand one another.

They put this big pile of rocks together. A good-sized pile of rocks it looks like. Jegar-sahadutha. Jacob called it Galeed. All that means in his language and the language of the east over there and in Jacob's language, it both means "pile of witness." The pile of witness. How do you like it? They name things such holy names.

"Okay, this is our pile of witness." And you could call it Mizpah. It's also renamed Mizpah. Mizpah, that's Hebrew: Watchtower. That thing is there and you cross it, you're dead. Love you, though. Mean it. But you're dead. I know Christians that are just like this. I'm telling you, I know personally Christians that hate each other. They can't go to the same church. They can't be in the same room. Oh, they'll go to fisticuffs.

You know why? Because they love everybody. So look. The Lord watch between thee and me when we are absent from one another. It sounds like language like thoughtful, like trusting, but it's not. As soon as you're out of my sight, I don't trust what you're doing. I don't trust what you're thinking. I don't even know what your plans are, Jacob. I can't trust you as far as I could throw you.

And so when you're out of my sight, I'm asking God to watch you because you can't be trusted. And Jacob says, "Oh yeah? Well, I can't trust you. And I bet I could throw you further, but I still can't trust you. And I'm asking my God to strike you dead if you even come near this pile. Love you, father-in-law."

"I'm asking God to keep an eye on you because you are a louse and a weasel." "I'm asking God the same thing because you are the real louse and you are the real weasel." Like I just said it in American, but if you want to say it in American, it's: "I can't trust you as far as I can throw you. I can't trust you as far as I can spit." So the Lord needs to keep an eye on you because you cannot be trusted, ever.

The covenant is this: you will not harm my daughters and you won't marry any others, and neither of us will cross this pile of rocks. In the King James, "for harm." You cross this, you're looking at harm. I cross it, I'm looking at harm. And I love this. They have a dinner together. You know, family, that's how it works.

Early the next morning, they parted company for good. Taking a vow to God, never see each other ever again, not even come close to one another. And I think, Lord, we're kind of that way. We love one another. Remember? That's what we do. And we're learning how. And Jacob, if you just stopped here, you'd say, "Poor Jacob. He's never going to make it."

He'll make it, but you watch. We're going to walk with him to see how he learns to love those wives the way he has to, how he learns to love those boys. You're going to see how you learn to do these things, and it takes God and only God. But that's a sad, sad story. Now Jacob's trouble is just beginning, but we'll talk about that the next time we get together.

Think about some of the things we've learned. Do your job, and do it as if God Himself is your supervisor. And do it even if others kind of get lax and get lazy. It's easy to fall into whatever everybody else does. We can do that because that's what you can get away with here at work, instead of just saying, "You know, let's just do, do your job, that simple job you have to do."

If your job is smashing bottles for a living, smash them. Just crush them up, do it. Whatever your hand finds to do, as Solomon writes, whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Do your best with it. Just do your best. God's not asking for anything else. And we have to pray to make sure that our hearts are surrendered, not just every few minutes, but our hearts are surrendered.

Because jobs can get weird, and people can get weird, and life can get weird. But God never gets weird, and He's always going to protect, He's always going to defend, He's always going to lead you, He's always going to guide you. So with that, we'll go ahead and worship a little bit. But if you've never received Jesus Christ, if you've never remembered a time where you surrendered your heart to Him, then maybe you don't even know Him.

And so you have an opportunity. People say, "I don't know very much of the Bible." It's okay. Clearly a lot of Christians are wearing jewelry and they have no idea what the Bible says. They're still just as saved. It's by God's grace. But there needs to be a time when you say, "Save me, Lord. I recognize I'm a sinner and I can't pay for my sin. You paid. Wash me clean." A time where you make that decision on your own. Just make sure that you do that. Make sure that's you. And then He'll teach us, He'll grow us, He'll walk us off. Let's bow our heads together.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM.

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