Genesis 31:30-35  The Argument Over Household Gods

  And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father's house, but why did you steal my gods?"  Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force.'  With whomever you find your gods, do not let him live. In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.  And Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the two maids' tents, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent.  Now Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. And Laban searched all about the tent but did not find them.  And she said to her father, "Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is with me." And he searched but did not find the household idols.

Genesis 31 is the story of Jacob, who by this time has spent years working for his father in law Laban the Syrian, noting that his in-laws have started to look upon him as a nuisance and that he was finally overstayed his welcome there.  Not that he has ever felt that welcome.  He has learned the hard way that deceptive people are poor neighbors.  He who had deceived his own father in order to get a parental blessing reserved for his brother has not spent years working for a father-in-law who has apparently tried to cheat him over and again.  And now he fears violence from his in-laws.  Sound familiar?  Sometimes the people you can trust the least are relatives who live close to you. 

God speaks to Jacob in a dream and tells him that it is time to return home.  Jacob, fearing malice and mischief from his in-laws, decides to leave by stealth, a challenging endeavor because he takes his entire family, servants and all possessions with him.  It takes three days for Laban to realize what has happened, and seven additional days to pursue and catch up to Jacob's entourage in the mountains of Gilead.  There they have a tense standoff and eventually negotiate a truce.  A telling detail about this whole drama is the importance of the household idols, the little statues of the gods to whom Laban and his family offer prayers. 

Note:  I've read that the one who holds the family idols is the heir of the estate.  Maybe Rachel wanted to steal because there was value in the material of the idol, or to claim the estate, or because she was idolatrous, or she wanted to make a statement to her father and brothers.  I don't know.  The notion that one was to worship the God of Israel alone, and worship no other, died hard in Israel.

Verse 34 makes quite a statement about the power of idols, that they could be defiled by sitting upon them and they had no defense.  They command sacrifice, but cannot deliver.

It is said that the United States is one of the most idolatrous of nations, despite the fact that we do not have household idols in most of our homes.  The nature of idolatry is to worship in order to receive.  People would worship that god of grain for a good harvest, the goddess of fertility if they wanted children, etc.  Ultimately the most important person to the one who is worshipping is themselves.  The goal is to placate the god or convince the god to help you get what you want.  In true worship we worship the living God because the living God deserves worship whether we get anything out of it or not.  We do get value from worship, but that is not the primary consideration.  The primary consideration is to know and love God and the give to the Lord the honor due to the Lord.  For such a person as this, there is no point to household gods, or to the notion that we worship only when we want to get something. 

Hi, everyone.  It's been awhile since my last post.  I'm now in the latter part of Genesis, learning about Jacob, a dishonest man who had to spend twenty years working for his dishonest father in law.  In the end he finds that God, who met him when he was on the run, had been with him the whole time.  Verse 13 caught my attention.

Genesis 31:13  I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.' "

Note:  The Lord has intervened in dreams, in animal husbandry, in genetics, and in business and economics in order to defend Jacob from Laban, a man in a position of power determined to cheat and oppress.  Cf. Genesis 28:10-22, in which Jacob has the powerful dream of the angels ascending and descending the stairway to heaven.  He called that place "Bethel"-the house of God.  Before then the village was known as Luz.  It is this God who has come to his aid all these years. 

            Jacob would go back to live at Bethel, but in other generations that locations would be the site of idolatry.  It's sacred nature may not be due to its location but to the experience of Jacob and his vow, which serves as a symbol of all who met God in some sacred way and vowed to follow Christ as Lord as a result. 

Genesis 17:1-27 (NKJV) 

An ancient covenant that involves a name change that ties in with us today because of Christ.

¹  When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.

SFLB-"Almighty God" is here the English translation of "El Shaddai".  This name for God emphasizes the might of the Lord in contrast to the frailty  of man.  This name is mentioned in the context of commands to walk blameless and to multiply.

²  And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."
³  Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:
⁴  "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
⁵  No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
⁶  I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

Note:  Abram does not complain like he did before, even though thirteen years have passed and he is now 99 years old.  Sarai is over 90.  There is no way they can have children, but he does not complain.  He worships, and lets the Lord figure out how to make this work.

The Lord not only lays claim to the covenant, but enforces it by changing Abram's name to Abraham.  He is no longer called "High Father" or "Patriarch" to "Father of Many Nations".  This is exciting because we followers of Jesus are participants in this covenant.  Note St. Paul's commentary on this passage:

Romans 4:19-25 (NKJV)
¹⁹  And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
²⁰  He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
²¹  and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
²²  And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."
²³  Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
²⁴  but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
²⁵  who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

Revelation 3:12-Jesus writes on them, or the pillar erected in their honor, the name of His God , the New Jerusalem, and His new name.

We get a new name as well.

Revelation 2:17

            "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat.  And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it."

I love how this ancient covenant, affirmed in this ancient encounter between eternal God and a very old man, has impact and relevance to us today.  In Christ this covenant become our covenant as well, and the El Shaddai-the God who has no limits even when people are bound by limitations-is El Shaddai for us as well because of Jesus Christ.  It is a precious thing to realize one's life is connected to history and to a plan from the ages that came from the very mind of God Himself.  It is humbling as well. 

Read Genesis 16

Genesis 16:8-13

⁸  And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai."
⁹  The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand."
¹⁰  Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude."
¹¹  And the Angel of the LORD said to her: "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction.
¹²  He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."
¹³  Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?"

Note:  The name of the place commemorates that God sees, furthermore, that God actually cares about a young mother and her infant son journeying through the Sinai.  Verse 11 mentions that He hears the affliction of Hagar, and again, cares.  Perhaps that is what we should think about when we need to do what Hagar was commanded by the Angel of the Lord, to submit.  Hagar returned to the house of Abraham and Sarah and submitted to her.  We hear of her again in Genesis 21, 25 and in the New Testament (Galatians 4:21-31). 

"Submit", as I understand it, does not mean "blind obedience" but rather to respect and cooperate with someone.  Wives are to respect and cooperate with their husbands and Christians are to respect and cooperate with each other in general (Ephesians 5:21-22)  The ability to submit comes from a deepening understanding that God hears and sees, not just that He is capable of doing so, but that He does.  He pays attention.  He pays attention to us, even in our everyday lives.  This can be challenging in business setting where someone is trying to take credit for your work or your idea.  Stand up for yourself, but take care not to stoop to their level of dishonesty.  The Lord sees.  He will take note of who does what and will take action.

The Lord Who Calls Us to Be Humble is Humble Himself

Genesis 15:6-17

And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.  Then He said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it."  And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?"  So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."  Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.   And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.   Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.  Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.  And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.  Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.  But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."  And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.

Note:  The surprising portion of this situation is that it is a covenant ceremony involving unequal partners.  When this type of covenant is enacted between two kings, the one passing between the sacrifices the weaker participant, pledging allegiance to the other, superior king.  One makes the promise and the other receives the promises.  Similar to a vassal king, Almighty God takes the debtor position to Abraham simply to prove that He can trust God to keep His promise.  From what I read, the smoking oven and burning torch are the same thing.  The repetition is for emphasis.   This is the burning presence of God, humbling Himself before a human.  What excuse do we have not to be humble?  How extraordinary the dedication of the Lord to the covenant. 

Genesis 15:5-6

Then He brought him outside and said, "look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them."  And He said to him, "so shall your descendants be."  And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

What to do when the promises of God and the circumstances of your life don't match

Trust in the Lord has, I believe, more to do with confidence in the trustworthiness of the Lord and with answers to all questions.  The context of these verses indicate that Abram (this was before his name was changed to Abraham) had a vision of the Lord regarding a child.  He and his wife were beyond the years of childbearing.  They had waited for the fulfillment of a promise to the point that there was no path clear to seeing the promise come to pass.  

The Lord, in this vision, after years of waiting to no avail, repeats His promise and tells Abram not to be afraid, that He is his shield, his very great reward.  Abram, for his part, is full of questions.  "I am an old man, and the heir to my house is Eliezer of Damascus, the son of his servants.  He has no children.  He has questions and concerns.  The Lord is not making any sense and Abram sees no way how this will work out.

The Lord responds by making a statement and saying very little about Abram's questions.  He says that Eliezer will not be the heir (I'm not sure if we every hear about him again) but that Abram and Sarai will have a child, and their descendants will rival the stars in number.  Abram believes the Lord, and it is accounted as righteousness.

The verb for "believe" means "to consider trustworthy".  It's used also in 2 Chronicles 20:20, if you want to look that up.  Abram wasn't afraid to give voice to his concerns and questions, and speak to the Lord about them.  That was not held against him.  Abram, for his part, heard the promise of the Lord again after sharing his concerns, and even though his still did not have answers to his questions, he decided that the Lord is trustworthy, and he was accounted righteous before the Lord.

Followers of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Son of God, make up those descendants whose number rivals the stars.  (cf. Romans 4:13-25)  There will be times in which the Lord does not seem to make sense, in which the promises of God seem far away with no clear path to them.  Our life settings seem bleak and hopeless.  The question for any one of those "stars" in that moment is not "can I ignore questions or concerns?" or "how can I make this work?" but "do I count my Lord as trustworthy?"  That is faith, and it counts as righteousness before the Lord.  

Genesis 5:24

And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

Cf. Hebrews 11:5  By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him", for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Cf. 2 Kings 2:11  Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

Note:  Here are two episodes of people taken bodily and alive into heaven, and did not return.  There is, I'm told, an ancient church tradition that Enoch and Elijah (some versions of this tradition identify Moses and Elijah) are the two witnesses who trouble the Antichrist when he is at the height of his power.  Their story is in Revelation 11:1-15.

For us there is the promise of 1 Thessalonians 4:17  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

People debate the timing of this event, and we'll leave consideration of that for another time, but practically speaking, Christians must always live as if they would meet with Jesus on any given day, with no advance warning.  It is a good question to ask oneself, "if I met Jesus this day, would I be ready?"  "What would I say to Him?"  Any day can be the day.