Sunday, June 25th – Genesis 31: 22, 23

These verses begin to describe the pursuit Laban made after Jacob. Laban launched a quick and decisive pursuit after his son-in-law, taking along a company of his kinsmen, apparently to compel Jacob to return or at least to relinquish his livestock. This demonstrates that in Laban’s mind, Jacob was his slave, having no true freedom and no right to hold his own possessions. Later, Pharaoh would pursue Moses and Israel in the same way and for the same reasons. Neither do sins, nor Satan, nor the world let the believer make his pilgrimage out of this world to the celestial city without pursuit and molestation. Yet, if the Son of God has set us free, despite these impediments, we shall find ourselves to be free indeed.

Monday, June 26th - Genesis 31: 24

Jacob fled from Laban (v.21), and Laban’s pursuit shows that the fears that led to Jacob’s flight were well founded. However, between the fleeing son of Isaac and the determined pursuit of Laban stands the Lord, who intervenes with His Word of warning to Laban. The believer has cause to fear his foes if he considers them apart from the Lord who is his shield. But when the believer reckons on the truth that He who is for and with us is greater than those who are against us, comfort and confidence should vanquish all of our fears.

Tuesday, June 27th - Genesis 31: 25-29

Jacob’s father-in-law had departed from his home with men, supplies, and determination to overtake Jacob and either compel him to return to that servitude that had so profited Laban, or to take Jacob’s possessions from him. The wily Laban admits that he had power to do Jacob harm. Yet, due to the intervention of the Lord, Laban changed his tune, and simply chided Jacob for his secret departure. Laban claims that he had plans for lavishing farewell blessings upon Jacob that Jacob’s abrupt leaving had frustrated. When the Lord is pleased to show his protecting might over His people, even their enemies, who had intended them harm, are compelled to act like their friends who are intent upon blessing them.

Wednesday, June 28th - Genesis 31: 29

The deceitful Laban has become a straight speaker of truth. He repeats to Jacob the very words that the Lord had used to warn him to leave Jacob unmolested (v.24). By his so speaking, we should perceive that Laban was communicating several significant things to Jacob. Laban was confessing unwittingly not only that he had potential to harm Jacob, but also that he had intended to bring such harm upon Jacob, and would have succeeded in doing so, were it not for the intervention of the Lord. Thus, Jacob was to understand that his escape resulted not from Laban’s generosity, but from God’s grace and power. Laban’s words also convey an implicit rebuke for Jacob. For the man whom Jacob had feared had been subdued by the Lord and compelled to acknowledge it so that the fearfully fleeing patriarch would know that he should not have feared man but God in the matter of how he was to depart from Laban. The Lord had expressly promised Jacob that He would be with him (v.3), and Jacob dishonored the Lord and disgraced himself when he sought his security in a swift surprise departure rather than in the sure Word and power of God. If we would fear our Lord only, then we would have no other fear, and would act not according to our own devices, but rather with trusting obedience to the Word of our God.

Thursday, June 29th - Genesis 31: 30-32

Because of the Lord’s warning to Laban, the greedy man did not dare touch Jacob’s person or goods. However, because of Rachel’s sinful theft of her father’s idols, Laban was emboldened to make his gods the issue. Even when we unknowingly have sin within us or within the sphere of our responsibility, it provides a toe-hold in our lives for the wicked and for the accusing devil. Let us, therefore, follow with sincere consistency the example of the psalmist who asks God to search him and to show to him any inward sin (Ps. 139:23,24).

Friday, June 30th - Genesis 31: 30-32

Jacob, in v.31, confesses his sinful fears that had prompted him to rely on his own secrecy rather than upon the strength of his God. He denies, however, that he had sinned as Laban charged him with stealing his gods. Jacob strengthens his denial by his inviting Laban to make a thorough search among his party, declaring that any possessions of Laban’s discovered thereby would be restored to him, while the one found in possession of Laban’s goods would have his life taken from him. Jacob’s sense of innocence filled him with such boldness. However, his boldness in fact issued from his ignorance, not his innocence. How differently he would have responded to Laban’s accusations had he known of Rachel’s theft. There are more sinful complications to our lives than we know, and we do well ever to suspect ourselves and cast ourselves upon our Lord’s mercy and grace, rather than stridently to assume that we are as good as we may feel we are.

Saturday, July 1st - Genesis 31: 33-35

Jacob actually was guilty of having amongst his possessions the idols of Laban. But Laban was unable to prove Jacob’s guilt because his thorough search had failed to discover the idols. Thus, the true guilt of Jacob went undetected. This was so due to Rachel’s cunning covering of the idols. We, too, are guilty of all of Satan’s accusations against us, and, even more importantly, of all of the charges of God’s holy Law against us. Yet, our guilt goes undetected by Satan and by God, not because it is covered from their view, but rather because it has been cleansed from our persons by the justifying death of Christ. Accordingly, our holy confidence is infinitely more well-founded than was Jacob’s in this matter of the hidden idols.

Sunday, July 2nd - Genesis 31: 33-35

Laban was in sin by his possession of these idols. It was Laban’s sin that made him greedy to exploit Jacob and profit from his son-in-law’s labors. It was sin that set Laban in pursuit of Jacob. It was sin that prompted Laban, after he had been subdued by the Lord, to charge Jacob and demand of him the restoration of his idols. It was sin that made Laban, the deceiver, to be stupidly deceived by his own daughter, and thus rendered incapable of proving Jacob’s guilt and recovering the sought-for idols. Sin filled Laban with unholy anger and bitter disappointment. Meanwhile, his idols, that lay covered by a woman, were mutely incapable of disclosing their whereabouts, and lifelessly unable to help, protect, or provide for Laban. Those idols were unlike Jacob’s God, whose Word and power protected Jacob from harm. Sin makes us stupid, and idols are useless helpers and deliverers.

Monday, July 3rd - Genesis 31: 36-42

In these verses, Jacob extensively shows his vindication. With righteous indignation he charges Laban to convict him of sin (v.36). He invites Laban to produce convicting evidence gathered in his search (v.37). He declares his integrity and faithfulness throughout his twenty years of service to Laban (vv.38-41a). He charges Laban with repeated sinful scheming and defrauding dealings (v.41b). Yet, he concludes by rightly maintaining that it was neither his industry nor integrity that preserved him from Laban’s injurious treatment, but rather it was the saving grace and sovereign authority of his God that had shielded, prospered, and vindicated him (v.42). Here is an Old Testament type of the triumphant security we have in Christ of which Paul exultingly writes in Rom. 8:31-39. Jacob’s vindication before the petty charges of his father-in-law but dimly foreshadows the supreme justification that we have in Christ, and the cosmic vindication that shall be ours before men, angels, and our glorious, heavenly Father on the final day.

Tuesday, July 4th - Genesis 31: 36, 37

Although Jacob’s holy boldness here rests more upon his ignorance of Rachel’s sinful theft than upon his own actual innocence, still his vindication stands, as the Lord sinlessly used Rachel’s sinful prevarication and cunning concealment of her father’s idols to frustrate Laban’s charges and clear Jacob’s person and performance. As Jacob finally and rightly declared in v.42, he was saved by God’s gracious vindication, not by his own virtue. We can easily see in Jacob’s case (through Scripture informing us of the hidden idols of which he was unaware) that his debt to divine grace was greater than the patriarch himself realized. Can we see that it is similarly true in our own case?

Wednesday, July 5th - Genesis 31: 38-41

In these verses, Jacob declares the main features of the service he had rendered Laban. His service was for a long period (v.38a). For two decades Jacob worked for his uncle with continuous diligence. He was successful and fruitful in his service (v. 38b). Jacob was also honest and self-denying (vv.39,40). The losses he absorbed while the gains he turned over to Laban. He remained at duty’s post, rendering industrious service in all weathers. In return for his long-term diligent and profitable competence in Laban’s service, he was unappreciated and badly exploited by his uncle (v.41). Despite such treatment, Jacob gained two wives and much livestock through his service. The grace of the Lord vitally working in a man’s life makes him faithful and fruitful in all of his service. Even if he is a slave to an ungodly master, he serves for the glory and by the grace of his heavenly Master, knowing that from Him, in due course, he will receive a good and abundantly generous reward (Eph. 6:5-8; Col. 3:22-25; 1 Pet. 2:18-23).

Thursday, July 6th - Genesis 31: 42

In this verse, Jacob declares the truth that enabled him to prevail as more than a conqueror over all of his adversity. He testifies that God had been for him. The God who had been for Abraham, through all of the trials, troubles, defeats, and triumphs of his life, had been for Jacob throughout all of his 20 years of service and sojourning in Haran. The God who had promised and provided Isaac to Abraham, and whom Isaac was taught to fear his entire life, was for Jacob. With such a gracious, faithful, and almighty God for him, who could prevail against Jacob? If this same God is for us, who can prevail against us?

Friday, July 7th - Genesis 31: 42

Jacob declares that God had been and continued to be for him. In this declaration he not only identifies who this God had demonstrated Himself to be through His gracious dealings with Jacob’s father and grandfather, but he also testifies respecting the extent to which God had been for him. Had the Lord not been for Jacob, the son of Isaac admits that Laban surely would have devoured him (Ps. 124:1-5). But God had been for Jacob, and thus the Lord, with omniscient perception and loving regard, saw all of Jacob’s affliction and noted well, in view of his faithful and diligent labors, how undeserving he was of those afflictions administered to him by Laban. Jacob’s God mercifully saw all of his efforts, trials, and sorrows, and with covenant love and almighty power preserved him through them all.

Saturday, July 8th - Genesis 31: 38-42

The fact that Jacob knew the Lord was with and for him did not make him presumptuous, lazy, and fruitless. Instead, this wonderful truth encouraged and energized him to perform such long-term and fruitful labors for Laban. When we rightly apprehend the grace of the Lord and His merciful and almighty commitment to us, we should not grow indolent, but rather industrious, knowing that our God is at work not only for us but also in and through us, prompting and empowering us to do His good pleasure.

Sunday, July 9th - Genesis 31: 43, 44

In response to Jacob’s manifest vindication and to the testimony that he had been not only preserved but also prospered by God, Laban concedes the matter and proposes that he and his son-in-law effect a covenant. Laban admits that he had been driven by a wrong sense of propriety that he had toward his daughters, their children, and all of Jacob’s possessions. Yet, the intervention of the Lord and the testimony of Jacob had sobered him from such driving intoxication. In order to ratify and confirm his repentance, Laban calls for a binding covenant to be effected between himself and Jacob. When we repent, we do well to confirm our repentance by such things as holy resolutions, promises, and even vows. We strengthen the roots of our repentance when we nourish them by such public commitments.

Monday, July 10th - Genesis 31: 45-47

Jacob heartily agrees to enter into this covenant proposed by Laban. He does not make little of Laban’s professed repentance, while magnifying his repeated past sins. Rather, he demonstrates his own gracious determination to be reconciled with his erstwhile offending father-in-law, and to assist him in confirming his new repentance. We who have tasted the grace and mercy of our Lord should be eager to extend grace to those asking it of us. We should not be like the unforgiving slave in Jesus’ parable (Mt. 18:23ff). We should be ever ready to forgive our brother’s sin and sincerely desirous to be reconciled with him.

Tuesday, July 11th - Genesis 31: 45-47

The kinsmen upon whom Jacob calls in v.46 are the same kinsman of Laban in v.23. They had accompanied Laban to assist him in his angry pursuit of Jacob. However, through the intervention of the Lord as well as Jacob’s vindication and testimony, they who had been hostile servants of Jacob’s enemy were repentant, along with Laban. Accordingly, these men were transformed into ones upon whom Jacob calls as brethren, and they happily serve to carry out his order to erect the memorial heap of stones. Let us learn from this to cry to our Lord for His reconciling intervention between ourselves and any of our estranged brethren.

Wednesday, July 12th - Genesis 31: 45-47

Jacob, who here erects a pillar, had good experience with setting up a commemorative pillar previously. At Bethel, after his night’s vision of the Lord’s angels ascending and descending the ladder between heaven and earth, he had set up such a pillar (Gen. 28:18). More recently, the Lord had approvingly acknowledged the true piety within Jacob that had prompted him to erect that pillar (Gen. 31:13). This pattern shows Jacob to be a man committed to solid and lasting devotion to God and to man between whom godly covenants are made. Laban referred to the accompanying memorial heap of stones with a Chaldean word, while Jacob referred to it with a Hebrew word, taken from the language spoken at the time by the covenant people of the Lord. Our deeds and our diction should identify us as a people strongly and particularly devoted to the Lord.

Thursday, July 13th - Genesis 31: 48-50

The witness contained in the substance of these solid, enduring rocks serves as a token of the more enduring faithfulness of the eternal, living God. The solid and enduring rocks also betoken the strong and lasting mutual commitment that Jacob and Laban intended by their making and fulfilling of this covenant. Special notice is given of Laban’s binding Jacob by a prohibition against his ever mistreating his wives, who were still Laban’s daughters. In fact, it had been Laban, not Jacob, who in the past had mistreated his daughters as well as his son-in-law. Men suspect and fear in others that which is worst and most strongly active in themselves.

Friday, July 14th - Genesis 31: 51, 52

Laban further stipulated that the memorial pillar and stone heap were to serve as firm and lasting testimony to the covenantal agreement between Jacob and his uncle that neither one would pass the monuments in order to harm the other. Again, it is to be noted that Jacob had never done anything to harm, but rather everything to help Laban. On the other hand, Laban had done nothing for more than twenty years but seek to harm Jacob’s earthly (but not heavenly) interests. Here we see once more how Laban reads his own abuses into Jacob and seeks to protect himself against these imagined threats that his nephew (now turned son-in-law) supposedly harbored against him. By these terms, Laban would be no more secure from harm that would come through Jacob, because Jacob never threatened such harm. Yet, Jacob would at last be free from the injurious abuses of Laban. The godly have nothing to lose and everything to gain by their entering into godly commitments, especially with former enemies turned friends by the grace of God.

Saturday, July 15th - Genesis 31: 53

Laban sealed himself to the provisions of this covenant by his swearing by the God of Abraham and his fathers. Jacob, however, swore by the fear of his father Isaac. The difference is this: whereas Abraham’s fathers and even Abraham himself knew the one true God, they also had known, in Ur of the Chaldeans, false gods at least for part of their lives. Isaac, however, from his birth had only known and served the Lord. Thus, where Laban seeks to solemnize his oath by an appeal, at least to a degree, to antiquity and natural generation, Jacob appeals only to the one true and living God, who had entered into covenant with Abraham, and had promised and provided Isaac to him. This God alone, Jacob rightly declares, is to be revered and served.

Sunday, July 16th - Genesis 31: 54, 55

Laban’s heated pursuit of Jacob concluded with his happy reconciliation with and affectionate departure from his son-in-law. Laban set out after Jacob determined at least to take people and possessions from him, if not force him to return to his servitude in Haran. Yet, Laban departed from Jacob having shared a peace offering with him, and giving kisses and blessings to Jacob, his wives, and his children. The intervening conviction of the Lord and the godly and gracious character of Jacob wrought this great change. May the Lord work in similar fashion for all who are His chosen people and faith-filled servants in our day.

Monday, July 17th - Genesis 31: 53-55

This chapter began with Laban and his sons serving as threatening prods to drive Jacob from Haran to Canaan. Though Jacob left with weak faith, he grew stronger and, when confronted by Laban who had pursued him, Jacob took his firm stand on the promises and Person of his God. Jacob not only covered territory in his journey, but he also made great progress in his practical grasp of theology. He had entered Haran alone, having only the promises of the Lord. He left Haran blessedly burdened with a large family and many possessions. He entered Haran to begin a course of his being deceived and exploited by his uncle, only to leave Haran initially pursued hotly by Laban, but finally enjoying holy and strongly witnessed peace with him. Truly the Lord caused all of these unlikely things that were wrought against Jacob by Laban to work only for Jacob’s good. The same is true of all of Jacob’s spiritual descendants (Rom. 8:28). May our Lord open our eyes to see it and our mouths to thank Him that it is so.

Tuesday, July 18th - Genesis 32: 1, 2

Jacob has escaped potential death at the hands of Laban, his uncle, but now he is returning to Canaan to face probable death at the hands of Esau, his brother. Yet, as Jacob did not have to face Laban alone, but had the Lord with him to intervene for him (Gen. 31:24,42), so he learns that he is not returning to Canaan alone, but rather in company of the holy and majestic angels of the Lord. It is always true of every believer that greater are those with us than are those with our foes.

Wednesday, July 19th - Genesis 32: 1, 2

It is notable that Jacob received fortification from these angels as he went on his way. That way had been determined by the Lord (Gen. 31: 3), yet Jacob was no Jonah, seeking to evade it, but rather adopted the way of his God as his own way. It is when we are in the path of godly duty that we shall be most aware of the riches of godly resources provided for us by our Lord.

Thursday, July 20th - Genesis 32: 1, 2

While Jacob was on his way, the angels met him, thus confirming him in the way of the Lord. No words of comfort are delivered by the angels—the mere sight of them is sufficient to fortify Jacob with the truth that these glorious servants of God are with him to minister to him (Heb. 1:14). Accordingly, Jacob named the place a Hebrew word meaning double camps or double companies. Such designation of the angels implies that they are a host camping with Jacob as he camps along the way of his return to Canaan.

Friday, July 21st - Genesis 32: 1, 3

This was the second vision Jacob had received of the angels of the Lord. He at first beheld them at Bethel, ascending and descending the ladder between heaven and earth. There the Lord had declared to Jacob that He would keep him wherever he went, and that He would bring him back to Canaan (Gen. 28:15). This second glimpse of the angels is sufficient to remind Jacob of that truth and to fortify him accordingly. The man who grows in the faith, grace, and knowledge of the Lord, will ever more clearly apprehend and be on increasingly familiar terms with the Lord and His holy angels.

Saturday, July 22nd - Genesis 32: 3-5

From seeing the angels Jacob carries on to seek his brother. We are told that Esau had settled in Seir, which lay south and east of Canaan and so was not directly in Jacob’s way back to Canaan. Jacob knew this and did not avoid encountering Esau. There are at least two obvious reasons for this apparent detour. First, Esau lived close enough to attack Jacob in Canaan, and so by faith Jacob turned to confront his fears. Yet, on a higher level, Jacob was taking initiative to be reconciled with his brother whom he had offended. Thus, this apparent detour from the Lord’s way that Jacob had adopted and the angels had helped confirm is really no detour from God’s way at all. Jacob is following the way Jesus centuries later commanded when he told us that if we are on our way to worship and recall that our brother has something against us, we should be reconciled to our brother before we return to worship God (Mt. 5:23,24). The straight and narrow way of the Lord is full of apparent detours that are really essential parts of that way.

Sunday, July 23rd - Genesis 32: 3-5

Jacob sends to Esau a humble greeting, referring to Esau as lord and to himself as servant. Humility is one of the strongest shields to protect the believer from harm. It keeps a soul prostrated so that he need fear no fall, and it disarms mighty opponents. Nor is this a mere groveling ploy used by Jacob to assuage his brother. For Jacob had truly become humble and gracious through the Lord’s dealings with him, and therein lay the true greatness of this man who became strong in his weakness. As David declared: Thy gentleness makes me great (Ps. 18:35), and as Solomon testified: A gentle answer turns away wrath (Prov. 15:1), so Jacob’s humility gave him a towering moral advantage over Esau, while also sweetly disarming him. Humility is a virtue ever, only, and always commended to us in Scripture. May it more vitally reside in our hearts and be practiced in our lives.

Monday, July 24th - Genesis 32: 3-5

While Jacob’s servants were instructed to convey a humble greeting to Esau, they were also instructed to make a proclamation of Jacob’s great prosperity. This announcement of Jacob’s wealth is no contradiction of but rather a complement to his humility. For it is the meek who inherit the earth. Furthermore, Jacob no doubt sought to testify to his brother Esau that he was no longer a scheming, grasping threat to him, but was now transformed into a man full of the grace and goods of the Lord, so that he would be able generously to share with his brother, rather than take from him as he had done previously. The Lord’s grace makes us to be full of riches, so that we are not snatchers from men, but self-sufficient sharers of the abundant blessings of our God (Phil. 4:11-13).