Arise and Go Genesis 31:1-21
At the end of Genesis 30, we saw that Jacob “increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.” In other words, Jacob was a rich man. He went from homelessness to upper class in twenty years. However, as we have seen before when God blesses his children, people get envious. They get angry and they want a piece. In our text today, we see this happening to Jacob just like we saw it happen with his father Isaac. Jacob’s prosperity was not his own doing but was because God chose to bless him. Sadly, many in the Christian world have fallen into the prosperity trap. They do what Jacob did in the story before this one and put out their magic sticks or their anointed prayer shawls, or they give their seeds money thinking that the false teachers are right and that God will bless them because of it. But these false teachers are like Labans who are just in it for the money. They promise the moon but all they want is your money. And so in this story, we see what happens as God blesses Jacob and then tells Jacob to head home. In verses 1-3 we find Jacob’s motivation to move. In 4-16, we find Jacob’s case for moving that he explains to his wives. And finally, we’ll see Jacob escape in verses 17-21 and some of the interesting questions that arise from this. So let’s begin.