Genesis 31:45-55 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Genesis 31:45-55. Let’s go!
Genesis 31:45-48 (NIV)
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.
48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed.
On verses 45-48: Getting ready to make a covenant with Laban, Jacob and his relatives pile stones in a heap. (I find it funny that later Laban says that he did it in verse 51.) Laban calls the heap “Jegar Sahadutha”, which means “witness heap” in Aramaic. Jacob calls the heap “Galeed”, which means the same thing – “witness heap” – in Hebrew, Jacob’s mother tongue. It’s a reminder that Jacob and Laban came from two different cultures and spoke two different languages, which likely contributed to the misunderstandings between them.
Genesis 31:45-55 (NIV)
49 It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.
50 If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me.
52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me.
53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac.
54 He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.
55 Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.
On verses 49-55: Genesis 31 ends with Jacob and Laban parting ways for good and swearin that they will not cross the line to harm one another in any way.
The sentimental part of me would like to be able to tell you that this was Laban’s turning point when Laban went from being a worshiper of idols to a believer in the Lord. I would like to tell you that whereas Laban came to Mizpah searching for lifeless idols, he leaves Mizpah trusting in the living God. I would love to say that though he sadly had to kiss his daughters and grandchildren goodbye, on that same day he gladly embraced the Lord and welcomed Him into his life. To support this argument I would want to point to verse 49, where Laban says to Jacob, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other” and the first part of verse 53 where Laban says to Jacob, “May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” But an argument can also be made that in these verses Laban was just threatening Jacob with Jacob’s own God or that if Laban believed in the Lord, he also still believed in his other gods, depending on how you interpret the original language of verse 53 (i.e. was Laban talking about just one God or more than one god?) So it is not entirely clear that Laban truly trusted in the Lord.
What is clear, however, is that over the course of 20 years of hardship, Jacob’s faith in the Lord blossomed. From hardly knowing the Lord personally when he first arrived in Paddam Aram (see Genesis 28:20-22), Jacob now knew the Lord as “the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac” (Genesis 31:42), as the God who prospered him (v9), spoke to him (v10-13) and protected him (v42). Thus when it was time to make the oath to his father-in-law Laban, Jacob intentionally and specifically took the oath “in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac” (v53). To use an analogy from pottery, you could say that at the beginning of his time with Laban, Jacob’s faith and his personal knowledge of the Lord were like an undefined slab of clay. But over time and through many hardships, that slab of clay became more and more defined.
What can we learn from this? Hardship can have a refining effect on our faith. None of us likes hardship or wishes for it, but the fact is that God uses hardship to allow our faith to become stronger, more defined, and more genuine. As 1 Peter 1:7-9 says about trials and hardships:
7 These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So if you are going through hardship right now, remember that God allows hardship not to be cruel to you, but because He is writing a greater story. At the end of God’s story will be you with a faith that is stronger, more defined and refined than what you had before the hardship came.
Heavenly Father, I pray for all those reading this GAME sharing, including myself. I pray that those going through difficult hardship right now would not give up. Instead, may their knowledge and understanding of who You are would grow deeper and more refined over time. I pray that in the midst of trials we go through, we would see Your hand at work and know Your heart more and more. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
