Genesis 31 Jacob flees from Laban. Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our fathers, and from what was our fathers, he has gained all this wealth, and Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers, and to your kindred, and I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leia into the field where his flock was, and said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before, but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me. If he said, the spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock bore spotted, and if he said the striped shall be your wages, then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. In the breeding season of the flock, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and modeled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob, and I said, Here I am. And he said, Lift up your eyes and see all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and modeled. For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred. Then Rachel and Leia answered and said to him, Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then whatever God has said to you, do. So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock and his possession that he had acquired and paid an heirum to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. Laban had gone to shear his sheep and Rachel stole her father's household gods. When Jacob tricked Laban, the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee, he fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. When it was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. But God came to Laban, the Aramean, in a dream by night and said to him, Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad. And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, What have you done that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and trick me and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, tambourine and lyre? And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad. And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods? Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. And with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours and take it. Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants. But he did not find them. And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent but did not find them. And she said to her father, Let not my Lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me. So he searched but did not find the household gods. Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? For you have felt through all my goods. What have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between us too. These twenty years I have been with you. Your use and your female goats have not miscarried and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it. Whether stolen by day or stolen by night, there I was. By day the heat consumed me and the cold by night and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house. I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock and you have changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night. Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters. The children are my children. The flocks are my flocks and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne? Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me. So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar and Jacob said to his kinsmen, Gather stones, and they took stones and made a heap and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Yegar sahadutha. But Jacob called it Galiad. Laban said, This heap is a witness between you and me today. Therefore he named it Galiad and Misbah, for he said the Lord watch between you and me when we are out of one another's sight. If you oppress my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see God is witness between you and me. Then Laban said to Jacob, See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness that I will not pass over this heap to you and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me to do harm. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahar and the God of their father judge between us. So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac and Jacob offered his sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home. Matthew chapter 12 verses 1 through 21. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. A man with a withered hand. He went on from there and entered their synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him? He said to them, Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, Stretch out your hand and the man stretched it out and it was restored healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him. God's chosen servant. Jesus aware of this withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory and in his name the Gentiles will hope. Psalm chapter 11, The Lord is in his holy temple. In the Lord I take refuge, how can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to your mountain for behold the wicked bend the bow? They have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in the heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him reign coals on the wicked, fire and sulfur and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, he loves righteous deeds. The upright shall behold his face.
