Genesis 31 - Secret Sins

Jacob had become weary of broken promises. Ten times his father-in-law had changed his wages. In the midst of his discouragement God came to him and told him it was time to go back home---that He would be with him. Jacob called his wives to him and told them how he had been cheated by Laban, but blessed by God, and that God had said it was time to leave. Leah and Rachel believed in their husband and his God. They agreed to go with him.


In our times of discouragement God is there to comfort us and lift us up and move us on. He knows the limit to our endurance, just as He knew Jacob’s. When we think we "can’t take it anymore", God intervenes. His intervention brings instant relief, and we can pick up and go on because He has assured us He will be with us.

After Jacob and his family and flocks had been gone three days, Laban realized what had happened. He began to pursue Jacob to punish him and bring him back, but God told Laban to not speak against Jacob. When Laban caught up with Jacob words were exchanged, but the disagreement ended with a covenant to not bring harm to one another. Laban blessed his daughters and grandchildren and then went back home, sending them on with Jacob to his homeland.

In this story we have one person who seemed to want the best of both worlds. Agreeing to go with her husband, but wanting to hold on to her past also, Rachel stole her father’s gods. When Laban searched for them, Rachel was sitting on them to keep them hidden. Jacob was totally unaware of these actions of his wife. Rachel reminds me of Lot’s wife who wanted to go with her husband out of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorra, but did not want to leave her comfort zone.

Perhaps Rachel had another reason for stealing her father’s gods…maybe to get even with Laban, maybe to keep him from consulting his gods to their whereabouts, or maybe even to gain any inheritance that these false gods would pass down. Regardless of Rachel’s reason for stealing Laban’s gods, disobedience to God can be fatal, as Lot’s wife found out. Will Rachel escape punishment for her disobedience?

Do we think we can hide some secret sin and not be found out? Surely a judgment day is coming for each of us when those deeds done in darkness will be fully exposed in the light. Am I living a life of honesty and integrity so that I will not have to hang my head in shame, nor have to pay the price of my "secret sin"?

"Search me, O God, and know my heart today.
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free."
(J. Edwin Orr, Maori Melody)