So Do Whatever

DEVOTION

GENESIS

SO DO WHATEVER

Gen 31:3-16

3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you." 4 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. 5 He said to them, "I see that your father's attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I've worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, 'The streaked ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God has taken away your father's livestock and has given them to me. 10 "In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob.' I answered, 'Here I am.' 12 And he said, 'Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.'" 14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, "Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father's estate? 15 Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. 16 Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you."

NIV

Jacob receives a direct command from God to leave this place and go back to the land he belongs in. Jacob does not need any more encouragement to obey the word of the Lord. He has already had enough with Laban and his cheating ways. He calls for his wives and explains the situation about their father’s treatment of him and how God has been with him and blessed him. Jacob has been faithful to his word even though Laban has not, but now God has directed him to head back to the land of his father. Both Leah and Rachel agree. Amazing these two sisters actually agree. Their loyalty to their father has been transferred to Jacob. However, is it because they see Jacob is now the wealthy of the two men, and their lives are going to be far better off leaving the patriarchal household of their father and making their own lives with their husband being the family patriarch? They feel as though their father treats them as foreigners, selling them to Jacob then using his gain he received on his own desires, rather than giving them their share. However, whatever the attitudes and conditions were, their response is, “so do whatever God has told you”. It is interesting they did not say, “So do whatever your God told you”. The name they used was Elohiym, the supreme God. In a polytheistic cultural these women understood that Jacob was a man whom the supreme God, the highest God of any god was with him. It is not clear they understood that he was the only God, the one true God, the creator of heaven and earth, but the point is they encouraged their husband to do whatever his God told him. This should be our lesson. Although they had hard feelings toward their father and perhaps their encouragement of Jacob to obey God was with wrong motives, it still holds a truth to live by. When God tells us to do something we need to do it. True Jacob was tired of his situation in life. True his wives seemed to be bitter toward their father. Everyone was ripe for the pickings, so to speak, ready to make a move, but all stayed put until God spoke to Jacob, telling him it was time to leave. We might be in situations we are not exactly pleased with, but unless we hear from God to leave, we also should stay put. Our path in life is really not our own if we follow God. However, if we do not follow after God then we are free to choose our own path, but that leads straight to hell. So because we follow God, we stay put where we are, or go to someplace else depending on what he tells us. That requires we listen. That implies we seek his counsel. Of course Jacob had this command in a dream, a vision, when God spoke to him. But he heard and understood it was God speaking. God might use the same method to speak to us, or he might use another method. We can never put God in a box as to how he interacts with us. But the point is he does speak to us, he directs our path in life, he orders our footsteps, he has a plan for us. So we stay or go either way at the command of God. This applies to all aspects of our lives. Where we live, where we work and where we worship. We always need to be in the center of God’s will. We need to do whatever he tells us to.