Genesis 31:22-55

You know, Jacob almost has a Jephthah moment on his hands.  Don't know how Jephthah is?  Check out Judges 11.  He made a very rash vow, just as Jacob did to Laban.  What if he'd had to carry it out?

Here, Laban is in hot pursuit of Jacob after discovering Jacob's taken flight.  He catches Jacob, but not before God appears to him in a dream, warning him not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.  Here you have to wonder: wouldn't the purpose of this warning be to turn Laban away from meeting up with Jacob?  How else could he have avoided saying anything, anything at all?  Because what could he say that would be neither good nor bad?  And to top this, then Laban admits to what God said, and in the same breath demands his household gods back!  First, we know Laban can well recognize the work of God's hands by the fact that he readily acknowledged it when Rebekah was taken away to marry Isaac.  He again acknowledges it when he acknowledges that God has blessed Jacob, and through Jacob, Laban himself.  He has seen God in a dream, and yet he still wants his household gods.  Did he not, by then, recognize that God is God?  Or did he want them for their monetary value, as Rachel must have when she stole them?

Jacob makes a pretty rash move at this point: he vows to kill anything/anyone that has Laban's household gods.  That would mean Jacob should have executed his beloved Rachel, as she was the one who stole them!  It just so happens, however, that Rachel is not only beautiful, but clever: she sits on them and fakes her period.  (Come on, we all know men avoid that subject as much as they possibly can!)  If she had been found out, Jacob would have had to execute what he loved to fulfill his rash vow.  Devastating.  Granted, Jacob seems to be uninformed of Rachel's actions and acted out of his innocence.  But, still...

His example, as well as Jephthah's, will hopefully be ample illustration of what will happen (or can happen) should one make a rash vow.  If you're promising to do something,  be sure you're willing and able to back it up: and that it wouldn't in the end horrify you.  Imagine Jacob's feeling's on slaying Rachel.  What Jephtheh thought when we upheld his vow.

Tomorrow's Reading (as I'm falling asleep as I type at this late hour...): Genesis 32:1-32