Genesis 31:17-30 It is time for Jacob to go home. God has finished the work He was doing in Jacob's life for twenty years in Paddan-aram. But Jacob cannot leave easily. His fear of what Laban will do causes him to act deceptively and leave secretly. Was this really necessary? What if you had been there to see Jacob cross the Euphrates River twenty years earlier? How would you have accessed Jacob, compared to this second crossing? Why does the narrator stress so emphatically Jacob's belongings? What were Laban's teraphim, and why did Rachel steal them? How were Jacob's and Rachel's actions paralleled by the narrator? How did the irony of Laban's teraphim being stolen escape his notice? (55 min.)

Keywords Jacob, Laban, Rachel