43 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? 44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50 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.” 51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. 52 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. 53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, 54 and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country. (Gen. 31:43-54 ESV)
Laban sees Jacob as a threat. Jacob views Laban as an enemy. Laban realizes he’s met his match in Jacob. Jacob sees Laban just won’t give up. So they decide to give each other up–literally. Rather than continue to attack one another, they surrender their conflict and one another to God. The stones they pile up become a visual aid for their prayerful and heartfelt handing over of each other to the Lord. Rather than continue to try to take matters and each other into their own hands, they turn each other now and for perpetuity into the hands of God.
This is what the Psalms will teach us in the controversial and difficult “imprecatory psalms” (Ps. 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 140). As the pray-er asks God to deliver punishment, he is turning his enemy over to God, rather than taking matters into his own hand.
Ultimately, Jesus would teach us an even better way–to love our enemy and pray for that enemy (Matt. 5:44).
Common to all of these teachings, including Genesis 31, however, is the principal of releasing the most difficult people in our lives to God. We let go. We give them up. We no longer grasp them in our hands. We release them to the hands of God.
What difficult person do you need to let go of today?
Prayer: “Thank you God for offering to take the most difficult people in my life. Help me to release them, in love, to you today. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.”
