Monday in Season after Pentecost

22Verse 22. On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled. 23Verse 23. So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24Verse 24. But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 25Verse 25. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there as well. 26Verse 26. Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war! 27Verse 27. Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps. 28Verse 28. But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing. 29Verse 29. I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30Verse 30. Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?” 31Verse 31. “I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. 32Verse 32. If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols. 33Verse 33. So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34Verse 34. Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing. 35Verse 35. Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched but could not find the household idols. 36Verse 36. Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me? 37Verse 37. You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us. 38Verse 38. I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock. 39Verse 39. I did not bring you anything torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or night. 40Verse 40. As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41Verse 41. Thus for twenty years I have served in your household— fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks— and you have changed my wages ten times! 42Verse 42. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

1Verse 1. You must carefully follow every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. 2Verse 2. Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. 3Verse 3. He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4Verse 4. Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5Verse 5. So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6Verse 6. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him. 7Verse 7. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills; 8Verse 8. a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9Verse 9. a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper. 10Verse 10. When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you.