LIFE SCRIPTS

22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23 Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” 25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. 27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? 28 You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. 29 I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ 30 Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”
Genesis 31:22‭-‬30 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/gen.31.22-30.NIV.

Scripture says that Jacob had traveled for three days yet Laban took seven days to catch up with him. These must have been seven days of anger build up…seven days of planning vengeance. However, God appeared to him to warn him against his plans. God is a gracious God who speaks to us directly, through others or circumstancialy. We see this when He used Abigael to stop David from harming Nabal and also when Balam wanted to harm his donkey. But as Laban pursued and overtook Jacob, it mirrored a situation that would happen centuries later. God would commission Moses, a man of the wilderness to challenge Pharaoh, the great Egyptian king to let His people go! And as they were reluctantly released, Pharaoh and his army changed their mind and pursued them catching up with them on the shores of the Red sea. A key similarity between these stories is that God is a God of liberation. Scripture says that Christ came to SET THE CAPTIVES FREE. God is still in the business of setting people free from chains and bondage. Jacob was a man trapped in Laban’s prison. Even though God had blessed him, it took Gods prompting for him to leave and gain freedom. However, this freedom didn’t come cheap. The offended would definitely hit back. But this didn’t stop God from delivering what He promised. God’s liberation over our lives is not just confined to physical prisons but also spiritual, mental and economic prisons. Prisons are designed for maximum security to contain the inmates within their walls. However God shatters those chains and breaks the walls holding us so that we may gain freedom. Freedom from diseases, poverty, addictions or oppression. However that doesn’t mean that we will have it easy. Quite on the contrary. However, what’s important is God is with us. So as Laban pursued and caught up with Jacob, he sought to know why Jacob fled without telling him. According to him, he would have thrown a party to celebrate his grandchildren and daughters as they left. But was this really the case? In verses before, we saw Rachel and Leah’s response to Jacob as he informed them about his intention to leave. They stated that even their father considers them foreigners. He viewed them no differently from the way he viewed strangers. Laban was an injured man. The one resource that meant most to him had left and worse still, without informing him. He even complained about the disappearance of his household gods! God is in the business of setting people free. Free from bondage, from spiritual oppression, from economic bondage.