AP

Genesis 31:22-24 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.  Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.  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.”
Jacob was in an even more difficult situation than he himself realised!  He knew that if the stronger and better resourced Laban pursued and overtook him while he was fleeing with his father-in-law’s daughters and grandchildren, the consequences would be bad enough, but what he didn’t know was that Rachel had actually stolen her father’s household gods – an action which could not be explained away.  Not even cunning Jacob would be able to talk his way out of such a crime against her family.

Nevertheless, Jacob’s sovereign, all-powerful God knew how to rescue the poor fugitive and those with him, especially as his fleeing was in obedience to God’s command: “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you” (3).

In fact, God did what only God could do – he acted on Laban’s psyche and prevented him from doing what he had set out to do.  Do we have confidence in God’s ability to bring about a change inside someone?  Are our persistent labours in prayer for others marked by such confidence?  I like Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.  May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.  Brothers, pray for us” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-25).
– Bruce Christian