The Great Robbery

The Great Robbery

Laban’s Daughters

Read: Genesis 31:1-16

I knew I shouldn’t have given in! Lily felt like pounding the walls with her fists. At first, she’d balked at the idea of letting her drug-addicted brother move in, but he’d needed a place to stay for only a few days, just long enough to get into rehab. A week later, Lily had come home from work to find him and her television set gone. As she rushed into the bedroom, her worst fears were confirmed. Her jewelry and her emergency cash had also disappeared.

Leah and Rachel knew how it felt to be robbed by a relative. When Jacob wanted to leave his father-in-law and return to his homeland, the two sisters readily agreed, since they believed that Laban had exploited them. Leah and Rachel had received no benefits from the dowry that Jacob had paid to marry them, which was fourteen years of labor. Since Laban had denied them their customary rights, Leah and Rachel felt that their father had treated them like foreign slaves instead of highly valued daughters. They felt no qualms about slipping secretly away with their husband and the wealth he had accumulated—along with their father’s valued idols.

Whether we know it or not, all of us have been robbed. Satan is the great thief who stole something precious when he introduced sin into God’s perfect world. In contrast, Jesus came to earth to give his life so that we could regain our rightful relationship with our Father. Even after we become believers, Satan still tries to rob us. When we compromise our standards, play around with sin, or give something other than God first place in our lives, we may find that our joy, our peace, and our contentment have been snatched away. If we notice something missing, it’s time to run to our Father, who wants to help us regain what is rightfully ours.

[Jesus said,] “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

John 10:10