Genesis 29

v31-35: “Whatever we have our joy in ought to lead us to thanksgiving. Fresh favours should stimulate us to praise God for former favours.” Christ descended from Judah, “whose name meant “praise,” and He is to be the focus of our praises as our great Saviour. Have you been saved by Him? “Now will I praise the Lord.”

Genesis 30

v1-13: “Envy is desiring to have the advantage that another person has; this is a sin in God’s sight and hurts our neighbour and ourselves.” Jealousy and rivalry caused Rachel and Leah to act absurdly in order “to get even” or “keep ahead of” the other, and yet God used this competition between these two sisters, “to increase and multiply” Abraham’s offspring. Note also how wise God’s purpose in marriage of “uniting only one man and one woman” is.

v14-24: It has been suggested that “the true reason of this contest between Jacob’s wives… was the earnest desire they had to fulfil the promise made to Abraham (and now recently renewed to Jacob), that his descendants should be as many as the stars of heaven, and that in one seed of his, the Messiah, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.”

v25-36: Jacob “retained his affection for the land of Canaan, not only because it was the land of his birth, and his father and mother were there, whom he longed to see, but also because it was the land of promise.” In the same way, “we should look toward our heavenly country,” viewing it “as our true home, and longing to be there, as soon as the days of our service on earth are fulfilled and finished.”

v37-43: Work is a gift from God, and “it is good for us to be skilled in” some area, whatever it is, “not only [to] be industrious” at it, “but also clever at it, and to be well versed in all its legitimate skills and questions.” Jacob has learned how to be a skilful shepherd.

Genesis 31

v1-16: Jacob had gone to this place “by orders from heaven, and he would stay there till he was ordered” to leave by God. “It is our duty to put ourselves, and it will be our comfort to perceive ourselves, under God’s guidance, in all the comings and goings of our lives.”

v17-24: The safety of God’s people “owes a lot to the grip God has on the consciences of” those who are against them. “God sometimes appears wonderfully to deliver his people when they are on the very brink of ruin.”

v25-42: Laban diligently searched for his gods. “Should we not be” more “diligent in our seeking after the true God?” To carefully ask, “Where is God my Maker? O that I knew where I might find him!” The good news is that “our God will not only be found by those who seek him, but they will find him to be their rich rewarder.”

v43-55: “When quarrels happen, we should be willing to be friends again.” If both parties know peace with God, it will put “strength into [their] peace with [their] friends,” because “the reconciliation of both of them to him will facilitate their reconciliation to one another.”