PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY - MEDITATE DAY AND NIGHT
April 20th, 2026.
RACHEL STOLE her father’s household gods contrary to God’s commandments: 1) You shall have no other gods before me (Exo. 20:2-3). 2) What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? ……“Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” (2 Corin. 6:16-17 NIV)
To appreciate what Rachel did and its cost, one has to read Genesis 31 again. When we read through the Bible, we see and absorb the bigger events emphasised from stories told repeatedly but overlook similar but seemingly small acts of rebellion against God or we do not register them at all. Such was the case of the act of defiance of Rachel and what it cost her but God sees everything and God keeps a balanced ledger.
Jacob had served his father-in-law for almost twenty-one years when God appeared to him and told him it was time to move back to the land He promised his fathers (Gen. 31:3). Then Jacob called Rachel and Leah and shared God’s decision with them seeking their opinion. They both chorus their agreement to leave their father and to go with Jacob. Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.” Gen. 31:14-16 NIV)
What was the implication of Rachel stealing her father’s gods?
The Biblical Hermeneutics has this to say: Rachel stealing her father Laban’s household gods (teraphim) in Genesis 31 likely aimed to secure inheritance rights to her father's estate, as these items in the Ancient Near East symbolized leadership and property control. It also represented an attempt to deprive Laban of idols used for divination to track them, potentially reflecting mixed faith and lingering superstition. But……
God already gave them an inheritance. God already committed to go with them (Gen. 31:3). The divination aspect of Laban tracking them did not hold because he tracked them anyway without the gods.
The act of stealing the household gods also highlights the tension between the worship of Yahweh, the God of Jacob, and the worship of multiple gods, the practices of the surrounding cultures. Rachel's actions can be seen as a reflection of the struggle between these differing religious beliefs and practices. This is sounding like when we first believed in Jesus Christ - leaving behind our idols was gut wrenching. (To be contd)
THE WORD: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who HATE me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who LOVE me and keep my commandments.” (Exo. 20:4-6 NIV)
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