Genesis 31:14

Genesis 31:14 says, And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?  Rachel and Leah both asked in effect what was there left for their with their father.  Leah could have told Jacob that since he didn't love her as much as he did Rachel that she was going to stay with her father, but she didn't.  When we come to Christ, whether we be a man or woman, there should never be anything that we left behind in our old sinful life that we would want to go back to.  Verse fifteen asks, Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.  Rachel and Leah asked if they were not looked on the same as strangers to their father.  They said that he had sold them and used all the money that might have been theirs.  We can also be sure that when people of the world figure that they have gotten everything they can from us, there will be no reason to go back to them.  Verse sixteen adds, For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children’s: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.  Rachel and Leah credited God with taking things from Laban and giving them to Jacob, and said that God did it for them and their children.  We likewise should acknowledge that God is at work in our lives when we are blessed.  They told Jacob to do what God had told him to do.  We, as followers of Christ, should always tell others to do what God has told them to do, even if it affects us personally.  Verse seventeen states, Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;  Then verse eighteen adds, And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.  Jacob gathered all his family and animals and was ready to go back to his father's land.  Jacob may have been getting wealthy where he was, but he wasn't where God wanted him to be.  Even if we are getting wealthy where we are, we need to make sure that we are where God wants us to be.  If we aren't, then we like Jacob need to rise up and return to where God wants us to be.  Verse nineteen declares, And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.  Matthew Henry says that these were most likely religious images, and that Rachel took them not for a real desire to have them, but to keep Laban from consulting them to find out where they had gone.  She should have been content to simply rely on God, and also to be willing to leave behind anything that could not be attributed to God's work in their lives.  I don't believe that God will ever lead us to dishonest acts in order to achieve His will.  Even if we must stand against certain laws that go against God's teachings, we should do so openly and honestly and never to enrich ourselves.  Verse twenty says, And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.  Jacob left without telling Laban that he was leaving.  Verse twenty-one adds, So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.  Jacob took all his family and all his possessions fled from Laban.  I don't believe that there was a need for Jacob to leave this way, since he was doing what God had told him to do.  Once more, when we are following God's leadership, we need to be open and honest in our dealings with other people.