B'resheet 31:30-32 "And now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house; but why did you steal my gods?" Then Ya'akov answered and said to Lavan, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you would take your daughters from me by force.' "The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself." For Ya'akov did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
Steal my gods - This really shows how powerful these gods were. They can't even protect themselves from being stolen. :~) We never have to worry about someone stealing our G-d. :~)
B'resheet 31:33-35 So Lavan went into Ya'akov's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. And Lavan felt through all the tent, but did not find them. And she said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the household idols.
I cannot rise before you - It was the custom that children, no matter how old, would stand when their parents entered the room.
The manner of women is upon me - She claims she is menstruating.
The good that comes from this is that Lavan is separated from his idols. We see Rachel sitting on top of Idols or gods. They represent nothing more than fallen angels who follow Satan or the SERPENT, which fits the meaning of the letter that corresponds to this chapter. I always wondered what this meant and the reason. Why?
Look closely. This is a picture of the woman who rides the beast in the future.
Rev 17:1-6 "Come here, I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. " And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Yeshua. NAS
This is showing us a picture of the future through the actions of Rachel. It tells us that the same spirit that guided Moshe to right the Torah is the same spirit that leads to the writings of the B'rit Hadassah.
B'resheet 31:36-42 Then Ya'akov became angry and contended with Lavan; and Ya'akov answered and said to Lavan, "What is my transgression? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? "Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. If the G-d of my father, the G-d of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. G-d has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night."
What Lavan did may have been evil but G-d worked it out for the good.
B'resheet 31:43 Then Lavan answered and said to Ya'akov, "The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?
Lavan comes to realize the way he has treated Ya'akov and repents from his ways (teshuvah) and wants to mend their relationship and therefore humbles himself.
B'resheet 31:44-49 "So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me." Then Ya'akov took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Ya'akov said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones." So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Now Lavan called it Jegar-sahadutha, (pile of witness/Aramaic) but Ya'akov called it Galeed (pile of witness in Hebrew). And Lavan said, "This heap is a witness between you and me this day." Therefore it was named Galeed (Gal-Ed); and Mizpah (watchtower), for he said, "May the L-RD watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other.
Big change of heart for Lavan concerning Ya'akov.
B'resheet 31:50-55 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, G-d is witness between you and me." And Lavan said to Ya'akov, "Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. The G-d of Abraham and the G-d of Nahor, the G-d of their father, judge between us." So Ya'akov swore by the fear of his father Isaac. (In other words -G-d) Then Ya'akov offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. And early in the morning Lavan arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Lavan departed and returned to his place.
They set up a boundary between themselves. Ya'akov will not cross the line to harm Lavan and will not cross the line to harm Ya'akov.
This is the end of the Israelites contact the old relations back in Mesopotamia, now Iraq.