Genesis 31:3 Commentary and Bible Study

At this point God speaks to Jacob and gives him a very clear indication that it is time to return. He had come to seek a wife, and he now had a family and he had some wealth. He had obtained this wealth honestly, and although previous chapters show that he had been capable of great deceit himself, in his interactions with Laban he had been upright and straightforward, and he is now a changed man following the encounter with God at Bethel. God has not brought him to Haran permanently. This is not his home, even though he has now been with Laban twenty years. To Jacob belong the promises, and at Bethel God has told him, ‘the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed’ (Genesis 28:13). He must now return to the promised land, to Isaac his father, and he must face his brother Esau. What makes all the difference however is the promise that God will be with him. The events of his life have been somewhat chaotic and there have been so many twists and turns. It is twenty years since he was promised the land but he can, but in spite of this God has not left him.