Genisis 31:32 “…For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.”
I’ve heard it said that “if your wife is unhappy, what did you do to her?” I believe this is part of what it means to be the head of the house. We have a responsibility to our family. Just as God is our sheperd, we are the sheperd of our family. We are to lead. The happiness reference speaks to the level of joy in the house. Do we breed anxiety and anger? Are they walking on eggshells? Do we support and encourage? While we have many responsibilities as men, this is the biggest.
This passage is refering to Rachel stealing her dad’s idols. This is a double. First off, she’s stealing. Secondly, she is taking an idol. Jacob and Rachel worshipped God. I realize this is before the commandment, “you shall have no idols before me”, but if one serve’s God, there shouldn’t be idols around. God will hold Jacob partially responsible for her actions. He was not a truthful person and often did crooked things to get his way. Here Rachel is following his example. She is doing what she can to get what she wants. He should know that “our wants” should be monitored by our devotion to God and should be honest. By his example, Rachel is stealing, lying and giving devotion to another god.
Dennis Praeger once said that it would be a great good, if we didn’t pass on our pathologies to our kids (loose paraphrase). This is part of what it means in Exodus 34:7, “the sins of the father will be visited upon the children…” Our examples are followed, either good or bad. It’s common to hear how addictions have been passed on through the generations, but so has anger, anxiety, dishonesty, etc. It’s nice to know the good things are also passed on: honesty, joy, hospitality, hard work and so on.
Lord, help us as fathers and husbands to do well.