Stolen Idols

By Ted Mock

December 31, 2026

Genesis 31:19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.

I was told once by a wise pastor, that if you look long enough and deep enough in the Bible, you can find a parallel to any modern problem or any situation. In today’s world, I am afraid that many of us have stolen someone else’s gods.  

In the story of Jacob, we find what resembles a modern-day blended family in many ways.  Jacob had children by four different women, and he came from a family with deep rooted strife between the parents and their two boys.  Favoritism, envy, and deception was the norm in Jacob’s family.  But the greatest sin was that which is the defining trait of humans—covetousness.

By the time we get to the part of the story where Jacob is planning to leave Laban and go back home, you can hear how he and his wives are consumed by materialism.  Jacob could see the anger on his father-in-law’s face because he lost most of his flocks to Jacob. And now as Jacob laid out his plans to his wives to secretly slip away, you can hear the conversations is all about things and not the people they are leaving behind.

Rachel and Leah are ready to go, they have no inheritance left to them (31:14), Laban sold them and devoured their money (31:15). Corrupted by covetousness, they see only what others have that they want. They are blind to what God has for them in the future because they cannot take their eyes of the temporal.

So Rachel took her father’s gods. Covetousness is idolatry (Col.3:5).  Don’t take the idol of covetousness. 

2 Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Reflection—Don’t waste your afflictions by focusing upon the things which are seen.