NOTES for Gen 31:1-21
To become the leader of God's people, one must learn to listen to God and hear Him. Jacob learned this, judging by the words he spoke to his wives. He mentions the God of Abraham, who appeared to him in a dream. Jacob speaks of an angel, a messenger of God, but in those times people often made no distinction between the appearance of an angel and the appearance of God Himself. God made Jacob rich, and this was a lesson. A lesson that by following God one can become rich, and quite unexpectedly.
Now the next lesson lay ahead: he had to understand that such following is not free of problems or danger. Even when, it would appear, everything has succeeded and one can feel like a victor. Jacob has become rich; now he has almost more flocks than Laban himself, and he owes all of it only to God. It would seem to be a complete victory. But after victory, after success, he has to flee, to flee from otherwise unavoidable problems, and serious problems at that.
A successfully carried out plan of God, even with our direct participation, does not at all imply the possibility of relaxing and resting. Everything can turn out quite the opposite: after carrying out one of God's plans, one may have to begin immediately carrying out the next, and it may well be a matter of one's own salvation. Perhaps even of physical survival. God's pedagogy can seem severe, but it is needed to teach a person real spiritual collectedness. Real means not at certain times and places, but constantly.
God does not have a fixed workday or workweek for us; He does not provide a legal vacation. Sometimes He may give a person rest, and at times even quite a long rest, but not according to the schedule a person usually counts on. Besides, rest can end at any moment and turn without delay into active work to carry out another of God's designs.
Such unpredictability belongs to God's action - unpredictability, of course, only from our point of view, since He Himself knows His plans well. For a person, what matters is learning a quick, almost lightning-fast response to His words and actions. Otherwise one cannot become God's person. And God wants to see Jacob precisely as His own person, and trains him accordingly.