Jacob here sounds like a man pushed to the brink. He might be killed by Esau if he goes home, but suddenly in light of his indentured-servant status and utter contempt from his father-in-law, it doesn't matter as much.
I love the scene here where Jacob makes an impassioned persuasive speech explaining to his wives why they need to leave. Laban, says he, has changed his attitude regarding him, has cheated him on his due numerous times. He isn't trustworthy anymore. Above all, Jacob says, the Lord is telling him to get out, and the Lord's advice has always been to his benefit. Jacob for once isn't making a decision like this on his own terms. He has looked for guidance in prayer and God has spoken to him, clearly identified as "the one you met at Bethel". Like in the reading from Acts today (12:24-13:5), good things happen when, in the face of a difficult decision, the Holy Spirit is allowed to lead and guide what we do. Jacob is the first man I've seen in the Bible try to convince his wives of anything, rather than exerting dominance over them. In calling Rachel and Leah to him, he called the first "family meeting" in the Bible.
Rachel and Leah, in one voice, agree that their father is a greedy, selfish man who even spent the money they were supposed to have as a dowry, and that leaving is the best idea. Rachel here does something I don't quite get. She steals her dad's "household gods", his idols, his teraphim. It kind of makes sense that she, in her zeal for her newfound relationship with the Lord, would try to get rid of the symbol of her father's idolatry. It also makes some sense that she might not have been so entirely convinced of God and His Promises, and thus wanted to take with her some little token of her pagan side...a part of her she hasn't entirely let go yet. It could just be that the teraphim were materially valuable, that they were made of gold or silver or something, and she wanted to take them to make up for the dowry Dad squandered. She could have viewed them as helping her father, as they were believed to bring prosperity, and thus took them in revenge. This action clearly represents something about where Rachel is in her faith walk, but what part of the faith walk that is, isn't clear.
No matter what her motivation, her stealing, just like Jacob's final deceptive sneaking out of Haran, is wrong. Both acts are based in the self, in the desire to make choices on one's own understanding.
Laban, when he catches up with them, definitely hasn't changed much. Without the warning of God holding him back, there might have been violence and bloodshed. When Laban says that he only wanted to give his daughters and grandchildren a going-away party and to see them off properly, you can almost hear him lying through his teeth. He is an abuser whose prey has escaped and he'll say anything to have it returned. He blusters threats about how much harm he'd do them if only he could. He speaks of his daughters and grandchildren and Jacob in terms that call to mind slaves...indentured servants...property, not beloved family. He then tops this little tantrum by asking why Jacob took his teraphim, as though even the gods were his to control via these idols. He acts like Jacob took them to pray to them himself, like Jacob is jealous of him for having them. They were valuable property and as such would have been passed down to the key heir, so Rachel in taking them seemed also to be identifying her family with Jacob as the key heir to Laban's property.
Jacob responds the way any relatively honest man should...with openness. He knows he has nothing to hide. He offers to use his own authority to help the cause...to help punish whoever took them. When nothing is found, Jacob gives the best closing argument speech I've ever read, a ringing indictment of Laban's injustice and an account of Jacob's utterly honest dealings with him every step of the way. He stands up and defends his honor without stepping on Laban's, and in the end the two hammer out a just agreement and swear to it by their respective deities. Laban warns Jacob one last time that he needs to be just to his wives and not take any random women as further wives...finally switching his language from referring to them as his daughters (property)... and then their deal is made. This covenant oath between them is sealed, much as the covenants between God and man, via a sacrifice and a shared meal.
I totally admire the chutzpah of Rachel, who presumably wasn't actually lying when she said she was menstruating and couldn't get up off the camel. She was off in her own tent, after all, away from Leah and the other concubines. If she wasn't lying, she was sitting there bleeding all over the precious, sacred idols. Making them impure. A total "flipping the bird" at her father's pagan beliefs, and a more clear indication of how she was beginning to feel about them and about the One True God. Rock on, sister.
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