Departures With Peaceful Boundaries

I am reading Genesis chapter 31, again and again, this morning.

"So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, 'Gather stones.' And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, 'This heap is a witness between you and me today.' Therefore he named it Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, 'The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight. If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.' Then Laban said to Jacob, 'See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.' So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac..." - Genesis 31:45-53 ESV

We are told that the location of this heap of stones has prophetic significance in the end times. It is a boundary set up and judgement befalls those who cross it to do harm.

Reading it made me think of departures. Jacob wanted to make a life with his family away from the influence, and displeasure, of his father-in-law. The heap of stones was a way for that to happen without animosity.

Isn't it beautiful when people can part ways and not think or speak ill of one another? I think so. I would wish that parting didn't have to happen but it does sometimes. People have different visions and where ever there is growth there is also division but it doesn't have to go badly.

"...and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.  Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home." - Genesis 31:54-55 ESV

Yes. If God is between us we can love one another. It never says anywhere that Laban was a godly man. Jacob is the one who put down the first stone. Jacob said, 'Gather stones'. Those stones could have been used as weapons but Jacob made them into a monument and a 'no stone throwing' policy was initiated.

Yes. Let's live that way. Even if there were injustices involved in the parting. Let's pile those accusations in a heap and respect that heap as a boundary to never cross with the intention of doing harm. Jesus shed His blood on a cross to pay for all sin. Let us never take up those stone again to harm one another.

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