Genesis 31:3
Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”
It is heartening to see Jacob did not just react and run from the worsening situation with Laban and his sons, he sought the Lord. He would have needed to hear the word of the Lord saying “I will be with you” because he would be fully aware his brother would probably want him dead, and would not be favourable to his return.
David Guzik writes: Even if Jacob never knew it, God had been preparing him for this time. First, God gave him the desire to go back home (Genesis 30:25), then his present circumstances became unbearable. Finally, the Lord gave personal direction to Jacob.
He also adds that often God leads us in the same pattern.
Adam Clarke writes: And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return-and I will be with thee. I will take the same care of thee in thy return, as I took of thee on thy way to this place. The Targum reads, My WORD shall be for thy help, see Genesis 15:1. A promise of this kind was essentially necessary for the encouragement of Jacob, especially at this time; and no doubt it was a powerful means of support to him through the whole journey; and it was particularly so when he heard that his brother was coming to meet him, with four hundred men in his retinue, Genesis 32:6. At that time he went and pleaded the very words of this promise with God, Genesis 32:9.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown write: Having been conducted to Haran by God (Ge 28:15) and having got a promise that the same heavenly Guardian would bring him again into the land of Canaan, he might have thought he ought not to leave it, without being clearly persuaded as to the path of duty. So ought we to set the Lord before us, and to acknowledge Him in all our ways, our journeys, our settlements, and plans in life.
