43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? 44 “So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.” 45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Now Laban called it2Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it 3Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, 49 and 4Mizpah, for he said, “May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. 50 “If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” 51 Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. 52 “This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53 “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. 54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. 55 Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.
The arrogance of Laban is amazing here. After all that we saw yesterday, Laban still lays a claim to everything around them, but he knows he cannot take any of it, because of what God had told him. Then, after Jacob sets up a pillar, and has his kinsmen set up a heap of stones (verses 45-46), then Laban (in verse 51) even takes credit for that too. He can’t break himself of the pattern. Anything Jacob has done, he takes credit for, and anything which Jacob has laid claim to, Laban calls his own. In this, God kept Jacob, and Jacob held his own, and did not break the covenant that they were in the middle of making. God gave Jacob the strength to see that it wasn’t worth fighting for, but that God would fight his battles for him. He will fight our battles too, if we only let Him.