Genesis 31:34–35

This is a Hebrew word in the plural. It refers to household idols, like the ones Rachel stole from her father. There, as elsewhere, some Bible versions translate the word "images" and put "teraphim" in the margin. Gen. 31:19, 34, 35. Michal the wife of David had one in her house, and laid it in the bed when David escaped. 1 Sam. 19:13, 16. Micah also had them in his house, and regarded them as "gods." Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14-20. They were used in some way for divination.

Teraphim were small images, used for purposes of divination. The incident gives us a sidelight on the way spiritist practices had spread. People honoured and valued these little "household divinities," and women often most of all. That is why Rachel was anxious to have them with her as they travelled away from her old home. Heathen practices are very infectious.

Rachel's theft brings personal and family idolatry to light — the kind that so often went along with professing the true God. What can be more offensive to God than to make Him a senior or a silent partner in a partnership of gods? The good commentator Matthew Henry makes a strange note: "We are willing to hope that she did not take them away out of greed for the rich metal they were made of… She might have meant to convince her father of the folly of treating as gods things that could not even protect themselves." This is all kindly but unwise. We can learn the true reason from Israel bowing down to the golden calf right after the solemn scenes at Sinai, and from Israel's history down to the captivity in Babylon. We must believe in the godless, evil obsession of the human heart instead of imagining other reasons.

Rachel had not learned to walk by faith in the living God. Like her father, she needed to depend on what she could see. Though she was a beautiful woman, her desire for a religious atmosphere allowed her to indulge in stealing, idolatry and deceit. This is common with all human religion: only the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus will preserve us from such things.

Rachel was like most of us. We know well how to hide our idols and to deceive even our own loved ones! Rachel was the last in Laban's search, and the least suspected. She was sitting on the images and had a good excuse for not standing.

How little Jacob knew that Rachel had stolen Laban's teraphim, to her own shame! She had already shown herself the prey of low and vile superstition, which paves the way for idolatry in secret. But Jacob had no suspicion that his beloved was guilty. Otherwise he would never have been so quick to propose that such a person should not live. And she who had played false to God had few scruples about deceiving her father as well as robbing him.

The image (teraphim) ranks below the idol. It is a half-god whose realm is the home. It carries a certain importance, and people even consult it at times. Such superstitions soon lead to true idols… Often the believer lacks the energy to drive these causes of stumbling out of his family. Each one of us must take this to heart.

Rachel, out of fear of Laban, had hidden them under the camel's saddle… The thought of God's presence made Jacob remember the false gods. It awakens in his soul the conviction that the gods this world worships can never be kept alongside a faithful God. Nothing else can awaken this conviction. No amount of experience can ever have the effect that the presence of God produces on a soul.