I think I have found a thread in the Bible where a traveller is tested while on the road. They are usually overtaken (sometimes ambushed) by someone in disguise or they are carrying a hidden item.
Are these passages actually linked, and if so, what could be the significance?
Here are the examples:
In Genesis 31:30-35 Laban overtakes Jacob. Rachel is hiding stolen idols.
"Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s
household. But why did you steal my gods?”Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take
your daughters away from me by force. But if you find anyone who has
your gods, that person shall not live. In the presence of our
relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here
with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had
stolen the gods.So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent
of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of
Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the
household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting
on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found
nothing. Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that
I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he
searched but could not find the household gods.
In Genesis 38:13-14 Tamar ambushes Judah. Tamar is hiding her identity.
When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to
shear his sheep,” she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself
with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to
Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah
had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
In Genesis 44:1-13 Joseph’s men overtake his brothers. They are unknowingly hiding silverware in their sacks.
Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill
the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each
man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. Then put my cup, the silver
one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver
for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys.
They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward,
“Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to
them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? Isn’t this the cup my
master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked
thing you have done.’”When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. But they
said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your
servants to do anything like that! We even brought back to you from
the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks.
So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? If any
of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of you
will be free from blame.”
In Exodus 4:24-26 God overtakes Moses. There is nothing hidden but Zipporah, like Tamar is a foreign woman who is righteous in an unconventional way. She, like Rachel, saves the situation by referring to blood.
At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about
to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s
foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a
bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone.
(At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to
circumcision.)
Luke 24:13-16 Jesus overtakes two of his followers. He is hiding his identity.
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus,
about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other
about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these
things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with
them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
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