Message: As I was reading about Jacob’s
interaction with his Uncle Laban I started to see a continued pattern of
trickery going on. Previously Jacob manipulated and tricked his way into
stealing Esau’s blessing and then he runs away to escape the problem and finds
another one. Laban tricks and manipulates Jacob into marrying the wrong daughter
and then doubles the work time for him to marry the other one. After Jacob
marries both sisters the favor went to only one of them and she started having
babies while the other sat in envy. Once again, to solve a fertility problem
Rachel tells Jacob to sleep with her servant to try to fulfill her desire for a
baby. Sound familiar? This is exactly what Jacob’s grandparents did when Sarah
was unable to conceive. The madness continued until finally the cycle was
broken when Rachel finally conceived.
Command: Have we learned nothing yet? God’s
promises are not to be manipulated! It will only bring on more jealousy and
heartache!
Promise: God will bless in his timing when we
surrender our plans and choose his.
Warning: Our manipulations causes heartache
and prolonged waiting!
Application: As I read this I really saw theissue
of personal and family patterns that cause destruction. We tend to repeat what
we grew up in even when we don’t realize it. Running away from the problem only
makes it worse. The only answer is to surrender our plans and trust that what
God has for us is far more wonderful than we could ever concoct out of our own
doing. We talked about this last week when we saw Jacob do it, but since we are
talking about patterns and cycles, I thought it was worth repeating!
