Deceit - June 12, 2009

Sometimes, no matter what you do or how well you do it, you feel underappreciated. Take the story of Jacob in Genesis 29. Jacob is looking for a wife. His father, Isaac, told him to go and find a wife from his own family. So off he went and God led him to Rachel. She was the younger of two daughters of Laban we are told about. Jacob did everything right. He asked for her hand in marriage. He gave Laban his services for seven years. Laban agreed.

But, seven years went by and Jacob was ready to marry Rachel. But Laban deceived them. Under the cover of night, Laban gave Jacob his oldest daughter Leah! Jacob did not realize this until morning. I can only imagine the disappointment in all the parties involved; Jacob, Rachel and Leah. Jacob was angry at Laban for tricking him. He went to Laban and let him have it. Apparently Laban didn’t play by the same rules Jacob. He was dishonest. He felt he had a good reason to be, and in their day, he did. The first born daughter is always married before the younger.

How can you trust someone who is sneaky, dishonest, and untrustworthy? How ungrateful Jacob must have become toward his father-in-law. The woman he loved was kept from him because of tradition that he may not have known about. Jacob worked hard and faithfully and yet he was misled into a marriage to someone he didn’t want. Jacob was probably completely frustrated because no matter what he did, Laban didn’t think twice about it hurting him.

How do we deal with this kind of frustration? How can you keep working for someone who misleads you by breaking their promise to you? Only with God’s love and the fruit of Spirit can we take a situation that we can’t control and keep in total control. Galatians 5:22 & 23 says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Each time a situation comes up where you are told you are no good, you are not worth anything, or you are completely deceived by some, look to these words. Put them to practice. Practice is the only way to make them show through your life each day.