My eyes focus on Laban in this chapter. I see three qualities of Laban. 1. He loved his family . 2. He was a man of greed. 3. He was not sold out to God because he had false gods. And you can see how that transpired into his kids. His sons were greedy and Rachel wanted the false gods as well. It goes to show that just because our parents taught us something, or lived a certain way before us, does not mean it is right before God. We must daily evaluate ourselves before God and see what behaviors and attitudes we must change (with the help of the Holy Spirit…of course).
Daily Bible Challenge: Day 31-Genesis 31
Laban accused Jacob of stealing from him, but he can’t find any proof and Rachel is the one who appears to get away with the deception this time as she has probably learned how to do this from her family over the years. Our kids are watching and learning everyday so be careful how you live and what you say and do! The old ‘monkey see, monkey do’ saying comes into play. Let’s also be careful to not have any fake gods that they want to take from us! Give them Jesus!
I chose the parody that I did today because there’s a place in the song where J sings about also getting accused of stealing. Here’s the link to Play That Funny Music.
https://youtu.be/-a_PoBsds8g
In the Old Testament, we learn many lessons about how God used people to accomplish His purpose and how He used events and personalities to illustrate important points to us. We clearly see that Laban is a selfish man but we may not even recognize our own selfishness. One way to discover this is to examine our willingness to admit when we are wrong. Laban couldn’t bring himself to do it. My challenge for myself is to remember this lesson when I know I am wrong and prayerfully consider how far would I go to avoid facing up to wrong actions.
I love all of the perspectives brought on this chapter. One thing that sticks out to me is that despite how Laban treated Jacob, Jacob never stopped trusting in the Lord and praying to Him and the Lord blessed Jacob for that. It reminds me that in life, we will have people who treat us poorly and unfairly. When they do, we must keep our eyes fixed on the Lord and continue to do His work and He will bless us.
27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps?
I opened my bible and noticed I had penciled in a “name” and a “date” for this chapter.
I was in a similar situation as laban.
44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”
God has a plan for me and my daughter.
Sometimes the anticipation is worse than the end result
Jacob has done his brother wrong and now fears he will seek revenge
When I was young and I misbehaved for mom, she would say, wait until your father gets home, thinking about what was going to happen to me all day was way worse than what my dad actually did
I’m also torn between Jacob sending gifts for his brother.
Did he do it as a bribe?
Would he have sent so much if he was not worried, but actually did want to show love.
And as far as Jacob and his hip, God likes to remind us that he’s in control. (hip or ribs haha)