8th January Morning
Genesis 29-30
Jacob, a former family member, is now a fugitive running away from his brother. Esau who used to hunt down animals is now a hunter of his own brother. Rebekah, who used to be the mother of the twins, has now become the family traitor. Isaac, the one who used to be the head of the family, is now known to have attempted to interrupt the will of God due to his (Isaac’s) obedience to cultural traditions. The family is basically torn apart and it is literally no more. That is how quick a family of generations can come down in a flip of a second. We must always be careful with our familial choices. This, I have learned. While Jacob is running, he heads to his other relatives of his from the side of his mother. After all, he had no other place he could run to since he had messed up his father’s side.
This reminds me of the many people who are one-sided family members. Those who cannot cross over to the other side just because they have already messed them up. I hope I am speaking to someone right now. The brother continues to run and as he runs, he finds himself lost and he has to ask for directions. Fugitives of our modern world must learn to ask for directions. We are all in one way or another fugitives and it matters that we pose our running and take a second to ask. Jacob did, so should you and I as you run away from something to other things in life. After all, that is what life is about – running away from something to another thing. We should always pose and ask. As you run away from marriage, stop and ask.
We should always pose and ask. As you run away from marriage, stop and ask. As you run away from one job to another or merely resigning, please pose and ask. Ask the right people and always ask the right questions. It is important in life to ask. Fellow fugitives, we must always stop and ask. So he asked and while he asked, there came a Rachael. And his life is going to take another spin from that point.
When he saw her, he hugged, kissed her and cried loudly. I personally do not know what these tears meant, but I can speculate that the brother was crying because he who was hopeless had his hope restored and not only restored but with rewards. He knew he had finally gotten to where he was going and he was going to be safe from his hunting brother and at the same time, Rachael was, by all means, going to be his reward. The brother cried because he was going to be given what he did not deserve. That is what the Gospel is about. We are all like the fugitive Jacob, we have hurt people in our past, we are sinners from birth.
We are all like the fugitive Jacob, we have hurt people in our past, we are sinners from birth. Jacob was a sinner ever since he was born, he fought and manipulated his brother in the womb, during their birth, he gripped the heel of his brother as a sign of opposition to his brother’s birth. He continued like that throughout life. Jacob like every one of us today was not only a habitual sinner but a perpetual one. He was consistent and coherent in not doing right but in doing wrong. He deserved nothing but death, but guess what!! He finally got to his destination and from the look of things he was about to get the most beautiful woman around. There are people in this world who do not deserve what they have, and one of them is me. God is gracious. Hallelujah.
The next thing we see is a Jacob who commits himself to seven years without salary but paying dowry just to take Rachael for a wife. There are not many things we learn from this but only two lessons:
- Laban redefined dowry, instead of money or any other materialistic thing, he asked for the service of Jacob. In-laws should pick a leaf from this Laban man. It is not always money; do not turn your daughters into commodities put on family shelves. Do not sell your children or even transact them for cars, Land etc. What matters is the kind of person your child is going to marry and not what that individual is bringing. In most cases domestically abusive husbands in the African and other dowry oriented ethnic groups, refer to the money they paid as they beat and hurt their spouses. Well, Jacob could also refer to the 7 years but since it was already his job he had no audacity.
- Another lesson is brought to us by Jacob. The brother displayed COMMITMENT. He was willing to work 7 years without salary but to get Rachael. What in life are you committed to? What can you sacrifice to get what you want? In the motivation speaking world, we ask, HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT? Life is about commitment and the only people we can trust on anything are those who are committed.
In the work place, time and productivity are determined by the levels commitment. Relationships survive, thrive, or even are broken due to the very levels of commitment. Can you put seven years into something? The research formulas and principles that turn into policies are results of individual or institutional commitments to discover solutions to existing problems. What are you committed to in life and what have you given up for it. Jacob was that committed that even when it necessitated him to work another 7 years, he did and that was 14 years without salary but to get Rachael. I mean who would invest 14yrs in getting a wife? Well, Jacob did. In fact, he was too committed that, to him, it was not about the time he spent or the hardship he went through but the reward (Rachael) that he was to get. He was not focused on how difficult it was going to be but on how sweet it was to have Rachael as his wife. Commitment is not what we do, it is what we think and how we look at things and that is why we do whatever we do. Are you committed? To what are you?
There is an English saying that goes: WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. This saying is so basic. I mean, if it is going round it will of course come around. Jacob stole and together with his mother, manipulated the system and took advantage of Esau, and guess what, that very thing happened to him. The family of Rebecca and her brother Laban had faithfulness issues. They were a conniving and mean family. They were filled with deceit, lies and conspiracy. What Laban’s sister had done to Esau her own son, Laban did to Jacob his very own nephew. Jacob had committedly worked for Rachael but his uncle intentionally gave him Leah. He then quoted culture as if it had just been revealed to him, what culture dictated.
In the business world, there are Labans who set us up. They entice you into a business deal and once they get you there, and after you have spent all your money, they start reading you constitutional closes and laws that prove they cannot refund your money. Individuals, banks, shops, industries etc steal from us using their inconspicuous clauses in contracts they lure us into, and after things fall apart (where in most cases they are the beneficiaries and we are the losers), they quote the law. They might appear legal, but they are never legit.
This was the kind of businessman Laban was. He was just like his sister Rebecca, perhaps this wicked shrewdness was engineered in their genes. Some families suffer a specific genetic evil. If the grandfather was a womanizer, some children in the blood line will inevitably pick up that and exercise that knowingly or not. There is something I call; GENERATIONAL CHOICES. The choices we make as parents follow-up and are always reflected in the choices directly or indirectly our children make. It is not a coincidence that many people who grew up as step siblings grow up to parent step-children. If your mother had you from different men, one of you is likely to have kids with different individuals. This was what Rebecca and Laban were suffering from. Laban was an abusive parent who abused his own child. Many uncles have sexually abused their nieces in our world today. Others have financially abused their children. It is a very unfortunate scenario we see in this chapter.
In chapter 30 we see a Leah, a woman of many sorrows. First she had to grow up in a family were she was the ugly of the sisters. In fact Rachael was beautiful due to the looks of Leah. She suffered this psychologically since childhood. It was a difficult thing to grow up with a Rachael if you were a Leah. Rachael was always celebrated by family members, neighbors and visitors. She was the beautiful, and only she could go out with the sheep. As for Leah, she was domesticated and kept indoors since, if she went out, she would misrepresent the entire family due to her looks.
Have you ever been somewhere where you are so stereotyped and brought down in all capacity? Do you know what it means, growing up in a family and you have particular looks and everyone, including your parents, wonder whether you are really a family member? That was the state of this young girl. It is no wonder that Laban had to forcefully marry her to Jacob. Now after she had suffered the family indifference, she had to undergo another painful lifetime period of marrying a man who does not love her and never had feelings for her. Does anyone of us understand what it means to marry someone who does not love you? That was what this lady had to undergo throughout her marriage. Life can be so unfair. Yes, life was unfair for this woman. Many people have suffered this in life, some due to their
Life can be so unfair. Yes, life was unfair for this woman. Many people have suffered this in life, some due to their looks and others due to their families. Some families decide who you will marry and it doesn’t matter whether you love them or even they love you back. Just because of the family status, you just have to marry those particular people. People who come from rich families, religious families, and politically powerful families are the most victims to this. As looks determined the life of Leah, extreme poverty also can condition a human being and paint them differently from who they really are.
Anyways, Leah suffered all this, and she ended up with a man who treated her like sex-machine. No emotions, no romance, no nothing. The man’s obsession was exclusively with Rachael whom he had not even married. And I wish Rachael was some stranger, but her very sister. LIFE!!! God is always faithful and, in some way or another, through nature, backs up the hurting people. It was Leah who could have children and the beautiful sister suffered from barrenness for a long time. GOD WILL ALWAYS MAKE A WAY AND NOT JUST A WAY BUT ONE OF RELIEF FROM EXISTING GRIEF.
Jacob like his mother and his uncle was nothing but a thief, he stole from his family and also stole from his work place. Government officials who steal from the national coffers suffer from what I call A GENETICALLY ENGINEEERED EVIL or GENERATIONAL CHOICES. These are children just extending the poor choices of their past species. He stole from his uncle until he had more than his boss. Can you imagine? And when he had stolen everything, he resolved to leave before he is discovered. The verse says: Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys. (Genesis 30:43 NKJ).
Our world today is filled with many rich and exceedingly rich Jacobs – thieves. People whose wealth is 90% stolen and 10% earned. Do me a favor and go back today and look at all you have stolen and what you have honestly worked for. Now think about Jesus calling you down like he did to Zacheaus in Luke 19 and telling you that today I am going to your house. I personally think that if salvation comes to your house, you will not opt to leave with stolen wealth but pledge to return and payback all you have stolen. Guys let me wait for the evening.
8th January Evening
Genesis 31-32
All wealth attracts enemies but stolen wealth attracts bitter enemies. The children of Laban, cousins to Jacob started murmuring and fighting him. Family businesses can be good only if they are not benefiting one family member. If Jacob was benefitting all the family members and more, the immediate family members like the biological children of Laban, two things would not have happened:
First, he would not have become that rich since he would have shared those resources with others. Personally, I am not comfortable with our economic set-up where one individual has resources of over 10.000 people. In fact, the definition of RICH is a comparative definition, where some others are not and one is. You cannot have rich where there is no poor and the reverse is true. So the sons of Laban were fighting Jacob because he was becoming what they are not and Jacob was using what collectively belonged to them at their expense. That attracted bitter enemies to the rich Jacob.We must learn that the secret to maintaining our wealth is in being good to those around us and sharing as much as we can.
Another thing that Jacob would have survived is the bitter enemies he attracted due to his selfishness. Other interesting lessons we can learn is one for the employers. According to Genesis 31:6-7, And you know that with all my might I have served your father, Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. We see that Laban was a bad employer. He oppressed his workers and he influenced the evil in them. Because he was a bad employer, he attracted bad employees and if he ever had a good employee, his (Laban’s) behavior with workers groomed them – good into bad ones. He had dealt wrong and unfair with Jacob ten times. This is not to say Laban deserved to be stolen from but rather this is to confirm that what goes around comes around.
Finally, Jacob is back to his usual thing: RUNNING AWAY. He is fond of this habit, he gets to a place, messes it up, and runs away. And whenever he runs away he takes something that does not belong to him. The first time he ran from home he took the inheritance of his elder brother, the second time he ran away from his uncle he had stolen wealth in the form of livestock. However, unlike the first time he ran away from his family and he was not followed, this time round, he was followed. And the reason he was followed is found in Genesis 31:27-30: Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp? “And you did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have done foolishly in so doing. “It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’ “And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”.
Laban followed up the thief, not because of the livestock he had stolen, but because of the missing gods. Anything materialistic could be taken but not his gods. We all should learn a thing about the religion of Laban. He was willing to let everything go but not his gods. Whatever these gods were, nothing mattered in the life of this man than his gods. Stealing and taking his gods was taking everything he had and everything he was.
We as modern Christians must learn from this man. Anything can be compromised but not your faith. Whoever trades or transacts your faith has taken your past, present, and future. Life can take your education, life can transact your tribe and culture, life may trade and export your talent, life may take your wealth and health, but if it attempts a shot on your faith, then life is not worth living. Now you know why we have Jihadists fighting in the name of their gods. 97% of all that Jacob had was stolen wealth from Laban but Laban followed because of one thing: his gods. Nothing matters in your life as your FAITH. Make sure you place it in the right DEITY. Laban followed Jacob miles and miles just to retrieve his idols. Extreme Muslims kill others just for Allah. How much then should Christians do or to what extent should they go to protect their faith which is placed in the real creator and redeemer of this world?
In chapter 32 the boy who was raised by parents who played favoritism, is by default doing what was passed on to his psychology in his early childhood. Jacob was willing to let his biological children with the Leah he never loved to be killed first together with family servants. Many parents pay school fees for some children and do not to others. This kind of preferential treatment in homes create trouble that will go on and on for generations and generations. And we are all witnesses to this evil.
In this chapter, we are taught that time comes when we have no option but to go back and make peace with our past since it has haunted us in the future we thought was a safe harbor. Jacob had to go back and face Esau. We all have our Esaus we have hurt in the past, and we have run to different places and countries. It is important that we make peace with our past in life. We cannot keep in hiding or even maintain the boundaries forever. We need to go and face those people who hurt us and actually those we hurt and make peace with them.
When I was young I suffered a lot but I had an uncle who was in charge of Compassion International scholarships and sponsorships. So when I was in the queue of those kids that were going to be helped, for some reasons I never knew, my uncle came and took me out of the line and that is how I missed the academic opportunity. From then, (I was just between 6-8yrs old), I hated this uncle and I never forgave him, until I was 28yrs. As a child, I never knew why he did whatever he did. Maybe it was a conflict of interest since he was the official in charge it would have been against the law to favor or include his relatives. But again he put his daughter in the program, and I was like why? Okay, why didn’t he then sponsor me in school since his daughter was sponsored? And more and more…..when I grew, I saw things better, and I had to make a choice to forgive this uncle. Forgiveness and reconciliation
When I grew, I saw things better, and I had to make a choice to forgive this uncle. Forgiveness and reconciliation is a decision and a conclusion that does not require deductive reasoning in which you follow facts and reasons as to why but rather, forgiveness and reconciliations is a decision you just make. And you do not do it for others but for yourself. Jacob missed Esau and Esau missed Jacob, so for them to cut the distance they had to come closer and hug. In all this none was helping the other but themselves.
Make peace with your past and have peace yourself. Do not listen to people who tell you let your past be in the past or bygones to be bygones. Make peace with it. Do not just sweep it under the carpet. I know people tell me, “pastor, it is bygones”, “it is difficult”, etc. But I am telling you right now, it is difficult and complicated because you are thinking about your interests as an individual and not the interests of others. In reconciliation you must determine as an individual to be the loser and not the beneficiary. Once that is the attitude on either side then you are just sorted. MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR PAST. PLEASE.
God bless you. I invoke TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE, and FAITH.
Am Pr. I.T.White. THE GOSPEL HAWKER
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