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Hello <<First Name>> <<Last Name>>,
Miguel will be speaking this week on "God's Creation as Beautiful" at The Society of Creation's Conference in Ann Arbor, MI. There is still time to register!
This weekend we celebrate our freedom as a nation. It should also be a reminder to us of the freedom we have in Christ. In Christ we are new creations, as our nation was a new nation. In being new creations we are free from the penalty of sin and from continuing to be enslaved to sin, as our nation was freed from a master that controlled us.
To be free from the enslavement of sin means that because the Holy Spirit lives inside us now, we no longer have to continue to willfully sin. To be sure we will not get it right all the time, and thankfully the grace of Christ covers us in those cases. But we are not longer in a position where we can't help but to sin. We are free to live in the way God created us to be. We are free to flourish as God intended and we are free to delight in our Lord as we were unable to do when our eyes were blinded by our master, sin.
Celebrate our nation's liberation. But also celebrate our liberation from sin and death through Christ the conqueror of sin and death! The only one who can truly bring freedom, dignity, and respect for all!
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After Jacob meets Rachel, he stays with her father Laban (Rebekah’s brother). Jacob has fallen in love with Rachel, but since he fled his father’s house so quickly, he had no possessions to offer as a dowry for marriage. Therefore, Jacob offers seven years of his service to Laban in exchange for marrying Rachel, to which Laban agrees. However, after he finishes his years of service and is prepared to marry Rachel, Laban deceptively switches out his daughters in the marriage bed so that Rachel’s older sister, Leah, actually marries Jacob!
It is interesting to note how Jacob’s own sin and deception – that of lying and pretending to be his older brother so that he could inherit Isaac’s blessing – has been ironically turned around on him! The deceptions seem almost identical: 1) a parent is the orchestrator of the plan; 2) the siblings were switched out at the last minute to receive the blessings; 3) the deception leads to heartbreak and hurt relationships. Although Jacob was the younger sibling taking the blessing of the older, Laban reminds him that “it is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one” (vs 28).
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Just as before, sin leads to more sin as Jacob then takes on multiple wives after working another seven years to marry Rachel, as well. Through these two parallel situations, the narrator is demonstrating that God did not approve of the way that Jacob obtained Isaac’s blessing, so his own experience of being tricked and the extra years of work come as the natural consequences of his own sins. His favoritism toward Rachel over Leah breeds the same contempt later in the family as there was between Esau and Jacob. Possibly because he understands these natural consequences, Jacob simply agrees to Laban’s terms of working for another seven years.
Through this narrative, we are reminded that God does not approve of our sins because he is a just and holy God. Even when his will is accomplished, he never accepts that the ends justify the means when those means are sinful. I’m glad to know that God is a good and righteous God whom I can trust to uphold what is right. But he can take bad circumstances and use them for his own good purposes, just as he did for Jacob and just as he will do for Leah later in the chapter.
Have there been times in your life where you know you have sinned and are experiencing the natural consequences of that sin? What is your response? Do you continue to glorify God and accept the consequences, or do you breed contempt for the Lord? Just as Jacob continued to serve Laban, I encourage you to continue serving the One who can take your circumstances and natural consequences and use them for something beautiful and good.
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Text By: Catalina Kreider
Photo from:
http://www.artbible.net/1T/Gen2901_Jacob
Laban_Rachel/source/16%20RAFFAELLO%20JACOB%20S%20ENCOUNTER%20WITH%20RACHEL.jpg
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