Genesis 29

It’s quite illuminating if we stop to catalogue some of the deceptions that occur in Jacob’s life. He lies (with his mother’s help); he in turn gets deceived when he is about to be married; both Jacob and Laban try to one up each other with his wages; we end up with Rachel lying about stealing from her father. While it’s easy to point to Laban as the chief villain in our chapter, Leah and Rachel had to at least be complicit in his plan. Most of us could probably point to ways our families are messed up, but hopefully ours aren’t as bad as Jacobs!

It’s probably not surprising that Jacob didn’t love Leah as much as Rachel, and God blessed Leah as a result.

Thought for the day: Do you value and model honesty and truthfulness the way you should?

Jeremiah 9:2-9 (WEB) ” ‘Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,’ says the LORD. ‘Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer. Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity. Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit, they refuse to know me,’ says the LORD. Therefore the LORD of Armies says, ‘Behold, I will melt them and test them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him. Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?’ says the LORD. ‘Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on a nation such as this?’ “