God’s Agenda through His People

If there were no other reasons to believe the Scripture, (and there are many many others!) the fact that the Scriptures do not “sugar coat” the foibles and failures of those through whom God works His eternal plan should be sufficient for any fair minded person. For me, this reality is what separates Scripture from being merely a “sales or advertising” publication that is designed to “paint a pretty picture” to a client in order to induce them to “buy a product”, in this case the product being a religion.

If it weren’t so morally repugnant, the Scripture for this day, Genesis 30:14-24, would be humorous a ‘la the Keystone Cops. The trickery that characterized Jacob’s earlier pilgrimage continues to reverberate through his family as his two wives, sisters though they are, continuously try to jockey for supremacy over each other. The dysfunctionality of sibling rivalry was not confined to Jacob’s parents because Laban’s daughters also were locked into a conflict to become #1 in Jacob’s heart.

It’s interesting to note that Jacob, the maids of both Leah and Rachel and even the aphrodisiac mandrake plants were considered to be mere “pawns” to be sacrificed in their chessboard strategy to pursue supremacy. Apparently they were so locked into this pursuit that they were blinded to the fact that they were dehumanizing each other, their maids and Jacob himself. An attitude of “win at any cost,” regardless of who or what must be sacrificed blinded them to their own flawed internal motivation as well as the impact of their actions upon Jacob and their own successive generations.

What can we take away from this sordid, sad story? #1, what goals are we GENUINELY seeking? Do we GENUINELY seek to accomplish goals that glorify God or do we seek self-aggrandizement? Do we thoughtlessly sacrifice the welfare of others in order to accomplish our goals, regardless of the impact upon them and their descendants? What do we ACTUALLY model before our own children and grandchildren? To the world at large? And most importantly, before our Lord who KNOWS all?

IF the Holy Spirit points out to you that you, like Leah and Rachel, are living a life that both dehumanizes you as well as others, there is still HOPE because with that internal illumination of the Holy Spirit through the Scripture, the Spirit’s purpose IS NOT to merely point out error, rather His purpose is to bring us into GENUINE repentance and change and to conform us more and more into the image of Christ Jesus our Lord. IF the Spirit through this Scripture says to you on the inside something like “you use people to further your own agenda rather than love people which is my agenda,” RUN to Him in prayer, confess your failure to love both yourself and others, REPENT/FORSAKE the past failures and live in FREEDOM in an ever growing relationship with the triune God!!