You don’t have to be in the work force very long to find out that you are working for an employer who has only his or her best interest and heart and could care less about you. Maybe your immediate supervisor is a gem and speaks to management on your behalf for raises and promotions; shows appreciation for you and makes your work place a real joy to work in. If so, praise and thank God continuously. If not, don’t lose faith. God is there for you!
The devil is a liar. He works by broadcasting lies, wrong thoughts and attitudes in our minds. He can make a person believe that they are all alone and that God does not care about them. He did it in the Garden of Eden with Eve. He made God out to be selfish; that He was keeping something really good from them, by not allowing them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God told Adam and Eve that they could eat of ALL the tress except one. Notice how the devil turned around what God said: “"Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?" then he calls God a liar: That's not true; you will not die. The Devil than says why God is a liar, because you will become a God: he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God
Genesis 3:1-5 GNB Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the LORD God had made. The snake asked the woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?" (2) "We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden," the woman answered, (3) "except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die." (4) The snake replied, "That's not true; you will not die. (5) God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad."
Why have we gone back to the Garden of Eden as we continue on with the story of Jacob? Because the Devil works in lies and lost hope as he was at work in the Garden of Eden; he was at work in oppressing and demoralizing Jacob and he is at work trying to demoralize you and me. This story can have an awesome impact on your life! God will do for you that which he did for Jacob.
We are all human and fighting our human nature and the influence of the Devil. But God has called us to be transformed in Christ. He accepts us where we are and then begins to work with us as a master potter; forming us and shaping us in His own image. Looking at Jacob as a youth, we see an arrogant con man. He deceived his brother and he deceived his father; having to flee to save his life. He meets his match when he decides that he wants to marry Laban’s daughter. During his fourteen years working for Laban, the youth grew up and starts letting the LORD fight his battle. Laban took sore advantage of Jacob and God. Instead of thanking God for Jacob’s hard work and for God’s gracious blessings, he cheats Jacob at every turn. When it comes time for Jacob to take his family and journey back to his own land; he has nothing; in fact, less than what he came with.
Genesis 30:25-30 ESV As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. (26) Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you." (27) But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you. (28) Name your wages, and I will give it." (29) Jacob said to him, "You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. (30) For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?"
Laban was poor when Jacob came to him. Over the fourteen years of his labor, God blessed Laban; but Laban didn’t deal honestly and righteously with Jacob, his own son-in-law. So Jacob makes a deal with Laban to work a little longer for him, but he wants as wages, all of the spotted and speckled sheep and all of the black lambs as well as the spotted and speckled goats. Laban agrees.
Genesis 30:31-34 ESV He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: (32) let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. (33) So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen." (34) Laban said, "Good! Let it be as you have said."
Before Jacob can claim his wages of the spotted, speckled and black animals; Laban has his sons steal them away. He sends his sons on a three days journey away; to keep Jacob from claiming his wages.
Genesis 30:35-36 ESV But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. (36) And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.
Being swindled once again by his employer/father-in-law, Laban; Jacob could have given up and just stayed a slave to Laban. He could have gotten angry and killed Laban and his son; taking what was rightfully his. Instead, he allowed Laban to steal from him one last time. He then came up with a plan to have the herds and flocks of only the strongest animals reproduce spotted, speckled and black offspring. He then separated them at birth and tended them as his own. His plan only worked because God performed a miracle for him. This is what Jacob did: he got fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled the bark, leaving white stripes on them. He then stuck the peeled branches in front of the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. When the flocks were in heat, they came to drink and mated in front of the streaked branches. Then they gave birth to young that were streaked or spotted or speckled.
Genesis 30:37-43 ESV Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. (38) He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, (39) the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. (40) And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock. (41) Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, (42) but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. (43) Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
All of this angered Laban and his heart turned against Jacob. It was now time for Jacob to leave and return to his own kindred and land.
Genesis 31:2-13 ESV And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. (3) Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you." (4) So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was (5) and said to them, "I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. (6) You know that I have served your father with all my strength, (7) yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. (8) If he said, 'The spotted shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, 'The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped. (9) Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. (10) In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. (11) Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am!' (12) And he said, 'Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. (13) I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.'"
God sees our struggles in life. Nothing gets past God; He sees all! We don’t suffer alone in this evil and selfish world. God is always with us and He has a plan for us; even though we can’t always see it. We are called to live a life of faith; to trust God! Our livelihood is not dependant upon the economy around us. Our career is not limited by our boss or the company we work for. The abundance of God and His blessings can not be withheld by any man. God has always taken care of His people. He has fed the righteous when the wicked starve. He had ravens feed Elijah; when he was forced into exile.
1 Kings 17:2-6 KJV And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, (3) Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (4) And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. (5) So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (6) And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
Wherever we are and whatever happens to us; God is always with us. God made Jacob very wealthy and then sent him and his wives and children on a journey back to his kindred and his own land. God will improve your circumstances in life if you trust and believe in Him.
Prayer: God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Almighty Father in Heaven, thank you for your love. Help me to trust in you and to claim all of the promises of God. Show me your will for my life, in Jesus; name, Amen.
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