Overflow Daily...ish: Cheating the Cheater

25 And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” 26 Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 

Genesis 29:25-26 (ESV) 

There is a story about a boy who was sitting on a park bench with an older gentleman on the other end of the bench. As the story goes, the man reached over and grabbed the cookie that was sitting in between them. The boy was flabbergasted at the audacity of this stranger to take a bite out of his cookie! So, he grabbed the cookie and jeered at the man and took a bite before putting it back down on the napkin as if to say, “don’t touch my cookie”. The man just watched the boy and then picked up the cookie and took another bite. They continued to do this until the cookie was all gone at which point the man stood up and left. The boy was so upset and couldn’t believe how rude this man could be. He was just about to yell at the man when he realized on the other side him sat his cookie.

As you probably figured out, the little boy thought that the man was eating his cookie, when in reality he was actually eating the man’s cookie. In a similar fashion, we too can very quickly get upset at a person and what it actually does is reveals a bit about who we are. We want fairness and we hate the way it feels when someone takes something from you unfairly. Or in the case of Jacob, gives to you something that you had not originally agreed upon. If you are not familiar with the context around the passage allow me to expand upon it for a bit. Jacob had gone back to the people of His grandfather to take up a wife and had agreed with Laban to work for him seven years in order to marry his youngest daughter, Rachel. But after the seven years of labor, Jacob was deceived and was offered Leah in marriage.

This story is rich in irony because Jacob had done a similar thing in deceiving his father into giving him the blessing instead of his older brother. Additionally, the stolen blessing was customarily given to the firstborn child and here we read of how Laban deceives Jacob in order to maintain a similar custom. And Jacob is outraged, he is upset. His happy wedding day has turned into a cruel prank. And yet, he has done the same.

What can we learn from this? Are there Gospel implications in a narrative such as this? None of us like to be cheated or stolen from. And this is all a consequence of the fall. We are reminded, in stories like this one, just how much humanity has been corrupted by sin and why there is so great a need for a Savior. Why we must look forward to a time when all things will be restored. But while we are still on this side of eternity, we should remember to continually mortify sin in our bodies and to treat others as we would have them do unto us.

Grace and Peace,

-Pastor Alex

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