Daily Devotion for Lent 2018 - Day 23, Monday

Scripture Reading: Genesis 29 (NRSV)

Jacob finds his mother's relatives in today's text and may figure out a little bit about his own identity in the process.  His uncle Laban turns out to be a trickster in his own right and Jacob gets a taste of his own medicine.

Leah and Rachel may have started out loving
each other until they realized they would
have to share a husband!

We almost feel sorry for Jacob working for years for his bride and then be given her older sister.  In what would be considered unorthodox today, he then waits a week and receives the sister he was after in the first place.  This doesn't seem to be a good practice for healthy family dynamics and Hebrew law later explicitly states in Leviticus 18:18, "And you shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive."

While Jacob prefers Rachel, he still seems to find time to spend with Leah as she continues to bear him children.

When we fast forward to the teaching of Jesus, he emphasizes openness and honesty among us.  I wonder if he was thinking of Jacob and Laban's relationship when he declares in Mark 4:21-25:

He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand?  For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light.  Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”  And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.  For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

Jacob in his treatment of Esau could easily be the subject of "the measure you give will be the measure you get" in light of how Laban deals with him.

When we consider how we treat others, we sometimes excuse behavior in ourselves that we would hold accountable for someone else.  And yet, the story of Jacob shows that even if we are dealing with other people entirely, sometimes things can come back to bite us.  Who is it in your life that you could treat better than you do?  What is stopping you?


O Sovereign and almighty Lord,
bless all thy people, and all thy flock.
Give thy peace, thy help, thy love unto us thy servants, the sheep of thy fold,
that we may be united in the bond of peace and love,
one body and one spirit,
in one hope of our calling,
in thy divine and boundless love.

Amen.

Prayer from the Liturgy of St Mark, 2nd Century

Photo by suttonls via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.