Today
we’re taking a look at Jacob and his tendency to lie and deceive the
people around him. This is a character issue for Jacob, one of the flaws and
cracks in his jar of clay. It can be really hard sometimes to see how the light
of Jesus shines through Jacob’s cracks since it seems like he has so many
flaws, yet his story also gives us hope as God never gives up on him.
Deceit or lying is one of those character
traits that
sneaks up on you and changes you before you even realise it. It starts off
small, using the express lane in the grocery store when you have 17 items in
your cart, telling your hostess that you love her food while trying to figure
out how to slip it to the dog, telling the boss you’ve sent the email, or maybe
it’s the old tried and true school lie, the dog ate my homework, though that
won’t work right now! You get away with it for a while and it seems to make
life to go more smoothly, but slowly it becomes a part of who you are. Sadly, many
people today believe that deceit and lying isn’t a big deal and will find lots
of times where lying saved a person’s life; like during war or in a domestic
abuse situation. Yet how often do these situations really happen? Most of the
lying we do is about more day to day common things and we do it to make life
simple and easy for us, not for the other person.
Often, we don’t recognize how often we lie during the course of a day. The movie, Liar, Liar stars Jim
Carrey, a
crooked lawyer and divorced father. He
loves spending time with his son Max; though he has a habit of breaking
promises to Max and then lying about the reasons. His lying builds him a
reputation as a successful defense lawyer, but when he misses Max’s birthday
party and lies about it, Max makes a birthday
wish that
his father would be unable to tell a lie for an entire day, a wish that comes
true. The rest of the movie is about how hard it is to always tell the truth.
Question: how easy is it to tell a
small lie? Does that make it easier to tell a big lie later on?
Lying’s always about making life easier
for you;
but there’s always someone affected. At the very least, it affects who you’re
becoming as a person. If deceit and lying is becoming too normal in your life,
no matter how large or small, you need to deal with it. Carey Nieuwhof writes,
“Sin is like a weed: It grows
fast and you never have to water it. The best way to tackle sin is to pull
it out by its root before it creeps into other areas of your life.” Lying
slowly changes you, you become less kind and less compassionate since lying is
about you. Lying slowly fills up our hearts, it slowly stains our souls so that
we find it harder to hear God, to see him at work in our community, to feel the
guiding of the Holy Spirit.
Jacob’s encouraged by his mother to deceive his
father to get the family blessing. Jacob goes along with her and deceives his
father into thinking that he’s really his brother Esau. It’s not just a simply
lie that Jacob and Rebekah tell, it’s an elaborate set-up to deceive Isaac.
Rebekah takes Esau’s clothes for Jacob, they cover Jacob with goatskins so he
feels like his brother, they take a goat instead of hunting, and cook it up
just the way Isaac likes. Finally, there’s the direct lie when Isaac asks
Jacob, “Are you really my son Esau,” and Jacob
replies, “I am.” Jacob and Rebekah get what they
want.
Wisdom tells us that lies and deceit will always catch
up with us at some point. Growing up, I remember being told that if I planned
on lying at home, church or school to keep it simple and close to the truth
because otherwise the lies will grow until they fall apart since lies are
always based on weak and shifting foundations. We see this in Jacob’s life.
Because of what Jacob and Rebekah did, Jacob has to leave home. He ends up with
relatives in Haran where he ends up marrying sisters. Deceit and lying mark
Jacob’s life; he deceives his father and brother, he deceives and manipulates
his father-in-law Laban, he gets deceived by his father-in-law, his wives and
his own children. All these lies and deceits bring great pain and brokenness in
Jacob’s life and family.
Question: have you ever gotten caught
in a lie? Did that change your relationship with the other person?
With
a family as messed up as Jacob’s family is, why does God bother with them? Yet
it’s through Jacob’s family that Jesus comes to earth. Still, I sometimes
wonder why Jesus doesn’t come from a healthier family; why are there so many cracked
clay jars in his family line? Then I look at myself, my family and the family I
come from and realise that I am who I am because they’re all a part of making
me who I am. It’s the same with Jesus, his family line shapes him. He knows the
brokenness that deceit creates because it’s part of his family heritage. Jesus
knows the importance of truth because he is truth, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus tells us. Jesus experiences
how deceit twists truth and he knows how lying and deceit can take away from
the full life he intends for us because lying breaks relationships, breaks up
friendships and marriages because where there is lying, there can be no trust.
Jesus teaches about how destructive lying
is,
calling Satan the Father of Lies, referring back
to Genesis 2 and 3 where Satan twists God’s words, leading Eve and Adam to
choose Satan’s lies over God. We’re not a whole lot different; we keep choosing
all kinds of things over Jesus to make ourselves feel good whether it’s our
work, our play, our toys, power, influence or whatever. We talk a lot today
about being true to ourselves, but often our truth is based on what makes us
feel good. When we create truth this way, it keeps changing because we keep
changing as people. Jesus identifies himself as the truth and says that if you
want to be true to yourself, make him the first priority in your life because
he’s truth; allow him to shape who you are, your values and focus.
Question: do you think that doing
something like lying changes who you are, what kind of a person do you want to
be? What do you need to do to be that person?
Jesus leads us into the truth, the truth that we
are sinners in need of forgiveness and grace, in need of a transformation of
our hearts, minds and souls because we’re slaves to every thing we make more
important than Jesus. Jesus calls his message the
gospel of the grace of God the truth in John 8. Jesus goes on to say that
it’s truth that sets us free, free from the lies
of Satan that tells us we’re in control and can save ourselves. The gospel of
grace is that Jesus comes to take our sin, our lies and deceit to the cross. He
transforms and changes us through his death and resurrection, washing the stain
of sin off our hearts and souls, and uses us to bring transformation into the
world. Jesus shows us the kingdom of heaven is already here through the church.
It looks like humility and grace, forgiveness and serving others, where people
are encouraged to develop the potential God has placed in each of us, to focus
on justice and rightness in our communities. Jesus comes to create people that
offer hope to those searching for healing, meaning, and a new start in life.
Jacob’s story provides hope for us. Jesus comes from the family of Jacob, the man known as a
deceiver, a man whose name is changed to Israel, one
who struggles with God. Jacob needed to put aside the lie that he was
the most important person in the world and that everything was good if it
benefited him. Jacob slowly learned to trust in God Almighty who is truth and
trustworthy and shows his deep commitment to his people by sending his beloved
son Jesus so that we can experience new life in him.
Faith is not just words and getting into
heaven; faith is about how we live and who we are becoming,
shaped by Jesus’ truth.
Jesus invites you to allow him to help you become the true you, the person God
has created you to be.
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