Jacob's Righteous Anger

01/19/2007

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Jacob’s righteous anger

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 31:36-42

            Message of the verses:  “36 ¶  Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, "What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?  37  "Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.  38  "These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks.

39  "That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night.  40  "Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.  41  "These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times.  42  "If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.’”

            One of the things that can be seen in Jacob’s life is fear, fear of what man could do to him, and because of this fear Jacob’s life was not as full as it might have been without having this type of fear.  Jacob should have a great fear of the Lord, and not so much a fear of man, for the Lord had given him great and wonderful promises to hold onto, yet he did not act on the promises that were given to him and looked at things from his prospective and not the Lord’s promises.

            In these verses it can be seen that Jacob did have confidents in the Lord by reading what he told Laban.  Jacob seemed to pour out all of the things that must have been stored up inside of him all of these years.  Verse forty-two shows exactly how it was that Jacob felt, and it is a wonderful testimony to the Lord, who had taken care of Jacob and had done all of the things that Jacob told Laban about from this verse.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Have my trust in the Lord, and fear the Lord and rest upon His promises and not fear man, who can only kill the body, but not do any harm to my soul, which has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb some 2000 years ago.  Give glory to the Lord as Jacob did in verse 42.

The Word of God has been convicting as well as a big challenge to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Trust the Lord to get the things done that need to be done today, that is working on my lesson for Sunday evening and reading my lesson for today’s Bible study, and getting my exercise done this morning.