Jacob replied, "You know how hard I've worked for you, and how your flocks and herds have grown under my care. You had little indeed before I came, but your wealth has increased enormously. The Lord has blessed you through everything I've done. But now, what about me? When can I start providing for my own family?" (Genesis 30:29, 30 NLT)
Do you ever have a hard time imagining how God put up with these people in the Bible? Just from reading Genesis it's not hard to see why God casted Adam & Eve out of the garden of Eden, why he destroyed everyone living but one man's family in the flood, & why he destroyed the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah. But don't we expect more from God's people?
Abraham followed the Lord, had faith, made some mistakes but was man of God. Isaac too is noble & loves his God. Jacob, however, is a different story!
Known as the deceiver since he was a child, he deceived his father, brother, & now uncle. How could God allow such sin? Such rebellion? Such lack of character? Such poor reflection on him?
Sound familiar? Who does Jacob remind you of? He should remind us of us. We are all sinners just like these Bible people. Imagine if our lives were written down in narrative form. What great mistakes would it include?
The difference in the lives of Jacob & his relatives is not that they were good people. It's not that they deserved to be God's people. Actually, the opposite is true. They didn't deserve God's grace. That's why it's grace.
We don't deserve this grace either. There is nothing attractive in us that God should love us. In fact, we are all enemies of God. And yet, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) We deserve the wrath of God not his grace. We have earned the hatred of God not his love. And yet he loves us. Not because of what we have done but because of what he's done. When it comes to talking about our relationship with him, if we start our story with "I" we have missed it. It's not about us, it's all about him. Praise God that he loves, accepts, & uses imperfect pictures of his grace!
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