Devotion:
For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read Genesis 30:37-43.
Jacob, “the deceiver,” had met his match in his uncle Laban! Jacob worked seven years for Laban in order to win the hand of his beautiful young daughter, Rachel, only to be tricked into marrying the homely older daughter, Leah. Jacob had to work another seven years in order to be married to Rachel also. When Jacob agreed to continue to tend Laban’s flocks of goats, he was to be given all the spotted, speckled, and dark colored animals (less valuable than the purely white ones). Laban had all those animals separated out and removed from the flocks. Jacob would have nothing!
But Jacob came up with another trick, placing striped branches in front of the animals as they mated. This caused them to have speckled, spotted, and dark colored offspring, and Jacob received all of them as part of his deal with Laban. He even started selectively breeding the stronger animals in front of the striped branches so that his offspring would be the stronger and Laban’s the weaker ones. There is nothing in animal husbandry to explain this trick, but here we see Jacob simply making the best of the bad situation Laban had put him in. Perhaps there is a lesson in that for us!
Personal Worship Option:
What difficult situation are you in now, or what tough time do you see coming in your life? Take a lesson here and try to make the best of it, trusting God to get you through it. Pray for your faith to be made stronger as you experience this.
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