I Did

DEVOTION

GENESIS

I DID

Gen 31:36-42

36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. "What is my crime?" he asked Laban. "What sin have I committed that you hunt me down? 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us. 38 "I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. 40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, 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 with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you."

NIV

We are in the midst of the conflict between Laban and Jacob regarding Jacob leaving without saying anything, but in reality about Laban’s household gods. He found nothing that belongs to him after searching everyone’s tent and personal belongings, except, of course, Rachel’s saddle where she had hidden his gods. Now Jacob has had enough and he lets loose with this tirade about all he has done for Laban and how great of a man he is. He is so proud of himself for doing all he did for Laban and that he desires everything he has for it. Yet at the same time he tells Laban that God rebuked him because he saw Jacob’s hardship. It is interesting Jacob did not give God all the credit for all he had, but that he mentioned God rebuking Laban. We know Jacob must be a man of faith, he has had visions, and has heard from God, but still it seems he is very assertive about all he has done. I did this, I that that, and I never did this of that. He does not tell Laban that God accomplished all this on his behalf, although he does say that God was with him. Jacob almost sounds as if he thinks he is sinless. He does give God credit for stopping Laban from keeping all he gained for himself. There just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of humility in Jacob at this time. We can learn from Jacob here. We should not be looking at all we do for our gain, but all we do because of God being with us. Jacob surely became a very wealthy man. But looking back it is recorded that he became very prosperous because of his method of obtaining speckled, spotted and dark-colored sheep and goats. It did not say, because God had blessed him. He even told Laban to let his honesty be a testimony of him. The more we think about Jacob, the more we see a man all about himself, rather than about God. We need to be more about God then ourselves. All we have, all we are, and all we do is because of God. God should get all the credit all the time, all the time God should get the credit. Yes, we can do all things because we have all the power, no, because God gives us the strength. Unbelievers hail their own abilities, we should hail God’s. For Jacob being a man of faith, he sure hailed his own abilities. We cannot fall into that trap, thinking how great we are, how perfect we are. Laban certainly was not the most honest man in this relationship, but Jacob certainly was not as perfect as he portrays himself to be. We should not portray ourselves as perfect either. We fail, we make mistakes, we are human and we need the righteousness of Christ. We need the blessings of God in every aspect of our lives. We need to see God at work in everything regarding our lives, always testifying to his hand at work. It is not about us, but about God. It is about what God did, not what I did.