No Pride in Humility

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

NO PRIDE IN HUMILITY

Gen 30:37-43

37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban's animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.

NIV

We do not know whether Jacob's actions with the branches in the watering troughs had any physical truth, that when a dam conceived in front of that colored branch, it would affect the color of her offspring. If this were true, the same could happen today, but no facts support the idea that what happened because of the branches was because of Jacob's wisdom. However, we do know that the Lord works through nature many times, and it is right to believe that what happened was by the hand of God. That is not to say men cannot become exceedingly prosperous through their own efforts, but pride might also become the center of their lives. Jacob certainly carried out the plan to make the sheep and goats have offspring that were streaked, speckled, and dark-colored. However, we believe his idea, or wisdom in doing that, was inspired by the LORD, so that Jacob worked in concert with Him. When we work on our own and find success, we risk becoming prideful. But when we work in concert with the Lord, we understand that all things come from His hand. Why would the Lord want us to be filled with selfish pride because we encountered some success in an endeavor? That seems counter-productive for any believer. There is no doubt the enemy of our souls would want us to believe we are the center of any success in our lives, because that would be leaving God out of the equation. We are instructed to walk humbly before our God. The prophet Micah asked what he could bring to the LORD, but learned what the Lord required: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before our God. When we walk humbly before our God, it means we also walk humbly in life, knowing that all we are, all we do, and all we have is from the hand of God. There is no pride in humility.