Upright and Honest

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

UPRIGHT AND HONEST

Gen 30:31-36

31 "What shall I give you?" he asked.

"Don't give me anything," Jacob replied. "But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen." 34 "Agreed," said Laban. "Let it be as you have said." 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks.

Laban agreed, but he also lied and was deceptive, or just an ugly man, because after agreeing that all the spotted or speckled goats and sheep would be Jacob’s wages, he took them all out of his flocks and had his sons move them three days' journey away from all the rest of the flocks. This left not one speckled, spotted, or dark-colored goat or sheep in the flocks under Jacob's care. That was just a hateful, ugly, and greedy move by Laban. He is simply not a nice man. His yes was not yes, and he lacked the honesty to be truthful or deal with Jacob honestly. However, we will see how the LORD protected and blessed Jacob. Still, we can learn from this dishonest Laban and his interactions with Jacob. What do the righteous have in common with the wicked? What do the people of light have in common with those living in darkness? What harmony can there be between Jesus and idols? What do a believer and an unbeliever have in common? We would have thought that Laban, as Rebekah's brother and in the line of Abraham’s brother Nahor, would have known the LORD and lived uprightly and honestly. But that was not the case. There are those teachers and preachers of today who profess knowledge of the Lord, but deal with people deceptively to garner for themselves a large gathering, fleecing them, so as to live in luxury. They are not living uprightly or honestly before God or the people. We cannot afford to be anything like Laban or those silver-tongued purveyors of deception. Because we profess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are expected to live uprightly, honestly, openly, with love toward each other. Laban looked out for himself over Jacob, but we are to do the opposite and look for the good of others above ourselves. That is not an easy way to live, and we wonder how successful we are being the believer we say we are. However, that is the goal, the race we are in, so as to get to the finish line. Let us keep running, trying to do what we should do and not do what we should not do, if that is possible while in this body. Nevertheless, we should make every effort to live in peace with everyone, being upright and honest.