Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Character
- Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person. It is hearing from God and obeying. It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.
We’ll continue in our look at Jacob through the lens of character. Do you see what is happening in Jacob’s
life? Jacob maneuvers Laban’s wealth
into becoming his own wealth. Jacob
flees without giving Laban the opportunity to say goodbye to his daughters and
grandchildren. Jacob doesn’t recognize
the possibility that Laban might be right when he claims that someone stole his
household gods! In this chapter, Jacob
is all about his bravado and his right to be powerful.
However, there is a place in this chapter that I think his lack of
character is most on display. Early in
the chapter, God tells Jacob that if he goes back to the land of his father,
then God will be with him. God is trying
to arrange for Jacob to leave and go to a place where God can begin to work on
this character of Jacob. But look at how
Jacob turns God’s promise around.
Whereas God says, “I will be with you,” Jacob says, “God has been with
me.” Jacob assumes that because he is
prosperous that God must love him more.
Jacob doesn’t get it. Whereas
Jacob is still focused on prosperity, God is looking ahead to developing
character.
God cares more about who we are than what we have. God desires that we have the interior life to
follow Him more than the material possessions necessary to prosper. Since we often prioritize differently than
God, building character is often difficult.
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