Genesis 29: 1-8: “Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east. And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well’s mouth. And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well’s mouth in his place. And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll he stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep."
Jacob had an amazing experience where he had a vision of the Lord and understood that the Lord was Lord of all creation. He knew that God was in control and that changed his attitude to life, so much so, that he promised to give God back a tenth of all that God gave him. However, he still had a tendency to go back to his old ways. This is true for every person: we know that God is able to change us but as long as we are interested in being in control of our lives then we will have a tendency to go back to our old ways. The Lord brought Jacob right back to his uncle’s region. He had never been there, even though his mother was born there. When he got to the place he quickly started to take control and didn’t follow the local customs. It is very easy for us, as Christians, to assume that we are God’s people therefore we can do whatever we want to do. This is not true. We should accept that every government has been set up by God and we need to submit to the government authority unless they tell us how we should worship. If they want us to worship in an special way we should worship in the way that God has told us and peacefully accept the consequences.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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