Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
A profile of Jacob, the sign in Revelation 12:1. Part 5.
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
Whether Rachel had simply been commanded by her father to go along with this deception or whether she had to be forcibly detained in the womens quarters during the marriage feast, we are not told.
Perverse - diastrefoo = to distort, pervert, deceive, corrupt.
ROM 16:18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the stupid.
Leah knew that Jacob really loved Rachel and that, as he made love to her on their wedding night, he was really in his own heart making love to Rachel.
When Jacob discovered the deception, he could hardly fail to have been initially angry and bitter, both with Leah and Laban.
1. Isaac had thought Jacob was Esau, and so he gave Jacob the blessing. Now Jacob had thought Leah was Rachel, and received a just recompense for his deception of his father.
2. In both cases, the deception had been commanded by a parent (Rebecca, the mother of Jacob, and then her brother Laban, the father of Leah), and in both cases the purpose of the deception was to acquire something desperately desired.
3. Jacob had been sure the end justified the means in his case, but not in Labans case; and Laban will feel the same way when he is deceived by Jacob.
MAT 7:12 Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them,
2SA 16:11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my son who came out from me seeks my life; how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone and let him curse, for the Lord has told him.”
GEN 50:20 “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
1. He had acted unjustly toward his nephew Jacob when he even made him work for seven years as a payment.
2. He deprived his nephew of the woman he promised to give in marriage.
3. He is pretending that he has character and integrity because he cares about the custom or the practice of the place.
MAT 23:24 You blind guides, who strain or filter out a gnat and swallow a camel!
This is what the Jacobs of life can expect; they can expect to run into people like themselves.
If Jacob had just rebounded from his deception over his father and stayed in the promise land none of this would have happened.
Not only did he take uncle Labans two daughters but he took the best part of uncle Labans cattle under one of the best and smartest cattle stealing deals of all time.
1. All of us at some time or another are going to bump into a Jacob or Laban in this life.
2. Being people smart is no defense against the con-artistss of this life.
3. Neither is spiritual maturity, for David was one of the greatest believers of all time, and in the state of spiritual maturity he was conned by certain individuals as well.
4. It is a true factor of life and it is probably good for anyone in life to be taken in at sometime by a Laban because there are so many things to learn.
5. Sometimes greatness in business, in a profession, in the spiritual life, or even in social life are measured in terms of Laban testing.
6. All of us at sometime will fail because it is inevitable that the very thing that makes us strong, honor and integrity, also makes us vulnerable and even sometimes weak.
GAL 2:4 But it was because of the false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.
1JO 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.
ACT 20:30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
7. The con-artist also uses someone else, the victim, to get to his objective.
8. The con-artist must deceive his victim.
9. The con-artist is a reversionist and in using deceit, must hide the evidence to make the lie stick.
10. A con-artist must do something to flatter himself with his victim, whether it is inferiority or superiority.
Robert R. McLaughlin All Rights Reserved 2002