JACOB AND LABAN- Openheavensdevotional with Pastor E.A Adeboye

BIBLE IN A YEAR: 2 Cor 1-3
JACOB AND LABAN Saturday, August 28, 2010
MEMORIZE “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them” (Deut. 33:27) READ: Genesis 29:15-35 Jacob stole Esau’s blessing and fled for his life to a distant relative - Laban.  The latter received him and said he would be paid for work done. Along the line, Jacob took interest in the younger daughter of Laban. She was very beautiful but had an ugly elder sister.  He approached Laban to ask for her hand in marriage and paid her dowry by working for him for seven years. On the night of the wedding, Jacob received the veiled bride only to discover the following morning that it was the ugly elder sister.  When he protested, Laban told him he could still serve for his heart throb and have her.  He did so for another seven years. Meanwhile, he was mean to Leah the elder sister. When God saw the drama, He opened the womb of Leah and shut that of Rachel. Let us learn a few lessons from this story.  The first character in the story is Laban. He was a relative of Jacob, was rich and was a refuge for fleeing Jacob. He could be compared in this sense with our Lord Jesus Christ who is a distant relative of all Christians. Although He is the bonafide Son of God, yet, He always called Himself the Son of man so that we can identify Him as our relative from afar (Matt. 12:8). Like Laban, He is rich, very rich. In fact, Psalm 24:1 says the earth, its fullness and all its inhabitants belong to Him. And like Jacob could take solace in Laban, so also is Jesus a refuge for us. Deuteronomy 33:27 says, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them”. On the other hand, Jacob represents an offender who has committed a crime worthy of death. Ezekiel 18:20 says such an offender must die.  Jacob fled from danger and death into refuge. He is comparable to you and I who have sinned and deserved to die. Are you still in sin? You are not safe.  Run under His cover today and turn your life over to Jesus. Jacob also represents one who was supposed to die, was saved and asked to serve. Today, you will call such a fellow a minister.  Has God saved you from death, sickness, hell or Satan? Then you must be willing to serve Him. Nothing goes for nothing. Nothing is given you free except it has been paid for by somebody else. Are you giving your time, money and intellect in the service of the One who has saved you? ACTION POINT: Thank God for the founders and General Overseers of Bible-believing churches world wide. Pray for grace to pursue the vision the Lord has given to them