{"id":16357,"date":"2021-06-22T22:00:39","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T05:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_31_17-32-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-06-20T00:02:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T07:02:04","slug":"genesis_31_33-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_31_33-44\/","title":{"rendered":"The God Who Searches for You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 31:33-44 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 31:33-44.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:33-34 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent.
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 33-34:\u00a0\u00a0Laban painstakingly searches in the tents of his daughters and their maidservants for his household gods but is unable to find them.\u00a0\u00a0Little did Laban know that his daughter Rachel, who had stolen the household gods, was hiding them inside her camel\u2019s saddle and sitting on them.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Here we find Laban frantically searching for his household gods and unable to find them.\u00a0\u00a0But earlier the one true God was searching for Laban and found him, speaking to Laban in a dream (see v24).\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s a major difference between the God of the Bible and the gods of many other faiths.\u00a0\u00a0With many other faiths, philosophies and religions in the world, it\u2019s about human beings searching for God.\u00a0\u00a0But in the Bible, God searching for human beings.\u00a0\u00a0Long before you ever searched for God, God was searching for you.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s why Jesus came.\u00a0\u00a0He was on a search and rescue mission to find you, the one God loves.\u00a0\u00a0Like a woman searching her house for a precious lost coin (see Luke 15:8-10), God is relentless about finding the ones who belong to Him.<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:35 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 35:\u00a0\u00a0Rachel deceives Laban her father, telling him that because of her period she cannot stand, thus preventing Laban from searching inside her camel\u2019s saddle for his idols.\u00a0\u00a0Both Jacob, Jacob\u2019s mom Rebekah, Rachel and Rachel\u2019s dad Laban were all clever at deceiving others.\u00a0\u00a0Birds of a feather tend to flock together.<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:36-41 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n36\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “What sin have I committed that you hunt me down?
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.
\n39\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night.
\n40\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
\n41\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 36-41:\u00a0\u00a0Frustrated and angry, Jacob recounts the ways that Laban mistreated him as an employee.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps you find yourself working for a difficult boss like Laban.\u00a0\u00a0Know that God is a much better boss than Laban.\u00a0\u00a0God does not cheat or mistreat those who serve Him.\u00a0\u00a0So<\/strong>\u00a0remember who your ultimate boss is: not the human boss over you who is causing you difficulties, but your heavenly boss who takes care of you and who at the same time who involves you in His business.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0As Colossians 3:23-24 says, \u201cWhatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:42 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n42\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 42:\u00a0\u00a0In his hardships with Laban, Jacob could see the hand of God protecting him from harm.\u00a0\u00a0That is the blessing that can come with hardship.\u00a0\u00a0When hardships come, it\u2019s an opportunity to see, appreciate and remember the ways that God has still been good to us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Genesis 31:43 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n43\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 43:\u00a0\u00a0Greedy Laban saw Rachel and Leah, their children and the flocks as all belonging to him, even though Jacob had already paid the dowry for both Rachel and Leah, Jacob had a stronger claim to the children because they were his children, and Jacob legitimately earned the flocks that were in his care.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Greed has this way of messing with our sense of ownership and making us very entitled.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Instead of seeing ourselves as stewards of what God owns and has entrusted to us, when we are controlled by greed we start to think that we are the ultimate owner of everything and everyone around us.\u00a0\u00a0We even start to see people and things that don\u2019t belong to us as belonging to us and existing for our selfish purposes.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus warned against this kind of attitude in Luke 12:13-21 in his parable about the rich fool.\u00a0\u00a0For more on greed and how to fight it,\u00a0check out Episode 3 of our Take Me Hiya series HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n

Genesis 31:44 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n44\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 44:\u00a0\u00a0Seeing that he cannot win this time, Laban calls for a truce with Jacob.\u00a0\u00a0Laban\u2019s actions reminds me of Jesus\u2019 words in Luke 14:31-32:\u00a0“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0When you\u2019re overpowered and outnumbered and God is not on your side more than He is on the other side, the best thing to do is to call a truce.\u00a0\u00a0We can\u2019t win against God.\u00a0\u00a0When it\u2019s me against God, my plans against God\u2019s plans, God wins every time, so I might as well accept the truce that God offers and surrender to Him.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for all the lessons I can learn from Your Word today.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You for being the God who searches for me even before I search for You.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You for being the best boss I can work for and the finest king I can serve.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You for being my protector and my defender.\u00a0\u00a0I surrender everything to You today.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 31:33-44.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 31:33-34 (NIV)
\n33\u00a0\u00a0So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent.
\n34\u00a0\u00a0Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.<\/p>\n

On verses 33-34:\u00a0\u00a0Laban painstakingly searches in the tents of his daughters and their maidservants for his household gods but is unable to find them.\u00a0\u00a0Little did Laban know that his daughter Rachel, who had stolen the household gods, was hiding them inside her camel\u2019s saddle and sitting on them.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Here we find Laban frantically searching for his household gods and unable to find them.\u00a0\u00a0But earlier the one true God was searching for Laban and found him, speaking to Laban in a dream (see v24).\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s a major difference between the God of the Bible and the gods of many other faiths.\u00a0\u00a0With many other faiths, philosophies and religions in the world, it\u2019s about human beings searching for God.\u00a0\u00a0But in the Bible, God searching for human beings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16358,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16357\/revisions\/16358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}