“What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” (v. 25, NIV).
It is interesting that Jacob, whose name means “deceiver” and who had misled both his father and brother, is now being deceived. He asks three questions that reveal his personality, thus displaying his inner character and self-centered impetuses. The incomprehension of Laban’s deception did not even register with Jacob as “reaping what he had sowed.”
Many Christian psychologists reason that the faults we perceive in others, and of which we are most critical, often are a manifestation of our own inner faults or character flaws. When we encounter someone of whom, for some unexplainable reason, we experience personality problems or “quirks” that bother us, we need to ask ourselves the question, “Am I guilty of the same behavior?” We might find the Lord is speaking to us through the situation and using iron to sharpen our personalities and knock off the rough corners, thus making us into the loving disciples to whom Christ has called us.
Father, work out the character flaws in my life so I will be defined as a person of patience, love and integrity. Enable me to view other people as you view them and guide me to speak the truth in love into other’s lives so they can experience the same saving relationship I also possess with you.
Robin Buchanan, Princeton, W.V.
