<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Genesis 31:1\u00a0 <\/span>Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, \u201cJacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.\u201d And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the LORD said to Jacob, \u201cReturn to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.\u201d So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was and said to them, \u201cI see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t that Jacob had taken anything that belonged to Laban. Rather, it was that his wealth was increasing in proportion to Laban\u2019s wealth. The problem wasn\u2019t that Jacob stole; it was that\u00a0Laban\u2019s sons<\/b>\u00a0were filled with\u00a0envy. Envy will distort the truth. Jacob had not taken anything of Laban\u2019s, but envy will lie. The envy of Laban\u2019s sons poisoned Laban\u2019s heart against Jacob. Before, Laban was entirely pleased with the agreement. Envy is bad not only on its own, but also for the company it keeps:\u00a0For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?\u00a0For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Instead,\u00a0Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy. God wants to deliver us from envy:\u00a0For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Envy is no small sin. It put Jesus on the cross:\u00a0For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy. (Guzik)<\/p>\n Selfish men consider themselves robbed of all that goes past them, and covetousness will even swallow up natural affection. Men’s overvaluing worldly wealth is that error which is the root of covetousness, envy, and all evil. The men of the world stand in each other’s way, and every one seems to be taking away from the rest; hence discontent, envy, and discord. But there are possessions that will suffice for all; happy they who seek them in the first place. In all our removals we should have respect to the command and promise of God. If He be with us, we need not fear. The perils which surround us are so many, that nothing else can really encourage our hearts. To remember favored seasons of communion with God, is very refreshing when in difficulties; and we should often recollect our vows, that we fail not to fulfill them. (Henry)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Genesis 31:1\u00a0 Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, \u201cJacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.\u201d And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the LORD said to Jacob, \u201cReturn to … Continue reading “37.w. “God did not permit him to harm me””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[391,16114,452,14803,76,5808,16113,5118,16089,796,15459,3875,1413,4115,32,1305],"class_list":["post-152449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-called","tag-cheated-me","tag-favor","tag-gained","tag-god","tag-harm","tag-heah","tag-jacob","tag-laban","tag-lord","tag-rachel","tag-regard","tag-return","tag-served","tag-strength","tag-wealth"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152449"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152452,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152449\/revisions\/152452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}