Work at it with all your heart

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

Genesis 29:20

How’s your week been so far? I’m rather pleased it’s Thursday, or, as Chris Evans always calls it, ‘Friday Eve’. After three weeks of holiday, it’s been a bit of a shock to the system returning to work this week, and I’m very pleased that the weekend is almost upon us. Every week for me seems like a roller coaster of intense action, so the opportunity to rest for a couple of days is always appreciated!

In today’s reading, we pick up the story of Jacob. You may remember, if you’ve followed our readings over the past couple of days, that Jacob deceived his father into giving him Esau’s blessing, before being sent to Paddan Aram to find a member of his mother’s family to marry. Our reading today finds him arriving, and meeting his relatives. He first meets Rachel, his cousin, and quickly falls in love, because she “had a lovely figure and was beautiful.” After a month, he asks Laban, his uncle, if he can marry Rachel. Jacob agrees to work for his uncle for seven years in exchange. As we see from today’s featured verse, those seven years flew by because he loved Rachel so much.

This verse reminds me that life can sometimes be rather too full of hard work. If we are Christians, though, we are called to work as if we are doing so for Jesus. Paul says in his letter to the Colossians:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Colossians 3:23-24).

Jacob was content to work hard for seven years on the understanding that he was give Rachel in return. We should also be content to work hard for we too will receive a reward; we will receive an inheritance as heirs with Christ of eternal life. Jacob’s reward might have been rather good, but ours is infinitely better (and Jesus will not trick us, as Laban tricked Jacob…). So let’s remember in the coming weeks to work hard in all that we do!

Stairway to heaven

[Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Genesis 28:12

For some reason I have rather bizarre – and memorable dreams. Last night I had a particularly strange dream in which Claire, my wife, was made a baroness (eminently believable) and I was made a knight (totally unbelievable!) Certainly a rather strange dream, and perhaps one I shouldn’t be sharing; you may know what it means!

In today’s reading, Jacob, Isaac’s son, is shown leaving Beersheba to head for Paddan Aram to find a wife from his mother’s family. During his first night on the road, he had a dream in which he saw a stairway to heaven on which the “angels of God were ascending and descending.” Above the staircase he saw God, who repeated the promise he had made to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather. He tells Jacob that he is the God of Abraham and Isaac, that he will give Jacob and his descendants the land on which he is lying, that his descendants will be numerous, and, perhaps most importantly, that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.”

Clearly this is an amazing promise, but what does it have to do with us today? Well, just as Jacob saw a staircase to heaven, Jesus told his followers, “very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). The promise that God makes to Jacob is a specific promise to him and to his family; the “staircase” is temporary. By the time of Jesus’ statement, however, the staircase has been replaced. It is now the Son of Man, that is Jesus himself, who is the means of approaching God and entering heaven. Through Jesus, who is a descendant of Isaac, the promise God made to Isaac in his dream has come true. Through Jesus, “all peoples on earth” have been blessed. As a result of Jesus we don’t have to deceive God for a blessing, or pretend to be someone we’re not, as we saw Jacob do in yesterday’s Daily Reading. Rather, because Christ died for all, anyone who turns to him, repents of their sin, and seeks to follow him can freely receive a blessing from God, a blessing that opens up the way to heaven, through Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray with thanks today that Jesus has opened the way to the father for us all!

Please give me your blessing

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

Genesis 27:19

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a ‘needy’ person. I do like it when I’m affirmed in what I’m doing. In my day job I appreciate when someone says to me, “you did really well today, Simon, well done!” I like it when someone tells me how much they’ve enjoyed reading one of my books. I take great delight when I’ve had people round for dinner and on their way out they tell me what a great evening they’ve had. I guess it’s always nice to be affirmed. We live in quite a cynical world, so it’s good when people make the effort to say something positive about you.

Today in our Daily Readings we move from Luke’s Gospel back to Genesis, and we pick up the story at quite a tricky point. Isaac, the son of Abraham, is close to death, and realising this, he wants to bless his eldest son, Esau. Abraham had, of course, received a blessing from God himself, a blessing that would continue down the family line. No doubt Isaac thinks that blessing Esau is particularly important, a continuation of God’s blessing on his own father. Isaac is deceived by Jacob, however, who with the assistance of his mother, Rebekah, dresses up as Esau. Our key verse today comes at the point when Jacob seeks to deceive his father, by telling him that he is Esau, and asks for his blessing. It is clear that Jacob wants his father’s blessing very much. He needs his father’s affirmation.

As we read these verses, it can be very easy to judge Jacob for his deceitfulness, but I wonder how many of us act in exactly this way every day? We might pretend to be someone we’re not, by acting out a role, at work. We might consciously alter our personality in order to charm someone we meet. We might go to church trying to portray ourselves as outstanding Christians, knowing full well that it’s been months since we’ve picked up our Bibles, weeks since we prayed, and we have a particularly unrepentant attitude to our sin. When we live our lives like this, are we really any different to Jacob as he seeks to pull the wool over the eyes of his dying father?

Let’s pray today that we would be authentic in how we live our lives. Let’s ask God for forgiveness for when we’ve not been open and honest about our own failings and have tried to deceive people around us. And let’s ask God to bless us for who we are as we strive to live lives that honour him.