In Genesis 29, Jacob, the heel grabber, falls head over heels in love with beautiful, brave and brainy Rachel. However, on their wedding night her father Laban brings older sister less than lovely Leah to Jacob. In the morning, “Behold, it is Leah.” A week later, for another seven years of work, Laban gives beautiful Rachel to Jacob.
Leah has been used as a pawn by her father. She is not loved by her husband. Finally, the Lord emerges in the story. God enables Leah to bear four sons. The fourth is Judah, the father of the tribe of Judah. Much later our Lord Jesus Christ is born, a descendant of Judah.
God worked through deception to bring about our salvation. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Two false witnesses gave the chief priests and council reason to declares, “He deserves death.” Pilate declared Jesus innocent, washed his hands of the whole affair, but still delivered him to be crucified. Through faith in Jesus we too are descendants of Jacob and Leah and members of the tribe of Judah.
God cannot be separated from his promises; therefore, nothing in all creation, not even human deception, “is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
By Rev. Ronald Jansen
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