Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What is the Greatest Threat to Your Life? | Torah | Genesis 30

Episode Date: March 17, 2022

Do you focus on fixing problems that threaten your life, or fixing problems that promise to give you what you want? In today's episode, Patrick looks at Genesis 30:25-41 to understand how God is trying to wake us up to the true threats in our lives.   Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks.   Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here.   Passages: Genesis 30:25-41 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. In World War II, the United States began to use air power for the first time in its history. They were mass producing a large number of both small and large planes for use in war. And because it was all new, they weren't sure about the best ways to produce the planes that they were making. And so to this end, every time a plane returned from a mission, the crew would inspect the plane's body thoroughly. And they were looking for every single spot that a bullet hit the plane.

They would take notes on where those spots were, and they would send them back to the manufacturers. The manufacturers, they would reinforce all the areas where the bullets hit. And so the logic was pretty straightforward. By reinforcing where bullets were hitting, they would protect planes from falling. And while that might sound like a great plan, there was one big problem with it. Do you see what it is? The soldiers, they could only analyze the planes that returned safely. In other words, all of these manufacturers were reinforcing the areas which, when they were shot,

actually didn't take the plane down. To know the right areas to reinforce, they would need to inspect the planes that the bullets actually destroyed. But of course, that was impossible. They were paying attention to the wrong things. They were missing what was most deadly. It's easy to do the exact same thing in your life, to miss what's true. deadly for your well-being, for your journey with God, to get fixated on the wrong things.

And this can even happen when God puts the deadly thing right in front of our face. We can't ignore it. We can miss it. In Genesis 30, we continue Jacob's story. And up to this point, we already know that Jacob is a chronic deceiver, a chronic trickster. His lies cost him, his relationship with his brother and his father. They almost cost him his life. And they end up costing him decades of time and service to his uncle.

Laban. But as Jacob learned that the deepest threat to his life is constant deception? Of course he hasn't. Instead, Jacob is fixated on growing his wealth, his power, and his influence. Jacob thinks that the greatest threat to his life is being poor and powerless. But that's not true. The greatest threat in his life is his own lies, his own constant practice of deceiving other people. Thankfully, God hasn't let Jacob go. To help Jacob see the bullet holes that could actually destroy his plane, he puts Jacob face to face with another deceiver. He introduces Jacob to Laban. And the reason is so that Jacob can see through Laban the cost of deception, the costs of lies. Laban tricks and deceives Jacob. And Jacob returns the favor.

And in this back and forth between the two of them, Jacob is beginning to be forced to see how deception tears apart families, tears apart Shalom, tears apart goodness. Let's pick up the story in Genesis 30. after Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Send me on my way so that I can go back to my own homeland. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I've done for you. But Laban said to him, if I found favor in your eyes, please stay. I've learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.

He added, name your wages and I will pay them. Jacob said to him, you know how I've worked for you and how your livestock have fared under my care. The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household? What shall I give you? said Laban. Don't give me anything, Jacob replied. But if you'll just do this one thing for me, I'll go on tending your flocks and watching over them. Let me go through all your flocks today, and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. And my honesty will testify for me in the future.

Whenever you check on the wages that you have paid me, any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark colored, it will be considered stolen. Okay, so let's just pause. This whole story is a little bit funny. Jacob keeps telling Laban, look, I don't want anything other than my wives and my kids, but this is really a small lie. He's buttering Laban up so that Laban will keep pressing into him and saying, okay, what do you really want, though? What do you really want? And when Laban does this, you see what happens. Jacob asks for the thing that he thinks he needs. He asks for the thing that he thinks is threatening his life. He tells Laban, give me some wealth, give me some property, give me some of the sheep and the

goats, and then I'll be okay. Because Jacob doesn't think that the greatest threat to his lies are the deception, the lies, all of that. No, he thinks the greatest threat is poverty. And so he's going to try and lie and deceive his way into making Laban give him what he thinks he needs to make it. Now, we have to pause and remember here, because maybe we feel a bit bad for Jacob. Jacob agreed to be a day laborer. Laban never told Jacob that he was going to earn a flock out of the deal. Jacob is asking for a lot more than Laban ever offered or what he should have expected. But let's keep going. Genesis 30 verse 34. Laban agreed to Jacob's proposal. Let it be as you have said, said Laban. That same day, Laban removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted,

and all the speckled or spotted female goats, and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the cares of his son. So let's pause for a second and explain what's happening here. Laban is supposed to give all of the spotted and dark-colored lambs and goats to Jacob. Jacob's about to go through the flock to claim them for himself. But before Jacob can do that, what does Laban do? He hides them all. He gives them all to his own sons. In other words, Laban is tricking Jacob. Laban is lying to Jacob. Laban is doing the very thing to Jacob that Jacob needs to see in himself. Let's pick up in verse 36.

Then Laban put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks. So Laban agrees to Jacob's terms, but then he lies to Jacob. He tricks Jacob, and you can see what God is doing right now. He's saying to Jacob, you think you need wealth. You think you need power. But poverty isn't the thing that's going to shoot down your plane. It's the very thing that I'm trying to show you through Laban.

It's deception. It's lying. God is asking Jacob, will you go on deceiving? Will you go on lying? Will you go on leaving a wreckage behind you by saying whatever you need to say to get whatever it is you think you want? Unfortunately, for now, Jacob's answer is yes. I'll say whatever I need to say to get whatever it is I think that I want. He responds to Laban, not by calling him out and saying, hey, you've done something wrong.

No, he responds in turn. He starts to deceive and lie his way into taking back what he thinks is his. He begins to manipulate the flock's breeding so that they end up producing more spotted lambs, more dark colored lambs. And he makes sure that the ones that are breeding these lambs and goats, that they're the strongest ones in the flock. In other words, he's trying to take the strongest part of the flock that's left for himself and only give the weaker portion of it back to Laban.

Now, we have to keep in mind, this isn't the end of Jacob's story. God isn't done with him yet. And yet for now, I just want to ask you a question. What do you think you need to make it? Is it the same thing God thinks you need to make it? We spend so much time reinforcing the places in our lives that give us what we think we need. Maybe it's success, control, reputation, prestige, comfort, peace, pleasure, wealth, entertainment, freedom. I don't know what it is for you, but you know what it is. But those aren't the things

that we really need. You can lose any of those things without sending your life cascading into flames to the ground. What you really need is Jesus. What we really need is his life-giving love, his power, his presence. The thing that can take you down in your life isn't losing success, control, reputation, prestige, power, comfort, whatever it is you think you need. That's not the thing that can take you down. The thing that can take you down in your life is whatever convinces you to walk away from him is whatever puts a barrier between you and him. The greatest threat to your life might very well be pursuing the thing that you think you need. God is trying to show you the true threat to your life some way, somehow, right now, deep down, you know it. Even if you're terrified to admit it,

you know what it is. So I challenge you today. Lay it before God. Confess it. Don't follow in Jacob's path. Don't let your life get within an inch of destruction. Do the painful work of denying yourself right now, knowing that in Jesus there is forgiveness and life on the other side of that small personal death. Ask God for the grace to be honest to stop the self-deceptions about how you're doing and to lay it all before him. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter.

Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email. every Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.