DAY 29: WHY DO DECEIVERS GET DECEIVED?

Alright, y'all. Here we are. Good morning at 4 a.m. for you. Good morning. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I don't know what bushy-tailed means. I know. I think it has to do with rabbits. Bunnies. Which I love bunnies. Yeah, man. We made it. We made it. Good lands. Has it been quite a week? Right? We have been all up in here. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. There he goes. Whoof. Rescued. That was close. I almost went off the screen. Yeah, man. Here we are. We're not playing around. Big stuff happening. Look, Sunday. Don't forget Sunday. Sunday at 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This is where we bring it all together for the week and give you a little teaser for the coming week. I hope you all have had a good week. I hope you've appreciated, not appreciated, or just been blessed by this week. We've handled some business. We've stood right up on some business. And had none of it been easy. And some of it was hard for me to deliver. This one, this one's no easier. But you know what? There's a lot of times a lot of drama in our lives. We're not trying to have drama, or are we? Some folks are addicted to drama. They're obsessed with it. I did a diagnosis in a white paper, well, several white papers, um, when I was in the field of psychology. And uh I coined a diagnosis called docs, D O C S, Dramatic Obsessive Compulsion Syndrome. That's where you're just addicted to drama. Just addicted. You're obsessed with it. So if there's not enough in your own life, here we go with something for you latch on to somebody else's. It's more complicated than that, but hey. Man, I'm glad y'all are here. We're gonna get on with this thing. What happens when the deceiver gets deceived? When the deceiver gets deceived. What happens when the man who dressed like his brother wakes up beside his wrong the wrong bride? That's an uncomfortable family dinner from here forward, folks. You wake up with the wrong bride. That's uncomfortable. That's an uncomfortable family dinners. Christmas dinner is gonna be different. Yankee exchange is gonna be different from here forward, forward, forward, forward. Good lands. What's gonna happen? What happens when the one who manipulated identity gets trapped by somebody else's manipulation? What goes around comes around. You ever hear that? You ever say it? That's Genesis 29. It's not just ancient family drama, it's a mirror. You know, a mirror. Because sometimes God doesn't expose our, I guess we'll call them patterns with a lecture. Sometimes he doesn't, hey, look here. This is what you're doing. Hey, look out for the consequences. Nope. Sometimes he lets us feel them. Remember what I've said in the past. I don't know if you remember half of what I say or not. I don't know. But I've said this probably a million times. In fact, I said it yesterday. We don't change when we see the light. We often change when we feel the flames of the torch all up on us. We don't change with the warning. No, we don't. No. No, we don't do that. Sometimes it takes the flame, takes the pain, the consequences, the consequences of our choices. You know, I gotta tell y'all, Jacob fooled his father in the darkness. Now Jacob gets. Now Jacob gets fooled in the dark. Jacob used clothing, assumption, and blindness to take what was absolutely not rightly his. Now Laban, for some reason, every time I read that word, for like 20 years, I always read it as Laban in that voice and in that face. Look, I know I don't have the prettiest face, but boy, can I make it ugly when I do my voices and all that, my little impressions and whatnot. It just gets uglier. Can you imagine? I stay away from mirrors. I have to cover my watch glass so I don't break it and sees my face. Good Lord. So now Laban uses custom. He uses nighttime darkness. Veiling. He uses assumption to take 14 years from Jacob. That's no small thing. 14 years? Think about 14 years out of your life. Think about where those 14 years might have come from. Early years, you're at your prime, you're clicking on all cylinders, or maybe it's the mid-years where you're starting to realize, uh-oh. I've made some choices and they have consequences. I don't know. I don't know your life, but maybe it's talking to you here. That's not con look, that's not coincidence. That this happened to Jacob. That's not coincidence, that's confrontation. That's mercy with teeth. Ooh, mercy with teeth, can you imagine? So we think mercy feels fluffy all the time, and it doesn't. Sometimes mercy doesn't feel fluffy. Sometimes mercy is consequences. Ask me how I know. Here's a question. You don't have to put it in the thing if you don't want to. I don't care. Nobody does, so why be the first one? Where is God letting you feel something? Not to destroy you, but to transform you. Ooh, you might want to write that down. Where is God letting you feel something? Not to destroy you, but to transform you. By the way, Joe, if you're listening, you coming to breakfast or what? Where is God letting you feel something? You don't want to feel it. That's what we do. We run from pain. We run from pain. In this world, we in this modern world, we don't want to feel pain. That's the last thing in the world we want to do. Right? We don't want to feel it. So what do we do? We we do things to numb it. We do things to numb it. Maybe that's alcohol. Drugs. Substance abuse. Maybe it's the P word. Maybe it's any number of things. We just hate pain. We don't want to feel pain. But what if? What if God is letting you feel some pain? Not to destroy you. He doesn't want to destroy you. That's never his objective. He wants to transform you. Mercy. Mercy with teeth. You ever hear that expression before? I don't know if I'm the first one or not. Mercy with teeth. I don't know. I wrote that and then I was like, hmm. I wonder if folks will know what I mean by that. Here's it. I guess it's simpler here. What has God used in your life to expose something that needed to change? Oh my lands, it needed to change. Maybe everybody around you saw that it needed to change. I don't know. Maybe it was something everybody else could see. And maybe you could see it too. You knew. You knew, oh, this has got to change. This has got to change. It's got to change. And maybe nobody else could see it. Right? I don't know. Maybe nobody else could see it. I don't, I don't know. You know. It's in your mind right now. You don't have to search. Hmm. I wonder what Dr. Sean is talking about here. I wonder what he could be referencing. Oh no, you know. You know. It's right in here. It's right in here. And some of it has been real hard stuff. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Welcome back to Through the Bible in a year. Walking the story of God. I'm Sean. Today we're walking through Genesis 29, 15 to 30. It's a rough one. It's ironic. But it's rough. So this episode is brought to you by my book. I'm telling you, don't buy it. Don't buy it. Don't buy it. It's only an excellent book that took years of my life to do, and it's textbook quality because I'm a glutton for excellence. And uh, is it perfect? No. Photo on the front is I took that shot. Took that. Back when I used to do photography. You know I used to be a photographier. Mm-hmm. I like it right well. But not there anymore. Hello, Thea Vault Dash D7Y1E Factuals. I like it. I like it. I'm putting it right on the screen. How do you like me now? Anyway, you can find that book, True Word and Faith for Life, at the bookstore at I don't know if you're going to get this connection, but TrueWordFaithforLife.com. Name of this show is True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I know, I know. I've made it super hard to remember. Look, that book is gonna help you, it's gonna help you live. I mean, if you read it, it's gonna help you live as a real disciple of Yeshua in the real world. By the way, I wrote it in big enough print and spread it out a little bit when we went to print with it. I did that for a reason. One, folks always complain the print on books is too small. Well, you know why it is? Because it costs less. Costs less if you make the print tiny tiny tiny and you squish them paint, you know, all the words in. That's that's how the book world works. You know, that's just what happens. That's just reality, right? Anyway. Here we go. Back at it. We gotta get on back at it. So today. Remember, Esau's gonna kill him. Esau was coming after his brother. Now look, there we go. Another death, another murder. It reads like some sort of appellation deal here. Like the Hatfields and McCoys, except it's just one family. Know what I mean? Thank you, Nicole. Look, he escaped his brother, who was gonna kill him and could kill him. Brother was tough and strong. Go back and listen to that episode. It's free. He left his father and his mother, and that is crushing. Oh, he had the blessing. We had the blessing for sure, for sure. But now he doesn't have his mother and father who he loved. And who he loves. Now he's met this sheep herding hottie named Rachel. Met her at the well on a hot day. I'm thirsty. You know, let me feed your sheep. Let me help you out. You know, solving a problem. His experience, well, he's he experienced what looks like providence. I'm not saying it wasn't. But now the real work begins. You know, stuff can look real good. Right on up front, right in front of your eyes. It can look good. Oh yeah. We're like, you remember in the cartoons when they do that, their eyes, they see something they like, their eyes pop out of their head and then they go back. That was me doing that, reenacting that. Listen, if you're listening on audio, audio only on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and any of the 27 others, you missed that cool thing that I just did. But you don't have to look at my ugly face. So, trade-offs. So this sheep hurting hottie, Rachel, looked like Providence, and probably was. By probably, I mean definitely. Sometimes Providence doesn't feel so good. Sometimes it doesn't. Working through Providence, I said yesterday, y'all. Sometimes the answer prayer, sometimes the mission of God, and by sometimes I mean pretty much all the time. It's hard. It's no easy, it's no easy path. I wish I could tell you that it was, but it's not. If I present it to you as the Christian, I say it all the time. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. People have confronted me on that and said, the mercy, grace, easier than the la la la. What's people trying to no? No, not true, not scriptural. Sorry. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I'm not the bunny of bad news, I'm the bearer of bad news. See if you get that in a second, joke grenade. But it's true. Sometimes doing the exact thing God tells you to do, sometimes, hey, look, sometimes, sometimes, hey Joe, you come to breakfast? There you are. Good to see you, brother. Love you, man. Look, some sometimes, and pretty much all the time, when we're in God's will, look, you turn your life away from some some way that you've been living. You don't suddenly become, your life is like this music in the background, and there's fluttering butterflies and hummingbirds dipping in on the beautiful flowers that are all around you. The butterflies lift you from one place to another. No, no, no. Real work begins. Nothing easy. Look, God isn't just moving Jacob geographically. God is shaping Jacob internally. You ever been there? Come on, somebody. Have you ever been there? You say, I gotta get out of this place. It's too hard here. I don't like it here. I don't want to feel what I'm feeling here. I don't want to be exposed to what I'm being exposed to here. Oh, that's right. Let's pray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for Joe and Miss Sherrill. We ask you for intervention. We ask you for answers. We ask you for relief from pain. We ask you for the very best in doctors, nurses, PAs, assistants, people that greet you at the door, all of it. We ask that you intervene. We pray, Heavenly Father, that answers would come and that you would bless this situation. Whatever your will is, we ask that you would anoint the whole situation. We know sometimes, in my case, no relief. But we thank you that you have imbued people, doctors, all of these people with incredible knowledge. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And we ask, Father, for your intervention. And Cheryl's, on Cheryl's behalf, we pray this in Yeshua, your son's name. Amen. Amen. Have you ever been? You get on up out of a situation. You get on up out of the situation. This bad situation. Maybe God moved you out of that situation. Maybe you thought, man, if I just get out of here, if I just get out of this place, if I just get out of this situation, all will be well. And God says, hey, go there. And you go. And it's no easier. It's no easier. You bet, brother. You bet. Give my best to your wife. Well you get to hear. Will you get to hear what what the results are? I'd love to tell you. I'd love to tell you that the instant you place your faith in Christ, everything's going to be easier. It'll be better. For show, for show. I'm testimony to that. And I'd love to tell you that magically you no longer have any desire for, although I know people like this, I know people like this. Who were addicted to whatever. You name it, I've counseled people who were addicted to everything you could be addicted to. Some of them, heroin, I mean hardcore. The instant she gave her life to Christ, poof. I mean, she was, she was on the streets, heroin addict, the one you see all looped over. Went from being a beautiful, beautiful girl, had a family, destroyed it. She's back with her family now. Husband divorced her, took the kids. Legally, she couldn't see her kids. She couldn't. Said, you're too dangerous. Rightly so. Someone doing the hard work of God, the hard mission of God, the not flashy, the kind of gross mission of God, walking those streets, dangerous. They went street to street, feeding people. In the deep, deepest throes of addiction. For whatever reason. The reason doesn't matter right now. And this man comes along, he's not fancy, he's not rich. His wife and him would make sandwiches at home, cut them in quarters, put them in baggies, put a little card in there telling them how Jesus loves them. And if they turn their life over, he'll heal her. He'll heal him. The wife and him get out of the car, scared to death. In a bad place. People go there and don't come out. Saw this girl and took sandwiches and you know she put together these feminine kits. I don't know. I don't need to know what all was in them. It's none of my business. But and she walks over to this girl and she leans down because she's all bent over. She's just coming out of a real deep, real deep high. She looks horrible. Smells horrible. My buddy says to her, he said, I've never done it. I don't know why I did it. I don't know why I did it. I said to her, Stand up straight. Rise in the face of God. Jesus Christ. He's healing you. Turn your life over to him. He never said that before. His wife was stunned. Theologically, you know, he was in dangerous ground. He said, I don't know why. I don't know why I said it. She turned at him literally and went, say what? I mean, she knew God could do a miracle. The woman stood up. She was bobbing and weaving, you know, because she's high as a kite. Face all bleeding and rough. And he said, Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Yes. Have you ever placed your faith in him? He doesn't want me. No. Yes, he does. He does want you right now. Place your faith in him right now. I don't know how. I'm a horrible person. I have kids that have been taken away from me. My husband's divorced me. I don't blame him. I've stolen from every person in my family. I understand. No, you don't. You don't understand. Nobody would have anything to do with me. Least of all them. Place your faith in Christ right now. Do it. Pray with me. And mean it. And she prayed. She states very clearly, she said, you know, I had been shooting up multiple times a day, stealing, boosting, pickpocketing, working the streets, if you know what I'm saying. I was so addicted. I couldn't get away from it. I wanted to. I wanted to. I didn't I didn't want to be in that life. The life disgusted me. And she said, I prayed that prayer. I had no further desire. I don't know if you know, but heroin is super hard to kick. They tell me only uh fentanyl is harder. I've had medical fentanyl during my crash, and I can tell you it's an amazing drug, but boy, misused. Good lord. But you know what? She did kick immediately, miraculously. And light didn't shine down on her, and suddenly she was healed of all of her sores, and she had literally open, open wounds. It's disgusting. Flies all over my hey, look, it was gross. All of that didn't heal right away. And she had to go through some hard things. They found her a bed. She got some good meals in her. She went to some groups. She wanted to contact her husband right away and tell him. And they said, no, no, no. You wait a little bit. Wait a little bit. Let's get you a little bit better first. And then you call them. Maybe send them a letter or a card. So she went with the card. It was smart. It was wise that they did that. She wasn't even allowed to contact them. I mean, she had stolen everything. She'd hawked everything of value. She'd broke into the house several times. Court ordered. Nope. Couldn't even go near her kids' schools. So she took a risk and she sent the card. And they took a little one of them little Polaroids of her and put them in there. And he saw the picture. And he said, that looks like a different person. That doesn't look like the last time she got locked up and called me from lockup. And I went down there and I saw her. I smelled her. It was gross. I took her some clothes and he said I went to court and I said, that's it. We gotta, she cannot contact us. And the court granted it and took custody away, any custody. But something in that picture connected him. By the way, he wasn't a believer either. I mean, he believed, but never placed his faith in Christ. He saw the picture. And immediately he turned his eyes toward heaven, fell right down on his knees. He raised his hands, didn't go to church. He didn't know the moves, and raised his hands and said, Thank you, God. He didn't know the exact prayer to pray because there's no exact prayer, but he knew. Suddenly humility hit him. Humility out of nowhere hit him. And he said, I've been judging her. Horribly. I did what I had to do, and I understand I can't have danger around my children. She was most assuredly an unfit mother. He didn't know what to do next, but he said, I believe in you. If you can do this, you are God. You're the miracle maker. And little by little they got back together. Court said, Yeah. Supervised. You can see your children. They couldn't believe it either. They were little. They couldn't believe it. You look like mama. One of them said. And she said, I am your mama. They couldn't believe it. And they are all back together. I've seen it. I've seen the miracles happen in people. I have. But it doesn't always happen that way. God wasn't just moving Jacob geographically. God was shaping Jacob internally. And sometimes that doesn't feel good. Can you identify? Genesis tells Jacob, it tells us, Genesis, the book of Genesis tells us that Jacob stayed with Laban for a month. So then the scripture says this to us. Laban says, Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be? Wow! Because he was serving him for nothing and didn't ask for nothing. Not a penny, not a dime, not a shekel. That sounds super generous. It sounds very fair, it sounds like family. But listen carefully. This is Laban, and Laban is a skilled negotiator. Now, for the 1742nd time, I'm gonna say it again, 1743. In the ancient Near Eastern world, labor, marriage, kinship, and household survival, they were all woven together. This wasn't speed dating on Tinder. This wasn't romance floating in the air with soft music behind it. This was family economy. This was covenant obligation. This was household strategy. And Jacob, the man who was so clever in his father's tent, is now standing in the tent of someone even more calculating. Can you imagine? Oof. Can you imagine? How must have that felt? Someone even more calculating than him. I mean, are you hearing me? That'll preach all by itself. Sometimes the manipulator eventually meets a better manipulator. It's like I say, never think you're the toughest or smartest or best looking person in a room. Someone more, whatever, than you will come along. That's for sure. Then the Bible introduces the two daughters, Leah and Rachel. The text says Leah's eyes were weak. This means it's tender or delicate. Depending on how you understand the Hebrew. Sometimes the words didn't, you know, didn't get translated exactly perfectly. So that's where we come in. I'm just trying to help you understand. So it doesn't necessarily mean she was ugly. It's often interpreted that way, but it's it doesn't necessarily mean that. That's often read into the passage way too quickly, but the contrast is clear. Rachel is described as beautiful in form and appearance. Well, that's pretty clear. Jacob sees Rachel. Jacob loves Rachel. Jacob wants Rachel. Hubba Hubba. And from that moment, Leah becomes the woman standing in the shadow of someone else's desire. Don't rush past that. That's something right there. Because Genesis isn't just telling us about Jacob's pain. It's also quietly showing us Leah's pain. Maybe you can identify. Have you ever been the person in the shadow of another person? Look, Leah's not a prop, she's not a punchline, she's a woman caught in a system used by her father, unloved by her husband, and still seen by God. That matters. Oh, that matters because in this chapter, almost everyone is trying to get what they want. But God sees the one nobody wants. Maybe you feel like you're the person that nobody wants. You know your life. I don't. Jacob offers seven years of service for Rachel. Seven years. Seven years. He says delay, but I'll give you seven years of my life working for you. But I want your daughter. Seven years. That's not casual. That's sacrifice. That's sweat. That's delayed gratification, if you know what I'm saying, because there's some things he didn't get to do. That's a man saying, look, I'll work, I'll wait, I'll pay the price. And Laban agrees. He says, it's better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man. Stay with me. Sounds like an agreement to me. How about you? But notice what Laban doesn't clearly say. He doesn't say, yes, I give you Rachel after seven years. He leaves just enough room for later. Some people don't lie by denying the truth. They lie by leaving the truth unclear. They lie by leaving it ambiguous. And they leave look, they use ambiguity, ambiguity as a weapon. They let you think one thing while they plan another. That's Laban. You know people like that. Listen, you might be a person like that. You're not doomed to continue on that path. But that's Laban, and Jacob doesn't see it yet. He doesn't realize he's all happy. Then comes one of the most tender lines in the chapter. The seven years seemed to Jacob but a few days because of the love he had for Rachel. That's beautiful. Time flew. Because he had so much love for her. That's beautiful, but it's also very dangerous because desire can make time feel short. Desire can also make discernment weak. When you want something badly enough, when you want something badly enough, you can stop. Sometimes you stop asking the hard questions. Like, I want that. Well, then what about this and this? Have you considered this? Oh, I don't want to hear that. Somebody said one time, look, I'm going to get married to this person. I don't want any questions to their closest friends. I don't want any questions. Don't ask me any questions about him, about this, about anything. Don't ask any questions. Just go along with it. That didn't turn out well. God bless her. She's a precious human being. Horrific choice. And it had consequences. Look, when your heart is locked on to Rachel, you may not notice Laban. That's real life. People miss red flags all the time because they're staring at what they want. They ignore patterns because desires louder than wisdom can anyone identify. They call it faith, but sometimes it's just emotional momentum with Bible words wrapped all up on it. Jacob wants Rachel, and Laban knows it. Oh yeah. When the seven years are finished, Jacob says, Give me my wife that I may go into her. And go into her means what you think it means. He is to the point. That's expectation. Jacob has fulfilled the agreement in full. The price has been paid in full. The day has come. So Laban gathers the people and he makes a feast and everything looks right. Oh man. Celebration is public. The household is involved. The wedding customs are moving forward, but then the night comes. And in the evening, Laban takes Leah and brings her to Jacob. Leah. What? Hold on, what? Laban takes Leah and brings her to Jacob, and Jacob goes into her, and yeah, that means what you think it means. The Bible's quiet here, but the silence is heavy. Night, veil, feast, assumption, custom, desire. All of it hides the truth until morning. And then comes one of the most devastating little phrases in Genesis. It was morning, behold, it was Leah. Let that land. In the morning it was Leah. The deceiver wakes up deceived. The man who used disguise is undone by another man using disguise. The man who took advantage of his father's blindness blindness is now blinded by night, veiling, and expectation. The man who pretended to be the older brother is now the older, now the older daughter must come first. That's not random. That's not poetic irony. That's the mirror of God. God is letting Jacob feel the weight of his own pattern, not because God hates Jacob. Look, God is extremely patient with Jacob because God intends to transform him. That's the part. Look, that's the part we struggle to accept. We want God to bless our future while ignoring our patterns. We want God to open doors while leaving our character untouched. We want destiny without discipline. We want calling without correction. We want promise without pruning. But God loves us too much to let the old us carry. What only the transformed us can carry. What only the transformed us can steward? Jacob confronts Laban and says, What is this you've done to me? What is this you've done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Have you deceived me? Why have you deceived me? Can you hear it? Can you feel the echo, echo, echo, echo? Jacob said, Why have you deceived me? Isaac could have asked Jacob the same question. Esau could have asked Jacob the same question twice. And now Jacob hears his own sin coming back through his own mouth. Have you ever been there? I have. That is a frightening grace. Sometimes the sentence that exposes us is the sentence we say about someone else. How could they do that? How could they lie? How could they manipulate? How could they use me? And the Holy Spirit whispers, Now you understand. Now you understand. Not to crush you, but to wake you up. We don't change when we see the light. We change when we feel the pain of the torch. That gives the light. God whispers to us in our pleasure, and he shouts to us in our pain. Laban answers, it is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. There it is. There it is. The younger before the firstborn. Jacob spent his life wrestling with the question of the firstborn. He came out grabbing Esau's heel. He bought the birthright. He stole the blessing. He dressed like the older son. He received what was connected to the firstborn. And now Laban says, not here. That's not how we roll up in here. The older comes first. This is reversal. This is exposure. This is God's providence operating through Laban's manipulation. God isn't approving of Laban's deceit.

No.

Not one bit. Not one bit. But God is using the moment to reveal Jacob's heart, and that's important. Because God can use what he doesn't endorse to shape what he intends. Hear that again. God can use what he doesn't endorse to shape what he intends. Listen, throw rocks at people, throw rocks at me if you want. Throw rocks at my past, you say, oh, you're a bad person. Okay. And God can use what he doesn't endorse. And he didn't endorse me for a long time. But he shaped me. And he's shaping me. Ouch. Did the same thing with Jacob. Maybe you can identify. I don't know. I don't know your life. Then Laban offers the deal. He does. He offers this deal because you know there's something, there's a deal in there. Complete Leah's bridal week, and Rachel will be given also in exchange for another seven years. Fourteen years of his life. Fourteen years of his. He'd just done seven. Jacob wanted one woman. One. And now the cost is doubled. Sin always does that. Sin always does that. Manipulation always does that. Deception always does that. It may look cheap at the beginning, but the bill comes later with interest. And yet Jacob agrees. Can you imagine how complicated that household became? He loved Rachel so much. He was willing to deal with it. He completes the week with Leah. And by completes the week, yeah. Then he receives Rachel, but the fracture is now inside the family. He loves Rachel more than Leah. And it's obvious. He never loved Leah. And look, don't throw rocks at Leah. Don't throw rocks at her. She was desperate. Nobody was going to marry her. Nobody was going to offer their hand. Nobody was going to offer Laban, her father, anything for her. They weren't. For whatever reason. He loves Rachel more than Leah. And that one sentence opens the door to rivalry, pain, insecurity, competition, and generational wounds. When sin enters a household, it rarely stays in one room. It walks through the family, touches the children, shapes the atmosphere, it rewrites the emotional temperature of the home. That's why Genesis slows down here. Because covenant doesn't happen in theory. Covenant gets lived out in families and kitchens, bedrooms, negotiations, favoritism, wounds, and consequences. So what is God doing with Jacob? Well, he's forming him. Jacob has been a grasper, a strategist, a controller, a conniver, a man who knew how to survive by working the angles. He was kind of a used car salesman, nothing against used car salespeople, because some of the best people I know in the world, some of the most principled people in the world. But you get the analogy here. Always making deals. But God is shaping Jacob into Israel. And Israel can't be built on the old Jacob untouched, no. Israel can't be built on the old Jacob untouched. That's the message. Couldn't be built on the old Sean untouched. Put your name in there if you want. That's the message. God doesn't just want you out of trouble. He wants to get the trouble out of you. I want you to think right now who you can share this with, that you know is going through this. Share it with them. At the end of the broadcast, share the link. Stop talking about you want to help the person. Give them something that will help them. It's up to them what they do with it. God doesn't want to, he just, God doesn't just want to change your circumstances. He wants to change the person walking through them. God doesn't just want you blessed. Oh, I'm blessed. I'm blessed. You know, are you formed? Now, be careful here. Be careful. This doesn't mean every painful thing in your life is payback. People said to me all the time, after my crash, after what all of what I've been through in my life, I didn't die and stay dead. And then the crash happens, which is crazy. All the stuff I've survived in my life, crash happens 92 miles per hour versus 51 head on. I went from 51 to zero and seven feet, trapped in a space of eight inches. Spinal cord injury, brain injury, horrific injuries. Changed the rest of my life. Made the rest of my life in every day with pain. I don't say that for you to feel sorry for me. That's not my intent at all. But they say, aren't you mad at God? I said, I got what was coming to me. They said, Oh, God doesn't work that way. That's not what the Bible says. Sometimes folks don't know what the Bible says. So they just say what seems to sound good in our modern age. Make God look better. But Jesus came. We don't have to have that anymore. Sometimes we pay. That doesn't mean that my crash was payback for me. Not everything, not every painful thing. Not every painful thing is payback. Don't flatten the Bible into that. It's much deeper than that. Not every wound is because you did the same thing to somebody else. It's not. Sometimes he spares us from every bit of pain. The woman I told you about, horribly addicted to heroin. Run in the streets. You would not recognize her. You wouldn't. Her own child couldn't believe. None of her children wanted anything to do with her. They loved her, but they couldn't stand what she did to the family. She betrayed them over a drug. Can't blame those kids. You can't blame that husband. Can't blame all the friends she lost. She was healed, but it was a long road back, and there was a lot of pain. Trust had to be rebuilt. It's not. But Genesis does show us a principle here. God won't leave our patterns untouched. He won't. He'll expose what we excuse. He'll confront what we keep hiding. He'll bring into the light what we keep managing in the dark. And when he does, it's mercy. Oh, severe mercy. Mercy with teeth. Maybe. Painful mercy, yes. But mercy still. Because exposure isn't the enemy. Unrepentant darkness is. This is where we see the hope of Yeshua. Jacob is transformed through consequence. Yeshua walks in perfect obedience. Jacob deceives and must be refined. Jesus is truth in human flesh. Jacob wakes up to the cost of deception. Yeshua wakes the dead by the power of his word. Just his word. Jacob's story shows us the need for transformation. Yeshua brings the transformation of. Look, you don't want to read this. I know you don't. Because of what it means for you. I know. I get it. Yeshua brings transformation that Jacob could never create for himself. That's the gospel in the shadow of Genesis. God doesn't abandon broken people. He confronts them. He calls them. He shapes them. And he brings redemption through a story far bigger than their failure. So here's the question. Where is God exposing a pattern in you? Where are you angry at a situation because it's revealing something you don't want to face? Where are you asking God to change the people around you while he's asking to change the heart inside you? That's not condemnation. That's invitation. Because the pain God uses to expose you may become the grace God uses to heal you. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. Here's the challenge. Stop calling every painful exposure an attack. Sometimes it's refinement. Stop calling every painful exposure the enemy. Sometimes it's not the enemy. Sometimes it's refinement. Stop assuming every reversal means God has left you. Sometimes it means God is loving you too deeply to leave you unchanged. Stop asking, why did this happen to me? Start asking, Lord, what are you revealing in me? Here's the choice. You can blame Laban and never face Jacob. You can rage at the situation and never examine the pattern. You can stay wounded, defensive, angry. Or you can let God use the mirror. Come on, look in the mirror. Let him expose what's crooked. Let him touch what's hidden. Let him form what's immature. Let him let him make you whole. Jesus didn't go to the cross, suffer such horrific torture for you to stay in your pain, to stay in your addiction, to stay in your sorrow, to stay in your in your patterns that are destroying. God isn't just moving you forward. He's shaping the person who has to walk into that future. Hear it again. God isn't just moving your life forward. He's shaping the person who has to walk into that future. Pray this simply. Lord, show me what needs to change in me. Show me what needs to change in me. Teach me through what I'm experiencing. Don't let me waste the lesson. Shape me into who you're calling me to be. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. If you've never placed your faith in Christ, don't wait a day. Don't wait a minute longer. Don't say I'm gonna get to this later. Father, I know I've done wrong things. And I need your mercy. I believe Jesus died for me, was buried, and rose again. I turn from my sin. I turn from my hurts and my habits and my hang ups, and I place my trust in Him as Lord, my Lord and my King. Please forgive me, make me new, and fill me with your Spirit from this day forward. I want to follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Wow. If you prayed that prayer, I want you to hear me clearly on this. You aren't alone. You'll feel alone, but you aren't alone. Reach out to me through true wordfaithforlife.com slash contact or click on the little banner thing on the right. Yeah, you can leave me a voicemail. It's two minutes. It's your two minutes. Use it wisely. It doesn't cost you a dime. I pay for it so you don't have to. Or you can do the contact thing and type it out. It's up to you. I will personally help you take your next steps. I'll walk with you in the way. All you need to do is ask. God isn't just moving your life forward. He's shaking, he's shaping your heart. He look, what feels like reversal may actually be refinement. You may say, oh, this is so painful, but you're being refined. What feels like exposure may actually be mercy. And what God reveals He's willing to redeem. If this message touched your heart, share it. Share it. Share the link. I don't know what more I can say about it. But if you're not sharing it, and if it blessed you, you gotta ask yourself, why? Why am I not? Until Sunday at 6.30 p.m. where we wrap this whole week up. It's not gonna be just a casual wrap-up either, as you might imagine. Till Sunday, this Sunday at 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I know, it's Mother's Day. Till then. Shalom Bishem Yeshua. Shabbat Shalom.