After many years of living with Laban and his family the
Lord speaks to Jacob and says, go home and I will be with you. When Jacob tells the story to his wives,
Laban's daughters, the dream is embellished a good bit. We skipped over the last part of chapter 30
without reading it and in those omitted verses we find a different story for
the striped sheep. Jacob requested his
wages in order that he might leave Laban's service. Laban says that he has learned "by
divination" that the Lord has blessed him because of Jacob. Jacob asked for the imperfect sheep and
goats, striped, spotted, mottled, from the flocks and herds of Laban who agrees
and then removes those animals three days journey away. Jacob then contrives a means whereby the
remaining animals will produce these imperfect babies. When he tells the story to Rachel and Leah,
it seems as though it was simply an act of God that produced these
animals. Apparently the daughters of
Laban have as little respect for him as Jacob does, they are perfectly willing
to leave home behind and go wherever Jacob wants to go. Rachel steals her father's household gods and
Jacob omits to tell his father-in-law good-bye and everyone heads out secure
that they have at least a three day's head start. Laban, unencumbered by the large retinue of
people and flocks Jacob has in tow, catches up with them but the Lord warned
him in a dream to be careful in these dealings.
Why are the parents of the man born blind so careful in
their response to the Pharisees? They
were afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue, the punishment for speaking
well of Jesus. He restored the sight of their
son, apparently they still needed to have their own eyes opened if they were
afraid of the Jews who had never healed this blindness. Why are the leaders so interested in getting
to the bottom of this matter that they continue to question the man? They have determined that Jesus is a sinner
but they don’t know where He comes from.
The man is absolutely sure that all that has happened is proof Jesus
isn't a sinner, God had never done such a thing before so wouldn't that
indicated Jesus was righteous. As for
where He comes from it would seem apparent also that He comes from God if He is
able to do this thing. This man sees
more than anyone else in the scene. The
only response they make, "You were born in utter sin." Just what the disciples asked Jesus at the
beginning of the encounter. Jesus
confirms this man has true sight while everyone else is spiritually blind, they
see without seeing.
The world is full of sin.
We are full of sin, our real problem is we are so accustomed to sin and
know so little of holiness that we see only a small percentage of the sin God
sees. We need our blindness healed in
this regard if we are to make any real progress in becoming like Him, walking
as He walked. Athletes tend to watch
film of everything they do, golfers watch video of their swing, as do baseball
hitters, pitchers watch themselves throwing, football players are graded on
performance. The purpose of this study
is to break down the mechanics and determine where the flaws are. If we could see our lives through such a lens
and match it against His life we might see then what we need to see. Prayer and study make that a
possibility. We need not wander through
life as Jacob did, making the same mistakes over and again. We need sight like the blind man, sight with
discernment. The place to start, John
says, is loving one another. If we can
move in that direction we will be moving in the right direction.
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