Lauri Johnson of Hudsonville, Michigan, talks about a wonderful afternoon her two sons, 12-year-old Matthew and 6-year-old Ryan, spent with her parents recently. When they were ready to leave, Matthew’s grandpa said to him, “You made my day.”
Matthew replied, “God made your day; we just put the icing on it.” (Lauri Johnson, Hudsonville, Michigan; www.PreachingToday.com)
How true that is! God makes our day every day! Whether or not we enjoy it depends on our attitude.
Do we want to put the icing on all our days? Do we want to enjoy each one God gives to us? Then let’s learn some lessons from the life of Jacob.
Last time, before the Christmas season, we left him in the wilderness scared and running away from home, because his brother had threatened to kill him. That’s where God met with him and promised to bless him. Today, we pick up the story where he arrives at his destination and God begins to fulfill that promise.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 29, Genesis 29, where we see God making Jacob’s day.
Genesis 29:1 Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. (NIV)
The Hebrew literally says, “Jacob picked up his feet and came to the land of the eastern peoples.” Jacob has just met with God. His heavy burden has been lifted, and now he is walking with a lighter step. His fear has been turned to joy, and he can’t wait to see what God has for him in this “land of the eastern peoples.”
Genesis 29:2 There he saw a well in the field, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large (i.e., too large for one average man to move). (NIV)
Genesis 29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well. (NIV)
They had to wait for everybody to get there, because it took more than one man to move the stone.
Genesis 29:4-6 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Haran,” they replied. He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?” “Yes, we know him,” they answered. Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?” “Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” (NIV)
Isn’t that amazing? Jacob just happens to run into some shepherds who are from Haran, the town he was told to find (Genesis 27:43; 28:2). They just happen to know Laban, the man he is looking for, and he just happens to run into his future wife.
What a coincidence! Right? Oh no! You and I both know that God was directing Jacob’s steps. God had providentially brought Jacob to the place He wanted him to be, and Jacob is wild with excitement.
Genesis 29:7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.” (NIV)
In other words, “Get done what you came to do and get out of here.” You see, Jacob wants to meet the girl without an audience, but these shepherds are not about to miss the show.
Genesis 29:8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.” (NIV)
They know Jacob is mesmerized by the girl coming down the path, and they’re not about to miss out on this budding romance. It’s probably the most exciting thing they’ve seen in months.
Genesis 29:9-10 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. (NIV)
All by himself, Jacob moves the stone that most men couldn’t move by themselves. What’s he doing? Isn’t it obvious? He’s trying to impress the girl with his strength. Jacob is in love!
Genesis 29:11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. (NIV)
Now, the kiss was probably a customary greeting, but the loud weeping was from a man overcome with emotion.
Genesis 29:12-14a He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father. As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.” (NIV)
God is beginning to bless Jacob just as He promised. Laban welcomes Jacob into his home, and Jacob is overwhelmed with joy. He is overcome with emotion at God’s providence in bringing him safely to his uncle’s home and to his future wife.
Jacob is enjoying god’s good gifts, and that’s what we must do if we want to put the icing on the days God makes for us. We must decide to…
ENJOY GOD’S DELIGHTS.
We must choose to find joy in God’s good gifts to us every day. We must elect to take pleasure in His gracious generosity.
In his book Pure Pleasure, Gary Thomas talks about walking through a McDonald’s restaurant where he saw eight ten-year-old girls celebrating a birthday. He writes: “The warmth of sheer, unadulterated happiness permeated the gathering.
“It was as if a light had been turned on,” he says, “and I could see God’s delight. God felt happy that these girls were happy. Their delight, their joy, even their giddiness, gave God great pleasure. Have you ever thought about that – that you can give God great pleasure by enjoying yourself?” (Gary Thomas, "Let’s Play," Men of Integrity, January/February 2011; www.PreachingToday.com)
Just think of your children or grandchildren tearing into their presents on Christmas morning. Did anything make you happier?
You see, God is delighted when we’re delighted with his good gifts. The problem is we don’t always appreciate what he has given us. Instead, we tend to complain about what we DON’T have, rather than enjoy what we DO have.
Just a few years ago, Professor Vicki Medvec completed a fascinating study on Olympic silver and bronze medalists. You’d think the silver medalists would be happier than the bronze medalists, but Medvec found just the opposite to be true. She discovered that bronze medalists were quantifiably happier than silver medalists. That’s because silver medalists tended to focus on how close they came to winning gold, so they weren’t satisfied with silver. On the other hand, bronze medalists tended to focus on how close they came to not winning a medal at all, so they were just as happy to be on the medal stand. (Mark Batterson, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Multnomah, 2006, p. 68; www. PreachingToday.com)
Where is YOUR focus – on what God has given you or on what you didn’t get?
A couple of years ago (2009), guest comedian, Louis C.K., was on Conan O’Brien’s late night talk show. On the show, he talked about how he was on a plane that offered in-flight WiFi access to the Internet, one of the first planes to do so. But when it broke down in a few minutes, the man sitting next to him swore in disgust. Louis was amazed, and said to O’Brien, “How quickly the world owes him something that he didn’t know existed 10 seconds ago.”
Louis then talked about how many of us describe less-than-perfect airline flights as if they were experiences from a horror film: “It was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn’t board for 20 minutes! And then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the runway for 40 minutes!”
Then he said mockingly, “Oh really? Did you fly through the air incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight? … Everybody on every plane should be going, ‘O wow!’ … You’re sitting in a chair in the sky!" And then he mocks a passenger who, trying to push his seat back, complains, “It doesn’t go back a lot!” (Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy, YouTube.com, added 2-24-09; www.PreachingToday. com)
Bob Russell, pastor and author says, “It is a rare person who, when his cup frequently runs over, can thank God instead of complaining about the limited size of his mug!” (Men of Integrity, Nov/Dec 2008; www.PreachingToday.com)
How about you? How about me? If we’re going to put the icing on the days God makes for us, we must choose to appreciate His good gifts given to us every day. Don’t complain about what you DON’T have. Instead, enjoy what you DO have.
If you have trusted Christ with your life, just like Jacob, you have the blessing of divine providence – God directs your every step. You have the blessing of divine protection – God delivers you from any real harm, for even death is but an entrance into heaven, and you have the blessing of His divine presence – He delights you with Himself.
We have so many good gifts from God’s hand Himself, so let’s choose joy instead of sorrow. Let’s choose gratitude instead of grumbling. If we want to enjoy life, choose to enjoy God’s delights. Then learn to…)
EMPRACE GOD’S DISCIPLINE.
Welcome even the pain God brings into our lives. Appreciate even the rough times God brings to smooth out the rough edges of our character. You see, not everything in life is delightful. Some things are difficult, but even those things God has designed for our good to improve our character. That’s a lesson Jacob has to learn in Laban’s house.
Genesis 29:14b-20 After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.” Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. (NIV)
Laban makes a deal with Jacob, and it’s a great deal for both of them. Jacob gets time for his brother to cool off back home. He gets free room and board for seven years, and he gets a beautiful wife. On the other hand, Laban gets seven years free labor from an industrious, hard worker, much better than those lazy shepherds who stand by the well all day, and he keeps his daughter in the family instead of giving her away to a stranger who might take her away forever. So Laban makes a deal with Jacob.
But then Laban deceives Jacob.
Genesis 29:21-25a Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her.” So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant. When morning came, there was Leah!
Jacob wakes up in the morning and finds that he is married to the wrong girl! How would you feel if you woke up on the morning after your wedding night and found a different woman (or man) in your bed?
How could it happen? How can a man marry and sleep with a girl and not know who it is until morning? Well, you have to understand several things about wedding customs in those days and this specific situation.
1st, Leah, like all brides in her day, was very closely veiled. She didn’t wear one of those sheer veils brides wear today at weddings. Hers was a solid veil that covered the whole face.
2nd, It was nighttime (vs.23). Therefore, it was dark in that honeymoon tent, and nobody would be able to see anything.
3rd, Leah and Rachel were sisters. That means they probably had a similar build and tone of voice. No doubt, much of the conversation that night was in whispers and very brief words of love (especially with the wedding guests standing right outside the door!). &
4th, You have to understand that engaged couples back then did not spend a lot of time with each other. Often, they hardly saw each other until after the wedding itself. So Jacob, while he knew Rachel was pretty, probably didn’t know much else about her.
That’s why it was so easy for Laban to switch brides and deceive Jacob. Well, as you can imagine, Jacob is spitting nails; he is so mad.
Genesis 29:25b So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” (NIV)
Jacob asks these questions in anger, but Laban coolly replies with an answer that must have pierced Jacob’s heart.
Genesisl 29:26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. (NIV)
Oh, how that must have hurt! You see, not too many years ago, Jacob had played a similar trick on his father. He, the younger son, had pretended to be the older one in order to get the customary birthright and blessing. Now, the older daughter pretends to be the younger one in order to get her customary rights as well. Laban continues…
Genesis 29:27-28 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.” And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. (NIV)
Jacob has nothing left to say. He finishes up Leah’s week-long wedding party and marries Rachel right away in exchange for another 7 years of work.
Genesis 29:29-30 Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. (NIV)
He worked for a man who was a bigger deceiver than he, but God was using Laban to discipline Jacob. God was using Laban to show Jacob his own character flaws and to begin to remove those flaws from his life.
Jacob is learning a hard lesson, and it’s the same lesson we need to learn, as well. It’s the lesson of discipline, in which God often brings a “Laban” into our lives to remove our own character flaws. They are the people who especially irritate us, probably because they have the same character flaws as we. Somebody has called them “Grace Builders,” because these difficult people are also God’s free and gracious gifts given to us to make us more like His Son, Jesus.
Josemarie Escriva, founder of Opue Dei, put it this way: Don’t say, “That person bothers me.” Think: That person sanctifies me.” He makes me more holy. (Josemarie Escriva, The Way, New York: Doubleday, 2006, p.174; www.PreachingToday.com)
Think about the person who gets under your skin. What is it about them that irritates you? What character flaws do they have? Are they deceptive? Are they manipulative? Are they pushy? Are they critical and ungrateful? Are they gossips? Are they indecisive? Are they worriers? Are they wimps?
Have you considered the idea that God may have brought that kind of a person into your life to remove that same character flaw from you? God brought a deceiver into Jacob’s life to remove the deceit from him. What kind of person has God brought into your life and mine? What flaws does He want to remove from you and me?
We can choose to fight it, or we can choose let God make something beautiful in us through those grace builders He brings into our lives.
Carla Waterman talks about having tea with a friend of hers who had just moved to a new situation. She was away from familiar work, beautiful spaces and valued friends. On top of it all, she was experiencing the “exhausting emptiness of a job that was too full” in a context where she felt undervalued. The tears filled her eyes as she spoke of her weariness, her disillusionment, and her anger. Carla says her friend is a fighter, wanting to right wrongs for herself and others. She demands respect. She wants to know and be known, and she has been fighting hard for what she wants.
Well, after the first cup of tea, Carla offered her friend this observation from Dorothy Sayers: “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a medium for creation.” And she suggested, “Perhaps it is time to drop your sword and pick up your paint brush.”
They talked about the internal battles that we so often fight with others even when they never experience the swordplay in our souls. They spoke of the weariness created by the internal turmoil, and then they looked at the pallet of colors God had given Carla’s friend in this season – not the rich reds, golds, and blues that her friend would naturally reach for, but a more subdued set of tones: grays, browns, and maybe a few tans. Could there be beauty in this season? Could life be a medium for creation – even here? (Carla Waterman, "Brushes or Swords?" Gifted for Leadership, 11-21-08; www.PreachingToday.com)
These are good questions for all of us to ask, because there are so very few things over which we have control. But we still have the choice of whether to wield a sword or pick up a brush?
My dear friends: welcome the colors God has given you this season, and let Him make something beautiful out of it in your life. Or as Carla Waterman put it, “Drop your sword and pick up your paint brush,” because “beauty accomplishes a great deal more than anger, and a brush rests more easily in our hands than a sword.”
Hebrews 12 says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).
Sure, we love it when God brings into our lives the bright colors of happiness and delight, but God also uses the dark and dull colors of difficult times and difficult people to create something of beauty in us, as well. All of these colors are blessings from a gracious Heavenly Father if we choose to accept them as such and let God have His way with us.
Gordon McDonald had a moral failure many years ago as a pastor and Christian leader, which nearly destroyed his marriage and his ministry. Recently, McDonald recalled the help and advice a lifelong mentor gave him in the midst of that crisis and its fallout. He said, “In our worst moments of shame and humiliation, he came and lived in our home for a week and helped us do a searing examination of our lives. We will always remember his words: “You are both momentarily in a great darkness. You have a choice to make. You can – as do so many – deny this terrible pain, or blame it on others, or run away from it. Or, you can embrace this pain together and let it do its purifying work as you hear the things God means to whisper into your hearts during the process. If you choose the latter, I expect you will have an adventurous future modeling what true repentance and grace is all about.” (Gordon McDonald, in Leadership journal’s weekly newsletter, 5-13-08; www.PreachingToday.com)
And indeed, that’s exactly what happened. Gordon and Gail McDonald have a ministry today that reaches people all over the world, and they are models of grace that have encouraged many.
What will it be for you and me? If we want to put the icing on every day God makes for us, then we must learn to enjoy His delights AND embrace His discipline. Let’s all pick up a brush today, instead of a sword, and see what God does through us.
