Day 3: Genesis 28-40
*image courtesy of carlohh at www.sxc.hu
While I was in my first year at Liberty University, the campus pastor shared a story at convocation right after spring break. Apparently, a couple of LU students were on spring break in another state, staying at a hotel on a beach. While away from the rules and regulations of Liberty, they decided they'd have some "fun." For these two, "fun" came in the form of mooning old ladies as they passed their hotel window. They decided at one point to "press the ham" (these are the exact words our campus pastor used). Apparently they over-estimated the structural integrity of their windows, and actually broke through the glass!
Ouch.
As if this weren't bad enough, a Liberty alumnus who still kept up with the campus pastor was staying at the same hotel. He not only got all the details, but swiftly relayed them to the campus pastor. The pastor graciously did not point out the two mooners, but noted that they might be the ones shifting painfully in their seats at the moment. He closed with this statement:
There was a subtle statement amongst all the dozens of verses we read today. Did you catch it?
It's in chapter 35. Verse 22 says, "While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it" This is sandwiched between the death of Rachel and the listing of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel in such a way that you almost miss it. Perhaps Reuben would have preferred it that way.
Who knows what the situation was? Perhaps it was a one-time event, perhaps it was ongoing, but either way it happened. It's not until several years later (we'll read this tomorrow) that Jacob ever says anything that we know of about this incident. Reuben, the first-born, should have been the pride and joy of Jacob. He should have been his honor. Instead, he dishonored his father by sleeping with his wife. As a result, Jacob delivers a rebuke instead of a blessing while on his deathbed.
We often think that one little sin will go unnoticed. Perhaps since no one said anything when it happened, maybe we got away with it. Be sure, your sin will find you out. Perhaps one day, the sin will come into the light. Maybe just the effects of sin will catch up with us. We may even be taken over again by the same sin if we haven't dealt with it.
Two days ago we read this statement from God, "But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." How true this is! We must never give the devil a foothold in our life, because the sin that may seem small to us, or that we wish we could forget ever happened, may burst through the door one day.
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