Life is like a loom in which God reveals His masterful weaving skills. This is a chapter in which we can watch God use individual weaknesses to create circumstances that produces character transformation! Rachel, the beautiful younger sister used to getting things her way, encounters a life circumstance she can not control--infertility. Jacob, the one who likes to control and manipulate, finds it most uncomfortable to be 'in the place of God' and pressed to do what he can not. The sibling competition of Rachel and Leah relegates Jacob to little more than a pawn in their desperate seeking of self-worth. God is not distant or absent and gradually we see each heart turn more toward Him. After the birth of Joseph, Rachel says God has taken away my disgrace and she seeks HIM for another child. After Leah's final boy, she, too, gave God the glory and said "God has presented me with a precious gift."
Even Jacob is growing toward the Lord. I love that in his deal-making with Laban he professes that his honesty will testify for him. The value of honesty is becoming apparent to Jacob--even as his manipulative tendencies still have a strong hold. Our habits are hard to overcome...but even harder to see. God allows us to feel our needs and the results of our actions through others. The heart of one man reveals the heart of another; we often see in others what is in ourselves. God is always at work to show us where we need to change but He knows we need to make discoveries on our own. God is never in a hurry and his unveilings are perfect. We can trust Him to be at work even when life just seems to be happening randomly. God is good all the time!
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