Talk about a "rude awakening!" Poor Jacob, after slaving away for seven years for his beloved Rachel's hand in marriage, wakes up the morning after his wedding night to find the wrong person next to him. As the Scripture puts it, "behold, it was Leah!" (Gen. 29:25). Jacob's conniving uncle Laban switched daughters on Jacob, so that he ended up in the marriage bed with Leah instead of Rachel.
Jacob's expectations and hopes to marry the one he truly loved were dashed by Laban's trickery (of course, Jacob did get to marry Rachel, but only after he committed to serving Laban for another seven years). One of my favorite Genesis commentators, Derek Kindner, says this about Jacob's unpleasant surprise: "this moment [is] a miniature of man's disillusion, experienced from Eden onwards." How true. The serpent fed Eve a great line about the forbidden fruit, how she would not die from eating it, how she would become like God, and how she would gain the wisdom to know good and evil. When she and Adam ate the apple, they were let down in a mighty way. Not only did they not become like God, but they were sentenced to die and cast out of the garden. So much for their foolish hopes.
In this life, we are beset by disappointment and failed expectations. Whether like Adam and Eve, we are let down by the deceit of sin, or whether like Jacob, we are victims of another's lies and fraud, we find that very little in this world lives up to the hype. Certainly that is true when it comes to the glowing promises of Madison Avenue for whatever product they are pitching to us. Sadly, it is also true, far too often, for people when it comes to their own families and "friends." Promises are broken, selfishness prevails, and the result is broken hearts and disillusionment.
There is one expectation and hope that will never let us down - the promise of God's love for us in Christ Jesus. The Bible does't give us a whole of information about the details of heaven, or of life in the new heavens and earth. But, we can say for sure that it will be far greater than anything we can possibly hope for. As the Scriptures says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9).
Posted by Pastor Scott at December 12, 2006 10:04 AM
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