The encounter; Grace makes the difference

In life, change is said to be the only constant thing. Sometimes, it occurs so rapidly we just can’t keep track of it, but in the midst of our ever changing environment we can be rest assured of this one thing that our God remains thesame, and He never changes.  

 ‘And the Lord said unto her, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger”‘. Genesis 25:23 KJV

   Long before their birth, God had predicted that the older was going to serve the younger and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jacob had started his deceptive scheme against Esau right from their mother’s womb. Eventually, he ended up deceiving both his brother and father (Isaac).  

“And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am”.  Genesis 27:22-24 KJV  

But in the thirty-first chapter of the book of Genesis, we see an entirely different Mr. Jacob  from the one we saw in chapters twenty-five and twenty-seven. Something had changed about him, he was no longer the cheat and deceiver we knew rather he was being cheated by Laban (his father-in-law) but never complained…  

“So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were. He said, “I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn’t treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn’t changed; he’s still with me. You know how hard I’ve worked for your father. Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again.” Genesis 31:4-7 MSG  

Without a doubt, his encounter with God in the twenty-eight chapter must have played a vital role in his transformation; an encounter characterised by affection and affirmation, without condemnation. One would have thought that after all that Jacob had done to his brother and father, the first thing that should have come out from God’s mouth would be words of condemnation and correction but no…God spoke words of affirmation and even promised giving him and his descendants the ground on which he was sleeping on (see Genesis 28:13-15).  

Rather than an iron hand of judgment, God extended the warm  hand of grace and mercy to Jacob. That made the difference! Jacob became a ‘better man’ out of grace, not condemnation.

My pastor (AyoAjani) once said that to “treat a man the way he is, and he will become worse but when he is treated the way he ought to be, he will become better”. God expects us to extend His hand of grace to the world around us, showing them an irresistable love (the God-kind of love) and always believing the best about them.

  Grace is not a license to sin, but an empowerment to go and sin no more!  

God loves you, and He just can’t stop loving you.  

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Anuoluwapo

Tagged: change, deception, God, grace, love, transformation