We all have influenza – just the Italian word for influence. And we never see our influence more clearly than in the lives of our children. They live out our foibles before our very eyes. Nothing could be at the same time so thrilling and so chilling as our child’s words, ‘I'm going to be like you’.
We watch the trail of trickery that dogs the footsteps of the patriarchs. Abram twice uses a half-truth to guard his life at the expense of his wife, Gen. 12. 11-20; 20. 1-18. Later, Isaac does the same thing with Rebekah, 26. 6-11. How timely is a solemn warning for us to be faithful to the wife of our youth!
Jacob performed seven acts of deceit in stealing the blessing: ‘I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me … eat of my venison’ (it was goat meat). How had he found the deer so quickly, Isaac wondered. ‘Because the Lord thy God brought it to me’. Isaac checked his hands; they were hairy – with wool. Then, point blank, Isaac asked, ‘Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am’. Alas, the aged Isaac fell for the hoax.
Jacob would reap a bumper crop in return. Leah fooled him on his wedding day, 29. 21-26. Laban tricked him out of his wages, 31. 7. Rachel hid the family idols without telling Jacob, 31. 34. Then Simeon and Levi betrayed the Shechemites, and made Jacob’s name to stink, 34. 1-31. And, using a kid as Jacob had done to fool his father, Jacob’s sons convinced him that ‘an evil beast’ had devoured Joseph. The evil beast was envy in the hearts of the brothers, Acts 7. 9.
Judah, who suggested selling Joseph, was himself deceived by Tamar, Gen. 38. Then, in Egypt, Joseph’s coat again told a lie about him, 39. 18. It ought to teach us not to jump to conclusions; things are not always what they seem.
Joseph used disguise to good effect when his brethren came to Egypt for corn, Gen. 42. 7, 25; 44. 1-12. And to what end? Not for his good, but for theirs – to bring them to repentance, 42. 21-22; 44. 16. So the Lord brings into our lives friends dressed up as foes, answers disguised as problems, things men meant for evil but God meant for good.
