Deceit

Jacob couldn’t wait. To get ahead, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He took advantage of his brother’s weakness to get his birthright (he bargained it for a measly plate of food). Then he lied to his blind (and probably near deaf) father to get his blessing.

What did all his scheming and lying get him? Twenty years of being lied to, of being deceived, of losing. Well-said the Bible: You reap what you sow. Or as the world says: karma.

Availing yourself of deception only hinders your progress. Because real progress comes from trust. When you lose people’s trust, they won’t want your services any more. You burn bridges, lose friendships. You may think yourself the crab scrambling up to the top of the pile… but you’re just a crab.

Practice integrity. Build trust. Have character.

Inconceivable power of words

Our words retain far more power than we acknowledge. Consider the Gibeonites (Joshua 9), who through lies and deceit won a treaty with the conquering Israelites. God forbade the Israelites to enter treaty with any of the people in the Promised Land, so the Gibeonites pretended to be foreigners from far away. If this were the U.S., the contract would be null and void because of falsifications.

BUT, God obliged the Israelites to honor that treaty because they had sworn with their mouths. God’s concept of words is vastly different than our own. We think, “I’m just saying…” as if our words were nothing more than sound vibrations, the product of vocal chords, breath and mouth formations. But God sticks with words.

Think about the implications for prayer. Whatever you utter will be upheld by God. They spoke lies, yet the treaty was upheld. You pray with sincerity. Have no doubt your utterances will come to pass. It’s just a question of time, but faith should remain absolute. Obviously, the tongue is more powerful than we conceptualize.