“When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?’” Genesis 29:25 (NIV)
While this clearly appears to be a business transaction gone wrong, another issue was revealed to me as I studied this verse. Jacob worked hard for Laban for seven years to earn Laban’s daughter Rachel’s hand in marriage.
Rachel’s older sister, Leah, was still unmarried at the end of Jacob’s seven year commitment. According to custom, the older daughter must be married first. So, Laban gave Leah to Jacob to marry.
Jacob felt deceived by Laban. He toiled for seven years, anticipating the day Rachel could become his wife. We can imagine how Jacob felt after working so hard toward a goal, only to be let down in the end. We have all experienced similar let-downs in our lives.
Buying a home
Many of us purchased homes in a booming real estate market. Some of us bought for personal use, while others both rentals for investment purposes.
How devastating for those of us who have watched the home values plummet well below the purchase price. So many homeowners are now living in homes with absolutely no equity. This makes it difficult to sell or refinance.
In addition, many home loans were designed to be very creative. While the monthly payments started out low, the interest only periods are coming to an end. The new payments are often double the previous payment, making it hard for most families to continue to make the payments. Since there is no equity, many homeowners feel trapped, and foreclosure has been a common last resort.
Layoffs
Work has been a given for so many of us for so long. No one really expected their employer to be caught in a position where the budget forced managers to have to choose which employees could stay and which employees would be let go.
Those decisions impacted more than just the employee. Families have been hurt by the sudden change in household income. Some families have had to move to smaller homes or apartments. Some children have had to leave private schools or even switch to other public schools. Parents may be sharing a vehicle.
New jobs have not been easy to find for so many. Companies just don’t have enough profit to enable them to hire additional help. The extra-large pool of unemployed applicants also makes it much more competitive.
Retirement accounts
The stock market volatility has made many retirees and pre-retirees uncomfortable. Many retirement account balances were cut in half with the recent market downturn.
This hurt many who have already retired. They are unsure whether they will be able to comfortably live through the rest of their retirement years with the remaining balances. Those who were considering retirement in the not-to-distant future had to reconsider and stretch their plans out by several more years.
Since the economy is still so unsettled, investors have no idea how to handle their accounts in the coming years. While many prefer to err on the cautious side, there is a concern that being too conservative will prevent the retirement accounts from ever regaining enough to make retirement a comfortable reality.
Who is the deceiver?
While so many of us are quick to become angry with God when things do not go as we hoped, we should really ask ourselves if God deceived us, or if we deceived ourselves.
God never promised us that life would be wonderful. He never promised us that we would not face problems with our homes, our jobs, or our retirement accounts. Remember Isaiah 55:8. We tend to forget that our plans and dreams are often different from God’s.
Yes, our roads in life will be bumpy. But God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. Concentrate on John 16:33. Let’s not lose heart when things get challenging. We need to depend on God even more in these times.
Instead of placing misdirected blame, let’s praise God through our storms and praise Him for the victory that lies ahead.
