Date: 01-14-2021

Title: Deception

(S) cripture:
    Genesis 37:30-32 (NLT2) Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone! What will I do now?” 31 Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood. 32 They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”
    Genesis 38:11 (NLT2) Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die, like his two brothers.) So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home.

    Genesis 39:17-20 (NLT2) Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. 18 “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!” 19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained.

(O) bservation:
    In each of these stories we find deception. Joseph’s brothers deceived their father to cover up selling Joseph into slavery. Judah deceived Tamar by promising marriage to his youngest son when he had no intention to do so. Potiphar’s wife deceived him by claiming Joseph tried to rape her to cover up her pursuit of Joseph. The deception in each case led to a person being hurt. It is interesting that these three stories are so close together in the scripture.

(A) pplication:
    Deception leads to hurt and often that hurt is to the people you love. Deception has no place in the life of a follower of Jesus. Deception is used to avoid responsibility for our actions and even though we may fool the folks around us, we cannot fool God. We will reap what we sow and often it is much worse than we think it will be. Today I choose to be honest and refuse to deceive. I want my life to reflect Jesus.

(P) rayer:
    Lord, make me aware when I am trying to defend myself or avoid responsibility by being deceptive. I want to live a life pleasing to you. Amen