you Good morning. I'd like to share a few thoughts from Genesis 31 that I hope will be an encouragement and a help to you on your journey ahead today. We've been observing the theme of deception and trickery through the life of Jacob in these last few days, and today the theme continues. You can imagine that when you have been deceived by someone, your trust in them is going to be diminished. Likewise, when you are a deceiver, the ability of others to trust you is likewise going to be diminished. It is quite evident from the relationship between Jacob and Laban, his father-in-law, that their relationship has deteriorated significantly, where they don't trust one another. Laban doesn't trust Jacob, thinks Jacob is stealing his sheep and goats from him, and Jacob doesn't trust Laban, that he's not going to be fair with him in his wages, and he hasn't been. There's been a bunch of trickery, a bunch of deception, and the trust is at an all-time low. I'm sure you know exactly what that's like. There have been people in your life who have tricked you, deceived you, broken your trust, and it takes time for that trust to be rebuilt. If they keep doing it over and over and over again, then whether or not you can ever really fully trust them again is debatable. It's debatable. Even though they may have confessed it and acknowledged it and asked you to forgive them for their deception, they turn around and do it again. Well, you're going to have a hard time trusting them. This is the case here. Jacob has a terrible time trusting his father-in-law Laban, and so Jacob wants to take his family, his daughters and kids, and head back home. But he's afraid to just go and tell Laban, I want to go back home. God's told me to go back home. He's afraid of what Laban will do, so he tricks him. He tricks him. He waits till Laban is off somewhere, and he gathers up his family together and takes off. The trickery is not limited to Jacob. his wife, Rachel, she's learned well, if you will, from her husband Jacob. Because in verse 19, it says when Laban is gone to shear his sheep, and they're about ready to leave and head back west, Rachel, it says, had stolen the household idols that were her father's. So she spirited them away. Stealing them, of course, is a break of trust. It is an act of deception. And then Laban, he finds out he's been tricked, and so he takes off after Jacob and his daughters and their family, and he wants to deal with them. Of course, God intervenes and tells him, leave them alone, don't do anything against them. Nevertheless, Laban is ticked because his household gods have been stolen. That should tell you a little something about his spiritual depth. Anyhow, he's upset, and he's convinced that Jacob, someone in his household, has stolen his household gods. He accuses Jacob of that, and Jacob is livid, and says, that is not the case. He says, you can go ahead, investigate, see if you can find them, search for them, and you're not going to find them here. Of course, Jacob doesn't know it. His wife has deceived him, and stolen the household gods, and hid them away in her stuff. But then again, here comes the trickery. Dad comes into Rachel's tent, and Rachel has those household gods in the saddlebag, if you will, of the camel, and she's sitting on it to protect it. But she knows Dad could very easily look in the camel bag and find the gods, so what does she do? She lies. She deceives Dad. She says, I'm sorry I can't get up, because my time of the month is on me, and I just can't do that. What difference does that make? Well, the point is that if that were true, then sitting on those saddlebags would render them unclean, and Dad wouldn't want to touch them because they'd be unclean. She knew that, and so she deceived Dad and hid the household gods. Dad is convinced he's been successfully tricked, and he goes away thinking that he was wrong. Somebody else must have stolen his household gods. Now, here's the thing. Here's the thing, the lack of trust that is generated by deception only seems to generate further deception and a deterioration all the more of relationships and distrust. Let's be encouraged to be honest and forthright, and above all, to avoid deceiving one another. That, after all, is the character of the great deceiver, the wicked one. Let's avoid being influenced by his tactics. Our Father and our God, deliver us, we pray, from deception that is so destructive to relationships, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, listen. The Lord give you a good day, and may He bless you in it.