When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies.
You are familiar, I am sure, with the fable by Aesop, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It is a simple moral that, no matter how true your story is, if you have lied and deceived enough times, no one will believe you. Strangely though, that will not keep you from political office but it will destroy your credibility with your loved ones. Jacob’s name means “deceiver”. He lied and cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright. He found an odd way to outsmart Laban out of his sheep. Now here was his pride and joy, his lying and deceitful sons who sold their brother and lied to their father. I wonder if there was a straight face among them when they recounted their claim as honest men. They told the truth but they were far from honest.
This year, Cape Community Church is seeking to finish the work of planting the church. To do this, we must form a team that will be accountable to each other and to the congregation. We must gain and retain the trust of the congregation in order to help them catch the vision and believe it can happen. We must be well regarded in the community without the reputation for deceit and untruthfulness. In other words, we must not be like Jacob’s sons, except Joseph. May we be decisive and prudent like Joseph so that when the wolf does come…
We will be believed.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church