The Broken Cycle

Don’t you ever get tired of bad people getting away with doing bad things? We have a strong desire for justice. We want to see true justice fall on those who do wrong things. When it doesn’t, we are unsettled. How long is God going to allow this to happen? Why doesn’t the government step in and do something? Why does nobody with power and influence take a stand? These are the questions we ask when we experience injustices. We demand justice...until it is our turn.

For his entire life, Jacob was a cheater. He was a rival to his brother. He manipulated Esau into selling his birthright for a bowl of stew. He lied and deceived his father into giving him the blessing Isaac meant for Esau. All of this was done while expressing a total distrust in God. He had already told them Jacob would take Esau’s place as the inheritor of the promises, but nobody trusted God to do it his way, so Jacob did it his way. This wasn’t God blessing Jacob’s actions. It was God accomplishing his will in spite of them.

In this passage, Jacob finally arrives in Haran. He meets Rachel, his future bride, and his uncle Laban. He goes to live with Laban and they strike a deal.

Genesis 29:15–30 NASB95

Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face. Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.” Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her. Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” But Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn. “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.” Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

We see a lot of interesting things in this chapter but what I want us to focus on is the fact that Jacob finally got what was coming to him. The cheater experienced what it was like to be cheated. The man worked seven years to marry the woman who had captivated him only for her to be swapped out with her older sister. If his brother had been around, he might have said, “HA! Jacob finally got what he deserved! Sweet justice!” And we all want justice until it is our turn to receive it.

Jacob is outraged! He can’t believe someone would do such a thing to him! Yet, he had spent his life up to this point cheating his brother to get what he wanted. Now he’s experiencing what it is like to be on the other side. This has a profound impact on him.

There are a few ways people attempt to describe moments like this. We express them in common sayings like, “what goes around comes around” or, “You get what you deserve.” There is a growing trend even among professing Christians to use the word karma to describe this. Now, many people use the word karma without understanding the word. It can be a bit of a buzzword among younger people, and has found it’s way into the vocabulary of younger Christians.

It is important to be clear on what is going on in Genesis chapter 29, because it says a lot about how God relates to his people. The concept of karma, which comes from eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, is not a biblical concept, yet religious pluralism, the belief that all religions basically teach the same thing, or that all religions are different paths up the same mountain, allows for unbiblical concepts to distort our worldview. It also distorts God’s justice system, and therefore our own. So is Jacob experiencing karma in action, or is something else going on here?

Karma shares the idea of what goes around comes around, and applies it to the teaching of reincarnation. When you die, you are reborn as something or someone else as a result of how the previous life was lived. There is a moral compass of sorts, and your state in this life is a result of the way you measured up to that moral standard in previous lives. When you suffer in this life, it can be the effect of actions you took in this life, in the previous life, or even five lifetimes ago. You are experiencing the positive or negative consequences of past actions. Karma seeks balance at all times.

As I said, this is not a biblical concept. The Bible teaches something different. It is called the law of the harvest. Israel was an agrarian culture. They understood farming analogies because so many of them had experience. The law of the harvest is summed up in the statement, “You reap what you sow.” Paul writes in Galatians,

Galatians 6:7–9 NASB95

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

In farming, there is a season for sowing (planting) seed, and a season for harvesting. The farmer understands that he will not reap in the same season he sows. It will take time. If you want to grow watermelons, you can expect a harvest about 100 days after planting. You don’t reap in the same season you sow. But if you plant watermelons, you will get watermelons. Nobody plants watermelons and wakes up three months later to find apple trees.

When we apply this concept to justice and morals, we can expect evil people will get what they deserve. They sowed the seeds of evil deeds. They will reap a harvest of justice. Jacob was a deceiver, but now he is angry that he was deceived. We can see this as a sense of divine justice, but I want you to see the bigger picture here.

God is not getting back at Jacob. He’s doing something different. He’s getting to Jacob. God is not causing Laban to trick Jacob, but he is using Laban’s deception to allow Jacob to feel what it is like to be cheated. A massive lesson is being learned here. God is not balancing the cosmic scales of justice. He is introducing grace.

The problem with karma is it is a dead end street. It is an endless cycle of payment for previous action. It offers no real hope of breaking the cycle. Fundamentally, you are paying for the unknown number of actions over an unknown number of lifetimes if you subscribe to Hinduism or Buddhism. But the Bible teaches that we have one life, in which we were created by God. But we broke God’s law, and God’s justice system demands that justice be served. But he also provided the means by which justice may be served, yet we are not required to experience that justice. God’s justice demands imperfection be eradicated, but Christ is sent to be the perfect substitute for us so we receive pardon instead of destruction.

Every violation of God’s standard results in the same punishment. If we sow evil, we are to reap the penalty. But the gospel offers us hope. Through Christ, we are offered mercy. We deserve death and eternal separation from our creator, but we are not required to experience our own destruction to experience our salvation. Through Christ, we experience grace. We are given a pardon for every bad seed ever sown and it is replaced with the seeds of righteousness. We do not deserve it. We do not earn it. We are given it because God loves his creation and does not desire that we experience the full wrath of his justice.

God has broken the cycle. If he treated us as we truly deserved, we would have no hope. But the words of David in Psalm 103 offer an amazing reality.

Psalm 103:8–13 NASB95

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Through Christ, the cycle of “what goes around comes around” is broken. Yes, we experience the temporal consequences of our behavior. Jacob experienced the consequences of cheating other people. He got cheated. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it provides a valuable lesson. God uses this event to further his plan to prosper Jacob not because his behavior warrants it, but because God is good to us even when we don’t do right by him.

We sin against God and we deserve destruction. But he still chose to separate us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. Aren’t you glad that God broke the cycle of cause and effect and introduced Jesus to offer grace and mercy instead? We sowed rebellion and we were set to reap destruction. But Jesus took our harvest of destruction so we could receive his harvest of righteousness instead. It’s like we sowed poison ivy, but Jesus came and dug it up and put watermelon in its place.

What I want you to walk away with is this:

The cycle of reaping what we sow was broken at the cross so we can receive grace.

It doesn’t matter what lies in your past. You might still be dealing with the outcome of past decisions, but it doesn’t cancel out God’s grace. If you are a child of God, a harvest of grace awaits you. As you consider how this impacts your life and your relationship with God, I want you to consider a few things.

First, if you are in a season where you feel like the whole world is against you, it may lead you to wonder whether you are facing divine punishment. I want you to look at the tough circumstances you are facing not as divine retribution, but divine pruning. The thing about Jacob is that experiencing deception meant he never deceived anybody again. God used this moment to take the deceiver out of Jacob.

Second, recognize pruning is not punishment. In the pruning process, the farmer cuts away bad parts of the plant to make room for healthier parts to grow. The result: more fruit. If you are going to bear more fruit for God, pruning is part of the process. The purpose of pruning is not pain, but growth. If you are in a challenging time, ask, “In what way is God making room for growth?”

Finally, express your gratitude to God for breaking the cycle. You no longer suffer the full extent of your poor choices. Christ allows us to reap grace. What will you do with that gift?