Thinking about karma in my quiet time with God’s Word. I believe in karma only in the informal sense: something that happens as a result of cause and effect. It’s actually the biblical principle of sowing and reaping.
Keep karma in mind while we look at the story of Jacob in Genesis. I saw sowing and reaping played out in Jacob’s life like I had not before. But first, some background.
Jesus explained the Parable of the Sower in Mark chapter four, comparing it to the Kingdom of God. Sowing and reaping is a law of the natural world. On the third day of creation, God commanded the earth to bring forth living plants “bearing seed” and fruit “with seed in it” (Gen. 1:12). Ever since the beginning, man has understood the process of planting and harvest and has applied it to his benefit.
Sowing and reaping is also a law of the spiritual world, more than just an agricultural principle. It is an axiom of life that we reap what we sow.
God uses this law to bestow His blessing. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others-ignoring God- harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8 MSG).
Keep karma in mind while we look at the story of Jacob in Genesis. Isaac and Rebekah have twin sons named Esau and Jacob. Esau is born first, a rugged outdoorsman who likes hunting and fishing. Picture David Beckham (LOL joking), better yet Tim or Josh Franklin or maybe Vic Shouppe if you’re a Floridian. He feeds his dad Isaac venison stew from his hunts, so Isaac loved him more than his brother (Gen 25).
Rebekah favored her second born twin, Jacob, a shepherd. Being very different people, the boys didn’t get along too well.
In Genesis 27, Jacob uses trickery and deceit to get Isaac to bless him from his deathbed. This devious chicanery is reflected in Jacob’s name which means grabber, swindler, deceiver. Esau wants to kill his bro when he learns Jake has stolen his birthright blessing, so Jake has to flee home. Mom sends him to live with his uncle, Laban.
On the journey there, Jake has his famous dream at Bethel, a wonderful topic for another day. I always wondered why God chose to bless a guy like Jake with such a powerful God encounter, but that’s the effect of the blessing, I suppose. Seems it’s more about the destiny God has planned for us than our fleshly nature. I’ll blog on this oe day, promise!
So Jake arrives at his uncle Laban’s house (Gen 29), falls in love with his daughter Rachel (yes, just today I realized she was his cousin but we are not going there, ew) and asks to marry her.
Here is where karma or the spiritual principle comes in: Jake agrees to work seven years for Rachel’s hand, but Laban sends her sister Leah into the tent, instead. What? Laban excuses his action by explaining it is their custom that the younger daughter cannot marry before the older, so he was obliged to give Leah. Jake eventually gets Rachel, too (two wives, oy veh).
Today I realized that ole Jakey got what was coming to him. He had deceived his brother months earlier and sown seeds of fraudulence and dishonesty within family relationships. Now with Laban he was reaping the fruit of what he had planted in his actions with Esau: trickery. What goes around comes around. Jacob got payback.
This long story illustrates God’s seed-time and harvest principle well, don’t you think? What are you planting today by your words and actions? Stuff you want to come back to you?
Leave me your thoughts about it. Thanks for stopping by Healing Writer!
Hugs – K
Categories: Adventure Devotionals Inspiration The Kingdom of God
Kathryne
Christian author and inspirational speaker of truth that makes the darkness tremble. Author of two non-fiction books at https://linktr.ee/TattooedKing
Kathryne Leach 
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