Detouring from Judah for a moment, I want to talk about Jacob, Judah’s father. If you’re at all familiar with Genesis, you know the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Jacob’s story, we discover a telling trait about him evident at his birth. His name means “supplanter or deceitful, literally, one who takes the heel.” He was born with one tiny hand grasping his twin’s heel. And in the course of time, Jacob lived true to his name.

First he deceived his brother Esau into selling his birthright. Then he deceived his father into giving him his brother’s blessing. The action brought on his brother’s wrath and murderous threats until Jacob was forced to run for his life.

Seven years later, turn about was fair play, when Jacob was the one on the receiving end of deceit. His future father-in-law married him off to the wrong daughter, setting Jacob up for a life of marital misery. Years of service to his father-in-law resulted in numerous episodes of being cheated out of his fair wages. In the end, Jacob managed to turn the tables, with God’s help, but the deceiver still had a lot to learn. He would live to see his own sons’s pull off a greater lie than he had ever committed, depriving him of his favorite son for seventeen grievous years.

If you haven’t read the story, I would encourage you to read Genesis for yourself. The studies in character are fascinating, but more than that, there is a lesson to be learned.

You see, I think Jacob reaped what he had sown. He learned early from his mother how to deceive his father (she was the one who helped him steal the blessing that rightfully belonged to his brother). Basically, she taught him that it was okay to lie if it suited a greater purpose. Jacob continued the practice and suffered the consequences. Obviously, he did not have a high view of personal integrity to keep his lips from speaking deceit. He’d learned to master the “art” of lying.

I wonder what similar seeds we as parents are sowing in our children. How often do we consider lying okay if it suits our purposes? Or manipulation to get our way? If we were to stand before God and feel His scrutiny, would we measure up to His perfect standard of truth? Would we even come close?

Sometimes it is hard to see ourselves as others see us. We need to pray for discernment that we might not be the ones being deceived, and pray for a heart of integrity that we might be made aware of areas where we might not be as honest as we should be. Let us not be as Jacob who would take hold of another’s heel in order to get the upper hand, to exalt ourselves at the expense of someone else.

That might work for a while, until our children follow our example. Galations 6:7 is true. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

We definitely reap what we sow.