CHORD AND DISCORD

CHORD AND DISCORD
Genesis 29:1-20
From the sermon “All’s Well at the Well”

There are times in our lives when things fall apart. There are times when things come together. Of course, we hope that things that fall apart will eventually come back together.

The psalmist declares: “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” Psalm 16:6 NIV

Here is the language of real estate—the property is the best: the boundary lines are in the right places, the environment is excellent, the ground is good, the elevation is right, and the location is prime. All is well and perfect.

Not many of us have the privilege of such an inheritance, so let me use another example to illustrate when all is well, when things fall into their right places. I will use something which all of us can understand and appreciate: music.

What happens when notes on a piano or keyboard are played? How do we know if they have fallen in the right places? I have asked our pianist to help me. First I would like her to play the following notes: middle C, E, G and high C. Now play all the notes together. How do they sound together?

Let’s try another set of notes: G, B flat, D, high G. How does that sound? Well, musicians will recognise this as the G chord, and the earlier one as the C chord. Now let’s try one last set of note: A, B flat, C, D sharp. How do they sound together?

They don’t sound right together, do they? Instead of a chord, with a four-note harmony, we have what we may call a “discord”—the notes don’t match or harmonise.

As we study the life of Jacob, we will see that parts of his life are like the chords on the piano—where the different parts fall together into a pleasant sounding harmony. There are also times in his life when the notes don’t come together but instead fall apart into a “discord”—noise, sounding awful to the ear.

We have seen how Jacob tried to get his life together, get as much as he could from his brother and his father, by his cunning and deceit. Well, he got what he wanted. But then, life started falling apart when his brother vowed to kill him. To protect him, his mother told him to leave immediately to find refuge in the home of his uncle.

His life fell into discord. But, as we will see, God would turn his life around, so that the lines and the notes would fall in place into a good inheritance and a beautiful harmony.