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Genesis 31:2 · World English Bible

Genesis 31:2 Meaning Jacob Saw the Expression on Laban’s Face

Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

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What does Genesis 31:2 mean?

A face turns cold only in the eyes of one who expects attack, for the world wears the expression the mind assigns it. When guilt has been stored within, it is thrown outward onto the nearest countenance, and a companion who was welcoming yesterday now seems to harbor a threat today.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Genesis 31:2 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

A face turns cold only in the eyes of one who expects attack, for the world wears the expression the mind assigns it. When guilt has been stored within, it is thrown outward onto the nearest countenance, and a companion who was welcoming yesterday now seems to harbor a threat today. Nothing in the other has changed so much as the fear that has begun to look for enemies.

What a mind sees in another's face is the reflection of what it holds against itself. Change the teacher from fear to love, and the same face is seen without menace, because the menace was never truly there.

Laban: the outer figure onto whom stored guilt is projected, a mirror whose changed face reflects the mind's own fear Countenance: the surface of the world where the mind meets its own projection and mistakes it for a threat

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Genesis 31:2 today

  1. Reread the short text that felt cold before you answer it. Say it again in a warm voice in your head and see how easily it fits.
  2. When someone at home seems off with you, ask what their day was like instead of deciding what they think of you.
  3. In a meeting where a colleague goes quiet after you speak, assume they are thinking, not judging, and give them room to say so.

When a face looked cold to me today, what was I already afraid it would say?

The same truth in other traditions

Zen · the mirror

The mirror shows no face of its own. Whatever expression meets you there, you brought it with you.

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

Take away the opinion "I have been harmed," and the harm is gone. The face has not changed, only your reading of it.

Buddhism · Dhammapada

What we are made of is what we have thought. The world arrives already colored by the mind that goes out to meet it.

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