In these trying times in our lives, will our desperation drive our decisions or will we grow in our faith and be guided by God? We saw that because of God’s goodness and grace, even though Leah and Rachel were the battling brides, God accomplished what He set out to do in fulfilling His promises to bless the nations through this Abrahamic line.
Today, we will be reading Genesis 30 where Jacob seeks to leave Haran and go back to Canaan.
Genesis 30:25-43 ESV
25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: 32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.
37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
What’s transpiring in this passage? :
? Jacob’s request to return home
? Laban’s reflexive response
? Jacob’s resourcefulness
So the first thing we see in the passage is:
1. Jacob’s request to return home
Jacob has served his time, he is free of any obligation and he knew it was time to go. In chapter 31 Jacob tells his wives that God had spoken to him several times in a dream and told him it was time to return to Canaan. However, Laban doesn’t want to lose him because he had come to realize that his prosperity wasn’t a divine reward for his own virtue but was due solely to the presence of Jacob in his home.” Laban was not a man of faith, his focus was on the financial benefit Jacob brought into his life.
As believers, we are called to be a blessing wherever we go and in whatever we do. Is your part of the world a better place because you’re in it? For example, Is your family a better family because you’re in it? Is the Chapel a better church because you’re a member? Is your workplace better because you work there? Is your school better because you’re a student there? Lord willing, our lives exude blessings.
For Laban Jacob was like a good luck charm and he tries to find a way to keep him in Haran. So let’s look at:
2. Laban’s reflexive response
Laban seems to always default to reflexive or habitual, unthinking behavior in order to benefit himself. Instead of just allowing Jacob to leave for Canaan to provide and care for his own family, Laban tries, once again, to manipulate Jacob to get what he wants. What does he say to Jacob: “Name your wages.” Jacob had worked hard and knew that Laban had gotten rich off of him and wasn’t about to be fooled by him a second time. But at the same time Jacob didn’t want to return home with nothing to show for after all of his years. So when Laban asks him to stay with him, he somehow gets roped into more years of work for Laban.
Laban asks, “What shall I give you?” Jacob tells him not to give him anything except the spotted, speckled, and black sheep among his flocks for his wages. In the Mediterranean region the sheep were normally white and the goats black. So in reality, Jacob is requesting the irregular or abnormal animals which would have been a small percentage of the flock. Requesting the less desirable or odd-ball animals was quite an unusual request but God had shown Jacob in a dream how He was going to prosper him despite Laban’s scheming and deceptive tactics. Waltke and other scholars and historians surmise he was asking for about 20% of the flock.
Laban agrees but in line with his default reflexive behavior, that same day, he secretly took the streaked and spotted male and speckled and spotted female goats, and all the dark sheep and tells his sons to take them a three-day journey away between himself and Jacob. In other words, Laban was cheating Jacob out of the animals he had just promised him, in order to keep them for himself and most likely to postpone Jacob’s departure.
(PN) Is this anything new? When it comes to prosperity, promotion, popularity, power, or position - people who are striving after these things will do underhanded deeds to keep everyone else from success. And we know this is not just in the corporate world or politics, it’s anywhere there are people.
What do you do when you witness this type of scheming and manipulation in the workplace or even in the family? As many here have testified, when you choose to walk in godly integrity, let God vindicate you, and allow Him to avenge, you learn to follow him without getting embroiled in the muck and mire. The Psalmist said “trust in the Lord, and do good” (Psalm 37:3).
In Ps 40, David describes a situation where he waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord, how he brought him up out of a horrible pit of tumult and destruction, out of the miry clay and set his feet upon a rock and established his path (v. 2). He was describing a pit with mud and muck and mire, a pit that is inescapable on our own,where you have to wait for God to deliver you.
Have you ever been in a place like this and then cried out to the Lord?
God is for you and me and if He wants us to have a certain place, position, possession, or power it doesn’t matter if it seems that everything and everyone is against us. If God is for us, and He is, it doesn’t matter if you are dealing with unscrupulous people because He sees everything that goes on and if we truly trust Him and entrust situations to Him, He can work miracles. And we have heard these types of testimonies from people in our church. Even though Laban was manipulating, scheming, and working behind the scenes, God was in control and He was going to bless Jacob.
So after Jacob’s request to return home, and Laban’s response, we see:
3. Jacob’s resourcefulness
Jacob had been taking care of Laban’s flock for the past 14 years and had intricate knowledge and experience in animal husbandry. He understood the animals' feeding and mating behaviors, most likely understood which natural medicines kept these animals healthy, and also most likely understood which animals had the genetic traits he needed to reproduce.
Concerning the use of the poplar, almond and Platanus orientalis rods that Jacob was using, there are various views as to the effect it had on animals. Some scholars brought out how these rods were believed to have medicinal properties that would cause the animals to mate. Others thought this was just superstition. Yet there are still other scholars who contend that Jacob used these white rods to make a subtle statement on various levels. What I think is interesting is what the Hebrew brings out about why Jacob was using these white rods.
Just like Laban took advantage of Jacob after a drinking fest, so Jacob was taking advantage of Laban's flocks when they would come to drink (causing them to breed and produce speckled offspring). Just like Jacob tricked his brother Esau, whose name means “red” by giving him red lentils, he tricks Laban, whose name means “white” by making use of white branches. Just like Laban had given Jacob the daughter with the weak eyes instead of Rachel whom he promised to Jacob, Jacob is making sure that Laban gets the weakest animals in place of the strongest ones. Just like Laban had stolen Jacob’s animals and secretly sent them on a 3-day journey so he couldn’t claim them (chapter 31), Jacob secretly flees with his whole family and all that he owns and Laban only finds out 3 days later. Jacob was giving Laban a taste of his own medicine.
Do you see the pattern? In Genesis 27, Jacob is a deceiver; in Genesis 29, Laban is a deceiver of a deceiver; and in Genesis 30, Jacob is a deceiver of a deceiver of a deceiver. What this repeating 'fraction' shows is: whenever people like Jacob and Laban mix with each other, there seems to be no end to it. Despite the fact that Laban changed Jacob’s wages 10 times, God providentially prospered Jacob and he becomes very rich while his uncle becomes poorer. This struggle for the power of material advancement can have one of two effects on people. Some can view their success as something entrusted to them by God and use their success to honor His name, and establish His Kingdom. Others, however, see it as a personal accomplishment and the means to obtain security, personal power, and advancement in life. Laban had pursued the latter and became a poorer man because of it. That’s why the Word of God tells us to:
Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one is affluent does his life consist of his possessions (Luke 12:15).
Such an independent, self-sufficient attitude is harmful to the faith - why? Because this attitude robs God of His honor by attributing one’s prosperity to human ingenuity. Later Jacob would come to the realization that everything he had, his ingenuity, and resourcefulness came from God.
Both Laban and Jacob were deceitful in their transactions with one another and the outcome of their actions caused friction in the family. It didn’t end well. Once again the tension is building as Laban’s sons weren’t happy with the fact that Jacob had “stolen” their father’s wealth and Laban was not too happy with the fact that he couldn’t hinder Jacob from prospering. And we see how Laban’s two precautionary measures to prevent Jacob from leaving Haran and from prospering backfired.
Jacob came to Haran with only a staff in his hand, by the time Jacob left Haran (v. 43) he had large flocks, all kinds of servants, camels, and donkeys. Years before, his father Abraham had entered Egypt during a time of famine, but he left a wealthy man (Gen 12:16-20). God isn’t afraid to bestow spiritual and material blessings upon His people. Just as Abraham will leave Egypt a richer man, despite his misleading of Pharaoh, so too Jacob will leave his semi-bondage state with Uncle Laban, an incredibly rich man, in terms of his family and his flocks. This validated further the supernatural blessing on Jacob’s life.
Jacob heard from God, had a calling on his life, and he pursued it. From his dream at Bethel, God kept stirring Jacobs heart, this desire to return to Canaan never left him. It seemed like a long journey but God was preparing him and entrusting him what he needed to pursue that call. God could, therefore, entrust him with great wealth and the promise. In the same way, if we seek the Giver and not the gift, if our goal is to establish God’s Kingdom and bring people into His Kingdom for all of eternity, God will bless us. But if we can see no further than the gift then we are short-sighted and no better than Laban whose end goal was personal possessions and advancement.
Let’s not be shortsighted, focusing on financial and human resources but set our eyes on the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, on the One who owns the earth and every person in it. He is the reason we are on this earth for the very short time we have been given and promises to give us everything we need for life and godliness.
God wants us to multiply as individuals and as a church. As we listen to, learn from, and put His Word into practice, our faith will multiply and we will see it multiply in others. And as we entrust Him with our lives and pursue the calling He has for us to mature as an international church, He will use our lives to establish His will on this earth and to be a blessing to the nations.
