Genesis Chapters 29-30 – John Karmelich
1.
Most adults are familiar with the expression, “What goes
around, comes around”.
a)
That expression refers to the idea that what you do to
others, comes back to haunt you.
b)
Most Christians have also heard of the concept of
“reaping what you sow”.
i)
(Reference:
Galatians 6:7-9, et.al.). It is
the same idea as “what goes around, comes around”. We’re going to see that lesson hit Jacob in these chapters.
c)
In the last lesson, we read about “Jacob the
conniver”.
i)
We read how he deceived his father in order to get the
“special blessing” that his father Isaac intended to give to Jacob’s brother
Esau.
ii)
By the end of the chapter, Jacob had to run away to
avoid his brother’s anger. His mother,
who was part of the deception, told Jacob to flee to Haran, his mother’s
hometown, and get a wife for himself.
This was roughly a 500-mile journey from what-is-today Israel to
what-is-today Northern Iraq.
iii)
Along the way, Jacob encounters God. It is the first we read of God speaking
directly to Jacob. In a sense, Jacob
becomes “born-again” at that point.
Jacob commits his life to serving God, albeit in very immature ways as
Jacob tries to bargain with God in exchange for future blessings.
d)
Chapters 29 and 30 are the “further adventures of Jacob”. Jacob gets deceived by another the same way
Jacob deceived his father. We’re going
to watch Jacob’s life “come home to roost” as he learns of his own mistakes by
being deceived himself.
2.
It is always important as a bible student to not
just read the stories, but to get the personal application. To me the most important aspect of bible
study is not to learn history lessons, but to learn how they apply to our live
today.
a)
In the last chapter Jacob dedicates his life to serving
God. The next four chapters are
predominantly about the lessons Jacob had to learn in order to mature his
faith.
b)
When God first called you to serve Him, God never says,
“You’re now perfect, I’m through with you, you are now free to go about your
life as you see best!” J
i)
When we first commit our lives to Jesus, we are
“perfect” in the sense that we accept Jesus payment of our sins, past, present
and future. In that sense, we are
perfect from God’s perspective.
ii)
On the other hand, God is constantly working in
our lives to make us a better person here on earth. Part of the reason is God wants a better relationship with
Him. He wants us to trust him more and
more and He wants us to realize just how dependant upon God we really are. Further, he wants us to be a good witness to
others. A mature Christian who is fully
dependant upon God for his or her life, is a “better witness” than one who
trusts in God but still acts no differently than a person who doesn’t trust in
God to begin with.
c)
When we read of Jacob’s escapades over the next few
chapters, don’t just sit there and wag your head in disapproval at Jacob! J Stop
and think about your own life and ask:
What aspects of my life is God working on? God used events in Jacob’s life to remind
him of past sins in his own life. What
is God doing in my life now and what does God want me to learn from
those lessons?
i)
Sometimes the toughest moments in life are designed to
teach us things. We tend to learn best
from our mistakes. This is why God
allows tragedies, deceptions, and pain in our life. It is to teach us to trust Him more. Often, it is also to remind us of past events or past sins that
God wants us to deal with. I have seen
God bring the same situation into someone’s life over and over again until they
“get it” and learn what God is trying to teach us.
ii)
One of the best prayers I have ever heard someone pray
in times of tragedy is the following:
“Lord, please teach us the lessons you want us to learn from this
situation. Then, give us the strength,
courage and focus to properly get through it and the discernment to make the
decisions we have to make”.
iii)
Which leads us back to Genesis 29-30. These two chapters focus on the life of
Jacob after being “born again”. We’re
going to read of high’s and low’s in Jacob’s life over the next four
chapters. The big-picture idea is to
see how God is working to mature Jacob in his faith-based relationship
with God.
iv)
During these two chapters, there is not one
mention of God speaking to Jacob. There
is no mention of any prayer by Jacob.
God working in our lives is primarily through events and
circumstances. This is not to say that
direct revelations and prayer is not important. Think about how much time of your day is spent in prayer versus
how much time is spent “doing things”. My
simple point is God uses the events of our lives to help shape us into better
people. To put our trust in God means
that we are a “construction project” that God then molds and shapes through the
daily events of our lives.
v)
I should also add that I am not anti-planning. Jacob did a lot of planning during these
chapters. Some of his plans came to
pass and some did not. The point is God
works in our lives. Sometimes He works
through our plans and sometimes he doesn’t.
Our job is to keep moving forward so we can tell if God is “blessing or
blocking” whatever we are doing!
3.
Chap. 29, Vs. 1:
Then
Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples.
a)
One
has to remember that this is a continual story. The Hebrew word behind
“continued his journey” can be literally translated “happy feat”. It is the idea of walking in trust of God,
and full of joy as one walks.
b)
The
last few verses of Chapter 28 were Jacob making a vow to God. Jacob said essentially, “If (or since) God
is with me on this journey, I’ll give God 10% of whatever I make”.
i)
As
I stated in the last lesson, you can’t bargain with God. As to the “10%” part, the bible teaches that
first 10% of whatever we make belongs to God anyway as a sign of trust. (Ref.: Leviticus 27:30, et.al.)
c)
Remember that God works with us on our level. The commitment by Jacob was sincere, but was
not “theologically correct”. You can’t
bargain with God. What did
happen here, is that God “got a foothold” on Jacob’s life. It’s a start. God didn’t correct Jacob at this point, as God just wanted the
commitment. Over the rest of Jacob’s
life God will work on maturing his relationship with him.
d)
For the same reason, I am never critical of how
one first becomes “saved”. I am
interested in the fact that they fully put their trust in Jesus, even though
they don’t understand all of the biblical implications of that statement. One of the great mistakes made by Christians
is we expect too much from new believers.
It is God’s job to fix their lives, not ours. They didn’t dedicate their lives to serving us, just God. Let God fix them and mature them!
e)
Meanwhile, back to Jacob! J
4.
Verse 2: There he saw a well in the
field, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered
from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were
gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well's mouth
and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the
mouth of the well.
a)
These
verses set the scene of Jacob’s encounter with his future wife Rachel.
b)
When
we think of a well, we think of a 4-foot high brick cylinder with a crank
handle and a bucket. A well in those
days was an hourglass shaped hole used to collect rainwater. It was sealed with a rock to keep dirt from
entering the hole.
c)
Next
to this hole was a bunch of shepherds and sheep. They did not role away the stone until “everyone” (i.e., all the
shepherds who usually came there) was there together.
i)
Why
they waited is unknown. Maybe it was
just a tradition that to be fair, they waited for everyone to gather. This was the biblical version of “everyone
gathering at the water cooler” for the social event of the day.
ii)
It
is also suggested that it may be that the shepherds were older children, and
they needed everyone’s strength to move the stone.
iii)
We’re
also going to read of the “beautiful Rachel” coming with her flock. If I know men, maybe they were all waiting
for Rachel to show up first! J
5.
Verse 4: Jacob asked the shepherds,
"My brothers, where are you from?"
"We're from Haran," they replied. 5 He said to them, "Do
you know Laban, Nahor's grandson?" "Yes, we know him," they
answered. 6 Then Jacob asked them,
"Is he well?" "Yes, he is," they said, "and here comes
his daughter Rachel with the sheep."
a)
You have to remember that there are no road maps or
billboards that say “100 miles to Haran!
J Jacob didn’t know where he was. He asked a few of the locals about
Laban. Remember that Laban is the
brother of Jacob’s mother Rebekah.
Therefore, Jacob would know about Rebekah and her parents, but not about
any daughters. Jacob’s mother Rebekah
told Jacob to get a wife from Laban’s family.
Jacob didn’t even know at this point if that family even had any women
available to be a bride.
b)
One
of the things I pondered is why is so much text spent on this particular
story. The bible could have simply said,
“Jacob met his cousin Rachel by the well, and they went to go meet her father
Laban”. Instead, we have all of these
details recorded about how Jacob first encountered Rachel.
i)
My
reaction is, “You always remember the details of how you first fell in love”. After years of marriage, you forget a lot of
things, but you always remember how you first met and when you first saw your
love. Maybe that is why the details of
this story were passed on to future generations.
6.
Verse 7: "Look," he said, "the sun is still high; it is not
time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to
pasture." 8 "We can't," they
replied, "until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled
away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep." 9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came
with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel
daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and Laban's sheep, he went over and
rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle's sheep.
11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel
and began to weep aloud. 12
He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah.
So she ran and told her father.
a)
In
Verses 7-8 we have the local shepherds again saying “We can’t water the sheep
until all of us local shepherds are here together”. Again, the reason is not stated.
b)
Jacob
takes matters into his own hands and says in effect, “Look, I’ll move the
stone. Start watering the sheep and get
moving”.
c)
This
is “Jacob the schemer” at work. He
wanted Rachel to himself and get rid of the crowd. Some commentators suggested Jacob had “super-human strength” to
move the rock over the well.
Personally, I think that God is working in the background again. God arranges the circumstances for Jacob to
be alone with Rachel (not counting the sheep! J).
d)
The key moment is in Verse 11 where “Jacob kissed Rachel
and began to weep aloud.”
i)
Guys, if you are trying to make a good impression on
your first date, don’t cry in front of the girl! J Jacob was
doing ok and being macho by moving the big rock, and then he started crying!
ii)
Actually, I think the crying was all the emotion sinking
in of everything that has happened to Jacob so far. He traveled all of this distance alone. He realized God was with him and blessed this journey. Jacob “happens” to encounter Laban’s
daughter, as per Jacob’s mother’s request.
Jacob didn’t even know if he had a daughter at this point. Sometimes seeing God at work and realizing
how God has fulfilled promises can overcome us with emotion.
7.
Verse 13: As soon as Laban heard the
news about Jacob, his sister's son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and
kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these
things. 14 Then Laban said to him,
"You are my own flesh and blood."
a)
You
have to remember that this is not our first encounter with Laban.
i)
Laban
is the brother to Jacob’s mother Rebekah.
ii)
Back
when Abraham’s servant went to go get a wife for Rebekah (Genesis 24), Laban
and his father Nahor were the ones who greeted Abraham’s servant.
iii)
We
will discover that Laban, like Jacob are both the conniving type. The bible implies that Laban is very
“money-oriented” in his life.
iv)
Laban
remembers that when Abraham’s servant showed up, he brought all sorts of gifts
for Rebekah and for Nahor/Laban.
Therefore Laban remembered that Abraham’s family was very rich. With that in mind, now read Verse
13b: “He (Laban) hurried to meet
him.” Yes Laban did care it was family,
but I suspect that a rich cousin just showed up and Laban was interested.
8.
Verse 14b: After Jacob had stayed with
him for a whole month, 15
Laban said to him, "Just because you are a relative of mine, should you
work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be."
a)
This
is our first of many clues that Laban is money oriented. This is Laban’s subtle way of telling Jacob
to stop being a freeloader! Jacob has
now stayed at Laban’s house a month.
Laban is saying to Jacob in a sense, “Look, how much should I pay you
for working for me”. It was
subtle way to tell Jacob to stop being a bum!
J
9.
Verse 16: Now Laban had two daughters;
the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but
Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll
work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel."
a)
“Leah
had weak eyes”. Commentators vary as to
what this means, but in summary, she was not as pretty as Rachel. Some say she was ugly, others say had a
“lazy eye”. The main point is to
remember she is less physically desirable than her sister Rachel.
b)
What
we are seeing here is a “dowry”. For a
man to be married, he must pay a price to the father-in-law. The concept is that if he ever leaves her,
dowry money is to be used to support the girl.
Since Jacob traveled empty handed to Haran, he paid the dowry by working
for Laban. Seven years is a very
generous offer.
c)
(I’m
working my way pretty quickly through the this section of the text. It is mostly background for the key
applications coming up. Stay tuned! J)
10.
Verse 19: Laban said, "It's
better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me." 20 So Jacob served seven years
to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love
for her.
a)
Verse
20 is one of the most poetic love verses in the bible. It says that Jacob worked for 7 years for
Laban, but it seemed like a few days because he loved Rachel so much.
b)
I’m
sure Laban made Jacob work hard. For
seven years, Jacob had to wait to have Rachel as his bride. Every time life
seemed tough to Jacob, he just looked at his wallet photo of Rachel and went
back to work! J
c)
Here
is an application to keep in mind: If
we are “God-focused” at any time, the “pain-of-the-moment” isn’t so bad if we
have a God-centered perspective.
11.
Verse 21: Then Jacob said to Laban,
"Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her."
a)
The
seven years may have “seemed like a few days”, but believe me, Jacob kept a
calendar of the seven-year period! J
12.
Verse
22: So Laban brought together all the
people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah
and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. 24 And Laban gave his servant
girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.
a)
Here
is where the plot thickens. For those
who don’t know this story, Laban, switched daughters on Jacob. In that culture, the bride was covered from
head to toe, and the groom was not to see the bride until the wedding night.
b)
In the next set of verses, we read that Jacob and Laban
arrange to work another 7 years to get both brides now. What commentators suspect is that money-hungry
Laban was getting blessed by Jacob.
There are hints of that in upcoming verses. Therefore Laban arranges the bride-switch in order to keep Jacob
around another seven years.
c)
Based
on this verse, it is a tradition in Jewish weddings for a groom to lift the
veil to make sure the groom is marrying the right girl!
d)
You
also have to remember that in this culture, women are very submissive to
men, and especially to their fathers.
e)
You
have to wonder what both daughters were thinking to go along with this deception.
i)
Rachel
was patiently waiting for this wedding day, and her father tells her that her
sister will marry Jacob and not her!
ii)
Leah,
who was not wanted by Jacob, was ordered by her father to go along with this
deception in order to be married!
f)
We
are also introduced to one of two new characters in this plot: Zilpah
i)
As a wedding present Leah, Laban gives her a private
servant named Zilpah.
ii)
In a few verses, we will read how Laban gives another
girl, Bilhah to
Rebekah when she marries Jacob as well.
iii)
It
was from these 4 girls: Rebekah, Leah,
Zilpah and Bilhah that Jacob gets his 12 sons.
Those 12 sons become the founders of the “12 tribes of Israel”.
iv)
More
on this in Chapter 30, which we’ll get to in a few pages.
g)
Remember
there were no light bulbs. The only
lighting came from torches, moonlight and the stars. It is conceivable how
Jacob, who was so anxious to marry Rachel, got Leah in the dark and never
looked closely enough to see it was the wrong sister.
i)
I
keep visualizing Leah: She was unloved,
“ugly” and going along with this deception during the night, even if Jacob was
saying how much he loved Rachel!
13.
When
morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, "What is this you
have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived
me?"
a)
Again,
this is a male-dominated culture. Jacob
didn’t yell at Leah, just at Laban.
14.
Verse 26: Laban replied, "It is not our custom here to
give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter's
bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another
seven years of work."
a)
This
is the key moment in the story, so pay attention! J Laban stated that it was not
customary to give the second-born daughter in marriage prior to the first-born.
b)
I
am positive this verse hit home with Jacob.
i)
Jacob
deceived his going-blind-father into giving him the blessing of the first born
by pretending to be his brother Esau.
(Reference: Genesis Chapter 27)
ii)
Jacob,
in a dark room with Leah, was being deceived due to the “right of the
first-born” daughter!
iii)
Notice
once Jacob realized Laban’s “logic”, he didn’t argue. I believe Jacob felt guilty about what he did to his father, and
now it is “coming home to roost”.
iv)
This
verse gets back to my introduction of how God works in our life. He uses circumstances to remind us of our
personality faults that God wants to correct.
v)
God
knew that Jacob was a deceiver by the way he lied to his father. God made Jacob aware of that sin by letting
Jacob get deceived himself.
c)
One bit of bible trivia, and then I’ll move
on. Notice the word “week” in Verse 27:
i)
Laban
tells Jacob to “Finish this daughter's bridal week”.
ii)
The
Hebrew word for “week” can mean 7 years as well as 7 days.
iii)
This
is important when you get to Daniel 9, when God tells Daniel that from the day
the order to given to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem until the time of the
Messiah would be 62 + 7 “weeks”.
(Ref.: Daniel 9:25) When Daniel
was given that vision, the walls of Jerusalem were in ruins. If you calculate 69 times a seven-year
period (483 years), that comes to the time when Jesus was there!
15.
Verse
28: And Jacob did so. He finished the
week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant girl
Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. 30 Jacob lay with Rachel also,
and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven
years.
a)
These
verses say that Jacob had to wait another “week” (7-years) for Rachel. What this means is that Jacob could marry
both girls now but he “owed” Laban seven more years.
b)
This is a good spot to talk about polygamy, which is
about marrying two or more wives.
i)
God once told Adam, “For this reason a man will leave
his father and mother and be united to his wife (singular!), and they will
become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24 NIV)
ii)
This implies that the ideal relationship is one
man and one woman.
iii)
The Old Testament is full of stories of men marrying
multiple women. Every bible story
involving polygamy is a negative experience!
iv)
In fact, the bible says, “Neither shall he (a Hebrew
man) multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; (Deuteronomy 17:17a, NKJV).
v)
One has to remember that the bible is not just full of
stories for us to model, it is also full of stories for us to learn, “Don’t do
like they did!” The way to tell which
is correct is simply to look at the results, or read passages like Deuteronomy
and read what are God’s explicit instructions for our lives!
vi)
The fact that Jacob takes multiple wives is nothing but
trouble. Trying to make one woman happy
requires a lifetime of work. I can’t
imagine two or more! J
16.
Verse 31: When the LORD saw that Leah
was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 Leah became pregnant and
gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "It is because
the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now." 33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a
son she said, "Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this
one too." So she named him Simeon.
34 Again she conceived, and
when she gave birth to a son she said, "Now at last my husband will become
attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." So he was named
Levi. 35 She conceived again, and
when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the
LORD." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.
a)
You had to feel sorry for Leah, the ugly-sister. She was married to a man who didn’t love
her. God knew that, and provided some
happiness through children.
b)
Here we read of Leah having 4 boys, prior to Rachel
having any children. This means that
despite the fact that Jacob loved Rachel more, he still kept his commitment as
a husband to Leah and had sexual relations with her. In fact, one of the four children mentioned is Judah, through
which the Messiah comes!
c)
You can sense the seeds of jealously “brewing” in these
verses:
i)
I’m sure Leah felt that she was the “blessed of the two
wives” and she was having children. I
suspect that in subtle ways, she taunted her sister.
ii)
She may have also thought that, “Jacob will love me now
that I have children”. Older adults
know it doesn’t work that way, but many young women think they can win men’s
hearts through children. Leah said, “Now at last my husband will
become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons”.
d)
These verses are good reminders of how much God loves
us, especially when we are in situations where we feel unloved by those around
us. Notice it says that God opened her
womb! God knew Leah was unloved and
provided for her.
i)
When one is going through trials, one can either focus
on the pain of how others are treating you, or one can have the joy of knowing
that God loves you and cares for you despite the circumstances you are
going through.
e)
Each of the sons have names that are prophetic. We’ll discuss that more in Genesis 49 when
Jacob gives a prophetic blessing on each of the four kids.
i)
For example, Levi means “attached” as stated in Verse
11.
ii)
Of the 12 sons, God picked the children of Levi to be
the priests of Israel. There is a “pun”
involved as the name Levi means “attached” and they are the ones that represent
(minister) between God and the Israelites.
iii)
Also, we have Judah, which means “praise”. It would be through Judah that the Messiah
comes. The prophetic implication is
“praise of the future blessing”.
a)
By the way, this is the first time that “praise” is
mentioned in the bible. Usually the
first mention of any word or topic in the bible is significant.
17.
Chapter 30, Verse 1:
When
Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of
her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!"
a)
For
those of you that think marrying more than one woman is a good thing, I present
to you Verse 1 of Chapter 30: “So she
said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!” J
i)
You
can just sense the rivalry between the one.
ii)
They
were both trying to win Jacob’s affection and favor through children.
18.
Verse
2: Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am I in the place of God, who
has kept you from having children?"
a)
When
we read of Jacob through most of these chapters, it is usually in a negative
aspect. He is usually trying to “out
connive” someone to get his way. In
this verse, may be one of Jacob’s true shining moments.
b)
I
do believe it is up to God if and when we have children. If it is not God’s will for you to have
children at any one time, then God will shut up a womb no matter how hard you
try. Jacob is only guilty if he is not
“trying” in the first place.
i)
A
pet peeve is Christians who never take action and then blame things as being
“God’s will”! God guides our
actions. He can’t guide us if were not
moving.
c)
So
what was God’s purpose in shutting up Rachel’s womb? I suspect it was about humbling Rachel. She knew she was the favored one over
Leah. God gave her the gift of beauty
was the favored wife over Leah.
Eventually Rachel did have children, but I suspect God wanted to get her
to submit her life first. Further, at
this juncture, God wanted to give Leah a special blessing over Rachel because
Jacob favored Rachel.
19.
Verse
3: Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that
she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a
family."
a)
Here
we see a practice that was “culturally acceptable” for that time and
place. If a woman couldn’t bear
children, you had a slave girl bear one instead of her. If you recall, Isaac’s brother Ishmael was
actually a half-brother as he was Abraham’s son, and the daughter of the
slave-girl Hagar.
b)
Notice
the phrase “I too can build a family”.
Rachel had a desire to have children of her own. I am convinced God placed that desire in
women to want children. The human race
would have been extinct a long time ago if that desire didn’t exist! Men do
desire children, but as a general rule, it is not the same instintive desire
that women have.
i)
A
lot of this competition between the women goes back to the curse placed on Adam
and Eve after they sinned. Remember what God said to Eve:
a)
"I
will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth
to children.” (Genesis 3:16a) That curse is not just about labor pain, but
it is also about a built-in desire to have and raise children.
b)
This is a general-rule.
I have met women who don’t desire children as God has other plans for
their live. On the other hand, I have
also met women who went after the “feminist ideal” of giving up children in
order to have a career, only to be miserable ten to twenty years later.
c)
There was also another part of that same curse: “Your desire will be for your husband” (Genesis
3:16b). If God placed that desire to
please her husband, and children pleased Jacob, then that desire is in Rachel.
20.
Verse 4: So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob
slept with her, 5
and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; he
has listened to my plea and given me a son." Because of this she named him
Dan.
a)
In
the last chapter, there was a mention that Rachel and Leah’s father gave each
of the girls a slave-girl as a wedding present. Now we see the purpose of those girls as God used them to help
increase the size of Jacob’s family.
b)
If
you recall the stories of Ishmael, you remember that he was born in a similar
way.
i)
God
eventually told Abraham to “cast out Ishmael and his mother” as Ishmael’s
half-brother Isaac was the “promised son”.
In the New Testament Ishmael is compared to a “work of the flesh”
because it was God’s will that the promised son came through Sarah, which was
Isaac. (Ref.: Genesis 21, Galatians 4:24-25)
ii)
If
you recall those stories, Ishmael was still blessed by God because he was a son
of Abraham despite the fact he wasn’t the promised son.
c)
Here
in Genesis 30 we have a similar story.
Dan is not “cursed” the same way Ishmael was, because God had a
“different plan in mind” with this story.
It was God’s desire that Jacob have lots of children in a short time
span.
i)
If
you recall in Chapter 28, God specifically told Jacob that he would have a
multitude of descendants. God’s
“method” of giving Jacob lots of children was to have a competition going
between two wives and to get their slave-girls involved!
ii)
One
thing I pondered this week is why God choose to have 4 women to produce
the 12 tribes of Israel (Rachel, Leah and each of their wives’
slave-girls). Let’s face it, God could have
picked just one, or two and Jacob could have had the 12 children that way. I can’t prove it, but I suspect God used
this method in order to produce a large family quickly. Remember that Jacob was working a 7-year
period as a contract-obligation for his wife Rachel. It was God’s will that Jacob have 11 of the 12 children born in
this 7 year period. In order to
accomplish that goal, a bunch of women were needed!
iii)
What’s
my point? My point is that God
“allowed” Rachel’s slave-girl to have children in order to accomplish God’s
will.
d)
This
child’s name is Dan. It is an
“interesting coincidence” that Dan has sort of black-mark in the history of the
12 tribes of Israel. Again, remember
that Jacob’s 12 children each became the leader of the 12 tribes of Israel.
i)
Dan
was the first tribe to go into idolatry (Judges 18:30).
ii)
In
the Book of Revelation, there are 2 places that list 144,000 Jews who will be
Jesus’ witness during the tribulation.
These Jewish Christians are listed by tribe. The one tribe not listed is Dan.
Dan gets a “slap in the face” because they were the first to go into
idolatry. (Ref.: Revelation 7:4-8,
14:3).
a)
The
interesting thing is that despite that, the descendants of Dan still have some
existence in the end times. The end of
the book of Ezekiel describes how God is going to divide up the Promised Land
by tribe. This is a future event, after the tribulation. Dan is one of the tribes listed. (Ezekiel
48:1)
21.
Verse
7: Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, "I
have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won." So she named
him Naphtali.
a)
This
is now son #2 by Rachel’s servant Bilhah.
Remember that Rachel herself is still barren at this point. The score so far: Leah 4, Rachel 0, Rachel’s Bilhah 2. J
22.
Verse 9: When Leah saw that she had stopped having children,
she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah's servant Zilpah bore
Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, "What
good fortune!" So she named him Gad. 12 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
13 Then Leah said, "How
happy I am! The women will call me happy." So she named him Asher.
a)
Now
Leah’s getting into the act. She takes
her maidservant. You get the impression that both wives had lost their ability
to conceive because of jealously. I can
get into a whole sermon here about God’s will being blocked for your life
because of sin. Yes the pain was real
about “the other girl” being favored, but the danger is letting that pain
interfere with your relationship with God.
b)
One
thing you’ll notice is that with each child being born, either Rachel or Leah
makes a short statement about that child.
i)
That
statement usually ties to the name. For
example, Gad means “fortune”. Verse 11
says, “What good fortune!" So she named him Gad.” It is almost as if a “bad-pun” is used in
naming each child.
ii)
The
Life Application Bible® told a bad joke, which was
a good illustration of this principle:
“My wife and I had a baby. The
hospital bill was expensive so we named the child “Bill”. It’s a bad joke, but
it gives you a flavor of how each child was named based on the circumstances
the wives were feeling at that moment.
iii)
When
we get to Genesis 49, Jacob, gives a blessing to each of his children and
predicts their future. We’ll discuss
the names more at that time.
23.
Verse
14: During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some
mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah,
"Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." 15 But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough that
you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?"
"Very well," Rachel said, "he can sleep with you tonight in
return for your son's mandrakes."
a)
Here
we have the story of the mandrakes: A
mandrake is a berry-sized fruit that can be literally translated
“love-apples”. It is known as an
aphrodisiac that stimulates sexual activity and makes women fertile. It is debated whether the power of this
fruit is “real” or all in the mind, but either way, it was accepted.
b)
Here
we read of the contact between the girls.
In summary, one of Leah’s kids finds the fruit. Rachel found out Leah
had this fruit. Rachel asks Leah for
the mandrakes, saying in effect, “Leah, you’ve got kids, I still don’t have
any. I only have kids through my
maidservant”. Leah responds in effect
with, “Look, Jacob loves you (Rachel) and not me. I’m the one who is unloved.
Why should I give them to you?”
c)
The
last sentence was the bargain. The
actual mandrakes went to Rachel, but Leah got to sleep with Jacob that night.
i)
Here’s
a wonderful little example of “Let go, let God”. Remember that at this point Leah stopped bearing children. She thought this berry would help make her
fertile again. Notice Leah actually
gave up the mandrakes in exchange for actually sleeping with Jacob. Leah is figuring, “If God wants me to get
pregnant, He will make it so, mandrakes or not. All I have to do is take the “footsteps” with Jacob.”
ii)
The
concept of “Let go, let God” is to stop worrying about a situation and letting
God take over. Leah still “did the
footwork” of sleeping with Jacob, but she didn’t trust in the mandrakes, she
trusted in God’s ability to come through.
We know this work, as Verse 17 said, “God listened to Leah, and she
became pregnant”.
iii)
Personally,
I watch God do his best work, when we fully let go of the worries about
a situation and let God take over. This
is a great example of that concept.
24.
Verse 16: So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening,
Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me," she said.
"I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he slept with her that
night. 17 God listened to Leah, and
she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, "God
has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband." So she named him
Issachar. 19 Leah conceived again and
bore Jacob a sixth son. 20
Then Leah said, "God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my
husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons." So
she named him Zebulun.
a)
Leah
just got two more sons. Here’s the
scorecard to date:
i)
Leah
6, Leah’s maid Zilpah 2, Rachel 0, Rachel’s maid Bilhah 2.
ii)
Jacob
himself now had his hands full. In less
than a 7-year period, Jacob now had to deal with 10 young children from 3
different women. Jacob still had to
work for a living and tries to make 4 women happy and watch out for 10
kids. Again, this doesn’t speak well
for the concept of polygamy!
b)
The girl that was hurting at this point was Rachel. She saw “everyone around her” having
children and she didn’t have any. I’m
sure she didn’t feel “connected” to her husband as he was busy with work,
raising kids and trying to make 4 women happy!
25.
Verse 21: Some time later she (Leah) gave birth to a daughter
and named her Dinah.
a)
Well,
statistically, a girl had to happen sooner or later. J
b)
The phrase “some time later” is important as we don’t
know where she fit into the birth order. The story of Dinah is told in Genesis
34. It is a sad story as she is raped
in Chapter 34 by an outside tribe.
We’ll discuss her at that point.
26.
Verse 22: Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and
opened her womb. 23
She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, "God has taken away
my disgrace." 24
She named him Joseph, and said, "May the LORD add to me another son."
a)
One
thing I noticed here is no further mention of the mandrakes. Although I can’t prove it, I suspect she
used them and to no avail. After she “gave up hope” then she finally got
pregnant. I only say this in theory, as
that is how God usually works. God
doesn’t like to share his glory with “human efforts” like mandrakes although he
still wants us to “walk in faith” and she still slept with Jacob.
b)
Notice
that Leah’s statement is “God has taken away my disgrace.”
i)
She
felt disgraced by her lack of children.
Reading “between the lines” is my personal theory that she gave up hope
in having children and at that point is when God bless her.
ii)
As
to her son Joseph, well, the majority of the remainder of Genesis is about him.
iii)
Genesis
spends more space discussing the life of Joseph than any other character. We’ll get to Joseph in a few chapters.
27.
Verse
25: After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me on my
way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have
served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I've done for
you."
a)
Jacob
now has 2 wives, 2 slave girl mothers of his children and 11 kids. It is also
the end of his 7-year contract period with his father-in-law Laban.
b)
Jacob
served a total of 14 years for both wives.
Remember that Genesis says the first 7 years “seemed like a few days”
for his love for Rachel (Genesis 29:30).
I suspect the next 7 years seemed like an eternity with 11 kids, and two
feuding wives. J
c)
Jacob knew the exact day the 7 years was over and he needed
to get away!
28.
Verse 27: But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor
in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has
blessed me because of you." 28 He added, "Name your wages, and I will pay
them."
a)
Laban
is one of those guys who gives God “lip service”, but that’s about it. You get the impression that money and
financial success was his primary interest.
Here we read of Laban learning from divination that he is being blessed
because of Jacob.
b)
Notice
Laban does not say: “Hey, stay
for the sake of my daughters and grandkids!”
Laban’s primary concern is that he has lots of wealth and Laban turns to
divination to discover why. It is
interesting that God uses divination to reveal the truth to Laban.
i)
Divination
is forbidden to believers in God. (See
Exodus 22:18) God does not want us to
use demonic powers to get his will accomplished. However, there are a few cases in the Old Testament where God
allows people with this power to testify of God in order to get God’s will
accomplished. Examples include a
diviner named Baalam in Numbers 22-24 and “A women of Endor” in 1st
Samuel 28.
c)
A
positive thing to notice about this verse is Jacob’s reputation has improved at
this time.
i)
Laban
has enough trust in Jacob to tell him, “Make me an offer what I should pay you
and I will honor that contract”.
ii)
This
is an important principle about being “God’s witnesses to the world.” God cares about our reputation to
non-believers, as we are God’s representatives. We should have a reputation as being honest with others.
29.
Verse 29: Jacob said to him, "You know how I have worked
for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I
came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been.
But now, when may I do something for my own household?"
a)
Before
Jacob names his wages, he first tells gives his testimony.
b)
Notice
Jacob gives God the credit for blessing Laban in Verse 30.
c)
From
a human perspective, there is nothing wrong with these verses. Jacob is saying, “Look, I’ve worked all of
these years for you. God has blessed
you during the times I have worked for you.
But our 14-year term (7 years for each wife) is over and it is time you
paid me an honest wage.
d)
Note
that Laban isn’t dumb. He understood
that he was getting rich off of Jacob and because of Jacob’s God. Therefore, Laban wants to keep Jacob around
as long as possible.
i)
With
that in mind, think back to when Jacob first gave his older daughter Leah in
marriage to Jacob. Remember Jacob
worked 7 years for Leah. When the 7
years were about over, Laban was worried Jacob would leave and Laban would no
longer get the financial blessing.
Therefore, Laban thought up this idea of the secret marriage to Leah and
work-another-seven-years to keep Jacob around.
ii)
Now
that the 14 years is all done, Laban must figure out a fair-wage to pay Jacob
in order to keep him around longer.
30.
Verse 31: "What shall I give
you?" he asked. "Don't give
me anything," Jacob replied. "But if you will do this one thing for
me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your
flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every
dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify
for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any
goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not
dark-colored, will be considered stolen."
a)
Let me paraphrase Jacob’s proposal: Listen Laban, lambs and goats that have
spots and streaks are less likely to be born than all-plain color lambs and
goats. Therefore, I’ll only remove
those types of goats and sheep as my wages.
This way you know I haven’t cheated you because if you see any all-white
or all-black goats or sheep in my section, you know that I have stolen from
you.
b)
From Laban’s standpoint, this was a bargain. The same
way that working 7-years for each bride was a lopsided deal in Laban’s favor,
so was Jacob agreeing to take only the inferior animals for his own wages.
c)
Speckled and stripped goats are inferior genes. A similar idea is “left-handed versus right
handed”. The majority of people are
right-handed. It would be like Jacob
saying, “tell you what, all the goats and sheep that are born left-handed will
be my wages”. Laban agreed to that
knowing the majority of people are right-handed.”
d)
To understand why Jacob agreed to this, we need to read
ahead in Chapter 31…
i)
“In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked
up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or
spotted. The angel of God said to me in the dream, `Jacob.' I answered, `Here I
am.' And he said, `Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the
flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has
been doing to you.” (Genesis 31:10-12)
ii)
To paraphrase this text in Genesis 31, Jacob understood
that God was going to bless him despite the fact that Jacob took the inferior
animals. When Jacob proposed his terms
of wages here in Chapter 30, somehow, it had something to do with this vision
as described in Chapter 31.
iii)
What Jacob understood is that God was going to bless him
even though he agreed to take only the inferior animals.
iv)
With that said, it’s time for a mini-sermon: J God wants to bless us. He wants to bless us just because He wants
to bless us and for no other reason.
Sometimes in life we can accept to have less “stuff” than others because
we can walk by faith that God is going to bless us and give us joy for all of
eternity. This is not about being 100%
passive and letting others abuse us.
This is about being a good witness for God in all situations.
v)
Jacob here had a good balance of stating how God is
working in his life and at the same time trusting that God will provide for him
despite the fact Jacob agreed to the inferior pay scale.
31.
Verse 34: "Agreed," said
Laban. "Let it be as you have said." 35 That same day he removed
all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or
spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored
lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons.
36 Then he put a three-day
journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of
Laban's flocks.
a)
The
“three-day journey” is the equivalent of a fence. The 3-day distance between Jacob’s flock and Laban’s flock is so
that none of the sheep and goats were accidentally mixed.
b)
As
someone who loves Christian word-pictures, you can have a field day discussing
the comparison of the 3-day journey to the fact that Jesus rose again on the 3rd
day. It is a word picture of a “3-day
separation of time” between believers and nonbelievers.
c)
Notice
that Jacob still had to take care of Laban’s flocks. Jacob’s workload has not changed, just that he now gets his own
wages as opposed to working as a dowry for Laban’s daughters.
32.
Verse 37: Jacob, however, took
fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes
on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled
branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front
of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to
drink, 39 they mated in front of the
branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young
of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and
dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for
himself and did not put them with Laban's animals. 41 Whenever the stronger
females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of
the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were
weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the
strong ones to Jacob. 43
In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks,
and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.
a)
This
last paragraph is one of the strangest in all of Genesis.
b)
Jacob
took tree branches, peeled the bark and exposed the inner white stripes. Jacob arranged so that whenever the animals
were in heat, he put these peeled tree branches in front of them. This method produced lots more speckled
& streaked animals for Jacob.
c)
Just
why Jacob used this technique is unknown.
i)
Perhaps
Jacob’s years of being a goat farmer taught him that this visual site of a tree
branch will cause the animals to breed.
Maybe the tree branch gets the animals “in the mood”. J
ii)
Remember
in Chapter 31 (next lesson) Jacob described the vision of streaked and spotted
animals. There is no mention of this
tree bark. Perhaps it was part of God’s
instructions to Jacob that was not revealed to us.
d)
Here
is the important part (pay attention! J): Jacob understood God was blessing him. By faith, Jacob agreed to the inferior wages because he knew God
was going to bless him. Whether or not
this “peeled branch” part was of God, or a folk-legend is irrelevant to the
fact that Jacob was trusting in God to provide for him and bless him.
e)
God
wants us to step out in faith and trust him.
My personal view is even if Jacob didn’t use the peeled branch methods,
Jacob would still get lots of goats for his wages because Jacob was trusting in
his God. God was blessing Jacob because
God wants to bless Jacob, not for the particular method of peeled
branches. By using this peeled branch
method, Jacob was “doing the footwork” so that God could bless his life.
33.
It’s
time for a wrap up. I opened this lesson
with the cliché: “What goes around, comes
around”.
a)
Laban took advantage of the fact that God was blessing
Jacob and used it for his own gain. Now
Laban was “being robbed” because the number of goats and sheep being born were
mostly going to Jacob, despite the statistical odds against it.
i)
Statistically speaking, most of the animals being born
should not have stripes and speckles.
But “somehow”, most of the animals being born came out this way, and
thus Jacob’s flock was getting bigger and Laban’s was getting smaller.
ii)
The lesson to learn is that “There is a God”. Laban treats Jacob unfairly, and eventually
it does come back to haunt him.
34.
The interesting thing to read about Laban in the next
chapter is that he still worships his own gods despite the fact he sees Jacob
being blessed.
a)
Jacob, despite his faults, was a good witness of God to
Laban. Jacob agreed to low wages
knowing God would bless him. Despite
that Laban never turned to worship Jacob’s God. Laban is the kind of guy more interested in making a buck than
trusting in the true God. (You would
think Laban would worship God just so he could be financially blessed on his
own. It shows how people’s hearts can
be hardened and how they refuse to change despite the evidence around them.)
35.
Let’s pray:
Father, We thank you for these lessons about Jacob and Laban. Help us, to fully trust in you, and at the
same time keep moving forward in faith knowing that you want to bless our lives
and do wonderful things through us.
Help us to remember that the results of our lives are up to you and not
us. Help us to be good witnesses to the
world around us. Help us to have
patience during our “seven years of labor for others”. We ask this in Jesus name we pray, Amen.