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Gen. 30:22 “And God remembered Rachel, and
God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and
said, God hath taken away my reproach: 24
And she called his name Joseph; and said,
The LORD shall add to me another son.”
In the war between the two sisters, Leah had
desperately wanted the affection of her
husband Jacob and God gave her an abundance
of children. In contrast, Rachel desperately
wanted children and God gave her the
affections of Jacob. Now, God remembers
Rachel and gives her a son and she named him
“Joseph.” The word “Joseph” means “adding.”
God is merciful and manifests his mercy to
both sisters, even though they fought
against each other. Yet the mercies of God
are great. God ultimately gave Rachel what
see so desperately wanted and would later
add a second child, Benjamin. In child
birth, however, Rachel would die. At that
point, Leah, would get what she so
desperately wanted and that is the undivided
affection of her husband Jacob. Both women
had acted at times in a morally
reprehensible manner, yet God in his mercy
and by his grace blessed both women. When I
think about God’s dealings with these two
sisters, I am made to think of myself and
how that at times I have not been what I
should have been, yet God has blessed me
according to his mercies and according to
his grace.
Gen.
30:25-36 "Send me away..."
Gen. 30:25
“And it came to pass, when Rachel had born
Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me
away, that I may go unto mine own place, and
to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my
children, for whom I have served thee, and
let me go: for thou knowest my service which
I have done thee. 27 And Laban said unto
him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in
thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by
experience that the LORD hath blessed me for
thy sake. 28 And he said, Appoint me thy
wages, and I will give it. 29 And he said
unto him, Thou knowest how I have served
thee, and how thy cattle was with me. 30 For
it was little which thou hadst before I
came, and it is now increased unto a
multitude; and the LORD hath blessed thee
since my coming: and now when shall I
provide for mine own house also?
31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And
Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any
thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I
will again feed and keep thy flock. 32 I
will pass through all thy flock to day,
removing from thence all the speckled and
spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle
among the sheep, and the spotted and
speckled among the goats: and of such shall
be my hire. 33 So shall my righteousness
answer for me in time to come, when it shall
come for my hire before thy face: every one
that is not speckled and spotted among the
goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall
be counted stolen with me. 34 And Laban
said, Behold, I would it might be according
to thy word.
35 And he removed that day the he goats that
were ringstreaked and spotted, and all the
she goats that were speckled and spotted,
and every one that had some white in it, and
all the brown among the sheep, and gave them
into the hand of his sons. 36 And he set
three days' journey betwixt himself and
Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's
flocks.”
The time for Jacob to return to the land of
Canaan had come and Jacob went to his uncle
Laban to get his blessings to return to the
land of Canaan. Laban told Jacob that he
had learned by experience that the Lord had
blessed him for Jacob’s sake. This
parallels the fact that God has blessed us
for Christ’s sake. Also, we know that
sometimes we receive blessings because of
our proximity to other people as well. I
believe there have been times that the Lord
has abundantly blessed the preaching of his
word for certain individuals in the
congregation and it was a blessing for all
the members of the congregation. This
should also encourage us to make close
fellowship with godly people as we may be
blessed for their sake.
Again, Laban proposes a contract of work
with Jacob. Jacob has learned by past
experience not to trust Laban with his
proposals and this one will be different
only in that the Lord intercedes on behalf
of Jacob and his family.
Laban considered the contract of labor to be
a gift that he was giving Jacob, however,
Jacob believed that he would earn through
his labor the portion that would fall to
him.
Jacob proposed to again care for the flock
of Laban and the wages would be only those
cattle that had certain markings on them.
To this Laban agreed. However, Jacob said
that he would separate out those who had the
particular marking at the beginning and
Laban beat Jacob to it and gave those marked
cattle into the hands of his sons.
Gen. 30:37-43 Fables and Genetics
Gen. 30:37
“And Jacob took him rods of green poplar,
and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and
pilled white streaks in them, and made the
white appear which was in the rods. 38 And
he set the rods which he had pilled before
the flocks in the gutters in the watering
troughs when the flocks came to drink, that
they should conceive when they came to
drink. 39 And the flocks conceived before
the rods, and brought forth cattle
ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 And
Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the
faces of the flocks toward the ringstreaked,
and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and
he put his own flocks by themselves, and put
them not unto Laban's cattle. 41 And it came
to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did
conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before
the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that
they might conceive among the rods. 42 But
when the cattle were feeble, he put them not
in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the
stronger Jacob's. 43 And the man increased
exceedingly, and had much cattle, and
maidservants, and menservants, and camels,
and asses.”
The above illustrates that God knew and
revealed the truth even when men were
convinced of fables. Jacob thought that
when cattle conceived when they were looking
at certain objects that the cattle would be
in likeness to the objects. This was
apparently widely believed at that time. Of
course at one time, the earth was believed
to be flat and not round, but the scriptures
told us multiple centuries before that God
sitteth upon the “circle” of the earth!
At first Jacob believed that his practice of
putting objects before the cattle was the
cause of the cattle bringing forth young in
the likeness of those objects. However,
later God showed Jacob the truth: Gen. 31:9
“Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your
father, and given them to me. 10 And it came
to pass at the time that the cattle
conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and
saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which
leaped upon the cattle were ringstreaked,
speckled, and grisled. 11 And the angel of
God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob:
And I said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lift
up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams
which leap upon the cattle are ringstreaked,
speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all
that Laban doeth unto thee.” In the dream,
God showed Jacob that the reason the cattle
brought forth as they did was based on
genetics and not based on some commonly
believed fable. Moreover, when we realize
that modern genetics was not discovered and
generally believed until the middle of the
20th century,
we must say, “Let God be true, but every man
a liar.” The bible is scientifically the
most accurate document known and revealed
great scientific truths long (often
centuries) before scientists discovered
those truths.
“And the man increased exceedingly, and had
much cattle, and maidservants, and
menservants, and camels, and asses.” In
this we see, the Lord interceding on the
behalf of Jacob and taking away the wealth
of Laban, who had gained much of that wealth
through his deception of Jacob. The
scriptures say, “Vengeance is mine, I will
repay saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). |
