Genesis Chapter 30 Deep-Dive: Jacob's household and flock increases.

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GEN 30

1When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. THINK ABOUT THAT TURN-ABOUT, FOR MOST OF HER LIFE RACHEL WAS PROBABLY THE ONE WHO WAS ENVIED BY LEAH – ESPECIALLY IN THE MARRIAGE, NOW, GOD HAS TURNED IT AROUND … KEEP IN MIND THAT BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE … HE SHAMES EVERYONE … MAKING OUR WEAKNESSES CRYSTAL CLEAR TO US TO PROVIDE A WAY FOR US TO REPENT AND FIND TRUE HUMILITY.  She RACHEL said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” YUP 3Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” HOW DID THAT WORK OUT FOR GRANDPA ABRAHAM … HAGAR AND ISHMAEL??  RACHEL IS LOOKING FOR A WAY TO GET AROUND GOD INSTEAD OF REPENTING IN HUMILITY 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. NOTHING GOOD EVER CAME OUT OF DAN, IT’S THE TRIBE LEFT OUT IN THE LISTING OF THE TRIBES IN REVELATION.  7Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.”  MORE FINE FAMILY DYNAMICS IN JACOB’S HOUSEHOLD So she called his name Naphtali.  ANOTHER OF THE FAR NORTHERN TRIBES THAT FELL INTO IDOLATRY. 

9When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. 12Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.  INSTEAD OF REPENTENCE, HUMILITY AND CAMARADERIE JACOB NOW HAS A STRANGE BREEDING RIVALRY TAKING PLACE IN HIS HOUSEHOLD

14In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. ANCIENTS BELIEVED THEY WERE APHRODISIACS OR SEXUAL STIMULANTS Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” REMEMBER JACOB AND HIS STEW WHEN ESAU RETURNED FROM THE FIELD HUNGRY?  16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” SO, JACOB IS BEING BOUGHT AND SOLD FOR BREEDING RIGHTS BY HIS WIVES … UGH, CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN THAT HOUSEHOLD? So he JACOB lay with her that night. 17And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.

19And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. 21Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.

22Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”

25As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26Give 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.” SO, IT’S BEEN 20-25 YEARS SINCE JACOB LEFT HOME, A TRIP THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ONLY A FEW MONTHS … HE HAS A LARGE FAMILY & SOME PROSPERITY … TIME TO HEAD HOME.  27But 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. THINK OF ABIMELECH AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH BOTH ABRAHAM AND ISAAC … GOD HAS BLESSED US BECAUSE OF YOU (BOTH), IT’S THE SAME NOW WITH JACOB … LABAN HAS SOME TYPE OF RELATIONSHIP WITH YAHWEH (WHATEVER DIVINATION WAS) AND HE REALIZES HOW IMPORTANT JACOB IS.  28Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30For 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?” 31He 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: 32let 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. 33So 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.” 34Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35But 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. 36And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.  SO, IMMEDIATELY, LABAN TRIES TO RIP OFF JACOB … TAKING ALL THE GOATS THAT WOULD END UP AS JACOBS AND SENDING THEM AWAY WITH HIS SONS.

37Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38He 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, 39the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40And 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. 41Whenever 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, 42but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.  IT’S NOT REALLY CLEAR EXACTLY WHAT JACOB WAS DOING WITH THE STICKS AND WHAT EFFECT IT HAD FROM A SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE OTHER THAN JACOB WAS SEPARATING THE STRONG FROM THE WEAK IN THE FLOCK.  REMEMBER THAT THIS IS AN ANCIENT TEXT WRITTEN SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 500-1500 BC, AND JACOB WAS MOST LIKELY USING MODERN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY IDEAS FROM THAT TIME, HOWEVER, JACOB CONTINUED TO WORK FOR LABAN AND GOD CONTINUED TO PROSPER HIM, AND MOST LIKELY JACOB FELT LIKE HE WAS GETTING ONE OVER ON LABAN … UGH

 

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