Genesis 30
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Jacob dealing with the fall out of more than one wife (V1-24)
Same old heart problem (v1-13)
- Rachel v.s. Hannahs response… 1 Samuel 1..
- Jacobs foolishness and theology. Jacob is a pawn in the bitter and foolish rival of these women.
Bilhahs sons - Dan (Judged) and Naphtali (Wrestling)
Zilpahs sons - Gad (Good Fortune) Asher (Happy)
God’s continued blessing (v14-24)
The Mandrake - “Mandrakes” (dûdāʾîm) appears elsewhere in the Old Testament only in Song 7:13[14] (also T. Iss. 1:3–5), where it speaks of their exotic smell, as part of a scene depicting lovemaking (cp. dōdîm, “love,” e.g., Prov 7:18; Song 1:2). The standard identification of the “mandrake” is Mandragora officinarum L., part of the nightshade, potato, and tomato family.294 M. Zohary questions whether the Hebrew dûdāʾîm of our passage is to be equated with the Mandragora, on the basis that the Mandragora does not grow in Mesopotamia, but he does not offer an alternative identification. The Greeks rendered dûdāʾîm as Mandragora,295 and we know that the plant appears in Israel today. The Arabs called it the “devil’s apples” and the Greeks nicknamed it “love apple”296 because of its legendary reputation as an aphrodisiac. It was further believed that the mandrake could enhance a woman’s fertility. The plant exhibits long, dark green leaves in a rosette pattern; from the center of the leaves are flower stalks that each produce a “purple, bluish, or greenish-white flower.” During the spring the plant produces a yellow-red fruit, likened to a plum in size and shape. Moldenke and Moldenke describe their appearance like “yellow bird eggs in a shallow nest.”297 Especially interesting are its dark roots that resemble the lower torso of a human form, which probably contributed to the mysteries surrounding its magical, sensual powers. Although the mandrake grows wild in Palestine, the royalty and nobility of ancient Egypt cultivated it in gardens, perhaps near water ponds.
Leah Again - Issachar (Hire or Wages… a pun to her saying “she hired Jacob out for the night through the mandrakes) …Zebulun (Honor…a pun on “honor” or :exalt me…) Dinah… We see the great contribution of Leah to the line of Israel as a testament to the grace of God in the life of a woman who suffered the emotional neglect of her husband.
Rachel - Joseph ( May he add, or taken away) … She was filled with Joy… After seven years of strife and bareness she bears a child. The emiption is captured in Isaiah 54:1 This child and the ending of the genealogy is future looking… building more anticipation.
1 “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.
What can we take away form this?
God uses flawed and even the foolish use of superstitions to accomplish his purposes.
Jacob deceived again (v25-36)
Laban finds out via divination… Divination is not described here, but the writer is telling us that it is not from a direct relationship with the Lord… Divination is prohibited later in the law Deuteronomy 18:9-14
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
What is the problem with divination?
“Not that you will give me anything”… Laban is not in a place to give, Jacob has earned his keep. A worker is worth his wage!
Jacob makes a wager for the speckled and dark…
The typical appearance of sheep and goats was the opposite coloration, namely, white sheep and dark-hued (black or brown) goats. Thus, Laban must have reasoned that the likely hood of having many of these kinds of animals was small…. But he will be beaten at his own game.
Laban goes to work fast… He removes the ones Jacob is to have and gives them to his sons to tend to. Keeping them from Jacob. It backfires though, because it frees jacob from having many responsibilities and he is able to devise a plan.
The Lord Correcting (v37-43)
The branches that were choses bore an appearance to the spickled and spotted and would have had stripes of white in them… Reffering to the types of Goats and Sheep Jacob and Laban agreed upon. But how do sticks produce genetically modified sheep?…. They don’t… Like tha mandrakes taken by the girls, there is an understadning that these wives tales could help… but ultimately, the Lord has control over every ceLl. He produces life, and knows every thought, and turns the heads of kings…
“Prosperous” (pāraṣ) is a link with the original promise made to Jacob (“spread,” pāraṣ, 28:14), showing that the Lord had made good on his word. Also there is an ironic twist indicated by this word; it appeared earlier in v. 30 (“increased,” pāraṣ), describing Laban’s wealth by virtue of Jacob’s efforts. Now, after retaining his nephew, Laban unexpectedly becomes the inferior of the two.
All in all it seems as though the Lord does this… He takes the little and makes much of them. He takes the weak and exalts them… 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”