Gen 30b, 31

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All right. Good to be with you again as we continue in our journey in Genesis.

Last time we watched Laban deceive Jacob by giving Leah in place of Rachel. So where Jacob had intended to marry one wife he ends up with 4 wives, Leah and Rachel and their two handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah. Laban then forced Jacob to serve him another 7 years for a total of 14 years. During this 14 year period he and his wives have 11 of their 12 children.

This brings us to where we begin tonight. Please stand as we pick up in Gen 30:25.

Genesis 30:25–30 (NASB95)

25 Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.

26 “Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me depart; for you yourself know my service which I have rendered you.”

27 But Laban said to him, “If now it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined that the Lord has blessed me on your account.”

When you’re good at what you do your employer will not easily let you go. They know your value.

28 He continued, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

29 But he said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have fared with me.

30 “For you had little before I came and it has increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?”

This is a desire that nearly every man has, the need to build his own kingdom and to stop building someone else’s kingdom. When Jacob says “send me away” it is much stronger in the Hebrew. It is an imperative meaning; set me free! He is done with uncle Laban.

Jacob continues to make his case and he “the master conniver” comes up with a plan to get paid. The problem is he has to make Laban believe that, he (Laban), will come out on top.

Genesis 30:31–36 (NASB95)

31 So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock:

Laban was probably expecting Jacob to ask for a percentage of the flock. But instead Jacob mentions the two things that would interest Laban the most, it won’t cost him anything and Jacob will continue to manage his flocks.

32 let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted sheep and every black one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

The spotted and speckled sheep and goats and the black lambs were by far the least prevalent of the herd. Most sheep and goats were solid colored and the lambs were predominately white.

33 “So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.”

34 Laban said, “Good, let it be according to your word.”

35 So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons.

36 And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

So Laban removes from the flock all non-solid colored of the herd and puts them under the care of his sons thus in his mind diminishing any chance of spotted offspring and prospering Jacob. But Jacob has a plan and with God even the impossible is possible.

Genesis 30:37–43 (NASB95)

37 Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods.

38 He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink.

The word mated here also translated as conceived is literally to be in heat.

39 So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

We really don’t know how this worked. For many years it was believed that what some one saw at conception would affect the offspring’s appearance but modern science has not made that conclusion, at least yet. There are however some interesting visual things that effect us physically. Like Blushing.

40 Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

41 Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods;

42 but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

43 So the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.

Jacob was a very experienced herdsman and through his own observation and experience, and experimentation in breeding gave him a real advantage over Laban.

Video-Jacob's Sheep - A History 10:01 (Show only 8 minutes)

Chapter 31

Genesis 31:1–7 (NASB95)

1 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.”

2 Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly.

3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,

5 and said to them, “I see your father’s attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me.

6 “You know that I have served your father with all my strength.

7 “Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me.

What a comfort know that God has your back. Jacob came to understand that it didn’t matter what Laban did to him; God would prosper him in spite of Laban’s plan.

Genesis 31:8–13 NASB95

8 “If he spoke thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth speckled; and if he spoke thus, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth striped. 9 “Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10 “And it came about at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled. 11 “Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 “He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 ‘I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’ ”

So what appeared to Laban to be an impossibility to genetically produce spotted offspring, God was able to change the genetics as needed. Or perhaps he was able to know which animals carried the recessive genes. Either way you will not win if you fight God.

Images - Jacobs Sheep

We continue

Genesis 31:14–16 (NASB95)

14 Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?

15 “Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price.

Here R & L are speaking of the dowry, saying non of it is left.

16 “Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.”

So Jacob gets the agreement of R & L to move ahead with the plan to escape.

Genesis 31:17–21 (NASB95)

17 Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels;

18 and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.

19 When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s.

The word here for idols is teraphim. These were the household idols or gods almost like good luck charms. Earlier Laban had made mention of such when he said he had divined as to Jacobs success being from God.

There is also indication from archaeological digs that possessing these teraphim would add legitimacy to Jacobs owning his flocks. Certainly, Jacob had no knowledge of Rachel's taking them.

20 And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing.

21 So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

At this point Jacob and his caravan were about 300 miles from Haran and in the mountains just Northeast of the Jordan River.

Genesis 31:22–25 NASB95

22 When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, 23 then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.” 25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead.

And so Laban has caught up to Jacob and his family and the time to confront this issue has come.

Genesis 31:26–42 (NASB95)

26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?

27 “Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with timbrel and with lyre;

28 and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly.

29 “It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’

30 “Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?”

31 Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.

32 “The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them.

KJV - says searched but the word means groped. The verb from means he intensely caused himself to grope.

35 She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household idols.

36 Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

37 “Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.

38 “These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks.

39 “That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

40 “Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

41 “These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times.

42 “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”

So Laban says his part and then Jacob really gives it to Laban. Now they decide to make a covenant together.

Genesis 31:43–55 (NASB95)

43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?

You can see the attitude of Laban. In his heart Jacob owned nothing.

44 “So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”

45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

47 Now Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed,

Some translations say Jegar - sahadutha = heap of witness in Aramaic.

49 and Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other.

It sounds all happy and good but it is far darker than it appears.

50 “If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

51 Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me.

52 “This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

53 “The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.

54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to the meal; and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.

55 Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.

All right we have covered a lot of ground tonight. What a life Jacob lived. Next week he must confront another loose end from his past, Esau.

Pray