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Genesis 30.22 – 31.24
April 16th
2023
So, we left off with Dinah being born in the baby war of the sisters. And that war is about to change so let’s pick it up at Genesis 30 verse 22 – 24 where we read
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.
Let’s just cover these two passages quickly.
22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
Because we read that God remembered and hearkened to her is seems that after the severe reproof Rachel got from Jacob she sought God to conceive instead of Jacob and drakes of the field and that he heard her.
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.
It’s interesting that she would name this first son with a name that references her getting yet another son – but that is what Joseph means and that other son would be named, Benjamin.
So, let’s read on now from verse 25 –
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 favor 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 ringstraked 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.
37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes 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 ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.
40 And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, 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.
Alright – lets go back to verse 25 where we now read
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.
It is believed that the fourteen years of servitude were now over for his taking both Leah and Rachel to wife. And so Jacob says to Laban
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 favor in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
Laban has seen that God’s hand was upon Jacob and he naturally invites him to hang around for a while because he has prospered in his presence. Then Laban adds and says (verse 28)
28 And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.
29 And he (Jacob) 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?
Jacobs an old sharpie for when Laban admits that the Lord has been with them he parlays that to his advantage and repeats just this, saying
“For it was little which thou had before I came” and then adds, “but, when will I begin to provide for my own household (which at this point was four wive and twelve children!)
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:
It appears that Jacob has a plan in mind and rejects Laban’s offer to give him anything but suggests another approach, if Laban will agree, saying
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.
Where it reads him saying, “I will pass through all thy flock,” the flocks speak to all smaller cattle like sheep and goats and not herds of massive cattle. And passing through them Jacob says that he would remove all the speckled and spotted young sheep or goats, what we today call lambs or kids. “Speckled,” means any of them that were multi-colored but “spotted” speaks to those with larger splatches of colors, more like patchwork.
And then to add in another twist he says, “And all the brown.”
Now, without making a major deal out of all of this, it sort of becomes a major deal in terms of understanding what really went down here. Let me briefly explain by reading the next two verses as Jacob now says
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 ringstraked 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.
It is extremely difficult, in the end, to understand what the bargain of Jacob with his father-in-law really meant.
It appears from Genesis 30:32, that Jacob was to have for his wages all the speckled, spotted, and brown among the sheep and the goats; and therefore it seems that all of those that were not multi-colored were left to Laban.
But some commentators think that in verse 35 Laban separated all the party-coloured cattle and gave them to his sons! I think verse 35 is talking about Jacob. (Verse 36)
Its because of this next verse that commentators think Laban is the one described in verse 35.
And he set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Can’t say definitively so let’s get back to the narrative as we find ourselves confronted with another practice that is as mystical as mandrakes – perhaps even more.
37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
It seems that there was a belief in that day that whatever an animal was looking at during the time it conceived that thing would influence the outcome of the appearance of the offspring.
Apparently my mother was watching a movie about Quazimoto when I was conceived.
Because Jacob was looking to take spotted or streaked animals for his own he wanted animals to be born with multi-colors or spots so he “pilled” or spiraled white streaks into the bark of these sticks from different trees (which may have been believed to cause fertility in the animals too it is believed) and stuck them in the watering troughts to look at while they where drinking.
(verse 38)
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.
Now, some questions – did this work or was it God who blessed Jacob with an abundance of speckled straked animals?
The narrative seems to imply that the practice worked, doesn’t it? I’m not so sure. But we do read
39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.
Perhaps God was simply blessing Jacob, perhaps Jacob didn’t understand genetics and how spotted and streaked animals would come from spotted and streaked animals. I’m just not so sure this is a biblical teaching on how to get spotted or streaked sheep or goats.
40 And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, 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.
This sounds like Jacob was sure that this ritual worked so he does it with the lambs too. Then at this point I think the ways of “old Jacob started up as we read at verse 41
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.
Where the verse describes these offspring as stronger, the Hebrew tends to support the idea that those animals born first in the year (were often stronger) and those born later in the year (were often weaker).
The end result was the flock of Laban was weakened while Jacob’s flock was preserved in a state of increasing strength and perfection.
I think that from all of this we see the wisdom and knowledge of Jacob and animal husbandry as well.
Was this wrong? I think it was wise and insightful as this world operates off a certain wisdom. Did he take advantage of Laban? To a certain extent but remember, Laban had also done him wrong as well and Jacob was merely using everything at his disposal and take advantage of the deal he and Laban had made together.
Why even mention this?
I have talked with numerous souls over the years of what it means to be a Christian in this world and its workplaces. Many people dedicated to God are rightly concerned on how to live in the world around them and the occupations we choose.
Paul gives some really good insight to the believers in that day telling them to do their jobs as if they are doing them unto the Lord.
I would imagine that this is still very good advice especially if people know that you are a disciple of the King.
I would caution us against using our faith in our work to get customers as there are times when the faith claims and the job requirements can conflict.
However, I would also always put my faith first in whatever I do and never give anyone cause to use it against the Lord we claim to love and follow.
God made all of us uniquely and equipped us with ways, skills and traits to be used and applied in this world to make livings. Simple as that. Along the way we all are forced to decide if we will focus more on the world or on him AS we do what we were made to do!
So, back to Jacob and the part where he gets a little sneaky in my humble opinion.
42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
In my estimation, under the pre-old Covenant law this was okay, under the law, it was a bit shady, and for a Christian, Jacob was unfair and opportunistic “not doing to His brother what he would have done unto him.”
In the next chapter we are going to hear Jacobs’ justification for dealing with Laban in this way and addmittdly they are pretty sound so I think we can give him a pass considering context.
43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.
This has been a wild chapter, right – the promise of marriage but a switch; the giving of handmaids, the war of child bearing between sisters, which included naming children as a means to inflict pain, mandrakes, prostitution employed, and sketchy practices to get multi-colored animals and to increase the health of one man flock over his father in law.
For us today? Not really. But part of a narrative by which we can all learn. So on to chapter 31 where all of this comes to a head.
Genesis 31:1 And he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s hath he gotten all this glory.
2 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.
3 And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.
4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock,
5 And said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.
6 And ye know that with all my power I have served your father.
7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.
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 ringstraked, 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 ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?
15 Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.
16 For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children’s: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.
17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;
18 And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.
20 And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.
21 So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.
22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.
23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.
24 And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
Alright back to verse 1
Genesis 31:1 And he (Laban) heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s hath he gotten all this glory.
And he (Laban) heard the words of Laban’s sons speaking apparently to the talk about Jacob’s multiplication of the small cattle and the decrease and literal degeneracy of Laban’s flocks.
And the sons were angry claiming that Jacob “had gotten all this glory” meaning he had gone away with all of his riches and even members of the family of Laban.
2 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before
3 And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.
I find it really fascinating when God tells someone to act in scripture. It speaks directly to His knowing that there is danger? Does God know the situation or does He know the actual outcome of what would happen if Jacob remained behind? Not sure we can answer rightly.
What is also interesting is the Jewish Targum translates this as, “My WORD shall be for thy help.”
Isn’t that fascinating? That all the way back to Genesis God tells Jacob, “My Word shall be for thy help?”
I see this insight as being a reference to the power of God’s Word leading and guiding Jacob and as a really solid evidence in the Old Testament of what would come from God in His Word made flesh. Verse 4
4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock,
This seems to have been an attempt on Jacobs part to be discrete as speaking to them in their tents may have been overheard by some of Laban’s family.
5 And said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.
6 And ye know that with all my power I have served your father.
7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
Between the ancient versions and the ancient and modern interpreters of this verse there is a divergence of meaning.
The Hebrew translates this to ten numbers, Symmachus translates it, “ten times in number,” the Septuagint translates it “ten lambs,” but St. Augustine thinks that by “ten lambs” five years’ wages is meant: in other words, that Laban had withheld from him all the party-colored lambs which had been brought forth for five years, and because the ewes brought forth lambs twice in the year the number ten is used, meaning Jacob was defrauded of his part of the produce of ten births. Bottom line? Ten here might not mean ten literally. Verse 8
8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.
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 ringstraked, speckled, and grisled.
11 And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.
Moses makes no mention of this dream before so it is weird it is mentioned now as a justification of things by Jacob.
This seems to be a translational thing because other translations do in fact mention the dream after verse 36. In any case, Jacob says to his wives what seems to be a quote from the dream and says, repeating what God said to Him
12 Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?
15 Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.
Rachel and Leah, who well knew the crafty disposition of their father seems to describe his true character here and say,
“He has treated us as strangers – or as slaves whom he had a right to dispose of as he pleased,” and as a result, they seem to be saying, “our father has disposed of us on the mere principle of gaining by the sale of us leaving us no inheritance of our own.” They add at verse 16
16 For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children’s: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.
17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;
18 And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.
It seems that Jacob picked a good time to leave as Laban had gone somewhere and it was therefore also a good time for Rachel to steal her father’s images or idols.
And we come to some wild stuff relative to the images Rachel stole from her dear ol’ Dad.
We have said before that that land, outside of Chaldee and close to Mesopotamia, was riddled with esoterica and idols. Esoterica is information that is so specialized that it is understood by only a small number of people. It is the promise of esoterica that many dark arts exist in the world appealing to what people like to claim is secret knowledge, rites, rituals and such.
Been around a lonnnnnnnnng time.
We mentioned last week that Laban is believed to have consorted with the Stars via astronomy or astrology and here we have some evidence that he looked to or worshipped idols.
The Hebrew here is “teraphim,” which are believed to have referred to idols that gave prosperity which were in human shape.
In 1st Samuel 19 we read about Michal, David’s wife, in an effort to deceive the guards sent by Saul to take David, took a teraphim that was part of their family, and altered it by adding goatshair and a mantle of some kind.
When the soldiers came to take him she pointed the icon out and said that it was David who was confined to his bed by a sudden illness.
This gained time for David’s escape. It’s a weird story that creates as many questions as anything, but we will talk about it then. The point is teraphims are spoken of there.
In 2nd Kings Josiah attempted to suppress this form of idolatry and then teraphim are mentioned in Hosea 3:4.
In the end, however, we again are not really sure what they were but we are MORE sure that they were idols of some sort that were believed by some to be gods.
Theodoret, a theologian in the fourth century suggests that Rachel stole them from her dad to break his habit of consulting or worshipping them but the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel gives a whole super wild insight to this passage, saying
“And Rachel stole the images of her father: for they had murdered a man, who was a first-born son; and having cut off his head, they embalmed it with salt and spices, and they wrote divinations upon a plate of gold, and put it under his tongue; and placed it against the wall, and it conversed with them, and Laban worshipped it. And Jacob stole the science of Laban the Syrian, that it might not discover his departure.”
Some believe this teraphim were talisman used to bring or restore health; others to give visions or information. There is even some good evidence that they could have been tablets that enabled Laban to read the stars because the Persian translation of this passage is “astrolabes,” which was an instrument that served to measure interstellar readings.
Here is the deal – and I am still unsure on how to see all of this stuff because there is a huge body of examples of it scattered all throughout religious history.
However, there is an enormous history from scripture and outside of it where we will read about the Magicians of Pharaoh coming up in Exodus, Urims and Thummims, about casting lots, about Hebrew Caballah, Catholic Mystics like Thomas Merton, and the list only grows when we consider a vast human history of spellcraft, demons and devils, Hermeticism, Masonry, and Mormonism, Thelema, theosophy, Ekankar, Theistic Satanism and much more that all tie to Egyptian spiritual influences and I suggest that the Dark forces have been around as long as God. I am convinced that they do, in fact, offer power contrary to God and that this world in many ways in in their control – so to speak.
I suggest that the children of Light are at general odds with these dark powers that can do Good and Evil and the central question behind all of them is Whom will you seek and serves.
Anyway,
20 And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.
21 So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.
The river mentioned here is apparently the Euphrates, as the Targum properly notices.
But it brings us some issues like “how could he pass such a river with all of his speckled and spotted flocks?”
Fascinatingly, the some rabbis believe that God intervened and caused the river to go dry – like He will do later for the COI – I dunno – because apparently the Euphrates was not some shallow thin river of moving water.
Then when we read that he set his face to “mount Gilead,” what the ancient name of this mountain was, we do not know but it is likely that it had not the name of Gilead till after the transaction we will read about in Genesis 31:47 next week.
22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.
23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.
24 And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
It seems that God thought it necessary to caution Laban by telling him to speak neither good nor bad to Jacob.
From what I can tell, this was a Hebrew way to describe God as saying,
Be sure when you speak with Jacob that your words reflect no deception – meaning, say not anything that will try and move Jacob one way or another but be factual with your thoughts so as to not incur any type of reaction.
For whatever that is worth.
We will push on next week.
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