Genesis 30:25-43

Today’s scene is a strange one - all about speckled lambs and goats! I had to read it a couple of times just to wrap my brain around it this early in the morning! :) Jacob has been working for his difficult father-in-law for 14years. He’s had enough! He now has a large family, that includes his new son, Joseph, and he’s ready to head home and start working for himself.

Laban, on the other hand, knows a good thing when he sees it, and he has totally prospered while Jacob has been working for him. He is not about to let go of his meal ticket! The interesting thing is that Laban, who is not a believer, realizes that God has been with Jacob. He truly wants the blessings of God, but not God Himself:

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”


But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.” (Gen.30:25-28)

Please remember that Laban is a deceiver through and through, so his attempt at humility in his plea doesn’t fool Jacob. Jacob very reasonably asks for release from his service to his father-in-law, but Laban wants to bargain to keep him. So he agrees to allow Jacob to walk through the flocks of sheep and goats and keep any that he finds that are spotted or speckled. Of course, first Laban, on the sly, separates them out himself and sends the spotted and speckled ones a three-day journey away with his sons. In this way, when Jacob goes through the herds, there are none for him.

However, you can’t con a con man! Jacob puts striped branches in the watering troughs where the flocks in heat come to drink, and they produce spotted and speckled lambs when they mate! Now, the blessing here is clearly God’s and has nothing to do with the branches! God had promised to prosper Jacob and he surely does here. We’ll see in chapter 31 how God was in this.

Beth Moore focuses on our need to find a formula for our successes with God. Does He answer our prayers because of the way we pray? Is it because of our fasting? Is it the people we ask to join us in the ministry? We want to know what it is that makes God bless our efforts, so we can replicate it the next time. The reality is that God is not tied to our formulas. He is the One who blesses. He delights in blessing any efforts we make for His glory! But He will not be put in a box by methods! God planned to bless Jacob and his family, and He made a covenant with Jacob to give him the land He had promised to Abraham and his descendants. It was time. So God blesses Jacob in his efforts and thwarts the plan of Laban:

In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys. (vs. 43)

One of the many lessons that I’m seeing here is that there are many people who want the blessings of God (like Laban), but who do not want God Himself. Laban could see that Jacob was blessed by God, and he loved the way that benefitted him, too. Just like Laban, we all know people who are happy to be around those who seem to receive answers to their prayers - in fact they will often ask believers to pray for them - as if we have this magic connection to God. While we want people to see that God is with us, our goal is that they will want our God, not the stuff of blessings (whether material goods or good health or job success). God IS the blessing!

We’ll see in the next chapter that it took Jacob another six years of working for Laban to build his flock! Ye gads!

Off to a day at the beach with 127 fifth graders as we celebrate their graduation from elementary school and the end of a LONG school year (our last day is Thursday)!! Yesterday we played a softball game (5th grade vs. the teachers), and today I'm feeling it!  I got on base three times and made it home - lots of running for a sixty year old broad!!

 

Genesis 30:1-24 PART 3

Before we move on from this chapter, I wanted to share with you some of the thoughts that Jon Courson has in his commentary on this passage. He writes of two mistakes Rachel made here: first, she looked to the wrong person to have her needs satisfied (she wanted Jacob to give her a child); second, she asked in the wrong way.

Rachel had the affection of Jacob, unlike her sister, Leah. But she lacked children. And what she lacked became her obsession. She was sure that having children would fill the void, but as we already saw, only God can fill up the emptiness in us.

Then, she didn’t really ask so much as she demanded her way: “Give me children or I’ll die.” When she did get her son, Joseph, she immediately wanted another, because she apparently felt she had to keep pace with her sister! And, as we know, she died giving birth to the second son. Here is what Jon Courson writes in his commentary (Application Commentary, OT, Vol !, Pgs.144-145):

As she was dying in childbirth, what did she say? Not, “Oh, praise God, another son;” not, “Oh, Lord, You’re awesome to give this barren woman two children.” No, as she was dying in childbirth, Rachel named her son Benoni, or “Son of my Sorrow.” The last word on beautiful Rachel’s lips was “sorrow” (Genesis 35:18).


Rachel demanded her way and it killed her.


Reading that is just so sad! Instead of trusting God with His plan, we often demand our own way - and sometimes He will give it to us! Even as Rebekah lost Jacob because she was trying so hard to control his life, now Rachel loses her life by insisting on her plan over trusting that God was working in her through her barrenness.

Courson shows how the birth of Rachel’s second son parallels the roles of Christ:

A broken Rachel names her son Benoni, “Son of my Sorrow.” But a wiser Jacob renamed him Benjamin, “Son of my right hand.” As the Son of Man, Jesus was called the “Man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3), but as the Son of God, He sits at the Father’s right hand (Colossians 3:1). And as He does, He prays for us. . . God says, “I am so in love with you, I’m not demanding something from you, but I’m dying for you. I love you to death. And the sins and mistakes you’ve made so foolishly, I will wash away completely in order that you can live with Me eternally.”


Courson then quotes one of my favorite verses here and breaks it down:

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5,6

• Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; Don’t look to anyone else to fill the hole in your soul.
• And lean not unto thine own understanding. Don’t demand God to do things your way.
• In all thy ways acknowledge Him, Realize God alone is your Satisfaction, your Reason for living.
• And He shall direct thy paths. He will fill every need.

Precious people, don’t trust in your own demands or desires, your own plans or perspectives. If you do, you’ll die with the word “sorrow” on your lips. Instead, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and He will direct you not to the place of Rachel’s sorrow - but to the place Leah found her ultimate satisfaction: He will direct your paths to Himself. (Courson, P. 145)

I could not have said it any better, so I didn’t try! :)
 

Genesis 30:1-24 PART 2

Yesterday we were looking at Rachel’s demand for a child. Like Jacob’s grandmother, Sarah, she decides to work out the problem herself instead of waiting on God , and offers her maidservant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a surrogate. It was an accepted custom that the child of the maidservant would become the child of the master and mistress.

So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, and she became pregnant and bore him a son. Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.


Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali. (Gen 30:4-8)

Leah decides to get back in the game and gives Jacob HER maidservant, Zilpah, who bears Gad, meaning good fortune, then another son, names Asher, meaning happy. If it weren’t so tragic, this competition would be funny:

During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”


But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”


“Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”


So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.


God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.


Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.


Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. (vs. 14-21)

What’s with the mandrakes? They were thought to be an aphrodisiac as well as a fertility aid. Here Rachel again is foiled by her own desperation! She gives Leah a night with Jacob in return for the mandrakes - then Leah, not Rachel, becomes pregnant! Note that Leah is still hoping to gain some respect, is not love, from Jacob. She has not yet learned to let God (and six sons and a daughter) be enough! Anyone seeing any joy in this family??? And yet, God continues to extend grace:

Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.” (vs.22-24)

At last Rachel has her son! Is she satisfied? No. She names this baby Joseph, meaning may he add, as a prayer for MORE. She’s already thinking about the next one!

Tomorrow we’ll take one final look, because I want to share some perspective on this from Jon Courson, and we need to see what lessons God is trying to teach us from this family!

 

Genesis 30:1-24

The competition is on! You need to read all of the verses in Gen 30:1-24 at one sitting to appreciate how bad it became, but I’ll just share two of them this morning.

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”


Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” (vs. 1-2)

Talk about desperation! Rachel is so needy here that Jacob gets mad at her! I’m assuming that this was not the first time he had heard her complaining about being barren. But now she has become obsessed to the point of complete despair. As Jon Courson points out in his commentary, the irony is that Rachel actually WILL die in childbirth with her second son, Benjamin. Courson also notes that Rachel has been the one who always had everything. She was the good looking sister who attracted all of the attention. But now, her older sister has everything she really wants and Rachel is consumed with envy. She does not want to go on if Jacob doesn’t give her children. She thinks that children will meet all of her needs (apparently Jacob isn’t enough, which may have been part of the reason he was fed up).

ALL of us have this same void in our hearts - we were purposely created with it so that we might seek God to fill it. Romans 8:20 says, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope. . .” God gave us this innate desire for Him. If we do not fill our lives with Him, we will spend years in frustration desperately trying to stuff that void in our hearts with something else: relationships, food, drugs, things, the praise of others, etc.

Rachel was sure that children would fill that longing within her - and as a woman I totally get that! Our children DO fill a great need within us to be needed and to love and be loved. We get such fulfillment in being a mother, yet like every other thing we do, mothering is temporary - if we’ve done our job right, anyway. These darling babies have the nerve to grow into adults who marry, move away, and have lives completely separate from our own! And that’s the way it is designed to be! But sometimes we make our children the center of our universe, to the point that they are almost idols in place of God (and believe me, I see it all the time as a teacher: the mother is so focused on her children’s lives, so overly involved in all they do, that the marriage suffers). And with infertile women, it’s the NOT having children that becomes the obsession as we see here with Rachel - and this, too, can destroy a marriage.

There’s so much more to this story and much to learn, so we’ll continue tomorrow!