Genesis 30:1-24
“Battle of the brides”
Vs. 1-13 Baby boxing
Vs. 14-24 Where’s the baby?
Intro
This story before us is a continuation of chapter 29:31-35. Now as you read this story it appears as though we have flipped your T.V. set on to one of those stupid trash T.V. shows. “Sisters who marry the same man, today on Jerry Springer!” There are several reasons why God has seen fit to put this story in the Bible.
To show us what the outcome of polygamy is. Though the Bible records many that disobeyed the teaching of monogamy you will not find one of them in all of scripture that has a happy ending.
Israel took great pride in its “roots” yet upon reading this story there is nothing to be proud of when considering their heritage. This was a fact that Moses would point out some 450 years later in Deut. 7:7-8 saying, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you.”
This section serves as a very practical guide for us today showing what sex outside of God’s plan looks like. We live in a culture that not only sees nothing wrong with sex outside of marriage, it promotes it. Leah will learn that no amount of sex would ever earn her the love of her man. Love is not manufactured through sex, sex will produce children, but it will never produce love. To some, love without sex is frustrating but sex without Biblical love is a tragedy!
Vs. 1-13 Baby boxing
Vs. 1-2 Rachael’s beauty led to the romantic notion that Jacob was willing to work 14 years to have her, yet reading these verses shows that this did not satisfy her. Can you imagine how she would strut around Haran for years believing that she was the most beautiful woman around because a man was willing to work to have her for 14 years? In the last chapter three times we are told that Jacob loved Rachael more than Leah, yet the knowledge of her husband’s love and his romantic actions towards her did not produce assurance or security.
“Love based upon sex or physical attraction will never satisfy and bring security, instead they will destroy them!” Everywhere girls go in this world they are being told that all they need is a guy’s affection and care, which is based upon how they look. Rachael had the “look” to capture her man but what did it gain her? The planet is full of girls who have given up their bodies to get love only to find themselves discarded as the guy goes after another conquest. Oh, how romantic Jacob’s love must have felt for Rachael but in the end, she is just as disillusioned as Leah, she feels just as unloved as her sister did. Guys view women as conquests the more they have the more man they are, but this too is empty as they may have their conquests but at the price of companionship!
Leah probably would say to herself, “If only I had Rachel’s looks and Rachel would say, If only I had Leah’s sons.” We all have this same problem don’t we, look at how God has blessed others instead of just setting our eyes on Him. Women in this era valued themselves based upon how many children they could produce for their husbands as we see in verse 13 based upon Leah’s words, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” Look at how fragile Rachel’s pride is when her beauty and love of Jacob turns into nagging envy and jealousy. She blames Jacob for her condition and remembers the barrenness of Rebekah and Isaac as they prayed to God to open her womb.
Vs. 3-5 Long before Moses wrote down God’s heart towards marriage a King named Hammurabi wrote down a code of laws to govern people. Under these laws a wife could give her maid to her husband and claim the offspring from such a union as her own. The maid reclined upon the wife’s lap while her husband impregnated her and when it came time to give birth, she would again recline upon the wife’s lap hence the words, “she will bear a child on my knees”. As weird as this practice seems to us, think of it as we today view “sex outside of marriage”.
With the deed done the desired outcome is achieved. It is thought of as “successful”, which is called “situational ethics”. The sole criteria of evaluating what was right is based upon if it worked, “Did it achieve the desired results?” Look how far this reasoning has taken Rachel as she has sunk to the low of using a baby to hit her sister over the head with.
Vs. 6-8 Rachel is quick to attribute the works of her flesh to God, again she does so because it achieved the results she desired not because they were from following God’s word. Nowhere are we told that God opened the womb of Bilhah, yet still she named him “Judged by God”. Bilhah conceives a second time, and she names this son “Wrestling,” yet interprets struggling against her sister as a victory. Now by my figures the box score still reads 4 to 2 with Leah ahead. The wild thing is that Rachel appears more interested in winning the battle of the babies than what her actions say about her own character. God is not mentioned or praised, she is preoccupied with self and getting something over on her sister.
Vs. 9-13 The last we saw of Leah in this was her growing in love with the Lord as she named her children names that recognized how much greater was God’s love for her then any man’s could ever be. Here she has a setback as she goes back into insecurity with head-to-head competition in the battle of the birthing maids. What has happened to Leah who had seen that it was the Lord who had opened her womb is the same God who has now seen fit to close it.
Strikingly missing in Leah’s words is any mention of this work of the flesh of child production as coming from the hand of God. What this suggests is that we who have grown in our understanding of the Lord’s hand in our lives are not immune to slipping back into the flesh and being more concerned with what works instead of what is right.
Now her first four children she viewed as gifts from God, now through the work of the flesh and Zilpah, she sees them as:
- “Good fortune” Gad
- “How happy am I” Asher
Her greatest concern is what others will think of her and call her instead of what God thinks of her.
Vs. 14-24 Where’s the baby?
Vs. 14-15 Ruben was most likely around five when he went out to the field to pick his mother some yellow flowers with matching berries. The word actually means “love apples” and there was a superstition that said eating these berries was an aphrodisiac as well as a fertility drug. Leah’s comments reveal how she saw herself compared with her younger sister. She was Jacob’s legitimate wife and Rachel was his mere romantic boy toy. Rachel’s suggestion appears to be based upon Leah’s perception and is nothing more than prostitution. The two sisters want what each other has:
- Leah wants the romance that Rachel has.
- Rachael wants the offspring that Leah has.
Rachel is so far from trusting God to open her womb that she is seeking “berry juice” therapy rather than trusting in the God who created the berries.
Vs. 16-21 Based upon verse 17 it appears as though Leah prays to God to bless what she has paid for; God blesses her in spite of how she behaved. She thinks this is because she gave her maid to Jacob. Again, it amazes me how quick they are to give credit to God for what their own flesh produced and to take credit from God when it was entirely from Him!
She names her fifth son “Reward,” but it was the reward of her flesh not the reward of faith. Her sixth and last son is named “Dwelling” as it is the hope of her heart that one day Jacob will want to dwell with her as his wife. How foolish is it to seek after someone’s acceptance by means of giving your body for their pleasure. Leah had been satisfied with God’s love for her but now she traded it all away for the hope of love from a man. According to 37:35 and 46:7, 15 Dinah is not their only daughter, but she is mentioned here for what will happen to her in chapter 34.
Vs. 22-24 After all of Rachel’s plans have been exhausted God grants her heart’s desire and opens her womb. Based upon her words here in verse 23 it appears He did so based upon prayer. All too often we have an attitude that says, “When all else fails pray!” Instead, it ought to be when prayer fails to pray again. She names her first son of faith “may he add” which means to take away by adding. Far too many people fail to see the wisdom of marriage and staying away from sex outside of the protection of marriage. Even in the Church many folks have taken the used car approach of taking it out for a test drive and see no reason not to live together. For Christians the question is not whether or not two people can live together apart from being married because of course they can. The question is whether or not living this way apart from obedience to the word of God they can live in all the fullness of joy, which is in Christ. The answer is they cannot!
Genesis 30:25-43
“Can I go home now?”
Vs. 25-43 Voodoo economics
Vs. 1-16 We can’t all just get along
Intro
Twenty years have passed since Jacob moved to Haran, which makes him 96 years old. Though the first seven years may have seemed a few years, but we can be sure based upon this section the remaining 13 more than made up for the first seven. Now according 31:1 Laban’s sons complained about Jacob. So, Jacob had gone from being sole heir to being a threat. I find an interesting principle in the life of faith, “God moves us when we become complacent and comfortable”. That move may not always be a physical location, but it is always a move of the heart. Now from our perspective we do everything possible not to be moved, yet God will make it so that we are moved, and the change is always glorious!
Vs. 25-43 Voodoo economics
Vs. 25-16 This must have taken place sometime after Joseph was born and after his 14 years of service was up. Just as Jacob had to remind Laban to give him his wife, he now has to remind him that his debt has been paid.
What is interesting is that 20 years have gone since he left his home but still, he calls the promised-land home. Jacob’s heart had not lost its longing and there were three things that no doubt contributed to this:
His feelings and dealings with the world and those in the world (Laban)
His desire to be with those who are like-minded and understand that which he understands.
The remembrance of that which God had told him upon his leaving the land of promise in chapter 28:15 that He will be with him and bring back again.
Jacob, like us, is on a spiritual journey where God is bringing a longing in his heart through outside and inside circumstances to desire to be home. Christian this is exactly what God allows to happen in our life where the brightness of the world grows dim and the brightness of His presence is all we want!
Vs. 27-28 Laban is in no hurry to see his “gravy train”, leave the depot and wants to renegotiate his contract. Laban’s words, “I have learned by experience,” Is literally “I have learned by enchantments”. Laban had mixed the belief in one God with pagan mysticism, which we shall see in chapter 31:19-30 which had influenced Rachel as she swiped his household gods. Laban wanted to keep Jacob on the Job and told him, “Name your price!” Now had Jacob not already had some bad dealings with Laban he may have been taken in by this but instead Jacob has learned to turn Laban against himself.
Vs. 29-34 Here is how he did it:
Vs. 29-30 Jacob uses Laban’s own job evaluation against him. “Blessed you? Buddy when I started with you, you had nothing and now through me God has made you a wealthy man!”
Vs. 30 The second part of this is what I call the hardship case. “Yeh, you’re rich when you had nothing, but I still have nothing, where’s the profit sharing?”
Vs. 31-33 Jacob plays the, “I’m a hard worker but a bad businessman role.” It is quite obvious that Jacob had planned this deal out for some time.
The crux of the deal as Laban would have seen it:
No immediate compensation or pay raises. All Laban had to do was agree to the terms as laid out. So, Laban would have seen the immediate benefit of winning if he accepted the terms.
The future was that Jacob was to receive instead of payment all rare breeds of sheep and goats. Most of the herd was of solid color and not mixed. Furthermore, Jacob was to remove the spotted away from the solid so as to not further his income.
Jacob agrees to continue to care for Laban’s flock for a relatively small number of sheep.
Finally, Jacob says that he wants to separate 60 miles from Laban’s herd so as to ensure that Jacob would not cheat by allowing his herd to breed with Laban’s thus increasing his odds of producing spotted sheep.
Vs. 34-36 I picture Laban with the voice of “Billy Crystal” (American comedian and game show host) saying, “Such a deal!” Laban, the con-artist, had just been trapped by that which was his master passion, “greed”! May this serve as a warning to us not to have any other passion than those things, which our Master has as His passion. Because if we do, we will become possessed by that which possesses us!
Although Jacob does not necessarily employ these principles of success, they are nonetheless true:
Vs. 25-26 Don’t make becoming wealthy your goal
Vs. 27 Make it your aim to prosper others before you prosper yourself.
Vs. 29-30 Make it your aim to be the best at what you do even if someone else benefits from your effort.
Vs. 31-33 Trust God to give you the increase and meet your needs.
Vs. 37-42 Here we see that Jacob knew what he was doing when he made this offer to Uncle Laban.
Vs. 37-39 Jacob peels limbs from green popular, almond and chestnut trees. Apparently, he placed these peeled limbs all around even in the drinking water. What on earth do we make of this? Two possibilities exist:
First, that Jacob had bought into some weird superstition that the visual impression had some sort of influence upon genetics as the sheep reproduced. And when he began to see the results it confirmed it, but all along it was God supernaturally causing the sheep to give birth to spotted sheep.
Second, some see this practice not in influencing genetics but rather as some sort of stimulus that encourages the animals to mate more frequently, (a fact that is borne out by the word conceived, which means to be in heat). Sheep mate typically twice a year once in the fall and once in the spring. The use of these peeled limbs perhaps encouraged the sheep to mate more often thus producing a larger herd quicker than normal and thus increasing his odds. Remember Jacob had 70 years of shepherding experience.
Vs. 40-42 Again there are two possibilities as to what Jacob was doing with having his spotted sheep face the solid color sheep of Laban:
Jacob employs a psychological technique of “sheep peer-pressure” so that the solid color sheep would produce spotted offspring.
The other possibility is that Jacob employed animal husbandry techniques of selective breeding. By removing the lambs of the spotted sheep and keeping the herds apart he would effectively slow the breeding stimulus of Laban’s flocks. Furthermore, Jacob made sure that the genetically healthier sheep were the ones that he wanted to breed more often. So that the outcome was the spotted sheep produced stronger sheep more often and the weaker solid color sheep produced much slower.
Vs. 43 Regardless of the process the outcome was that Jacob prospered much more then did Laban. I suppose we could argue that Laban had it coming and that he was getting what he deserved based upon his own greed, but if that is our justification for doing unto others then does that not leave us open to the same? Christian two wrongs never make a right; the God who created the sheep can prosper us if He so chooses!