Read: Genesis 30
This chapter
shows how the family of Jacob grew from four sons to eleven sons. It started with the envy of Rachel, which
enticed her to offer her maidservant to Jacob, adding two sons to his clan - Dan
and Naphtali. Rachel acted in the flesh
and is showed no reliance or dependence on God.
She had the affection of her husband but still was not satisfied. She wanted what her sister had. Envy is rotten! Jacob realized that he could not give her
what God has refused (v. 2). So Rachel
used the pagan tradition of having a maidservant bear her children as
maidservants were the property of the mistress and so where their
children. Here we see that neither Jacob
nor Rachel prayed for her to conceive rather they tried to fix things using
their own methods. Rachel would have
known that Jacob carried the promise given to Abraham and this gave her the chance
of producing the promised seed. Leah
then countered by also offering her maidservant to Jacob , who then bore two
more sings, Gad and Asher.
This chapter
includes an obscure reference to mandrakes that Reuben found in a field and
brought home to his mother Leah. Rachel
requested the mandrakes and Leah responded, “You have taken my husband, would you also take my sons mandrakes”
(v. 15)? It seems that Rachel sold
conjugal visit rights to Leah for some fruit.
It seems these women had an intense desire to bear Jacob children –
probably because of the hope of having a share in the blessing of Abraham by
bringing forth Him in who all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. Then Leah had two more sons and a daughter -
Issachar, Zebulun and Dinah.
After many
years of waiting and wishing for her own child, finally Rachel conceived and
delivered a son, Joseph. Had she finally
learned to seek the Lord in prayer?
Having
completed 14 years of faithful service, Jacob then decided to go back to his
own country (v. 25). He had faithfully
served his time with Laban and now had a large family to provide for. Jacob wanted to return to the land which God
had promised him. He did not ask for
anything other than his wives and children to take back to Canaan with him,
showing his trust in God. Laban realized
that the Lord blessed him because of Jacob (v. 26) and was reluctant to see
Jacob return to his family in Canaan. He
tried to entice Jacob to stay as the chief shepherd, this time with proper
wages. They came up with a deal - Jacob
would keep the speckled and spotted sheep and goats as wages for his continued
work and Laban would get the rest. But
Laban again tried to cheat Jacob by removing all the speckled and spotted sheep
and goats which he gave to his own sons (v. 35). So, Jacob was cunning and manipulated the
breeding process so that the speckled and spotted offspring became the stronger
sheep and goats while Laban got the weaker flocks. Years earlier Jacob had arrived in
Paddan-aram with nothing but his staff and now he was becoming quite rich (v.
43).
Prayer and Journaling
1. Leah
was able to have children but Rachel was barren. This ultimately shows that it is God who
creates human life. The idea of God’s sovereignty over the womb
is a persistent theme in the Bible.
Spend some time thanking and praising God for His Sovereignty. He controls not only the good times but also
the troubling circumstances in our lives!
2. Despite
Rachel’s great beauty she suffered despair.
Leah wanted Rachel’s beauty and love from Jacob and Rachel wanted Leah’s
ability to conceive. The problem was
that both were not looking to God for His purpose for their lives, but were rather
set on their own circumstances.
Comparison is rotten, it breeds discontentment and offense. Ask the Lord to show you areas in your life
where you struggle comparing yourself to others. Confess any areas of sin that He reveals to
you and pray that you would learn to accept what God has for you and not to
compare to others.
3. Rather
than conscientiously tending the flocks of Laban while looking to God for the
increase, Jacob decided that this was something he could handle best by
resorting to his schemes and devices.
Spend some prayer on this issue again for yourself. How are you doing in trusting God? How are you doing in inquiring of the Lord
for His plans and obeying them? Dialogue
with God about the things He has already showed you over the past few weeks.
