Day 22. Reading in Genesis 30 – 31. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and meditate on it. What stood out to you in today’s reading?

 

Genesis 30.

.What a household Jacob has established. I thought his boyhood home had been rocked with deception and intrigue, but now he’s living in the middle of jealousy, strife, and backroom deals for his affection and expertise in animal husbandry.  Does anyone love Jacob for his own sake?

After a hard day’s work, imagine being confronted by your wife’s words, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob’s reply was harsh. “Gee, Rachel, am I God?  HE made you barren. It’s not like I haven’t tried!”  So Rachel resorted to that “surrogate mother custom” and sent Jacob to bed with her maid. Jacob performs, and Bilhah conceives a son. Rachel has a lot of catching up to do, so she gives Jacob to Bilhah again, and another son is born.  

First wife, Leah, feels neglected now, so she ups the ante and gives HER maid to Jacob twice, and she chalks up two more sons.  Her oldest son, Reuben, finds some “mandrakes” in the field and brings them to his mother. Now, even Jacob’s children conspire to help their mothers get him. (Mandrakes are not male ducks but fruit from a plant that was superstitiously viewed as an aphrodisiac or maybe even a fertility narcotic.)

I can imagine Leah waving the small orange fruit in front of Rachel. “Hey, sis.  Look what I have. Too bad YOU can’t give him children.”  Rachel probably seethes. Then she trades Jacob that night for the mandrakes.  So, when Jacob arrives home, the lottery has already been selected, and he goes to Room A.  And wow!! Leah has two more sons and a daughter (seven kids in all). 

Then the ever-wise God (not the mandrakes) opened Rachel’s womb and she had a son (a VERY favored son) named Joseph. To Jacob, who considered Rachel his first wife, Joseph was his “first-born son, the birthright baby.” (We’ll see how that plays out later.)

You would think Rachel would finally be content, but the first words out of her mouth after naming Joseph were, “May the LORD add to me another son!“

Jacob is now tired of working for Laban and making him a rich man.  He wants to build his own household. He now has 12 kids, and he’s looking towards “going home.” But Laban sees how Jacob truly prospered him like NONE of his own children have done, and doesn’t want to let him go.  A bargain is struck for Jacob to work a little while longer (6 years!!) and build his own flock.

Here’s how it will go.  Jacob will take all the speckled, spotted, and black sheep and goats, and Laban will keep the white ones.  That way, everyone will see which ones are his when the flocks come together to graze.  

Laban agrees but immediately (and secretly) sends his sons to take all the spotted and black animals out and hide them in a pasture 3-days journey away.  WILL THE DECEPTION NEVER END? 

But God sees, and he prospers Jacob. Suddenly, nearly all the new lambs and kids are speckled, spotted, or black. (Ok, there is the business with the rams seeing stripped bark on branches, but GOD orchestrates the new life in the flocks.)  And Jacob increased enormously, not only in flocks, but in servants, camels, and donkeys as he sells the fleece and meat. 

Genesis 30.

Time to go. (God tells him.)

Jacob calls his wives out to the field so they can talk privately.  Get your stuff together, we are leaving.  Your father has cheated me long enough, and God is calling me to return to my land.  The wives agree and pack up all their clothes, the baby and children’s things, some food, cooking utensils, etc., etc.  Rachel also slips in her father’s household idols. (Oh, dear!)

And so, while Laban is away shearing his white sheep with his sons, Jacob tricks him one last time. He sneaks away with his wives, servants, and animals, getting a 3-day head start.  Laban learns of it and is furious, so he gathers all his kinsmen to pursue Jacob. It takes him a week to catch up. By then, Jacob is in the hill country of Gilead. They can look over the Jordan River valley to the promised land, his home.  

Before Laban can do anything foolish, God comes to him in a dream. “Be careful NOT to say anything to Jacob, whether good or bad.” God forbids him to use anything to either woo or force him to go back, effectually tying Laban’s hands. 

Laban: “What have you done that you have TRICKED ME and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword?  Why did you flee secretly and TRICK ME, and did not tell me, so that I might have … sent you away with mirth and songs?  And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? You have done foolishly!  It is in my power to harm you…..  But… the God of your father spoke to me last night telling me to ‘be careful.'”  

You can see Laban gather himself and step back from his threatening position.

“You have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house.  But…… why did you steal my gods?”

Huh? Jacob doesn’t know what he’s talking about. “Hey, search everywhere. Anyone with whom you find your gods shall NOT LIVE.”  (OH, JACOB!!)

Laban searches everywhere, even in his daughters’ tents.  Rachel hides the idols under the camel’s saddle and sits on top. “Don’t be angry, Dad. But I’m having my period, and I can’t get up.”  Embarrassed, Laban doesn’t insist.

Jacob and Laban stay up all night, hashing out their differences and grievances. They come to an uneasy truce (Laban probably felt God’s hand pressing on his shoulder.)  At dawn, they build a pillar of stones and “shake hands.”  And probably repeat the deadly vow (not blessing) together.

“The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight.”  “God is a witness between you and me.”  “I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me to do harm.”  “The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge between us.”

A  sacrifice sealed the pact.

Early the next day Laban and his men departed after kissing his daughters and grandchildren goodbye. 

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(And yes, Someone does love Jacob for his own sake. In the next chapter, the angels of God meet him. Later that night he will wrestle with One of them and be renamed “Champion of God.” There will be more deceit in his life, but for now, he’s back where God wants him.)