| | | | | | | God, Not Methods, Brings Blessings  "And Laban said to him, 'Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.'" -Genesis 30:27
God had not only been working in Jacob to shape his character through the trials he experienced under Laban, but He was also working through Jacob to make him a blessing to those around him. God was preparing Jacob to be a leader over the large network of families his sons would produce. The agreement Jacob made with Laban was really the only thing possible, because Laban continually took advantage of Jacob in order to prosper financially. God blessed Jacob by giving him an ever-increasing flock that would help to provide for his growing family once he left Laban to return home. It seems clear that Jacob's method to produce speckled and spotted sheep could not have produced any results if God had not blessed the method. The fact is that Jacob's method has no support from methods that were already used in breeding sheep. Often in scripture God uses methods and people to produce blessings that are not based on the intrinsic power of the method or person. In fact, without God's divine blessing, we and our methods are nothing. How tempted we are to put our faith in a person or a method rather than in God. But once our faith is in anything less than God, our faith will be blown away like a leaf in the wind. Therefore, let us use any methods God has given us, and let God use us. But at the same time, let us direct our expectation and faith toward God alone. As Jesus Himself said, "Without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). | 
| | Genesis 30:25-43  Jacob's Agreement with Laban
25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you." 27 And Laban said to him, "Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake." 28 Then he said, "Name me your wages, and I will give it." 29 So Jacob said to him, "You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. 30 For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the LORD has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?" 31 So he said, "What shall I give you?" And Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: 32 Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. 33 So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me." 34 And Laban said, "Oh, that it were according to your word!" 35 So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36 Then he put three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. | Jacob's Agreement With Laban (Verses 25-43) v. 25 Send Me Away – Jacob had fulfilled his 14 years of service that had been given Laban for the dowry to wed Rachel and Leah. v. 27 For Your Sake – Laban acknowledges that the covenant between God and Jacob (Gen. 28:13-22) had resulted in financial increase from Jacob's care of his livestock. v. 31 Not Give Me – Jacob wanted to develop a means of income from his efforts that was not connected to Laban. Laban had already shown himself as one who took advantage of Jacob. | Speckled and Spotted – Laban would consider this arrangement favorable to him, because there would be few livestock of this sort. v. 36 Three Days Journey – This journey would ensure that none of these spotted and speckled or brown livestock got back to the main herd. Jacob, therefore, began this arrangement with Laban with not one spotted or speckled goat, or brown sheep. |
| 37 Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. 38 And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban's flock. 41 And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. 42 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. 43 Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys. | v. 37 Rods of Green Poplar – The breeding techniques Jacob used were blessed by God even though they were scientifically questionable. v. 40 Flocks Face – This breeding method is also unsubstantiated as being effective, but God blessed it and it produced favorable results. | v. 42 The Stronger – Jacob also used selective breeding by making it a point to use the stronger stock for his herd development. |
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