The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 21
Yahweh oversees Jacob’s life
Read Genesis 30:25–43.
As soon as Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob told Laban that he wanted to return home to Canaan. Jacob now had eleven sons and one daughter and had worked for Laban for many years.
Because Yahweh had blessed Jacob in all he did, when Jacob was looking after Laban’s animals, Laban became a very rich man. Laban knew that it was because of Jacob’s God that he had become rich.
Though it appears that Laban acknowledged who Yahweh was, his heart was not loyal to God.(See Genesis 24:31 when years ago, Laban acknowledged that Yahweh had blessed Abraham’s servant who had come seeking a bride for Isaac.) In his daily life, Laban now worshipped idols. Yet, he was happy to benefit from Yahweh’s blessings but he did not make Yahweh his God.
When Laban asked what Jacob wanted for his salary for working for him, Jacob said that he would take:
all the sheep and goats that had spots or specks on them
all the black sheep. This kind of sheep was rare and in general, accounted for only ten percent of the animals.
Why did Jacob ask such a strange thing? Taking only the spotted, speckled and black sheep would make it easy to distinguish his flock from his father-in-law’s. Laban readily agreed because he thought that he would be getting away with paying Jacob very little. But even then, before Jacob could do as he had asked, Laban deviously removed all such animals and gave them to his sons. Then he made his animals and sons take a three-day trek to keep them far away from Jacob! Laban was really trying to make sure he would not need to pay Jacob much at all!
Jacob did something unusual and perhaps superstitious by taking sticks and tearing off the bark so that the sticks would have two colours. Some Bible scholars think that this superstition is like the thinking where if a pregnant woman keeps looking at boys then she will likely have a boy. Or perhaps Jacob knew something of the animals’ behaviour. Whichever the case, we are not sure. But Jacob also cleverly practised selective breeding by getting the stronger, healthier females to mate and therefore produce stronger lambs.
In any case, Yahweh prospered Jacob not because Jacob did these things but because of God’s own promise to him.
Actually, Jacob himself knew that. Later on, he himself said that it was Yahweh who increased his flocks. He knew that God was the One who gave him all that he had. He did not credit it to the sticks nor his clever breeding methods.
Yahweh helped Jacob when Laban was trying to cheat him. God made sure that Jacob was well compensated for all the work he did for Laban. God didn’t allow Laban to succeed in continually cheating Jacob.
We continue to see human striving and manipulation in this account between Laban and Jacob. But we also continue to see God’s control over all that happens.
Yahweh is sovereign over all and He can triumph over any human effort. This is the kind of God we worship. Nothing is out of His control. Let us ponder on this. No matter what mankind does, good or bad, God is watching and can intervene according to His will.
We can go to God in prayer about any situation we are facing.
Those who don’t know Yahweh won’t go to Him in prayer.
But for those of us who do, we rejoice and are thankful that we have a God who has access to all the resources in the world. He controls birth and life, the animal world and all He created. And He watches over us in every detail of our lives.
There is also a caution for us from today’s reading. We note that Laban, though knowing who Yahweh is, also worshipped idols and in fact, didn’t think much of God at all. We ought to examine our own thinking to ensure that we are not mixing ideas about Yahweh, the true God, with false ideas or false superstitions. The only way to know God accurately, is to read and study His Word regularly. Then we would be relying on a clear understanding of Yahweh and not on truth that has been mixed with falsehoods.