View source for Sermon on Genesis 30:1-43

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Now when Rachel saw that she could not bare Jacob children, Rachel envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I'm going to die. And Jacob was angry with her: and he said, Am I in God's place, who hath withheld thee from the fruit of the womb (Gen 30:1-2)?

So here's some hard feelings and harsh words between husband and wife because Rachel feels the disgrace of not being able to bear children.

And so she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in to her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may have children by her. And so she gave him Bilhah her handmaid as a wife: and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and so she called his name Judge, Dan (Gen 30:3-6).

Daniel means God is judge. But she called him Dan because she said, God has judged me.
And Bilhah Rachel's maid conceived again (Gen 30:7),

Now this could have been coinciding this; these boys could be being born at the same time that Leah was having her sons. She conceived again, bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and now I have prevailed: and so she called his name Wrestler. And Leah saw that she had finished bearing or left off bearing, and so she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her to Jacob as his wife (Gen 30:7-9).

This competition; you have to admit that he was a very burrow man.

And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son. And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad (Gen 30:10-11).

Now that may be an unfortunate translation. There are those who believe that it should not be translated "A troop," but I forget what it's supposed to be translated so we can look that up.
And Zilpah Leah's maid bore Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for all the daughters will call me blessed: and so she called his name Happy. And Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest (Gen 30:12-14),

Now Reuben was probably only about seven years old at this time but he was the oldest son. And in the days of the wheat harvest, he went out
and he found mandrakes in the field (Gen 30:14),

Now a mandrake was a little orange-colored fruit that grew on bushes. And the mandrakes were thought to have had aphrodisiac types of powers and also fertility powers. And they were thought, they were called love apples and they were thought to have fertility powers.

and so Reuben brought them into his mother Leah. And then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of your son's mandrakes (Gen 30:14).

Probably hoping that they would make her fertile.

And Leah said unto her, Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? and would you take also my son's mandrakes? And Rachel said, I'll give you permission to spend the night with him if you'll give me your son's mandrakes. And so Jacob came out of the field, and Leah came out to meet him, and said, You're mine tonight; for surely I have hired you with my son's mandrakes (Gen 30:15-16).

Now again you can see the problems with polygamy. I don't read of Jacob complaining. I imagine it was sort of healthy for his ego to have them fighting over him this way. And so he went into her that night.

And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bore a fifth son. And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Hired. And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son. And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, I have born him six sons: and she called his name Dwelling. And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah (Gen 30:17-21).

Now how many other daughters were born, we don't know. If there were daughters born in between here, we don't know. We do know that Jacob did have daughters. They are mentioned later but none of them by name. Dinah is the only daughter that is named and she's only named here because she becomes an important part of the story later. The girls weren't named. Girls weren't considered valuable, only the fellows were considered valuable.

In fact, when a woman went into labor, they would gather together with, you know, they'd come together with gather things together for a feast and prepare to have a great big feast. They'd bring in the wine and the meat and everything else. And when the baby was born, if it were a boy they would just have a huge party, a big feast. But with a girl, they just fold up everything and go home. So you've come a long way, baby. And in reality, it is through Jesus Christ that the cultural patterns have been so changed where He has brought us to the place where there is no superior sex. "But Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3:11).

And it's so neat that through Jesus Christ we have been able to recognize a total equality, not only of the sexes but of people themselves. And the thing that God hates is the exalting or lifting up of one person above another. Thinking that you are more important, you're more, you know, you're greater or whatever. It's an attitude that God detests. He wants us to all recognize that, the equality.

There is no difference, Paul said. There are similarities in all as we've all sinned; we've all come short of the glory of God. We all need the Savior Jesus Christ and in Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, male nor female" (Galatians 3:28). Just an equality all in Jesus and we're one together in Him. So it's a very beautiful thing that Christ has done for us in bringing to us that recognition of the value of all persons and He places tremendous value on each of you.

So much so he said, "What shall it profit a man, if he would gain the whole world, and lose his own soul" (Mark 8:36)? He's talking about you and your soul. It's more important to God than the whole world. And thus He has placed a high value upon each of us and He has prized you dearly.
So problems arose because of this relationship.

But God [verse twenty-two] remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and she said, God has taken away my reproach: and so she called his name Joseph; which means Adding (Gen 30:22-24),

Which she was hoping that God would add now more sons. And so it was—it was his name was sort of expressing the hope of her heart that now I hope I will be able to give my husband more sons.
And so it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto my own place, and to my country (Gen 30:25).

Now at this point, Reuben the oldest could not have been more than twelve years old because Jacob only served six years after the seven years for the second dowry. He served a total of twenty years. So having married in the seventh year, and of course, figuring the nine-month pregnancy and so forth, and now the twenty years are almost over, it means that the oldest of his sons was still quite young. Reuben was at this point at the time that Joseph was born just about twelve-and a-half years old, perhaps twelve years old, somewhere in there.

And so that's a lot of little kids running around. Twelve and under you've got to, you've got twelve kids at least. We don't know how many other girls but there are at least twelve that are running around at this point. And well, of course, Joseph isn't running around yet, but I mean, you got a bunch of them around at least.

And so Joseph—I mean Jacob is coming and he's saying, "Give me my own place, my own country". Beg your pardon? At this point, he doesn't leave. He stays on and serves. So that means that Reuben at this point is probably only seven years old. So you've got all of them born within a seven-year span, all of these that you just read about. So it's even more proud of the little one, because at this point he's just saying send me away and then he contracts for six more years and Joseph is already born. So all of them are born in this short space of time. "Send me away to my own place, to my own country".

Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for you know my service that I have done to thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience (Gen 30:26-27)

The word experience there is "teraphim", I've learned by my little gods—or not "teraphim", but it's enchantments. I have learned by enchantment.

that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake (Gen 30:27).

So he was serving pagan gods, he would have these little enchantments and so forth and seeking counsel off on them. And he had learned by his enchantments that "the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake."

And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it (Gen 30:28).

Just tell me, what do you want? I'll pay your wages.

And so he said unto him, You know how I have served you, and how your cattle were with me. For it was little which you had before I came, and now it is increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for my own household also (Gen 30:29-30)?

In other words, Jacob was saying, "Hey, you remember when I came you really didn't have much". You had just a small flock and now through my diligence, my service, you know you really have a lot of wealth, a great multitude of herds and all.

And he said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You will not give me any thing: for if you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flock (Gen 30:31).
In other words, I won't take anything from you but this is the deal I'll make with you.
I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from them all of the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and all such and of such shall be my hire. 

And so shall my righteousness answer for me in the time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and the brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me. And Laban said, Behold, I would that it might be according to thy word. And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all of the brown among the sheep, and he gave them unto the hand of his sons. And he set three days' journey between himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks (Gen 30:32-36).

Now Jacob said, "Look, all of those that are born that are ringstreaked, speckled and so forth, they will be my hire. The solid colors will be yours". Laban says, "All right, good deal". And then immediately he goes out and pulls them out of the flock and takes them three days' journey so that they cannot intermingle with the solid colors. So he leaves Jacob with nothing but solid colors. And he takes all of those that were ringstreaked or spotted completely out of the scene so that Jacob is just left with the solid colours.

Now Jacob is saying this is the way I want it so that my righteousness will speak for me. In other words, God will be the One to bless me. He had the promise of God, "Go and I'm going to bless thee". And he had that promise of God of blessing. So he was confident that God would take care of the issue but he was also a little bit knowledgeable of breeding practices. He had spent his life around animals, breeding them and so forth and he was conscious of some of the genetic issues, of the dominant and recessive traits and so forth. And he used some of his knowledge of these things in developing the flocks.

"So shall my righteousness answer for me in the time to come." In other words, he's committing it unto the Lord that God is going to prove that I have been righteous and all. And Laban said, "All right, let it be". And he took the flocks and separated them three days journey.

So Jacob took rods of green poplar, and of hazel and the chestnut tree; and he pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. The flocks conceived before the rods, and they brought forth cattle ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted. 

And Jacob did separate the lambs, and he set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstreaked, and all the brown of the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and he put them not unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before their eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: and so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger were Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses (Gen 30:37-43).

Now there are those who believe that he was actually trying to give sort of a prenatal thing, you know, by making the streaked the striped boughs and so forth and so there would be sort of a pre-natal impression that would create. The Hebrew word "conceive" is actually to be made hot. And we do know that they, the animals, are by placing stripes in front of them causes them to desire to conceive.

And so it was probably that which he was doing rather than trying to prenatally mark them. That he was just knowing the genetic structures and the recessive genes and so forth, that the recessives combine with the dominant, you know, can come forth spotted and so forth. And he was sharp, even when he was doing no doubt and the stronger ones he had set these things and caused them to conceive, the weaker ones went on to Laban. And anyhow, he was getting the better of the deal.
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