Jan 22: Genesis 30-31

Jan 22, Genesis 30-31

Genesis 30. Like we have talked about, having kids in the ancient culture was a very big deal. Like Sarah, Rachel offers her servant to Jacob to sleep with and have a baby for her, which was the culture’s standard, remind you. It works and Bilhah, her servant, gives 2 boys to Rachel and Jacob. You will find in the Old Testament that names meant a lot. The names given to all the kids of Rachel and Leah are wordplays that represented their hearts at the time of giving birth and also represented how they felt towards their husband in the quest for love (names of the kids being struggle, judge, wrestle). As you can tell, the tension between Rachel and Leah is still thick. And we see this important weed, the mandrakes, are a prize. And just so you know, mandrakes were believed to have mystical powers to get someone pregnant. As we see that Leah’s son gathers some for her, to help her possibly achieve another baby. But as we see, Rachel wants those mandrakes badly, as it is obvious that she believes in the power of this herb, and she wants a baby as well. Leah trades Rachel the mystical plant for a night with Jacob. Here we see that Rachel believes in this plant more than she believes in the power of God. And who gets pregnant? Does Rachel with the mandrakes? Nope. Leah becomes pregnant. And not because of the mandrakes, but by the power of God. Finally, God ‘remembers’ Rachel and gives her a son, Joseph. To clarify, God didn't forget Rachel, as we would if we remembered something and it is noted that God was the one who gave her a son, not some plant or another outside thing. Think about it as God listened to her prayers… 

At this point in the story, Jacob wanted to go home, to where his family was. Laban, Jacob’s Uncle, learned by divination that Jacob was the reason that Laban was blessed. Divination (the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by ungodly supernatural means, also known as,  witchcraft) is a sin and is against what God wants for us. He does not want us to get our information through demons but through Him. Jacob has been serving Laban for 14 years for his 2 wives and now wants to purchase animals before he leaves. Laban and Jacob make a deal that Jacob can take all the spotted, speckled sheep and black lambs - so that if any animal found in Jacob’s care is not spotted, then Jacob stole it. But Laban was a conniving trickster and removed all of his animals that were spotted a 3 days journey away. Well, Jacob was no dummy either. Basically, Jacob took some poplar sticks and placed them beside the good strong animals that were breeding, and they birthed spotted and speckled babies. Granted - the sticks really had nothing to do with the spotting and specking, God did. But we will learn later that this is just sheer obedience to what God had spoken to him about in a dream. Then we learn that Jacob is very wealthy in animals and servants. 

Genesis 31 - Jacob was well off, Laban was not regarding Jacob with respect Jacob respect anymore, and God told Jacob to return home to his Fathers land. Jacob, obeyed and called all his people together and told the that God wanted them to go, so they were going to go and submitted to him. Jacob didn't tell Laban that he was leaving, and Jacob and his family got a 3 day head start. Laban found out that they left and went after them (took about 10 days to catch up…). Laban and his kinsmen caught up to Jacob. Laban was not impressed that Jacob had ‘tricked’ Laban by leaving (hypocritical of Laban - the king of tricking) and Laban was also upset that someone had stolen his foreign gods. Jacob (didn’t know that his wife Rachel had stolen them) told Laban to go search everything and kill whoever stole them. Laban went through all the tents and everything and couldn't find his gods. Rachel had them under her butt on the camel saddle, and played the ‘it’s my woman time’ card to not get up. Interesting that Rachel hides her fathers idols. This shows that she still longs for her forgiven gods and isn’t willing to give them all up yet.  Story wraps up with Jacob and Laban making a covenant of peace with a rock memorial and boundary between them. As you can tell, the Bible does not paint a fake picture of God’s chosen people. They lied. They tricked. They deceived. They postured. They stole forgiven gods. They disobeyed. But - they came back to God. They pursued God. And God is continuing to purse this family. They are not perfect, as we are not either. But we are to go to a God who is. 

To sum it all up:

• God supernaturally provides and makes a way for everything according to His will and purpose. I hope that is starting to sink in by now - the control that you have is not in your ‘destiny’ but in how you respond to what God is doing in and through you. It is how you respond to life’s circumstances that defines your faith.