Last 5 Days
Manipulation in Propagation
25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.
28 Name your wages, and I will give it.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?”
31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it:
32 let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. 33 So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.”
34 Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.”
35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. 36 And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.
37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock.
41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, 42 but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. 43 Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
This is a very interesting and intriguing story in the Bible. In verses 25-26, Jacob sensed that after the birth of Joseph (the eleventh of his 12 sons, and the first through Rachel) it was time for him to take his family to leave his father-in-law, Laban, after many years of serving him. His desire was to go back to his own home and country. It was time for Jacob to really take care and provide for his own household – this seems legitimate!
Verse 30 is a very real and practical concern for him, and for everyone who feels the need to be independent after many years of working for their bosses. He said, “But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” In other words, he was saying to Laban, “When should I start out to become my own boss or to be an entrepreneur?”
Evelyn and I enjoy watching the Reality TV series “Shark Tank.” It’s not about being in a tank with real sharks. Rather it is about entrepreneurs who have being running their companies as entrepreneurs, and they need more help in terms of investment or coaching, and they come before a group of potential rich investors for funds in return for a share in their companies.
Here, Laban was unwilling to let Jacob go because as he said, through divination he knew that God had blessed him so much through Jacob that he would want to keep him to work for him. (v. 27) Divination was a practice in the ancient near east of using objects or omens to get results, which was of course unacceptable to God’s people, but Jacob seemed to have accepted it and did not dispute Laban’s claim. It would be such a wonderful compliment if our pre-believing/unbelieving bosses would say this of anyone of us. Although as Christians, we do not practise divination, it’s not our responsibility to insist that others don’t do so.
This passage also contains a seemingly non-scientific propagation of lambs and of manipulation between son-in-law and father-in-law. This could be part of a modern TV story.
As Laban negotiates for him to stay, knowing that he was a really good worker and would help to increase his wealth further, Jacob made a proposal that the wages in exchange for him to continue working for him would be the speckled and spotted sheep and goats - this seemed reasonable. (vv. 31-33) But then we see Laban’s cunning action: before Jacob could do anything, he took all the speckled and spotted animals and gave them to his sons so that they were not in his possession and Jacob would serve him for nothing. This was unjust and cruel. He even set a distance of three days’ journey between Jacob and himself so that Jacob could not find out what he did. (vv. 34-36)
This situation obviously tells us that there was not much of a cordial and familial relationship between Jacob and Laban. Rather, it appeared to be a kind of transactional relationship, and this was going on since the time when he worked for his uncle to have his two wives, Leah and Rachel. There was a lot of calculation and manipulation between the two parties. Does this not sound familiar in our family, working and church relationships?
In the church today, is the foundation of our relationship brotherly love more than the calculation of utility and benefit? How much is a person of value or worth to the church depends on how much benefit or contribution they could give to the church? Every time we are tempted to have this kind of attitude, let us be reminded to go back to the first 2 commandments of our Christian faith: To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love others as ourselves. May God help us to be filled with a sincere love for him, for our fellow brethren and the people around us.
How did Jacob respond to Laban’s manipulation? He outdid his uncle with his own manipulation. He manipulated the propagation of the lambs and goats. (vv. 37-43) Scientists and theologians down the centuries have been intrigued by this non-scientific method of propagating the speckled and spotted lambs and goats. Whatever it was, like divination or magic, the logic of the process is unexplainable. The more important thing is it worked for him. Here, we should be careful not to use this one-off incident as a guide to how we conduct our lives, our family or business undertakings.
The Bible also did not mention that Jacob used any spiritual means such as praying to God to give him “speckled or spotted animals.” He just used his human ingenuity, and hey presto, “the feebler would be Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.” (vv. 42b-43) What could we say about Jacob’s trick? Well, at most we could say he used a “trial and error” method of propagation, and in this case, it worked for him. And within the sovereign will of God, he chose to bless Jacob with an increasing number of flocks, camels, donkeys and servants.
Dear sovereign and gracious God, you are the God who has made us who we are and given us everything that we need to live life and prosper, to love you and love others. May we learn to grow in our knowledge of who you are and in our love for you. Help us also to love people and use things, and not the other way around. We pray these things in Christ Jesus’ most precious name. Amen!