Intro

Let me begin by reminding you once again that the whole bible is the Word of God, even these ancient stories about the patriarchs that seem so strange to our ears. It would be very easy just to skip over passages like last week’s or this week’s stories in Genesis 29 and 20. Some of them are sordid and sorry tales of the tangled webs of human sin. And others, like the story of the spotty and stripey goats, just make us scratch our heads and wonder why they are in the bible. But they are there, and that’s why I preach on the whole bible, not just the parts I know best or the parts I like best, or just the New Testament.

Romans 15 verse 4 says about the Old Testament: “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” And I hope that over the past five years as we’ve been spending at least one month a year working our way through Genesis, that you’ve discovered the truth of those words. We have seen, not only the great foundational Christian doctrines of Creation and the Fall and God’s Promise of Redemption, but also the beginning of the people of God in God’s choice of the one man Abraham back in chapter 12. And everything in the bible that follows those promises to Abraham is in fulfilment of the covenant God made with him. We see the example of Abraham’s faith, and even more we see the faithfulness and trustworthiness of our God.

In the stories about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we have travelled with them on their journeys from unbelief to faith, from sin to forgiveness, from fear to assurance, from danger to safety in the loving arms of Almighty God. This year, we’ve followed Jacob as he flees from his brother Esau and leaves his beloved mother Rebekah and his father Isaac in the Promised Land to journey to Haran. We saw how Jacob, the deceiver who cheated his brother out of his birthright and blessing, became himself the victim of a greater conman than he in his uncle Laban, who tricks him into marrying both his daughters instead of just the one he wanted. And last week we saw Leah’s sad and fruitless quest for Jacob’s love, and the intense rivalry between her and her sister Rachel to bear the most children.

A Reasonable Request Refused (25-30)  

Jacob wants out

Now, after serving his 14 years for Laban as the price for his daughters in marriage, Jacob has had enough of this double dealing swindler. And so in verse 25 here we see him wanting out.

“After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. ²⁶ Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.””

Laban is one of those bosses who always takes and only ever gives grudgingly, and then devises some way of taking it back later anyway. Jacob feels cheated, as we learn later by his words in the next chapter, and underappreciated by his crafty and self-serving uncle. He’s had enough and he wants out.

Laban politely refuses

But Laban politely refuses Jacob’s request. Verse 27 “But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” 28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.””

Laban is not a worshipper of the Lord, as we know from the next chapter, where Rachel steals his household idols. Though God does speak to several pagan people in Genesis in dreams, it is most likely that this is simply something Laban makes up to put spiritual leverage on Jacob. He knows that Jacob serves God, and will perhaps be impressed by Laban not only belatedly acknowledging how much Jacob has done for him, but also attributing it to the Lord. Sadly this kind of spiritual pressure is sometimes even done in the name of Christ. It’s the kind of thing employed by the leaders of cults and churches who want to hold and manipulate their members by spiritual blackmail. Amazing how handy a supposed word or sign from the Lord can be in twisting people’s arms and making them think they are going against God by opposing the will of the one who has the revelation. That’s the kind of guilt trip Laban is laying on here I think. And he adds the financial incentive in the line that we have heard from him before “name your wages, and I will pay them.”

Jacob’s response is in verse, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”

Jacob’s Unanswered Question

In recent days it seems we have overdosed on bad news concerning families. We have heard of the most awful criminal neglect by parents, even leading to the death of their children, we have heard of murder suicides, and on a lesser note, of criticism from both sides of politics at the policies and practices of the other that have allegedly contributed towards the breakdown of family values. We have heard criticism of those bosses who make it hard for parents to spend enough time with their children and who want to own their employees body and soul. Jacob is feeling something like that here. He feels that he is working for Laban instead of working for his own family. That’s what seems to be behind his question here . “But now, when may I do something for my own household?”

Jacob, despite all his faults, is not one of those parents who neglects and abuses his children, despite the fact that he has twelve of them, all under seven years of age, and by four different women. You think you’ve got it hard? I reckon Jacob would sometimes have been happy to be out with the goats in the field! But he is a man who loves his family and wants what is best for them. And the bible encourages us to think like that. It is not a good thing to put work, or even the church, before your family. Jesus criticised the Pharisees for declaring money ‘Corban’ or dedicated to God, so as to avoid family financial responsibilities. Paul says to Timothy in the New Testament reading we had this morning “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” That’s a pretty serious charge, and we would do well to follow Jacob’s example of wanting employment that does not come between him and the needs of his family. But like Jacob, we may find that it is not easy to extricate yourself from such a situation. Often employers, especially if you work hard for them, will put enormous pressure on and even offer great incentives to keep you, or keep you working at the frenetic pace you are.

Now we must not, of course, put even family before God, as the Lord Jesus makes clear when he talks about leaving home and family for his sake, or says that he has come to pit family members against one another when one believes and others don’t. I shared recently with you the story of Bali Shepherd, from northern India, whom I met in Launceston recently, whose Hindu family has disowned him and refuses to give him his family inheritance of land. That is one case where accepting the land for the sake of looking after his immediate family comes with strings attached that are not worth it. When it is a choice between family and Christ, we must choose Christ. But more often than not, that is not our problem. And too many Australian Christians, men especially, get sucked into the trap of working so hard doing things for their employer that they never do anything for their own family apart from bringing home a bigger paycheck.

The Agreement (31-34)

Well, for better or worse, Jacob and Laban come to an agreement. Verse 31: " “What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.” 34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.””

But does Laban agree? Look what he does next!

“That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks. (Genesis 30:35, 36)

Laban wasn't holding these animals in trust for Jacob. He was making sure there were no speckled, spotted or dark colored animals. He would have known that the white goats would have some speckled and spotted offspring too, but he was setting Jacob back a whole goat generation! He was ripping Jacob off once again. Jacob begins his new independence with nothing. Jacob is still the victim. Or is he? Jacob begins his selective breeding program, and the result is that the monochrome sheep give birth to far more speckled and spotty ones than they should have. Moreover, the strongest offspring end up being speckled and spotty and the weakest ones plain coloured.

The Unexpected Outcome (35-43)

What is happening here??

Now what exactly is happening here? I’m not going to read through the next verses again, this strange story about the non-white and white goats. But I have to admit that I’m not entirely sure I understand all the cultural and agricultural things that are going down here. Does Jacob know from the start what he intends to do? Is he trying some elaborate con job, the mechanics of which we don’t quite understand, in order to trick Laban into giving him what he deserves? And what is it that happens with this stuff with the goats and the sticks and all? We know that some kind of selective breeding is happening, but it appears to be by a type of magic or superstition. Is the bible really teaching magical genetics? Putting striped sticks in front of breeding animals to make them come out striped? Well it’s probable that Jacob thought he was doing something like that. But just because the bible records the patriarchs engaging in dubious superstitious practices doesn’t mean it is endorsing this superstition or saying that it is true. Genesis tells us about Jacob doing the magic bit with the striped sticks, and it tells us he got the results he wanted, but it doesn’t say that it happened because of what he did. In fact, it tells us something completely different about why this really happened. The story I think is intended to make the reader wonder whether this is what has happened. But then it give the punchline which shows something totally different was really taking place.

The Real Power (Gen 31:5-13)

What happens here is the same as what happened in the last chapter with Rachel and Leah and the mandrakes. You remember Rachel bought the mandrakes from Leah by trading her night with Jacob, because she thought the mandrakes would make her able to get pregnant. But it was God, not the mandrakes, who bestowed fertility on Rachel. Similarly, here, it is not Jacob’s mumbo jumbo, but God’s determination to bless him because of the promises to Abraham, that causes him to prosper. And the reason we know that is that the next chapter tells us so! Listen to what Jacob tells his wives in chapter 31. Look at verses 5-13 in chapter 31. Jacob is trying to convince his wives that it is time for them to leave. He refers to the "flock building exercise" this way,

“5 He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me. 10 “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.” (Genesis 31:5-13)

Jacob claims that the idea about being paid with the mongrel animals was God's idea and that God was the one who caused it, not the mumbo jumbo with the sticks. God told Jacob to do what he did. Do you remember in the Book of Numbers when poisonous snakes were killing the people in the Promised land as punishment for their rebellion? Moses pleaded for the people and God told Moses to make a bronze snake, put it on a pole and then whoever looked at it would be saved. Was there any power in the bronze snake? Of course not. But to look at the snake was to believe God enough to do what He said. This is the reason they were saved . . . . because of their faith, not because of the replica of a snake. I think the same thing is happening here. There was nothing magic in the striped sticks . . . but Jacob acted in faith by doing what God told him to do . . . no matter how silly it seemed. God honored Jacob's faithfulness. No matter how Laban changed the wage . . . Jacob prospered. “ [adapted from Bruce Goettsche]

LESSONS WE SHOULD LEARN

Providence & Covenant Fulfilment

By now I hope you have already seen some of what we can learn from this story, in terms of both positive and negative examples to follow. But as with all these stories, their main purpose is not so that we can just draw moral lessons from them. Rather, they teach us about God and his faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham. They teach us to trust in his providence and care. They teach us that he never goes back on his promises. We see through this whole process that God’s promises that Abraham will become a great nation and that through him the whole world will be blessed are already well under way, as Jacob with his four wives and 12 children is blessed by God despite all the bad things that happen to him.

Jesus the good shepherd

I think there are further lessons we can learn. I don’t like to allegorise the Old Testament, except where the New Testament itself does that. But in reading about the way Jacob cares for his family, and in hearing this story about Jacob as a wise shepherd, I can’t help but be reminded of Jesus, the good shepherd who cares for and prospers his flock. And maybe it’s not drawing too long a bow to think that in some way this points forward to him.

Jacob Trusts God

But perhaps most of all there is the example of Jacob’s faith in the face of great disappointment, adversity, and unfairness, and God’s ability to change and transform Jacob. This is where we will leave Jacob until we return to him next year. Next week we’ll go on to the book of Jeremiah the prophet. But as we say farewell to the father of God’s Old Testament people Israel, with his young tribe of children and his now vast herds and flocks, we see that he is already a very different man than the conniving cheater that his names implies. Jacob means ‘deceiver’ but God has changed him from one who deceives others to one who trusts God to vindicate him. Jacob’s life is a great incentive to us to believe that God is not finished with us yet, despite all the foolish mistakes we may have made in the past, and that it really does pay to take him at his Word and believe that he has plans for us in Christ for our good.