Read with Me
Genesis 30:37-43 (HCSB)
Jacob then took branches of fresh poplar, almond, and plane wood, and peeled the bark, exposing white stripes on the branches. He set the peeled branches in the troughs in front of the sheep—in the water channels where the sheep came to drink. And the sheep bred when they came to drink. The flocks bred in front of the branches and bore streaked, speckled, and spotted young. Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked and the completely dark sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and didn’t put them with Laban’s sheep.
Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the branches in the troughs, in full view of the flocks, and they would breed in front of the branches. As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob. And the man became very rich. He had many flocks, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.
Listen with Me
Jacob had contractually bound himself to Laban, but he quickly found out that Laban truly was a scoundrel who was willing to completely disregard the spirit of their agreement. He was willing to allow Jacob to have as his pay all the sheep that were not pure white and all the goats that were not pure black. But he was unwilling to allow him access to any of the current animals that would produce such offspring.
Jacob was intelligent and resourceful, although he had no real idea of how genetics work. He decided to try to tip the scales in his own favor through putting streaked and spotted branches in the watering troughs while the strongest of the sheep mated. His idea was that by seeing those streaked and spotted branches, the offspring produce would be more likely to be streaked and spotted.
Of course, as noted, that’s not how genetics work. But God was watching over Jacob just as He promised. Many of those white sheep and black goats already had recessive genes for streaks and spots in them., God simply caused a great number of those recessive genes to be expressed, causing a great number of dark or spotted sheep or speckled and spotted goats to be produced.
Jacob had gone to a great deal of time, thought, and work to try to produce the results he wanted to see, results that would benefit himself. But God was planning the whole time to bless him with abundant flocks and herds, just as He had already blessed him with abundant children. If Jacob had simply asked God, he would have gotten exactly the same results, but without all that fruitless labor. He was learning, but it was a slow process.
Pray with Me
Father, this points out an important principle. How often do we work and toil in our own wisdom and strength to try to produce results that will benefit us or Your kingdom. But we don’t think of turning to You unless we try and fail, or unless we are facing such a huge problem that we can’t come up with a solution ourselves. We justify ourselves by saying, “That’s what God gave me a brain for.” How much better it would be if we thought like Jesus (John 5:19): “I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way.” Help me, Lord, to lay aside self-reliance, and in its place simply rely on You for what I need. Amen.