When
Jacob completed the 14 years of work for Laban, he expressed his desire to
become independent.
(Genesis
30:25-26) 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."
What was Laban’s response?
(Genesis
30:27-28) 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."
Laban
knew it was not beneficial for him to let Jacob go, since he had prospered
abundantly thanks to his son in law’s work. However, Jacob did not want to
continue working as his father in law’s slave. He had been working to pay his
debt to Laban, for the dowry he owed for both Rachel and Leah. He had paid with
seven years of work for each of them. Now he wanted to work for his family as a
free man.
Jacob
decided to negotiate a new setting for his residence with the family.
(Genesis
30:29-33) 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."
Jacob
was to continue working for Laban, but from that moment on he would receive
wages for his work.
Laban
accepted Jacob’s proposal. And to make sure that Jacob would not cheat by
crossing white and black sheep to come out with spotted ones, Laban separated
the flocks at that time.
(Genesis
30:34-36) 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.
This
is where the separation between Laban and Jacob began.
FLOCK
EXPERT
Jacob
was an expert in tending flocks. It was a talent he had inherited from Abraham
and Isaac, and in which he had worked for the last 14 years. He knew how to use
his knowledge for his own benefit.
(Genesis
30:37-43) 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.
According
to some commentaries, the experiment Jacob did does not have any scientific
support. Perhaps it was more a measure of faith than a scam. However, he put
into practice a principle of life: we have to visualize our goals and
objectives so that they may become a reality.
Jacob
began to prosper, and thus, he began to prepare for his return to the Promised
Land…
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