Context No. 3643 of 4322 · Genesis

Genesis 30:37-43: in context

37Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, and plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. 38He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. 39The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in Laban’s flock. He put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock. 41Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the watering troughs, that they might conceive among the rods; 42but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

This is a strange passage about Jacob's method of breeding the flocks with peeled rods to gain the stronger animals for himself, and by it he grows exceedingly prosperous. But the folk method is not really the point. The fuller story makes clear that Jacob's increase came not from his clever rods but from God's blessing.

Jacob himself later acknowledges that it was God who took away Laban's livestock and gave them to him. What looked like Jacob's cleverness was really God's providence prospering him, even as Laban tried again and again to cheat him and change his wages. There is a lesson here about how God can prosper and protect his people even in the midst of others' unfairness. Laban dealt dishonestly with Jacob repeatedly, yet God turned it all to Jacob's good. When we are treated unjustly, we can trust that God is able to bless and provide for us anyway, turning even others' schemes to good, so that our increase, in the end, is his gift and not merely our own contriving.

When others deal with me unfairly, do I trust that God is able to bless and provide for me anyway, so that my true prospering is his gift rather than merely my own cleverness?

Sources

Genesis 30:43: "The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys."
Genesis 31:9: "Thus God has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me."
Genesis 31:7: "Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn't allow him to hurt me."