The time Jacob agreed to work for Laban is up and he wants to take his family and his flocks and move back to the land of Canaan. Laban doesn't want him to go so they make a deal about what Jacob's wages will be if he stays.
"After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, 'Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 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.'" (Genesis 30:25-26) Laban can't claim Jacob hasn't done everything required of him and more.
But Laban's finances have flourished under Jacob's care and he entices him to remain. "But Laban said to him, 'If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I've learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.' He added, 'Name your wages, and I will pay them.'" (Genesis 30:27-28) We will learn later on that Laban keeps idols in his house. He believes in the Lord but not as the one and only God. Just as Leah did yesterday, we find Laban mixing pagan beliefs with worship of the Lord. This isn't necessarily surprising, considering they live on the outskirts of the idolatrous city of Ur, but it's disappointing. I don't know whether Laban truly learned anything from divination. If he did, it was revealed to him by the powers of darkness because idols represent gods who don't exist. Idols can't speak or move or do anything good or anything bad under their own power. So I don't know whether Laban was told anything by the spiritual forces of darkness or whether he makes this statement in a manipulative manner, such as: "The gods of the Chaldeans have told me I've been blessed by the Lord because you are in my home. If you leave my home then I may lose the Lord's blessings. You wouldn't want that for your father-in-law, would you?"
Jacob acknowledges that Laban is financially better off now than he was when Jacob first arrived, but Jacob wants to focus on making a living only for his own family, not for Laban. "Jacob said to him, 'You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has increased under my care. 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?'" (Genesis 30:29-30) All the work Jacob has done has been for Laban's benefit. Jacob has nothing he can call his own except four wives and the children he's had with them. If they leave they will be leaving with pretty much just the clothes on their backs because Jacob didn't earn anything but his room and board and his family by working fourteen years for Laban. Not a single sheep is in Jacob's name. Not a stick of furniture belongs to him. Jacob wants to make a living and support his family on his own.
Laban is trying to figure out what it will take to get Jacob to stay. He knows he isn't as good of a manager as Jacob and that his finances will suffer if Jacob leaves. "'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: 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. 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.'" (Genesis 30:31-33) I suspect there are far more solid colored animals in the flocks and herds than speckled and spotted animals. Laban has a pretty good idea of what his flocks and herds look like, so this sounds like a good deal to him.
"'Agreed,' said Laban. 'Let it be as you have said.' 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 30:34-36) Laban thinks he's getting the best end of the bargain but his knowledge of animal husbandry is lacking. This is why he's become so wealthy under Jacob's management of the estate; Jacob knows what he's doing when it comes to selective breeding of animals. Laban has never stopped to consider that a solid colored animal can still produce a spotted animal. A solid sheep with recessive genes for spotting can mate with another solid sheep who carries the same recessive genes for spotting. Next thing you know, this sheep couple has a spotted baby.
Here's an example of this in humans: My husband has blonde hair but both of his parents had very dark hair. A person without any knowledge of genetics might expect his parents to only be able to produce a dark haired child. But obviously the two of them carried recessive genes for blonde hair. When the two of them produced a child together, the recessive genes for blonde hair combined to make blonde hair a dominant trait in their offspring. Genetic diseases occur in this same way. A woman who carries a recessive gene for a hereditary illness may marry a man who carries the same recessive gene. When they mate, if the particular sperm and the particular egg that join together contain the genetic code for the illness, the child will inherit it. The parents themselves may be perfectly healthy but the child will have lost the genetic lottery, so to speak, because of how genetics works. The solid colored flocks and herds are much larger than the spotted herds and Laban expects his own wealth to grow far more than Jacob's, but that's because he doesn't understand that his own animals will still produce some spotted animals and those will belong to Jacob according to their agreement.
Jacob wants to ensure that the solid colored animals produce as many spotted offspring as possible. He does something odd next that, on the surface, seems like superstitious folk medicine. It seems unlikely to produce any results. Except it does produce results. "Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white strips on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. Then he placed the peeled branches in the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted." (Genesis 30:37-39) He almost seems to be saying to the animals, "Here's an illustration of what I need you to do. See how I've caused these branches to be streaked and spotted? This is what I want your offspring to look like. So when you stand here near the water and mate with each other, keep your eyes on these branches so you won't forget what I'm asking you to do." How on earth does this actually work? Do these cut branches alter the chemistry of the water somehow and cause the animals to mate more often or become more fertile or cause certain genes to come to the forefront? Or is Jacob using these branches as a sign of his faith that God is going to vastly increase how many non-solid animals are born to the flock? Perhaps the branches are a visible reminder to him that God is going to take care of him. We don't know the answer and neither have all the Bible scholars and scientists who have pondered this passage.
The rest of what Jacob does makes more sense to us. As spotted and speckled animals are born, he only allows the spotted and speckled animals to mate, thereby increasing the odds of speckled and spotted offspring. He also makes sure that the solid animals who mate with each other are of different colors, which also increases the likelihood of spotting in their offspring. In addition, he only allows the strongest females to breed, which decreases the odds of mortality. The females won't die in childbirth and the offspring will be strong and healthy. "Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban's animals. Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys." (Genesis 30:40-43)
Jacob is putting his knowledge of animal husbandry to his advantage. At the same time, he's putting Laban at a disadvantage. At this point in Jacob's life he's still trusting in his own efforts more than he's trusting in the Lord. I don't think it's necessary to make Laban's flocks and herds weaker in order to make Jacob's flocks and herds stronger and more plentiful; I think the Lord would have increased Jacob's wealth without Jacob having to resort to putting his father-in-law at a disadvantage. But Jacob is a crafty, dishonest man who is dealing with another crafty, dishonest man. He's "fighting fire with fire" I suppose we could say, and although that's not always the best way to go about things, in Jacob's human reasoning it must have seemed the best way. Weak as Jacob's faith is at times, the Lord still honors it and assists him in getting ready to make his exodus from the suburbs of Ur. It's the Lord's will for Jacob to go back to Canaan---to the land the Lord promised Abraham's descendants.
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