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Genesis 30 (ESV)

Jacob’s Prosperity

²⁵ 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.” ²⁷ 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.” ²⁹ 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.” ³⁴ 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.

³⁷ 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.

REFLECTION

• After working for Laban for 14 years, Jacob asked permission to return to His homeland with his family. He has made an agreement with Laban that those flocks with stripes will belong to him as his wage.  Jacob credited God for the result that the herds produced a majority of the dark, spotted or speckled animals.  And in six years he acquired quite a wealth of flocks for himself.
• God works comfortably within nature and outside of nature. He can turn “natural” event to His purposes just as He supernaturally intervenes and works miracles.
• Remain silent before God and meditate upon your successes and God’s blessings in your life. Ponder the natural or coincidental explanation versus the supernatural or providential explanation for them.  Write down what you learned or were reminded of during the silence.
• In what sense are you giving credit where credit is due for the good things that happen to you? Talk to God about it.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, looking back on my life, Your miracles are everywhere. You have given me the breath of life, a wise mind, keen senses, and an abundant spirit, so that I can perceive Your deeds everywhere! Thank You and praise You, loving and mighty Father! You arrange the sun, moon and stars, set the seasons of day and night, place the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, create trees, flowers, birds and fish, reptiles and beasts, give sunshine, rain and dew, and make all things prosperous and full of vitality. All of these are miracles that You declare to us every day! You have even given your only begotten Son to bear the sins of mankind at the cost of sacrificing Your own life, save us from darkness into light, that we can gain new life, and be called Your children! The change of my personal life is the greatest miracle that You have done on me. I only ask that my life will continue to change under the molding of Your grace, and become more like my Lord Jesus Christ day by day. Other than this, what greater miracle I can ask for? Amen!

HYMN

My Worth Is Not In What I Own – youtu.be/05jKxv8ApuI