Genesis 30: 37-43: “And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban’s cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.”
Jacob still had some lessons to learn. He had trusted the Lord to care for him as he left his homeland and trusted the Lord to bring him back again. However, he was still trying to help the Lord and he did everything that he could to ensure that he became a rich man. He didn’t understand the modern science of genetics but just tried to use magic of some kind to influence the breeding of the cattle, sheep and goats. He waited until the best of the stock came to breed and he tried to influence them to give the kind of animals that Laban had contracted to give to him. In spite of Jacob and his tricks and Laban and his bad faith the Lord still blessed Jacob, in his own context and gave him the things that he needed to ensure that there would be a proper framework for the birth of the nation of Israel. God always works in spite of our machinations and not because of them. However, God is always gracious because He loves us with His Divine love.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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