Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. 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, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 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. 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, 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. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Comment: Modern man is left with the question – ‘Does God have to always follow the usual rules?’ Laban knew that spotted parents bred spotted lambs and goats. I have no doubt that Jacob knew what the ‘sneaky’ Laban had done in order that his wages would be minimal. No doubt Jacob had made his arrangement so that he would get a decent, and I expect, fair share of the annual crop of lambs/kids. He was neither blind nor a fool and he could see the way Laban planned to cheat him of his wages.
Jacob was the father of the patriarchs of what was to become the nation of Israel. Is this an example of God taking an unusual route to bless those whom He wants to bless? Is it a made-up story to get the end result to be what the writer wanted it to be? Did Jacob act in response to some stirring that God put into his thinking? Do the eyes of the rams and ewes as they ‘do their thing’ among carefully placed sticks affect the colour of their offspring? Jacob initially followed the known natural ‘rules’ for breeding the best quality offspring for himself, and he knew that Laban would expect a reasonable share of the profits. But in the end he did something which seems stupid.
Here is another record, or is it another ‘story’, (the stick thing doesn’t make scientific sense!) our response to which will affect our attitude to all that we believe about the Bible. Was God involved? I don’t understand it but I believe that He was involved!
Prayer: Please make me face squarely the hard questions of Christian belief, O God.
As I read it! 