Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 29-30.

We have here a second example of polygamy.  And once again it does not go well.  There is clearly jealousy and rivalry between Leah and Rachel.  Which is all I am going to write about that today.  Over a period of time which is not clearly laid out, eleven sons are born to Jacob.  After the birth of Joseph, Jacob talks to Laban about leaving and returning to his homeland*.  Some people believe that Joseph was born seven years after Jacob married Rachel and that Jacob was just opening negotiations for his pay going forward.  It seems unlikely to me that the drama described as going on between Jacob’s wives could have taken place in just seven years.  In any case, Laban did not want Jacob to leave and asked him what it would take for him to stay and continue to manage Laban’s flocks (or a portion of them).  They reach an agreement which Laban promptly violates, just as he had the agreement about Jacob marrying Rachel after working for him for seven years.  Jacob  did not fuss about the fact that Laban had removed every speckled, spotted, or dark colored lamb from the herd, despite the fact that Laban had just agreed that those would be Jacob’s (Laban would certainly have argued that he had only agreed that those born going forward with those characteristics were to be Jacob’s).  Jacob had a breeding plan.  We know from modern study of breeding that looking at striped bits of wood as described would not increase the incidence of speckled, spotted, and dark colored lambs.  I think there are three possible explanations for what happened.  First, perhaps there was a chemical of some kind in the types of wood which Jacob chose which caused the flocks to give birth to offspring with the characteristics which Jacob desired.  Second. perhaps Jacob knew the flocks well enough to know which rams and ewes would be most likely to mate to produce offspring with the characteristics Jacob desired and he placed the wood there as misdirection.  Third,  God just chose to bless Jacob and caused his scheme to work even though there is no scientific explanation as to why it actually would work.  Personally, I think what happened was a combination of the second and third explanation.   I would like to point out that Jacob clearly successful at more than herding and breeding sheep and goats as the donkeys and camels he acquired would not have come from his deal with Laban.

*As a side note I want to point out that Jacob did not view Haran as his homeland even though his grandfather had come from there and most of his grandfather’s relatives lived there.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.