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

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

Once again we have a biblical story about a man taking more than one wife, and once again it goes badly.  However, before I get into that I want to take note of Laban’s response when he hears the story of why Jacob had come to him.   “You really are my own flesh and blood!”  Laban recognized in Joseph the same trickery and cunning which he himself exercised.  This really sets the stage for the relationship between Jacob and Laban over the next many years, each trying to outmaneuver the other.  The first round went to Laban when he got Jacob to marry Leah.  However, Jacob did not exactly lose since he got Rachel as his wife was well (however badly that went for him).  The next round went to Jacob, despite the fact that Laban cheated him by removing the spotted and speckled goats and the black sheep from the herd after agreeing that those would be Jacob’s.  Despite this, Jacob was able to manipulate the breeding of the sheep and goats so that the herds he tended produced large numbers of speckled and spotted goats and black sheep.

Meanwhile Jacob had domestic bickering as his wives fought for his attention and were jealous of each other.  Rachel, the love of Jacob’s life, blamed him for her inability to have children, while Leah counted coup with each child she bore.  Then Rachel and Leah made it worse by introducing other women to the equation.