In this FAQ series, we will try to answer questions that will hopefully help us become more biblically informed and better equipped to live out our faith in community. To submit and vote on questions you would like to see answered here by our pastors, click here. To see other FAQ Friday posts, click here.
This week, Daniel Moore, our middle school pastor answers a question submitted by Just Wondering from Greenville, SC.
What was the purpose of Jacob putting the young tree branch in the water while the sheep mated? (Genesis 30)
Great question – both interesting and a bit humorous. There is certainly more going on in this instance than just sticking a tree branch in the water where the sheep mate. And when we take a step back and understand the context of this situation, we actually get a beautiful picture of God’s faithfulness.
To understand this passage, you have to understand that Laban had manipulated Jacob and tricked him on multiple occasions while he was his servant for almost 20 years. If you remember, Jacob agreed to serve Laban for 7 years in exchange for Laban giving his daughter, Rachel, to Jacob as a wife. After the 7 years were complete, Laban tricked Jacob by giving him his older daughter, Leah, as a wife instead. Jacob, in his anger, then agreed to serve Laban for another 7 years so that he could take Rachel as his wife as well, for he loved her more.
With this background, we can now look at what is happening in Genesis 30. Jacob has had many children through his wives and their servants, and now he has asked Laban to send them away to go to their own home and country. Laban understands that he has become prosperous because of God’s favor on Jacob, and he asks Jacob to stay in exchange for payment. As payment for his service, Jacob asks Laban to give him all of the speckled and spotted sheep and goats, as well as every black lamb. Because of these animals’ distinctive markings, it will be clearly distinguishable which animals belong to whom. But, in typical “Laban fashion”, Laban removes all of these certain animals and sends them with his sons and leaves the remainder of his flock with Jacob to pasture.
To recover the loss of all of those speckled and spotted sheep and goats, Jacob attempts to manipulate their breeding with the tree branch in the water. The animals always mated when they came to drink, and Jacob figured out that he could peel white streaks into the tree branches and put it before the animals when certain ones breeded to encourage them to mate. Eventually, Jacob would only put the branch in the water to encourage the strong animals to mate, but then take the branch out when the weaker ones mated. Jacob, in essence, used the branch in the water to create a selective breeding process to increase the number of sheep and goats that were his and make them stronger, while leaving Laban’s flock as the weaker ones to mate among themselves.
The point of the story is to show that even though Jacob and Laban agreed on a deal that would result in Jacob staying and obtaining great blessing and wealth, it was actually God who provided that blessing instead of Laban. Laban manipulated Jacob and took advantage of his services again, but despite that, God blessed Jacob greatly. Verse 43 in this chapter shows that God has clearly blessed Jacob greatly and he is very prosperous, and this is in direct response to God’s promises to Jacob in Genesis 28. Jacob’s clever use of the peeled tree branches were not so much intended to demonstrate his resourcefulness as it was to further the theme of God’s continued faithfulness to his word.
God is certainly in control and true to his word, and whether it is Jacob’s life or our life that seems completely confusing or hopeless, it is just another situation where we can trust in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.