Genesis 30

¹When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

²Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

³Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”

Show full chapter

⁴So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, ⁵and she became pregnant and bore him a son. ⁶Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.^[a]

⁷Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.^[b]

⁹When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹Then Leah said, “What good fortune!”^[c] So she named him Gad.^[d]

¹²Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.^[e]

¹⁴During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”

“Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.

¹⁷God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.^[f]

¹⁹Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.^[g]

²¹Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. ²³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” ²⁴She named him Joseph,^[h] and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Flocks Increase

²⁵After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. ²⁶Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”

²⁷But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” ²⁸He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

²⁹Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. ³⁰The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”

³¹“What shall I give you?” he asked.

“Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: ³²Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. ³³And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”

³⁴“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” ³⁵That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. ³⁶Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. ³⁸Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, ³⁹they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. ⁴⁰Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. ⁴¹Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, ⁴²but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. ⁴³In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Genesis 30 (NIV)

Rachel and Leah at this time were unable to conceive and so they both convinced Jacob to sleep with their servants so that they could have babies that way. Later though, God blessed them both and they were able to have babies of their own.

After Rachel had her baby (Joseph), Jacob decided to go back to his homeland to pursue his God-given purpose and so he asked Laban to pay him for his work over the years and send him on his way. Laban tried to cheat Jacob and Jacob responded in like manner.

Lessons from Genesis 30

The destructive power of jealousy: Rachel got so jealous of Leah that she went to Jacob and requested that he give her children or she will die. Jealousy is such a negative feeling that consumes a person from the inside out. If not properly dealt with, jealousy can make a person do some really outrageous and irrational things. (Read this post to learn more about overcoming jealousy)

Everyone’s got their own issues to deal with: Rachel was jealous of Leah because Leah had children and she didn’t, meanwhile on the other side Leah was jealous of Rachel because Jacob loved her more. It is easy to look at people from an outside perspective and be envious of them but the truth is that everyone has their own issues to deal with. Learn to love yourself and enjoy your life. Seek only to be better today than you were yesterday and even better tomorrow than today.
The trails we create for younger generations: Once again we encounter a woman telling her husband to sleep with another woman so that they can have a baby. Rachel and Leah both did the same thing Sarah did in Genesis 16, they asked Jacob to sleep with their servants (Bilhah and Zilpah) so they could raise the babies as theirs and Jacob, just like his ancestor Abraham harkened to his wives’ requests. Surely they had heard the stories about what their ancestors did and now were walking in the same paths.

Traditions are born from people doing certain things over generations, and as such, it is important to be careful what traditions you uphold and what examples you are showing younger generations.

Laban’s mistake: In Genesis 29, Laban tried to justify tricking Jacob by saying that in their custom, it is not normal for a woman to be married before her older sister. Because he wanted so badly to uphold tradition, he sent his daughter Leah into a marriage where she was not loved. Not only that, now there was discord and jealousy arising between Leah and Rachel.

Associating with God’s blessed causes a flow of blessing in your life as well: Notice what Laban said in Genesis 30 verse 27: “I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you”. In the past, Abraham and Isaac had things like this said to them as well, the blessings of the Lord were evident upon people who associated with them. No wonder the Bible says to not forsake the assembling of the brethren (Hebrews 10: 25).

Working for someone is great but following your God-given purpose is even greater: In verse 30 of Genesis 30, Jacob pointed out to Laban that he also needed to look out for his own household.

The point of life is not just to go to school, get a job/career, retire and then die. There is more to life than that, you have to fulfill your purpose here before you die. Life gets a lot richer and more interesting when you walk with a purpose and vision.

Be honest in your dealings with people and God will bless you: God does not like dishonesty and unfair treatment of others. In your interactions with others, let your light shine, as a Christian, you should not be that person who looks out for opportunities to cheat, lie and steal.

Two wrongs don’t make a right: Laban tried to cheat Jacob after he’d worked for him for years and in return, Jacob came up with a scheme against Laban. Jesus spoke a tit for tat situation and encouraged the people to be forgiving and not repay evil with evil but to instead extend grace and practice forgiveness.
God doesn’t take back things He has given his children: Even though Jacob was not being entirely fair in his dealings with Laban (he made sure the stronger animals bore young ones for him and let Laban have the weaker ones – Genesis 30:41-42), God still blessed him and he became exceedingly prosperous (Genesis 40: 43). Jacob had received the blessing of God upon his life, the anointing to increase and to be prosperous. God does not take back the blessings that He gives his children.

This does not however mean that you have a free pass to do whatever you want because God’s blessings remain, the time will come when we will all have to give an account to God about what we did with blessings He bestowed upon us.

Reflection

What is your purpose in life? You can ask God to reveal it to you if you don’t know yet.

Prayer

Father, thank you for your irrevocable gifts and blessings upon my life. In my dealings with others, please help me practice honesty. I refuse to walk in deceit or malice, even toward the attainment of a good end. Teach me to walk in perfect love and eradicate envy and jealousy from my heart.

Lord, help me find my purpose in life and walk toward it. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Community

Leave a comment to let us know what lessons you learned and revelations you got from this passage of scripture.

Share the message with others that they too may be blessed and edified.

God bless you!

Genesis 30