The unstoppable ways of God (Gen 30:25-43)

A woman from a controlling religious group married someone in the same group and they moved to the husband’s country. As she awakened to her husband’s manipulation, she began to plan her escape. She used to put aside a small amount from the food money her husband gave her for preparing meals until she had enough to buy a flight ticket to her country. On the day of her departure, she had to pretend that she was following her normal routine to avoid discovery. She felt uncomfortable about the deception, but honesty would have got her nowhere. While we make allowances for the above situation, we may feel that Jacob’s manoeuvring of the flock with the sticks is a deceiver’s trickery as well as a superstitious practice that is not supposed to work but seemingly it does. Is Jacob still trying to get ahead by manipulation and his own efforts? Why then does he succeed? Doesn’t God disapprove?

Laban’s exploitative ways

One aspect of this puzzle that we can miss is Laban’s exploitation. Seven years’ service for Rachel was already extortionate and Jacob has done fourteen. Laban got rich as a result and knew it was because of Jacob (Gen 30:27; cf. Gen 26:28), so had no intention of letting go of this golden goose. Knowing Laban’s greed, Jacob suggests an arrangement for his wages that will require little of his uncle and diminishing returns for himself, but the result will be beyond dispute (Gen 30:33). Goats in the region tended to be black and sheep white, so what Jacob asks for is any new-born animal from this point on that does not fit that norm (black sheep as well as goats with some white in them).[1] As a comparison, ancient shepherds could expect about 20% of the lambs and kids as their wages so what Jacob proposes is expected to be much less than that.[2] Laban’s stinginess, however, leads him to separate the abnormal animals and put them at some distance from the normal flock (Gen 30:35-36). Perhaps he is trying to avoid the interbreeding of the two flocks. Further, by putting his sons in charge of the abnormal animals, he ensures that Jacob cannot check on their offspring.

Jacob’s response

Jacob’s wages are little enough, but Laban does not even want that to go to him. He is tight-fisted to a relative and simultaneously deprives his own daughters by not paying his nephew a fair wage. Jacob then is fighting from a position of weakness. While there is no scientific evidence for the belief in folk tradition that the mating of animals is influenced by what they see so that patterned sticks lead to the conception of multicoloured animals, it should not be judged on our standards as a superstition. Jacob then does what he can within the limitations placed on him to salvage something of the situation and provide himself with some income at least, but he testifies later of his conviction that it was God who brought him this wealth in the face of Laban cheating him (Gen 31:7-9).

Shrewdness and the unstoppable ways of God

I am reminded of Psalm 18:26, ‘With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute’ (NASB; literally ‘twisted’ or as Alter translates it ‘[You] deal in twists’).[3] While the psalm describes God’s dealings with people, how he responds to them in kind, rabbinic interpretation extends the principle to human interaction. It argues that while one must never steal or lie, it is reasonable for people to protect themselves from thieves and deceivers. In other words, a certain shrewdness may be necessary in exploitative situations. While I do not believe that our passage condemns Jacob for his shrewdness the point of the story once again is that God’s purposes are not stopped by exploitation but achieved regardless. In the process, Jacob’s character is shaped and eventually justice will be done, too. Although in various guises we have encountered this message before, it is worth pondering again God’s wisdom, power, and grace as they work in our lives. When we find ourselves being taken advantage of, experiencing injustice and feeling the sting of it, we can be encouraged that God is not hindered by it all and He knows and works His purposes in us. The story – Jacob’s and ours – does not end here.

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[1] From the text it may sound like Jacob’s wages were to be the already existing abnormal animals (Gen 30:32) and that is why Jacob wants to go and separate them out, but commentators generally agree that it is any new animals that are like these that will be his wages. Jacob’s intention to go through the flock is then perhaps to mark the existing animals as Laban’s.

[2] Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50, WBC 2 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 256.

[3] Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms (New York: Norton, 2007), 56.

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