CHAPTER 30

(1745 B.C.)

BILHAH

¹And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die (Rachel pictures Israel; Leah, the Church; Rachel is first loved, but not possessed sorrowful and childless; Leah, blessed with children and triumphant; Paul, in a sense, addressed this in Galatians 4:27; Rachel blames Jacob, but the fault is not that of Jacob, but rather hers; instead of seeking Jacob, she should have sought the Lord).

²And Jacobs anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in Gods stead, Who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? (Jacob directs Rachel to the Lord.)

³And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her (all of this shows precious little Faith in God; while it seems that both Rachel and Leah understood somewhat the significance of them having children, their understanding was only partial, because they seemed to walk more by sight than by Faith).

⁴And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her (this was the custom in those days; the child that Bilhah would have would be looked at as that of Rachel, but only in a sense; the Holy Spirit plainly proclaims the actual mother).

JACOBS CHILDREN

⁵And Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son. (Concerning this, Calvin says, So, God often strives to overcome mens wickedness through kindness, and pursues the unworthy with His Grace.)

⁶And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. (The name means judging. Whether Jacob understood such or not is open to question; however, he must have 13 sons in order to found the Nation of Israel. Twelve would be for the regular tribes, while one would be for the Priestly Tribe. But, as usual, even as here, the flesh is mixed with faith.)

⁷And Bilhah Rachels maid conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali (his name means wrestling).

⁹When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife (resorts to the flesh).

¹⁰And Zilpah Leahs maid bore Jacob a son.

¹¹And Leah said, A troop comes: and she called his name Gad (Gad means, good fortune).

¹²And Zilpah Leahs maid bore Jacob a second son.

¹³And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher (means happy).

¹⁴And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray you, of your sons mandrakes. (These Passages present a perfect picture of prayer mixed with superstition. According to Oriental superstition, the mandrake possessed the virtue of promoting fruitfulness and fertility. It was an apple-like fruit.)

¹⁵And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that you should take my husband? and would you take away my sons mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with you tonight for your sons mandrakes (Rachel makes a bargain with Leah).

¹⁶And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, You must come in unto me; for surely I have hired you with my sons mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

¹⁷And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob the fifth son. (From this Verse, we know that Leah sought the Lord as it regards her conceiving another son, which she did. The Lord heard and answered her prayer, and this despite the fact that superstition had been involved regarding the mandrakes. How so much the Lord overlooks in answering prayer for all of us.)

¹⁸And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar (means, reward).

¹⁹And Leah conceived again, and bore Jacob the sixth son.

²⁰And Leah said, God has endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. (Means dwelling. So, in the six sons of Leah, we have the totality of the Plan of God. A son is born; he hears the Gospel; he is joined to Christ; he praises the Lord; he is rewarded; and he will dwell with the Lord forever.)

²¹And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

JOSEPH

²²And God remembered Rachel (that the mandrakes could not remove sterility, the Lord demonstrated by allowing Rachels barrenness to continue at least two years longer, though she had made use of this supposed remedy, and by opening Leahs womb without them; we should learn from all of this how the Lord rules in all things; but, once again, its so easy for any of us to resort to the flesh), and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb (it seems that Rachel finally resorted strictly to the Lord).

²³And she conceived, and bore a son; and said, God has taken away my reproach (God Alone can take away the reproach):

²⁴And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son. (Josephs name means adding. So, Rachel prophesies that the Lord will give her another son. As well, all of these sons are Types of Christ. Reuben: Jesus is the Son of God. Simeon: through Jesus we hear God. Levi: through Jesus we are joined to the Father. Judah: through Jesus, God had accepted our praises. Dan: Jesus has taken the judgment due us. Naphtali: Jesus has wrestled the power of darkness, all on our behalf, and has defeated the foe. Gad: Jesus is the troop Who has fought on our behalf, and has brought us good fortune. Asher: Jesus has made us happy. Issachar: Jesus is our reward. Zebulun: Jesus has made it possible for Believers to dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Joseph: Jesus has added all Believers to the Kingdom. Benjamin: Jesus is the Fathers strong right hand, and sits with Him in Heavenly Places. And as He does, so do we [Eph. 2:6]. Manasseh and Ephraim will be born to Joseph. There will be no tribe named Joseph, his two sons taking his place, making the total of the necessary 13 Tribes.)

WAGES

²⁵And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto my own place, and to my country.

²⁶Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go: for you know my service which I have done you. (The phrase, For whom I have served you, and let me go, proves that both Leah and Rachel became his wives immediately and then he served the fourteen years for them.)

²⁷And Laban said unto him, I pray you, if I have found favor in your eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake. (Laban did not really serve the Lord; however, he did know that Jehovah was real, and that the Blessings of God were definitely upon Jacob. So, for material benefits alone, he desires that the Patriarch remain with him as long as possible. We should learn a lesson from all of this. The Blessings of the Lord upon any individual will fall out as well on those around such a person.)

²⁸And he (Laban) said, Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.

²⁹And he (Jacob) said unto him (unto Laban), You know how I have served you, and how your cattle was with me.

³⁰For it was little which you had before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the LORD has blessed you since my coming: and now when shall I provide for my own house also?

³¹And he (Laban) said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me any thing: if you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flock:

³²I will pass through all your flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.

³³So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come (God will bless me), when it shall come for my hire before your face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me (all that are speckled, spotted, or brown shall be mine).

³⁴And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to your word. (Some have criticized Jacob, as it regards this particular agreement. They have attributed such to devious ways, trickery, and even dishonesty; however, it would appear that he acted honestly. The Lord will never bless sin and dishonesty, or even the slightest hint of evil. So, if the Lord is involved, and He definitely was, we must conclude that the acts, whatever they may have been, were righteous.)

³⁵And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his (Jacobs) sons.

³⁶And he (Laban) set three days journey between himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Labans flocks. (Laban required that there should be an interval of between 30 and 40 miles between himself, that is, his flocks, and those of Jacob. His wealth in sheep and goats must have been enormous to require so large a separate feeding ground. All of this, we learn from Verse 30, had been the result of Jacobs care.)

PROSPERITY

³⁷And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. (Whenever Jacob proposed his plan, which would give him all of the spotted and mingled sheep and goats, Laban reasoned, and rightly so under normal circumstances, that the number of animals falling into this category would be small indeed. The Lord told Jacob what to do in this situation. It is said to have been frequently observed that, particularly in the case of sheep, whatever fixes their attention in copulation is marked upon the young; however, it will be safer to ascribe this to Divine Blessing than to human craft.)

³⁸And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

³⁹And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Labans cattle. (Incidentally, the term cattle, as used in the Old Testament, can refer to all domestic animals, such as lambs, goats, oxen, or heifers. In the Passages of our study, it seems to refer to all types.)

⁴¹And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

⁴²But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Labans, and the stronger Jacobs.

⁴³And the man (Jacob) increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses. (We must conclude that the proposal of such a singular condition on the part of Jacob was an act, not of folly, but of faith, being tantamount to a committal of his cause to God instead of Laban. The acceptance of the agreement on the part of Laban was a display of greed, and a proof that the bygone years of prosperity had only increased that greed. Increase in the best sense is Gods Promise. It will be sent as He wills, and when He wills, but will be found the true answer to prayer and the true manifestation of love. On all that belongs to us, the blessing rests.)