Weather-Beaten Sheep

When my husband and I lived in Ireland, I was fascinated by the sheep that dotted the green hills. Many of them were wild sheep that we saw in the heather-strewn moors of the northern parts of the island. These wild sheep would wander freely, sometimes within yards of the cliffs that lined the shores, without fence, stone wall, or hedge to contain them. Often, as we drove the narrow roads, we'd stop the car and wait (or, if we were in a hurry, honk) until a sheep decided to rise from his bed on the road and meander back onto the slopes.

Most of the wild sheep were heavily covered over with wool, indicating that if they did have a shepherd, the shepherd had let them alone for a while to grow their coat. These wild sheep, being flock animals, usually had one or two others with whom they kept company, but rarely did we see them in a whole herd.

I've read that now and then, some wild Irish sheep are collected for shearing if their coats get too thick and their wool is used for those famous Eireann sweaters, but for the most part, the wild sheep go where they want without sticking close to a fold. They're strong and hearty in the middle of the wind-swept, often storm-tossed, rugged terrain. They are taught hard lessons, and in the driving, frigid rain that constantly rolls off the North Atlantic, they often still graze the hillsides, unperturbed.

So in Genesis 30, Jacob continues on with his shepherding duties for his Uncle Laban. 

This seems to be a transitional chapter for Jacob's character development. The chapter is split in two, and in the first part, Jacob, per his name meaning: the One-Who-Deceives, the One-Who-Manipulates things according to his will... is himself manipulated by his wives. 

Without going into too much detail, Jacob is - crudely stated - used as a stud horse in 30:1-24. His wife Rachel is barren, so - as Sarah did to Abraham chapters ago - she gives Jacob her maidservant Bilhah as a concubine so that through her, Rachel can have a son. 

So, Jacob sleeps with Bilhah. And then he does again. So Bilhah has two sons through Jacob.

Meanwhile, Leah has stopped having children after the first four, so she gives Jacob her maidservant Zilpah as a concubine, so she can have more sons. Zilpah conceives, twice, and gives birth to two more sons for Jacob.

We've seen tension between Rachel and Leah in the past, but it's really ramping up here. Rachel is so jealous of her sister's ability to conceive, she can hardly see straight. Genesis 30:1 says: "When 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!"

Nothing dramatic about Rachel. ;)

So when Bilhah has had her two boys, and Zilpah has had her two boys, Rachel is still trying to figure out ways to conceive. Supposedly, and superstitiously, the mandrake plant is helpful for conception, and Leah's oldest son Reuben brings some to his mother (who is apparently also trying to conceive again. It's like a contest at this point between the girls, one which Leah is clearly winning if the stakes are numbers of sons. If the stakes are a husband's love, Rachel is winning. Drama, drama, drama). Rachel sees what Reuben brings, and after he leaves, Rachel approaches her sister. "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

Leah wears her heart on her sleeve. She's gone through years of being an unwanted brood mare; I can't totally blame her for her overwrought reaction: "Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes, too?"

Nothing dramatic about Leah. ;)

So Rachel says (paraphrased): "Fine, Jacob can sleep with you tonight if you let me eat some of those." One presumes that as Jacob's favorite wife, she's got top billing on Jacob's bed. (Sorry, but... hopefully this illustrates how very icky this whole situation is all the way around. God's plan for marriage was never polygamy: Genesis 2:24).

So when Jacob comes back from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and laid down the law. "You get to sleep with me tonight."

Consequently, Leah conceives another son, number five for her. And then another one, number six. Then a daughter. At this point, Leah has six sons and a daughter, Bilhah has two sons, Zilpah has two sons, and Rachel has zero anything. In case anyone's keeping score (heh; again, sorry), in a culture that views sons as a blessing from God and a barren woman as a curse - Rachel is striking out big time.

In verse 22, finally, it says: "Then God remembered Rachel." Not that He had forgotten her. When ten sons are born, there's some time passage, and during that time passage, God has been working in the hearts of both Rachel and Jacob. There's no explicit narrative that describes the journey either has been on, but when "God remembered Rachel," we see God's acknowledgment of her pain and distress and agony over her barrenness. 

He opened her womb, and Rachel gives birth to a son, Joseph. As the midwife hands her the longed-for child, she says: "May the Lord add to me another son."

And then we transition from Jacob's manipulation to the next stage of his journey. 

When I do a puzzle, I love looking at the big picture on the box while I'm trying to fit the little pieces into place. It's so helpful to see where everything goes. Here's Jacob's big picture: 

1.) Deceiver, manipulator, buys Esau's birthright with a bowl of soup, deceives his father for his blessing, runs away.

2.) First encounter with God at Bethel, conditionally allows that the God of his father will be his God, too, if he makes it out of the bed he'd made for himself. So, still self-centered, but God has him thinking.

3.) Years pass in which he is manipulated by Laban, first by his double marriage, and then by his wives for the purpose of sons. Jacob has been frustrated by Rachel's frustration: "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?" Ouch. But over the course of ten sons and a daughter (Dinah), he's had several years to think, and God has been consistently working on his heart over that time.

Now we get to verse 28. Jacob has twelve children, eleven sons and one daughter. He's worked for Laban for years. He's ready to return to his own country now, and he wants to begin providing for his household. Up until now, everything he's done has been to benefit Laban. So he goes to his father-in-law/uncle and asks to leave.

Jacob was a manipulator. Laban is a manipulator. Laban asks Jacob to stay. "God has shown me that I've been blessed because you've stuck around. Please don't go." Jacob maintains that he wants to go, Laban offers to have him name his wages, Jacob doesn't agree to wages, but - thinking ahead to being able to increase his own flocks and herds - he asks for all the speckled, mottled, or blemished animals from Laban's flocks (animals that are considered impure and unfit for sacrifice according to Leviticus 1:3), figuring that Laban doesn't want those.

Notably, Jacob says in verse 33: "And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me" (referring to the speckled sheep and goats).

Honesty? Jacob, the One Who Deceives? Transformation and heart surgery has been happening over the course of these eleven children. Jacob seems to have arrived at the place where he is ready to be the One Who Is Truthful. And we'll see this play out in upcoming chapters.

Laban agrees to Jacob's terms, and accordingly, as soon as he gets done talking to Jacob, runs out to the fields and takes away all the animals that Jacob has asked for and gives them into the care of his sons, and then puts a three-day journey between himself and Jacob so Jacob can't confront him about it.

Laban, the Manipulator. 

To make a long story... shorter (it's already long), Jacob is given a little help from the Lord and also from some medicinal properties found in poplar, almond, and plane trees. When Laban's flocks and herds give birth to their young, the strong lambs and goats are the spotted and blemished animals and the weak and sickly lambs and goats are the solid-colored animals. 

So what happens is that Jacob's flocks and herds greatly increase, and Laban's flocks and herds decrease. By the end of the chapter, Jacob, like Isaac and Abraham before him, "grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys."

In the big picture:

4.) Jacob, the One Who Is Truthful, has begun a new legacy. There's been a page turned somewhere in those years, and he has veered onto a new path that has diverged from his old one. His time away from his home, away from the familiar territory and his own people, has made him hearty and stronger than he was before.

Like those Irish sheep, he's been away from the flock at large, and has built endurance in the tough conditions in which he's found himself. Hard-fought circumstances usually bring about hard-taught lessons, and it seems that Jacob has learned a few.

Let me say that one more time: Hard-fought circumstances usually bring about hard-taught lessons. And you know I'm going to apply that to today, because if you've been following this blog at all, you know I'm all about the application.

When the globe is struggling for survival under a deadly virus, that's a hard-fought circumstance. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, both across an ocean and on your own home soil, that's a hard-fought circumstance. When you see families and close friends split in two over political tensions or other factors, that's a hard-fought circumstance. When spiritual forces of evil try to blind you to the many good things God is doing, that's a hard-fought circumstance.

Are we going to learn our hard-taught lessons?

Y'all, we might feel weathered, beaten up by the storms, hungry, mud-splattered... but we're a part of the flock, and eventually, the Shepherd will come for us and lead us home for the shearing, i.e., the unpleasant but necessary task of clean-up and refreshment. 

And if you don't see where I'm headed with that metaphor... just private message me. I'd love to talk with you about it. :)

I've been writing these posts in obedience to the Lord, and I know whatever He wants to do with these words, He'll do. That said, if you were blessed by this post, if you learned anything from it, if you think there are others who might also be blessed by it, go ahead and share it (or any of them). I'm excited to see what God is doing through His Spirit at work in His church.