Genesis 30:25-43
25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. 26 Give 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 for you.”
Jacob had agreed to spend seven years working Laban’s fields and tending Laban’s sheep, as a form of dowry payment for Laban’s daughter. Unfortunately in dim lights and drunkenness on the wedding day, Jacob had been tricked into marrying the older daughter as well and thus ended up having to slave away for fourteen years. Finally, his time was up. Jacob just wanted to leave Laban, strike out on his own or at least find a more honest master.
27 And Laban said to [Jacob], “Please stay,. if I have found favor in your eyes, for. I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” 28 Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”
29 So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. 30 For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”
31 So he said, “What shall I give you?”
Jacob would finally be getting real pay for his work, not just the food and clothing needed to keep a slave working. He would have been plenty suspicious of Laban’s fine print, but Jacob also had some tricks up his sleeve as well, just as he tricked his brother Esau when they were youths.
And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: 32 Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. 33 So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”
34 And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!”
35 So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36 Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
The terms seemed so advantageous to Laban that he doubted Jacob was actually serious. Saying “oh, that it were according to your word!” Laban initially takes Jacob’s offer as a joke. The terms were so unfair to Jacob and beneficial to Laban. Laban would get all of the white sheep while Jacob would only get the oddball spotted, striped, and black sheep. To add insult to injury, the wool from these speckled sheep sells for a lesser price. White sheep could have their wool dyed to create a pure vibrant garment without marks and splotches and this is what merchants prefer. As if the deck was not already completely stacked in Laban's favour, most sheep will also be born white due to the white pigment being a “dominant” gene while dark pigments are from recessive genes:
A sheep’s wool color is determined by genes controlling pigment production. In most common sheep breeds, white wool is a dominant trait, meaning a sheep needs only one copy of the dominant gene to display a white fleece. Conversely, black wool is typically a recessive trait. For a lamb to be born with black wool, it must inherit the recessive gene from both its mother and its father.
The Agouti Signaling Protein (ASIP) gene is significant. A dominant version of this gene can switch off color production, leading to white fleece. If a sheep inherits two copies of the recessive ASIP gene, black wool results. While other genes like MC1R and TYRP1 can also influence wool color and patterns, the recessive nature of black wool in many white sheep breeds is a primary reason for its less frequent appearance.
SOURCE: How Rare Is a Black Sheep? The Science Behind the Color - Biology Insights
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37 Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. 38 And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
41 And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. 42 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Perhaps Jacob believed that by putting rods with a striped pattern in front of the sheep as they bred, the striped pattern of the rods would be “imprinted” on the animal’s consciousness and they would give birth to animals which carried that same striped and colored pattern on themselves.
Or perhaps he intended the rods as phallic monuments for a fertility ritual and the “white in the rods” being exposed would represent the semen being released for conception.
We can only guess at Jacob’s thought process, but in any case according to the text he spent a large amount of effort inserting and withdrawing the rods in his belief that it would result in only the strong healthy cattle would reproducing offspring with the dark marks and special patterns.
Even if Jacob’s special tricks with the rods had real power to create markings on the sheep and to let him claim the stronger sheep as “his,” this does not explain how Jacob also increased in camels and donkeys. Jacob had not been doing any fancy fertility tricks on his camels and donkeys and yet they also increased in his flock, just like his speckled sheep.
In verse 27, Laban tells Jacob: “I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”
God’s blessing was already on Jacob before all his horsing around with the rods. The problem was, Jacob had made a covenant to become a slave for Laban, which meant that his master would enjoy the fruits of the blessing rather than Jacob. It was not a lack of divine favour, Jacob just kept having this favour siphoned off by his deceptive master.
Although Jacob now prospered, he made a mistake in taking the credit from God. Rather than thanking God for the sudden overflow, Jacob believes his fooling around with the rods is what caused his cattle to increased. With the limited understanding of science, it may have made sense to Jacob at the time that he could really influence his animals fertility in this way. Hindsight is 20/20 but with our modern understanding of DNA, we know that Jacob’s stunt was doing nothing all along. Jacob began giving himself credit for his success when what he was doing what only a waste of time. The rods did nothing. The miracle of having speckled and spotted sheep was purely divine favour.
When things go good, we give credit to our smarts, our hard work, and anything else that glorifies self. When things go bad, we blame others for being unfair, blame the government, blame the devil, or even blame God. Jacob blamed Laban for tricking him, but did not want to face the truth that Laban was only a mirror reflecting Jacob’s own inner nature. Jacob had betrayed his brother twice, tricking Esau out of his firstborn inheritance and then out of his ancestral blessing. His two seven-year terms of slavery for Laban reflected the two times Jacob had tricked his brother.
When experiencing God’s blessing, we must be on guard against the danger of pride which will push God out of the picture and take away his credit; the voice telling us we “earned it.” God is the one who gave us a physical body so that we can work and create anything. He gave us the mind and inspires it constantly. Even if you strategize or work hard for something and it directly comes from your actions, give God the credit anyways. It’s not like its going to hurt. Often however, we fail to see all that God is doing behind the scenes just to give us that life we consider normal.
Allegory: The Flock of God
Jacob represents the chosen leadership from God’s heart. Laban signifies the leaders with the heart of the world who see the people as inanimate objects, cogs in the machine. The one follows the pattern of Abel and the other of Cain.
The first Bible verse which mentions sheep is:
Genesis 4:1-2
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
The name Cain means “to acquire,” and signifies a mindset of materialism. Abel meanwhile, cared for souls while Cain was focused on material production. The word for “till” is abad (Strong’s #5647) which literally means “to serve.” Tilling the earth could also be translated such that Cain “served what was earthly” instead of watching over and nurturing sheep (souls) like Abel.
Why is it that the richer a nation becomes, the lower its birthrate? It should be easier for people in wealthy nations to raise a family. Instead, like the people of Carthage, greater wealth often leads to a spiritual death of sorts. We lose focus on raising up new souls, instead filling our environments with wasteful luxuries.
Returning to Jacob and Laban, the speckled, spotted, and ringstraked sheep are those in the church who are using displaying their uniqueness and God given diversity in personality, giftings, and callings. Meanwhile the white sheep represent those in the church who conform to whatever is popular with the majority, and have shed the markings of the uniqueness God created them with.
We use the term “black sheep” to refer to one who has been rejected, one who is shunned and not allow to participate fully with the group. But this is the one Jesus went for. After all, he left the 99 to pursue the 1. Perhaps the lost sheep was not lost from rebellion. I submit that he was lost because he was rejected from the herd. Jesus went to save this one. God appreciates “black sheep” who are unafraid to show their uniqueness. Biblical prophets often had origins involving being rejected or separated from “the herd.”
Nearer the throne of God, everything becomes... weirder. Six winged burning seraphs, wheels with eyes around their rims, beasts with four faces and eyes all around. The closer you get to the throne, the more unique things become. God does not reject those who are different, he values uniqueness.
Jacob chooses to reproduce his flock with their God given diversity (speckled, spotted, and ringstraked), and Jacob discerns which sheep to reproduce based on their strength and health. Laban chooses them based on their outward appearance (solid white), rather than their strength. In the same way many of todays leaders pick their favorites based on outward appearance and mannerisms rather than inward spiritual strength in God.