“Jacob’s Escape” (Genesis 30-31)

“Jacob’s Escape”

Genesis 30-31

1) Jacob’s Family (Gen. 30:1-24)

2) Jacob’s Flocks Increase (Gen. 30: 25-43)

· vv. 25-31: Jacob argues with Laban that God has blessed Jacob in everything he did, helping Laban to prosper—Laban agrees. Jacob now wanted to build his own family and earn for himself.

· vv. 32-36: Both agreed for Jacob to get the offspring of “speckled or spotted sheep, dark-colored lamb and spotted or speckled goat” as wages, while he continued to tend the flock for Laban. Normally goats in that land were black or dark brown, seldom white or spotted with white. On the other hand, the sheep were nearly always white, infrequently black or spotted.

· Jacob would examine the flocks that day, removing all the speckled and spotted animals, and these would be set aside as Laban’s property. These animals would be taken three days’ distance and kept by Laban’s sons. Only those newly born spotted or striped would become Jacob’s property. At some later time the herd would be examined, and the spotted or striped animals would go to Jacob, while the rest would be Laban’s. Removing the spotted and striped which were in the flock benefited Laban in two ways. First, it left these animals to him, not Jacob. Also, it lessened the chances of other spotted or striped animals being conceived, since these would not be mating with the flock.

· It was too good to be true, Laban must have thought. How could he possibly lose? However, it was an open-ended agreement, which encouraged Jacob to attempt to manipulate the outcome and also left God free to overrule the normal course of nature in order to bless Jacob. The agreement was solidified, and the flocks were divided, with Jacob tending the unspotted, unspeckled, and unstriped animals of Laban.

· vv. 37-43: Jacob, however, did not trust in God to work His ways to meet His promise to Jacob. He devised his own schemes to cause the outcome he wanted. Each of the three techniques Jacob employed was predicated on the belief that visual impressions at the time of conception affected the outcome at birth.

a) Peeled branches (looked like stripes)

b) Face streaked and dark-coloured animals

c) Selective breeding in front of branches

· But it was not Jacob’s method that worked. It was scientifically erroneous and spiritually human effort. Later, in Gen. 31:10-12, God revealed that the male goats had mated with the flock that were streaked, speckled or spotted.

3) Jacob Flees from Laban (Gen. 31:1-21)

· vv. 1-2: Laban may have wanted Jacob as adopted son (and hence married his daughters). But now, he had sons of his own and wanted to protect his inheritance, therefore his attitude changed.

· v. 13: God directs Jacob to leave and reminds him of His promise at Bethel. But Jacob was not assured and still feared Laban, thus deceiving and leaving Laban secretly.

· vv. 14-16, 19: The household gods possibly represented headship of the house (inheritance), so Rachel stole them to protect their inheritance.

4) Laban Pursues Jacob (Gen. 31: 22-55)

· Laban pursued them because of how Jacob had accumulated so much wealth and left on the sly; plus his household gods were missing—surely Jacob had cheated him.

· v. 35: Rachel lied.

· v. 52: Laban wanted to make a covenant with Jacob so that he would not come back and fight for inheritance.

5) Conclusion

All the way, Jacob assumed that his success and blessings from God were evidence that God approved of his hard work and faithfulness., it only proved God’s grace in spite of how Jacob did not deserve it. Compared to Esau, Jacob did not have anything better; in fact he lied and cheated and deceived his way through many things. Jacob often did things his way instead of God’s way to accomplish God’s will. But God had chosen him to carry the promise. Actually, it only proved God’s grace in spite of how Jacob did not deserve it. Jacob had thought himself too righteous.

Are we doing the same in our service to God? To achieve the ends, we may use human efforts. Just because God causes growth does not mean we earned it—it is God’s grace in spite of our weaknesses. Success does not mean God necessarily approves our unspiritual methods.

Phil 2: 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world 16 by holding on to the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

Titus 2: 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, in order to bring credit to the teaching of God our Savior in everything.

Matthew 6: 33 But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

New Skin

Hello all!

I changed the skin!

Hopefully this pale orange colour will suffice for Debra's need for a "white" background.
The other white skins were boring and plain. This was the only one I saw that made me go, "WHOA!", in a good way. It didn't take me that long. Luck was on my side :)

Anyway, thank you Huihan who helped me with the Zipfile because I always cannot open them for some weird reason.

To whoever has the account for our class cbox, if you can, please change the colour to one that will match the new skin because the blue cbox looks quite odd against this orange background. Or, you can also give me the username and password, if you do not want to change the colour.


I'm not sure if you need an account for the 'hits' counter, so if you want it go and put it in yourself.

About the prayer schedule, I kind of took it off since no one really updates it or looks at it, and its also always changing due to someone's absence so if you want it you can go put it up again.

Ok then, signing off!

-Kerryn


**Please use large font, medium font is REALLY puny.

Things you never knew:)

Mandrake, or Mandragora

Mandrake is the common name for members of the plant genus Mandragora.
It is probable that so-called ‘mystical’ properties were attributed to mandrake mainly because of the form of the parsnip-like root system, which usually divides to give ‘arm and leg’ appendages to a human body form, which can take either female or male characteristics.



It was a common belief in some countries that a mandrake would grow where the semen of a hanged man dripped on to the earth. (I wonder how these weird beliefs came about)

The true mandrake is a poisonous plant with a forked root; classical writers and the Bible mention it as an aphrodisiac and as making barren women fertile, while in medieval times it was used as a powerful soporific and pain-killer.

And the origin of the mandrake's association with fertility is truly ancient, surfacing first in chapter 30 of the Book of Genesis, where Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah finds mandrakes in the field. Childless Rachel, Jacob's second wife, the sister of Leah, is desirous of the mandrakes and she barters with her sister for them. The trade offered by Rachel is for Leah to spend the next night in Jacob's bed.

In Genesis 30:14, Leah gives Rachel mandrakes in exchange for a night of sleeping with their husband.

During 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."

Soon after this Leah, who previously had had four sons but had ceased to become pregnant for a long while then became pregnant once more and gave birth to a son. Mandrake in Hebrew means “love plant”. Hence, beliefs attribute mandrakes with aphrodisiac and fertility qualities. (eg. Mandrakes help barren women to conceive a child)

Mandrake roots became highly sought after in their native Mediterranean habitat, and attempts to protect them from theft are thought to have been the source of the second mandrake myth, which stated that a demon inhabited the root and would kill anyone who attempted to uproot it. Pulling the root out by hand is considered an ill-advised thing to do as many have claimed that the root, which resembled human form, was said to utter a shriek that killed or drove mad anyone who heard it. Once pulled, however, the plant was said to provide soothing sleep, heal wounds, induce love, and facilitate pregnancy.

Over the centuries, elaborate rituals developed to avoid what became known as the mandrake's curse, the most famous of these requiring the assistance of a dog. A furrow must be dug around the root until its lower part is exposed, then a dog is tied to it, after which the person tying the dog must get away. The dog then endeavours to follow him, and so easily pulls up the root, but dies suddenly instead of his master. After this the root can be handled without fear.



Later elaboration of this legend attributed the herb's lethal power to a shriek or a groan emitted by the mandrake as it was uprooted, and suggested that death could be avoided either by a loud blast on a horn at the critical moment or by sealing one's ears with wax. (In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the earmuff is used)


ugly right? haha

anyway, JOEL, this is for you XD haha!!


xoxo,
gatherpens <3 u :)

p.s. NOW YOU REALLY KNOW HOW MUCH FREE TIME I HAVE. haha
p.p.s TO HUIHAN: we came across the word mandrake in the bible. and i was curious, hence i blogged about it

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY!

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY!!! :)

from ALL OF US!

p.s. prata trip, pls?