Dr. Michael D. Halsey
"QUIET! FERRIS BUELLER AT WORK"
GENESIS 30: 25-43
INTRODUCTION
Jacob is ready to go home. It’s been a long time, 14 yrs. In these years, Laban has received some proximity blessing, just because Jacob has been living there. He’s profited from Jacob’s stay. Although the reason for the blessing is different (the Abrahamic Cov.) we see a similarity in I Cor. 7:13-14 where Paul says that the unbeliever in a marriage is sanctified by the believing partner. The basic idea of “sanctify” is “set apart.” The home in which we find just one believer is set apart in the sense that there is now a way for the gospel to come into it; there is a way for the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:222-23) to be lived in it. The unbeliever, in that sense is blessed by the presence of a Spirit-filled believer.
Here we see that Laban knows a good thing when he sees it and doesn’t want to lose it. Put him with Jacob, and there’s no end to the con games that go on, and now there’s going to be another one.
We read earlier that when Jacob got conned by Laban with Leah, that was God’s discipline of Jacob—like we say, what goes around, comes around. Paul said it more theologically in Galatians 6:7. Here Laban gets what’s coming to him for his deceit earlier.
Jacob agrees to stay because he knows God is going to bless him. There’s something about Jacob that you can’t help but like. He’s like the Ferris Bueller of the Old Testament. He’s appealing to us, because we’re fascinated with his schemes, the trouble he goes to, and for what? The thing is though, that in all his schemes, he’s spinning his wheels, sweating all kinds of sweat he doesn’t have to sweat. Jacob makes an agreement that, from all appearances, won’t benefit him that much. But he has an ace up his sleeve that Laban doesn’t know about. Laban agrees because this plan looks like it will help him a great deal.
In verses 35-43, Laban is trying to make sure that Jacob will have a hard time succeeding. Laban isn’t fair. But what else is new? Laban knows the laws of heredity—in the agreement that Jacob will receive only the spotted animals, Laban makes sure that the flock is pure in its markings. So Laban has his men remove all the off-colored sheep, goats, and cattle.
In one of our discipleship groups, one of the participants mentioned that the thing that one thing above had been very liberating. It was when the realization came that the people in the Bible weren’t heroes. As the person said, whenever the Bible was read, it was thought that these people were perfect and we had to live up to their standard and it was frustrating. Yet we saw in Gen. 27, Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob, they were all out of line, not a hero in the bunch. Here we see the same thing—two con men going at each other and Jacob, God’s elect, is right in the thick of it.
Far from being heroic in this, we see that Jacob is superstitious—he thinks he’s going to get the best of his uncle by trying the popular idea that whatever a mother sees in her pregnancy influences the offspring. That’s why he goes through all of the peeling of the branches. (vss. 37-40) Jacob is going through all kinds of hard work and mental effort for absolutely nothing. Those who know heredity know that the spotted characteristic is a latent gene, so there was no way Laban could know which one had which.
In verses 37-43, we see that Jacob’s plan succeeds, or so he thinks. But the Bible never says that his schemes were the reason for his success. The reason for his success isn’t the superstition; it’s because of God’s intervention and the Bible tells us so in the next chapter, Gen. 31:9. God has been at work behind the scenes.
So, all of this work, all of his planning, it hasn’t worked; it’s been useless. All of his competition with his uncle—it’s been for nothing really.
So?
I guess if we’d talk to Jacob in all of his scheming here, he’d point to his uncle and talk about how he’d cheated him in the past and then he’d say something like, “You’ve got to fight fire with fire! I’ve got to get him before he gets me, I’ve learned my lesson. I’m going to play his game and win!”
But the believer doesn’t fight fire with fire. The believer doesn’t engage in the same tactics as the unbeliever. What does the believer do?—He acts on the basis that God is the source of true success and God is the one who gives material prosperity as a blessing and it’s not the product of our finite abilities. This passage is a call to recognize the true source of our success.
What would Israel learn?—If God is going to bless, He will. He won’t be hindered. If God is not going to bless, nothing can hinder that decision.