Bible Story of the day 17/03/2014 Jacobs children and livestock increase When Rachel saw that she wasn’t having any children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister. She pleaded with Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” Then Jacob became furious with Rachel. “Am I God?” he asked. “He’s the one who has kept you from having children!” So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. Bilhah became pregnant with a son. Rachel named him Dan, (Dan means “he judged” or “he vindicated”) for she said, “God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son.” Then Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. Rachel named him Naphtali, (Naphtali means “my struggle”) for she said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I’m winning!” Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, so she took her servant, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Soon Zilpah presented him with a son. Leah named him Gad, (Gad means good fortune) for she said, “How fortunate I am!” Then Zilpah gave Jacob a second son. And Leah named him Asher, (Asher means “happy”) for she said, “What joy is mine! Now the other women will celebrate with me.” One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben (the eldest son of Jacob) found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought them to his mother, Leah. (Mandrakes - In Hebrew dûdãim literally means love plant. The predominant traditional Jewish view is that this plant is an ancient folk remedy to help barren women conceive a child). So Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” But Leah angrily replied, “Wasnt it enough that you stole my husband? Now will you steal my son’s mandrakes, too?” Rachel answered, “I will let Jacob sleep with you tonight if you give me some of the mandrakes.” So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. “You must come and sleep with me tonight!” she said. “I have paid for you with some mandrakes that my son found.” So that night he slept with Leah. And God answered Leah’s prayers. She became pregnant again and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. She named him Issachar, (Issachar sounds like a Hebrew term that means “reward”) for she said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife.” Then Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. She named him Zebulun, (Zebulun likely means “honor”) for she said, “God has given me a good reward. Now my husband will treat me with respect and honor, for I have given him six sons.” Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by enabling her to have children. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. “God has removed my disgrace,” she said. And she named him Joseph, (Joseph means “may he add”) for she said, “May the LORD add yet another son to my family.” Soon after Joseph was born, Jacob asked his father-in-law Laban, Please let me take my family and all that I have earned and go back to my own country. But Laban didnt want him to leave, because this meant that Jacob would take his daughters and grandchildren away. Also, Laban had become very very wealthy because of Jacobs skill in raising livestock and God had blessed Jacob in this way. Therefore Laban resisted. So Jacob had an idea and said, Don’t give me anything. Just do this one thing, and I’ll continue to tend and watch over your flocks. Let me inspect your flocks today and remove all the sheep and goats that are speckled or spotted, along with all the black sheep. Give these to me as my wages. In the future, when you check on the animals you have given me as my wages, you’ll see that I have been honest. If you find in my flock any goats without speckles or spots, or any sheep that are not black, you will know that I have stolen them from you.” Laban agreed and took all the spotted, stripped and black goats away from Jacob, making it virtually impossible for Jacob to breed the kind he could keep for himself. Yet, Jacob took stripes of fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled off strips of bark. Then he placed these peeled branches in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink and mate. Over time there were more speckled, spotted or black sheep than others. But he didnt do this with the weaker ones, so the weaker lambs belonged to Laban, and the stronger ones were Jacob’s. As a result, Jacob became very wealthy, with large flocks of sheep and goats, female and male servants, and many camels and donkeys. But he heard Labans sons say, Jacob has taken all that was our fathers, and from that which was our fathers he has gotten all this wealth. He also saw that Laban did not act toward him the same as before. So Jacob rose and put his sons and his wives upon the camels and drove away all his cattle. He deceived Laban, for he did not tell him that he was fleeing away. So he fled across the river Euphrates, with all that he had, and set out on his way toward Mount Gilead. Rachel stole her father’s household idols and took them with her. When her father Laban caught up with them, she placed the idols beneath her and sat down on them in the her tent. When her father entered the tent to search for them, she told her father that she couldnt stand up to greet him because it was her monthly period. Therefore, Laban could not find his stolen idols. However, Jacob was angry with Laban for laying blame on them for stealing from him. Then Jacob and Laban made a treaty. They built a monument with stones as a Witness Pile, that they would not pursue each other. They agreed with each other, I will never pass this pile of stones to harm you, and you must never pass these stones or this monument to harm me.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 06:44:46 +0000
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