Genesis 30: Leah & Rachel fight it out on who can bear children for Jacob (Servants included). His wealth multiplied despite Laban's efforts
I'm not sure what to make of this chapter. It starts with the rivalry between 2 sisters, trying to outdo each other on who will bear children for their husband, Jacob. This just doesn't happen at present. In fact, we've the opposite case of people trying to avoid having children!
Because of this, I find it difficult to understand what is going through the minds of the two women. Even more bizarre when they lend their servants to Jacob to become surrogate mothers (Similar to how Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham two generations earlier). And it doesn't stop there. Both Leah and Rachel regarded the children from their servants as answers to their prayers. In verse 18, when Leah gave birth to Issachar, she said, "God has granted me a reward because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife".
Looking back at the previous chapter, Jacob married Leah first (Out of Laban's trickery). Then he married Rachel. I wonder what God thinks of a man having 2 wives. The number increased to 4 when the servants came into the picture. To be honest, I struggle with this because God was silent about it. And it is difficult to conclude whether the problems Jacob faces are a direct consequence of multiple marriages (Jealousy, ill feelings, etc).
But after some reflection, I believe that God's silence does not mean He condones the actions of the people in this story. From other parts of scriptures, it is clear that God's plan has always been 1 man with 1 wife. Nevertheless, He was being merciful and had compassion for both women. He even enables them to have children and paid attention to their sufferings.
The second part of this chapter focuses on Jacob. He seemed to turn over a new leaf when he made an honest bargain with Laban. Jacob was seeking Laban's permission to take his own family back to Canaan. Although Laban agreed to the bargain, he tried to reduce Jacob's wages. As mentioned in the translator notes:
Three days' traveling distance from Jacob. E. A. Speiser observes, "Laban is delighted with the terms, and promptly proceeds to violate the spirit of the bargain by removing to a safe distance all the grown animals that would be likely to produce the specified spots" (Genesis [AB], 238). Laban apparently thought that by separating out the spotted, striped, and dark colored animals he could minimize the production of spotted, striped, or dark offspring that would then belong to Jacob.
Jacob knew what was happening and tried something that seemed very strange: Putting sticks in front of sheeps when they're mating. The translator notes shed some light on this method
He put the branches in front of the flocks... when they came to drink. It was generally believed that placing such "visual aids" before the animals as they were mating, it was possible to influence the appearance of their offspring. E. A. Speiser notes that "Jacob finds a way to outwit his father-in-law, through prenatal conditioning of the flock by visual aids - in conformance with universal folk beliefs" (Genesis [AB], 238). Nevertheless, in spite of Jacob's efforts at animal husbandry, he still attributes the resulting success to God (see 31:5).
The method isn't scientific at all. But even if it is, Jacob was right when he said that God made him prosperous. It is certainly God who provides for us and give us the power to create wealth.
All quoted text and scriptures are from the NET Bible unless otherwise specified