work in their hearts to bring them to Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, we're in Genesis 30, and we're picking up where we left off. I read into Genesis 30 last week, because I don't like the chapter breaks so much. Between 29 and 30, those chapter breaks are not inspired. And we went through talking a little bit about Jacob's many children You know, we're familiar with the ten the twelve sons of Jacob from which we have the the twelve tribes of Israel and we read that section and so I'm really gonna focus in here on chapter 30 verses 25 through 43 a very interesting passage I must say it was quite fascinating to study, but also quite difficult, I would say, as far as our study. And in fact, this is one of those instances where, I gotta tell you, I don't really know if I have any deep insights the Lord's given me about this passage. Maybe you do, but I don't think I do. But I do think that in the same way I would practice if I were reading this passage devotionally, I'm going to share with you what I would do if I'm trying to focus on Christ reading the scripture and I don't see a clear picture of Christ, I don't want to make up typology, I only want to see types that are scripturally persuasive. And so, I'll share with you the way I would deal with this passage if I'm reading devotionally. Reading devotionally means I'm reading for the whole purpose of worship. Right? To center my thoughts on God, on Christ, as a revelation of God. And a lot of times, as I said, that involves, maybe something in the passage is just reminiscent, and it draws you to some other truths in Scripture, and you can contemplate those things. I will share with you some interesting observations, but I don't know how far those will go, but I'll commend them to you for your own study. So let's read verses 25 through 43 of chapter... Uh chapter 30 here starting verse 25, and it came to pass when rachel had born joseph That jacob said unto laban send me away that I may go unto my own place into my own into my country Give me my wives and my children For whom I have served thee and let me go for thou knowest my service which I have done for thee and laban said unto him I pray thee if I have found favor in thine eyes, Terry, for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased into a multitude. And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming, and now when shall I provide for mine own house also? And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me anything. If thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock. I will pass through all thy flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and of such shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness answer for me in the time to come, when it shall come from my higher before thy face, every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me. And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word. And he, that is Laban, removed that day the he-goats that were ring-streaked and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel, and chestnut tree, and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters and the watering-troughs, and when the flocks came to drink that they should conceive when they came to drink. Verse 39, And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle, ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring-streaked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban. And he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and donkeys." Alright, so looking at this passage and the sections it's in, 25-43, first you have that section where Jacob asks to depart. Right? He has a family now, and he asks to depart. He says, uh, send me away, that I may go unto mine own place. Of course, he's looking and longing for the promised land, the land of his father's. He wants to return home with his wives and with his children. But Laban asks him to stay. And Jacob gives his wages there in 29-32. He says, I'll stay if you let me have all the speckled and the spotted of the cattle, the sheep, the flocks, okay? He says, I will pass through all that flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle and all the brown cattle among the sheep and speckled among the goats of such shall be my hire, right? Laban agrees. But then, Laban does something that is so typical of Laban, this cheat. We talked about him last week. He's a beguiler, he's a deceiver and a cheat. Jacob says, this day I'm going to pass through the flock, and I'm going to take my hire, my portion, these sheep that are marked in a certain way. And it says on that very day, Laban goes out and he removes, in verse 35, look at it there. Laban goes out and he takes away all those sheep and he gives them to his sons. And so he leaves the flock. that Jacob is going to watch, he rigs it so that the flock, only the animals that he's hoping, you know, they're solid colored animals. So they're not going to, you know, produce after, they're not likely to produce, okay, I know about recessive genes and all that, but they're not as likely to produce the spotted and the speckled, right? So he takes away the ones given to his son, so he still... he kind of rigged it so that Jacob is going to lose on this deal. Right? As we know Laban to do. Later on, as I mentioned, we're going to read about how Jacob complains that Laban changed his wages ten times. Right? And so he tries to pull off this trick. But we'll see that Jacob, and I'm sure Jacob goes out there and he sees this flock rigged. You know, but we don't see him throwing a tantrum. We don't see an outburst here. But he comes up with this kind of ingenious strategy. Alright? And I'm not an expert at flocks and animal breeding, okay? But I'll explain this to you because it took me quite a while to figure out what Jacob was doing here. Let me just explain in basic terms what he does, okay? He's out there three days away from Laban, and he has this flock. And what he does is he gets some trees, it mentions specific types of trees, and he cuts little strips to make these striped marks in the trees. And three days away from Laban, there's apparently some water. where these animals can come and get a drink and he puts these rods down into the water okay expecting somehow i don't know how expecting somehow that one of two things either these animals are going to look upon these striped uh... branches or or rods as it says there and somehow psychologically or something they are going to produce the spotted, the ring-streaked, the kind that he desires, okay? I don't know Jacob's reasoning there, okay? But I do know this. It worked. It worked. Whatever Jacob did. Or maybe it was that he puts it in the water and something about those particular trees when there's, you know, the bark is stripped and it releases into the water. But the problem with that is, as far as I could tell by studying this, those particular trees, that wouldn't happen. What's really interesting about this is in the next chapter it tells us God appears to Jacob in a dream after this and he actually takes credit. for this working. He basically says, if you read ahead, God says basically it was me. I'm the one that caused these animals. So I don't know. I mean, you know, maybe Jacob really thought something would work that we know scientifically doesn't work today, and yet God just made it work. I don't know. Maybe there was something to Jacob's strategy of putting these cut up rods in the water. Maybe there was something to this that I'm unaware of. But in any case, it worked, okay? It worked. And so, there's ingenuity here. There's a work ethic, right? He's not just giving up, throwing his hands up. There's a work ethic. And he comes up with this plan, and so they start, when the animals look upon these rods, that he puts into the water, They start breeding and they have offspring that are Jacobs. They have the marks. They have the marks. And then what does he do? So after he sets the rods before the flocks, these marked offspring are born as desired, and then he takes these, they're rightfully his, he takes them and he separates them. Right? He separates them. There's verse 40 if you want to look down at that. Jacob did separate the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring strait and all the brown in the flock of Laban. And then it says at the end of that verse there, it says he put his own flocks by themselves. And he put them not unto Laban's cattle. And then there was a part two of this strategy. Part one was coming up with devising this I guess ingenious plan of somehow getting these spotted, speckled, ring-streaked animals, right, to increase his own herd. Because as this is happening, as these animals are breeding, he's getting these ring-streaked, spotted ones, and he's increasing his herd. Over time, his herd is getting bigger. Okay? And guess what? Laban's is not getting bigger. Right? Laban thought, if I rig this, Jacob will never succeed. I'm going to give him all the animals that are going to produce the ones that are rightfully mine, so that it's rigged. I'm going to win. How disappointed must Laban have been when God's blessing was upon Jacob and his work, his efforts, right? How disappointed must Laban have been to see suddenly his flock is not growing. And here's Jacob's flock over here. And Jacob's flock is growing. How inexplicable! Right? I mean, that just reminds me of a couple things. If you look at the, um... the children of israel and there's the census counts in the book of numbers at the beginning in the end of the book of numbers as a census taken and you can look at how many people how much each tribe multiply throughout the book of numbers and it's very interesting to connect the the growth rates okay how many people were born in each try their the the fruitfulness of each tribe What Jacob says in Genesis, when Jacob, in the end of Genesis, he gives blessings on his sons, and some of his sons, because of their unfaithfulness, for example, Reuben, the firstborn son, he took his father's wife, his father's Bilhah, Okay? He lost the firstborn right, the right of the firstborn, double portion. But also, you see some of these tribes, like Simeon and Levi, some of these tribes that were, because of the wickedness of the progenitor of the tribe, such as Reuben and Levi and Simeon, you see that they have less birth rates. They have less increase, less multiplication. What I'm trying to say is, there is a blessing upon the people of God that He gives us. He causes us to be fruitful. And He causes us to multiply. And at the end of the day, you could be like Laban sitting back and scratching your head and saying, this really shouldn't work. What's going on here? This person over here, this really shouldn't work. Mathematically, it doesn't work out, right? And we look at this example of Laban's breeding program, and we think today, modern genetics, go to Answers in Genesis and read the articles, it's very interesting. We think today, we scratch our head, that this should not work, right? And we have the answer in the next chapter. God's blessing was on this man. God's blessing was on him. And so I don't know how ingenious the method actually was, but I know this. God was with Jacob. He didn't give up. He trusted God. He worked hard. And God's blessing was upon him. And there was fruitfulness. There was multiplication. I don't know. Maybe we could take some applications just from that alone. We need to apply ourselves. We need to use our minds. Right? We can't just throw our hands up and say, oh, let go and let God. We have to apply ourselves. We have to work. Christian work. We have to work. We have to labor. Right? We have to use good Christian judgment in what we're doing to do things as best we can and rightly. But at the end of the day, just like in 1 Corinthians 3 tells us, who gives the increase? At the end of the day, who must we depend on for fruitfulness? God. God gives the increase. And that was what it was here. So, if anybody does know, if anybody's an expert on Jacob's breeding program, please come see me. I've been looking at it all week and I can't figure it out. So please, I would love to hear if you know the details of that. Alright. So, now I want to focus on verse 40 here. And then I'll finish up shortly, but verse 40. Verse 40. Jacob did separate the lambs. And notice at the end of that verse, he put them not unto Laban's cattle. He put them over by themselves. Right? He separates them by themselves. And as far as devotionally, devotionally speaking here, it made me reminisce about another shepherd. A greater shepherd. And I think you know who I'm talking about. Jesus. It made me just think about Jesus. This is not typology. I'm just sharing my thoughts, my heart about this. You know what Jesus does? He has a flock. He has a flock, and His flock has certain marks, doesn't it? And He separates His flock from the world. He wants His flock separate. He doesn't want His flock intermingling with the flock of this world, right? And it got me to thinking, this flock, God's flock, God's sheep, us, I pray all of us here, have been, we've come out from those who are different than us, right? Now, at least, we were like them. But we came out from the harlots and the tax collectors, right? Because the king, or our shepherd, did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Matthew 21, verse 31, Jesus said to the Pharisees, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. And not only have we been called out, alright, from Laban's flock, so to speak, right? That beguiler. But now we're transformed! And we're different! We're different! We have the marks of another shepherd's flock upon us. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9-11 says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And it says, Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. But look what it says in verse 11. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. What are the marks of the true flock of God? This is the line of thought I went down. The marks of the true flock of God. Those who we could say are God's sheep. He says, I know my sheep." His sheep hear his voice and they follow him. But those who are truly the sheep of God's flock, very clear in scripture what they're like, what their marks are. They're poor in spirit. Matthew 5, 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Poor in spirit, to be emptied of ourselves, of our own righteousness, of our own wisdom, to be cast down before the Lord, shut up unto faith, seeing that we have no hope of eternal life and of mercy from God by earning it, except for God just gives it to us of free, unearned grace. That's bankrupt. It's not like, well, I believe God is merciful, right? Like, even the Muslims will say that. They'll say Allah is merciful. It's not like we believe, oh, God is merciful, and if my good deeds outweigh my bad, then he will show me mercy. No, no. It's not even that. It's not even that. It's not even... He has to show mercy to me in such a way that I do not deserve it. I cannot earn it whatsoever. It has to be totally in spite of me. And that's the kind of bankruptcy. See, a lot of times there's a little bit of self-righteousness in every false religion. And sometimes in us, there's a little bit of self-righteousness. We cannot go a day, we cannot go an hour meeting God's requirement. There is none righteous, no not one. We cannot meet the standard. He's not going to grade on a curve and say, well, if you show this much goodness and this much effort and desire for good things, then okay, I'll just, you know, forget about the rest of my... No! No! His standard is perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. We fail. We have to be emptied of ourselves. We have to say, unclean, unclean, mercy, mercy and grace, free grace. That's all that can save a wretch like me. That's the mark of a true sheep. That's the mark of a true believer. Humble like children. Matthew 18, 3, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. We have two main avenues that our pride likes to run away with. One is our own goodness, a sense of our own goodness, right? Our own achievements all come into that. And the other avenue our pride likes to run away in is our own wisdom, our own intelligence. And we must be humble like little children. We think we know anything. The Bible says, you don't know yet as you ought to know. Humble as little children. Doers of the will of God, Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall I enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. There's a submission, there's a surrender to the will of God. Not my will, but yours be done. It's a mark of the people of God. That they are doers, not hearers only deceiving themselves, but doers. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Right? They're poor in spirit, they're humble like children, they're doers of the will of God. These are marks. Another mark. in accordance with their growth, in accordance with their humility, and receiving the grace of God, and walking in that grace, walking in the will of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, by the empowerment of the Spirit, they are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is a great test. great mark of those who are the true sheep of God. They are persecuted by the world. They're hated by the world. Jesus made it very clear that if the master was hated, if our master was hated, we're going to be hated too. He says, woe to you if all men speak well of you. That's not the mark of his sheep, if all men speak well of you. That's not the mark. All that desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. They're going to have some enemies. They're going to have some persecution. Doesn't mean they're all going to get burned at the stake, but they're going to have some contention. There's going to be a hostile world that doesn't like Christ. They're going to be against you. You're going to have enemies. It's a mark. And remember, Jacob, he separated his sheep just as Christ separates us. He calls us to be separate. This is the mark. of God's people were poor in spirit, humble, doers of the will of God, persecuted for righteousness sake, and separated. 2 Corinthians 6 talks about this separation. All right, the separation of the people of God. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or Christ and the devil? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. See how He takes ownership of us? were His sheep. He died to purchase us with His own blood, were His precious people. He says, wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father to you. You shall be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty. What is this separation? It's not a separation of physical distance, like Jacob taking his sheep and separating them so far away from laban sheep. It's it's a spiritual separation It's a separation of conduct. We're different. We walk to a different drumbeat We worship a different god. So we live by the truth and not error. It affects how we live It affects how we talk it affects how we think it it makes us different It's like in the book pilgrim's progress When they go into the Vanity Fair, everyone thinks that Christian and his friend are so funny. They dress different. They're just different. And they're not interested and wrapped up and absorbed in all of these things that Vanity Fair has to offer. They're just passing through and it bugs the people of Vanity Fair. They think it's strange that they run not with them and their vices and their vanities, right? Highly recommend that book, but there's the mark of the true people of God on Christian and his friend. The marks of the true people of God. It makes us different. A peculiar people. God's special people and special treasure and not the same. Not the same. Does this, do these marks, are they your marks? There's a scripture, I don't know if it's in Psalms, but it says, they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. They have no changes. They act like everybody else. If God looks on you right now, okay? What does He see in your heart? Does He see the same things as your heart? the same zoo of vanity and wickedness as every other heart out there? Or does God see a heart that's different? That there's been a work of grace there? A heart that, maybe you struggle with things, but there's a heart there for God. And what about your walk? Do people, when they look at you, do they see a different thing? There's different ways that you talk and walk. Is there the marks on you? Alright? And you know the beauty of this, Kind of like, I'm not saying it's a type, but it's reminiscent. Kind of like Jacob, he's, you know, he takes all his flocks back to the promised land, right? Those marks, right? Those marks are marks that are encouraging to us. I know the Holy Spirit has sealed me. I know the Holy Spirit has done a work. He's made me different than I used to be. I'm not the same way I used to be. And I know where I'm going. I'm going to glory. It's encouraging. Amen? It's encouraging. And there's many more marks. The fruit of the Spirit. Galatians, right? Do we have those marks? father in heaven Thank you lord for your word and lord. I don't understand everything about genesis 30, but The bible is a lifelong book. So I pray that uh, you'd continue to reveal to us more and more about this passage as we grow and learn But I do thank you lord for The great realities lord that we can contemplate about the gospel Lord. We're not just separated lord. We're changed. We're transformed Lord, he says, as such were some of you, we may have been one way in the past, Lord, but now we bear different marks. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. It talks about he who does not practice righteousness is not of God. Nor is he who does not love his brother. And so we pray, Lord, we would bear those marks, which are the marks of true faith and true love. I pray, Father, that each of us, Lord, would examine ourselves, Lord, and maybe we're saved and we know we're saved, but we're just not walking right. We're still trying to have one foot in the world and one foot in the door with Jesus, and it just doesn't work. We can't serve two masters. We can't be part of two flocks and two shepherds. I pray, Lord, we would have that separation. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, we are going to cut. You mind cutting the live stream, bro?