Ready? If you would, turn to Genesis chapter 30. In the second part of our study on Jacob's family, we started way back with, well, I don't remember how far back we started, really. We started with the Tower of Babel. I remember we were going back there, but we'd been mostly with Abraham and his descendants. Since, if you remember last time, in the last chapter, in chapter 29, Jacob marries his uncle Laban, who is his mother Rebecca's brother. His mother Rebecca's brother. That's who Laban is. He married Laban to both of his daughters. That wasn't Jacob's will. It was obviously God's will, because that's how it plays out. But Jacob loved Rachel greatly. And Rachel loved Jacob. But Leah was kind of thrown into the mix. first because she was the oldest daughter of Laban, and Laban desired to have his oldest daughter married first, and that's kind of how it was in that day. You didn't want, it was kind of a shame on the family if the oldest daughter was an old maid, as we call them today. Well, maybe we don't call them that today, but it hadn't been too many generations back that that's what they were referred to. A woman who went through life without being married, was referred to as an old maid. In their day and time, it was a shame on the family. And they didn't want that. Laban didn't want that. And so to keep that from happening, he switches the two daughters on the wedding night, just before the honeymoon is to begin. At some point in there, and Jacob is tricked into marrying Leah first. If you remember the story there, he had worked for seven years to win Rachel's hand in marriage, and is tricked at the last moment into marrying Leah. He wakes up the next morning and finds out it's Leah that he's consummated the marriage with. And then he approaches Laban about this, gives him a good tongue lashing over it, and in request that Laban let him work another seven years for Rachel. So he's going to have two wives. We saw where Leah began having children first. Rachel was barren and Leah We see, as Leah begins having sons, we see their names. If you remember, we noticed that Leah, the mother, is the one who names these sons. As it is, once Rachel begins having children, it's the same way with her. The women begin to name the sons. And we see, to start off with, we recognize these names. These sons will be the 12 tribes of Judah. They're the heads of the 12 tribes of Judah. And the 12 tribes of Israel, however you want to put it. But Jacob will have 12 sons. He'll also have a daughter. We won't study much about her today. Her story is just mentioned. Her birth is mentioned. That's about all we see today in today's chapter. We'll get to her later on. And matter of fact, his 12th son is not born until chapter 35. And so we won't get into him until then. That's Benjamin. And not only You know, we see Leah right off gives Jacob four sons. They're in the end of the last chapter. And Rachel, like I said, is barren. She doesn't give him any at first. It's not until the end of chapter 30 that she bears a son. But there's other things that happen between now and then. things that are similar to what we've seen with Abraham and Sarah. Because of the jealousy between the two wives, the two sisters, they persuade Jacob into things that he shouldn't have done, at least This is what we, at least what we see is scripturally, he shouldn't have none. And we know even in that it's still God's purpose. God has a purpose in it because everything that happens is for a reason. And we see later on the reason when you get into the history of Israel. So let's start with verse one in chapter 30. And when Rachel saw that she bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. Envy is kind of a mild word there, but what he's saying is she was jealous. And she said unto Jacob, give me children or else I die. Now is it Jacob's fault that she's barren? Is there anything he can do about it? Absolutely not. It's not like they had surgeons that could perform a procedure and open her womb in that day. There was This was of God. And Jacob knows this. Notice the next verse. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. So if we see their first marriage spat, don't we? And it's over children, or the lack of children. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said, am I in God's stead? Can I, am I God? In other words, he says, am I God? Can I fix this? I can't help you with that. And who has withheld from the fruit of the womb? It's God. Jacob knows. It's God. God is the one that's caused this, not me. They've been trying to have children since the day they were married. And because Leah has given him four sons already, Rachel is now jealous. And what's Rachel's solution for the problem? And she said, behold, my maid, Bilhah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her. And she gave him, Bilhah, her handmaid, to wife, and Jacob went in unto her. Where have we seen this before? Rebekah, I'm sorry, not Rebekah, Sarah, and Hagar. Remember Sarah and Hagar, which brought about the birth of Ishmael. Now the difference here is the children that Jacob's going to have with this handmaid over at Rachel's, and then later he's going to have children with Leah's handmaid also. The difference is the sons from these two are not going to go off and be the wicked people that Ishmael was and not be the, they're not gonna be fighting against Israel for generations to come. They're gonna be part of Israel. Now, we'll do a study at some point in this on these 12 sons and we'll see where their tribes wind up and what part they play in Israel later, but that's for a future time. But we see, notice it says, she gave him, Bilhah, her handmaid to wife. So he marries her. He doesn't, this is not out of fornication. Remember these are godly, are supposed to be godly people. They don't always act like godly people, but they're They've been taught godly ways. And the ways, the traditions, the godly traditions of their day was, you know, just like in our day, that this part of God's law has not changed. It was there before, from the beginning with Adam and Eve and all the way to now, a man and a woman are not to have children at a wedlock. That goes against God's teaching. So the only way that this is, At least in their eyes, the only way that this is going to work is if he marries this handmaid. Same way, remember, Abraham married Hagar. Hagar was, even though she was later referred to as a concubine, in the beginning of that story she was referred to as his wife. He went into her as a wife. Sarah did the same thing. She gave Hagar to Abraham as a wife. And another tradition they had in their day, and this goes back even further than these stories we've been reading, the tradition in their day also was as if a man and a woman, a wealthy man and a woman specifically, who had handmaidens and servants, if the wife was barren and couldn't have children, oftentimes she would give one of her handmaids to, and sometimes more than one handmaid, to her husband as a surrogate mother, and the mother, the wife, would raise the children as her own. That was a common thing in their day. So it works two different ways here. They're going by the worldly tradition, but they're also trying to make it legal in God's eyes also by him marrying her. Again, though, remember this is how God planned for the 12 tribes of Israel. This is not something that they sprung on God at the last minute. God planned it this way. This is his providence. Some would say, well, they did this out of out of God's will, but this was God's will for this to happen. And we notice in verse 5, Bilhah will be conceived and bear Jacob a son. So right off she gives Jacob a son. How do you think Rachel feels but now? Even her handmaid can have children, but she can't. Psychologically, that's got to be playing on Rachel. You know, her sister, who we saw where Jacob hated her, to start with, and loved Rachel. And it appears, as we go through this story, it appears that Jacob spends a whole lot more time with Rachel than he does Leah. And certainly more than he does his handmaidens. But, look who he's having children with. Not with Rachel, but these other women. And so, that's gotta be playing on Rachel's mind. Anyway, Bill Hall conceives and bears Jacob a son and Rachel said, God hath judged me and hath also heard my voice and hath given me a son. Therefore called his name Dan. Notice she says, God hath judged me. God has, she thinks God has blessed her. Not only has he judged her by not giving her children, whether she thinks it's a curse or whatever, but he also has heard her voice. She says, he's heard my cries, he's heard my prayers, and he's given me a son. But it's not her son. It's her handmaid's son. The only thing that makes it her son is the fact that she has used her handmaid as a surrogate. And her, because she owns the handmaid, the handmaid's her servant, even though she's Jacob's other wife, now Rachel thinks she has a son. And she calls his name Dan, another name of one of the tribes. And Bill Hall, Rachel's maid, conceived again, and bared Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great wrestlings, have I wrestled with my sister and I have prevailed. And she called his name Neftali. So she brings up her sister's situation now. She's like, my sister, she's wrestled with this, she's prayed for God for children, and yet Leah has had children, but Rachel hasn't. Now she's having children by her handmaid, and is getting to, you know, she's the one naming these sons, not the sons, these boys, it's not their mother, it's Rachel that's getting to name them, and it appears Rachel will be the one who raises them. When Leah saw that she had left Bering, and if you remember, back in the last verse of chapter 29, it says, in the last part of that verse, it says, after she'd had her fourth son, it says, It says, therefore, she called his name Judah and left barren. So at that time, Rachel, for whatever reason, now she's barren. Not Rachel, Leah. Leah is now barren. So she's not able to have children at this point in time. But after Rachel does what she does and has Jacob marry her handmaid, and he has two children by her, Then Leah, it says, when Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. So now Jacob's got four wives. Now, in the beginning, he had two wives with the same mother-in-law. Now he's got four wives with three mother-in-laws. Well, they're servants, so maybe their mother-in-laws weren't around. We don't know. And he says, and Zilpah, Leah's maid, bared Jacob a son. He's having a bunch of sons, isn't he? And Leah said, a troop cometh. And she called his name Gad. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bared Jacob a second son. So he's got four. by Leah, two by Bilhah, and now two by Zilpah. He's got eight sons so far. Leah's maid bear Jacob a second son. And Leah said, happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher. Now, I I know this is a tradition in their day for what they're doing right here. But it's almost as though Rachel and Lee are in competition with each other now. Let's see who can have the most children. Well, because they're both unable to have children, okay, well, let's give them our handmaids and we'll claim their children. I often wondered how these handmaids felt about this because they just lost their sons. They had to go through all the pains of the pregnancy And certainly you would think when they consummated their marriages with Jacob, they had to have some feelings for him. But now his first two wives, these two sisters, are fighting and using these two handmaids as pawns in their game to have more children. Because they can't have any children now. But remember, all this is in the Lord's plans. Whether we understand it or not, while this is going on, this is in the Lord's hands. And he will use all of these signs in the future for a purpose. And Reuben, the oldest, remember, he is the oldest of Leah's and the oldest of Jacob's sons, went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. Now, Reuben, from what I'm understanding, couldn't have been more than four, five, six years old at this time. I don't understand that, that's what I read. But if he had four sons, or if there was three brothers younger than him from Leah, That means he would have had, that don't even make any sense. Like I said, I read that in a commentary when I was studying this and I'm like, that don't make any sense because, and that's why I warn everybody about commentaries. Make sure it's with God's word because if he's only four or five years old, then how does all this, where are all these other brothers playing to this? All this happens This is all happening in order. So he's got to be much older than that. He could be even as much as a teenager, a young teenager. So be careful about that. But Reuben, in the days of the wheat harvest, which would be in the spring in that part of the world, These mandrakes, and from what I'm understanding, these mandrakes that are mentioned here, and I'm not familiar with mandrakes, I don't think I've ever seen them, but they say that what we have today that are called mandrakes are not the same as what we see in the scripture, because what we have today, they don't smell that nice, and the fruit that comes from them is not edible for humans. Here, these mandrakes are similar to what we see in in the Song of Solomon, they're mentioned there. The flowers were very fragrant and sweet smelling. The fruit was very edible. As a matter of fact, in their day, they considered the fruit to be something that would, at least they claimed anyway, they scientifically didn't know, but they claimed that a woman who was barren who would eat this fruit, make her fertile. And so, some say that because Rachel was begging Leah for some of these mandrakes, that she was hoping that these mandrakes would make her fertile so she could have children. In verse 15, and she said unto her, Is it a matter, or is it a small matter, that thou hast taken my husband? This is Leah speaking. And what is, they'll take away my son's mandrakes also. And Rachel said, therefore, he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. So, Leah is starting to fight back here with Rachel. She tells her, you stole my husband. Remember, Leah's the first wife. Now, who stole whose husband? In all reality, Leah stole Rachel's husband. Because Rachel was supposed to be, according to Jacob, Rachel was supposed to be his wife. His only wife. That's the one he wanted. But Leah took her place. She's accusing Rachel of taking her husband. And she's like, and now you want my son's mandrakes. You got my husband, now you want You want his, whether it was the flowers or the fruit, whichever he was bringing to her, you want those too. So you can give them to my husband is the way she's thinking. And Rachel said, therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. She makes a deal with her. Give me the mandrakes. And again, if this is true about what they thought in that day, that mandrakes would make her fertile, Rachel's like, give me the mandrakes and I'll make sure Jacob spends time with you tonight. So that tells us that Jacob was spending more time with Rachel than he was Leah. In verse 16, Jacob came out of the field in the evening. And Leah went out to meet him and said, Thou must come in unto me, for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes And he lay with her that night. So she paid him off. In other words, paid off her sister to get to be with her own husband. And she makes no qualms about it. She tells Jacob what's happened. And God hearkened unto Leah. Again, this is God's plan. And she conceived. Remember, she had been barren for a time. And bared Jacob, the fifth son. So now Jacob has five sons just with Leah. That's not counting the other two from each of the maidens, the handmaidens. And then it says, and Leah said, God hath given me my hire because I have given my maiden to my husband, and she called his name Issachar. So she recognizes that God has blessed her, but she thinks it's because of her being generous and giving Jacob her handmaiden. That doesn't make any sense, does it? But that's what she says. Isn't that the way when we do something wrong and then God blesses us afterwards? We think that he blessed us for the wrong thing. Maybe he blessed her for something else. Or maybe it's because God is using her to build his nation Israel too. And it's not really, not necessarily a blessing towards her, but it is in a roundabout way, I guess, because he's given her another son with Jacob. But also, this is God's plan to build his great nation. And Leah conceived again and bared Jacob the sixth son. So now he's got ten sons. Six with Leah and four from the two handmaidens. And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry. She's got a full family now. Six sons with Jacob. Now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons, and she called his name Zebulun." So she thinks because she's had more sons, well actually she's had sons and Rachel hasn't had any yet, but she thinks because she's had a good, given her husband a good family, a good stock of sons, that he'll begin to favor her now. She says, now will my husband dwell with me? But that's not so, is it? Jacob still favors Rachel. And afterwards, she bear a daughter and called her name Dinah. So we see now he has a daughter. This is the one and only daughter that Jacob will have. He'll have 12 sons eventually. and one daughter. And again, like I said, we will get more into Dinah's story later in another chapter, but this is all that's mentioned about her now. And God remembered Rachel. Now we turn back to Rachel. And God remembers Rachel. And God hearkened to her and opened her womb. So now all of a sudden, Rachel's able to have a son. How? by the miracle of God. And she conceived and bare a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another son. And Joseph, remember, will become famous over the coat of many colors. all the things he went through in Egypt. That's a study for another time. But also notice she says, the Lord shall add to me another son. She's expecting another son from the Lord. And she'll get another son, but it comes a few chapters later in chapter 35. Now, Jacob has a house full of kids. And a house full of wives, too, if you want to look at it that way. Four wives and 12 kids. He's got 11 sons and one daughter. Remember the 12th son, the final one in the 12 tribes doesn't come until later. So don't get confused here. He's got 12 children, but one of them is a daughter right now. And it comes to pass when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, send me away that I may go into my own place and to my country. Remember, we've been studying all this about Jacob, but remember where he comes from. He comes from the land of Canaan, where his grandfather Abraham was and where his father Isaac was. Isaac's still back there. He hasn't died yet. So Jacob wants to go home. Why? Well, remember, he's birthright. He's supposed to inherit all that Isaac has. And he knows this. He's raised a family. How long has this been? Well, we know he spent seven years working for Laban the first time. He spent another seven years working for Laban for Rachel the second time. And now he's had all these children. And the oldest one, Reuben, he's got to be at least a teenager by now. So he's been with Laban, been there in the land of Horan for a long time. So I would guess 25, 30 years would be my guess. I don't know, maybe somebody has researched that out. I don't know, but I'm sure they have. But he's been there quite a while. But now it's time to go home. He's got his family, he's got his people prepared, his descendants, his seed. And now he's ready to go back and claim what God has promised him. He says, 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 thee." So he's worked for Laban all this time. And Laban first paid him back with Leah, second paid him back with Rachel. Now that he's got all these wives and kids, he's ready to go back home. He's been working for Laban all this time, even after the seven years he spent working for Rachel twice, that's 14 years. He's raised his family, and as soon as Joseph's born, it's not the last one, but as soon as Joseph's born, the youngest is born, he's ready to go back home. He goes to Laban, his father-in-law, and he's like, I need to be released. He's been like an indentured servant almost. He's been working for Laban all this time. Laban's let him live with him, fed him, took care of him. He said, it's time to go. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, tarry, for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. So Laban realizes that Jacob has been a blessing to him because of God. How? Well, we'll see in a moment where Jacob has been the one who has taken care of Laban's flocks and his herds of cattle, his flocks of sheep and goats and his herds of cattle. And he's made him a prosperous man, made him a rich man. And he said, appoint me thy wages and I will give it. So Laban's willing to pay him. Tell me what I owe you and we'll let you go. 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 hast before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude. He's got a big ranch now. He started off with a small farm, and now he's got a big ranch. For it was little which thou hast before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude, And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming, and now when shall I provide for mine own house also? Jacob's not necessarily looking for money. He wants part of what he's worked for, which is the cattle and the sheep and the goats. And we'll see that. He wants to be able to provide for his family. And he said, What shall I give thee? This is Laban speaking. 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. Now watch, what he's about to do is something that's not going to take a short time. This is going to take a few more years for this all to happen. We read this and we think, well, this happened right away. No. If you know anything about animals, What Jacob's going to wind up doing is breeding his own herd. He's going to take from Laban's herd and build his own herds and his own flocks. That takes time. You know, animals, when they have a period of pregnancy, just like people do, it takes time. You don't get baby calves and baby sheep overnight. 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 he's going to take all the blemished animals, in other words. Remember, their goal in that day was to have perfect animals. Why? Because that's what they used for their sacrifices. It was a goal of theirs to have as perfect animals as possible. And how did you produce perfect animals? You bred perfect animals to each other, and that's how you produced. So if you had a speckled cow, more than likely she's going to produce a speckled calf. Same way today. That's how it works. If you had two that were unblemished, whether they were red, black, or white, whatever, as long as they they had no speckles on them, as long as they were all one color, then you had something to offer to God for a sacrifice. You couldn't offer a speckled animal to God for a sacrifice. So Jacob's actually helping Laban out here. He's going to pull out all of the marred animals out of his flocks and herds and keep them for himself, which means Laban's going to have all purebred or good bred animals. And he says, so shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come from my hire 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 that word." The laborer agrees to it. He's like, okay, let's do that. That sounds like a good idea. And he removed that day the he-goats that were ring-starked and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, and everyone that had some white in it and all the brown on the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. So Jacob gives all these into the hands of his sons, and his sons begin to sort them out from Laban's herds. And he set three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. So they separate three days' distance. So why? So they can't mix together. You get three days apart, it's going to be hard for them to go back to each other. And that happens even today. You know, when you go to herding cattle or sheep or goats, When they've grown up together and they get used to running together, it's hard to separate them. You separate them, you've got to put several miles between them before they'll not have the desire to run back. And so that's what they've done here. They've separated out Jacob's animals from Laban's. And yet, you see Jacob still goes back and helps Laban feed his flocks. He's still working for Laban. He hasn't left yet. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar and of the hazel and chestnut tree and piled white stakes in them and made the white appear, which is in the rods. So what he did, he took sticks or but what we might call post today, and he stripped the bark off of them. That's where the white comes from, because if you strip the bark off a tree, it's somewhat white. And he set the rods which he had piled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink that they should conceive when they came to drink. So they had watering troughs. He builds what's similar to what we would call a corral. He gets them together. He builds a big pen for them and turns the bulls or the rams in with the herd to breed the cows and the sheep. And it says, the flocks conceived before the rods and brought forth cattle, ring-straked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring-straked, 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. So he made sure his flocks and his animals didn't mix in a breed with Laban's, to keep Laban's pure, all of one color. And again, Jacob takes all those that are spotted, those that are blemished. 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. And the reason for this is when they come to drink and they get full of water and of food, whatever they have there, they calm down and they begin to do their thing, basically. And when the cattle were feeble, he put him not in. So the feebler were Laban's and the stronger, Jacob's. Now, we see what he does here. Jacob kind of connives his way and tricks Laban into taking the weaker cattle, doesn't he? And he keeps the stronger ones. What's the purpose in that? Well, he's about to take a journey. Remember, he's about to go back home to Canaan. And so he needs all the stronger animals to go with him. You don't want a bunch of weak cattle on a cattle drive because they wind up dying on you. And a man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maid servants, and men servants, and camels, and asses. Now Jacob's a wealthy man. He's just come out from under Laban's servitude himself, and now he's got, it says, he has much cattle, he's got maid servants, he's got man servants, He's got camels. He's got a small army here of people and a small start to a ranch. He's got camels and asses. They're ready to go. He's got everything he needs now to go back to Canaan and to start his life and to get a good footing for his family. We're going to stop there for this morning. Next time, we'll see Jacob's leaving and his travels back to Canaan with his family. And actually, if you look, if you look in The next chapter, chapter 31, verse 38. He says, this is Jacob speaking, and he's speaking to Laban. This tells us how long Jacob was with Laban. This 20 years have I been with thee. Jacob was with, at that point in time, was with Laban 20 years. So I said 25 or 30 earlier, but I was wrong in that. He was actually there 20 years. So we'll look more at the ages and the time and all that next time. And we'll get all that straightened out. So that's all.