Genesis 30 Devotional Bible Study

Genesis 30 Chapter Summary

Rachel became frustrated at having no children, so she gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob to sleep with. Bilhah's children would be counted as Rachel's. Bilhah gave birth to Dan, then Naphtali.

Leah had stopped having children, so she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob. She gave birth to Gad and Asher.

 

Then Leah bargained with Rachel to let Jacob sleep with her again, and Leah gave birth to Issachar, then Zebulun, then Dinah.

 

Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.

- Genesis 30:22

 

She gave birth to Joseph.

 

At this point, Jacob was ready to return home, but Laban convinced him to keep working for him in exchange for a share of Laban's flocks. The two agreed that any sheep or goat that wasn't white would belong to Jacob. Then, when the stronger female animals were ready to mate, he would peel poplar branches and have the animals mate in front of them. This increased his chances to produce dark and spotted young, so he became very prosperous.

 

Is God the Bad Guy?

Genesis 30:1-2

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

Let’s check Jacob’s statement here. Was God keeping Rachel from having children? Does our God act against us like that? Does He actively afflict us with physical and health problems?

First, we want to acknowledge that, yes, God certainly can punish us physically. Already in Genesis, we’ve seen the Lord keep people from having children. But look back at Genesis 29:31 - When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.

Both women started out not having children. And what did God do? He actively enabled Leah to conceive. He did not actively keep Rachel from conceiving. He simply did not enable her to do so like He did Leah.

God not healing you or giving you better health conditions is not the same as God acting against you. He’s simply chosen not to act on your behalf yet. In verse 22, we read that God finally did enable Rachel to conceive, and it may be that at some point in the future, the Lord will act on your behalf as well. But even if He doesn’t act for you in this life, we know that one day, He will make all things as they should be when He raises us all to new life. For now, we endure our sufferings.

Romans 5:3-5 - We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Rachel was losing hope in this story. By the Holy Spirit, we will endure until that Day when our hopes become reality.

 

Reward for Giving

Genesis 30:17-18

God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

Throughout this chapter, we’re continuing to read about the birth of Jacob’s sons (the twelve tribal leaders of Israel) and how the two sisters Rachel and Leah were in competition for their husband’s affection. They thought he would value them more based on how many children they each gave him. They also had some wrong ideas about God.

Up to this time, however, God had not said that a man shouldn’t marry more than one woman. God hadn’t said (and never has said) that a person shouldn’t have slaves or servants… insert your reaction here.

So, whereas we look back and say we shouldn’t have multiple wives or give our servants to our husbands to have surrogate children through them, at that time, there was nothing wrong with what Leah did. In fact, it gives us a beautiful picture of God’s relationship with all of us. Today, we would love all mothers and fathers to think of themselves as servants bearing children not for themselves but for the Lord. That’s why we do Baby Dedications and Baby Baptisms.

The point of what Leah says, though, points us to a general truth about the Lord. He rewards us for giving. He rewards us for making sacrifice. Leah sacrificed by giving her servant to Jacob. Leah would have loved to bear the children herself, but she sacrificed and put the good of her family above her own desires. In time, the Lord rewarded for it and again gave her what she really wanted.

What can you give to the Lord, your Heavenly Husband, today? What sacrifice can you make for the good of His Family?

 

Does It Make Sense?

Genesis 30:37-39, 43

Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted... In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

We’ll read later about how the Lord gave Jacob a dream showing him how to breed and increase his flock. Sometimes, we wonder if what he was doing makes any sense scientifically. Was Jacob the first person to breed on the basis of dominant and recessive genes? The result of the story sounds like that’s what was happening, but the method to get there doesn’t make much sense to us. In that regard, it seems the Lord wasn’t revealing the science of genetics to Jacob but was acting supernaturally on his behalf.

The point, however, is that Jacob did what the Lord showed him, and the result was a blessing to Jacob. Did it make sense genetically? Not completely. Does something have to make sense to us before we trust the Lord and obey Him? No. The Lord can use natural or supernatural means to bless us if we are obedient to Him. 

Jacob didn’t stop and think about how this breeding method worked before he put it into practice. We don’t need to question everything the Lord says either. If it doesn’t make sense to you, trust that it does make sense to Him. Maybe he’s testing your faith by giving you something that doesn’t make sense according to merely human knowledge and wisdom.