LIFE SCRIPTS

25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.” 27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” 28 He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.” 29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?” 31 “What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.” 34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks. 37 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. 38 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, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Genesis 30:25‭-‬43 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/gen.30.25-43.NIV.

This passage is an account of Jacob’s escapades in business. But it begins with him asking Laban to allow him to leave with his family to his father’s land. Laban, being the shrewd person used manipulation to maintain Jacob around. He stated that through divination, he had learnt that God blessed him because of Jacob. Indeed God was with Jacob in all he did. Laban had seen the asset that Jacob was and was in no way about to let him go. And now that he was a man of God, the only way to convince him to stay was to invoke God’s name. It’s interesting how often in life we employ manipulation by invoking God’s name in our daily activities. However Christ tells us through the gospel that our ‘yes’ should mean yes and our ‘no’ should mean no. As the men engaged each other, they ultimately came to a set of terms for Jacob to stay. The terms of this agreement meant that Jacob receive his wages through flocks which had a specific design on them…speckled, spotted etc. Jacob and Laban agreed that all the flocks having such a pattern would belong to Jacob to which Laban agreed. This must have been a very reasonable agreement. We notice this because Laban raised no objection to it. Laban seemed to be a very opinionated and shrewd character who twisted situations to his advantage. However in this case, he was in agreement. However no sooner had they agreed than he isolated animals with that same pattern Jacob had identified, placed them under the care of his sons who were a distance away. To a layman, this looked normal. However, in reality, it would have been a breeding nightmare for any farmer. Breeding requires that the farmer begins with the animal with the desired characteristics… preferably the male. If one is looking for a dark goat offspring, he would mate a strong dark male with a female to get a desired offspring. However in this case, the males and the females Jacob was counting on to mate were taken away. Now he had no starting flock to propagate his offspring of choice. However, this didn’t dampen his spirits. He came up with a tactic. He designed some branches and placed them in front of the stronger flocks when they were mating and the result was an offspring of his choice. This tactic looked like it worked. However, in real sense, God chose to bless Jacob. God’s hand of favour was so much upon him that whatever he did bore fruit. Infact scripture says that he became so rich with flocks servants. So we might ask why God chose to bless a man who played tricks on his employer! Well, he didn’t abscond from his duties like we do. He didn’t steal from his employer (time-wise or money wise) like we at times do. He didn’t insubordinate his boss like we do at times. He possessed a high level of loyalty towards his boss (he worked for over 15 years) unlike some of us who are employed and leave our employers without notice. God saw his commitment and chose to bless the works of his hands. A challenge to us in this age.