This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions and Genesis chapter 30 today. In Genesis
chapter 30 we get to see something of the family life and the beginning of the
business life of Jacob the schemer. And it was not working out too well in his
life.

Rachel and Leah, his two wives, begin to battle and children are the way that
they keep score. Leah is unloved. The Bible tells us that she's unloved by Jacob
and the Bible also tells us that God in his kindness gives her children.

But that makes Rachel, who is loved, jealous because she doesn't have one of the
things, the one thing that Leah has. She can't have children as yet. And so, I
don't know any way to better picture for you what was happening in Jacob's
family than in chapter 30 reading for you verses 14 to 17 and then verses 22 to
24.

Listen to what happened. During wheat harvest, Reuben went out, this is one of
Jacob's early sons, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake
plants which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me
some of your son's mandrakes.

" But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you
take away my son's mandrakes too? " "Very well," Rachel said, "he can sleep with
you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes.

" So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him.
"You must sleep with me," she said, "for I have hired you with my son's
mandrakes. " So he slept with her that night.

God listened to Leah and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then
God remembered Rachel down in verse 22. He listened to her and he opened her
womb and she became pregnant and she gave birth to a son and said, "God has
taken away my disgrace.

" And she named him Joseph and said, "May the Lord add to me another son. " Here
are these sons being born and here's these wives bargaining for their husbands
so that they can become pregnant. This is the life of Jacob.

This is what happens when you scheme. You become surrounded by schemes and
schemers and you begin to think, "Why is my life so complicated? It's nothing to
do with me.

It's all them. " But Jacob was the schemer and now he's surrounded by schemes
and schemers. That does not mean that God is not working.

That's the incredible thing here is God's at work all the way through. Jacob is
struggling all the way through, but God is at work all the way through. These
sons that are being born, they're going to become the 12 tribes of Israel.

Out of this battle that these wives are having, God is going to do something
historic. It is so often true that when you and I are focused on the petty, God
is working in history. He is doing something historic through our lives,
something that's going to last for all eternity.

But we miss it because we're focused on the petty, on the little. It's amazing
to me as you look at the life of Jacob and the sons that were born, these 12
sons, we're going to see their lives characterized over the rest of the chapters
of Genesis. That even the way that these sons were named, they begin to be named
in chapter 30, even the way that these sons are named, they're a reflection of
the kinds of relationships that Jacob and Leah and Jacob and his sons and Jacob
and Rachel had with each other.

Reuben, this son that we talked about here, his name means God has looked upon
my affliction. Simeon, another early son, is God has heard me as an unloved one.
Levi, now my husband will become attached to me, was the idea of Levi's name.

There's this whole idea in Leah's first children of what I would call a one-way
relationship. Leah gave and Jacob took. There's really no relationship at all.

That's an attitude that led to the struggle in his family, and you see it
reflected even in the names of his children. Later on, there's more sons born.
One is named Dan.

It means I have been vindicated. Naphtali means I have wrestled and I have won.
There's this jealousy and competition.

This is the winning and losing relationship. One person has to win. One person
has to lose.

Rachel and Leah and Jacob and the children, no one wins. No one wins in this
family battle, but you see reflected even in the way that the sons are named,
what's going on in their lives. You see reflected the buying and selling
relationship, which is really reflected in verses 14-16 that we just read.

Issachar, which means God has given me my wages, or Zebulun, now things will
gain is the idea there, the idea of buying love, of selling sons to buy
commitment. Now we see them do this and we think what a horrible thing to do,
but we do the same. Sometimes we try to buy our children's love with gifts, with
things.

We do things to try to buy forgiveness. We try to buy and sell what only God can
give. The buying and selling relationship, the winning and losing relationship,
the one-way relationship, it's all reflected in the names of these children.

There's the "what have you done for me lately" relationship, "what have you done
this week? " Joseph, Rachel finally has her first child and her first name for
that child is, "God will you give me another one, I want one more now. " Not
satisfied with what you have, but "well finally I got this, now I need more.

" Whatever you do, God, it's not enough. Whatever you do, husband, wife, child,
it's not enough. What have you done for me this week?

These are all attitudes reflected in these sons' names that lead to the
struggle, that reflect the struggle in Jacob's life. Now these aren't the only
names that we're given. Leah gives three sons names that show a pattern for joy,
that show a pattern of blessing.

Judah, "I will praise the Lord. " That makes everything different. An attitude
of praise that covers everything, praise, thankfulness.

Marriage is his idea. Problems he has allowed into my life, he's going to carry
me through those problems. Problems that Satan or others have brought into my
life, he knows that they're there.

And God will protect me even from the evil that Satan wants to bring into my
heart. When was the last time you praised God? When was the last time you
praised God for your family?

Gad, another child that's born. How fortunate is the meaning of that name? What
a great attitude, just how fortunate.

Look at the blessings I have, not look at the curses, look at the bad, look at
the blessings that I have. It's a great way to look at your family. Or Asher.

Asher's name means, "Happy am I. " Instead of focusing on our goals, we focus on
God's goals. Growing out of praise towards God, there's a kind of joy, a kind of
happiness that you cannot find anywhere else.

Now Leah didn't live with this attitude all of her life, but she had it as a
part of her life and I want it too. I don't want to struggle my way through
life, I want to rejoice my way through life. I want to see God's blessings in my
life.

Now as if what was happening in Jacob's family wasn't enough, at the same time
he is struggling in his business life. He is a man who struggled his way to
faith. Listen to what happened in verse 25 of chapter 30.

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me on my way so
that I can go back to my homeland. Give me my wives and my children for whom I
have served you and I will be on my way. You know how much work I have done for
you.

" 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. " And he
added, "Name your wages and I will pay them.

" Name your wages and I'll pay them. Jacob had heard that line before, "Name
your wages and I'll pay them. " He worked seven years for one wife and then had
to work seven years for her again.

He's not about to fall for that trick twice. So he begins to scheme, he begins
to scheme for a way to leave. So here's what happens in verse 32.

Here's the scheme. "Let me go through all your flocks today," Jacob says, "and
remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and
every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.

" "Agreed," in verse 34, says Laban, "Let it be as you said. " But in verse 35,
that same day, Laban removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted,
all the speckled or spotted female goats, all that had white on them, all the
dark-colored And he placed them in the care of his sons and he put a three-day
journey between himself and Jacob while Jacob continued to tend the rest of
Laban's flocks. Now you see what he's doing here in these verses.

He's getting all the sheep that have spots and speckles on them, but Jacob says,
"Any that are born from now on with spots and speckles, they'll be mine and
we'll be able to tell they're mine because of the spots on them. " So Laban
says, "Fine, many born from now on, that's fine. " And then he takes all the
sheep that were currently in the flock with spots and speckles and he puts them
three days away from the other sheep so they can't mate with the others, so that
he's hoping Jacob will get no sheep.

Verse 37, Jacob has a scheme. "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 on the branches. And then he placed the
peeled branches and all the watering troughs so that they'd be directly in front
of the flocks when they came to drink.

And when the flocks were in heat, they came to drink and then they mated in
front of the branches and they bore young that were streaked or speckled or
spotted. In this way, in verse 43, the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came
to own large flocks and mate servants and men servants and camels and donkeys. "
Now what happens here is amazing.

Jacob's got this scheme. He puts stripes on these branches and he thinks that
there was this idea back then, this sort of a fable, that whatever you saw as
you mated might affect the children that were born. So he thought, "We'll put
stripes on the branches and so the sheep, they will have speckled, they'll have
spotted, they'll have striped sheep, and they'll be my sheep.

" And it happens. But it doesn't happen because of what Jacob did. We're going
to see later in Genesis that Jacob realizes this.

It has nothing to do with what Jacob does. This is just a myth. It's just a
fable.

It happens because God decided to bless him. Jacob believed that his cleverness
had somehow caused this increase in the flocks. And the truth is, it was all a
matter of God's goodness.

How about you? How about me? How often do we attribute the good things in our
lives to our work or our cleverness or our ideas when actually it was the
goodness of God?

Now he may have given you a good idea, but it was the goodness of God. It was
God's blessing. I want to say, "Oh no, it was my idea, it was my thinking.

God gives me some good thoughts. He gives you some good thoughts. " But he's the
one who gives those thoughts.

Why are we afraid to praise him? Why do we have to think it was all of us?
Because we want to be in control.

Let's talk to Jesus for a minute. Lord, help us to praise you instead of somehow
want the praise to come on us. Because you're the one who deserves all the
praise.

You're the one who made us. You're the one who is blessing us. You're the one
who is directing our lives in ways that we don't even see.

And Jesus, if there is a place in my life, just say this to Jesus right now. If
there's a place in my life where like Jacob, I am taking credit, full credit for
a blessing that you've given, Lord, forgive me and help me right now to give you
the credit that you are due. You're the one that's at work and I praise you for
every blessing in my life.

Thank you for the hands to work for those blessings, for the mind to think for
those blessings. But I recognize you've given me even those. Thank you, Jesus,
for the blessings in my life.

In your name. In your name. Amen.

Join us next week. We're going to finish the story of Jacob. Jacob's going to
continue to struggle.

He's going to continue to struggle his way towards faith.