Week 33, Day 5: Jacob’s Wealth
Today’s Reading: Genesis 30:1-43
Some thoughts from the reading…
Genesis chapter 30 shows how God took care of Jacob and provided for him. We see the birth of most of Jacob’s sons in this chapter, through his two wives and their handmaids. We also see the development of the wealth of Jacob. He worked for Laban for 14 years, and gained two wives, but he had not developed any wealth of his own. When he decided it was time to go home, Laban convinced him to stay a while longer so that he could pay him for his efforts. Jacob devised a plan, by which he would be able to attain some wealth (flocks and herds) from Laban. He determined (and Laban agreed) that he would take all of the speckled and spotted goats, and the brown sheep. Evidently, these animals would be the rare ones, else Laban would not agree to it. Jacob sorted the animals, and then sent his herds away from Laban’s. Then, as he began to breed the flocks of Laban, he put rods before the sheep and goats that had the bark peeled off, causing them to bear speckled and spotted offspring. It is pretty evident that doing such a thing would not do anything for the conception rate of spotted and speckled offspring, under normal conditions. But, God was with Jacob, and He saw to it that the flocks produced a lot of these spotted and speckled kids. In this way, God saw to it that Jacob became very rich!
Notice that Jacob did not leave his prosperity solely in the hands of God. He went forth and worked for it. He trusted in God, and knew that God would provide for him, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have to work to produce his own wealth. There is a lesson for us in that as well. We need to recognize that all of our blessings come from God, but He has not told us that He will bless us without us ever doing anything. In fact, He has been very clear about our need to work and provide for our own (1 Thessalonians 4:11, 1 Timothy 5:8)! We must put our trust in God to provide, but we also need to work to provide for ourselves. God will do His part (He always does) but we must also be committed to doing our part!
Question: What type of “wealth” do you think we should try to accumulate today?
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One Comment »
Machella said :
August 28, 2009 at 8:58 pm
We should NOT be consumed with pursuing earthly treasures, for these things are only temporary. We need to labor for those things which will lead us to everlasting life. We must work diligently to bring lost souls to Christ, who is the bread of life. Two passages that come to mind: Matthew 6:19-21 and John 6:22-40