Genesis 28-30
Day 23: Genesis 28-30 Notes & Takeaways
We start off today’s reading with chapter 28. Isaac has been instructed not to marry a Canaanite woman as he would inherit the birthright and carry on the seed of the Messiah. We see that Isaac has conceded to the Lord’s decision of the younger being the one that is blessed and he blesses him before leaving. We once again see the name of the Lord used: El Shaddai (God Almighty) as it was in Gen 17:1. Jacob was promised a land, a nation, and a blessing just like Abraham (Gen 12:1-3). Once Jacob leaves, he would not see Isaac for another 20 years. Once Ishmael saw that his brother Jacob listened to his parents and did not marry a Canaanite woman, he married another woman that was not a Canaanite, the daughter of Ishmael named Mahalath.
Jacob then sets off on his journey, and as he takes time to rest and sleep, he has a dream. This dream was a way of God showing him that he now had heavenly access. The ladder reminds us of John 1:51, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
In the dream God speaks to Jacob and promises that He will be with him wherever he goes and will bring him back one day. He also tells him he won’t leave him until he has done what he promises. The next morning Jacob creates a pillar and names the place Bethel, which means House of God. But, what is significant to me is that in Jacob’s vow he says, “if God will be with me and watch over me…” (Gen 28:20). He doesn’t say, Because God will be with me. He still did not truly believe what God spoke until he could see it happen for himself. We need not have this mentality. Our faith and trust should be in God whether or not he does the things we ask of Him or not. We should believe in Him whether or not we see his promises come to fruition in our lifetime. Maybe we prayed for someone in our life to be saved but we don’t get to see it happen. We can plant the seed in them, and maybe we pass away and later they get saved because someone else watered the seed we planted, and God grew their faith. We may not see God’s promises, but we believe that He will do what He says He will do. And like Paul says in 1 Cor 3:6, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
Chapter 28 finishes with Jacob saying that if God will do all the things he said he would do and he can return safely then the Lord will be his God and Jacob will give him a tenth of all that God blesses him with. We see here the first mention of the tithe. God doesn’t need our money, he gives us everything we have and need. It is a way to honor God and we must know that God can do so much more with the 10% than we could ever do with the 100%. We must remember that He alone supplies all our needs according to His riches (Philippians 4:19). Therefore we honor him with our tithe and he even tells us to test him in this, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (Malachi 3:10). See also 1 Cor 16:2 and 2 Cor 9:7.
We start chapter 29 with Jacob coming to Paddan Adam, the land of Rebekah and Abraham. Here he meets Rachel at the well and introduces himself. A month later he strikes a deal with Laban, Rachel’s father. He would work seven years in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage. Laban agrees to it and we see that he worked hard for seven years, without pay, besides room and board, for Rachel and that the years “seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her” (Gen 29:20). This shows us that true love is willing to wait.
Ironically though, Laban tricks the trickster. On their wedding night he gives Jacob Leah, “the one with soft eyes” (Gen 29:17) to Jacob, instead of the beautiful Rachel. This would’ve been easy to pull off because in those times, custom was that the bride would wear a veil until she was finally alone with him at night. Which was completely dark, if Laban had anything to do with it! He wakes up in the morning to see Leah instead of Rachel.
Laban gets Jacob to agree to another 7 years of work for free in order to get Rachel, once Leah’s bridal week was over. Because Jacob loves her so much, he agrees to it. Why would Rachel and Leah agree to this? Probably because in those times the father had absolute authority over the family. Therefore they had to do what he said.
Jacob does work another seven years and in that time his love for Rachel grew greater than that of Leah. The Lord sees her misery and allows her to bear children while he closes Rachel’s womb.
The idea of God’s sovereignty over the womb is a repeated theme in the Bible. The purposes of God in opening one and closing the other may be completely unknowable, but God has His purpose.
· God granted twins to Rebekah (Genesis 25:21).
· He opens the womb of Leah (Genesis 29:31).
· He closed the womb of Hannah, for a time (1 Samuel 1:5). (Enduring Word Commentary)
Here is the list of Leah’s children and their meanings:
Reuben, meaning seen my misery or behold a son
Simeon, meaning one who hears
Levi, meaning attached
Judah, meaning praise
Gad, meaning troop or good fortune (by her servant Zilpah)
Asher, meaning happy (by her servant Zilpah)
Issachar, meaning reward
Zebulun, meaning honor
Dinah, meaning judged or vindicated
Because her womb was closed, Rachel’s first two children were by her servant Bilhah. Then she has two of her own (we only see 1 of her own in today’s reading but we see the birth of her 4th child in chapter 35).
Dan, meaning vindicated or judgment (by Bilhah)
Naphtali, meaning to wrestle or struggle (by Bilhah)
Joseph, meaning may he add
Ben-Oni, meaning son of my trouble. Which Jacob changed to Benjamin, meaning son of my right hand.
Here are a few notes on what commentators had to say about the surrogate-adoption process in these times:
i. The phrase bear a child on my knees refers to the ancient practice of surrogate-adoption. Some believe that the phrase refers only to a symbolic placement of the child on the knees of one who adopts it. Others believe that it refers to the surrogate sitting on the lap of the adoptive mother during both insemination and birth. Referring to Genesis 30:3, the Twentieth Century Bible Commentary says: “These words are probably intended literally, and not merely as figurative adoption.”
ii. We should not regard the idea that Bilhah was inseminated and gave birth “on the knees” of Rachel as a certainty. We don’t know enough about the ancient practice, and even if it were an ancient custom, it doesn’t mean that it was followed in every case, but it certainly is a reasonable possibility. (Enduring Word Commentary)
Through the story of competition between Leah and her sister Rachel we see the reason for God’s law in Leviticus 18:18, which forbids the marrying of sisters. It only brought pain, misery, competition, and hostility to these two women. God’s plan was a perfect union between a man and a woman (Gen 2:24). Even Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 19:5-6, '“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’
We end the chapter with Jacob asking Laban to allow him to leave with his family to his own homeland. Before leaving though, Laban and Jacob come into agreement over the flock of sheep. Jacob would get to keep any speckled or spotted sheep, while Laban would keep the solid ones. They separated their flocks and Jacob looked over Laban’s flock.
The Lord had seen how Laban had dealt with him unjustly the last 14 years (tricking Jacob) and blessed Jacob in his plan to use pealed branches to create spotted or speckled flocks from the stronger, mating sheep. We will see that he speaks to Rachel about how God showed him this in a dream in tomorrow’s reading: chapter 31:10-13. Jacob grew “exceedingly prosperous, and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys” (Gen 30:43).
This is where today’s reading finishes. Tomorrow we move on to chapters 31-33 in Genesis, and we finish the book of Genesis this week! How exciting to have almost two full books of the Bible down in what will be less than a month. I hope you’re learning a lot and enjoying it all at the same time. I know I am! Make sure to follow RF on Instagram, and join our FB Group to stay up to date for our upcoming weekly zoom sessions!
