Genesis 30:31 “And he said, What shall I give thee?”

Genesis 30:32 “And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock:”

Genesis 30:33 “I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.”

These verses are Jacob negotiating a new work contract with a guy called Laban.

In the book of Genesis, Jacob works for Laban to earn his daughter’s hand in marriage … a woman called Rachel.

For seven years he works to “earn” her, only for Laban to slip him her older sister Leah on their wedding night.

And he’s not happy about it, but it’s his own fault… his discernment was non-existent, and Laban has properly duped him (there will always be someone smarter than you!), and so then Jacob agrees to a new deal… work seven more! years for Laban and you get Rachel also.

… What a mess!

Anyway, Jacob ends up working a long time for Laban, and he does get Rachel as his second wife… and keeps working under Laban.

… But the thing about Laban is that he’s such a shrewd operator, and all these years he’s been managing to keep Jacob poor and dependent upon him.

Which is a bad arrangement… for Jacob at least. In it is an important spiritual truth though!

Because if we are Christians and have some influence, we should be encouraging other Christians in their own walk with God, not making them dependent upon us… that is, our disciples rather than Christ’s disciples… by impoverishing their spiritual lives and holding back what’s good for them…

… and what’s good for them is the whole word of God, as Paul said “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”

For all of Jacob’s hard work through the years… and he was very good at managing Laban’s cattle for him… yet he really hadn’t been remunerated well at all for his services… he’s still poor.

Because! the reason why Laban was keeping Jacob dependent upon him is so that Jacob would keep working for him and profiting him. … flat out, he’s abusing and misusing Jacob.

… But Jacob finally has had enough, taken him long enough! and he says I’m done… and realizing he has a little more leverage than he first thought, is able to negotiate some kind of deal with Laban in exchange for staying on as lead hand.

And the deal is this… Jacob will keep working for Laban, and how Jacob will get paid is that he gets to keep the spotted and speckled cattle… the ones that don’t “look” good.

And the story goes on, and it’s a bit of a strange one to unpack in some senses, but Jacob ends up with a lot of cattle! Because Laban has made some key mistakes, he’s equated looks with strength… and turns out that is a very loose correlation.

And even though they are a “motley crew”… Jacob ends up with a top quality herd, even if they don’t look so good.

There’s so many lessons in this story!!!

But as humans, we have a tendency to judge things and gauge success even in our own walk with God based on how they look from the outside… but that’s not how God judges things.

Yes the outside can be a good indicator of how things are going inside (for example the actions we take) … but not necessarily either. And the reality is, and I’ve found out, that true Christians… Jesus’ flock… can be quite a motley crew.

God’s not looking for outward religious show, he desires truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51). He’s looking for humility and obedience to his word (Isaiah 66:2). You look at the saints of God in the Bible… they’re a motley crew, it’s amazing who is in Hebrews 11 isn’t it.

So your life might look good on the outside. And you may have it “made”. In these western countries, we tend to have it pretty good and think we are pretty good. But how are we spiritually going?

Jacob’s breeding program was very unusual, because he bred his cattle based on strength, not on superficial looks. And the Bible says of Jacob’s flock that “the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.”

So Laban would check out his flocks and it all looked great… but they were weak. Meanwhile Jacob’s flock might not have looked “sexy” … yet his hotch potch, patchwork, odds and ends herd were strong and growing.

There’s so much truth here, but Christian, if you feel like you’re inferior, know that God uses those who have been saved and redeemed from sin, he uses very ordinary people… you might not have the best job, you might not be society’s elite, you may not have many friends, you may not be the best looking… but in Christ, you just may be the strongest in the herd!

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