So he (Laban) removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. Genesis 30:35-36 NKJV

No sooner had Jacob agreed with Laban that his wages would be the spotted lambs and the speckled young goats than Laban went and culled the spotted and speckled sheep from his herd. He gave them to his sons and had them quickly driven about fifty miles away! This father-in-law of Jacob was a crafty man, full of mischief and cunning. He made the rules but had no intent on abiding by them. We would say that he was as “crooked as a barrel of snakes.” What Jacob found himself with that next morning had to be purest white sheep in the land. There was not a spot or speckle to be seen on any of the flock. But he remembered the angel, and what God had promised him:  

“Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’” Genesis 30:12 -13 NKJV

That was the key! Somehow, he had to produce newborn sheep covered with spots and speckles from their pure white parents. His thoughts troubled him. How could he breed a spotted lamb when its parents were both white as snow? Then, as he gazed at a nearby bush, he suddenly had an idea. What if he broke some branches off and cut stripes from their dark rugged bark, revealing the pure color beneath. These rods would resemble the random markings which he believed would come on his sheep. He could drive these striped and peeled rods into the ground right in front of their watering troughs. Then when the males mated with them, in front of those peeled spotted rods, the ewes would conceive spotted offspring. He knew that this idea had to be from God and that it would be his part to be obedient to the heavenly directive. So, he began to break off and cut the rods into long stakes that both he and the sheep could focus on during mating season. What happened in the ensuing days was miraculous, to say the least. The lambs and goats that came out bleating from their mothers were all spotted, and speckled. God was the one at work here, it had His fingerprints all over it! Think of it, all the time they drank they focused on the spotted rods, and all the time that Jacob watched over them he found himself fixated on them as well. As his attention was drawn to them, he was reminded of what he was believing the Lord for. That is the key that I believe we can take away. Jacob had God’s blessing on his life. He knew that. He had been given a promise from God. God had given him an instruction, veiled as an idea, a hint down in his spirit of what he needed to do. As odd as it sounded, he was compelled to follow it.

Moses, universally believed to be the author of Genesis, penned these words:

And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Genesis 30:41-42 NKJV

Therefore, although Laban thwarted his prosperity every chance that he got, God saw to it that His son, Jacob, continued to be blessed. God also gave him the strategy of breeding the strongest rams of Laban’s stock with the superior ewes, producing a hybrid herd of spotted little warriors. Jacob’s flocks continued to grow and multiply both in number and in virility. He also kept the frail  and sickly ones separated for Laban’s flock and purposefully cross-bred them, adding these weaker lambs to Laban’s herd.  His operation was so successful that Laban’s sons became very jealous and angry toward him. They accused him of stealing their father’s inheritance out from under them. He knew that his days at Laban’s house were numbered and could see that he was quickly out-staying his welcome. It was time to return home to Isaac and Rebecca. The scripture reads:

Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has acquired all this wealth.” And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not favorable toward him as before. Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.” So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, and said to them, “I see your father’s countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. And you know that with all my might I have served your father. Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. If he said thus: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus: ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked. So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. Genesis 31:6-9 NKJV

When Laban was away from home Jacob gathered his wives and all of his possessions and left to travel back to Israel. Laban chased him down and caught him after several days of hard riding. The night before Laban caught up to him, God warned him in a dream not to hurt Jacob. When confronted by his furious father-in-law as to why he fled, he angrily replied:

“These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.” Genesis 31:38-42 NKJV.

We often find ourselves in impossible situations, where life is unfair and often seems quite cruel. God has promised us these same promises that he swore to Jacob. Jacob believed God and relied on Him to help him through incredibly tough circumstances. When we look at Jacob’s life, we see that he continued to keep God first in his life and believed that somehow God would make it all work out. Think about this, God made promises to Jacob at Bethel. Who was Jacob? He was shortly renamed “Israel.” Israel, we soon learn, had the twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus was the great, great grandson of Jacob, through his son Judah. Now, you and I, thousands of years later, are considered to be God’s sons and daughters, through our faith in Jesus Christ, and divine adoption into His family. Galatians states this truth very emphatically,

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29 NKJV

We are heirs to the promise. Jacob’s God is our God. The promises He made to Jacob He now makes to you and I. So, when He gives you an instruction, do it, though it seems crazy. When you’re down “among the rods” that you have placed around you to remind you of what God has spoken to you deep down in your heart, do not give up. Do not look to the left of right but keep the gaze of your heart looking straight on. Take Him at His word and believe Him to accomplish miraculous things in your life, as He did for Jacob.