Attitudes

DEVOTION

GENESIS

ATTITUDES

Gen 30:37-31:2

37 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 of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban's animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.

Genesis 31

31:1 Jacob heard that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father." 2 And Jacob noticed that Laban's attitude toward him was not what it had been.

NIV

What a varied opinion from our scholars as to how all these stripped, speckled and spotted animals were produced. There is the opinion the visual experience of a dam in heat before she conceives will have an effort on her bodies production of a lamb or kid. But this is simply without any science to prove that theory. What we do have here is God at work in nature through a miracle. Now why Jacob had to do what he did is a question for the ages. Perhaps he was inspired by God to put forth this effort. Then it might have been God who simply worked a miracle without Jacob knowing it was the hand of God at work. Yet it does present somewhat of a puzzle as to why Jacob would do this and get the desired results. If this were a natural phenomenon having a fetus effected by what the mother looked at during conception and gestation then genetic engineering has no purpose. We can either produce a new race, or eliminate one simply by restricting the view of mothers during conception. No, this is the hand of God at work blessing Jacob beyond measure, giving him a great herd and flock of his own. He became exceedingly prosperous because of the hand of God. But, wouldn’t we know that Laban’s sons became very jealous of Jacob because of his great prosperity. How could they actually believe Jacob took what was their fathers? Their father took all the spotted, speckled and stripped animals out of his flock and gave them to his sons to tend while leaving Jacob with nothing but all white ones, and then having three days journey between the two flocks. Yet Jacob shows up with a flock of all spotted, speckled and stripped animals of his own from the all-white flock he was given. Laban’s sons simply could not understand how that happened unless Jacob had somehow stolen animals from their flocks. But they had control over their flocks and the number of them, so it would seem unlikely that Jacob could have such a large flock while their flocks remained the same size. Nevertheless they were very upset that Jacob became so wealthy right under their noses. They could not fathom that it was God blessing him. It is interesting how people can be jealous of others who acquire great wealth. How they might think that wealth came from some underhanded method rather than either hard work, or the hand of God. Laban even started treating Jacob a little differently, his attitude had changed toward him since seeing how prosperous Jacob had become. It is easy to develop bad attitudes toward those who gain much while we gain little or nothing at all. Yet Jacob also did the work, he put forth an effort in his gain. This is God at work in partnership with his efforts.

Deut 15:9-10

 10 Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

NIV

Jacob had made a commitment to the Lord God that he would be his God. Although this command of the Lord came after Jacob’s life, his principles have always been. We should not carry any attitudes toward those who gain much other than the love of Christ. Bad attitudes about people only lead to bad feelings and there is no reason we should live with those feelings, it only does more harm to ourselves then to those who we carry those feelings towards. We have the blessings of God in our lives and should be living with joy and love in our hearts. Watch our attitude.