Genesis 30 NKJV

1/ Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob,

“Give me children, or else I die!”

2/ And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.” 4/ Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5/ And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6/ Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan {Literally Judge}. 7/ And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8/ Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali {Literally My Wrestling}.
9/ When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife. 10/ And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11/ Then Leah said, “A troop comes {Following Qere, Syriac, and Targum; Kethib, Septuagint, and Vulgate read in fortune}!'' So she called his name Gad {Literally Troop or Fortune}. 12/ And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13/ Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher {Literally Happy}.
14/ Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and, brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15/ But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”
And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”
16/ When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night. 

OH MY! OH MY! OH MY!!!

• ABRAHAM PIMPED HIS WIFE SARAH! {Genesis 12:10-16 & Genesis 20:1-16} 

• ABRAHAM'S SON ISAAC PIMPED HIS WIFE REBEKAH! {Genesis 26:6-14} 

• NOW RACHEL PIMPS JACOB {Isaac's son Jacob is pimped by the wife he loves}!!!

We all need to take personal inventory of ourselves, and identify traits we carry, that may have unconsciously been passed on to us from past generations; traits or character flaws that are inappropriate for the times we live in today.

We can seek deliverance from negative traits we carry, to make sure we don't pass them on to our posterity.

As we prepare to go into a new year, let us recognize and leave old negative, unfruitful ways, behind us; while we boldly go forth embracing new opportunities to carry out productive, prosperous exploits, steadfast in JESUS!!!

• See Weekly Bible Study #91 "Doors We Close", & #90 "Doors We Open",
• Also review WBS #124 "Freed By The Spirit of Truth".



Mandrakes

• 1. a Mediterranean poisonous plant of the nightshade family, with white or purple flowers and large yellow berries. It has a forked fleshy root that supposedly resembles the human form and was formerly widely used in medicine and magic, allegedly shrieking when pulled from the ground.

• 2. In ancient times, the mandrake was associated with the superstitious belief that it promoted fertility and conception in barren women. The root was cut into an amulet to wear on the body, or put beneath the bed. 



We will see that it wasn't the mandrakes that eventually enabled Rachel to conceive and bear a son from her own body; but only God who listened to her cry and opened her womb.

Remember when Jacob's mother Rebekah was barren; his father Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of Rebekah {Genesis 25:21}. The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer.  Rebekah became pregnant and gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob.



 James 5:16 KJV

16/ Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 

17/ And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18/ Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar {Literally Wages}. 19/ Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20/ And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun {Literally Dwelling}. 21/ Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
22/ Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23/ And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24/ So she called his name Joseph {Literally He Will Add}, and said, “The Lord shall add to me another son.” 

Rachel named her son {birthed from own her body} Joseph; ancient Hebrew - יוסף Yoseph}, meaning adding, or he who adds; thereby prophetically declaring [see mention of Rachel speaking prophetically in

WBS #47/ "BIBLE PROPHETESSES"]  that God would add unto her another son, which was accomplished in the birth of Benjamin, Genesis 35:18.

Jacob’s Agreement with Laban

25/ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. 26/ Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”
27/ And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”

28/ Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

29/ So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. 30/ For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”
31/ So he said, “What shall I give you?”
And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: 32/ Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. 33/ So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”
34/ And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” 35/ So he 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. 36/ Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37/ Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. 38/ And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39/ So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40/ Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
41/ 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. 42/ But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43/ Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

OF GENESIS CHAPTER 30

 

In Hebrew the meaning of the name Jacob is: He grasps the heel. Supplanter.

Supplanter comes from the verb supplant, which evolved from the Latin supplantare, meaning "to trip up or to overthrow." Jacob certainly lived up to his first birth name, which God later changed to Israel {Israel meaning: 'God Contended', * 'Wrestles with God', * 'Triumphant with God',  see Genesis 32:28}. 

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In our modern sense of symbolism, white is often associated to goodness and black to badness but in the Bible this difference is far less pronounced.

In Hebrew the meaning of the name Laban is: White. The adjective לבן (laban), means white. We know from Laban's actions that He wasn't given this name because of any kind of moral purity. Perhaps Laban was given this name at birth because of his skin color.

In the Bible, whiteness may simply be a hue/color or shade (Genesis 30:35), and it may denote moral purity (Psalm 51:7; washed "whiter than snow"), but it's also the color of judgment (Joel 1:7) and skin disease such as leprosy (Leviticus 13, Numbers 12:10, where Miriam turns leprous and "white as snow"). 

 Jesus Loves You So Much!!!