SPECKLED AND SPOTTED 

BOOK OF GENESIS

CHAPTER 30:29-43

            We’re back again with more Daily Bread. As you recall, in our previous story, we read about Jacob, who now has eleven sons and one daughter and he wants to go back to his homeland.  He has worked 14 years for his Uncle Laban, who has been blessed because of Jacob being there.  Naturally, Laban wants Jacob to stay, and offers him to name his price.

            Jacob said to Laban, You know that I’ve worked hard for you and when I got here, how little you had.  The Lord has blessed you since I’ve been here.  I should provide for my own family now.

            Laban said, What can I give you?  Jacob answered, Nothing, but do this for me.  I’ll still tend your flock.  Today I’ll go through all your flock and separate all the speckled and spotted cattle and goats, and all the brown sheep and from these I will be paid.  Later on, my righteousness will speak for itself.  All that are not speckled and spotted and brown sheep will be yours and the others will be my payment.  Laban agreed to the deal.

            You know Jacob wasn’t an outdoorsman before he went to Haran, but he learned a lot and was clever about it, as well as being blessed by God.  See, all the animals drank at the same trough, both Jacob’s and Laban’s alike.  So Jacob took some tree limbs and peeled them to make them look striped.  He put the limbs in front of the animals in the gutters of the watering troughs.  When they came to drink, they conceived looking at the limbs and their babies were born speckled and spotted, so, as part of the deal, they became Jacob's property.  As time passed he chose only the stronger animals to set these limbs in front of, and his spotted flocks and herds grew stronger and Laban’s were feeble.  Jacob’s livestock grew and grew and he had many servants and camels and donkeys.  He was ready to leave his father-in-law’s now and raise his family on his own land, the land that God promised he would return to.

            Now what do you think Laban thought about all of this?  Does it seem fair? What about the trick Laban played on Jacob and had him work an additional 7 years? We’ll talk more about that and about Jacob’s next move in our next Daily Bread.      

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