Genesis 30:22

The Bible says in Genesis 30:22-24, “And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.” This verse shows us that Rachel was a person of faith. When good things happened to her, she gave God the credit. Rachel said, “God hath taken away my reproach.” The first part of Genesis 30:22 tells us two things about God. It says, “God remembered Rachel,” and it says, “and God hearkened to her.”

When the Bible says, “God remembered Rachel,” we are being told what God thinks about. Of course, He thinks about all things all at once. He is omniscient. But God has a special place in His thoughts and in His heart for His believers. He knows what we are suffering, and He has a plan to take care of it. That is one of the reasons that Jesus said to the disciples, “Fear not,” and “Be of good cheer.” God is in control. He knows, and He has a plan that He is fulfilling. Everything happens for a reason, especially in the lives of believers.

God cares about every believer equally even in situations where those believers are not getting along with each other. Notice that the same thing was said about Leah in Genesis 30:17 that was said about Rachel in Genesis 30:22. It says in Genesis 30:17, “And God hearkened unto Leah.” It says in Genesis 30:22, “God hearkened” to Rachel. This means that Rachel had been praying to the Lord, and the Lord heard her prayers and had responded to her prayers. God answers prayer. There are some things that God is going to do no matter what man does, but there are other things that He does only because of the prayers of His believers. That is why it is important to pray. You can see changes in your own life and you can see the world changed by your prayers because God answers prayer. That is why the Bible says in First Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.” It also says in Second Timothy 2:8, “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” Jesus said in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

The Bible says in Genesis 30:25-27, “And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.” Notice carefully what Laban said to Jacob. Laban said in verse 27, “I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.” We know that the blessings of God were upon Jacob’s life. These blessings came because God made promises to Jacob, and Jacob believed the promises. God said to Jacob in Genesis 28:14-15, “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.”

Laban saw how much God had blessed Jacob. God had given great success to Jacob’s work. All those who serve the Lord Jesus Christ and who walk in fellowship with Him will see a similar type of blessing upon their efforts. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The Apostle Paul wrote by the Holy Spirit in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, there are a couple of requirements you need to apply to see the maximum accomplishments from your efforts. First, always make your best effort. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” Secondly, do not procrastinate. Complete today the tasks that you can, and whenever possible avoid putting things off to another day. Jesus said in John 9:4, “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work.” Thirdly, in your heart dedicate all that you do to the Lord. Do things for His glory instead of for your own self-interests. It says in Colossians 3:23, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” And fourthly, trust in the Lord for the results and not in your own strength and abilities. In other words, live by faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The Bible also says in Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38, “The just shall live by faith.” If you do these four things, you will see the greatest possible results from your efforts. Also, others around you will be blessed because, like Laban, they will benefit by what you accomplish.

Concerning the success that God gave to Jacob, the Bible says in Genesis 30:28-43 starting with Jacob speaking to Laban, “And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also? And he said, What shall I give thee? 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: 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. So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me. And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word. And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.”

Notice what the last verse of this passage says about Jacob in Genesis 30:43; “And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.” Of course, we know the real reason that Jacob “increased exceedingly.” It was because God blessed Jacob’s work. God promised that He was going to be with Jacob, and God promised that he was going to bless Jacob. God kept His promises to Jacob. God always keeps His promises. Do not allow your circumstances to cause you to be troubled. Look at the promises of God, and think about them. The Bible promises in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Of course, when you succeed, there is one reaction from the people around you that you can often expect: jealousy. That is what happened to Jacob. The Bible says in Genesis 31:1-13, “And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory. And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock, And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me. And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me. If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked. Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.”

It is important to notice what God told Jacob to do once the jealousy and mistreatment finally got to the boiling point. God said to Jacob in Genesis 31:3, “Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.” The Lord also said to Jacob in Genesis 31:13, “now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.” Jacob was not told to fight back, and Jacob was not told to get even with them. Jacob was told to leave. Sometimes that is the best solution to a bad situation. The Jews who left Germany when they saw the beginnings of Nazism were very wise to do so. We know what happened to those who did not leave: Aushwitz and other death camps. Concerning having a willingness to depart from some negative situations, Jesus gave similar advice to His followers in the New Testament. Jesus said in Matthew 10:14, “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.” And Jesus also said in Matthew 10:23, “But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another.”

Jesus wants us to be peacemakers. He does not want His children to take vengeance on others. “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord, I will repay.” No one likes to suffer persecution from others, but sometimes the best solution is to do exactly what God told Jacob to do, and to do what Jesus told His followers to do: just go somewhere else, and leave your persecutors in God’s hands. Persecutors might hear from God before the judgment, but they will definitely hear from Him at the judgment. We will all stand before Jesus Christ at the judgment. Are you ready for the judgment? Have you turned to Jesus Christ in repentance of sin?

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