Lesson_56_Jacob_Outwits_Laban

After 14 years of working for his wives, Jacob is ready to go home. But Laban begs him to stay, knowing that

God is blessing his business purely because Jacob is there. Jacob negotiates a new deal: he will only take the

speckled, spotted, and dark-colored sheep and goats as his wages. Laban eagerly agrees because in the ancient

Near East, most sheep were solid white and most goats were solid black. Spotted ones were incredibly rare!

Laban then sneaks away and removes all the spotted animals from the flock so Jacob has nothing to start with.

Jacob uses a bizarre ancient breeding method with peeled branches to try to change the animal's coat colors.

But as we will learn, it wasn't Jacob's 'magic branches' that saved him-it was God stepping in to bless him

anyway!