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If you have spent more than 5 minutes in the last year on the internet or social media, you can’t but help noticing that people are forever coming up with schemes to get rich.  When was the last time you heard of a way to get rich quick, have you ever been approached about one. We all heard of the scam e-mail where a foreign prince wants to give you 10% of his £25 million fortune just for allowing him to transfer cash it into the UK by using your bank account.

So, what do you know about get rich quick schemes? Such schemes are as common as leaves on a tree, they’re all over the place. The problem is that none of those trees really bear fruit, so to speak, meaning they never bear fruit or produce what they promise. 

What about bit coins, anyone you know investing in bit coin. I know some people are making money about of bit coin, but what is interesting to me is that there has never been a time in economic history before when so many people are investing in a financial instrument that they don’t understand at even the most basic level.

Well, interestingly enough, there’s a passage in the Book of Genesis that talks about a scheme, and if you just read the passage for all the world, it sounds like that one was successful. What I want us to do is look at this passage and ask what can we. learn from this particular get rich quick scheme that is in the second half of Genesis chapter 30. So, look with me if you will at Genesis chapter 30 as we pick up the text again in verse 25, where we’re told.

“ After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”

(Genesis 30: 25-26)

Now let’s pause for a second and play a little catch up. You will recall Jacob fled his homeland, Palestine, and went back to Haran where his family roots were, all because of a conflict he had with his brother Esau. When he got to Haran and he met Rachael it was a sort of love at first site but Jacob got deceived by her father Laban and ends up inadvertently being married to Leah, the older sister of Rachel, having worked seven years to get Rachael. So, after seven years, he doesn’t even get the girl he wanted, he got the older sister of the girl he wanted. So, he makes another deal with Laban, to work another seven years so that he can have Rachel and they agree to that. As we opened this passage, those years have been complete and verse 25 says that Rachel has just given birth to, Joseph , the last son that is born to Jacob. Jacob then says, let me go home and what these opening verses tell us. Jacob is telling the father-in-, look, I have fulfilled all of my obligations, I have fulfilled the contract that we made and so I would like to now take my wives and my children and my possessions and go back home. Laban responds to the this in verse 27, he says.

“And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favour in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

(Genesis 30: 27-28 N.K.J.V.)

Laban did not want to let Jacob go, I think what he says is incredibly interesting, he said. I’ve learned that it is because of you the Lord has blessed me. Please note, he uses the personal name of God here and he says, “the Lord has blessed me for your sake”, We should stop and ponder on that for a while. If the people in your life say that the Lord has blessed them because you are in their life, then that is one of the greatest compliments you could receive. If somebody said, you know it is a blessing from God that you are in my life, that is an amazing testimony about you. Well, that’s what Laban is saying now, he’s probably referring to material prosperity, but be that as it may, it’s a testimony that he believes that God has blessed him because Jacob is in his life. As Christians the challenge for us is to leave everybody in our lives better off because we have been in their lives., what a challenge. That’s the kind of thing that Laban is saying here, I’m better off because you’re in my life. But he also says because of that, don’t leave, please don’t go back home. He says, just name your price and I will give it, I want you to stay. Jacob responds to him in verse 29.

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 [l]since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”

(Genesis 30: 29-30)

This is why I think the blessing might have been material because Jacob points to the flock and herds and says that’s the way the Lord blessed him. I have cared for your flocks, and they have increased and that is what the Lord has done that through me. I’ve worked with you for 14 years and you have been blessed, you’ve been prospered financially, materially, but what have I got to show for it? Nothing.

“So, he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, [Here is the the deal]  “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks:  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. 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.” And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!

(Genesis 30: 31-34)

The first part of this passage is really about this deal between Laban and Jacob, and the deal is what I just read, and it sounds a little complicated, so let’s see if I can unpack it for us. What you have to keep in mind is that Jacob said I will remove from your flock, all the speckled and spotted sheep, the brown lambs and the speckled and spotted goats. He is saying all future speckled and spotted lambs and goats will be his wages. Alright, got that, what is so significant about that? In the future, the odd coloured sheep coming to me and the pure coloured staying with you would demonstrate that I’ve done right by you. Now, what is all this business about speckled and spotted sheep and brown lambs and speckled and spotted goats, what’s the significant in this message. It helps to know that in the middle east at this time sheep were normally white and goats were normally black or dark brown, and exceptions were rare. So what Jacob is saying here is. I’m going to take the occasional odd, coloured animals and I’m gonna raise them and that will be my wages. Then if there’s any white sheep among my flock, you’ll know I must have stolen them because. I’m only going to keep these odd, coloured animals. Got it, so what’s going on? Why would he do a thing like that? 

Well, this plan appears to put the possibility of acquiring wealth from here on in, in the hands of the Providence of God. If you will recall, when Jacob was back at Bethel, God promised to care for him. So, what he’s really doing is saying, I’m going to do that, I’m going to trust in the providence of God.  I’ll take these odd, coloured animals and the  Lord is going to multiply them and that’s how I’m going to be paid, that’s going to be my wages. In other words, this is an act of faith, Jacob is saying I’m gonna trust the Lord to multiply those which do not normally multiply very often. Alright, so we got Laban’s flock over here, all white and anything that’s odd coloured, is going to belong to Jacob and that’s going to be his wages. And that’s the deal. Got it.

The final verse in this section demonstrates that Laban agrees to this. What our English translations don’t pick up here is that there’s an eagerness expressed in this verse. “OK, let’s do it”, he says. Laban no doubt thinks, I’m going to end up with more animals than Jacob, and you’re going to work for very little, that’s a great deal. Let’s do it. So that’s the deal, but you have got to remember who we’re dealing with here. We’re dealing with Jacob, who’s scammed his father to get his brothers birth right. We’re dealing with Laban, who deceived Jacob into marrying the wrong daughter. So, we got two deceivers here dealing with each other. This can be nothing but interesting. 

So, they have agreed how they are going to divide the flocks in the future. So, the first part of the passage is the deal they made. The second part of the passages is how they are now going to implement the deal, and how it works out from this point forward. We will see how that works out in the next episode.