SEASONS - ELUL 2015 - TIME FOR PREPARING FOR THE FALL HOLY DAYS

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

God''s Fall Holy Days are coming up! 

We are in the last month of the Hebraic calendar, the month of Elul.  

It is a time to prepare.

 

Do you know about these Holy Days of God that happen every Fall?

The word translated "festival" in Hebrew is "hag" or "moed" and it means "set times", or "appointed times."  These are times of sacred assemblies.  In the Hebrew language the words "sacred assembly" means "rehearsal" or "recital."  During these fall days that is exactly what we are doing; we are rehearsing the things to come and celebrating God's overall plans for mankind.  It is sort of like the time leading up to a wedding when you begin to remember the important things that have happened through your life in the past, but you are also looking forward to something even more special in the future. 

Thirty days before Rosh Hashanah comes Elul, a time which helps us to remember to be prepared and get ready.  It is a time of Teshuvah, or a time to repent, examine your life, restore your relationships both toward God and your fellow man.  You need to use this time to have those long talks with your Bridegroom from Heaven because the future of eternity lies before you.  Why?  Because the Messiah is going to return!  We must be ready for the wedding feast!  He has told us to be watching and waiting and preparing.  Teshuvah, during the days of Elul, is a reminder, almost like one of the "save the date" invitations you get long before a wedding date comes.   The shofar is blown to remind us to awaken to the season and repent and look up with anticipation.  Ezekiel 33:3 warns those who are not ready and are not paying attention. 

And he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.…(Ezekiel 33:3-5)

We get ready in Elul by listening until we hear the sound of the shofar.  The shofar is a warning signal that reminds us to come before God and repent of our sin.  We are reminded by the shofar sounding again during Rosh Hashanah and the 10 days of Awe.  Everything leads up to Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, The Day of Atonement. 

Without atonement, there is no hope for God's people.  

It is the most important day of all the sacred days.  

By the atoning blood of Christ our God shows mercy by blotting all of our sins out of His book of remembrance.  If you repent and turn from your sins, the blood of Christ is applied and the sins are blotted out forever.  If you do not, you go into another year of life with sin on your record.  The blood was given and the holy sacrifice was made once for all, past present and future; but every year when God searches His books and lays out His plans for the upcoming year, the atonement must be applied for new sins.  Salvation is forever.  If you are saved you will have God's Holy Spirit living within you and you will always seek forgiveness for sins.  You do this because if you are saved, God's Holy Spirit lives and works within you.  Salvation is a wonderful, perfect gift!  But, it is only the beginning of the Christian life, not the end.  Salvation leads us down the path to holiness.  Holiness opens our hearts to seek the ways of God that are good and true and right.  Salvation brings peace.  Holiness brings joy.

As long as we are living in earthly bodies, even after we receive salvation, we are all still human.  We all keep sinning despite our best efforts, we all fall short.  God knew this would happen.  He provided a way for sinners who sin after the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus has been applied and made them whole and completely clean.  This way is called atonement.  The sacrifice provides salvation, the atonement brings sanctification.  Both are a gift of God through His Son Jesus Christ.

It is comparable to a traveler who has bathed and is walking along a dusty road to attend a special event.  When he arrives he does not need to bath again, for he is clean, but he has picked up the dust of the road along the way, so he must wash his feet again before entering the special event.  

So many struggle with this concept saying "once saved always saved."  I just carry that concept a little further saying, "Once saved, always in need of confession."  In the end we all DO stay saved because we are clean because of the sacrificial blood of Christ, but we must do our part to grow in God.  We must continue to allow God to transform us and we must realize that we are all still sinners in need of God's forgiveness, even after we have become believers and step into the path that leads to The Kingdom.  There is always more transformation going on until we meet God face to face.  This is the process that prepares the Bride for the Groom.  This is the path of the wise virgin who keeps oil in her lamp until she sees the groom coming.  This is how God helps us each year in the Day of Atonement.  He saves us from our humanity and applies His grace that refines us and makes us more like Him.  If someone reaches the state of thinking that they do not need atonement anymore, they are simply living in a sin called "self-righteousness."  

So here we go into the beautiful Fall Holy Days of God:

Leviticus 23:2 says: Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.


God goes on in this passage to name seven feasts and/or festival days that He desires to be kept.  Four of these special times are in the spring and summer, those four are Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost.  The other three days come in the Fall.  We are now in the month of  Elul and these Fall Days are fast approaching for 2015. 

Here are some of the scriptures that proclaim how we should keep these Fall Feast Days of God:  The times are calculated by the phases of the moon unlike the calendar commonly used today which calculates time by the phases of the sun. They all start at sunset and end at sunset.  Because they are calculated by the phases of the moon they do not always fall on the same calendar day each year.  This year, 2015, the days come in September and October.

ROSH HASHANAH/FEAST OF TRUMPETS: In 2015 this festival lasts from sunset Sunday, September 13th through sunset Tuesday, September 15.

Leviticus 23:24:  "Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month (the first month if your reading the sacred calendar) you are to have a day of Sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.

(God, in these scriptures, was laying out the pattern for celebrating Rosh Hashanah, The Feast of Trumpets.)

YOM KIPPUR/DAY OF ATONEMENT:  observed in 2015 from sunset Tuesday, September 22nd to sunset Wednesday, September 23rd,   This is a fast day, not a feast day:

Leviticus 23:26-28:  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month (it is the seventh month of the civil calendar and the first month of the sacred calendar) is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the LORD.  Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God.

(In these scriptures God has laid out the pattern for observing Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement.  This day isn't a feast day or a festival, it is actually a fast day that God has commanded to be observed.  It is a day to be spent in fasting before The Lord.  It is a day for Christians to remember the most important sacrifice ever made for mankind, the life of Jesus Christ.  It is the day for repentance and remembering that his blood is offered up as atonement for our sins, a very serious and sacred day, a most holy day to be observed forever by all believers.)

SUKKOT/FEAST OF TABERNACLES: In 2015 this festival is celebrated from sunset Monday, September 28th through sunset Sunday, October 4th, with the Great Last Day ( the eighth day) being on Monday, October 5th.  

Leviticus 23:33-37:  Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'On the fifteenth of this seventh month (the seventh civil month and the first sacred month) is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD.  On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind.  For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.  For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work. 

Here God is telling us to celebrate Sukkot - The Feast of Tabernacles, a joyful time of celebrating what the world will be like when Christ reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lord's forever.   Many Jewish people so not celebrate these days unless they are in Israel because they now have no temple to go to .  Christians know that our bodies are now the dwelling for God's temple.  We can celebrate the feast anywhere, because God is always with us, unlike in ancient times before Christ brought salvation to all.

These awesome days known to many as The Fall Holy Days are a gift from God to His people.  Do you know Him?  Is He your God?  Then you are one of His people.  Are you keeping your Father's traditional days?    You do not have to be born Jewish to keep these days, they are God's days - it is a good thing for you to honor your Father, God, and keep the days He has planned for His family.

Think of your time growing up in the home of your earthly father.  Did he have special times that he would command that the family gather around and celebrate together?  

Do you not have fond memories of these family times that are priceless to you as you become older and look back on them?   

Perhaps your earthly father chose these days to say important things to the family while they were all together, relaxing and celebrating.  Maybe he knew that during these special gatherings you would be listening carefully to his words and paying close attention.  He knew you would be undistracted, because you had set aside this time just to be with him and your other family members. 

It is the same with our Heavenly Father.  

He has mapped out appointed days from the very beginning of time that He wished for His family to keep and observe together.  

He wrote them down for us in His book so we have no excuse for not noticing them or overlooking them.  He spelled it all out, yet many people chose to blindly ignore these sections of their bibles.  Or they blame their nonobservance on the fact that these are "Old Testament" things.  Guess what?  The New Testament did not wipe out the Old Testament, it only fulfilled it.  

The days with their fulfilled meaning are even more precious than the days before they were fulfilled and completed by Jesus Christ.  

Trumpets still represents a coming time that has not yet been fulfilled.  We should be observing and anticipating!  

Yom Kippur, or Atonement represents a time that has been fulfilled by the blood of Jesus, yet also a future time that will come when we will know even more about how wonderful the love (hesed) and kindness and grace of our heavenly Father can be.  It will be a day when we will see Him face to face and stand before him covered with His blood, atoned and holy before Him.  It is something to anticipate and take seriously in the present.   

This will all culminate in a future Feast of Tabernacles and we can read of it in the scriptures where it speaks of a date in the future:

Zechariah 14:16:  Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

Our present day celebrations are only a shadow of the things to come.  

These scriptures are our invitation from our heavenly Father to come gather around His table and celebrate that we are His family.  God chooses these times to speak specifically to His family about things that He considers very important.  God has called these times His "appointed" days.  Have you been keeping your appointments with your heavenly Father, or has the world led you aside and kept you busy with other things? 

The scriptures say these are God's days, not the designated days for the Jews or the Christians, or any other group.  They belong to God.  If you love God and serve Him and consider Him your Father, they also belong to you. 

The Israelites were honored and chosen to be the first to live out these patterns that God set for our special family celebrations.  They were also given the honor of being the people whose heritage would produce an offspring from God who would fulfill the meaning of all of the appointed times.  Jesus Christ was born of the tribe of Judah, a perfect man who was also The Son of God.  He fulfilled these days.   God used them as shadows to tell of His coming, His life and His leaving and returning to earth in the future. 

If you are a Christian you know these stories well, but your life can be enriched beyond belief when you know these stories as well as the stories of the Hebrews who so long ago began to celebrate these days with God.  The Jewish people have preserved these days for themselves and us, and the Christian people have proclaimed the end of the story through the preaching of the truth of the gospel and proclaiming the life of Jesus Christ for both themselves and the Jews.  It is true that they are a blessing for everyone and as Jesus so wisely put it "whosoever will may come."

I get excited every Fall as we begin to approach these very holy times!

God always shows me something new, or teaches me something vital to living out life in His Kingdom.  It all begins with the Hebraic month of Elul, that 30 day period of time leading up to these holy days.  The month of Elul is known as a time to be preparing, meditating, praying, pondering the last year of your life and asking forgiveness of God and anyone you have sinned against over the last year.  The whole idea is to use the month of Elul to sort out your sins, confess, repent, try to make amends and prepare to appear before God on Yom Kippur a holy and clean servant before a merciful God.  Elul is all about getting ready.

Are you ready? 

Rosh Hashanah (The Feast of Trumpets) is about realizing that time is short and soon we must all stand before God.  The trumpet blows out the warning signal to awake people from their sins and shouts out a warning to return to God. 

Yom Kippur is about judgment and atonement.  We are all guilty, but if we seek out the love of our merciful God, He will grant us the perfect atonement of the blood of Jesus.

Sukkot, or The Feast of Tabernacles is a time for proclaiming the reign of Christ, for knowing that He will return again and marry His Bride; (those who have The Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them.)  It is a wedding rehearsal every year for The Marriage Supper of The Lamb.  It is a time of joyous celebration for what God has done for his people.  It is a time of cheerful anticipation of the world that is coming because we have been given salvation and atonement that will last throughout eternity when we will ever be with God.

So join with me if you will in this time of  Elul, the beginning of the Fall Holy Day Season, in a time of careful consideration, faithful preparation and also anticipation of the day that we are fully clean and we will see The Face of God and live.    We are there right now, living in the days of Elul on our calendars.  What will you do about it? 

How will you speak to God of your own life?  What things do you need to consider and restore?

Right now - today - is your opportunity to do so.

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 84 JACOB PREPARES TO FACE HIS PAST

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

God assured Jacob He would be with him as he went back to his father, Isaac’s home.  God also warned Laban to be careful how he treated Jacob.   Jacob and Laban set up a memorial that divided their people.  They both agreed that they would not cross over to harm one another.  They promised to let God be the judge between them if they did. 

Jacob traveled on with his family and a wonderful thing happened as they entered the land of Jacob’s birth; the angels of God met them!  What a welcome home greeting that must have been!  When Jacob saw the presence of the angels in that spot of land, he decided to camp there.  He named that particular area Mahanaim (which means “two camps.”)

From there Jacob sent messengers ahead to meet Esau in Seir, in the country of Edom.  They were to say to him:  “Your servant Jacob says I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.  I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants.  Now I am sending this message to my lord so that I may find favor in your eyes.”  They returned to Jacob having delivered the message and told him that Esau and 400 of his men were coming to meet them.

With great fear and distress Jacob divided his group into two camps.  He thought if Esau attacked one group the other could escape.  Jacob then begin to pray, reminding God that he was doing just what He had asked him to do and reminding God that He had promised to protect him.  His prayer was very humble, stating to God that he was unworthy of all the promises God had given.  Jacob did bring up the covenant promises and reminded God of them again.  He asked humbly for God’s protection in light of all these things.

After thinking it through in prayer, Jacob divided out much of his possessions and put different servants in charge of each.  He spaced them out and put them in front of everyone.  As they, one by one, were reaching Esau they were to present Esau with these very valuable and generous gifts from Jacob and to tell him that Jacob was coming behind them.  Jacob hoped that the gifts would appeal to Esau's anger and he would be easy on Jacob's caravan as they approached.

With all of these strategic plans in place, Jacob paused and spent the night in the camp.  

Can you imagine the thoughts running through Jacob's head as he tried to get sleep that night?

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 83 HIDING IDOLS

 (Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

So one day Jacob called Leah and Rachel out to the fields and explained to them that he had received a dream from The LORD and The Angel of The LORD had told him to gather his things and go back to the place of his birth.  Jacob explained to his wives that Laban was now treating him bad, and their brothers were jealous of him.  Jacob had dealt fairly with Laban and now they were claiming that he had cheated them with Laban’s livestock.  He explained to his wives that God was with him, and everything that Laban did for harm, God had turned it for good for Jacob. 

I can never hear this part of the story without thinking of all the good-hearted people who slave away at their jobs, hoping to better themselves, putting in a

good days work for a low wage, never seeing an increase, trudging along taking the blame for everyone else’s mistakes because they are the lowest man on the scale and have no one else to blame.  All the blame for everything comes to this person who innocently gets up, goes in every day and does his job.  When things go wrong and the people at the top complain, it is this guy who does not sit in on the conversations of management that gets the blame.  One day he looks up and he has spent a lifetime working for low wages without a raise or even a "thank you" and they kick him out on the street for someone else’s sake. 

 Some people, like Jacob in this story, just don’t get any breaks.  However, these are the people on whom God looks down and sees in their suffering.  The things other’s do to them do not matter.  God always repays what the locust eats.  He has a record of right and wrong, and he knows who did what.  He helps those who live righteously and can’t help themselves.  He brings them more than they need and they receive joy in the end.  Jacob had a situation just like this typical one of the common man after years of working for Laban and being true to the love of his life.  All of Jacob's good intentions had been used by others at this point and God was watching.  God always watches.  He watches and He waits until the time is right to restore the broken.  Don’t think for a minute that Jacob was the only unhappy person either!

Rachel and Leah were also very unhappy with the way Laban had treated them.  They had no desire to stay with their father or to share their family with him any longer.  They learned long ago that they were merely profit to him and nothing more.  They agreed with Jacob to pack their bags and move away. 

So, they packed up the kids and the camels and the livestock and Jacob and his wives headed back to the land of Canaan to live with Isaac. 

Jacob knew if he told Laban his plans he would try to trick him into staying again.  He wasn’t going to fall into that trap!  He concealed his plans from Laban and decided to leave in the night while it was dark.  Fortunately, Laban and his sons were very busy sheering their sheep, about three days away from the flocks of Jacob.

What Jacob, and everyone else, didn’t realize was that Rachel went in to her father’s house before they left and took his household gods with them.

 

When it was good and dark Jacob headed down the road with his family and flocks.  All his possessions were happily headed for Canaan.  It was three days before Laban and his sons discovered Jacob was gone.  Jacob and his family caravan crossed the Euphrates River and headed toward the hill country of Gilead.  It was there, seven days later, that Laban and his sons caught up with them. 

Before they reached Gilead, Laban had a dream from God.  In the dream he was told:  “be careful what you do to Jacob, whether it be good or bad.”

This must have troubled Laban and he paused not knowing what to do next.  He pitched his tents next to Jacobs. He confronted Jacob as a hurt man.

“Why have you run off like a thief in the night without consulting me?  Why did you not let me say goodbye to my daughters and my grandchildren?  I would have thrown you a party, a great celebration, but instead you left without notice!” 

Laban’s words were dripping with honey as he said them.  He told Jacob that he had been very angry with him but God had appeared to him in a dream last night and told him that Jacob left because he was homesick.  “But why,” said Laban “Did you leave with my household gods?”

This question took Jacob by surprise.  He had no idea that Rachel had stolen the gods.  He answered Laban that he was afraid he would take his daughters from him by force and so he left without warning, but he declared that no one had taken his household gods.  He told Laban if he found anyone in his camp had them; that person would die with everyone looking on.  He welcomed Laban to look around and see if they had anything that belonged to him and if they did, for Laban to take it back. 

 Laban went from tent to tent looking for his gods.  He did not find them.  He looked in Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and Rachel’s tent. 

Rachel had hidden the gods in a camel cushion and she was sitting on top of it.  She explained to her father that she was not being disrespectful in not getting down to greet him, but she was in “the time of the way with women,” and she continued to sit upon the cushion that held the pagan gods. 

Laban didn’t have a clue.

 Neither did Jacob!

What on earth was going on inside the mind of Rachel?

After Laban had ransacked the camp and turned everything upside down without finding any evidence, Jacob lit into him.   He had been holding back for a long time and just about everything that Jacob could think of to say to Laban about his bad feelings came out! 

“Did you find anything?  

You have destroyed our camp and wrecked our homes, but we are innocent!

Let our family’s judge between us!”  

Jacob launched into naming all the many ways that Laban had abused him over the years and how he would have sent him off penniless had God not come to him in a dream.  Jacob explained that God had prospered him in spite of Laban’s selfish abuse. 

Laban would not own his abuse.  He still claimed the daughters and the children and the flocks, but he said there was nothing he could do because of the children that had been born to his daughters, probably indicating that he did not want his grandchildren to perceive him as a mean old man, and he asked Jacob if they could make a covenant between them.

At that point Jacob set up a pillar. He called his wives and children together and asked them to pile up stones in that spot.  They heaped them up around the pillar and ate a meal there together.  Laban called the place Yegar sahadutha (which means Witness Monument in Aramaic.)  Jacob called the place Galeed (which means Witness Monument in Hebrew.)

Laban said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me.”  (That is why it is called Galeed – witness Monument.)

It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight.  If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us.  This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won’t cross the line to hurt you and you won’t cross the line to hurt me.  The God of Abraham and The god of Nahor (the god of their ancestors) will keep things straight between us.”

Jacob promised and swore by the fear of God on his father Isaac, and Jacob offered a sacrifice upon the mountain and worshiped, calling all his family to come to the meal. 

They all slept on the mountain that night and the next morning Laban kissed his daughters and grandchildren, gave them a blessing and left for home.  

SEASONS LESSONS IN ELUL ON THE ART OF TURNING

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

In the literature of Jewish mystical thought it is explained that at the beginning of the Hebrew season of Elul we are "achor el achor" which means “back to back.” By the end of the season of Elul we are said to be "panim el panim," meaning “face to face.” This concept could be more beautifully explained in a dance, possibly a lovely ballet production, but since those resources are not readily available today,  I will try to use mere words.

First of all, one must ask the obvious question.  How can it be that we (us and God) are back to back? Wouldn’t this statement imply that God has His back turned to us and that we have our back turned to God? How can we say such a thing when this is the month in which it is said that "the King is in the field"?  

Many teachings and teachers have taught us that this is the very month when God is more accessible than ever, when He is waiting for us to come out to the harvest and greet Him in the field.  We have learned that this is a time when He is there for us in the "field" of our everyday lives.  So how could we possibly be "back to back?"

The concept is much easier to see if you think of it this way;  just recall all the old classic movies of love stories you have seen through the years where  a loving couple has to part for one reason or another.   We see them beginning to walk away from each another with their faces both turned in opposite directions.   Almost always, at some point the man turns around and looks back at the woman.  You can see in his face that he is wanting to call out her name, that he longs to ask for another chance, or beg for forgiveness, or make a way for them to still be together. In these scenes he is always just about to speak, just about to call out her name, but then he realizes that her back is turned and she is walking away from him. He tells himself that it is too late, that she just doesn’t care. That there is nothing that he can do.  So he turns back around.

Seconds later, it is the woman who turns to look back at the man. She knows she doesn’t want this relationship to end. She stalls for time, walking slowly.  More than anything she wants to say something to mend the situation, but doesn’t have the right words, can't muster up the courage, or doesn’t have the strength to speak up in her despair.  And after all, why should she when his back is turned away from her?   She looks at him longingly, wanting things to be different, but it just doesn’t matter.  She assumes he just doesn't care as she sees he continues to walk away from her.

And we, the viewers watch this touching scene, sitting on the edge of our seats, hoping against hope that they will both suddenly turn around in the same second and finally realize that the other does care enough to turn and step back into the other's embrace.  We keep watching to see if maybe one of them will suddenly realize that though they both appear to be back to back, they really and truly both want to be face to face.

Sometimes that happy ending does happen, other times they simply continue to walk in opposite directions right out of each other’s lives.

I think of the song "Turn, Turn, Turn"  that was sung by the Byrds sometime around the 70's which used the words of Solomon in the lyrics.  

The words ring so true during Elul.  

There is a time and season for everything.  This is the time and season to turn around and embrace the love of a God who was willing to die for you, a God who loved you enough to give His only begotten Son to ransom you.  it is a time of changing from "back-to-back" and turning to be "face-to-face" with The Creator of The Universe.   

I think it is this very aspect of the season of Elul that keeps the lyrics of the song, and the words of Solomon on my mind and in my spirit.  

Elul is the time that teaches us the necessity of being willing to turn. 

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 82 HOW GOD BLESSES JACOB AND PREPARES HIM TO MOVE ON

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

As we noted before, Jacob was growing restless.  He was tired of working for Laban.  He had labored long and hard and he was tired of making Laban a profit.  He wanted to go back to his original home and begin to raise his family there in the land of the birthright.

This thought took flight with him and moved him into action one day when he received a vision from God.  It was during the time when the flocks conceived and Jacob lifted up his eyes and saw in his dream that all the rams that leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted.  After this he saw The Angel of God who called out his name.  When Jacob answered “Here I Am,” the angel said “Lift your eyes now and see all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.  I AM the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me.  Now, arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.”

Anytime anyone hears The Angel of The LORD call out their name and answers "Here I am" you can expect their life is about to change!  It is a repeated pattern throughout the scriptures.  Indeed, Jacob's life was about to take another turn.

This vision and this word from The Angel of The Lord sealed the thoughts in Jacob’s mind.  He knew he needed to prepare to leave.

So, he 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.”

Laban did not want to see Jacob go.  Jacob had made him rich!  Laban had made a great living from doing nothing while Jacob had tended to his business for no wages, except a few wives and some maid servants who had many children.  They had eaten well, but Jacob wasn’t exactly getting wealthy working for Laban.

Laban wasn’t going to let Jacob go that easy!  He told Jacob:  “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay.  I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.  Name your wages and I will pay them.  
                                                   ”Well….that was a sudden change of heart!  Laban was offering wages for good labor!  Why had he not done this before?  

Jacob must have found his offer disgusting at this point.  Also, Jacob must have been appalled to know that Laban had learned something about him from divination.  Even if it was true, and the LORD was blessing Laban because of Jacob; divination was forbidden by God. 

So, Jacob said to Laban, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.  The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you where ever I have been.  But now, when may I do something for my own household?”

Laban would not be put off that easy.  “What can I give you?” he replied.

Like any business man who gets called and caught for being greedy to his best employee, Laban told Jacob just to name his price.  It seemed that Jacob had proven to be irreplaceable to Laban.  He was finally willing to pay him what he was worth in order keep him, only because it was forced upon him by Jacob’s desire to leave. 

However, by now Jacob detested Laban so much that he did not want to have anything that was tied to Laban.  Rest assured any time God gives you a vision of His will for your life, someone like Laban will come along and offer you the things you had wanted all along and try to bribe you into not doing what God has instructed. 

Jacob did not want Laban to GIVE him anything.  He probably figured anything that Laban offered as a gift had to have strings attached……Jacob had certainly learned that this applied to arrangements concerning marriage to his daughter!  Besides, Jacob had seen God’s will in the vision and he was probably pondering why God had specifically told him about the the rams which leap on the flocks that are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted. He had probably concluded by now that God was telling him these would be the flocks that would multiply and reproduce well.  Jacob knew it was time for him to listen to God and show his faith.

 “Don’t GIVE me anything,” Jacob replied.   “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them; let me go through all of your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat.  They will be my wages.  And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me.  Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark colored, will be considered stolen.”

Now Jacob didn’t mean the original speckled and spotted sheep would be his.  He meant that he would separate the white ones out from the colored ones, and all the original animals would belong to Laban.  Jacob would tend to the white ones.  Whatever livestock was born to these that were speckled, spotted or stripped would belong to Jacob.  The white ones and the original spotted, speckled and stripped ones would still belong to Laban and would eventually go back to him. 

Whatever could have possessed Jacob to make such a deal as this?  

He had to believe in the vision from heaven and the word from The Angel Of The LORD!  

Some might tend to think it possible that he was as fed up with Laban as he had been with Esau, and maybe he was trying to trick him.   Could Jacob be up to his old trickery again?  Could he out-smart that trickster Laban this time?  That doesn’t seem to be the case!
 

It seems that after 14 years of serving under this Laban who was constantly outwitting him, Jacob had learned that God was prospering him no matter what his circumstances were.  Jacob had changed and matured to the point that he now relied on his righteous conduct to secure blessings from God.  He was simply acting on his directions from God in the vision.  This was a major turn for Jacob!  He had quit being a manipulator and he had begun to seek the will of God in all that he did!

The trickster Jacob had TURNED into a righteous man.  Not only that, he had become a righteous man who had FAITH that God would provide.  He not only THOUGHT it, but he LIVED it out.  This isn’t to say that Jacob had developed a perfect character yet, but it is to say that he was well on his way, and God was showing him and teaching him new things every day. 

Jacob had been listening and learning!  One new thing that Jacob had learned in all his years of handling livestock was the practice of animal husbandry.  He had not wasted his time.  He had been studious. 

Maybe Laban was not as observant as he thought he was.  He knew he was being blessed because of Jacob, but he had not caught on to the fact that Jacob had been prosperous because of The One True God of Heaven and Earth.  Laban had obtained his facts somewhere else.  They were true facts, but they came from the wrong sources for all the wrong reasons.  Laban was a victim of twisted truths.   Jacob’s truth was pure and it came directly from God.  Laban went blindly on down the path of destruction thinking he was so very smart in his own ways.    

“Agreed!” yelled Laban as fast as he could.  Silently he must have been thinking to himself that this was too good to be true!  How could he possibly lose? 

That very day the flocks were divided.  Jacob took out the unspotted, unspeckled and unstriped animals of Laban and tended to them.  The others (the spotted and speckled ones) were taken three days away and were tended by Laban’s sons.  Only those new born spotted and stripped that came from the flock of the white ones would become Jacob’s property and wages.  The flock Jacob tended would be examined later and then divided out again.  Jacob would receive all the spotted, striped and colored animals from HIS herds, and Laban would keep all the rest, including all the original white animals.   But how were those pure white flocks of Jacob’s going to produce spotted and speckled flocks so that his earnings would be increased?  Both of these men had bred flocks long enough to know that you usually could not create colored sheep from white ones.  How were the sheep left with Jacob going to produce the right colored offspring? 

Laban was probably thinking, easy money! This would be a “shoe in” win for him!  He would get even more use out of that not-so-smart son-in-law.  Life was good!  Laban just LOVED getting “something for nothing!”

Jacob, however, had been breeding sheep, goats and cattle for a long time now.  He knew a lot about animals and even more important, he knew about the background of these particular herds.  Not to mention the fact that and he knew a LOT about Laban. 

Simply by long continued observation of his flocks Jacob had picked up on a technique we now call Mendalian genetics.  In other words; Jacob knew that even though a species of animal may have certain ‘dominant’ traits (such as white coloring) a certain proportion of the solid-colored animals would be homozygous (with the same abnormative color genes) and, if mated with other homozygous animals would bear only solid-color offspring.  The heterozygous animals, which did contain, in some proportion, the genes for off-colored progeny, would be the ones which would have to supply his own future progeny.  

Jacob had a history of breeding these animals.  He knew which were which.  These that were heterozygous would be the ones to supply his own future flocks; so by selective breeding he could eventually develop a flock of predominantly spotted and speckled animals. Normally, this would be a slow, time consuming process. 

Okay, so Jacob had learned a lot more than Laban about animal DNA, which is VERY amazing, but why did he use the next methods he used?  The scriptures tell us that Jacob took branches from the poplar, almond and plane (chestnut) trees, peeled their bark in places (which would have given them a mixed-colored look of part bark and stripes of white) and placed them in the water troughs when the animals came to drink. 

Some people have the theory that Jacob thought by peeling the bark in a certain way the animals would see stripped wood as they mated and the visual image of “mixed colors” would send a message to their brains and they would (for some reason)  because of this produce speckled and spotted and stripped offspring. 

It is very unlikely that an external image, like many suspected as the cause, could be transmitted through the eyes to the brain and therefore in some way serve as a signal to the DNA structure to specify certain characteristics (such as color) to be triggered in an empryo. 

Still, it IS true that certain chemicals can and do have a significant prenatal influence if they can reach the embryo  prior to conception in the DNA in the germ cells.  Therefore, it IS possible that certain chemicals in the wood of these named trees – peeled rods of which were actually in the water where the flocks came to drink – were capable somehow of affecting the animals.  This is a possible yet doubtful theory.

It is more likely and highly possible that this “treated” water may have served as an aphrodisiac to promote fertility among the animals.  One of these same chemical substances HAS been used for such a purpose in both ancient and modern times.  Jacob seemed to know this. 

Did the fact that Jacob performed this act mean he doubted the vision of God.? Not at all!  It only meant that he was working side-by-side WITH God to perform the instructions he had been shown.  He needed to build up his herds and get his family away from Laban.

Another thing that Jacob did was to divide the stronger animals from the weaker animals.  He only used the peeled sticks when the stronger animals came to drink, thus; encouraging them to mate, and not encouraging the weaker animals to mate, hence stronger, healthier animals were being born to his flocks. 

Some theologians have seen this picture of Jacob breeding his herd as a symbolism of how God lets The Holy Spirit work in The Kingdom of God.  Jacob took stripped rods to entice the strong animals to breed.  Just seeing that word "stripe" brings to mind the lashes applied in the beating of Jesus Christ as he was about to be crucified for our sins.  The fact that the stripes were white symbolized the purity and innocence of Christ.   The scripture does say "by His stripes we are healed."   Because He was willing to suffer in our place, we now have life!   The rod bearing the white stripes is symbolic of Jesus in his suffering.  

One has to look upon this picture of what happened at the cross of Calvary in order to believe in God, and in order for God's Holy Spirit to lead them into repentance.  What does belief and repentance bring about?  One becomes "born again."  

That was exactly what Jacob was trying to achieve with his flocks - a new birthing method.  He was changing the herd from Laban's leadership to Jacob's leadership.  All of the new birth would belong to Jacob.  Some theologians have picked up on this picture as symbolic of how God gave men the right to choose The Kingdom of God through being "born again" or Satan and hell.  The more you look into this, the more the symbolism comes into play, but back to the real facts of the original story:

All of Jacobs knowledge, whether he understood the science of it or not; helped to produce the animals he desired.  The strange factor that played into it and the part that Jacob did not expect and could not control  was the exceedingly large number of animals born with color.  The amount of animals that were produced with specks or spots was very unusual, even with all the knowledge and techniques that Jacob had used.  He NEVER expected to get this LARGE a number of colored animals!

Usually, the numbers would be much smaller and take much longer to increase.  Jacob probably thought the most he could hope for were a few good animals that he could breed again and slowly grow the herds.  It seemed that God was adding His blessings to the knowledge that He had led Jacob to obtain.  Where Jacob’s efforts left off, God supplied the rest.

This is a little different than what most people seem to come up with about this passage; most just assume that EVERYTHING was of God and NOTHING was of Jacob.  That is basically and indirectly true; in that God gave Jacob the knowledge that he had.  I would also like to point out that Jacob had been listening and learning from God from the moment he arrived in the land, and his ways and his heart had changed enough to be doing his part and acting in faith to provide for his family.  He wasn’t just sitting back and expecting God to constantly produce for him like a genie in a bottle, but he was giving of himself too and trusting God to take over when and where MORE was needed.  God expects all of us to do our part.

From this combined teamwork of God first and Jacob following, the percentage of streaked and spotted animals was way out of proportion, even for someone who understood animal husbandry and who followed the laws of science to the letter.  There was still a huge miracle in Jacobs favor, and God is the ONLY reasonable explanation.

This act of listening and learning from God and developing the skills of a good shepherd made Jacob prosperous and very wealthy.  His success was abundant and his family was blessed from the outcome of the development of his herds.  

Laban was amazed and quite displeased with the results, but what could he say?

God had blessed Jacob tremendously and it was time for Jacob to move on!