Broad meadows

Todays installment is particularly poignant for me in that on the day we remember Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday in 2024 we come across striped branches and it’s meaning in Genesis 30. Isaiah says in chapter 4 verse 2, “In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.” And in Isaiah 53:5 states it this way,

“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”

We will now examine Genesis 30:32-43.

“Let me go through all 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. ”
“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.”

Jacob is negotiating his wages with his brother in law, Laban, and in this account many symbols are added to the over all mix when following symbols through the Bible. The purpose of the striped branches was to increase the strength and number of Jacobs flocks. The gospel symbolized by the branch does the same thing by expanding the number of people that are exposed to and thus saved by the sacrifice of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. As God promised to Jacob in Genesis 28 to bless all nations through him, so he does through Jesus, the Branch.

Another thing that I would note is the make up of Jacobs wages. It wasn’t just sheep, but goats, also. Goats have often been portrayed by some commentators as being satanic or the condemned of humanity. This is based primarily on the parable told by Jesus in Matthew 25. But when you examine the parable, by the end of it, it becomes clear that the reason for their banishment isn’t that they goats, but because of their lack of care for their fellow man. This is what Jesus means when he says, “By their fruit you will know them.”

In the Old Testament, goats are clean animals. They are a part of many of the sacrifices contained in the book of Leviticus. On the Day of Atonement, the animals that make up the sacrifices of that day are goats. In Numbers 7, the sin sacrifice is one male goat. So I think perhaps some in the church have given the goat a bad rap. This isn’t helped by the image that casts Satan as a goat. I think there is a compelling reason for this that we will examine in future posts. We will get more information about this character as we continue to follow his symbol through the Bible.