1And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
2And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God‘s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
3And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.
4And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
5And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son.
6And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan.
7And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son.
8And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.
9When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.
10And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son.
11And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad.
12And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son.
13And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.
14And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes.
15And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son’s mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son’s mandrakes.
16And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.
17And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.
18And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.
19And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son.
20And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.
21And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
22And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
23And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:
24And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.
25And 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.
26Give 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.
27And 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.
28And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.
29And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.
30For 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?
31And 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.
32I 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.
33So 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.
34And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
35And 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.
36And he set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37And 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.
38And 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.
39And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.
40And 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.
41And 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.
42But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
43And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.
The POFW Daily Bible Reading 
vs 27 If we live for God and are blessed for it, others will know it and want to be around us. Being the best employee we can be will be a blessing to others.
The mandrake, also called the “love apple”, is a fragrant, flowering plant that grows in the desert. The roots of the potato-like plant look something like the lower part of the human body and have aphrodisiac properties that stimulate conception. This usage still survives in the Holy Land. Actually, the mandrake is slightly poisonous, may cause vomiting, and has a narcotic effect. When Reuben supplies the plant to his mother Leah, he reveals his awareness of the keen competition between Leah and Rachel for Jacob’s love and for the position of the first wife, which they seem to assume will be the status of the wife who produces the most sons. Their willingness to bargain over the root, trading it for their husbands attentions, reveals the extent to which they will go in order to gain his love. Ironically, neither comes away satisfied, and the very husband whose love they seek becomes a mere object in their competition.
Monica!!! You posted exactly what I was going to post on! Lol; great post.
The Mandrake in the original tongue is called the Love Plant, or in the MSG version… Love Apples.
The desperation for a son caused Leah to give up yet another object of love first her husband then the plants that Reuben found… She was willing to anything to bear another son.
Issachar = Bartered
* willing to give anything
v 1 ” Give me children , or else I die.”
The necessity of spiritual birth.
We need each other. Something happens when GOD’S WORD is preached that doesn’t happen any-other time. Gal.4:9
Lord,thank- you for WORD, your BLOOD, and for a healthy spiritual mother( the church) for the spiritual strength to give birth to healthy
babies ( souls)
Thank you JESUS for coming into the delivery room.
Unless GOD delivers the mother ( The Church)
and the baby will die.(souls)
Thank The LORD For Revival
30:2 Am I in God’s stead…? Jacob was forever trying to secure the blessing by his own efforts .Here he has to acknowledge that the blessing of offspring could come only from God (see 31:7-13 for the blessings of flocks.) Joseph later echoed these words(see 50:19).
22And God remembered Rachel,…
God remembers those who He has promised things.
Rachel; determined to have something so bad that she took matters into her own hands instead of letting God have control. She was using her handmaids to give something to her that wuld never be able to truly be called hers! She did not go through the birthing process to create the life that God was forming inside of them and yet was claiming them as her own. God has his own timing for blessings to come in our lives but we have to learn to be patient and not get caughtin trying to claim something which is not ours.
1And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. Although Rachel ‘s desire was to have children of her husband Jacob, her attitude seems “tempertantrumish”. Instead of asking of God, the creator of life, she asks Jacob and with an “if I don’t get my way, I’m going to die” attitude. And notice she wasn’t going to be satisfied with a child, she specifically said children and the cost of the second child was her life. Trying to keep up with the Jones causes us to lose sight sometimes of reality. She could have had a full life, with Joseph – her son, rather than risk her life for more.
We too must be careful the value we put on things, sometimes God wants us to be satisfied with what we have, and we continually work, seek out other things and in the end it costs us our relationship wtih God because we have put obtaining “things” at a higher priority than remaining consistent and faithful to the kingdom with what we have.
DESPERATE REPRODUCTION
1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
There is something Spiritual about reproduction; it is God’s idea of reproducing his righteousness. There is an opportunity in all of our lives to reproduce Jesus in our lives as well as in the people around us.
Rachel said I would rather die than go barren. It is my prayer that this DESPERATE REPRODUCTION would press our lives to the place that we would desperately reach for the lost, as children in the gospel.
Sow the seed of the word of GOD and reap a child of GOD.
This chapter illustrates self. We need to be mature so we do not get upset or worried about things that we cannot change. We must think before we act or we could surely make life long or possibly eternity long mistakes. We should Be-Wise and pray to God and seek counsel from the man of God, so we do not make hastily and possibly regretful decisions. We should Be-Kind towards one another and Be-Church to all. May the good Lord Bless you all in Jesus name, Amen
Rachel was barren and took matters into her own hands and gave her handmaid to Jacob. We must wait on God and his timing in our lives and not take matters into our hands. God’s plans our always the best plans!
Pingback: The Third Cross Congregation
Pingback: Godly Love Is Love | The Third Cross Congregation