Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, September 22, 2012 Read – Genesis 30 & 31 As we read the story of the birth of Jacob’s children we are confronted with an incredibly dysfunctional family – not what we really expect to read in the Bible. We hear of wives who give their maids to their husband in order to have more children – of wives who need to bribe other wives in order to have sexual relations with their husband – of sons who deceive one another. It seems as if everyone is jealous of someone. Not the kind of story one would want to pattern one’s own family after. And the problem that confronted Abraham and Sarah – Sarah’s barrenness – pops up again in this story. Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife is barren. Once again the story is about the deep threat that seeks to derail God’s promise. God had promised that he would bless Abraham in his descendants and create a great nation from them. That promise is being fulfilled in the multitude of children Jacob produces. In fact, everything that Jacob touches seems to expand – Laban’s herds multiply and in the end both Laban and Jacob are transformed from poverty to wealth. That’s a part of the story we need to hear as well. Finally, after long years of waiting, Rachel is able to conceive a son and with that conception the story can move forward. Twenty years have now passed and Jacob is ready to go back home. This is not the same Jacob who left. The “cheater” has been “cheated” and in the end Jacob has been transformed by the experience. But what will await him back home?