The Study of Genesis: Post Twelve
***Note – We have completed the book of Job. Now, as we continue our journey through the Bible in chronological order, this is our twelfth devotion in Genesis. Though we’re in Week 24 overall, we’ll be in Genesis for the next several weeks.
Focus: Genesis 30 – 31
Tip: I highly recommend journaling your responses to the questions, prompts, and reflections. Writing them out can help you process more deeply and see how God is working in your life.
This week’s devotion includes:
Chapter 30 – “Don’t Let Jealousy Steal Your Joy”
Chapter 31 – “Jacob Honored God and God Honored Jacob”
(Remember: This is a once-a-week devotional that can be broken up over several days.)
Bible Memory:
Did you memorize last week’s Bible verse?
Hiding God’s Word in our hearts is such a valuable practice. Since I’ve been memorizing Scripture, I’ve experienced so many moments where God brings a specific verse to mind just when I need it most. It’s amazing how He uses His Word to speak into our lives right where we are.
This Week’s Memory Verse — “The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
— Exodus 14:14
Genesis Chapter 30
“Don’t Let Jealousy Steal Your Joy”
(Read Genesis Chapter 30 First)
Genesis 30 opens with a very real struggle: jealousy. Rachel sees her sister Leah having child after child, and she is so overwhelmed with envy that she cries out to Jacob that she might as well die. It sounds dramatic, but honestly, envy and want can take us to that place where someone else’s blessing feels like a wound to us.
We have to be so careful here. When our eyes lock onto what someone else has, or what they can do that we can’t, our joy evaporates. Our peace begins to rot from the inside out.
The Bible is clear about this:
“A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”
— Proverbs 14:30
Envy destroys us long before it ever affects the person we’re jealous of.
But Scripture also gives us a way out. Here are 5 biblical steps to overcome jealousy and envy:
1. Recognize that envy steals your peace.
You can’t have envy and full joy living in the same heart. One will push the other out.
2. Remember that God writes a different story for each person.
Someone else’s blessing doesn’t threaten your calling.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you…”
— Jeremiah 29:11
Your story is still being written by a faithful God.
3. Choose gratitude for what God has placed in your hands.
You can’t compare and give thanks at the same time.
“In every thing give thanks…”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Gratitude overcomes jealousy every single time.
4. Celebrate others instead of competing with them.
When you rejoice with someone else, you disarm the jealousy inside you.
“Rejoice with them that do rejoice…”
— Romans 12:15
5. Ask God to change your heart instead of your circumstances.
Hapiness isn’t God giving you what someone else has. Happiness is God reshaping your heart so you don’t need it to be content.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”
— Psalm 51:10
At the end of the day, jealousy is a heart issue, and only God can transform the heart.
The Story Continues…
Rachel is heartbroken and desperate. She wants Jacob to “fix it,” but Jacob responds honestly: I’m not God. I’m not the One withholding children from you. So Rachel takes matters into her own hands and she gives her maid, Bilhah, to Jacob so she can build a family through her. Bilhah bears two sons, Dan and Naphtali.
But Leah isn’t about to let Rachel have her moment. Sister rivalry is in full swing. Leah gives Jacob her maid, Zilpah, and she also bears two sons, Gad and Asher.
The next part of the story deals with mandrakes, and I had to do a little research to figure this one out.
Reuben finds them in the field. These were rare plants people believed helped with infertility. Leah’s thrilled, Rachel’s desperate, and a full argument breaks out. I can almost hear it:
“Leah, please just let me have those mandrakes! You’ve had so many children already! Just give me a chance!”
Leah responds, “Oh, so now you want the mandrakes too? Isn’t it enough you took my husband? Now you want what my son brought me?”
Rachel offers a deal: she’ll trade a night with Jacob for the mandrakes. Leah accepts. But the irony? God opens Leah’s womb again, not Rachel’s. Leah has Issachar, then Zebulun, then a daughter named Dinah.
And then, in His perfect timing…
“God remembered Rachel…”
He opens her womb, and she gives birth to Joseph.
After Joseph is born, Jacob is ready to take his family and leave, but Laban doesn’t want him to go. He admits that he’s been blessed just by Jacob’s presence. Laban basically says, Name your price to stay.
Jacob proposes an honest solution. He will take all the speckled, spotted, and brown animals as his wages. Laban agrees, but then sneaks off and removes every single one of those animals from the flock. He sends them three days away, leaving Jacob with almost nothing to work with.
Jacob is being cheated. Again.
So Jacob uses a method people believed in back then. He takes tree branches, peels stripes into them, and places them where the animals mate. It was a common ancient belief that what an animal (or woman) saw during conception could influence the offspring’s appearance. Jacob is doing the only thing he knows to do.
But in the next chapter, we find out the truth:
It wasn’t the sticks or superstition that helped him.
It was God’s intervention the entire time.
God was quietly providing for Jacob in the middle of deception and unfair treatment, and He does the same for us!
Genesis 30 reminds us that:
People will compete with you.
People will misunderstand you.
People may even cheat you.
People may get what you desperately want before you do.
But none of that stops God’s plan for you.
Read these slowly and let them sink in.
Rachel’s jealousy didn’t speed up her blessing.
Leah’s striving didn’t make Jacob love her more.
Laban’s deceit didn’t block Jacob’s increase.
The superstition didn’t produce the flock.
God did.
And He still does.
When life feels unfair and when everyone else seems to be blessed except you…
When you’re trying to “fix” what only God can fix…
Remember this chapter.
God sees. He remembers, and He provides.
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Genesis Chapter 31
“Jacob Honored God and God Honored Jacob”
(Read Genesis Chapter 31 First)
Genesis 31 is a chapter with a lot of tension, but also full of God’s tender protection over His children. When we slow down and really look at the details, there are so many life lessons tucked into this story. There are lessons about God’s timing, God’s justice, and knowing when it’s time to walk away from a place where you’ve been mistreated.
Jacob heard Laban’s sons grumbling. He noticed Laban’s whole attitude toward him had changed. Isn’t it something when God lets us feel the shift in a relationship? It was once peaceful but then became strained.
God spoke to Jacob and told him:
“Return to the land of thy fathers… and I will be with thee.”
God never tells us to go without promising to go with us.
Jacob calls Leah and Rachel to come out to the field so he could talk to them about leaving their homeland. Jacob didn’t sit in that field and hash out every wrong Laban had done.
He said, “Your father deceived me…but God did not allow him to hurt me.”
Let me just pause and say this:
**Stop magnifying what people have done to you…
and start magnifying what God has done for you.**
No one can block the blessing God has for you.
In Jacob’s dream, the angel of the Lord said:
“I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.”
You may feel overlooked…But God sees.
You may feel taken advantage of…But God keeps perfect records.
You may feel like someone got away with something…But they didn’t get away from God’s eyes.
And the good news is…Not only does God see the injustice, but He also responds.
God reminded Jacob:
“You anointed the pillar, and you vowed a vow unto Me.”
God never forgets the moments when we commit our lives to Him. Jacob honored God at Bethel and now God said, “It’s time to go. I’m with you.”
Obedience even years ago can open doors today.
Rachel and Leah agreed: “There’s nothing here for us anymore.”
They said:
“All the riches that should have been ours…God has given to you.”
So, they decided to leave quietly. Jacob didn’t announce he was leaving.
He didn’t try to explain or justify himself. He didn’t choose to argue. He just obeyed what God told him to do.
Rachel stole her father, Laban’s idols. Her secret theft reminds us that:
• Not everyone around you is doing right.
• God protects us even from things we don’t know are happening.
Jacob had no idea she took them, but God still shielded him.
Laban decides to chase Jacob down, but God stops him!
God told Laban in a dream,
“Do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”
Isn’t it amazing how God will speak to the very person who means you harm?
Some of the battles you never knew about were won in the night, while you slept, because God warned the enemy to back off.
When Laban and his brothers catch up to them, Laban searches the tents for his gods and when they are not found, Jacob finally stands up for himself after 20 years.
He says, in essence:
“I have served you faithfully. I have worked day and night.
You changed my wages ten times.
If God hadn’t seen the injustice, then I would have nothing.”
I’m glad Jacob had the opportunity to speak the truth to Laban.
Then, Laban tries to take ownership of everything.
He says:
“These daughters are mine, these children are mine, these flocks are mine…”
This is what manipulators do. They claim ownership over what God has blessed you with.
But notice this:
Laban couldn’t stop Jacob from leaving because God had already ordained Jacob’s freedom.
Finally, they come to an agreement. They build a heap of stones that will act as a boundary between the two men.
They agree that neither will cross the stones to harm the other.
Sometimes when there is strife you need to set a boundary.
The chapter ends with peace!
Laban kisses his daughters and grandchildren and goes home.
The season is officially over.
God removed Jacob from a toxic environment, honors him, protects him, blesses him, and sets him on the path toward the promise.
Life Application:
• Listen for God’s direction.
• When others deceive you, remember God sees and will defend you.
• When God says “go,” He also says, “I am with you.”
• Let God handle your vindication. He’s better at justice than we are.
The Georgia Nest 