Genesis 30

Genesis 30:37–38:
​ “Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink.”

Jacob’s prosperity was not the work of his own hands; in fact, all of his pole peeling was a useless superstition, a waste of his time. Jacob prospered because God caused him to prosper. It is not surprising that God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. This man, Jacob, became the forefather and namesake of the nation Israel, which often proved in the years ahead to be much like their forefather. They too tried their hand at various forms of “pole-peeling” in an effort to manipulate the blessings of God and bring prosperity on themselves. But then we have done a bit of poll-peeling ourselves, haven’t we?!  -Ed Rea

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