Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:
Genesis 30:37: “Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees and peeled white stripes in them exposing the white which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled and spotted.”
Your remember this story from Sunday School I am sure. Jacob was working for his father in law, Laban, who pulled a nasty trick on him. He wanted to marry Rachel and was forced to work seven years for her and when the time came he ended up with Leah instead and had to work another seven years to marry Rachel. Now Jacob wants to leave the farm and go off on his own and starts to discuss wages. He agreed to take the animals, his and Laban’s, out to pasture. He suggested to Laban that when he returns he will consider all the animals that are spotted, striped, black and speckled to be his and the others would be Laban’s. This set well with Laban, spotted, striped, black, or speckled were not as common as solid color and thus he figured he was about to pull another fast on this allegedly not so bright son-in-law.
Ah, but Jacob had another plan. He took rods from the poplar, almond and plane trees, and peeled stripes in the rods and laid them before the animals near the watering area where they would mate. Under the influence of the stripped rods, stripped, spotted, black and speckled animals were born. He had only the hardy animals mate by the rods so the hardy animals would be stripped, spotted and speckled and black while Labans animals would be the weaker ones. So Jacob returns to Laban to give him weak or feeble animals, which were much less in number and declared all the numerous spotted, speckled, black and hardy animals to be his. The Bible says that Laban was not friendly towards Jacob after this. Fair is fair – right?
Wait a minute. There is something not right here. I was taught in Sunday School that it was God who increased the number of animals for Jacob and made them hardy. Well my Sunday School teachers were right, but they also did not give me the whole picture. They apparently forgot to mention the peeled branches and the role it played in the mating process. As a little eight year old my hand would have went up and I would have asked what it meant to mate. Once my red faced Sunday School teacher answered that question, I would then ask why they had to do it in front of striped branches. Did this Godly man, this father of Israel really believe those striped branches would influence the animals to give birth to striped off spring? Is there a lesson here?
We learn in Hebrews 11:1 that faith is the substance (Gk. Upostasis) of things hoped (Gk.elpizomenon) for and the evidence (Gk. Elegchos) things not seen. A nice definition of faith. The word “substance” is upostasis in the Greek. This comes from the Greek word “Hypostasis.” Plato loved this word. He used it quite a bit in his “Plato’s Republic.” In this work Plato speaks of a group of prisoners who spend their lives in a cave watching the outside world only from the shadows it reflects inside the cave. In the words of Plato he calls the outside world “upostasis” or the reality. This is translated in the KJV Bible as “substance.” He uses the word “episkiazo” for the shadows. This comes from the same word that Paul uses for “hope.” C.S. Lewis described this world as a shadow of the reality which was the spiritual world. This physical world and all we see is merely a shadow of the reality of the spiritual world. Like Plato’s prisoners in the cave they interpreted the reality in light of the shadow and their perception of reality was distorted. Say you hit a pot hole and blow out a tire. That is merely a shadow of the reality of the spiritual world. Yet we immediately interpret the incident in light of the shadow which is the cost and inconvenience rather than in light of the reality in the world of the spirit is sharing your faith with the tow truck driver.
The word “evidence” in the Greek is “elegchos” which means an inner conviction, or an inbirth. Romans 14:23 tells us that anything that is not birthed in faith is sin. Sin in this verse is “amarta” in the Greek which is the direct equivalent and indeed is the word the Septuagint uses for Chata which means to miss the mark or the target. This inner conviction comes from God as only from God will we be able to hit the target.
So faith is the reality of the shadows, the inner conviction given by God of things not seen. What this has to do with Jacob and the peeled branches is this. The word used in the Hebrew for branch or rod is “makel” which is the word used for a symbol of authority. The peeled rod was a symbol of the authority God gave Jacob in the shadowland to produced striped, spotted and black animals and the evidence of the reality of the spiritual promise of God.
Look at that word episkiazo for shadows or hope. It is used by the Septuagint for the Hebrew word “hagah” which is the word for imagination. Jacob did more than just lay out striped branches showing white and black. He imagined those branches as animals that were striped, speckled (black and white) and just black. The Talmud teaches that on the seventh day God did not end creation, he just passed the creating process onto man. We are to continue creation. Creation begins with imagination. When we imagine what is on target with God it becomes reality.
There is the story in the in the New Testament of a woman who had an issue of blood. She touched the garment of Jesus and was healed. Jesus said, “Your faith has made you whole.” When she touched the garment of Jesus she imagined herself healed. It was God’s divine will that she be healed, it was His divine power that made her whole, but it took her imagination to make it a reality.
When our imagination is joined with Divine will and power, reality is created.
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