“in front of them” Genesis 30:41
I’ve always found Jacob’s technique of sheep breeding to be quite… interesting. He would place branches with strips of bark peeled off of them in front of the sheep while they were mating which always resulted in the offspring turning out striped or spotted. Now, I’m not a scientist, but how in the world is that possible??? And yet it according to scripture it happened time and time again, he would take two regular sheep, breed them in the presence of a tree limb with stripes on it, and out would pop a spotted or striped little lamb.
So today when I read this I just had to ask the Father why on Earth He would include such a story in the sacred scripts. How is this significant to us today? His answer blew me away!
“Jacob put the desired result ‘in front of them’ before they had ever even conceived.” Now, on the surface that doesn’t seem that tremendous until you go where the Holy Spirit took me on this one.
Jesus.
What was it He always said to someone He was inviting into fellowship with Him? “Come follow Me.” Jesus was continually putting Himself “in front of” His Disciples. He was constantly telling them, do what I do; let Me show you the Way. A good shepherd doesn’t drives his flock ahead of him, he always leads it.
As the Israelites were exodus-ing out of Egypt where was the pillar of cloud/fire? He didn’t go after them and make them stumble their way through the wilderness without a guide. It went “in front of” them so that they would never be lost.
God never leaves us without guidance. He never makes us stumble around in the dark without a Light because He is the Light and has promised to never leave us or forsake us. And He is our desired result, is He not? Always in front of us showing us the Way to go. Hallelujah.
Tamar Knochel 