One timeline gives Jacob’s birth date as 1836. Gregor Mendel was born in 1822. But one is BC; the other is AD. How did Jacob know Gregor’s secret?
Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country.” That’s Genesis 30:25. Jacob’s family has grown substantially; imagine buying groceries for eleven growing boys! He can’t simply be a hired hand on Laban’s ranch; he needs to be building his own herds. But Laban knew a good thing when he saw it, and had no desire to see Jacob’s family head for Canaan. As Laban observed: “I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake” (v 27). Jacob knows that, too (v 30). Once again, Laban gives Jacob the opportunity to choose his compensation if he stays: “Name me your wages, and I will give it” (v 28). Jacob must make a wise decision. The years have not been easy and Laban is a hard master. So Jacob makes this offer: “Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages” (v 32). Laban agrees. He will have the pure-colored and white ones; Jacob will have the spotted, speckled, or brown ones. The flocks were separated, Jacob moved his family a short distance away, and he continued another six years to look after both his animals and Laban’s. But Jacob isn’t finished, as we will see next. Whether it’s high jinks or high school genetics, in the end it’s the Most High who rules in the affairs of men, and that will actually determine Jacob’s blessing. And bless Jacob He does! A good reminder that whatever blessing has come into our lives, it is because “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor 9:8).