Single lesson
Jacob's Flocks Increase
Genesis 30:25–43
Children will follow how Jacob asked to leave, agreed on unusual wages, and then saw his flocks increase. They will put the account in order, notice key choices, and identify what the passage says about Yahweh’s blessing.
Before you teach
In Genesis 30:25–43, Jacob spoke with Laban after Joseph was born. Jacob asked to go to his own place with his family. Laban wanted him to stay and said Yahweh had blessed him because of Jacob. They agreed on wages from the flocks, and the passage records what each man then did.
Students will retell Genesis 30:25–43 in order and identify one statement about Yahweh’s blessing and two choices with their outcomes.
Welcome: Jacob asks to go
5 minRead Genesis 30:25–30. Ask children to listen for the problem at the start. Jacob asked to return to his own place with his wives and children. Laban wanted him to stay. Laban said Yahweh had blessed him for Jacob’s sake, and Jacob said Laban’s livestock had greatly increased while he served there.
Genesis 30:25, Genesis 30:26, Genesis 30:27, Genesis 30:29, Genesis 30:30
Read and explain: An unusual wage
7 minRead Genesis 30:31–36. Explain hire as wages. Jacob proposed that the speckled, spotted, and black animals would be his pay. He said the arrangement could be checked later. Laban agreed, yet that same day he removed many marked animals and put distance between them and Jacob.
Genesis 30:31, Genesis 30:32, Genesis 30:33, Genesis 30:34, Genesis 30:35, Genesis 30:36
Discuss: What each person did
6 minRead Genesis 30:37–40. Keep the focus on the passage’s sequence. Jacob took rods, peeled white streaks in them, set them before the flocks at the watering troughs, and separated animals for his own droves. Children can list these actions in order and compare them with Laban’s earlier action of removing marked animals.
Genesis 30:35, Genesis 30:37, Genesis 30:38, Genesis 30:39, Genesis 30:40
Make and respond: Sequence cards
7 minChildren make six small cards showing these steps: Jacob asks to leave, Laban asks him to stay, wages are agreed, Laban removes animals, Jacob uses peeled rods, Jacob increases. Then they place the cards in order and retell the account to a partner using the verses as support.
Genesis 30:25, Genesis 30:27, Genesis 30:32, Genesis 30:35, Genesis 30:37, Genesis 30:43
Closing: The outcome
5 minRead Genesis 30:41–43. The passage says Jacob placed the rods before the stronger animals, but not before the feebler ones. The stronger became Jacob’s, and the account ends by saying he increased exceedingly. Finish by naming one verse about Yahweh’s blessing and one verse about human action.
Genesis 30:27, Genesis 30:30, Genesis 30:41, Genesis 30:42, Genesis 30:43
Questions to explore
Why did Laban want Jacob to stay?
Use Laban’s own words to find what he said he had learned and who he said had blessed him.
Genesis 30:27
What did Jacob choose as his hire?
Look carefully at the colours and markings Jacob named for sheep and goats.
Genesis 30:32, Genesis 30:33
How does the passage end for Jacob’s flocks?
Read the final verses and notice the contrast between the feebler animals and the stronger ones.
Genesis 30:41, Genesis 30:42, Genesis 30:43
Make, think or respond
Flock Sequence Cards
What you’ll need
- small pieces of paper or card
- pencils or textas
- Bible
Try it together
- Read the passage in short parts.
- Draw six key steps from the account, one on each card.
- Place the cards in order.
- Retell the account to a partner using the cards.
This helps children follow the order of Genesis 30:25–43 and connect choices in the passage with the outcome.
Adapt for your group
- For younger children, give the six step titles aloud and let them focus on drawing and ordering the pictures.
- For older children, ask them to add a verse reference to each card and label it as blessing, choice, or outcome.
An optional closing prayer
You may pray: “God, help us listen carefully to your word and understand what this passage says about you and about people. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Genesis 30
25 When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.
26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.”
27 Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake.”
28 He said, “Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.
30 For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?”
31 Laban said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.
32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.
33 So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be considered stolen.”
34 Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.”
35 That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
36 He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37 Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, and plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
38 He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.
39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted.
40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in Laban’s flock. He put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock.
41 Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the watering troughs, that they might conceive among the rods;
42 but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
43 The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.