Genesis 30 · a question people ask
Did the peeled rods make the flocks speckled?
Chapter 30 describes what Jacob did with the rods and says the flocks "produced streaked, speckled, and spotted" (30:37-39), without saying why. In the next chapter Jacob gives his own account: "God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me", and in a dream the angel of God showed him the male goats and said, "I have seen all that Laban does to you" (31:9-12). Protestants read the rods in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
God did it, not the rods
Those who hold this view note that Genesis never says the rods worked, and that Jacob himself credits God: "God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me" (31:9). The dream shows the result came from God's seeing "all that Laban does to you" (31:12).
Genesis 31:9 · Genesis 31:12
God worked through Jacob's work
Those who hold this view note that Jacob also chose which animals to breed, putting the rods before "the stronger of the flock" and not the feeble (30:41-42), and that God's blessing on his work had already shown in Laban's flocks: "The LORD has blessed you wherever I turned" (30:30).
Genesis 30:30 · Genesis 30:41-42
The verses
“Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me. During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.”