Jacob got his goat!

"What shall I give you?" he asked.

"Don't give me anything," Jacob replied. "But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: ³²Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. ³³And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen."

³⁴"Agreed," said Laban. "Let it be as you have said." ³⁵That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. ³⁶Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks.

³⁷Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. ³⁸Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, ³⁹they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. ⁴⁰Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban's animals. ⁴¹Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so that they would mate near the branches, ⁴²but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. ⁴³In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.

What happen  to the goat, sheep and cattle of Laban?

1. Jacob had spent 21 years tented to the cattle, sheep and goats of his father in law and knew Laban's stock better than anyone because he had lived with these animals for years.

2. God showed Jacob a vision in a dream and promised Jacob he would favor him.

3.Jacob peeled the bark from certain trees branches  and put them in the water when the strong animals came to drink and these animals produced spotted streaked-or speckled. that seems foolish to us but perhaps the juice released from these  3 trees limbs reacted in  such a way releasing a Chemical that caused the young to be spotted,streaked or speckled.

with all the engineering the big corporations are doing today do we need to doubt that the branches  in the water where the animals drank caused certain effects to the unborn?

4. you might note that this is where the term started  "getting his goat." which means to trick a person.

Laban tricked Jacob into marring his daughter Leah when he wanted to married Rachel and assured that Jacob would tend his flocks for a longer time because the flocks of Laban flourished under Jacob's care then Jacob got Laban's goats, sheep and cattle. 

5. God was for Jacob and this proves that if God is for us who can be against us for along period of time?