I think this section of scripture contains two of the strangest accounts I've come across yet - or so it seems to my "modern" sensibilities. First we have two sisters, both married to the same man, fighting over who bears him more sons. Apparently sending in their maidservants to do their dirty work is also fair game, as both do so. Leah is the more confusing one to me here, though: she seems to think that by bearing more sons she will garner more if Jacob's love, but she must have known full well that Jacob was slaving away not for her but for Rachel. She even trades goods for time in the sack with Jacob, which he goes along with without complaining. Doesn't that sound kind of backwards? A wife paying to be able to sleep with her husband... seems that the gender roles are a bit off, and since when does a wife need to pay someone to get her husband to sleep with her?
In the later part of the passage we see Jacob using rather odd practices to try and influence babies born to the flocks he is tending, such practices as we would easily laugh at with today's knowledge of science. Despite rather questionable methods, though, God seems to bless Jacob with increasing herds. I haven't thought of it this way before, but if anything this shows God's power: He was able to cause birth patterns in animals that should not have occurred given science and probability! It is a little thing next to many of the other wonders He works, but it is interesting to note nonetheless.
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It's also interesting to note that this must be a "Reader's Digest" version of the story, since, according to the next chapter, Laban is consistently trying to cheat Jacob ("You've changed my wages ten times!"), but God causes the animals born to have the coloration of Jacob's animals no matter what. Now, the real question is did Jacob really think it was God's doing or his own cunning that caused specific colorations to appear?
Well, I have to imagine Jacob thought it would help or he wouldn't have done it - but in the next chapter he gives God the glory and praise for increasing his possessions. If I had to guess I would say Jacob did think he was helping, but just as we thank God for for blessing us with our jobs and family so Jacob saw everything he had as gifts from the Lord.
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