Genesis 30:37, 38
And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

Jacob now does something unusual. He takes branches from poplar, hazel, and chestnut trees, peels stripes into them, and places them in the watering troughs where the flocks come to drink and mate.

It sounds strange because it is strange. Jacob is using a method that, to him, seemed connected to producing striped or spotted offspring. He is trying to work the situation in front of him. That fits Jacob. He is always thinking, always acting, always trying to find a way through.

But the power was not in the rods.

That is the point.

There was no magic in peeled branches. The blessing that followed did not come from bark patterns in a trough. It came from the hand of God.

Jacob may have thought the rods were part of the solution, but the real issue was bigger than his method. God had already purposed to prosper him, and Laban’s cheating was not going to cancel that.

That still says a lot to us.

We also tend to trust our systems, our plans, our techniques. We like having something visible to point to, something we can arrange and manage. But when increase truly comes, it is because the Lord gave it.

Jacob set out the rods.

God gave the increase.