Tag: Leah

Isaac’s Prayer

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
Genesis 30:2 (NASB)

In the previous verse, Rachel cries out, “give me children, or I’ll die!”

This passage ties a past thread together. When Rebekah could not conceive, Isaac prayed for his wife and God answered. But in a way, Isaac was also praying for himself.

At this point in the story, Jacob has four sons, so the problem isn’t with him. God isn’t withholding children from *him.*

It is accurate, but it’s also a cruel thing for him say. Also, the text does not show that Isaac prayed for her.

We know Jacob favors Rachel, and he favors her sons when she has children later, but this callousness makes me wonder if Jacob is a bit like his father here: easily swayed.

Isaac favored Esau because he liked what Esau brought him.

Maybe Jacob favors Leah right now, and this is an unfair favoritism.

Bitterness of the Barren

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now when Rachel saw that she had not borne Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I am going to die.”
Genesis 30:1 (NASB)

The opening of Genesis 30 gives us insight into the way we are supposed to read and understand scripture.

The rabbis pose a question: “why is Rachel only jealous *now,* after Leah’s fourth son has been born? Why not earlier?”

The answer: the story is a narrative of the past that speaks into the present and future. All of it.

The readers know the story sets up the 12 tribes. Jacob has 4 women through whom the tribes will be born, so the math should be simple: 3×4. Each should have 3 children.

So when Leah’s story gives us FOUR sons, the reader should immediately see a problem: clearly God is at work in Leah, and Judah is the result. What is left for Rachel?

“Give me children, or else I am going to die!”

Rachel’s cry seems dramatic, but it’s a statement about blessing. Being fruitful and multiplying.

Her cry echoes Esau’s bitter cry about being passed over for blessing. Will she be cut off, like Esau was cut off?

Love and Hatred

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“I have loved you,” says the Lord.
But you say, “How have You loved us?”
“Was Esau not Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.”
Malachi 1:2-3 (NASB)

In Malachi 1, (and later in Romans), there’s this perplexing passage about God “hating” Esau, the brother of Jacob.

We wrestle with this text, because we are forced to ask: “am I Jacob in this passage? Or am I Esau? What does God think of me?”

The answer seems to matter, as the notion of being “hated by God” is heavy. It’s an impossible burden.

But perhaps we have a clue about the deeper meaning in Genesis 29.

Three times before we get to Jacob’s feelings about Leah, the text tells us that Jacob LOVED Rachel. We know he loves her.

Now the Lord saw that Leah was [a]unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children.
Genesis 29:31 (NASB)

[a] Lit hated

But when we get to Leah, it doesn’t merely tell us that Leah was “unloved.” In Hebrew, it says she was HATED.

It’s in this place of hatred that God opened Leah’s womb so she could be… fruitful. Blessed. So she could live out her purpose of mothering of the nation of God’s people. She is the mother of Judah, from which Salvation enters the world.

So when the text tells us that Esau is hated… perhaps we are meant to remember Leah.

Though hatred brings us to a place of desolation and barrenness, perhaps God is telling us about redemption. About healing.

Perhaps God will make all things new.

Laban’s Many Daughters

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Bilhah & Zilpah: maidservants of Rachel & Leah. What’s their story? How did Laban posses them, to give them to his daughters as wedding gifts?

The text doesn’t say, but Jewish tradition holds that they are Laban’s daughters w/ a second wife.

If it’s true, it appears that Laban pawned off ALL his daughters onto Jacob.

Beauty and Work

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Leah and Rachel are described as different in appearance. Earlier, the text had contrasted Jacob and Esau also on the basis of their respective occupations (25:27, where yoshev ohalim seems to mean “raising livestock”; compare 4:20).
The Torah; A Woman’s Commentary on Genesis 29:17

It is fascinating that the Genesis narrative of “two brothers and two sisters” tells us so much about… us.

While I don’t think *everyone* is inherently sexist and view the value of women in terms of appearance and men in terms of occupation, perhaps as a society, we do.

Prior to the fall, value isn’t assigned to occupation and beauty. There was one job for humanity, and all of creation was good. It was all beautiful.

In Genesis 6, the “sons of God saw that the daughters of man were Tov,” and we get a glimpse of the powerful being drawn to women and seizing them for themselves. This is echoed in Genesis 12, and even louder in Esther.

Somehow, a woman gets defined by her appearance. This appears to be a result of the fall.

But a man’s “value” is also be seen a result of the fall. The cursed ground becomes unfruitful, and the work is in vain. Yet we labor and labor, looking for worth.

My Jewish friends have a saying: “Torah is not our book about God. It is God’s book about us.”

In it, we should see ourselves. What happens when we value beauty over character? Or equate work with worth? When we take advantage of weakness? The text shows us. We must learn.

Leave Your Mother and Father

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For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24 (NASB)

One of the times a bible character actually does “leave his mother and father to be joined to his wife,” per the note in Genesis 2, is with the story of Jacob… where he fled home to avoid his brother’s wrath, and then ended up marrying two women – Leah and Rachel.

But the first time we see it followed, it’s here with Cain. It makes me wonder if this is a blessing or a curse.

Then Cain left the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and Cain built a city, and named the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
Genesis 4:16-17 (NASB)