Story 50 The God Who Sees
The LORD looked on Leah and saw that she was not loved by her husband. To make things even worse, she had to watch his tender ways with her sister. How his eyes lit up whenever Rachel came near! How he treated her with the deference of masculine passion! For all his love and attentiveness to Rachel, he treated Leah with disdain.
Jacob’s rejection would altar Leah’s position in the house. Everyone would follow his lead. She was demoted from the position of an honored wife that should have belonged to her. She was a reject, of little worth in the ways of the family. Her life was carried out with a constant layer of shame, isolated from the love and respect we all long for.
God saw the toil of Leah. He blessed her broken heart by giving her children. Her firstborn son came, and they named him Reuben, which means, “he has seen my misery.” But time and a son did not changed Jacob’s heart towards her. Leah continued to bear the grief of her loneliness. The Lord blessed her once again, and she had another son. She named her second son “Simeon,” which means “one who hears.” Once again, Leah understood that these gifts were from God himself. It is interesting that Leah’s names all showed honor to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had nothing to do with the gods of Laban. She was a woman of faith, and with each son, it was growing. And with each name, she gave glory to the Lord.
When her third son came, Leah was certain that her husband would grow to love her, so she named him Levi, which means “attached.” Jacob’s selfishness continued, but God’s outpouring of blessing continued for this shunned wife. The Lord gave her a fourth son, and so she named him Judah, which means, “praise.” One day, Judah would become an important part of God’s work to heal the great divide in family of Jacob. And one day, much further on, Judah’s descendent would bring healing to the entire world.
Leah had moved beyond her pain and distress into joy. She had finally allowed the tender love of God to be the most important thing. The Lord turned Leah’s mourning into dancing as she watched over her bustling household of four active little boys.
Throughout these years when Leah was given son after son, Rachel remained completely barren. She was filled with jealousy against her sister, and she stormed against her husband for it. “‘Give me children or I shall die!’” she exclaimed.
That made Jacob really mad. He said, “‘Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?’” I wonder if the value of having only one wife was becoming clear to Jacob.
Have you noticed something missing in Jacob’s actions? There is something that the Bible leaves suspiciously silent. What did Isaac do when Rebekah was barren those twenty years? The Word of God carefully tells about Isaac’s prayers for her. It was Jacob’s role to pray for his wife, and yet all there was to tell about him was his anger. Jacob was still far from being the man of God he was called to be.
Rachel came up with her own solution. In the Bible, that is always a bad sign. The Word of God is always teaching to depend on the Lord. Rachel took her servant Bilhah and handed her over to her husband. She wanted her husband to be with her servant the way a man is only supposed to be with his one wife. Does that remind you of anyone? Does it make you think of Sarah and Hagar? How did that work out?
Marriage between one man and one woman was God’s good and perfect design. When it doesn’t happen, all kinds of trouble begin. But if Bilhah became pregnant, the child would be considered Rachel’s, and that is all she cared about.
Bilhah did become pregnant, and she bore Jacob a son. Rachel named him Dan, which means “he has vindicated.” In her eyes, this boy validated her marriage and gave her a valued role in the family. Her worth to her husband came in the form of this little boy, and she wanted more. So she continued to send Bilhah to her husband, and she bore him a second son. Rachel named him Naphtali, which means “my struggle.” Rachel said, “‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.’”
Wow. The remarkable outward beauty of Rachel had not made its way into her heart. Her desire for sons was a desire for conquest, not a desire to love. How deeply the sin of the curse was riddled through the family of God. Imagine the silent, daily tensions in this household. The consequences for Rachel would not be small. One day, the strife that she was now stoking and feeding off of in her family would be the cause for her greatest heartbreak.
This lack of love marked the whole family with a permanent scar. It determined the very names of the sons of Jacob, names that would be repeated for the next four thousand years and counting. And it did not end with the first six sons. When Leah realized that she wasn’t becoming pregnant, she followed Rachel’s lead and turned to her own maidservant, Zilpah. She gave her to Jacob as a wife, and she bore him a son. Leah named him Gad, which means “good fortune.” Zilpah gave Jacob a second son, and Leah named his Asher, which means “happy.”
The ongoing strife between the women enmeshed the whole family. By this time in the story, Reuben had grown to be a tall boy. One day during the wheat harvest, he was out in the fields and found some mandrake plants. Mandrakes were rumored to work like a medicine. They were supposed to help a woman become pregnant. Reuben brought mandrake leaves home to Leah, and Rachel learned about it. She went to her sister and asked if she could have some. The Lord’s gift of many sons had not taken away Leah’s bitterness. “‘Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?’”
Rachel saw that she would have to give Leah something valuable for those leaves. Jacob had wrapped his life around Rachel, and she had all kinds of power because of it. Rachel had probably used her influence to keep Jacob from being with Leah at all. Leah stood completely on the outside. So Rachel promised to give Leah an evening with Jacob if Leah gave her some of the mandrakes. Leah agreed. Have you noticed that in all of these discussions, there is no mention of prayer? Leah turned to bribery, and Rachel turned to a silly superstition.
Leah’s rare moments with her husband brought her another son, and this one she named Issachar, which means “reward.” Leah believed God was rewarding her for giving Jacob to her maidservant. That was a violation of her own marriage! The distortions of love in the family had become so great that Leah could no longer discern the meaning of God’s gifts.
But the Lord continued to bless anyhow. He had a plan for this family that would go forward in spite of their sin. Leah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a sixth son. She named him Zebulun, which means “honor.” It truly was an honor to have given life to six sons, but the Lord wasn’t done. Leah’s seventh child came, and her name was Dinah. What a precious diamond jewel this little girl must have been in the midst of the rough and tumble boys that filled the household of Jacob.
As God had provided so richly for Leah, Rachel continued on for three more years without having a child. The mandrakes had done nothing for her. At some point, she finally decided to pray. God heard her prayers and gave her a son. She said, “‘God has taken away my disgrace’” and named him Joseph, which means, “to add.” How she longed and hoped that God would let her have more children!
It is stunning how the bitter rivalry between these sisters was tearing down their home! Things could be so different…their hearts were so far from what they were created to be. The image of God was shattered. Yet the Lord is merciful and gracious. He kindly remembered each in their trouble and continued to bless them with new life. Abraham’s family was being built on God’s generosity to the unworthy and hurting wives of Jacob.
Think about all the things that were happening at the time of Jacob. There were great nations and massive cities being built. There were new human discoveries and inventions. Mighty kings and armies rose and fell. Yet when God chose what he wanted to share with humanity for all of history, he chose to share in the details of this one family. Doesn’t that seem strange? Why? Well, first of all, they were the chosen family of God, and through them he would bring salvation to the world!Many important things were happening on earth, but the fate of this family was the most vital thing of all.
But that might not be the only reason we read so much about them. Why do think the Lord made sure we knew about all the petty, sinful, competitiveness of Abraham’s children? Why didn’t he spare us the nasty details? Well, for one, it teaches us that God sees these sins, too. The horror of the curse is not only found inthe great evil of things like murder. The hatred of Caan is found in the quiet malice that family members hold against each other every day. God shines a light on in through Rachel and Leah for a reason. We are meant to be repulsed by it. We are meant to want more for the family of God. It is meant to lead us to want greater purity of heart for ourselves!