January 18, 2014 Genesis 29:31-33 31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben,[b] for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” 33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. I feel very sad for Leah. Her experience is that she is not loved by her husband, Jacob. She is in the very odd predicament of sharing her husband with her sister. That, of course was common in that culture, but today seems very hard to comprehend. She finds herself trying to find some way to gain her husbands love. She gives him a son hoping that now he would love her. Sadly, it makes no difference. She has another son, still, she is not loved, then a third son and a fourth... yet she remains unloved. She becomes temporarily infertile, so in a desperate attempt to please her husband she gives him her servant to bear him children (just as Sarah had done for Abraham). More children came, yet Leah was still unloved. In one of the saddest parts of her story, she goes to her sister and negotiates with Rachel to let her sleep with her husband by giving her some mandrakes. In ancient times the mandrake plant was believed to have properties that helped with infertility. Rachel was desperate to have a child as was Leah, so she negotiated for her infertility plant. Leah conceives and has more children. Yet Rachel still remains the loved wife while Leah remains unloved. Rachel finally conceives a son, Joseph, who immediately becomes Jacobs favorite child- and that produces a lot of family jealousy. When Jacob finally decides to go home and face his brother, who had vowed to kill him... he organizes his family so that the servants went first, then Leah and her children, then Rachel and her children, and last was Joseph. That shows us the pecking order. If Esau decides to enact his murderous revenge against Jacob- hell have to kill the servants first.... then Leah. She remained the unloved wife. I struggle to find meaning from this sad tale. Leah learned painfully that you cannot force another person to love you. She spent her life trying to please someone who would never love her. But in the midst of her pain I hope she found some meaning in that God continued to love her. At the end of the day, human love is frail and fickle and cannot be depeneded upon. But Gods love is faithful. I hope today you find love from others, but know that the most reliable source of love is and always will be God our Father, and Jesus Christ, our savior- who, out of love bore the ultimate sacrifice for us.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 14:02:56 +0000
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