I recently completed a sermon dealing with Rachel and Leah from Genesis in the Bible. I LOVE this story! There is so much here for us...but I wanted to share a few thoughts that I gleaned from it.
This whole thing starts with Jacob. (Now, Jacob has a story all his own that I'm not really going to get into; this cat had ISSUES--we will save that for another time.) Now Jacob shows up in Haran looking for a wife...and he finds her right away. She is the daughter of his uncle, Laban. Her name is Rachel, and she is H-O-T! Jacob kissed her and actually cried! (check out
Genesis 29:11) Jacob begins to work for his Uncle Laban. Laban asks Jacob what his pay should be, and all Jacob wants is Rachel...he agrees to work for Laban for SEVEN years, just to marry Rachel! Laban agrees and Jacob works for seven years; but, to Jacob, the time flies by.
The big day for the wedding comes and Jacob spends the night with his new bride. You see, in that day, the bride wore
layers of veils and the groom didn't pull the veil back until the next morning. When he did he got the shock of his life...Leah..not Rachel!
Who is Leah? She is Rachel's sister. In
Genesis 29:16-17 it tells us that Laban had two daughters, Rachel and Leah. It says that Leah had "delicate" eyes and that Rachel was "shapely and beautiful." Do you know what the Bible is doing right here? Have you ever heard that expression, "If you don't have anything nice to say...?" It's kinda like when a friend wants to set you up on a blind date and you ask what she looks like...the friend responds with, "Well, she has a pretty face!" That tells you all you need to now, right? The Bible was pointing out how beautiful Rachel was, but all it could come up with for Leah was that she had nice eyes! She wasn't much to look at. Leah was...
allright. But nothing like Rachel.
And now Jacob is married to LEAH not RACHEL and he is upset! He confronts Laban and he gives him some kind of lame excuse and convinces Jacob to work for another seven years to marry Rachel. Which Jacob does; after the marriage week (tradition in those times) he married Rachel.
Then we come to one of the saddest verses in the Bible:
Genesis 29:30, it says that Jacob love Rachel more than Leah. This had to of made Leah feel horrible! She had to of wanted the man in her life to love her...and no matter what she does she can't seem to make Jacob look at her the way he does Rachel.
Proverbs 30:21 tells us that there are three things that make the earth tremble, and one of those things is a married woman who is unloved.
This brings us to one of my favorite verses:
Genesis 29:31 "When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren." HE SAW HER! That means he sees me! He sees you! He knows when we are hurting...and He cares! God provides for His people...He may not answer your prayers the way you think it ought to be answered, but you will have everything you need for life and godliness.
Leah's husband may not of loved her. She had to live in a sad world where women were treated like bargaining chips. But God was looking out for her...He had not forgotten her!
After this Leah became pregnant and begins popping out babies like nobodies business! After each son she gives birth to, she is hoping Jacob will love her.
Then Rachel gets upset and jumps on Jacob's case about not having babies. She said,
Give me sons or I will die!" You see, she was getting desperate. While Leah was desperate to get Jacob's love...Rachel was desperate to hold on to it. At this time, not being able to have children was a public disgrace and was considered a curse from God. I wish I could tell you that Rachel went to the Lord in prayer...asking God to help her. Unfortunately thats not what happens. She gives Jacob a servant girl to have children with! (so that through
her Rachel would be able to have children with Jacob...desperate, huh?) So Jacob says..."ummm, sure!"
Basically what you have at this point is one big baby making contest...Leah has some more, the servant girl has some...and eventually Rachel starts having children as well. So inspite of all the fussing and fighting, God provided for both of these women. Both women were blessed by God.
The message that shines through Genesis is that the Lord provides for His people. You may not be desperate like Rachel and Leah, but we all need to bring everything before the Lord.
Philippians 4:6 says,
"Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be known before God." The reason behind asking God to meet our needs isn't to trick Him into doing what we want...we ask God for these things because it teaches us to rely on Him rather than ourselves and our resourcefulness. We should see Him as the source of all things. It teaches us to love and trust God and rely on Him every day.
Many years after the story in our text...Rachel dies. She was buried in Bethlehem. Sometime later Leah passed away and after both of them Jacob passed away in Egypt. In
Genesis 49 starting in verse
29 it tells us that when Jacob passed away, he had requested to be buried in Canaan with
Leah... not in Bethlehem with Rachel! You see, in the beginning Jacob could not see God's plan for Leah in his life. (He never asked!) Jacob only saw the problem...he had the wrong wife!! Leah was unloved, and God saw her. The whole world told Leah she was not good enough.
Her father had to trick a man to marry her!! Her husband did not love her when he married her. But
GOD saw Leah. Leah who was just allright. Nice eyes. Not much to look at. Everybody else saw Rachel. God saw Leah and loved her when no one else did. He blessed her in a very special way!
You see:
Leah was the mother of Judah. And from the line of Juday would come King David. And from the line of King David would come....
KING JESUS! That's right, Jesus came from Leah and NOT Rachel!
Our Father in Heaven worked a miracle in Leah's life...and He wants to work one in yours too...will you let Him?
