Connecting Scriptures:  Matthew 1:2, Revelation 5:5

Quick question.  Do you think Jacob cried when he met Rachel because of love OR because he had just given himself a hernia from lifting a large covering to a well?  I always have questions and thankfully, a patient God who bears them all.  

Todays chapter is filled with movie-like romance, a tent “switcheroo”, and a real sister-wives situation.  If anyone tells you they can’t get into the Bible because it’s “too boring”, they haven’t read far enough.  After Jacob’s Herculean like show of strength (to maybe impress a certain daughter of Laban), he is filled with emotion as he kisses beautiful Rachel and counts the sheep she herds.  On one hand, Jacob is realizing that finding a wife among his mothers people might be an attractive offer as well as lucrative.  On the other—Jacob is living out the bargain-prayer he made to God.  Even though made in ignorance of the God he was talking to (who had every intention to give him land, peoples and blessings) Jacob’s desperate attempt to control the narrative in his favor is being honored by God.  He asked for safe passage to Labans and provision.  He was getting all this and more when he weeps over Rachel.  A lot more.  

I wonder if Jacob got deja-vu as he lay next to the wife he didn’t expect on his wedding night.  The man who had dressed up as his brother and stole blessings from his blind patriarch, was now the one deceived.  He was the one who, in the blindness of dark and desire, was fooled into believing a lie.  He had worked and longed for Rachel, but Laban had every intention of giving him Leah.  Unlovable Leah!  With her soft eyes and the curse of being older, who would look on her with love?  It would be none other that the God Who Sees (isn’t it interesting, wonderfully so, that God comes to the ones in society who are unseen and often cast aside?).  When I read that Jacob loved Rachel, but in all accounts hated Leah, my heart sinks for her.  Sure, Jacob kept her as a wife and definitely benefited from his duties as a husband, but for a woman to seek the approval of a man who has no regard for her, year after year, child after child is so harsh.  Without the LORD blessing her womb and grabbing her attention, what hope did Leah have?  She is the proud mother of Jacob’s first born sons, and each name depicts her relationship woes and struggles.  Then comes the last.  The cap stone of faith that emerges as Leah elicits this name: Judah.  Judah means praise.  After all the years of longing and being nothing more than an after thought to her husband, she decided to turn her affections elsewhere.  To the LORD.  What a beautiful thing and what a wonderful place for Leah to land.  

If you flip to the Matthew text reference above, you will see where unloved Leah’s son’s name is found.  Right there, in verse 2 we see why Jesus is named the Lion of Judah.  Leah’s story doesn’t end here, and I would love to tell you she always acts rightly toward her husband and sister in the future, but life is an ebb and flow of faith and pride.  For today, rest in the truth that God see’s the broken, cast aside pieces that are us.  He knows the dreams that haven’t come true and all the striving we have made for the wrong reasons.  And yet, He still comes to us, He still sees into those spaces and offers light.  Like giving Jacob the desires of his heart after a long journey from home.  Like showing Leah that her purpose was bigger than a fathers shady deal and a husbands last choice.  God sees, God knows, and God is working.

Questions for Reflection:

1.  How might God have been correcting and shaping in Jacob’s heart in this chapter?  Do you think it dawned on him the consequence of deceit and if he considered his own role in his families struggles?

2.  What area of your life today is needing to be infused with the truth that God is still working in your brokenness?  Confess to him your desires and heartaches knowing that He truly cares for your soul.