Connecting Scriptures:  Psalm 127, Proverbs 14:30, Romans 9, 2 Peter 3:9, Psalm 86

We will call this chapter the years of labor.  For a wage and for children.  Or maybe war of the babies is more accurate?  Today’s coverage will be pretty short as I want to combine a portion of chapter 30 to 31.  Text like this are hard for me because I already see the pit of humanity and how we use others to hurt and seek revenge, active in the world.  I know the Bible is full of sinners, save one—but, I always want to find these people of the promise making good choices and loving each other in a way that I can follow.  That is when I remember, again, there are no heroes in the majority of these pages.  There is a mess.  There is a mirror.  And praise God, there is a Savior—and He is very patient.  

As each baby is born to wife and servant-wife, you can feel tension in each name given.  From Dan’s “God has judged” to Issachar’s “for hire”—each son was a striking blow to the other sister and to their fragile relationship.  When Rachel has Joseph, she names him with a name that seems like saying, “One is not enough”.  After waiting so long, you think she would be just happy to have Joseph at all.  That the Lord would remember her and give her what she desired most, didn’t grow satisfaction in her, but only the want of another chance to top her adversary.  She does give God credit for it, which is good to read.  But her heart seems unfocused as to the reason for having a child at all.  We can do and have all of the right things for the wrong reasons and in this case, it took the situation of an already awkward sisterly relationship to chasm proportions.  

The bottom line of my angst with this sister-war is that God let His plan go forth (to make a nation out of Jacob and to bless him) into the Jerry Springer like episode that is this family.  Oh God, did you wring your hands in despair as each precious son was born and named at times for spite?  How did you endure such bitter jealousy and not put a stop to it?  These sons of Jacob are going to have a ton of issues, God—why???

Selah.

I rest in the Romans reference above.  The word of God has not failed.  He is not unjust.  He is free to have mercy on whom he wills.  And it is a miracle He has chosen to have mercy at all.  He is enduring vessels of wrath here, “in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepares beforehand for glory…”.  This story, that is true, is bigger than sisters in a culture that viewed them as low and disposable.  It is bigger than their sinful striving and it is more powerful than the trouble that comes for their offspring.  God, is showing me, and maybe you too, that the miracle is that we are invited at all (with all our sin and all our mistakes).  He is willing to bear with us and patiently endure our wrestling and attempts to kick Him off.  We deserve the potters field, as did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—but He put His hand in the clay and re-made us into something useful when He called us to salvation.  If you are in Christ, you are being fit for glory.  This fact alone should help us bear with patience too, these “vessels of wrath”—otherwise known as those who don’t know yet that there is a God who would see them put to a better use.  

So, I take a deep breath (we will need to do this a lot, its only Genesis 30) and I take in the account of these women with hope.  They are as close as they can get to the Living God, and He isn’t done with them yet in scripture.  

Questions for Reflection:

1.  What does it mean to you that God remembers and responds to prayers, even amidst such human turmoil?

2.  What does it mean to you that God is long-suffering?  How can you praise Him right now for his patience with you?