Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Day 14 Leah lives the curse and the unloved married woman

These two scriptures give context to part of Leah's life.
Gen 3:16 To the woman he said,"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you."

Proverbs 30: 21 "Under three things the earth trembles,under four it cannot bear up:
22 a servant who becomes king,a fool who is full of food,
23 an unloved woman who is married,and a maidservant who displaces her mistress.

Jacob has landed with his mothers people and meets Laban who more than meets his match in scheming and playing tricks. Ch 29:14 sums up the relationship "without a doubt you are my bone, my flesh". sound familiar from the garden of Eden?
Laban does have a redeeming feature, he gave Leah her due her by marrying her off first as she was the eldest. Leah did have a tough road ahead of her.

By the fourth child she seems to be coming to terms that she can't win her husband's heart and gives God thanks by naming the son Judah. She reduces herself to having baby battles with two servants and her sister Rachael, then hires her husband to have sex with her, (I doubt there is much love involved at this point)By the 6th son he has given up on receiving love for love's sake from her husband. She has gone from saying "surely my husband will love me now" ch 29:32 to "this time my husband will prize me for I have borne him 6 sons" ch30:20 (Fox translation)
She has transitioned from wanting to be cherished to being content with being a chattel.

I like the verse 29:31 in Fox "When YHWH saw that Lea was hated, he opened her womb, while Rachael was barren " Leah has a keen sense of YHWH in her life. Remember it is Rachael who later stole her fathers household gods not Leah.
YHWH also remembers Rachael and she gives birth to Joseph probably about 14 years later!

5 comments:

  1. God uses pain to remind us of our need for him. He was dealing with Leah throuch the absence of a loving husband and Rachael through the absence of children. I agree that Leah got the message far before Rachael did.

    Laban does not get my vote for giving his daughter to Jacob for a wife before her younger sister. I think it had a lot more to do with saving face from the inability to provide a husband for his eldest that thinking of her welfare.

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  2. Yes, you are probably right, now that I think about the character of Laban having two women at his "beck and call" fits him better. Siobhan

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  3. it is a amazing plan of the Lord to take His chosen Jacob and the one that was not valued by her husband Leah. Who gives birth to Joseph and she knows and value's the God of Jacob. Who value's her by letting her have the blessing of being the mother of Joseph. Have you ever felt of little value to someone who should in reality be one of your biggest supporter's and even though it is a sad thing to endure. The Lord blesses you with so much more from other's. When you are God's child truly your life is always blessed. Did I make sense I'm a little grogy today sweet sisters
    Diana

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  4. Hum I just got home from a extremely busy day and I was sleepy all day. my mistake Leah did not give birth to Joseph Rachael was Joseph mother, sorry for the misquote.

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