The Encourager
“The Lord's Power to Succeed”
The Lord’s Power to Succeed
by Jeff Curtis
The patriarchs and the later Jewish people viewed parenthood as a heritage of God (Psalm 127:1, 3; “1 Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” and “3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.”) This view of family stewardship was especially appropriate in the case of Jacob, to whom God repeated the same basic promise that He had made to Abraham and Isaac. Yahweh reiterated His land promise, (Genesis 28:14).
The Lord had chosen Jacob to the next in line for this promise to be fulfilled. But strife between his two wives soon led to his involvement with two secondary wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. These four women helped to build a large family for Jacob and also created many problems for the patriarch. Jacob would participate in creating a family in which jealousy and division would often flare up in disturbing ways.
God in His mercy and compassion, blessed the afflicted and unloved in order to fulfill His plan for building a nation (29:31-35). In 29:30, we read that Jacob “loved Rachel more than Leah.” When “the Lord saw that Leah was unloved,” He enabled her to conceive (29:31). Leah was wrong in thinking that now Jacob would love her (29:32). It was impossible for Jacob to love both equally
Nevertheless, Leah lived in hope that Jacob would love her more if he realized that her fertility was the result of God’s involvement. After an unstated period of time, she gave birth to a second son. She gave the Lord credit for this birth saying that He had “heard” that she was “unloved”; suggesting that she had been praying to God about her unhappy condition.
Leah didn’t give up easily. She surpasses Rachel in one area, and that was childbearing. Since Jacob continued to want sons, she evidently encouraged him in that respect; so, she conceived and gave birth to a third son. She thought this time her husband would “become attached” or “joined” to her; therefore, she named this sone “Levi” (29:34). She had physically joined with Jacob, and together they had produced three sons; but she wanted a deeper joining of the heart like the relationship she saw with Jacob and Rachel.
Leah was disappointed again, but she wouldn’t stop trying. A fourth time, she conceived and bore Jacob a son. It seems clear that she had been praying to the Lord because, following this birth, she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” She named this son Judah (29:35). With the birth of Judah, Leah decided to stop complaining to the Lord about her husband’s lack of affection. Instead, she determined to praise Him for blessing her with this fourth healthy son.
God honored Leah’s example of steadfast love for her husband in later Jewish history, even though Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved her. This evident because the two most important tribes descended from Leah, through Levi and Judah. The first was the priestly tribe of Levi, which brought Moses, the lawgiver, as well as his brother Aaron, who became the father of the Levitical priesthood in Israel. The second was the kingly tribe of Judah, which brought David, Israel’s greatest king, and ultimately Jesus Christ, the “King of Kings” (Revelation 19:16) and Savior of the world.
