Hello! and Good Morning! Yes, it is morning as I write this about one of the old stories of Genesis--(which means The Beginning)--and Abraham's lineage for the future. There are so many that they seem to jump off the pages.
Yesterday, we found Jacob having been fooled deliberately by Laban, the father of Rachel, the one Jacob loves. Leah, the eldest daughter and her maid were given to Jacob after seven years of Jacob's hard work. When admonished for not giving him Rachel, Laban also gave Jacob his beloved, Rachel, and her maid, but it would cost Jacob another seven years of work.
Now, four women later, poor Jacob is never quite certain which woman will be in his tent. God saw that Leah, who hoped for love, was not loved. So God acted and Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son, saying, "Surely my husband will love me now." Again she conceived and had another son, naming him Simeon. For the third time she conceived and had another son, Levi, and the fourth son, Judah, followed. Leah praised the Lord.
But Rachel, did not. No, she realized four boys were born to Leah and she herself had none! She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!" But, Jacob lashed right back, "Who am I? God? He has kept yu from having children, not me!"
Discouraged, Rachel said with a long face, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Make her pregnant that through her I, too, can build a family!" So, Bilhah, too, had a son and named him Dan. Soon, she had a second son and Rachel named him Naphtali. By this time, it felt to the women like there had been a contest between them and they had no friendliness.
When Leah found she could no longer have children, she gave her maidservant, Zilpah, to Jacob as a wife. Zilpah bore him a son and called him Gad. Then, a second son was born to the maid and she called him Asher.
Now, Leah's eldest son, Rueben, went to the field during wheat harvest and spotted some mandrake plants and brought them to Leah. Believing they were good medicine for someone who wanted to get pregnant, Rachel saw them and begged Leah for some of them for she could not stop lamenting for her hack of a child. Sorrow for herself saddened her, but jealousy of her sister made her bitter.
Rachel bought the mandrakes from Leah by allowing Leah to go again to Jacob's tent. Leah conceived twice more during this time. Over the years, total, she had six sons and one daughter, Dinah.
Then God remembered Rachael and she became pregnant. At last! Joseph was born and much later, Benjamin. Her maid, Bilhah also had two sons during this time, Dan and Naphtali. Twelve sons in all, Jacob was proud but desperate to return to his own homeland. But Laban begged him to stay a while longer. He said to Jacob, "If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by my gods that your Lord has blessed me--because of you! Name your wages and I will pay them!"
Jacob, too, used a little cleverness. "I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them, but you must let me go through all the flocks today and set aside for myself every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages. And my honesty will testify for me in the future. Any goat or sheep that is not spotted or speckled, will be considered stolen."
"Agreed," Laban said. "Let it be as you say!" And the deal was done. And the flocks were separated into two flocks, one with speckles or spots, and one without blemish. And Jacob tended them all. But, near their watering holes, Jacob cut branches from the trees and peeled the bark somewhat from them, making white stripes on them so the animals would see the contrasts while they mated. Indeed, soon Jacob's flock was huge! Jacob grew exceedingly prosperous, and his worth included maid servants and men servants, camels and donkeys. (End of today's story)
Rachel became so tortured even though Jacob was strongly loyal to her. She was so frustrated by her barrenness, so very desperate to compete with her sister, Leah, for Jacob's affection that she became self-destructive. She tried to gain something she already had--Jacob's love.
I wonder, have you, have I, ever tried to earn someone's love, or affection, or approval? We just end up with false ideas and claims. One point is necessary here: God loves us with a love that has no beginning and no end. All we need do is go to God and respond to His love. We don't need to earn what is freely offered.
God has demonstrated His love for us by the Cross. He died--instead of me!
Live and love in that freedom.
Jo INMN
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