Today I want to share a little bit from the
life of Jacob, Leah and Rachel.
So, first Jacob’s life…. Jacob, fleeing
from the wrath of his brother, Esau, lands up with his Uncle Laban. Laban had 2
daughters Leah and Rachel. The Bible tells us that, Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful
but Leah had weak eyes. (Genesis
29:17), whatever that means, but it
obviously wasn’t anything complimentary. In fact, it subtly conveyed the fact
that Leah was not as attractive as her sister. Jacob predictably falls in
love with Rachel and offered to work for seven years for her hand in marriage. But
after the ceremony, he found himself married to the wrong person, Leah, instead
of Rachel. Jacob, who had deceived his poor blind father, pretending to be Esau,
was now deceived by Laban. We keep sowing
all kinds of stuff during our lifetime,
could be bad or good, kind or unkind,
truth or deceit. We may remember it or
forget all about it. But the principle still holds. What we sow, we will
always reap. It may or may
not be immediate.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY….7 years earlier, Isaac thought that it was
Esau he was blessing. 7 years later Jacob thought that it was Rachel he was
marrying.
Coming to Leah. Categorized as tender eyed,
eclipsed by her sister, yoked to a husband who obviously loved her sister more
than her; Leah must have felt lonely and rejected. In a world, which attaches a
lot of importance to outward appearances, the not so attractive, not so smart,
not so talented people may often find themselves sidelined. Many of us can
identify with Leah, many of us who have faced rejection at some time or the other,
from people around us. Who may cry their hearts out bitterly into the pillow at
night, but put on a brave face by day. But the Bible say’s Gen 29 v31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not
loved, he
enabled her to conceive. Isn’t it encouraging to know that God notices the
unloved ones; He chooses the one’s whom the world rejects and blesses them? We can see that from verse 32 onwards, how
Leah was blessed.
32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth
to a son. She named him Reuben,[b] for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband
will love me now.”
33 She conceived again, and when she
gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.[c]
34 Again she conceived, and when she
gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to
me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was
named Levi.[d]
God had blessed Leah with
3 sons, but that wasn’t enough for her; she still craved for her husband’s love
and approval, which obviously wasn’t forthcoming. So, she remained in her
misery. That’s what happens when we are too focused on getting approval from
the people around us and not focused on God. Unless we learn to find adequacy
in Him who is El Shaddai, the All Sufficient One, a God who is more than enough
for us, nothing ever will be enough for us.
Let us look
at Rachel’s life. Rachel apparently had everything going for her- beauty, husband’s
love. But she could not have children Gen 30 v 1 says "Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children,
Rachel envied her sister. Just think about the irony of the situation. Both sisters were miserable and envious of each other…
Although everything looked great
from the outside, Rachel was empty on the inside. Her sister was fruitful, but she was
barren.
You see many times we look at outward
appearances of people around us and think that they lead wonderful lives. Great
pics on FB, Instagram… awesome vacations, beautiful clothes, houses etc. In
effect, they project a grand lifestyle, when they may actually be empty from
within. We compare their projected images with our real images and wrongly
conclude that everything is perfect in their lives. When we look at the lives
of people around us- projected or real, we need to be careful not to give
place to envy in our minds. Envy is no
solution to our problems. It only makes us blind to what we have and focused on
what we lack.
