The last time we did anything related to the Genesis study, we looked at Leah and Rachel's competition for their husband Jacob's love. Jacob and Rachel were in the throes of a love story to which Leah was not invited. Nonetheless, her father, Laban, tricked Jacob into marrying Leah instead of Rachel because Jacob had agreed to work for Laban for seven years to marry Rachel. So Laban figured he could get double the time from Jacob by forcing him to marry Leah first. Fortunately for Laban, Jacob loved Rachel so much that he was willing to work 14 years just to marry her. God saw how unloved Leah was. So he caused her to have six sons and a daughter by Jacob while Rachel remained unable to conceive for a long time. Finally, Rachel was able to get pregnant and give Jacob two sons: Joseph and Benjamin. This explains later why we see that these two are Jacob's favorites. They were the product of the wife he actually loved and the only one he actually wanted to marry in the first place.
We move into Genesis 30, where this soap opera love triangle between Jacob, Rachel, and Leah continues. I already told you that Rachel bore Jacob's two sons, but as the chapter opens, she is still childless. So, in ever so dramatic fashion, she says to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!" As I said the last time in the Genesis study, it's not like Jacob was doing his part. After all, the Bible says that Rachel was much more beautiful than Leah, and Jacob loved her more. He wouldn't even be married to Leah if he hadn't been tricked into it. That's what Jacob means when he says, "Am I in place of God, who has kept you from having children?" I wouldn't be surprised if Jacob's conversation began the same way one of Adam's conversations with God did: "This woman you gave me..."
Rachel, showing the impatience that characterized other founding Hebrew matriarchs, tried to help God out by giving Jacob her servant Bilhah to him as a wife. Bilhah conceived and gave birth to a son they named Dan. Here, "Dan" means "he has vindicated" because Rachel said, "God has vindicated me. He has listened to my plea and has given me a son." Bilhah conceived a second time and bore Jacob a son named Napthali (My Struggle) because Rachel said, "I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won." Side note: The title of Adolf Hiter's book Mein Kampf is "My Struggle" when translated into English. I'm not at all comparing Rachel to Hitler. I noticed that when I looked up the meaning of the name. It caught my attention. Call me "Captain Obvious," but Leah and Rachel's relationship is not a healthy one. To be fair, everyone was put into what must have seemed like an impossible situation by Laban, but here they were. You can't change the past. You can only go forward and make the best of the future. The sibling rivalry between the sisters is compounding the dysfunction, however. This is seen in Leah's next move of "Anything you can do, I can do better." Leah gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife, just as Rachel had done with Bilhah. She produced a son named Gad (Good Fortune) because Leah said, "What good fortune!" When Zilpah became pregnant again, Leah was happy. So she named him Asher (Happy).
During wheat harvest one year, Jacob and Leah's eldest son, Reuben, went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants. Reuben brought them to Leah, prompting Rachel to ask Leah for some of them. Leah replied, "Wasn't it enough that you took my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?" Rachel responded, "Very well. He can sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes." So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me," she said. "I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he slept with her that night. So what is this all about because if I loved someone, I wouldn't be okay with them sleeping with someone else and willing to trade that for mandrakes? Mandrakes were small yellow berries that were believed to be an aphrodisiac that increased fertility. So Reuben is doing this on behalf of his mom. The root word of the Hebrew word for "mandrake" means "love." Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, has a nickname: The Lady of the Mandrake.
So Jacob sleeps with Leah, and God listens to her so that she becomes pregnant again. Leah then begins to think, "God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband." So she named him Issachar (Reward). Then she got pregnant again with a sixth son called Zebulun (Honor) because she said, "God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor because I have borne him six sons." Sometime later, she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah (Avenged, Judged, Vindicated).
Finally, God remembers Rachel, listens to her, and enables her to conceive. Finally, although we can feel bad for Leah for being put in a situation she should have never been put in, this isn't fair to Jacob and Rachel either, who really did love each other. So Rachel's prayers are finally answered, and she can conceive. She gave birth to a son named Joseph (May He Add), saying, "God has taken away my disgrace. May the LORD add to me another son."
God is mentioned seven times in Genesis 30. When we mark him, here is what we learn about God from this chapter. God is the one who makes people capable of having children. He listens to prayers, even to prayers that seem like they take forever to answer. Remember how long it took for Abraham and Sarah's prayer to be answered. Now we can see how long it has taken Rachel's prayer to be answered. An old but true saying is, "God's delays are not God's denials." If you have been praying for something and have not received it, it doesn't mean God isn't there, can't hear you, or isn't interested. It just may not be the right time yet. People get stuck in ruts when they try to come up with their own plan or help God out rather than waiting on his timing. This chapter says God remembers people. Don't forget that.
So that's what this chapter says about God, but what about infertility? The Bible is not silent on that issue either. Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife, and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek's household from conceiving because of Abraham's wife Sarah (Genesis 20:17-18). When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to create, but Rachel remained childless (Genesis 29:31). God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant (Genesis 30:17). Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive (Genesis 30:22). Zechariah and Elizabeth were not able to create until they were very old. Then Zechariah's wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days, he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people" (Luke 1:7, 24-25). Elkanah gave Hannah double portions of sacrifice meat because he loved her and God had closed up her womb, for which her rival kept provoking her to irritate her. One day, Hannah was weeping bitterly in prayer about this when she made a vow, saying, "LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." Early the following day, they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. So over time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel (Heard By God), saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him." The Psalmist wrote, "You created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:13-16). These passages make it clear that it is God who gives children. It seems like there is a connection in some cases to women especially loved by their husbands getting fewer children and/or waiting longer than those desperate for love (examples: Leah, Hannah, Sarah). There is so much pain and heartache connected with infertility, which is why we need to adhere to what the Bible has told us when facing barrenness, looking to God alone as the source for having children, not concubines or mandrakes.
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