The Lesson of Leah

Genesis 29 The Lesson Of Leah

It is interesting to note that the Scripture says that God saw that Leah was unloved and compensated her grief with the joy of giving her children. He didn’t force Jacob to love her. He didn’t give him love for her. But He saw her grief and He answered that grief. He showed her that as her ultimate husband, He would care for her in ways her earthly husband would not.

It is also interesting to watch her journey with the Lord as well. At first she has made her life about a quest. What she couldn’t have. What she doesn’t have: her husband’s love. She sees her children at first as merely a means to win her husband’s love. She is still hoping that one thing will make another happen, but it doesn’t. However, you see a progression in her walk, her faith with her declaration when Simeon is born. She is beginning to realize on some level that ultimately her life is about her and the Lord. And that the Lord sees her grief, and He cares. But she lapses back into her old mentality when Levi is born. Her last ditch effort is like all of ours; maybe this will work. Maybe this one last thing if I accomplish it will give me what I want.

Then finally there is a shift when Judah is born. She has finally reached a place of surrender. She says when he is born, “This time I will praise the Lord.” She has finally let go of seeing what the Lord brings to her as a way to manipulate, to control. She instead embraces this gift, this precious child as God’s provision, and God’s good gift to her. That is all.

But that isn’t all really. Isn’t it interesting that through this child, the child of abandoned dreams and surrendered hope that He brings the Messiah. It is not through Rachel—Jacob’s chosen but through his rejected wife Leah that God fulfills His promise of Messiah.

And yet we find ourselves naturally feeling sorry for Leah. That she has to endure being an unloved wife. But it is her suffering, her awareness of her pain and willingness to surrender her desires to God, that He uses to fulfill much larger hopes: the hope of Messiah; the hope of Israel for a Savior.

What is it that we find ourselves scheming for? Hoping for? Manipulating our world to get? Perhaps when we as Leah can get to the place where we are willing to just praise the Lord. To see all the events and relationships in our lives as having ultimately to do with the One relationship which supercedes all others. Perhaps out of our dying dreams the Lord will breathe His life, His plan, His hope which will be far greater than we could have imagined.

And what of Rachel? For all that she got, what was her legacy? Is she part of the Messianic lineage? She received her reward in full. Jesus said it best when He says in the beatitudes, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”