“When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife.” Genesis 30:9 (NKJV)
Ok, Jacob now has 4 wives: Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah with 6 sons as of verse 9. Soap operas seem to have taken the concepts for some of their shows from the Bible! Nothing could be stranger than the truth found in the Bible.
Zilpah has a son and Leah says “a troop has come!” She named him Gad. A second son was born to Zilpah and Leah was happy and named the boy Asher. Now we have 8 sons where Jacob is the father. Two are counted as if Rachel had born them, although Bilhah was the birth mother. Four were Leah’s and two were Zilpah’s.
I understand that in Bible times having lots of children was the expected thing. But I’m shaking my head at the lengths these women went to so they could “gain favor” with Jacob. If I give my husband lots of sons, then he will love me more??? I don’t think I would have fit into that culture very well. But the story of Jacob’s children doesn’t end here.
Leah’s son, Reuben, found some mandrakes and brought them to his mother. Mandrakes were thought to have the capacity to help women with fertility issues to be able to get pregnant and carry their child to full-term. Rachel hears that Leah has received some mandrakes from Reuben and asks her for “some” of the mandrakes. She wasn’t trying to be greedy, she just wanted some.
Well, Leah wasn’t in a mood to share – she wanted to get pregnant again to see if Jacob could fall in love with her. She desperately wanted to be loved for who she was. So, she bargained with Rachel. Leah got to spend the night with Jacob and then Rachel (who had convinced Leah to share at least some of the mandrakes) had the opportunity to spend a night with Jacob. Both women got pregnant even though they had been unable to get pregnant.
Leah’s new baby boy was called Issachar and Rachel’s baby boy was called Joseph. Leah got pregnant again and her sixth son was named Zebulun. Then Leah got pregnant again and had a daughter and she named the baby girl Dinah.
After all these children, Leah and Rachel still were not satisfied. They did not feel loved, but felt only the spirit of competition with no winners. The lesson I need to learn from this story is that I can’t work hard enough to earn God’s love. I can’t do anything to get one ounce of love from God except to accept His love for me. His love is enough.
Listen to Shane Ericks as she sings “Your Love Is Enough.”
Published on MyBibleRoom.com 1/15/24, 6:00 am