Two sisters and a man. Betrayal, envy and contention. When allies became rivals. In today’s study we explore the story from the viewpoint of one of the sisters- Leah.
In this study, the tools we would use for this study are
- Who, What, When, Where, and How tool
- Walk-in their shoes
- How does it apply to me today?
The story of these sisters cut across Genesis 29, 30, 31, 33, & 35 So let’s dig in
These passages are mainly descriptive telling what happened . A descriptive text is reporting or telling us about what happened. Text like this lays out the events, characters and situations in which different things happen. They show how people responded to God and their situations and at other times it shows how God played a part in the text.
To find out more on how to study your bible using different tools accessible to everyday people, head over to our website www.damsekwrites.simplymo.co.uk to download a free copy.
Who, What, When, Where, and How tool
Leah means weary
Leah did not feel beautiful, nobody made her feel beautiful.
Leah was the eldest of 2 daughters, given to a man who didn’t love her, by a father who didn’t love her. God loved Leah
Leah played a part in her unhappy marriage to Jacob.
Leah knew about Jacob wanting to marry Rachel.
Leah knew that Jacob served 7 years to marry her sister.
Leah knew of the engagement between Jacob and Rachel.
Leah kept quiet when she could have refused to play a part in Laban”s deception.
Leah didn’t warn Jacob she was not Rachel. She consented to the deception plan of her father.
Leah had a maid given to her by her father.
Leah was married for only 1 week before Jacob married Rachel.
Leah’s deception caused her husband Jacob to be bonded to Laban for another 7 years
Leah was unloved.
God blessed Leah with a son, she named him Reuben. Reben means see a son.
Leah thought bearing Jacob a son would cause Jacob to love her, but Jacob didn’t love her either way. Her third son was called Levi which means joined to. The birth of the 3rd son may cause her husband to be joined to her. Leah continued to look for acknowledgement and affection from Jacob until the birth of Judah, her 4th son, then she turned her attention to God.
Leah named her 4th son Judah which means praise. Her attention is now on God
Leah and Racehl contended with each other, the contention was so great that they succumbed to the practice of that time, they gave their maids to their husband to bear children.
Even though Leah had children, she still went ahead to give her maid to Jacob to bear children for her.
Leah had to bargain with Rachel, for Jacob to lie with her
Between Leah and her maid, they gave birth to 8 tribes of Israel.
Leah and Rachel finally agreed on something, the household to be removed from the influence of their father Laban.
Leah was ready to leave her father’s influence.
Walk-in their shoes.
We have not used this tool recently, so I will give a quick recap of the tool.
Walk in the shoes of different characters in the text. This is seeing the text from these characters’ point of view. How did they either learnt the lesson and were transformed or ignored God’s direction and the repercussions of their decisions? This method helps you engage with the text and see the humanity of the characters. They are often not very different from you and me.
This method has helped me to see Bible characters not as superhuman but as everyday people like me who have to deal with life. The choices and actions they take, how they used their revelation of God to tackle life.
As I read the scriptures I thought to find out the meaning of her name. Leah means weary. What a name. Her parents called her weary. Maybe Leah did not feel beautiful like her sister Rachel. What were her chances when even her parents called her ‘weary’ ? That doesn’t sound very beautiful or encouraging.
Her sister had a suitor, their cousin Jacob but she had no suitors. Her father said she should be Jacob’s bride instead of her sister Racehl. Maybe this was her chance to get married and have a decent life.
In that society and at that time, women had no career, trade or chance of getting an inheritance. She had to be totally dependent on, either her father, her husband or brother for survival. So one can see Leah’s desperation to get married. Maybe she felt that her only way to get a man was to collaborate with her father in deceiving Jacob to marry her.
Leah Played her path in the deception which is wrong.
Leah’s deception caused her husband Jacob to be bonded to Laban for another 7 years. Noone likes to be deceived. Maybe that is part of the reason Jacob did not like Leah. She played a part in his being deceived and made to work for another 7 years for Laban without wages.
Well she got what she wanted but at what price? Her sis she had known all her life is now her arche rivalry. A husband that does not love her despite having bore many sons for him. A home that is full of contention and bitterness.
Even though Leah had children, she still went ahead to give her maid to Jacob to bear children for her. When she temporarily stopped bearing children, not out of love or but In contention with her sister.
What an unhappy home, Leah had to do trade by batter to have her husband Jacob sleep with her. It didn’t matter what Leah did or had, it was Racheal that Jacob loved, not her. It was Racheal who called the shots.
When Jacob told Rachel and Leah of his decision to leave Laban’s employment Leah was so ready to leave. The years must have helped see that her father’s interest has been more about his own prosperity even to the detriment of his daughters’ happiness.
How does it apply to me today?
I think the words one hears daily can affect one’s mindset. Leah heard weary many times a day. Poor kid. Leah was desperate. Desperation pushes people to make decisions they won’t take on a normal day. Her society placed a lot of women’s self worth and survival on marriage. In our society today, how do we appraise women? Beauty, fame, fashion, relationship? Our blogs, print media and digital media scream this all out.
Lets quickly parallel Leah’s story,
In school, there was this girl that wanted to be in the popular group. She felt she had to do everything the group leader told her to do even when she knew it was wrong.
She went ahead to cheat in an exam to be accepted in the group. They were all cut and expelled. The group leader still blamed this girl and told others not to speak with her.
When we look for our identity in another human being rather than God this makes us desperate and take actions that are little our self worth.
What are the words you & I hear everyday? Are they words that affirm us as God’s words do in the scriptures? Or are they negative words? What do I believe about myself and how do I measure my worth? Is it based on the things or people around me?
I like this song by Jamie Grace, it talks about your uniqueness and don’t let others talk you down. I will put a link to the song on the show notes.
Another lesson from Leah’s story is Don’t be short sighted in decisions making
Leah accuses Rachel of taking away her husband from her, when it was Leah who tricked Jacob into marrying her in the first place when Jacob Was engaged to marry Rachel for 7 years. So who betrayed who? She betrayed her sister, lived in a loveless marriage, and was a second class citizen in her own home.
Don’t turn from doing right to doing what is not acceptable to God, just because others are doing it and you are desperate. It may look good for a short term but will that decision stand the test of time? For Leah 7 days of winning in inverted commas was a lifetime of bitterness and contention.
Be your original self. Don’t put the source of your joy in any human being’s hands.
If anything is causing you to be desperate, take your request to God with thanksgiving. Hold on to God.
Next episode, we would look at this same study walking in Rachel’s shoes.
Be blessed.
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