The Competition: Genesis 30:1-13
Thankfully, God redeems our choices and restores the value for what He intended us to receive. We’re not perfect. We lose sight of the prize all the time. We lust after what feels good on the surface and ignore things meant to genuinely feed us on a deeper level. God knows this about us and continues to love us anyways.
There can be no doubt Jacob’s marriage with Leah and Rachel was less than ideal. It is impossible to split love fairly between two people. Someone always feels less loved. Quite often both people feel like they are the less loved party and nobody wins! For example, how often do children all claim that one of their siblings is more loved by their parents?
Jacob lived in a culture where it was common for a man to have multiple wives. Even Abraham had a wife and concubine. Few people in Jacob’s day would have looked at this arrangement and found anything wrong with Jacob’s two wives.
That explanation doesn’t justify the action. God intended for marriage to be between a man and a woman. God intended for two people to come together and demonstrate to each other an expression of His love for us.
Just because a story exists in the Bible doesn’t mean it is God’s will. It certainly doesn’t imply the behavior has God’s approval. The Bible is filled with stories of people who make decisions and then deal with the effects of those decisions for the rest of their life. That is part of what makes the Bible such a great tool for our lives!
Eventually Leah and Rachel get into a duel. Rachel recognizes she isn’t producing children. When she comes to talk to Jacob about it, he isn’t helpful. He implies his children through Leah indicates the problem isn’t with him, which isn’t the most helpful comment to make at the time as it inspires the competition between Rachel and Leah.
Rachel, taking a page from Sarai, gives her servant Bilhah to Jacob. They produce an heir. While Rachel celebrates the fact that a child was born, I can only wonder how it affected her identity deep within. Publicly, though, she considers the birth justification for her actions. The tactic is so successful that she sends Bilhah to Jacob again. Another heir is produced.
Rachel believes she has prevailed over her sister. Unfortunately, it inspires more of the same for Leah. Two more heirs are produced through Zilpah.
It is painful to watch people turn something glorious - like the birth of a child - into a competition. Love is to be shared and treasured, not competed for and flaunted. It is easy to get so caught up in the passion we forget about the depth of love. Human beings are adept at taking something God intends for good and losing focus until the goodness has mutated into something of substantially lesser value. Thankfully, God redeems our choices and restores the value for what He intended us to receive.
