When Life's Not Perfect: Genesis 29:31-35

God is there for us in the middle of whatever life brings.  He does not forsake us.  He sees our situation; He understands the sinfulness that put us in in the situation.  He knows we have messed up His perfect creation.  He comes to us and shows us His love regardless.

As Jacob worked the seven years to fulfill his obligation to Laban for Rachel, Leah was bearing children to Jacob.  This might seem odd to our modern ears.  It certainly violates God’s concept that a marriage was between two  people.

However, it was the situation that Jacob found himself.  He wanted Rachel, and this was the only way to make that reality happen given the constraints he was placed under.  Life is seldom lived under ideal circumstances.  We seldom get life exactly as we desire it.

Putting the questionable marriage situation aside, this story teaches us something about Jacob.  He did perform his marital duty.  He may have loved Rachel and desired to spend his time with her, but he did what was necessary to allow Leah to bear children.

This may sound like a small act.  Honestly, it might come across as justification.  Some people might go so far as to call this rationalization of sinful behavior.  Those comments aren’t completely unfair, but Leah was living at a particular time and place where much of her identity and communal worth would have been determined by her ability to have children and raise them.  Her community would understand her fertility and consider her blessed by the children she had with Jacob.

That’s an important dynamic to this story.  God – and probably everyone around Leah – knew she was the second wife.  It was understood that Jacob’s heart belonged to Rachel.  When talking about love, we know Jacob’s love went to Rachel first, and probably only.  There was little Leah could do about this because of the arrangement Laban thrust upon Jacob.  For her entire life, Leah would understand herself as the bride who was given away so her situation could be dealt with before the real prize was brought forth.

Into this scenario, God grants her children.  She might not have felt genuine love from Jacob – and if she did it certainly wasn’t anything like Rachel felt – but she would feel love from God.  God gave her a place for identity.  God gave her a place for worth.  While Jacob was learning how to be a husband in love with Rachel, God allowed her to have children to bear and raise.

This couldn’t have been easy for Leah.  It probably wasn’t all that easy for Jacob and Rachel, either.  To our modern ears this story is fraught with turmoil, unfortunate choices, and plenty of opportunity to say we wished it was different.  In the middle of that situation, God still finds Leah and shows His great love to her.  God is there for us in the middle of whatever life brings.