As a child, when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Ben would say, “I want to be like Dave.” Ben’s older brother was athletic, sociable and always got top marks at school. Ben, on the other hand, says, “I was clumsy in sports, timid and struggled with a learning disability. I’d always wanted a close relationship with Dave, but he didn’t. He called me ‘the boring one.’ ”
Ben spent much of his life pursuing his older brother’s love in vain. It was only when Ben became a follower of Jesus that he learned to rest in the love of his Saviour instead.
Leah, the first wife of Jacob, spent much of her life pursuing her husband’s love (Genesis 29:32-35). Jacob, however, remained devoted to Rachel. But God saw Leah’s plight and made up for the rejection in her life. He blessed her by allowing her to be a mother, a great honour in her culture at that time (v. 31). Leah, unseen and unheard by her husband, was lovingly seen and heard by God (vv. 32-33). She gave birth to a daughter and six sons, one of whom was Judah, a forefather of Jesus Himself. She said at his birth, “This time I will praise the Lord” ( v. 35). Leah lived a long life in Canaan and was buried in a place of honour—with Jacob’s family (49:29-32).
When we experience rejection, let’s find comfort in Leah’s story. We can rest in the love of God, who makes up for what we lack.
By Karen Huang
REFLECT & PRAY
How can you rest in God’s love when you’re rejected? How might you entrust your pain to Him?
Dear God, thank You that Your love heals me in all the places where I’ve been rejected.
Consider more stories like this with The Women of the Bible at a Glance at odb.org/ataglance
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Genesis 29:31–30:24 and 35:16-26 tell of the births of the twelve sons of Jacob, whose name means “deceiver.” His name was later changed by God to Israel, which means, he “struggled with God” (32:28). Jacob’s life was characterized by favouritism (29:18, 30), spousal neglect, jealousy, and rivalry (29:31–30:1 ). That God would name His chosen nation after Jacob and use his twelve sons to become the ancestral heads of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel points to His covenantal love and unmerited grace (see Romans 9:10-18). Equally noteworthy in Leah’s sad story is that two crucial institutions of the nation of Israel—the Aaronic-Levitical priesthood (Numbers 18:1-7) and the kingship (Genesis 49:10)—come from her third and fourth sons, Levi and Judah (29:34-35 ). These two sons were from a marriage in which she was unwanted and unloved. Yet God honoured Leah and graciously looked after her (vv. 31-35; 30:17-21).
K. T. Sim
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