Jacob Claims Joseph’s First Two Sons - Genesis 48:5-7

And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.  But your offspring that have been born after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance.  Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

As Jacob is dying, he tells Joseph that his two sons born to him in Egypt are now his (Jacob’s), just as Reuben and Simeon, Joseph’s brothers, are his.

This is an incredible act of love by Jacob bestowed on his son Joseph.  Jacob is adopting his first two grandsons born to Joseph in Egypt as if they were his own children and as such giving them full rights to Jacob’s inheritance as his own sons.  And that includes inheritance in the land that God promised.  In essence then, Joseph, the 11^th son of Jacob, gets a double portion of the inheritance – an honor that is usually afforded to the oldest son who in this case would have been Reuben, Leah’s first-born – one part going to Ephraim and one to Manasseh.  They too will become tribes and inherit land as tribes.

Some believe that Jacob’s eyes were failing him by this age and that as he spoke these words, he only saw the shadowy figure of Ephraim and Manassah.  Of course they were not young children any more and more likely in their twenties, as Joseph would have been in his fifties.  The reference in the text to Reuben and Simeon is to his first and second born sons and now Joseph’s first and second born sons are adopted by Jacob as if they were his own first and second born.  David Guzik suggests that perhaps they were ‘replacements’ for Reuben and Simeon, “who were in a sense disqualified from positions of status and leadership in Israel’s family because of both their sin” of treachery against Shechem and Hamor in Genesis 34 and Reuben’s sin of sleeping with his father’s concubine, Bilhah in Genesis 35:22.  There is no evidence one way or another on that view.

In earlier verses in this chapter, Jacob says, “God blessed me” and he now wants that blessing (that is, to multiply greatly and to have Canaan as an inheritance) to be shared with, or to apply to, Joseph’s children.  As we consider our blessings from God, we clearly have this built-in or innate desire to have our children and grandchildren experience the same blessings.  That is especially true of salvation.

Here in verse five we also see expressed a very beautiful picture of a grandfather’s love for his grandchildren when Jacob tells Joseph that his sons are his own as well.  As a grandfather I know now what that means.  I have often heard my daughters say to their friends, “I trust my dad totally with our children, he loves them and he takes care of them as if they are his own, always on the lookout for their well-being and safety.”  That means so much to me, but at the same time, it is a description that has to be demonstrated and earned.  And in my case, as a loving father who values life from its conception to its end, earning it comes most naturally.

Also included in this section is reference to any children that Joseph had after these first two.  Basically, Jacob was saying that Joseph’s other children would not be considered separately in any inheritance, but rather they need to identify themselves with either Ephraim or Manasseh, or both.  That is, they would not develop into their own tribes as part of God’s covenant with Israel.  For some, the point becomes a moot one, as we have no record of Joseph having other children.  Yet, it was wise of Jacob to give this as an instruction to prevent any potential future arguments after his death should there have been any other children born to his son, especially given what Jacob did for the first two.  The lesson for us, perhaps, is to learn to make provisions for the ‘possible’ and not just the ‘what is now’.  That’s prudence at work.

A small diversion from our study:

The above thoughts, however, do allow us to consider an interesting topic that many Christians tend to avoid these days and that is the topic of “pre-marital agreements” or arrangements of what should happen in the case of separation or divorce, which, believe it or not, happens frequently between Christians.  Let me state at the outset that I do not believe in divorce.  I believe God intended for us to remain together with our spouse until one of us should die.  That’s the rule.  When one studies the New Testament one will find some exceptions that appear to be supported (e.g. adultery) and that’s fine as well.  However, the fact remains that people – Christian people – do get divorced.  Then what?

Let me share a situation with you.  Person A enters a marriage with lots of hard-earned money and no debt.  Person B enters that same marriage with no money and lots of debt.  After B’s debts are covered using A’s money, the couple then makes major capital (e.g. land, houses, investments) purchases using the balance of A’s hard-earned money.  The couple then divorces.  Person B now gets half of everything that Person A’s money bought.  Without getting into who was at fault, the issue being discussed is whether or not a “pre-marital or pre-nuptial agreement” should have been in place to prevent that situation, and if so, is that what a Christian should do?

There is agreement that the Bible does not provide explicit teachings in this matter.  Pre-nuptial agreements were not around in the days of the Old Testament or the New Testament.  Still, the Christian church, both Catholic and Protestant, tend to be against them, since in God’s eyes, marriage is “until death do us part”.  And I would agree with that view of marriage.  The problem is that in reality, Christian spouses, in numbers almost right up there with their non-Christian counterparts, are leaving each other before death parts them.  Since the Bible is silent on their appropriateness, I find that the position of the Church is idealistic at best and one that ignores the reality of what is happening.  I understand that changing our view of pre-nuptials is very difficult.  It implies that, as a young couple in love, our “Christian marriage” has a chance of failing. Many of us cannot fathom that possibility making it next to impossible to accept for many.  The truth is that in fact, while your Christian marriage and mine has every intention of staying in tact until death, we see the casualties all around us among our Christian friends and acquaintances, and some of them were even believed to have been pillars of the church.  That is undeniable evidence that divorce, as much as God hates it and we should hate it too, does occur among us.  None of us are guaranteed it will never happen to us.

I do not have a pre-nuptial with my wife of almost 41 years.  Neither do any of my three children with their spouses.  They wouldn’t hear of it.  Yet, I still wonder how wise a decision that is these days.  In fact, may I be so bold as to suggest that not only may having a pre-nuptial agreement not encourage divorce, but rather I believe it may well help discourage it, depending on which party was better off before the marriage and which party is thinking of exiting the marriage.  After I wrote this section, I read some research from Cornell University that said people in general are avoiding marriage and living together because they fear the ravages of divorce.  You can read the research here:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/why-young-couples-aren-t-getting-married-they-fear-the-ravages-of-divorce

My fear is that many of the young couples from our so-called Christian families who may not be well-grounded in the faith are doing the same thing and the idea of a pre-nuptial may well help offset that fear and help them to get married.

Returning to our scriptural text, we finally read of Jacob telling Joseph about the death of Rachel his mother who was Jacob’s best-cherished wife (see Genesis 35:19).  Perhaps Jacob, sensing his own dear death, felt he would ease his transition to the grave by remembering, with significant detail, the earlier death of his beloved wife.  As Christians, living after the ultimate sacrifice of God’s Son on the cross, when we become aware of our imminent death, we not only can find comfort in those that went before us but we can also look forward to joining them.  Jacob may not have had that benefit of knowledge, but he approached his own death as if he would have gleaned the same advantage.  I pray it will be so with you and me.

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Palestinians Now Appealing to Evangelicals; they got Bill Hybels' wife.

Now is the time for all good evangelicals to come to the aid of their spiritual family tree. Read on.

Palestinians To Evangelicals: Zio... JPost - Opinion - Columnists

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Rachel’s Death & Tomb - Genesis 35:19-20

So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). And Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.

Jacob’s beloved has died. There are some that would argue her death was in fulfillment of the curse Jacob himself had put on the one who stole the idols of Laban as we read in Genesis 31:32. I believe there is no connection. Others see her death as fulfillment of her own vow in Genesis 30:1, “Give me children, or else I die.” Again, I do not see the connection. She had children so the vow to die does not make sense. The physical cause of her death was indeed simply a complicated or difficult birth for that period of time. The Divine’s rationale for allowing her to die at this time is known only Him.

And the text tells us she was buried ‘en route’ to Bethlehem. There was no reason to take her back to Haran, her family’s land, even though strained relationships with Laban had been addressed. And certainly, Jacob had not yet established a home for his family where he was heading. It made sense to bury her on the way to Ephram.

This exact spot still exists today. This Jewish sacred site is located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. However, the site also has great Christian and Muslim historical and religious significance. For the Jews, this is the third holiest site after the Temple Mount in Old Jerusalem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. It has become a key stop on Jewish pilgrimages, especially females unable to give birth.

The structure on the site, a cube with a dome on top, was built around 1620 by the Turks under Ottoman. The famous British Jew, Sir Moses Montefiore and his wife, increased it in size in 1860. Israel gained control of the tomb in 1967 after the Six Day War. The actual tomb lays 460 metres from the city limits of Jerusalem, but Israel and the Palestinian leader at the time, Yasser Arafat, agreed to leave the tomb under Israeli “control” with a constant Jewish presence.

On December 1, 1995, the Palestinian Authority was granted full control of Bethlehem with the exception of the tomb enclave. To reach Rachel’s tomb, Jews had to do so in bulletproof vehicles under military supervision. In 1996, Israel built a wall around the site. The Palestinians retaliated by saying the tomb was on Islamic land and the domed structure was a mosque.

The tomb was attacked at the end of September, 1996 by Arabs who set structures on fire and for several years that followed, made the site a battle-spot between Israelis and Palestinians. This culminated at the end of the year 2000 when the tomb was under gunfire for forty-one days. In May 2001, fifty Jews were trapped inside the tomb when a firefight broke out between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Palestinians. The IDF left the scene in March 2002. A few months later, September 2002, the Israeli government decided the tomb would be enclosed on the Israeli side of the West Bank barrier. Bulletproof buses now take tourists and Jews to the site daily. In February 2010, Israel announced that Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs would become part of the National Jewish Heritage sites rehabilitation plan against much protest from several countries, including the Turkish Prime Minister was said the tomb was “not and never will be a Jewish site, but an Islamic site.” The saga continues to this day.

But what else can we reap from this verse? First, if indeed the soul departs from the body at death, does it really matter where one is buried? I think not. People make special efforts to return the bodies of their loved ones ‘home’ for burial. There is something to be said for that. It often helps bring closure to the loss. But as long as we realize that it does nothing for the loved one.

Secondly, there is no mention of any public mourning for Rachel. We can assume that it took place in private. Certainly Jacob mourned for her in his own way. Mourning is indeed best undertaken as a personal private emotion. My father died over three and a half years ago and I still mourn his loss. I often wish he could see his family now, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren whom he had known before he died, enjoying his fruit trees and his property as we rebuilt and settled on it. I often wish that I could sit in the front yard on a special bench we put there and enjoy a game of backgammon with him, his favorite pastime, as we used to do. That is personal mourning. I cannot help but feel that exhibitions of loud and extended wailings at funerals do nothing to honor either the dead or those that remain, let alone God who is the giver and the taker of life.

You will remember that earlier we mentioned that Jacob was on a spiritual high (having met with God) just before his wife Rachel died during childbirth. God has a way of allowing that to happen even to those that enjoy his blessings; we cannot escape the downs that life often has to serve us. Again, it is where we go from that point on that matters. Earlier in this chapter, verse 14, Jacob set up a pillar in memory and thanks to God for his blessings and joys in life. Here he sets up a pillar of his sorrows. We need to remember both in our lives and to pass both on to our children.

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Benjamin -- Genesis 35:18

And it came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni but his father called him Benjamin.

Now it is important that we really capture this picture. The group is ‘en route’ to Ephrath or what we now call Bethlehem. Rachel is in great pain. The midwife is trying desperately to alleviate her fears and to make her rejoice in the fact that she is having a boy child. Then this text says that in the process of dying, at the time her soul was departing from her, with her last breath and as a final wish, she names her young child Ben-oni. We will return to the topic of the boy’s name momentarily.

From Genesis 1:1 up to this point, the end of life for all our Bible characters has been recorded as a simple death. The actual word ‘soul’ has been used ten times prior to this, but always in reference to life (e.g. Genesis 2:7) or with respect to staying alive (e.g. Genesis 12:13 and 19:20). But here in this current verse, the word ‘soul’ is used in conjunction with death. The text says it was her ‘soul’ that was departing. This is our biblical introduction to the idea of a soul and body being separated at death. While there is no indication here of exactly where the ‘soul’ departs to, we can at least assign its destination to the very nebulous ‘world of the spirits’. We will have to hold that thought for a long time until we get to some later scripture.

And as she was dying, Rachel names her newborn Ben-oni. The word is translated as meaning “the son of my sorrow.” Under normal circumstances, the birth of a newborn would bring rejoicing. In Rachel’s case, this should have been seen as a victory over Leah, her sister who was also married to her husband Jacob. The two had competed viciously with respect to bearing children for their husband. Is it possible that Rachel, now dying, recognizes the futility of the competition she has spent most of her life trying to win? Seeing that death lies immediately before her, she ignores the last victorious ‘battle’ (the most recent son for Jacob), and she names her son as she did, recognizing she has lost the ‘war’.

Our present verse then surprises us by telling us that Jacob changes the boy’s name to Benjamin. The original form of the Hebrew word was thought by some to mean “a son of days” or in Jacob’s case of “old age”. However, the present ending applied in Hebrew clearly defines it as “son of my right hand”, that is, someone of whom one is very fond of and considers critical to his/her well-being. The question still arises as to why Jacob shows apparent disregard for the name that his beloved Rachel gave the boy, especially when one considers that she gave her life in the process of bringing him to this world. The jury is still out on that, but some scholars suggest that the Jacob, because of his love for Rachel, could not bear to be constantly reminded (whenever he referred to the boy) of her sorrow in life that she so strongly wanted to express at the time of her death. Instead, he chose to see Benjamin as a real blessing and someone who would be his great solace in his old age.

One scholar has suggested that Jacob may have understood the special role God had for Benjamin. The reference to the “right side” as in “son of my right hand” is often associated with greater strength and honor, primarily because the majority of people are indeed right-handed. If one searches for the word ‘right’ in scriptures, one would find several references to this idea of strength, honor, and truth.

As we study this verse, we would do well to think about the memory of our life that we will leave behind. Was she primarily glad or sad? Was he at peace with others or basically angry all his life? Was she a person with hope or usually pessimistic? And so on. The choice is ours. There is still time to change if you do not like what you think you will be remembered for. And for memory’s sake, do not botch it up on your deathbed.

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Rachel is Told Of Her Son Being Born -- Genesis 35:17

And it came about when she was in severe labor that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now you have another son.”

It is not certain whether or not a midwife always traveled with Jacob’s family, but since they knew Rachel was pregnant they certainly had one available on this occasion. In both this and the previous verse, scripture indicates that Rachel’s labor in this pregnancy was ‘severe’. It was in this very adverse circumstance that the midwife tried to comfort her fear. Whether it was fear for her own life or for that of the child to be born is not clear.

The midwife, however, tries to allay that fear of Rachel’s by telling her that she indeed has “another son”. Was Rachel’s soul desire the survival of her newborn? Was it her fear that she may have let her beloved husband Jacob down if it were not a boy or if the child died? These are questions the Bible gives no answers to.

But what we can glean from this verse is most useful in our own times of desperation. Where there is fear, especially fear of death, there is also the presence of life. Rachel sensed a fear. Perhaps it was a fear of death – either hers or that of her baby. In either case, whether it would be her eternal life as a believer in Yahweh or whether it would be the earthly life of her newborn son, a new life would come of it.

When we ourselves are in the midst of the valleys we cross in life, we do not have the advantage of knowing what lies ahead. We cannot read ‘the next verse’ to see how things turn out as we studying Rachel’s story are able to. As a result, fear often sets in. But somehow we must learn to focus on the fact that our God is still with us, that there is an end in sight, and that ultimately, even death is indeed the beginning of life.

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Rachel Labors in Childbirth -- Genesis 35:16

Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor.

Ephrath is not to be confused with Ephraim in the north. Ephrath is the ancient name for Bethlehem. The distance from Bethel almost directly south to Ephrath (Bethlehem) is about thirteen or so miles as the crow flies. One could imagine that with a pregnant woman in the traveling group, the trip could take several days.

We learn here in these verses that Rachel was pregnant again. During that trip from Bethel, Jacob’s wife Rachel began to deliver the child that she was carrying with great pain and agony. This must have been very hard not only on her and the baby, but also on Jacob. He must have been wondering why, right after God’s recent communication and blessing to him, he now had to watch the person he loved so dearly go through this great pain.

Many of us have gone through similar experiences. We had just been on a mountaintop high with God and then He seems to allow us to fall into a major personal valley in our lives. It is during those travels in the valley that we need to remember that the God of the mountaintop has not changed. He is also present in the valleys. He is also committed to seeing us through the valley. He wants to take us to the mountaintop once more, only this time as stronger and better individuals for having experienced yet another valley with Him.
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I believe the most critical response or attitude to have during life’s lowest and darkest experiences is to know that we are, as children of God, being carried in His arms as we move through the valley. We must focus our gaze on the One who holds us. We must be confident in our belief that a mountain that will be climbed, stands just ahead.

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Laban Searches For His Idols -- Genesis 31:33-35

So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. She said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me." So he searched but did not find the household idols.

Having been given permission by Jacob to try and find his idols among Jacob’s caravan, Laban begins to search starting with Jacob’s personal tent, then Leah’s, and then the tent of the two maids belonging to Leah and Rachel. As was to be expected he found nothing.

What is not known is why he left Rachel’s tent last. It could have been coincidence. It could have been location. Nevertheless, that is what he did. What is not clear from the text, however, is the order in which he checked the first three tents. While the order given first is that of Laban checking Jacob, Leah, and the maids’ tent, the passage goes on to say he went into Rachel’s tent right after leaving Leah’s tent. One possible explanation is that he had gone back Leah’s tent for something before going on to Rachel’s tent.

Having had sufficient time to figure out what to do with the stolen idols, Rachel put them in her camel’s saddle and sat on them in her tent. Laban enters her tent and goes searching through it. I wonder if he and Rachel exchanged any greetings or other words. What an experience that must have been to have one’s father come into your room after you’ve left his household without saying goodbye, to look for something you may have stolen? It was bad that you had left unannounced. It was worse that you possibly may have been the one that had stolen his idols. To that, add the fact that he cannot find anything in your room, and you have one very angry father.

Rachel tries to ease the tension by speaking first. She asks Laban not to be angry that she does not stand up to greet him as would have been expected of daughters when their father enters their presence or when a visitor visits them in their home. But her excuse was possibly another lie, namely, that she was in the midst of her menstrual period. Respecting that, Laban continued his search speechless and found nothing of what he was looking for. Once again, God protects His own for His plans regardless of their short-comings.

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Laban’s Daughters Respond -- Genesis 31:14-16

Rachel and Leah said to him, "Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house? Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you."

You have just poured your feelings out to your wives about their father and told them that you want to take the families away and back to the land of your parents. Now you wait for their response. Just how will Rachel and Leah react? What’s the best you could hope for? What’s the worse? What’s the godly response?

As I read this short passage, I noticed a number of interesting things. Note that except for the first phrase, the rest of the words in these three verses are all in quotations. But notice the first phrase before the initial quotation mark. As you do that, you may be challenged about your beliefs regarding how Scripture is to be interpreted at times. Take a closer look. The Bible says, both Rachel and Leah said to him. And then my New American Standard Bible at least proceeds to give us sixty (60) words that these two sisters reportedly uttered in unison out loud. Now, I do not know about you, but personally while I believe that God could have had them do exactly that, I believe it is unlikely that this was indeed the case. There is no real need for it to be the case. Is the Bible less true because it may not be the case? I do not think so. What I believe the author is trying to get across to us is that both Rachel and Leah expressed similar feelings and ideas and basically, each in their own way, and one after the other, responded to Jacob along the same lines. So the quotation does not need to be taken literally as spoken in unison by the two women. But we would miss out on Scripture’s intent if we failed to agree that both women were of one mind as to their response to their husband. The reality is that this example of Scripture text is one of many where we need to take a similar approach.

And what exactly was the reaction of the sisters? Furthermore, was it a surprise to Jacob? It certainly was a surprise to me. Maybe I have been tainted by the awareness of so many women who today would not yield agreeably to those types of wishes from their husbands. But Rachel and Leah did so for their own reasons. This text gives us some insight to the questions we asked earlier in our study when we wondered how Rachel felt being passed over by her father Laban in order for him to marry off Leah first. Or, how Leah may have felt to be part of a marriage of trickery knowing that her husband Jacob was getting her instead of Rachel, the woman he expected and loved. Perhaps they responded the way they did because they too had realized, before Jacob told them, how their father had cheated him time and time again. So they respond the way they did.

The first concern that was verbally identified was whether or not either of them had any inheritance coming to them from their father. What exactly did that mean? The way the question is asked and especially when considered with the next question “are we not considered as foreigners to him?” clearly implies that Rachel and Leah have not been happy campers as Laban’s daughters. When a child considers him/herself a “foreigner” to his/her father, the implication is that the father has stopped being a true father. He stops showing any fatherly affection towards his child. A modern day example comes to mind and it is that of Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s father in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and later a play/movie entitled My Fair Lady. Clearly, Alfred P. wanted to be known as Eliza’s father only when she had came across some considerable means of financial support.

As far as Laban was concerned, his daughters no longer considered him the father he should have been. Although they were not looking for any financial gain from him, it ws clear he had nothing more to offer them emotionally or socially. In fact, they felt used by him, considering themselves as having been sold in a marriage for his own welfare. Rachel and Leah feel that way since Laban had been handsomely rewarded for them over and over again through Jacob’s labors.

Jacob’s wives believed the wealth they now had that originally may have stemmed from their father, was indeed theirs, and his losses were indeed warranted. They believed this was God’s doing. They saw His hand in all this and they now count their blessings, not the least of which was their households and children. Because of this, both Rachel and Leah give their whole-hearted consent to Jacob following the voice of God.

Here in these verses, we see a family that has strived for many years (from Jacob’s striving with his brother Esau and then with his uncle Laban and his cousins to Rachel and Leah striving and competing for Jacob’s affection and for children) becoming a family that is finally united in God’s purpose. Together they agree to move back to the land of Jacob’s family. What a goal for all of us with our own families. But it takes for each of us to see in fact the blessings that God has given us and what He has brought us through and protected us from before this can happen where it currently does not exist.

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God Remembers Rachel -- Genesis 30:22-24

Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son and said, "God has taken away my reproach." She named him Joseph, saying, "May the LORD give me another son."

God heeded Leah, but He remembered Rachel. Is there a difference? I think so. To ‘heed’ is to give serious attention to someone’s request and to take that something or person into account when acting. To ‘remember’ someone is to have them come to mind independently for the purpose of paying them attention or consideration, without any current, in one’s face if you like, request on their part. In Rachel’s case, scripture says He remembered her first and then He gave heed to her long-lasting desire to bear children, and He opened her womb. God was responding to Rachel’s request out of His love for her rather than out of her continuously asking. I would rather be remembered then heeded when it comes to how God deals with me.

So Rachel conceived and bore Jacob yet another son. Believing that God had taken away her reproach, Rachel names the 11th son of Jacob (the 5th from her side of the marriage and the very first by her) Joseph which is translated to mean ‘Jehovah has added’. There are two aspects to this name. First, that God has shown grace to Rachel in spite of her actions and secondly, that God may now continue to give Rachel children, especially another son.

Can you imagine the joy that Rachel must have felt after all these years of not being able to bare Jacob children directly? Even Jacob must have felt something special. After all, this son, Joseph, was the first child of his beloved Rachel. And as for Leah, did this birth signify the continuation of the competition between her and Rachel to bare the greatest number of children?

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The Competition for Jacob’s Attention Continues -- Genesis 30:14-16

Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." But she said to her, "Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son's mandrakes also?" So Rachel said, "Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes." When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he lay with her that night.

As the sons of Jacob grew older, they started visiting the fields while others worked. On one of those occasions, Reuben, his oldest son by Leah, found some ‘mandrakes’ and brought them home to his mother. Research indicates these were a rare find. Some think they were a little orange-colored fruit that grew on bushes. Others think they were Jessamine flowers. Whatever they were, we know that they were thought to have some unique impacts with respect to love and fertility, thus they were referred to as “love apples” for their aphrodisiac powers.

Leah was indeed hoping these would allow her to conceive again. She may have even thought that, simply because she had these, Jacob would want to have sexual relations with her, if for no other reason but to have another chance at more children.

Rachel on the other hand could not stand to see these mandrakes in the hands of Leah. She had to have them even if she had to buy them somehow. And Leah pounces on the opportunity to exchange these mandrakes for what she believes is her right – the chance to be with her husband. This is indeed reminiscent of Jacob taking advantage of Esau’s hunger and desire for his stew as presented in Genesis 25. Without Rachel’s coveting the mandrakes (as Esau coveted Jacob’s stew), Rachel would not have agreed to what Leah was able to obtain in exchange for those mandrakes. At that moment Rachel’s desire for having Jacob all to herself as the most loved was at great odds with her desire for those mandrakes and need for bearing children. Left to ourselves, our inner passions will often contradict each other and take us down a path we should not go.

It is possible that mandrakes may have contained a biological agent that assisted in fertility. Alternatively, it could have been simply a placebo. In either case, there appears to be a correlation between the mandrakes and Leah’s fertility on this occasion. I tend not do agree with those that suggest God allows strange agencies (such as mandrakes) to be used to bring His will about especially if the people that engage these agencies are giving them, rather than God, the credit. The theology of that can be very misleading. What is critical to note is that God listened to Leah and heard her plea (vs. 17) for more children and/or her desire to be with her husband. She desired that blessing and prayed for it, and now through Rachel’s weakness, she gets the opportunity to be with her husband again to help make her prayers a reality.

In this whole scenario one can see some of the complications with polygamy. For starters, Jacob has no way of taking a stand against it at this point. There was clear hostility between Leah and Rachel over their common husband, whom one felt the other had stolen from her. We do not know if it was as painful to Jacob as it was for the two of them. He certainly wasn’t complaining and I imagine it did his male ego some good to have them fighting over him this way. And so he went and spent the night with Leah and had intercourse with her.

There are other things about this arrangement that somehow do not sit well with anyone who has been blessed by the wisdom of God’s original plan for marriage as He expressed it in Genesis 2:24 – one man joined to one woman in single one-flesh relationship. The thought of any wife having to ask permission from another wife to sleep with her own husband, especially as it wasn’t even in the hand of the husband to grant, is not natural nor the way God intended things to be. And then the image of Leah meeting her husband as he came in from the fields at night and asking him to come ‘home’ with her reminds me of all the broken marriages I’ve watched on television over the years. Again, this is not the way I believe God intended marriage to be. That’s why according to www.blueletterbible.org, D. G. Barnhouse, that great commentator once said about this family, “Is it any wonder that this family had a history of strife and bloodshed? Children reflect the atmosphere of the home.”

One may well stop to ask the question, “Was there some other reason, something other than the typical competition between women, especially between sisters, or even a female’s innate yearning to be a mother with child, that gave rise to this race for more and more children for Jacob at any cost?” Some have postulated, “yes”. It is possible that both Rachel and at least Leah, had a sincere desire to help fulfill the promise God had made to their great-father-in-law Abraham and the same promise God had renewed with their husband, Jacob. They knew that Jacob’s seed should be as great as the number of stars in the heavens. They also knew that through this seed “all the nations of the earth should be blessed” as we read of in Genesis 18:18, 22:18, and 26:4. That had to mean that through one of their lineage, someone would be born that somehow would impact all the people of the world positively. There is no doubt that any woman, especially one who had had a religious upbringing as both Leah and Rachel had, would want to be the one through whom this global blessing would be made possible.

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Rachel Wants Children -- Genesis 30:1-8

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die." Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?" She said, "Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children." So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son." Therefore she named him Dan. Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. So Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed." And she named him Naphtali.

Even with all the potential and sometimes actual heartbreaks that children can bring upon a person, human beings, especially women, have been created in such a way to consider them a real blessing and something to be desired. On the other hand, the inability to have children when they are very much wanted, either because of one’s own physiology or that of one’s spouse has often been a devastating blow to many. In today’s world, more and more couples are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each to make having children possible. Thanks to some celebrities, the inability to have children is no longer perceived as a socially unacceptable situation, and more and more couples are turning to adoption. Things were not that different for Rachel.

Having seen that Leah had provided Jacob with four children, Rachel, unless Jacob had been refusing to sleep with her, should have realized that Jacob was not the problem in the fact that she had been unable to conceive. Instead, she does two things that come naturally to people when things aren’t going their way. First, they become jealous of others who are indeed succeeding at the very thing they want to succeed in. Rachel became jealous of her sister Leah. Others, in different circumstances, become jealous of their siblings’ financial success, or their colleagues’ promotion, or their friends’ athletic ability, etc. We tend to focus our feelings on or against an individual that has very little to do directly with the cause of our dissatisfaction. I would venture to say that Rachel was interested in having children for Jacob more than she was wishing that Leah had none. We often wish we could be as successful as someone else, more than we wish that individual to have failed. But in the midst of the hurt of not being able to succeed, we have a tendency to project our negative feelings on the one succeeding where we are failing.

Secondly, even though careful thought would have helped Rachel to realize Jacob was not at fault, she expects him to fix the problem. And not only that, she implies that if he can’t, she’ll die. Wow. Think of how Jacob must have felt. First, the woman he really loves cannot have children. Secondly, she expects him to change that. Thirdly, she tells him she’ll die, perhaps out of a broken heart and he’ll lose her. How would you feel? Had we had all our senses and were displaying all of the Christ-like character we are expected to display, we would still probably do what Jacob did – we’d get angry.

Jacob understands he is powerless to change what He believes God ordained. And he is angry at Rachel for thinking he can do anything about it. Just like Jacob’s grandmother Sarai (prior to God renaming her Sarah), his wife Rachel now takes matters into her own hands and offers her maid Bilhah to Jacob as a wife so that Rachel may bear children for him through Bilhah. There is an interesting phrase in verse three and it is that Bilhah, Rachel’s maid “may bear on my (Rachel’s) knees”. Although I have strived to avoid reference to commentaries wherever possible, this was one instance I needed help to determine whether the comment was one uttered as a fact or symbolically. David Guzik, the director of Calvary Chapel Bible College, Germany, indicates in his work that this referred to a practice whereby the husband impregnates the surrogate (in this case Bilhah, Rachel’s maid) while she is reclining on the wife’s lap. Strictly no room for romance here. This was not intended to be an original version of the much looser sex life of individuals, couples, and triads that some engage in these days and contrary to what God intended for sex and marriage. In fact, Guzik goes on to say that the surrogate may even recline on the wife as she gives birth. All of this symbolically showing that the child was legally the child of the wife, not the surrogate as the latter only substituted temporarily for the real mother both at conception and at birth.

We often hear of sisters, both married and single, who have no children of their own, symbolically adopt the children of their sibling as if they were their own and love them to death. One could have expected that of Rachel. However, it appeared that she was more interested in the idea of having her very own children legalistically, and the power and recognition that go along with that, rather than love those of her sister Leah, especially as they lived in the same household, yet different houses. Or, perhaps that was the cause of her preference. One sin (that of more than one wife) now leads to another ‘sin’, that of desire for power and recognition which in turn results in having a surrogate bear a child for her, something that although acceptable in culture, may not have been in God’s will for her.

And Jacob agrees to all of this. Could he have refused? Perhaps, but unlikely. If you’re a male reading this, just picture yourself in Jacob’s situation. The wife you love cannot have children, legally and culturally she can use her maid as a surrogate, and you are already in a polygamous marriage. He has intercourse with Bilhah and she bore Jacob a son. And Rachel, the official and legal mother names him Dan which means ‘judge’ because she believes God has justified her feelings and desires.

What is interesting is that in those days when a maid is given to the husband as a surrogate, she becomes an official wife of the husband. So for that reason, Jacob may have continued to have relations with Bilhah beyond the initial time that Rachel had used her as a surrogate. Whether this was at the request of Rachel again or whether her permission would have been required at this point is not known. In any case, Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Rachel as the official wife with authority over the surrogate wife still has naming rights and Bilhah’s second child is still Rachel’s legally. She names this son Naphtali which means ‘wrestling’ because she felt she had wrestled fervently with her sister and now with two sons of her own, she prevailed.

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Jacob Gets A Big Surprise -- Genesis 29:21-30

Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her." Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her. Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?" But Laban said, "It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years." Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

Having worked his seven-year agreed-to term, Jacob goes to Laban and officially asks for his wife in order that he can finally have sexual relations with her. The text goes directly from quoting Jacob’s request to telling us that Laban simply gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. Notice there is no recorded account of a commitment that indicates Laban would indeed give Rachel to Jacob. In addition, it appears that the party or feast that Laban threw for Jacob was exclusively, or as a minimum primarily for men. It was the first recorded stag in history. And like most stags today, alcohol and in this case, wine, was flowing freely and long into the night. Jacob himself most likely participated fully in the event. Some believe these feasts or pre-marriage celebrations went on for a whole seven days. With darkness having arrived the first night and Jacob inebriated to some extent, Laban then takes his older daughter Leah and brings her to Jacob and he has sexual intercourse with her. That immediately, in those days, seals her marriage and as a married woman, her father also gives her a maid of her own, Zilpah. All this while Jacob, after having had intercourse, is sound asleep. How was all this possible? It was the custom of the day, according to some, that a bride was to be heavily veiled until she was alone with her husband. Add to that the facts that it was dark and Jacob was likely drunk at this point and you can see how this was indeed possible.

But then there’s always the morning after. Surprise Jacob. It wasn’t Rachel you married last night; it was Leah! So how does it feel to be cheated like that? Can you empathize a little with how Esau must have felt when you cheated him out of his blessing? How about your father Isaac when you deceived him with your fake fur on your arms pretending to be Esau? Cheating doesn’t feel good from this end, does it?

It is said that we often get treated the way we treat others. God has a way of allowing that to happen. We sometimes get what we deserve. What about Leah? She was either an accomplice in agreement or a daughter in submission to her father. We do not know if she secretly loved Jacob. It may have been a combination of all these things – Laban lining up an opportunity to marry off his older daughter by cheating, Jacob getting his just desserts, a cultural tradition that had to be followed, and Leah’s secret love and/or her obedience to her father. And where was Rachel that first night? Where was her mother? Here is a perfect early example of family solidarity even when the head of the home is doing something terribly wrong and deceitful. Every member of the family is easily persuaded by both familial and community pressures to go along with, to remain silent to, to the keep the secret of, the sin being committed. In this case it was deception involving who one had to marry. But more often and especially today, it has to do with physical abuse, sexual abuse including incest, alcohol and drug addiction, theft, cheating through the family business, lying, and even covering for a serious felony. Families, friends, clubs, boards, cabinets, have a way of doing this. Those that object are slowly moved to the sidelines never to be heard of again. When they later go public, they are labeled as disgruntled former members of the group. So many remain silent. Churches themselves are not immune to this. Honesty across the board is the best policy so that these situations do not arise, but when that is not possible, honesty among those that disagree must be pursued, although the cost is often incredible.

Jacob enquires of Laban, “What have you done to me? Our deal was about Rachel. I worked for her and you have deceived me.” He is familiar with broken deals and understanding, and with deceit. Laban blames the situation on a parochial tradition (the “practice in our place”) to marry off the older daughter first. We may not be able to confirm or deny that, but assuming it was true, Laban could have made that a requirement up front and Jacob may well have agreed to it. [Certainly no guest of Laban’s that week disagreed with him, but then again it would have been very unprofitable for him or her to call the host a liar.]

Laban tries to work out a deal with Jacob. If Jacob completes the marriage week with Leah, he would then give him Rachel right after that. Jacob was to have only Leah for one week and treat her as a wife, and be a husband to her, in every way during that honeymoon week. Then he would have Rachel as well. We must not miss what really occurred here. You will remember that Jacob’s father, Isaac, had only one wife, Rebekah. His parents were most upset that Jacob’s older brother, Esau, had taken more than one wife. Jacob came to Laban’s house to find a wife from his mother’s family, but now, due to the cheating sin of Laban is about to end up with two wives. One sin often leads to another and this was certainly the case here.

But Laban wasn’t going to give Rachel to Jacob for nothing. He required another seven years of labor from Jacob, even though he would have her now. Obviously, Jacob had shown by his demeanor that he wasn’t about to flee with Rachel, or even with Leah tagging along. If he agreed to the deal, he would stay and work the second seven years. Laban gives Rachel her own maid, Bilhah, as he done for Leah. So good old Jacob inherits two wives and their maids all in one week.

The Bible gives us no information as to how Jacob actually reacted to this deal except to say that he finished his week with Leah, then had sexual intercourse with Rachel, taking her as a wife as well, and proceeded to serve Laban another seven years. Why he did all that, no one knows, except that we are told he really loved Rachel and more specifically, he loved her more than Leah.

When God created marriage, He intended for a man and a woman to become one and to love each other unequivocally and unreservedly. The love that God instilled in us reserved for our spouse leaves no room whatsoever for another person. At its intended ultimate state, total marital love can only be expressed towards one person. Those that are married and have more than one child, realize that marital love is different than the love we have for our children – a love that can be equally distributed among our children. I love my three children equally and I love my five grandchildren equally. Distance, personality, activity preferences, etc., may mean I spend more time with one over another, but the felt love is identical. My love for my wife, however, with all of life’s intricacies, experiences, memories, struggles, joys, that we have shared after thirty-eight years of marriage, cannot be shared with anyone else. Those, who outside the will of God, think it can, are only fooling themselves. In fact, I would suggest that you are not really in love with that ‘second’ person, but rather you love what that person may be offering you at any given point in your life. Some become aware of that distinction before they get involved, some afterwards and by the grace of God and their spouse they can still return to what God intended, and some when it is too late and lives are ruined.

While God never prescribed polygamy, it is true He never legislated against it in the days of Jacob. But clearly from His early words with respect to marriage, as found in Genesis 2:24, we know that He preferred monogamy. Those that pursued polygamy, did so, partially out of ignorance and partially out of greed, egoism, and sometimes the pursuit of sensual pleasure. We end this section with the knowledge that Jacob now had two wives.

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Jacob Agrees To Work For Rachel’s Hand in Marriage -- Genesis 29:16-20

Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face. Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel." Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me." So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

Before we learn how Jacob responded to Laban’s questions about how he would like to be compensated for the work he is doing for Laban, the writer of the text has to fill us in on some more background information. Laban, we are told, had two daughters. There was Rachel whom we had already met and her older sister Leah. Scripture says Leah had weak eyes and it is an interesting conjecture as to what exactly this may mean. The actual word translated as ‘eyes’ here also has the implication of referring to mental qualities and mental or spiritual faculties in addition to serving as a definition for the physical eye itself. Given the comparison made with Rachel’s appearance that follows, one can safely, but not with total assurance, make the assumption that any weakness Leah had with respect to her eyes did indeed refer to how they looked. It is also possible, as I have read, that in those Middle East lands of the time, dark brown eyes were considered to be a strong asset and bluish-grey eyes appeared blurry and thus weak. Leah may well have had blue eyes.

It is interesting how the Bible is filled with many comparative observations about people. Already we have read the various comparisons of Cain and Abel (farmer/hunter), Jacob and Esau (smooth/hairy), and now Leah/Rachel (weak eyes/beautiful form and face). To this point they have all been on external characteristics (career, skin covering, looks). Rachel was indeed beautiful in every physical aspect and it is no wonder that Jacob fell head over heels for her the moment he laid eyes on her. The text confirms that Jacob loved Rachel, providing a solid answer to our earlier question concerning the manner and intent of his kiss when he first met her. He was indeed smitten by love at first sight.

So to Laban’s question of “how then shall I reward you for your work?” Jacob replies that he is prepared to work for seven years in exchange for being allowed to marry Laban’s daughter, specifically Laban’s “younger daughter Rachel”. First of all, can you imagine anyone today willing to work for seven years for a future father-in-law as a condition for being allowed to marry one of his daughters? I don’t think so. First of all we would consider it totally unfair for a father to make such a demand and secondly, my observations tell me that most young men prefer to dissociate themselves entirely from their perspective wife’s family business and prove they can make it on their own. Most that is, except those that know a good thing when they see it. Without definitely putting Jacob in that category, we can at least say that, since he made this offer himself, he saw this as a fair arrangement. But notice that he was, perhaps intentionally, perhaps not, very specific as to which daughter he was talking about and Laban knew that.

For his part, Laban either mulls it over in his mind or already has a prepared answer. He tells Jacob that it is better to give Rachel to him than any other man he knows and implicitly agrees to Jacob’s request by asking him to continue staying on. The result of that agreement remains to be discovered in the sections of scripture still before us. Suffice it to say that there remains to this day in parts of the Middle East and Europe the belief that a younger daughter should not be given in marriage before an older one. Laban knew that when he made this agreement with Jacob. While some argue there was no such expectation or custom, I side with those that have supported its existence.

So Jacob stayed for seven years, waiting to marry Rachel. Now you have to understand that in those days even engaged or betrothed individuals did not get all the freedom to be together that even our teenagers on first dates get these days. No, this was a very controlled and observed relationship between Jacob and Rachel. And still, the text says that time passed quickly because of love. In particular, Jacob felt the seven years went by quickly, almost like days, because of his love for Rachel. As I read that, I wondered whether my love for my wife would have driven me to wait seven years for her, under the conditions that Jacob had to wait for Rachel. I do know that previous to meeting the woman that would become my wife, I had two female friends (at different times) where clearly something as simple as distance was enough to end the relationship. What Jacob undertook successfully goes to his credit.

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Jacob Stays and Gets Offered Work -- Genesis 29:13-15

So when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he related to Laban all these things. Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”

What exactly did Rachel tell her father and family? Clearly for him, the connection with Jacob was related to the fact that this was his nephew, or more importantly his sister’s son. So Laban runs to meet him. He embraces and kisses him, and then brings him into the house. You do not ‘invite’ someone who is family to come to your house; you just simply and unequivocally ‘bring’ them in. We have made it a practice in our home to have a “you don’t ever need an invitation to come here” policy for our extended family including those close friends we’ve adopted as family. From my experience, I find this to be quite a rare approach to life today.

Now Jacob talks to Laban, bringing him up to speed on all the news from home. What exactly he told Laban about the two reasons for his trip, or the manner of his feelings about Rachel, we do not know. But he said enough to endear Laban to count him among his own bones and flesh and to allow him to stay as long as he wanted to. And the text says he stayed one month.

What he was doing to pass the days in that month is not clear. There are some that believe Jacob didn’t do much as he himself came from a very rich household and not used to hard work. But the next statement, at face value, seems to indicate that wasn’t the case. It is likely that as a guest, and based on his performance at the well, Jacob had been quite industrious around the house, serving and helping out wherever he could. So much so in fact that Laban valued his help and indicated that if he were to continue working for Laban as he had, then he should be paid something. In fact, he asked Jacob to name his price. Again we do not know Laban’s motive for his offer. Did he think that Jacob would be very reasonable and set a value on his wages far below anything Laban would be paying if he had hired the equivalent help locally? (Besides, he did have other sons, whom we’ll learn about later.) Was the offer made to keep Jacob around longer simply because he loved his nephew as family? Was he just trying to help Jacob financially as a young man? Or, did he have any plans for Jacob in relation to his daughters?

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Jacob Meets Rachel and Kisses Her -- Genesis 29:9-12

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept. Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father.

As Jacob is continuing his conversation with the local shepherds, Rachel arrives at the well. The scripture says she was a shepherdess. And here all along some of us thought this was man’s work years ago. Surprise, the owner of the flock probably picked his own family member to look after his interests, especially when it came to being present at the opening of his well each day. For those of you who know the story that is still to come, Rachel plays a significant role for several more chapters in the Bible and then is referred to later on in the Old Testament and again early in the New Testament. And to think she was simply a shepherd girl. More early proof that God can, and does use, people from all walks of life to accomplish His plan for humanity.

Now notice the sequence of what happened next: first Jacob sees Rachel, the daughter of his uncle (his mother’s brother) and thus his cousin; second he immediately goes to the stone at the mouth of the well and rolls it away single-handedly; third, he waters Laban’s flock; fourth, he kisses Rachel; fifth, he lifts up his voice; sixth, he weeps; and finally seventh, he tells Rachel who he is at which news she runs off to tell her father Laban.

Can you imagine the emotion Jacob was experiencing? He had left home initially to escape the wrath of his older brother and partially to find himself a wife from his mother’s family and then he sees his cousin Rachel. Somehow all that energized him to be able to move, all by himself, the stone that the shepherds could not move without considerable help from others. Was he showing off, helping the other shepherds water their sheep so they would leave him alone with Rachel, or just generally interested in getting things going so that he can return to Laban’s house with Rachel? Scripture does not tell us and neither should we surmise.

He takes care to water Laban’s flock. That could well have been an act of kindness to his uncle’s family or it could have been an act of chivalry (long before the word was invented during medieval times) sparing the young woman from having to water her flock.

And then he kisses her. Now one may argue that this kiss was simply a way to greet a close relative or cousin in this case, seeing them anew after a real long interval or as in Jacob’s case, seeing a kin person for the first time. We have no way of knowing exactly how the kiss played out or what the motivation behind it was. However, if we accept the order of events as outlined above, it is hard to believe that the ‘long lost distant relative greeting’ would wait until after steps two and three above were accomplished. No, that greeting would have occurred after step one. When we meet a relative at the airport, we don’t see them, go and find their bags, get them a bite to eat, and then welcome them with a kiss. We kiss them as soon as we get near them, everything else can wait. I am more inclined to believe that Jacob’s kiss for Rachel was indeed a romantic one planned carefully during the rolling of the stone and the watering of the flock. In fact, he also made sure that they had not even exchanged words between them. Nothing could have stopped him from doing what he had planned to do.

Having kissed her, Jacob fully satisfied that his quest was about to be accomplished and only the details had to be worked out between himself and Laban, he lifts his voice out of sheer joy to God with thanksgiving and he weeps from gladness. God had indeed been with him and blessed him on the outward-bound part of his journey. Having kissed her and thanking God for making it all happen, what finally remains was to simply tell her who he was. And then, reminiscent of exactly what Jacob’s mother Rebekah did after she heard Abraham’s servant praise the Lord for blessing his journey, Rachel runs off to tell her family. The stories have an incredible similarity for God is a God of order and pattern, in nature as well as in the life of His people.

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Isaac’s Success and Wealth -- Genesis 26:12-14

Genesis 26:12-14: Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.

The first thing we notice in this passage is that Isaac, remaining in the land of Gerar, went to work sowing the land that he had somehow obtained or rented. It is also possible that Isaac inherited the land from his father. You will remember that Abimelech had bestowed many gifts on Abraham in Genesis 20, and said to him, “Behold, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.” (Genesis 20:15). That land included Gerar.

Success always follows work. Fame and fortune may come without work, but success implies that someone tried and worked at something in order for him/her to ‘succeed’ at it. Sometimes, especially when we see others succeeding, we want that same kind of success but without any work. I can think of countless times when each of my children marveled at what they saw another child achieve – in music, skating, etc. But when we reviewed with them the cost in terms of work and practice and sacrificing of other things (like television, playing excessively with their friends, or just being lazy) that accompanied this success, they soon realized that they weren’t really ready to pay that price.

When we do work however God does bless. The text says in that same year that Isaac sowed the land, he reaped a hundredfold. That sounds like a bumper crop year to me. And it was so because God wanted to bless Isaac. Through the success of his sowing and the reaping accompanying it, God allowed Isaac to become richer and richer until he was very wealthy. He had lots of flocks, herds, and a large household of servants.

Isaac’s story is sufficient to stop all those who claim, “you can’t be a servant of God and be wealthy”. That is just not true. The issue is not our wealth. The issues are: who we believe is the giver of our wealth, our relationship to our wealth, our dependence on it, our ownership of it, and what we do with it. Genesis 26 clearly indicates that the ownership of land and livestock, other possessions, and even those who serve as employees or servants under your care (business or household), are not a sin. The Bible says, “the Lord blessed (Isaac)” in all these things. With that established, later throughout scripture we will be given further insights as to how we relate to wealth and what we do with it.

But for now let us simply be aware that God can and does bless people physically and financially and with possessions if He so chooses. And let us also be aware that when one has received such blessings, there will always be some that will envy them. The text says that because of all his possessions, “the Philistines envied him.” I am reminded a little bit of the envy that is sometimes expressed towards some hard-working immigrants to North America who do well because God has blessed their hard work. Such envy often comes from those that are nationals in the immigrants’ new country. And unfortunately, those that express such envy are those that have chosen not to work as hard or sacrifice as much so that their labor would be successful.

Finally, for the Christian, such envy may sometimes come from within the Body of believers and that is very hard to understand or accept. It hurts, especially when the person with the wealth is doing so much for the Kingdom with his/her finances and influence. Suffice it to say, there are no easy answers to this attitude save and except the indwelling of the Holy Spirit both in the believer with the wealth and in the believer without it.

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