Week 2 Genesis 25-42
I’ve never been a woman, but if I was I’d want to be beautiful. Being a beautiful woman must be like winning a lottery. The pharmacy in the mall thinks so – I have to walk through the cosmetic department to get to the toothpaste aisle. My guess is that the retailing philosophy behind the floor plan is: beauty is a more desirable commodity than dental hygiene.
Leah was not beautiful. Her sister Rachel was.
Leah and Rachel were married to the same man, who loved Rachel a lot but didn’t love Leah at all.
Leah had a fully functioning reproductive system; Rachel didn’t.
Leah thought being an unattractive mom would even things out between her and her great-looking infertile sister.
Leah had a son and said now Jacob might love me.
Leah had another son and said God knows that I’m not loved.
Leah had a third son and said maybe now Jacob will be attached to me.
Three boys didn’t help. Jacob didn’t love her – the margin of my bible says that unloved really means hated.
Leah had another baby, but when he was born she said this time I will praise the Lord.
So…it looks like something happened with Leah, something like a reorientation. It looks like Leah had a bit of an interior change.
Note: Thanks to Jamie MacDonald, a local pastor, for a sermon preached last year on Leah (the good ideas are his, gaffs are mine). Story is from Genesis 29.