The Women of Genesis

WOMAN EIGHT

Rachel and Leah
The Wife of Promise and the Wife of Deception
(Also included will be the other 2 wives of Jacob.)

I. Rachel, the wife of promise.
    A. She was the second daughter of Laban and was promised to Jacob to be his wife. (Gen 29:16)
    B. She was a dutiful daughter.
        1. She was dutiful to keep her father’s sheep. (:6, 9)
        2. She was dutiful in the customs of family hospitality. (:10-12)
        3. She was dutiful to fulfill the marriage customs of her family.
               a. She was dutiful, as the second daughter, to be married second- not first. (:25-28)
                b. She was dutiful to marry the man her father chose as her husband. (:28)
    C. She was dutiful as a wife.
       1. Because of early barrenness, she dutifully followed the customs of the time to give children to
           her husband Jacob. (30:3-8)
       2. When God later opened her womb, she was dutiful to bear children. (:22-24)
       3. She even died in childbirth. (35:16-19)
    D. She was dutiful to God to bear (as the wife of promise) the child of promise, Joseph who
            ruled over his brethren when they came into Egypt and saved the family from destruction.
        1. She was supposed to be the first wife, who was always the wife to bear the child of promise. (29:18-20)
        2. She bore Joseph to Jacob. (30:23-24)
    E. The negative side of Rachel.
         1. She became bitter and accusative, because of her early barrenness. (:1)
             Her husband had to give her a reality check. (:2)
        2. She became devious and a thief, out of anger against her father. (31:14-16, 19, 30-35)
        3. She may have been an idolater. We don’t know whether she stole her father’s gods out of
          greed or because she wanted them for worship.
               If we refer to ch. 35, we find that she probably was an idolater, as were most of Jacob’s
          household. (35:1-4)

Summary: These are the lessons from the life of Rachel.
    1. God will always keep His promise: in His way and in His time.
    2. We must guard against bitterness when circumstances seem to contrive against us.
    3. We must be dutiful in life and in death, to both God and family.
    4. No one is perfect. We all have a positive side and a negative side.
    5. God works on our weak points to turn us to righteousness.
        Referring to the bitterness, thievery, and probable worship of the stolen idols, by Rachel.

II. Leah, the wife of deception.
    A. She was the firstborn of Laban and sister to Rachel. (Gen 29:16)
    B. She was tendereyed (lit. weak eyed) in appearance. (:17)
    C. She was an obedient daughter even to the point of deception.
        1. She was obedient to her father in marrying Jacob. (:23)
        2. She was obedient even to the point of being a party to her father’s deception. (:23)
        3. She was obedient to the marriage customs of her country. (:26)
    D. She was the less loved wife but the first to conceive because of that fact.
        1. Leah was less loved than her sister, Rachel. (:30)
        2. Because of that fact, God allowed her to conceive first.
              a. God allowed her to conceive and bear children first. (:31)
                b. She bore a total of 6 sons and a daughter to Jacob before her sister Rachel bore him any
                children. (:32-35; 30:17-21)
                c. Leah’s place as the wife who bore children first caused envy in her sister Rachel. (:1)
    E. Leah was somewhat of a manipulative and even callous person. (:14-18)
              She even named the son of that paid sexual encounter “Issachar,” meaning, “there is 
        recompense.”  Or, as Leah put it in Genesis 30:18, “God hath given me my hire.”
    F. She was a dutiful and obedient wife who loved her husband.
        1. She loved her husband even though he lived the majority of the time with her sister, Rachel, who 
           was his second wife; and apparently he only slept with Leah for purposes of impregnating her
           for the purpose of propagation of the family name. (29:32-34; 30:15, 20)
        2. She was dutiful to bear 7 children to her husband. (op cit)
        3. She was obedient to follow her husband. (31:14-18)
    G. Upon her death, she was buried in the family burying place, the cave which was in the field of
        Machpelah. (Gen 49:30-31)

Summary: The lesson from Leah is that beauty is secondary. Obedience and faithfulness will always be rewarded by God. Even though she was the less beautiful (by the standards of her day) than her well-favored sister and much less loved by her husband, God still allowed her a great honor, to bear Judah (Gen 29:35) the patriarch of the tribe from which the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour, was eventually born.

III. The other wives of Jacob.
    A. Bilhah. (Gen 30:4)
        1. She bore Dan. (:5-6) (Dan means “a judge.”)
        2. She bore Naphtali. (:7-8) (Naphtali means “wrestling.”)
    B. Zilpah. (:9)
        1. She bare Gad. (:9-11) (Gad means “troop.”)
        2. She bare Asher. (:12-13) (Asher means “happy.”)

IV. Summary.

    The wives of Jacob numbered four; and the number of children born by his four wives was twelve. These were the twelve patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel.

    “Israel” was the name given to Jacob by God in Gen 32:28; and it means “God prevails.” His original name, Jacob,” meant “heel holder” or “supplanter.” Which is exactly what Jacob had done to his brother, Esau, the firstborn and rightful heir, whom he had truly “supplanted.”

    Jacob is called the “father” of the nation of Israel; therefore, the four wives have to be considered the “mothers” of the nation. However, because of the patriarchal setup of the nation of Israel, they are not referred to as such- neither in the Bible nor in Jewish historical writings.