Team Leah

God has a plan for all of us, and often we have no idea what He is doing.  It may take years or we may actually never know in this lifetime why He orchestrated things the way He did.  God does not make us do things. We have free will. But He knows before we are born what we will do every second of every day, and He may use our decisions as He sees fit to accomplish His will.  Some of the bad things that happen in our lives are the result of God's judgment, and some are not.  But ALL tragedies give us an opportunity to see, acknowledge and act for His glory.  

Jacob's first and least preferred wife was Leah. She felt homely, was never loved like her sister Rachel, Jacob's preferred wife, and often quarreled with Rachel, both jealous of each other. 

But God knew of her distress and had a significant assignment for Leah, unbeknown to her.  Genesis 29:31-35 Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, "Because the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me."  Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, "Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also."  So she named him Simeon.  She conceived again and bore a son and said, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons."  Therefore he was named Levi.  And she conceived gain and bore a son and said, "This time I will praise the Lord.  Therefore she named him Judah.  Then she stopped bearing.

Leah learned of Jacob's God, prayed to Jacob's God, and recognized that God saw her pain and did something about it.  While this did not seem to gain her much more Jacob love, she did recognize with the birth of her fourth son Judah that her sons were answered prayer and gave God glory.  She knew she was loved by God, even if not loved by husband, and that Jacob's rejection became the reason for her abundant son blessing as she took her pain to the God who could help her with it.

Her spiritual life continues to grow as she names her boys from servant Zilpah, "Gad" meaning "good fortune" and "Asher" meaning "blessing".  Whereas the barren Rachel was still struggling in her faith during the servant birthing contest, naming the boys Bilhah bore "Dan" meaning "judging" and "Naphtali" meaning "winning".

The second class wife Leah grew in her confidence as she grew in her faith. 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 you 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 (Jacob) 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."

Mandrakes are herbs with roots that can grow up to two feet long.  They produce small yellow fruits, resembling apples.  Rachel wanted the mandrakes as they were believed to simulate the womb and help with fertility.  God had blessed Leah with five sons.  She was the unchallenged matriarch of the family, and she would call the shots and make the deals. knowing she was loved and valued by God, if not by Jacob.  And she had no problem telling Jacob where he would be sleeping that night.  This encounter resulted in son number 5, Issachar, who she thanked God for.  After son number 6, Zebulun in Genesis 30:20 Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.  So she named him Zebulun.  Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.  I am going to assume this did happen and Leah's tent became the most preferred by Jacob.  But in the very next verse, we see that Jacob did still visit Rachel, and God saw to it that she too provided Jacob with a very storied son, Joseph.  Genesis 30:22 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."

Jacob's blatant preference for Rachel continues on in Genesis 33 when he goes out to meet his twin brother Esau, who he anticipates might be angry with him.  Genesis 33:1-2  Then Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him.  So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids.  He put the maids and their children in front, and Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.  If there was going to be a battle, the maids and children would perish first, followed by Leah and her brood, and the preferred Rachel and Joseph would stand the greatest chance of being safe.  Don't think Leah did not pick up on Jacob's strategy!

Would Leah have come to faith if she had not struggled feeling unloved?  If Rachel married someone else and Leah had Jacob all to herself, would Leah have turned to God as quickly as she did when she was suffering, feeling unloved and inferior?  So often we do not turn to God when life is good.  We have it handled, we feel like we don't need Him today, save the requests for tomorrow.  Leah praised and gave thanks to God after giving birth to her sons despite the fact she was in a loveless marriage.  We too must pray, praise, and give thanks to God for who He is, not based on our current life circumstances.

The fact that Jacob did not prefer Leah in no way altered the plan God had for Leah's life.  She was first born, the first wife, and the first mother in her family and all of these are honored positions.  God has a plan for each of our lives and will make the circumstances work together for good if we choose to follow Him.  None of His plans for us involve evil or manipulation.  Rachel believed she was being punished by God and that was why her womb was closed.  Eventually she prayed with her whole heart to God and this, not her schemes to outdo Leah, allowed God to show His glory.  There needed to be enough older jealous brothers for God's Joseph plan to work, so maybe it wasn't judgment but timing (that further example of family dysfunction is a story for another time).

Leah eventually became grandmother of half of the tribes of Israel (6 out of 12).  Levi, her third son, was assigned by Jacob to the tribe of Israel that would serve as priests in the tabernacle and later the temple.  And her fourth son, Judah, was blessed by a dying Jacob with the promise that the Messiah would come through his descendants. 

Leah outlived Rachel, but dies before Jacob.  Was she alive, living with Jacob's grief over the presumed loss of Joseph?  Did she experience the famines that took her sons to Egypt looking for food?  Did she move with the family to Goshen, Egypt after it was discovered that Joseph was still alive and second only to Pharoah?  The bible does not say exactly where or when she died, but we do know from Genesis 49:31 where she was buried.  (Jacob telling his sons to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah)  There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah."  Transporting her bones from Egypt to Canaan during grief and famine would have been an effort for Jacob, so I am inclined to think she died in Canaan before the family took off for Egypt.  God's plan was always for her to be buried with the patriarchs and matriarchs.