From Leah's pain to Leah's praise

Jacob may have got his just desserts (see today’s first post above), but let’s not overlook the fact that poor Leah was the victim in all this chicanery. Leah starts out as one of the tragic figures of the Bible narrative. The Hebrew word “rak” is unclear in Genesis 29 vs 17, with different Bible translations saying that she had weak eyes, delicate eyes, dull eyes or “eyes with no sparkle.” Did Leah have some kind of defect or infirmity, some kind of short sightedness like her uncle Isaac had later in life? Or is this simply a way of saying that she wasn’t as pretty as her sister? Was this perhaps a veiled culture, where a woman’s eyes were the first and almost only thing you saw of her?

In entering marriage, not only did Leah know that Jacob wanted her sister and not her, she probably deduced that her own father believed no one else would want her either. Why else would he resort to such trickery to see her married off? Leah must have felt completely unloved, and it probably only felt worse when, after just one week of marriage, she had to watch her own sister move into their home and become the much-loved wife in the household. Leah must have felt discarded, unvalued and completely helpless to do anything about her situation.

Perhaps God was the only One who really saw and understood Leah’s pain. He looked on her with compassion and He freed her from the curse of infertility that seemed to plague the women of that family. He made her able to have children - something that defined a woman’s worth and honour in that culture at the time.

Tha names that Leah gave to her first three sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi) and the comments she makes when they are born, reveal her hope that her childbearing might be the thing that would help her secure the love and affection of her husband. But it didn’t, because this marriage had got off on the wrong foot from the start.

But it seems to me that some kind of inner change has happened in Leah’s life by the time her fourth son is born. It’s as if she has shifted her focus from Jacob, and his lack of appreciation for her, and is drawing close instead to God, the One who truly loves and values her. She names her fourth son Judah (which means Praise) and instead of making a commentary on what she doesn’t  have, this time she simply says, “Now I will praise the Lord.”

And then, it says in vs 35, she stopped having children. Was it simply that she wasn’t able to have any more? Or was it because she’d finally realised that she didn’t need to keep trying to prove anything or strive to earn love and acceptance any more?

What a profound difference it makes in our lives when we stop seeking the love and approval of others, and keep our eyes instead on the God who loves us unconditionally. We can relax and praise Him for His total acceptance of us.