Genesis 29:31-35 – Trusting God to know what we need

God’s intention for marriage, without a doubt, is for a “one-man-one-wife” model. It is clearly seen in the fact that He only created one woman for Adam. Furthermore, the implication of His instruction to Adam is for a man to cleave to his wife to become one, suggests that monogamy was on His mind. The polygamous model was the result of the degeneration of man. Even in Genesis, we see no shortage of the illustrations of the disharmony that polygamous relationship had brought into the family. Abraham listened to his wife and married Hagar. This is a grim reminder of what more than one wife can do to bring disunity to an otherwise harmonious family. What about Esau, who married two Hittite women and then further married an Ishmaelite woman, injuring parental-son relationship. While Jacob’s polygamous relationship was a deception caused by his uncle, and no fault of his, it nonetheless spelt disaster right from the start. Like it or not, polygamy clearly violates covenantal faithfulness. Christ’s relationship with the church, His bride, best sums up the monogamous love relationship God desires, even in marriage.

We now come to Jacob’s life. Though it was not his choice he became the victim of his father-in-law’s scheme. His duplicity had caught up with him and its time he drank of its bitter medicine. Here he was at the mercy of Laban his uncle. He had two wives who were sisters. The one who was not his choice, masquerading as the one he loved on his wedding night, and stole his affection. The one he truly loved, had at best become a second wife. This pair of sister-wives would use the birth of their own or surrogate children, to insult or celebrate to gain say over the other. The mess this multiple relationship had created would play itself out in the course of time.

Meanwhile, God was at work to fulfil the Abrahamic covenant. The Lord brought about the 12 tribes of Israel out Jacob’s four wives. The patriarch himself would not have guessed that he would father 12 sons. If anything Jacob could recall, it must be God’s reiteration that his descendants shall be as numerous as the dusts of the earth and that they shall be a blessing to the earth. We shall see that his children would come in three sets of four: Leah gave birth to the first four, then the maids of the two sisters, Zilpah and Bilhah, gave birth to four. To make up the 12, Leah gave birth to two more and Rachel gave birth to the other two, making the last set of four.   

The ability to conceive is described here as divine initiation. We get the impression that God had been working behind the scene to bring about the fulfilment of His plan. He closed up the womb of Rachel while opening up that of Leah. While Jacob worked his socks out to pay off the seven years for Rachel, the older sister was giving birth to try to win his love. Just imagine two desperate wives – one desperate for the husband’s love and the other desperate for a child.  

The names given to the four sons of Leah revealed her hope for Jacob’s love. She had hoped that with the birth of Reuben, the first son, Jacob would love her. And with the birth of Simeon, her hope for Jacob’s love went higher. This supposed that despite the birth of Reuben, she did not get what she had hoped. In naming her third son Levi, she cherished the hope that Jacob would be more attached to her. For the name Levi means attachment. She went from longing for love to just the longing for Jacob’s attachment. But at the birth of Judah, she must have given up hope of ever gaining Jacob’s affection over that of Rachel. Naming this forth son Judah was telling. She had finally come to accept and be thankful for whatever she had been blessed. So she called him Judah, meaning praise. Nothing can be more settling in life than to be thankful to God for all that we have. Having hope is great but accepting God’s plan is needful. We must place our hope in Him. And while waiting for the outcome, we must thankfully praise Him.