This week, we are looking at a section of the very first
letter that is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Genesis. Yesterday,
we looked on as Rachel’s inability to give birth to children resulted in her
giving birth to something else. And that something else was jealousy. Rachel
became jealous of her sister Leah. Rachel
responded by coming up with a plan instead of trusting God’s promises and plan.
Rachel was so driven by jealousy with her sister Leah that she viewed her
situation as a struggle for God’s favor. Leah jealousy responded to Rachel’s
plan by copying her plan instead of trusting in God’s promises and plans.
Today, we will see Moses give us a glimpse into how
dysfunctional this family had become as a result of the jealous competition
between Rachel and Leah in Genesis 30:14:
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 your 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 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." So he lay with her that night. God gave heed to Leah, and she
conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, "God has given me my
wages because I gave my maid to my husband." So she named him Issachar.
Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. Then 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. 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."
Now to fully understand what just happened here, we need
to understand what mandrakes are. Mandrakes are an herb that produced a plum
sized fruit. Now this fruit was considered to be an aphrodisiac and were
referred to as love apples. So mandrakes were the Viagra of the day. Rueben,
who would be between 6 and 8 year old, brings his mother Leah some mandrakes.
Rueben has no idea what mandrakes are; he just saw a nice plant with a flower
and fruit and brought it to his mom.
However, Rachel, who is taking in the scene, knows what
mandrakes are. So Rachel asks Leah if she could have some Viagra, I mean
mandrakes. Leah harshly denies Rachel’s request and accuses her of stealing her
husband. You see, Leah was not having children because Jacob was no longer
sleeping with her. He was spending his nights in Rachel’s bed, not Leah’s bed.
And Leah was jealous. However, at least Leah had children by Jacob. Rachel had
no children. And Rachel was jealous.
So Rachel and Leah come to an arrangement fueled by their
jealousy. Out of jealousy Rachel pays for the mandrakes by allowing Leah to
have sex with Jacob. Rachel, once again, is attempting to help God out by
coming up with her own plan that trusted in the mandrakes ability to enable her
to have a child instead of trusting in God’s promise. And out of jealousy Leah
pays for a night with her husband by giving Rachel the mandrakes, as though
Jacob is a prostitute. And Jacob responds to this arrangement by saying “o.k.,
sounds good to me”. Really.
The result of this arrangement over time is the birth of
three more children, named Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah. Moses then explains
that God remembered Rachel. Now, the
word remembered here, in the language that this letter was originally written
in, conveys that sense of remembering in a way that extends grace and mercy to
someone. The word remember here is one of action, not intellect. God extended
grace to Rachel and acted in her life in a way that resulted in Rachel becoming
pregnant and giving birth to a son who she named Joseph. In spite of the
jealous attempts to help God out by coming up with their own plans, God
continued to extend grace to Leah and Rachel.
Then in the rest of Genesis 30, Moses then tell us that
after the birth of Joseph, Jacob, who now has 12 children through his four
wives, confronts Laban with a request to leave after fulfilling his end of the
agreement to work for 14 years in order to marry Leah and Rachel. However,
Laban, recognizing the economic benefit that Jacob has provided him, attempts
to work out a contract extension so that Jacob would remain his employee.
Jacob and Laban agree that Jacob would work for Laban in
exchange for Jacob being able to keep all the spotted animals of Laban’s flock.
And while Laban shadily attempted to reduce Jacob’s pay by separating and
removing all the spotted animals from Jacob so that Jacob would end up with a smaller
herd, Jacob, who by this time was an expert shepherd, practiced selective
breeding techniques that, accompanied by God’s gracious provision, resulted in
Jacob having an exceedingly large and prosperous herd. Moses then reveals how
Laban and his relatives responded to Jacob’s prosperity in Genesis 31:1:
Now Jacob
heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that
was our father's, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this
wealth." Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly.
Laban and his sons responded to
Jacob’s prosperity by becoming jealous of Jacob. While there had always been
tension between Jacob and Laban as a result of Laban’s deception, that tension
was now replaced by animosity. You see Laban and his family wanted the
prosperity that Jacob had and did not want Jacob to have the prosperity that he
did have.
Friday, we then see the Lord
enter into the situation and reveal for us a timeless truth regarding jealousy…
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