Jacob's Children

Story: Jacob’s children

Passage: Genesis 29:31-30:24

Characters: Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph

Summary: The Lord saw that Leah was hated and opened her womb. Meanwhile, Rachel was barren. Leah had four sons. Rachel gave her servant to Jacob as a wife and she had two sons. Leah gave her servant to Jacob and she had two sons as well. Leah had mandrakes but gave them to Rachel in exchange for getting to spend the night with Jacob. She had another son. She ended up having one more son and then a daughter. God listened to Rachel and gave her a son.

Notes: This is basically terrible. First off, Joseph apparently hates Leah. God does not hate her however and gives her children. Her names for her children reveal the purpose behind all these kids though. It was a giant competition. Reuben was first, and his name means “See, a son”. Next was Simeon, which means “Heard”. This was because she said that the Lord had heard that she was hated. Next, she had Levi, which means, “attached” because she hoped Jacob would now be attached to her. Finally she had Judah, which means “Praise” because now she would praise the Lord. I wonder if this implies that Jacob now was noticing and caring for Leah. Rachel envied her sister. She told Jacob, “Give me children or I will die!” This was drastic, but it shows how much she envied her sister. Leah envied the love of Jacob which Rachel had and Rachel envied the kids Leah had. Both were too busy looking at their sister to notice what God had blessed them with. Jacob knew that God was the reason Rachel had no children and got mad at Rachel for blaming him. Rachel gave him her servant Bilhah. The deal was that any kids she had would count as Rachel’s. Sure enough Bilhah gave birth to Dan which means “Judge” because God had judged Rachel and heard her voice. She actually believed God was on her side in this dispute. Next Bilhah gave birth to Naphtali which means “Wrestle”. She wasn’t hiding it anymore, she knew she was wrestling with her sister and she literally named her son wrestle! I feel bad for that kid growing up when he explained his name to people! I also find it funny that Rachel decided she had prevailed! Her servant had two sons in contrast to Leah’s four! Anyway, Leah saw that Bilhah was having sons and they counted for Rachel so she gave Jacob her servant Zilpah. Zilpah gave birth to Gad which means “good fortune”. Next Zilpah gave birth to Asher which means “happy”. Leah was happy that she had more sons. She didn’t care about these kids, just that she was better than her sister. All of these sons were brought into the world as the after effects of a heated competition. Now we see a story involving mandrakes. Reuben had given Leah his mother some mandrakes, which were believed to increase fertility. Apparently Leah was even using her sons to help in this battle with her sister. Rachel asked for the mandrakes. The theory was that Jacob would be more likely to go to the sister with the mandrakes. Leah knew Rachel was basically asking to be more desirable to Jacob. So she set up a deal where Rachel could have the mandrakes as long as Leah still got Jacob. Poor Jacob had no part in this deal. When Jacob got home he was informed by Leah that he had been hired with Reuben’s mandrakes. Leah indeed got pregnant again and had Issachar which means “wages”. Leah believed that this was her reward for giving Jacob her servant. Leah had another son named Zebulun which means “honor” because she assumed that now Jacob would honor her. Leah then had a daughter named Dinah. God finally at this point allowed Rachel to bear a son named Joseph which means “May He add” and it sounds like “take away” because god took away her reproach and she wanted Him to add to her another son. Overall, this mess was totally the result of jealousy as a result of favoritism. Neither sister could look at her own blessings but rather looked at her sister’s blessings. As a result, Jacob ended up with eleven sons at this point and one daughter. There is a reason God set marriage up to be between a single woman and a single man. Later He also forbids marrying sisters. This is a perfect example of why that law makes total sense!

Questions: What did Jacob think of all this? How did the children feel when they realized they were the result of a big competition? Did Laban feel guilty that he had made Jacob marry both of his daughters?

Lessons: An important lesson I see here is to avoid jealousy and covetousness. If Rachel or Leah had focused on the ways God had blessed them and not wanted their sister’s blessing as well, this conflict would not have happened. Leah would have been happy having sons and raising them and Rachel would have been happy with the love she was receiving from Jacob. In the same way, if we are wanting to be blessed like someone else we know is, we need to stop and look at all the ways God has already blessed us.