"What's the Scoop on....Leah?"

On Tuesday in Bible Study Janet spoke about Leah.  Last month you might recall that Janet also taught about Rachel, Leah’s younger sister.  Both women were wives of Jacob.  Their story can be found in Genesis 29 and 30. (Click on this link to read the post on Rachel). http://mwcwbstudy.blogspot.com/2012/01/whats-scoop-onrachel.html.

 “Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful”. (Genesis 29:16-17 emphasis mine).

This past week something interesting about Leah was pointed out to me which will be the focus of this post.  Rather then looking at the rivalry between these two women, I’d like to  focus on the following phrase: ‘Leah had weak eyes’.  Is there a spiritual lesson we can draw from this description about Leah?.  We know from the text that physical eyes were weak, but what about her spiritual eyes?

Last week when we studied Hagar, we learned that God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. We also learned that these descendants would come through his son Isaac.  Isaac in turn had two sons, Esau and Jacob.  Through a series of events Jacob must flee his home where he unexpectedly meets with God while in the desert.  "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring” (Gen. 28:13b-14, emphasis added). God affirmed that the promise made to Abraham would be fulfilled through Jacob rather then his brother Esau.

Jacob continues his journey towards his mother’s birthplace where he finds himself at the home of Laban, his uncle. As you may know, Jacob is tricked into marrying Leah one of Laban’s daughters. Shortly afterwards Jacob also marries Leah’s sister Rachel.  The rivalry between the sisters was intense. Leah longed to have the love of her husband by giving him children. Rachel had Jacob’s love yet desired children as well.  “When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Gen. 29:31).   As Leah names her children it is evident that her focus is intent on securing Jacobs love, affection and respect.  It seems that her circumstances brought her much anguish.

“Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.”

It is a wonder to me how God’s is always orchestrating His purposes even through our humanness.  Through their jealousy and competition for Jacob’s attention God was weaving His plan. Do you recall God’s promise to Jacob in Genesis 28:13- 14.  Something much bigger than sibling rivalry was going on here.  It was God’s intention that Jacob’s descendants would be too numerous to be counted. Not only did Jacob have children with first Leah and then Rachel, but he had children with the maids of his two wives as well.  The 12 children of these unions became the 12 tribes of Israel. At the time of the famine when Jacob joined his son Joseph in Egypt, his direct descendants numbered but 70.  At the Exodus, 430 years later, there were about 600,000 men, not counting women and children. Wow!

Long after Leah and Rachel’s lives had come to an end this is how they were memorialized in scripture “Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel.  May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem” (Ruth 4:11).  And if having a testimony of being one of the key women who built up the family of Israel wasn’t enough, God’s appointed son was to be born through the line of Judah who just happens to be Leah’s 4th son. Not only did Leah have the amazing privilege of building up the family of Israel but she is in the ancestry of the Messiah. 

But alas, Leah had weak eyes.

Good or poor, we all have physical sight.  Leah’s physical sight was weak. Based on what we know about her from the scriptures it seems her spiritual sight was also weak. Have you given much thought to your own spiritual sight?  Like Leah, we can have our eyes so intently focused on our present physical circumstances that we miss what God is doing on a larger scale. That’s why we need to keep our eyes focused on the promises of God. When we filter our lives through the truth of the Word, things look different. God’s Word gives us hope despite what we may see with our physical eyes. That’s why He tells us in 2 Cor. 5:7, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).  I challenge you today, what circumstance in your life has your focus? Pick up God’s Word. He has something to say about it. What God has to say will bring you the peace that your physical sight never will.

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,  and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19a)