All right, you can turn to chapter
29 in the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 29. We studied
last week when Jacob got two wives. Remember, he worked for
Laban for seven years. He agreed to work for Laban for
seven years in order to secure Rachel as his wife. On the wedding
night, he found her. On the wedding morning, he found
a big surprise. Behold, it was Leah. And so he
worked another seven years. He received both Leah and Rachel,
worked another seven years, and now we're seeing the birth of
his sons, his children. So beginning in chapter 29, verse
31, when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb.
But Rachel was barren, so Leah conceived and bore a son, and
she called his name Reuben. For she said, The Lord has surely
looked on my affliction, now therefore my husband will love
me. Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, Because
the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given
me this son also. And she called his name Simeon.
She conceived again, and bore a son, and said, Now this time
my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him
three sons. Therefore his name was called
Levi. And she conceived again, and
bore a son, and said, Now I will praise the Lord. Therefore she
called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing. Now
when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied
her sister and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was aroused
against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God, who
has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? So she said, Here
is my maid, Billa. Go into her, and she will bear
a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her. Then
she gave him Billa, her maid, as wife, and Jacob went into
her. And Billa conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel
said, God has judged my case, and he has also heard my voice
and given me a son. Therefore she called his name
Dan. And Rachel's maid Billa conceived again and bore Jacob
a second son. Then Rachel said, with great
wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have
prevailed. So she called his name Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah, her
maid, and gave her to Jacob, his wife. And Leah's maid, Zilpah,
bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, A troop comes. So she called his name Gad. And
Leah's maid, Zilpah, bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said,
I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed. So she
called his name Asher. Now Reuben went in the days of
wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them
to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, please
give me some of your son's mandrakes. But she said to her, is it a
small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take
away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, therefore, he
will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes. When Jacob
came out of the field in the evening, 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. And he lay with her that night.
And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob
a fifth son. Leah said, God has given me my
wages, because I have given my maid to my husband. So she called
his name Issachar. Then Leah conceived again and
bore Jacob a sixth son. And Leah said, God has endowed
me with a good endowment. Now my husband will dwell with
me, because I have borne him six sons. So she called his name
Zebulun. Afterwards, she bore a daughter
and called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel and
God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and
bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. So she
called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another
son. Well, we have the beginning of
the 12 tribes of Israel in this particular passage. The only
other son that will be born later to both Jacob and Rachel is Benjamin. In fact, when Rachel says, give
me children or else I die, in verse 1, ironically, she dies
giving birth to her second son, Benjamin. in Genesis chapter
36. As I said, this is the birth
of the 12 tribes of Israel, and I want to look first at the opening
of Leah's womb at the end of chapter 29, secondly the frustration
of Rachel in verses 1 to 8, thirdly the response of Leah in verses
9 to 15, and then finally the opening of Rachel's womb in verses
22 to 24. So God, in his sovereignty, is
the one who gives children. The Lord God Most High is the
one who gives increase. Now remember, in the Laban narrative
prior to this, Laban had given these daughters maids. And at
that particular time, it seemed a bit of incidental information. But we see how important it is
that we know that as we come here to Genesis chapter 30 with
reference to these two maids. Meredith Klein makes the observation
that the circumstances of the origins of the 12 tribes advertise
the purely gracious character of Israel's election. If you
actually follow along the narrative, you can only conclude that God's
grace is the premium and not man's merit. This is an extremely
dysfunctional family situation. The things that are going on
here are certainly not normative for Christian conduct today.
God is not telling us in this passage to go thou and do likewise. In fact, I will say at the outset,
don't have two wives, nay, don't have four wives. Make sure that
you have the one wife, the wife that God has given to you. Any
departure from that As we see it in these Old Testament narratives,
there was polygamy practice. But typically when that polygamy
is highlighted, it's not usually in a good way. It's not usually
in the sense of everybody lived happily ever after. No, there
is antipathy, there is antithesis, there is hardship, heartache,
and woe, and that is precisely what's happening with these two
sisters. The daughters of Laban had married
this one man, Jacob, and both of them are vying in the entire
narrative for what the other one possesses. Leah is unloved
and wants to be loved by Jacob. Rachel is barren and wants to
have children by Jacob. So they both want what the other
sister has, and it causes nothing but problems. Jacob, as well,
is very passive in this particular chapter. The only thing he says
is verse 2. And while that's a good response
to Rachel's, give me children or else I die, nevertheless,
he just mindlessly follows along with the plan. He just goes into
these maids. He just continues to function
in many respects like a stud. And I don't mean to say that
or sound harshly, but that is how he's functioning in this
particular passage. You might think that the emergence
of the 12 tribes of Israel happened in a paradise setting, happened
with great and godly families, happened with all of the joy
and heartfelt love that families have for one another. That's
precisely not the case. And that's why I think what Klein
says is right. The circumstances of the origins
of the 12 tribes advertise the purely gracious character of
Israel's election. They were not elect because they
were great, they were not elect because they were righteous,
they were not elect even because they were good, they were elect
because God is gracious, God is merciful, God is kind, and
God had purpose to fulfill His promise to save a great multitude
by the seed of Abraham. So it was imperative that the
Lord Most High work, even in the midst of dysfunctionality,
to bring about His plan, His purpose, and His will for the
salvation of mankind. And this certainly advances that
theme. In Leah's line, you have both
the royal messianic line begin, and then you have the priestly.
She has both Judah and Levi. So Leah was absolutely crucial
to redemptive history. And while Jacob certainly favored
Rachel, Laban and all of his trickery and deception actually
advanced God's cause for God's glory. So that's one of the things
that we have seen over and over again as we study this particular
book. God's providence in the midst
of, you know, very difficult earthly circumstances, He nevertheless
brings about things for His glory and for the good of His people.
So let's look first at the opening of Leah's womb, and here we have
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. And so, as I said, he wanted
to marry Rachel, he agreed to serve Laban for those seven years.
On the wedding night, Laban substituted Leah to the surprise of Jacob,
and then Jacob agreed to work another seven years for Rachel,
so he was married to both women. Notice the problem that verse
31 introduces. When the Lord saw that Leah was
unloved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Now, unloved
there probably means loved less. I think the actual literal is,
she was hated. I doubt it means that he actually
despised her the way that persons despise terrorists. It means
that he loved her less. She was certainly not the favored
one. And if we ask the question why,
well, the previous chapter announces that. In the first place, Rachel
was beautiful. The text is conspicuous and we
can be super spiritual and hyper spiritual and say such things
should it matter, but the biblical text tells us that it mattered
to Jacob, that Rachel was very attractive and Leah was not. So his heart gravitated toward
her. Do with that what you will, but you cannot get from the Bible
this hyper-spiritual mindset that such things don't matter.
They do matter, or else the biblical authors wouldn't tell us that
they did. So she was good-looking and he loved her, but then Leah
deceived him. Leah knew that she wasn't Rachel,
Leah knew what her father was up to, and Leah went along with
it. I'm not sure I would have been
in the Leah fan club on that morning myself if I thought I
was getting Rachel, and behold, it was Leah. I think we can forgive
Jacob a little bit of a righteous indignation for this particular
circumstance that he has found himself in. But whatever the
situation, he did not love her as much. He did not have that
same esteem for her that he had for Rachel. And then we see the
goodness of God. It says, when the Lord saw that
Leah was unloved, He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
The whole episode, according to Wenham, is governed by Leah's
longing for Jacob's love and Rachel's craving for children.
Leah's frequent pregnancies only aggravate Rachel's frustration
at her own childlessness. I mean, it's a tough passage
for everybody involved, again, except for Jacob. Maybe it was,
but we don't ever hear from him. He just mindlessly goes about
his task. But we know that Rachel has a
problem, and we know that Leah has a problem, and we ought not
to minimize either of them. If I was Leah, I would be married
to him. I would certainly want his favor
and attraction and his love. If I was Rachel, I would want
children. Those are no-brainers as far as that goes. But the
Lord is merciful, and I think that kind of comes through this
whole chapter, is that even when persons are in difficult situations,
when it looks like there is no hope, there is no deliverance,
nevertheless, God is for us. Now, we can't make this a formula
that every time we have a difficult issue, God's going to come to
our aid and rescue in some dramatic way. I think Bible readers get
a bit mixed up or messed up by treating God like Baal, like
there's a formula. As long as these things obtain,
then God is duty-bound to work this particular way. That's simply
not the way it is. But the preponderance of evidence
that we have in terms of God's providence suggests that in many
cases, when persons are destitute or having difficulty, God the
Lord never, well we know he never leaves them and he never forsakes
them. He never cuts them off, but in some instances he goes
above and beyond and gives them great and glorious blessings
and that's what he does precisely here for Leah. We have first
the birth of Reuben in verse 32. Your margin sort of defines
or describes or identifies what each of these names signifies
There's a lot of discussion on that subject in the commentators. If you're so inclined, certainly
you can get into that. John Gill even goes to the Jewish
writers to tell us what years each of the boys were born in
and how many years. I mean, he's really, really got
that going on. But I'm just going to stick with
the margin. Basically, the name means see a son. And essentially what we have
in this naming process is when the women name the sons, it has
significance. First, hopefully to bring glory
to God or acknowledge God, but there may also be sort of a snipe
at their sisters as well. There might be a little bit of
that sort of badgering going on as well. So it could be, see
a son, God saw me in my distress and he gave me this son. Or it
could be to Rachel, see a son, I've got something you don't
have. We can't minimize the tension and the difficulty that is going
on here. The second son is called Simeon,
and this one means heard. The recognition of the Lord's
kindness in providing this son because God had heard that she
was unloved. The birth of Levi attached. The thought that this additional
son would increase Jacob's love for Leah. It's unfortunate that
that doesn't happen. When she stops having children,
according to verse 35 at the end, it's not because she is
now barren, it's because Jacob is no longer lying with her.
When we get to chapter 30 and verse 17, when she conceives,
it's not due to the mandrakes, it's due to God Almighty, but
also immediately by the conjugal relationship of Jacob with his
wife. So there's this period of barrenness
for Leah, not a physical problem, but the filial or loving, lack
of loving problem with her husband not lying with her. And so, when
we come to this last child in verse 35, this one is called
praise. Judah means praise. And it is interesting, if we
interpret the sea, a son, as God's looking upon her, seeing
her problems and giving her this son, what you have in the naming
of these sons is that the Lord had seen her affliction, He had
heard that she was unloved, would hopefully attach Jacob to her
in love, And this results in praise given to God for His mercies
delivered to her. So the naming of these children,
at least in this particular instance, I think is in favor of giving
glory to God, consciously considering what God has done in terms of
delivering her from this particular difficult situation. Now that
brings us to the frustration of Rachel in verses 1 to 8. First
we have the expression of that frustration in verse 1. Now when Rachel saw that she
bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said to
Jacob, give me children or else I die. Didn't have time to get
into the the ins and outs there, but we know envy and jealousy
is different. She's not just jealous that Rachel
or Leah is having children. She doesn't want Leah to have
these children. She doesn't want Leah to be the
favored one in terms of fruitfulness and bounty and blessing and all
that sort of thing. Envy means, I not only want what
they have, but I don't want them to have it. And I think that's
probably behind the text. And she says, give me children
or else I die. Now, Jacob's only response is
in verse two. And this is good. Jacob's anger
was aroused against Rachel. And he said, am I in the place
of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? Again, Wenham says, to blame
her husband for her plight also smacks of impiety. For the Old
Testament regards children as the gift of God, not of man. Prayer, not protest, should have
been Rachel's reaction, as Jacob implies in his heated response. Now, when we get to the end of
the chapter, In verse 22, it says, then God remembered Rachel,
and God listened to her and opened her womb. So at least at some
point, Rachel not only cried out to Jacob, give me children
or else I die, she cried out to God. God did remember, God
did listen, and God did open the womb. So the expression of
her frustration is there in verses 1 and 2, but then notice the
alleviation of her frustration in verses 3 to 8. This was not
a good way for her to proceed. The offer of Billa, this obviously
was in the family tree because Sarah did this very thing with
reference to her maid, Hagar. She asked or had Abraham go into
Hagar so that Hagar could have a child and Sarah would raise
that child. And that is precisely what Rachel
does in this instance. So in verse 3, she said, here
is my maid, Billa, go into her and she will bear a child on
my knees." It's language of receiving the baby right away, probably
in terms of adoption, possession, and ownership. "...that I also
may have children by her. Then she gave him Billa, her
maid, as wife, and Jacob went into her." Again, just the dutiful
servant, just the way he served Laban is the way that he's going
to serve in this particular capacity. After the Mandrake incident,
Leah even says as much, I have hired you for the evening. He
doesn't say anything. He just complies with her and
goes right along with it. Again, dysfunctionality is written
all over the pages in the scripture concerning these families. That's
not again so that we'll have some, you know, horrible mindset
with reference. I mean, we know families, we
know dysfunctionality, we know that this is a messy world, we
know that there are issues and trials and difficulties and hardships. And there's no perfect family
from whence God can call the twelve tribes. It is to magnify
and to shine the light upon the glory of God, the graciousness
of God, in that He works in the midst of such circumstances. So then she gave Billa, verse
4, her maid as wife, and Jacob went into her. And Billa conceived
and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, God has judged
my case, and he has also heard my voice and given me a son.
Therefore, she called his name Dan. Again, this is judged, the
name given, because God judged her case, heard her voice, and
gave her a son. I don't know that that was the
best implication she could have drawn. The text doesn't sort
of comment on that. But I mean, I don't know. That
would be a tough one for me to try to enter into. Hey, I'm going
to give you my maid. I want you to have wife number
three. That very fact is not sort of tilting the scales in
favor of, but the fact that God does bless, and that's another
thing that is punctuated throughout this narrative. Even in the midst
of very dismal circumstances, God hears, God remembers, God
listens, God gives, God is good and comes off as the hero of
the story. Calvin says, with reference to
Rachel, Rachel is not induced to flee unto the Lord, but strives
to gain a triumph by illicit arts. Therefore, she hurries
Jacob into a third marriage once we infer that there is no end
of sinning when once the divine institution is treated with neglect.
Think about what Calvin says there and think about the 21st
century and the sexual ethics and the perversion that we are
witnessing today. That there is no end of sinning
when once the divine institution is treated with neglect. In other
words, when we distort that which God has given, Marriage, for
instance, one man, one woman for life. If we distort that,
and again, I qualify that, there are instances in scripture where
it is legitimate and lawful to sue out for divorce, but in terms
of the original intention of God One man, one woman. What
do we have going on now? If not in Canada, it's definitely
going on in the United States. Drag queen story hours in public
libraries. Drag queens are reading stories
to little children. One of the newer developments
is that one of them happened to be wearing a skirt. and no
underwear. I happen to see that one today.
So this is the kind of perversion that is out there, and I think
it sort of illustrates or highlights what Calvin says in this comment. Once we infer that there is no
end of sinning when once the divine institution is treated
with neglect. God gives us something that's
good. He gives us something that's right. He gives us something
that is designed for His glory and for our well-being. And the
further we depart from that, or the more that we engage in
things that are contrary to that or in opposition to that, the
more we just are an abomination before the sight of a holy God. So back to Billa, she gives birth
to Dan, and then she gives birth to Naphtali, which means my wrestling. Again, Wenham suggests it reflects
both on the mother's relationship with God and upon the struggle
between the sisters for Jacob's affection. So you see, she is
frustrated, and again, I cannot minimize that degree of frustration. I am not a woman who has been
barren. I am not a woman in that particular
situation where barrenness was frowned upon. The mark of a woman
was that she was fruitful, and she multiplied, and she had children.
That was just commonplace, and that's the way that it was. So
the idea of frustration, I can certainly understand. But this
idea of having Billa or having Jacob go into her seems very
contrary to the original design and intent of God. That God works
in the midst of this and through this and brings about good things
never means that we ought to do whatever it takes in order
to get stuff. The ends do not justify the means. Even when God blesses the ends,
and horrible means have been used. You get that, right? Just
because God forgave David of adultery and murder doesn't mean
we should go out and commit adultery and murder. There are things
in scripture that describe what happens that don't necessarily
prescribe what should happen. And this is a perfect example
of that. Oftentimes, in the Bible, you
get a description of a David committing adultery and murder.
And then you have a prescription of David, for instance, oh, how
I love your law. We're supposed to love the law
of God. We're not supposed to engage in the sorts of things
that David did there. So this is a descriptive passage
versus a prescriptive passage encouraging all of us to have
four wives so that we can have 12 sons. And that brings us thirdly
to the response of Leah in verses 9 to 15, to tit for tat, to fight
fire with fire. She's got a maid, I've got a
maid. Her maid gave him sons, my maid will give him sons. That's
precisely what she does. Notice the children through Zilpah,
excuse me, in verses 9 to 13, Gad and Asher. Verse 9, when
Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, that means Leah, she
took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her to Jacob, his wife. And again,
the reason she stopped bearing is because she wasn't having
relations with her husband. As soon as she has relations
again, according to verse 17, She has children. So she's not
barren. She's not in this position of
no more ability to bear children. She's in the position of the
unloved wife who does not have access to her man. She does not
have that ability to have the conjugal relationship with her
husband. So she calls her maid Zilpah
and gave her to Jacob as wife. And Leah's maid, Zilpah, bore
Jacob a son. It just dispenses with that,
and he went into her. Now she's just having a son.
Again, Jacob is just the mindless adult following everybody's direction
here, just going from one to the other. I mean, it's a conspicuously
blatant assessment that, you know, oftentimes little hermeneutics. So not everything is prescriptive. There's a lot of stuff that is
descriptive. But also in terms of hermeneutics,
especially with Old Testament narrative, you don't always get
the narrator's commentary on how you ought to view it ethically.
They'll just tell you stuff. And then you kind of wonder,
well, what am I supposed to do with that? Am I supposed to go
bow and do likewise? I mean, it worked out great.
There were the 12 tribes of Israel. But there are times when the
narrator gives you a hint, or there are times when the narrator
writes or constructs the narrative in such a way that there's really
kind of only one conclusion you can make. Why didn't he say anything? Why didn't he stand up? Why didn't
he say, wait a minute, we're going about this the wrong way?
I mean, the silence of Jacob is loud in this particular passage. But back to the text. Zilpah
bears him gad, which means troop. or fortune even. Some suggest
she might have accredited to good luck. Again, the discussion
on the names, you could spend a lot of time on that and I didn't
have that time. And then of course, Asher means
happy. Now, notice what happens with
reference to these mandrakes. Anybody ever been sort of perplexed
about this passage? Anybody ever? Okay. Because it's
an interesting one. The hiring of Jacob in verses
14 to 16. I mean, this is what she says. Look at verse 16. You must come
into me. That is sexual language. That
is all there is to it. That is sexual language. You
must come into me, for I have surely hired you with my son's
mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.
Do we expect anything different from Jacob? Do we expect this
part? Well, no, I can't do that because
that sounds like a business transaction. He just does it. I mean, this
guy just from one to the other. But let's look at this gathering
of mandrakes. So Reuben would have been about
six or seven at this particular time. Reuben went in the days
of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them
to his mother Leah. Probably because it's a beautiful
flower, probably because it's an attractive plant, probably
he went and he picked them up and he brought them back to his
mother. Now, in terms of what a mandrake is, I'm going to go
to Wenham and Gill on this one. The mandrake is a perennial Mediterranean
plant that bears bluish flowers in winter and yellowish plum-sized
fruit in summer. In ancient times, mandrakes were
famed for arousing sexual desire. You see it in Song of Solomon
at 713, the only other place mandrakes appear, and for helping
women to conceive. Now, you know, when I went online
today to find out more about mandrakes, because this passage
has always perplexed me as well, I found out that people still
think it possesses these things. So you can send away and get
pill form mandrake, and it's supposed to help you with, you
know, it's an aphrodisiac, and it may help you conceive children,
the whole spiel. But even in Gil's day, he says
this. Sometimes it's interesting reading modern commentaries and
older commentaries. You know what Calvin says with
reference to the mandrake? I have no idea what it is. I have no
idea what it is. That's great. What are you going
to do? But Gil had some idea, because
Gil said, now there's about a couple hundred years dividing those
two. He says, this plant is said to excite love, provoke lust,
dispose for, and help conception. For which reasons it is thought
Rachel was so desirous of these mandrakes, and she was. Notice
at the end of verse 14. Then Rachel said to Leah, please
give me some of your son's mandrakes. And it's a polite request. She's
not entering right into a bartering structure. Okay, I'll, you know,
you give me these mandrakes and I'll give you a Jacob for the
night. Perhaps because she is the favored one of the wives,
perhaps because she's the one that Jacob loves the most, she
sort of sets the schedule for where he's going to be laying
on a given night. And so that kind of provokes in us, or provokes
in the text what happens next. Verse 15, Leah uses this occasion. She says, is it a small matter
that you have taken away my husband? Don't miss the tension in the
text between these two ladies. Anybody who would throw himself
into that situation has got to be nuts. as I'm concerned. I mean, I just can't get it.
I don't understand it, but I'm thankful God used it for the
12 tribes. But she says, is it a small matter
that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's
mandrakes also? In other words, go find your
own mandrakes, lady. And then Rachel said, therefore,
he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes. So
we have this mandrake now being a bartering tool or an item by
which Leah can secure the services of her husband for a given night. Now, as we move through the text,
you need to understand that the narrator is not encouraging the
use of mandrakes, either for an aphrodisiac or to help in
conception. Because Rachel has the mandrakes
and goes another three years without having a baby. Leah gets
rid of the mandrakes and has a baby as soon as her and Jacob
lie together. So there's no mystery in here
like, do mandrakes work? No, they don't work. God works. He opens the womb. He blesses
the conjugal relation that obtains between a husband and a wife.
That's where babies come from, not from mandrakes and not from
those sorts of things. So the narrator is conspicuous
to make sure we don't try to find mandrakes to help us with
some of those issues. So we go back to the text. As
we see in verse 16, you must come into me for I have surely
hired you with my son's mandrakes and he lay with her that night.
There's a lot of connection between what we have in this story and
other stories. You have the younger bettering
the older, you have the connection between the Sarah and what Rachel
does here in terms of surrogate motherhood. There's a lot of
connection with what has gone before and a bit of foreshadowing
with what's going to come later. Again, it shows the art of biblical
narrative. The writer, the author, is a
genius when it comes to composing story. Obviously, the Holy Spirit
is working in and through him, to be sure, but it's certainly
a An unparalleled work of good literature. And then notice what
we have. The additional children through
Leah in verses 17 to 21. God listened to Leah and she
conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, God has given
me my wages because I have given my maid to my husband. And that's
a bit of a difficult reason for me to get my head around maybe
what she said or what she meant. goes beyond what I'm able to
sort of grasp, but that just doesn't sound like the kind of
logic that one would want to present to God. But then with
reference to Issachar, we have wages, zebulun means dwelling,
and there again there's that sadness or continual longing
that Jacob would favor her and dwell with her. I mean, look
at that, verse 19. That's pathetic. That's sad.
That's really agonizing stuff. I mean, you know, we kind of at some
point you know, lift out of our 21st
century, go back and try to, you know, walk in their shoes
a little bit. That's a tough place for her to be. She just
wants to not have to buy her man for a night with, you know,
Reuben's mandrakes. She wants to have her man in
her bed every single night. And that just really shows the
pathos coming out at this particular time. Again, Wenham makes the
observation with reference to the Lord's response in verse
17. It shows that though Rachel and
Leah may think conception is aided by mandrakes, the text
insists that children are God's gift. He goes on to quote a Hebrew
scholar that said, Leah, who gives up the mandrakes, bears
three more children. Rachel, who possesses them, remains
barren for apparently three more years. So again, mandrakes isn't
your way for sexual vitality and health and for conception.
The Lord God is good and does do those things for his people.
So the additional children are given, and then that brings us
finally, oh, oh, a dinah. Dinah is mentioned. It's not
typical that women get mentioned in biblical genealogy, not because
God hates women, not because there's an antipathy against
women. In fact, there are several women that appear in the genealogy.
of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 1. But in this particular
instance, it's foreshadowing or it is indicating something
that is going to happen in Genesis 34. Dinah is going to be central
in that particular situation. And so this is a reminder of
the birth of Dinah. And then finally, the opening
of Rachel's womb. Verse 22, it says, then God remembered
Rachel. Now, if we understand who God
is, we know that God doesn't remember. Because remembering
would imply that he once forgot. This is what's called an improper
predication. It's speaking in the manner of
men. It is telling us something in a convention that we understand.
It doesn't mean that God, oh yeah, Oh yeah, Rachel, that's
not the way we are supposed to conceive of God. That is simply
not how God acts, God functions. Calvin says, since with God nothing
is either before or after, but all things are present, He is
subject to no forgetfulness, so that in the lapse of time
He should need to be reminded of what is past. But the scripture
describes the presence and memory of God from the effect produced
upon ourselves because we conceive him to be such as he appears
to be by his acts." Basically, he's saying it's an improper
predication. It is speaking in the manner of men in a convention
that we can understand. So it's not that God remembered,
oh yeah, I forgot, Rachel wanted to... That's not the way we're
ever supposed to think about God. Ever at all, that is not
authorized. And then the Lord opens her womb. It's not because of mandrakes,
it's not because of maids, it's not because of any other thing
than God Most High. It is the Lord who vindicates,
it is the Lord who blesses, it is the Lord who brings to her
this son. So verse 23 tells us, she conceived
and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach, so
she called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me
another son. Joseph means he will add. Now
this last statement is either a prayer that he will add another
son, or it is a prophecy that he will, in fact, add another
son. He does do so in, I said 36 earlier, I'm sorry, it was
chapter 35, verses 16 to 18. So Rachel dies giving birth to
this second son, who is called Benjamin. All right. Well, in
terms of the family dynamics, we've covered that sufficiently.
The unloved Leah and the barren Rachel each wanted what the other
had. I think there is a lesson there.
We're always wanting what everybody else has. We need to be content
with what God has. How that would obtain in this
particular situation. Leah, you've got to deal with
it. The Lord's good. He's given you children. Love them. Pour
yourself into them. Rachel, He hasn't given you children.
You know what I mean? We've got to bloom where we're
planted. It's not always the case that circumstances are going
to magically change. It's not always the case that
God in His providence is going to take things away from us or
give things to us. There may be seasons, there may
be long seasons where we have to stay in a particular position
that is a disadvantage to us, but nevertheless we need to be
faithful and we need to be persevering and we need to trust that God
is gracious to us. And then the passivity of Jacob,
The one time he responds, it's good, what he says is right.
Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit
of the womb? He understood that it's not mandrakes, it's not
maids, but rather it is the living and true God that gives issue. And then as well, in terms of
the sovereignty of God, Calvin had a good statement on this.
He said the Jews like to boast about their early beginnings.
He says the Holy Spirit put that in there to show us they got
no room to boast whatsoever. It's the grace of God. It ain't
them, it's the grace of God. Wenham again said it, I think,
very well. He says, it is into this most
bitterly divisive family that the forefathers of the 12 tribes
were born. Fathered by a lying trickster
and mothered by sharp-tongued shrews, the patriarchs grew up
to be less than perfect themselves. It's going to happen later. I
mean, it's the sons of Leah that are in opposition to the sons
of Rachel later on in terms of the Joseph narrative. So that's
the reality. He says, "...yet through them
the promises to Abraham took a great step toward their fulfillment,
showing that it is divine grace, not human merit, that gives mankind
the hope of salvation." So some might read these narratives and
go, man, what a mess, how terrible, how horrific, and get discouraged. I think we ought to be the most
encouraged people to see what our God had to work with, and
how our God does work with it, and what our God brought as a
result of it. And we ought to celebrate amazing
grace. We ought to celebrate the ability,
the competency, the omni-competency of our God, who is able to accomplish
his purpose and plans, even in the midst of dysfunctional families,
that if it were ultimately up to them, would have ruined it
at the very get-go. We would have never gotten out
of the gate if it depended on fallen man. But God, in His grace
and mercy, provided for us a Savior who comes from this sort of a
background. It is an amazing ascription to
the glory of God. Well, let's close in a word of
prayer. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank
You for Your grace, and that certainly does shine forth in
passages like these. I thank You, God, for the fact
that You sent the Lord Jesus, that One that is from the tribe
of Judah, that One that is the King, that Royal Messiah, that
Blessed Savior for sinners, the One to whom all the prophets
witness, and to whom these patriarchs witness as well. We thank you
for redemption in Him. We thank you for your sovereign
grace and for your providence and for the way that you work
out your purpose and plan in this world. May this encourage
us as we walk through this world, as we have various difficulties
and trials and we face various challenges. Help us to always
look beyond these things and realize that you're in control,
you're in sovereign control over each and every instance and occurrence
and situation in our lives. May this be a great boon to us
in our Christian walk, and we ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
