When Beauty Isn’t Enough

When Beauty Isn’t Enough

 

 

Too often the real beauty is sleeping.

It may look good on the outside…

but the motives on the inside don’t look so good!

 

Rachel seem to have it all

beauty, a husband that loved her, and a career.

But strife is stirring in Jacob’s house.

Rachel is jealous of her sister Leah and makes a demand

on Jacob that he can do nothing about.

This makes Jacob angry and he tells her,

“your problem isn’t with me, but God.”

Rachel turns to the same solution as Sarah.

Thinking if God won’t give me children, I will work it out myself.

So Rachel gives her maidservant to Jacob so she can have children by her.

When her maidservant Bilhah gives birth she says,

“God has vindicated me.”

Bilhah gives birth a second time and Rachel says,

“I have had a great struggle with my sister and I have WON.”

I think it is safe to say Rachel has a serious problem.

She did not turn to God about her inability to have children

and when she takes matters into her own hands

she credits God for her vindication and winning over her sister.

Rachel missed God on all accounts.

It is clear to see that if she had turned to God

in the first place God could have given her the ability to have children because we see God does this later on in verse 22 &23.

“Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb. 

She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said,

"God has taken away my disgrace."

Leah’s trust in God isn’t any better than her sister’s, when she realizes she can’t have any more children and takes matters into her own hands, as well.

Instead of trusting God, she gives her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob.

When Zilpah gives birth, Leah says, “What good fortune.”

When Zilpah gives birth to a second son, Leah says,

“How happy am I! The women will call me happy.”

In verse 17 we see, God listened to Leah.

She must have turned to God and God gives her a fifth son and she says,

"God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband."

Leah has a sixth son and says, "God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor,

 because I have borne him six sons."

Leah has a daughter named Dinah and doesn’t say a thing;

as sad as that may sound maybe it’s better that way because Mom didn’t seem to know what she was saying after each of the other children.

I wonder what the outcome would have been like if

 Leah and Rachel had trusted God and not been so competitive?

Life can get very confusing when we take matters into our own hands

and then credit God for blessing our actions.

  Scripture Reading

Genesis 30:1-24 NIV

30:1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children,

she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!"

2 Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am I in the place of God,

who has kept you from having children?"

3 Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family."

4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife.

Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said,

"God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son."

Because of this she named him Dan.  

7 Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

8 Then Rachel said, "I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won."

So she named him Naphtali.  

9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children,

she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

10 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

11 Then Leah said, "What good fortune!" So she named him Gad.  

12 Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.

13 Then Leah said, "How happy I am! The women will call me happy."

So she named him Asher.  

14 During wheat harvest,

Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants,

which he brought to his mother Leah.

Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

15 But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband?

Will you take my son's mandrakes too?"

"Very well," Rachel said,

"he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes."

16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him.

"You must sleep with me," she said. "I have hired you with my son's mandrakes."

So he slept with her that night.

17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.

18 Then Leah said, "God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband." So she named him Issachar.  

19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

20 Then Leah said, "God has presented me with a precious gift.

This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons."

So she named him Zebulun.  

21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.

23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said,

"God has taken away my disgrace."

24 She named him Joseph, and said, "May the LORD add to me another son."