Leah: A lesson in suffering
And she (Leah) conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah (Genesis 29:35).
In Genesis 25, Jacob took advantage of his elder brother to obtain Esau’s birthright. In Genesis 27, Rebekah, conspired with her younger son, Jacob, to steal through deceit the blessing Isaac intended for Esau. As a result of these events, Esau waited for the opportunity to kill his younger brother. To protect Jacob, his mother sent him to stay with her brother, Laban, for a few days. Those few days turned out to be twenty years. Before Jacob arrived in his uncle’s house, God appeared to him in a dream at Bethel in Genesis 28, and in remarkable grace promised to be with him, keep him and bring him back to the land he slept on.
In Laban’s house Jacob discovered he was in the company of a man who excelled in deceitfulness. Everything began so well. When Jacob met Rachel, he was joyfully received into Laban’s home. He quickly fell in love with Rachel and agreed to serve his uncle for seven years for Rachel to become his wife. In Genesis 29:20 we read, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.” It is one of the great love stories of the Old Testament. We often use it as an illustration of Christ’s love for His Church. But when the time came for Rachel to become Jacob’s wife, Laban deceived him and replaced Rachel with Leah, Rachel’s older sister. Jacob had to serve a further seven years for Rachel.
We often sympathise with Jacob, but he was reaping what he had sowed as a deceiver. But we rarely consider Leah, who was forced into a marriage knowing she was unwanted. But God considered her. He saw that Leah was unloved. Leah’s first child was Reuben, and when he was born, she said, “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will love me.” Her second child was Simeon, and she announced his birth with the words, “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” When she conceived again and bore Levi, she said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons.” Her fourth son was Judah, and Leah said, “Now I will praise the Lord” (Genesis 29:31-35).
Jacob wanted to be blessed. Leah wanted to be loved. Through childbearing, we see the deep feelings of Leah’s heart. First, the hope of love: “Now my husband will love me.” Next her pain: “I am unloved.” Then a lesser hope: “This time my husband will become attached to me.” But when Judah was born, her heart changed. She wanted Jacob to love her so much and was disappointed. But she realised God loved her, “Now I will praise the Lord.”
The twenty years in Laban’s house were years of suffering for Jacob. They were also years of hardship for Leah. We are taught much by her parallel story of the quiet suffering of a woman and of her spiritual development in the most bitter of circumstances. Leah’s story did not end with the birth of Judah, but it produced praise to God from the broken heart of a woman so poorly treated. It is her voice that rises in praise and hope above such unhappy family circumstances. It was a voice God heard.
