Rachel's Quest for Wholeness

And then there's Rachel. She doesn't have to strive for her husband's love, which has always been freely available to her. She does strive against her sister, though, jealous of her fertility. Interestingly, she turns her anger on her husband saying, "Give me children or I'll die!" (30:1), which, unsurprisingly, begets anger from Jacob who points out that only God can open her womb.

After offering her own maidservant, Bilhah (ok so we have Zilpah and Bilhah, do you think they were twins? (: ), Rachel gets an adopted son, Dan and says, "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son" (30:6). And on the birth of the second son through Bilhah she says, "I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won," (30:8), naming him Naphtali, meaning 'my struggle'.

I'm not sure how she means she won, since at this point Leah has four biological sons and Rachel only has two surrogate sons. When finally she has her own son Joseph she says, "God has taken away my disgrace," and, "May the Lord add to me another son." This is about respect and shame. In her cultural context, there was so much shame in being barren.

When Rachel finally has Benjamin, late in life, she dies in childbirth, naming him Ben-Oni, "son of my trouble," (though Jacob changes this to Ben-Jamin, "son of my right hand.") And the only equivalent to a birthquote is the midwife's, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son," (35:17).

You notice from the verse references that these birth vignettes are scattered through out the text, so you have to search for them when you start to see the pattern (or are looking for the patterns you know must be there, because that is the way God is--and His Word has so many layers of meaning to discover). You're welcome for my hunting them down for you. (:

You may also stop to think about how weird it would be, not only to have your husband have a second wife who was part of your household, but to have that second wife be your sister?? And if Leah was the oldest and she was plain, and Rachel was the youngest, and she was beautiful, you can imagine that there were years of painful strife long before they had to share the same husband. Rachel was probably a little spoiled growing up, and she was definitely spoiled by Jacob. Motherhood tends to suck the selfishness out of you. . . I am not a mother, but I see how selfish I am relative to my friends who are mothers. So Leah had more years to purify her heart, I think, in this way.

I cannot imagine bringing that strife into a marriage and then having the love of your husband and your ability to give birth be your bargaining chips as you strive for significance anywhere outside your very particular unique purpose given to you by God Himself.

Neither Rachel nor Leah seems to have a very happy life, even though each has what the other believes will make her happy.

You might not have seen these patterns on your first cursory perusal of Genesis. And it is only the beginning. (: There is so much more in that same book, in those same verses, even. Buried treasure waiting to be found by those hungry enough to dig for it.