Genesis 29: 13 introduces us to Jacob’s love for his cousin Rachel. Having won the interest of Laban, Jacob proceeds to request Laban for Rachel’s hand in marriage in exchange for seven years of service. It is here that we are introduced to Jacob’s deep love for Rachel as Genesis 29:20 states, ‘And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, but in his eyes they were like just a few days because of his love for her.’ He loved her enough to serve his uncle, working tirelessly tending to the cattle. Rachel is described as a shepherdess, so we can assume that Jacob too looked after Laban’s cattle.
However on the night of the wedding, Jacob is deceived by Laban who marries him to Leah instead of the woman he truly loved. Leah was Laban’s older daughter, but she was no eye- candy, whereas Rachel was beautiful. It would be no trouble finding Rachel a husband. Besides, according to Laban, “It is not our custom here to give the younger woman before the first born”. Traditions meant the world to them and so Jacob accepted Leah as his wife, not because he loved her but merely because he had to follow a custom that he respected.
Laban was aware of Jacob’s love for his younger daughter, so he again persuades Jacob to serve him for another seven years after which, he too may be granted the hand of Rachel in marriage- an offer that Jacob wouldn’t refuse. His love boosted him to work for another seven years for the hand of Rachel, even if it meant laying each night beside a woman whom he had no love for eventually marrying Rachel at the end of the seven year deal.
Love meant the world to Jacob, and so did Rachel! However, in biblical times, women earned her respect from her womb being fruitful and “when Jehovah saw that Leah was unloved, he then enabled her to become pregnant, but Rachel was barren”. If Jacob loved Rachel for her beauty, he now loved Leah for her ability to produce his offspring. The woman who felt unloved and insubordinate to Rachel, now felt elevated.
Rivalry ensured! Rachel too wanted children and went through great lengths to make sure of it by even convincing Jacob to lay with her slave girl, Bilhah and she bore Jacob and Rachel two sons. When Leah saw that she couldn’t bear children, she presented her servant Zilpah to Jacob, who bore a son to him.
Jealousy started to brew and it spilled over when Reuben, Leah’s oldest son brought home some mandrakes for his mother. Rachel requested some for herself, but was shut down sharply by Leah saying- “Is it a small matter that you took my husband? Would you now take my son’s mandrakes also?” In response Rachel “sells” Jacob in exchange for the mandrakes- that Leah too may lay with him. She then bears Jacob’s sixth son and she expresses, “At last my husband will tolerate me”
The Leah- Rachel rivalry outlines an important lesson of life- Love is never easy. There is always true love and the belief of true love. Jacob had fallen head over heels for Rachel and had even put in his blood and sweat into winning her- seven years in spite of being a married man.
Leah, on the other hand, led a tough life. Being the older sister, she had always watched several admirers fall in love with her younger sister. She felt unsuitable for marriage and shallow in her self confidence. She had to fight for love and it was tougher knowing that she was the family burden. Being the older sister- and not having found a suitor was a burden to her father, who perhaps went through great lengths to see his older daughter married- even at the cost of destroying the love of the young Jacob, who was serving him for Rachel’s hand in marriage. Even after marriage, Leah was a burden to Jacob who had no love for her and didn’t even want to marry her in the first place. She felt unloved and yearned for Jacob’s attention. The only way she could win his affections was by bearing him children.
All she wanted was love- but to Rachel, it meant competition. Rachel had always been showered by admirers and love. Her beauty fetched her heart’s desires and now that she belonged to another man it meant competition more than ever.
She desperately needed a child to secure a position in Jacob’s good books and so, she implored Jacob to lay with Bilhah, who with Rachel’s approval was married to Jacob as a concubine. Leah finds that her only rope that held her and Jacob together was breaking apart and the fact that she couldn’t bear any children didn’t help. But she was determined to get back on the game of earning Jacob’s affections. She implored Jacob that he marry her servant Zilpah and this put her back on the radar of Jacob’s love when Zilpah bore Jacob and Leah a child.
The outburst over the mandrakes however was uncalled for. Love meant little to Rachel. She didn’t consider the outburst as an act of protest for Jacob’s love. She considered it as she saw it at face- value- jealousy! And she agreed to let Jacob sleep with Leah in exchange for the mandrakes.
Leah had to buy her way into Jacob’s affections and it was “mandrakes well spent” for she was blessed with a child which led her to believe that at last her husband will tolerate her.
How often in life do we fall in love with a Rachel unaware of a truer Leah fighting for us? How often do we lose a Leah for a Rachel?
Understanding love is hard. We are, but human and often fall in love with materialistic things/ materialistic people. We fail to see true love fighting for attention. We fail to see the powerful love of a God yearning for our love. We fail to see a family that cherishes us. We pick a Rachel simply because we fall in love with a Rachel, but often a Rachel isn’t always meant for us. Sometimes there is a bigger plan in the story of your love which finds its way in.
Recognising a Leah from a Rachel is important. The best things in life come to you when you least want it and sometimes what you did desire- isn’t the right one for you. Accept it. Honour it. Be patient- Love will find a way.
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