Whose way

DEVOTION

GENESIS

WHOSE WAY

Gen 30:9-21

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.

NIV

Again, because of this competition between these two sisters, with Rachel being barren and Leah no longer bearing anymore sons, Leah resorts to the same tactics Rachel used and gives Jacob her maidservant to sleep with him in order to have more sons. This of course does result in two more sons for Jacob, which now totals eight. Then we get to this situation with Rachel and Leah bargaining over mandrakes for the right to sleep with Jacob. Is this man nothing more than a pawn in this chess game between these two sisters? Is their only worth as women in having sons for their husband? Yet we are told God listened to Leah and she conceived. We are also told Leah considered that God had rewarded her. How can these sisters be at such odds with each other and yet have this relationship with God that he listens and answers their prayers? But he is answering their prayers because he had promised Jacob he would give him descendants more than the grains of sand, and that all the world would be blessed from his seed. Is all this, these four women, all part of the providence of God? Is God using them in spite of their misbehavior and attitudes toward each other? When it all comes down to his promise, his covenant with Jacob, Gods will, his plan, is going to be accomplished. He is the Sovereign Lord God. Can we say then, that even in the times we have wrong attitudes and even wrong behaviors God will still use us to accomplish his plan? It is not as if Rachel and Leah were unaware of God for their prayed and he answered them. So then we, being aware of God, even professing we believe, we are saved and we pray, yet we still engage in bad attitudes and even behaviors, but God still answers our prayers when we pray according to his will. His relationship with them, and with us is not dependent upon their or our perfection. True, these women did not have Christ as their righteousness as we do. Nevertheless God still was demonstrating that his plan, his purpose will be accomplished, even using those who are not perfect. When we think that God turns a deaf ear to the prayer of a sinner, it does not mean to those who have sin. He hears our prayers even in the midst of our disobedience because we are in Christ. That seems so weird to think we can be in Christ yet still be in disobedience to God. But this is what these two sisters were in a sense, being in disobedience, completing for their husbands love and respect, fighting among themselves over him, but still having God answer their prayers. When we fail God, when we take on that old self, and think and act in a manner we should not, God still wants us to always come to him in prayer, so he can instruct us, guide us, correct us and have us move on within his plan for our lives. Just because we fail him, he does not fail us. Just because we might forsake him momentarily, he never forsakes us. But we should learn from these women. We should see how they misbehave and determine as far as it depends on us, to keep from those kinds of attitudes and behaviors which are not appropriate. It seems these women simply lived in a way they wanted to live, but expected God to give them want they wanted. We cannot afford that kind of thinking. We should always be aware of how God wants us to live, forsaking our ways for his.