Strong Women of the Bible: Leah (2/6) - H

Hello beautiful people! Welcome back to my series, Strong Women of the Bible! In reading through the Bible, have you ever thought, "Okay, but where are the women??" Well, my friends, welcome to my series featuring six underappreciated women of the Old Testament! Weeks of research and many resources have gone into this series, with remarkable results. I can't wait to share them with you! So let's begin, shall we? :D

Leah: Second-Best

Genesis 29

Comparison is a vice, but sometimes it's unavoidable. You can't help but compare yourself; they're smarter, prettier, better than you. Feeling like second best is the worst, especially to your own sister. And unfortunately, the vicious cycle of comparison has been happening long before you or I ever walked this earth. Join me as we travel back in time to the ancient Middle East. We find ourselves on a huge farm in the middle of nowhere, where lived a young shepherdess named Leah . . .

Leah was the older sister of Rachel, and both sisters eventually became wives to Jacob, grandson of Abraham. Now, it's necessary to include a portion of Jacob's story in this account, because it partially explains why God did what He did in Leah's life. For those of you who don't know, Jacob was a younger twin. His older brother Esau was set to inherit their father's estate, but through some shrewd trickery, Jacob essentially stole his older brother's right to the estate. Naturally Esau got mad, so Jacob ran away from home and eventually came to the house of his uncle Laban, where Jacob met Rachel and fell in love with her.

Okay, pause the story right there. Let's consider what Leah was feeling.

Imagine you're Leah. You live in the middle of nowhere (personally, I can definitely relate to this 😂). Men are scarce, and you might be in your late teens--a little past marrying age. You're worried you might never get married, and that would break your heart because all you want in life is children. It was a joy to raise your younger siblings, and you've dreamed of the day you might have children of your own to love and care for. Perhaps your father went as far as to assure you that the first man to come along shall be married to you, if you'll have him. Cue Jacob.

He comes to live with your family, and you immediately try to catch his eye. But there's a problem: he only has eyes for Rachel, your younger sister.

The Bible says Leah had "weak eyes." This probably means she either had light-colored eyes, or eyes that couldn't see very well. Either way, it made her less desirable to Jacob in light of her younger sister Rachel. Imagine how Leah felt when she realized Jacob was falling for Rachel, and not her. She probably felt ugly, unwanted, second-best. Imagine the despair in her heart, that the state of her eyes, something that was out of her control, would determine her fate. (As someone who is blind as a bat, I can definitely relate to that. 😅 )

And this isn't just some quick, whirlwind romance, oh no. Jacob had to work seven years to win Rachel's hand from Laban. In that time, I wonder what Leah did. Did she plead with God? With Jacob? With Rachel? I wonder how many previous times she had been rejected by a man in favor of her sister. It hits deep, man. Way deep. 😩

Favoritism is a beast, especially among families. But guess what: we're all equal in God's eyes. That means Christians, atheists, "good people," "bad people"--we're all on the same playing field. I think God did it this way because He didn't want us to compare each other on the "righteousness scale." He doesn't care if we're "not as bad" as someone else; He wants us to keep our eyes on Him. To focus on improving ourselves based on His instructions, and not to fall into the temptation of justifying our sins just because it's "not as bad" as someone else's. Now let me just include a little photo to illustrate my point . . .

Photo via Pinterest

Okay, back to Leah's story! Finally the wedding day of Rachel and Jacob rolls around. And Laban constructs a plan. Whether or not Leah was in on it, we may never know, but whoever was involved, I believe this was God's subtle retaliation to Jacob for what he did to Esau. One of the things I love about the Bible is that when you read the story from an objective third party, you can see exactly how God was working through the entire situation. I don't believe in karma, per se, but I do believe that God is a righteous judge. 😉

However, in reference to the schemes of both Jacob and Laban, I feel obliged to insert a verse from Proverbs . . .

"In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the LORD directs their steps." Proverbs 16:9 NIV

Leah's story features a lot of people making plans and schemes to try to get their own way. In fact, we'll see that Leah is one of the only people in this story who doesn't manipulate things to go her way. But more on that later. 😉

"Behold, there was Leah!" I love this line. 😂 It was customary for the bride to wear a veil in a wedding ceremony, and it is implied that Jacob was perhaps more than slightly in his cups at the time of the ceremony, so honestly I'm not really that surprised he didn't know it was Leah under that veil. But morning dawned, and there was Leah.

I'm sure Leah was hoping to get a better reaction from Jacob when he realized what had happened. Instead, Jacob goes straight to Laban and asks for Rachel instead. After Leah's wedding week is over, Rachel and Jacob are married, and then Jacob works another seven years at Laban's house. What a blow that must've been to Leah's self-esteem. Jacob might as well have said to her "you're second best." The Bible literally says, "[Jacob's] love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah." Ouch.

At this point in the narrative, you must be thinking, "This story is awful! Why is she telling us this?? Is this supposed to make us feel better?" Hang on, honey. I had to set the scene so y'all could fully appreciate the impact of God's actions in Leah's life. We've reached rock bottom; now the only place to go is up!

We now arrive at verse 31: When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive. Folks, God will never leave you hanging; if you get nothing else from this blog post, please remember that. He won't heap a bunch of misery on you and then say "well, good luck! I'm out!" Naaahhh, fam, that's not how He rolls! And thank heavens for that, can I get an amen?? 😆

By the end of this story we will see that Leah was actually a lot more blessed than most people give her credit for. The beginning of these blessings came with the birth of her first son, Reuben.

This part of the story is so powerful. In that time period, it was customary for names to have meaning; Leah pops out a string of sons, and through their names, we can see how her mental state changed for the better.

Reuben: "He has seen my misery"; "see, a son"

Leah is praising God for acknowledging how miserable she must've been in that marriage by giving her a son; however, she mistakenly believes that God gave her the son to win her husband's love. This is not so--winning Jacob's love was an objective that Leah created, but God's objective was quite different.

Simeon: "One who hears"

I myself have no children, but I have heard that one of the strongest loves in this world is that of a parent toward their child. I imagine Leah had a lot of love cooped up inside of her, love that Jacob had rejected. God blessed Leah with children so that she could experience the bond of love between mother and child, perhaps even greater than that between a man and a woman. God heard her struggle, and He answered her prayers (though not in the way she was expecting!)

Levi: "Attached"

After giving birth to Levi, Leah claims "now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have born him three sons." As you can expect, this did not happen. I think it was around this time that Leah started to get the idea. She began to realize that (1) sons could not win Jacob's affection, and (2) maybe she didn't want his affection after all.

Judah: "Praise"

The Bible says that when Leah gave birth to Judah, she said "this time I will praise the LORD." What a testimony!! You can literally see the process Leah went through to work out her grief at Jacob's rejection, and in turn to discover a love much stronger: the love of her heavenly Father. She came to trust that God's will was not for her to have Jacob's love, because that was not God's plan for her. From personal experience, I can testify that there is such peace when you reconcile your desires with God's will for your life. It takes a lot of trust, yes, but in the end it is immensely worth it. ✨

Leah was rewarded for her faithfulness; she stayed true to God's plan for her life, and in turn He honored her faithfulness by blessing her tenfold.

• She was fruitful. Back then, the continuation of the family line was everything. The fact that Leah had so many children (probably including many daughters we don't hear about) is just one of several blessings God bestowed on her.
• She bore Jacob many sons. Back in that day, sons were all anyone wanted. A woman was greatly honored for bearing even just one son; Leah ended up bearing six! (That we know of!)
• Her sons made up half of the tribes of Israel. Okay, mini history lessons: you've heard of the tribes of Israel, right? Basically the descendants of Jacob ended up forming a confederation to claim the Promised Land (Canaan) which became the Kingdom of Israel, which is where many other biblical accounts took place. And of the four wives Jacob had, Leah ended up giving birth to six of his twelve sons, which would become the twelve tribes!
• And last but certainly not least, Leah subsequently became the direct ancestor of King David, and eventually Jesus!!! It was Leah, not Rachel, who would be the ancestor of Jesus! That just goes to show that even if we as humans tend to write someone off as "second-best," that's not how God sees it. No sir.

Leah's story doesn't end in Genesis 29. In chapter 30, a whole lot more drama goes down with Rachel, including Jacob gaining Leah and Rachel's maidservants as wives (anyone else thinking of Hagar?). Though the Bible doesn't really say, I'd like to believe Leah eventually found some semblance of peace within in her marriage, and with her sister as well. Coming from someone who has plenty of experience with a stressful home life, I can say that I wouldn't wish that situation on anyone. I hope Leah found her peace, and that maybe she even grew to be happy someday. Whatever happened, one thing is certain: Leah was one strong woman!! 💪 

That's all for Leah's part of the series. I'm so grateful I got to discover more about this underappreciated Bible character. Like I said, I relate to Leah on multiple levels, but I also learned a lot from her, and about how I view God's plan for my life. I might only see a small part right now, but I should remember that God sees it all, and He's not freaking out, so why should I? I hope this blog post was relatable for you too, or at least that you learned something new. 💘

Until next time,
much love and God bless!
H ✨💗

*Resources used for this blog post include The Bible Reader's Companion by Lawrence O. Richards, Young's Literal Translation by Robert Young, Matthew Henry's Unabridged Commentary on the Bible, and the New International and King James Versions of the Bible. Great insight; would definitely recommend checking them out!

**I am aware that (1) Rebekah was partly responsible for Jacob's plot to steal Esau's birthright, (2) that Jacob's son Joseph's portion of the birthright ended up being split between his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and (3) that Reuben lost his birthright because of his sin with Bilhah. However, for the purposes of this blog post, I chose not to go further into depth on these issues, because that was not the intended topic of discussion of the post.