In the last post I briefly mentioned Leah. She was Laban’s eldest daughter, and the one who Jacob was tricked into marrying. Though not mentioned by name in the Matthew 1 genealogy, Jacob had more than one wife and it is Leah’s son who is an ancestor of Christ. Let’s look into her story to find out the significance of her place in the Christolineage.
Putting myself in Leah’s shoes, there’s a lot of shame there. Her own father had to trick someone into marrying her. This can’t have done any good for her self-esteem, and as shown in Genesis 29, it doesn’t.
She’s described as having ‘weak eyes’, the meaning of which commentators are divided over, but as it is pitted against Rachel, who is described as having a ‘lovely figure’ and ‘beautiful’, we can safely assume that it’s a negative about her appearance.
There’s a lot going on here.
No one has chosen Leah. She has been fobbed off on a man who wanted to marry her sister. If there was ever an awkward domestic situation, this was it.
God stays looking out for the overlooked though. And ‘When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.’ Leah doesn’t quite get the right end of the stick on this though. She thinks God has given her a tool with which to win Jacob’s affection. She names her first child Reuben, which means, ‘It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.’ First of all, God sees our misery and it moves Him. Yes! But he doesn’t do things so that we can manipulate people into loving us… If He did, He’d be doing the same thing.
‘She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.’
Honestly. After years of rejection and being overlooked, this reaction is entirely understandable. For Laban to fling her into her sister’s marital bed just to get her married speaks volumes about their relationship. Her sister was so much more beautiful than her that it was worth a mention. I imagine there were years of comparison, years of not feeling like she was enough. I think it’s relatable too. How often do we feel inadequate, and then when something good comes our way, we use it as leverage in certain relationships? Or find worth in the thing rather than in what the thing says about the God who sees us and what that means about our identity?
Good news for Leah though. Something shifts in her heart and head in between verse 34 and verse 35, and she has a kairos moment –
‘She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.’
The last sentence says everything! Finally she gets it. It’s not about her husband and what he thinks of her. It’s not about having sons and the value this might add to her. It’s about her relationship with the Lord! In the naming of this baby, she makes the declaration that her worth is not in her marital status, her husband’s opinions of her or her fertility. Her worth comes from the Lord and being seen, heard and loved by Him!
And it is this Judah, who becomes a great (x10 maybe) grandfather of Jesus! Even better, Jesus is known as the Lion of the tribe of Judah! Incredible.
My heart dances at this. Leah did not even know the grace that she needed, but she received it so freely.
*For a further, more in-depth and incredibly moving explanation of this narrative, check out this sermon by Timothy Keller, which was the inspiration for this whole series –
https://www.monergism.com/girl-nobody-wanted-genesis-2915-35 (transcript)
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-struggle-for-love (audio)
do the write thing 