Leah.

Yazi, ngiyam’zwela lo sisi[1]. Imagine being referred to as ‘weak-eyed’ by your family, and knowing that your younger sister is the cuter one in the family. And probably being told the same thing every time potential suitors come around y’all’s house. Imagine, too, that an eligible bachelor comes and works for your father, in order to marry your younger sister. In fact, to work for him for 7 years. Then, imagine your pappy pulling a switcheroo and making you marry the dude instead. Did you want to? No one asked you. You are now married. Then, imagine your bridegroom’s face change from delight to disappointment (or is that disgust?) when he realises that you are decidedly not your pretty sister.

You are instantly put aside as the lesser wife after only one week. One week. 7 days! Even people reading your story millennia later are explicitly told that Jacob’s love for Rachel was greater than his love for you. As if living the story wasn’t bad enough.

This story is an entire mess. Jacob has run away from home because he stole some things (ie a birthright or two), gone to live with his uncle Laban and met his gorgeous cousin, Rachel. And her not so attractive older sister. He works a total of 14 years for Laban for Rachel’s hand in marriage, having been tricked by Uncle into marrying Leah first. It’s clear from week 2 who the favoured wife is.

Pretty soon, Leah and Rachel descend into a womb-wrestling match of sorts. Which camp can birth more kids: Leah (with servant-girl Zilpah in her corner) or Rachel (along with servant-girl Bilhah)? Find out later, in Genesis 30!

But back to Genesis 29. Taking it up from verse 31: “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.”

Leah was not loved. End of story. It was not a case of “Love will come in time” or “Love will be a warm fuzzy blanket between us two”. Leah was not loved. But she loved her husband. How do I know? For the Bible tells me so. Verses 32 to 34 are accounts of Leah trying to use her sons as “Bheka mina ngedwa[2]”.

Son 1 is Reuben, of whom she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

Son 2 is Simeon, of whom she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.”

Son 3 is Levi, of whose birth she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have born him three sons.”

It obviously didn’t work. Which ought to be a strong lesson to us in 2019. A child is not going to keep a dude. That tactic has never worked, and it never will. Ask Leah.

But I want to double back to verse 31. “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless”.

The Lord saw (and He still sees). He was not blind to Leah’s plight. And He intervened.

Leah did accredit her, shall we say, fruitfulness to the Lord, but it was still all about getting Jacob’s attention. “Maybe now he’ll see me. Maybe now he’ll love me. Surely now that I have 3 sons, I’m worth more to him than Rachel.” Time and again, she was disappointed. Love is one of the deepest, most fundamental needs of the human soul. To know that you are unloved in your own marriage, is worse than loneliness, I think.

Anyhoo. Something interesting happens in verse 35. “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.” End scene.

She stopped looking for Jacob. At last, she praised the Lord, and named her fourth son Judah.

Judah was the great⁴²-grandfather of Jesus.

I like to imagine that’s no coincidence. God showed Leah love, when love was not exactly forthcoming from Jacob. When Leah finally gave up on putting herself through the heart-wrenching pain of hoping for Jacob’s regard, and praised God for what He had been doing in her life, the fruit of that was a place in the lineage of Christ.

It got me thinking. How many times have I done something with the hope of being seen to be of value? Even when some part of my head knows I ought to be serving the Lord alone. Probably more times than I realise.

What thanks and praise do you and I neglect to give the Lord, because of the pain of not being noticed by people?

God sees us. He is not blind to our painful situations. What a tragedy it would be to never realise this, to waste His interventions on trying to make people see us. Let us take a page from Leah’s book, and praise the Lord.

What else did you notice about chapter 29? Let a sister know in the comments below.

Of course, this is not the end of Leah and Rachel’s rivalry. It has only paused. There’s more drama in chapter 30. But that’s a story for another day.

Copyright 2109. Gugulethu Mhlanga. All rights reserved.

[1] I feel for this lady, you know.

[2] “Look at me alone” or love potion no. 5