Genesis 30

Rachel was the love of Jacob's life, but she could not bear him children. This had been a problem for both Jacob's mother and grandmother as well, and God was able to take care of their infertility. Their trials only made the eventual blessing of children more wonderful and worthy of praising God.

Nonetheless, when someone is saying to her husband, “Give me children, or I shall die,” it may not be the best time to tell her that God will eventually hear her cries and provide. Jacob was frustrated too. He said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Rachel's answer was not theological, but practical. She gave her husband her servant Bilhah just as Sarah had given Abraham her servant Hagar. From this union came Dan and Naphtali.

This struggle between sisters continues as Leah, also now barren after the birth of Judah, gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob. Once again, God gives more boys, Gad and Asher. The stories of these tribes begin in this struggle between sisters. The lives of their servants are in their hands, just as the lives of Leah and Rachel had been in the hands of their father, Laban.

The petty squabbles continue, and intimacy is sold for mandrakes, of all things! But God gives the gift of childbearing again to Leah, and first Issachar, then Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah, are born. At this late date, when it might seem hopeless that Jacob's first love, Rachel, would ever bear him children, she does give birth to a boy who will be his father's favorite, Joseph.

With the birth of Joseph, Jacob's thoughts turn toward his home in the Promised Land of Canaan. Under the extended family structure of life under Laban, he appeals to his father-in-law for a release that is not immediately granted. The enticement of ever-changing wages becomes a way for Laban to try to abuse his son-in-law, for Jacob to try to trick his father-in-law, and for God to bless Jacob and his family despite all of the messiness of their motives and actions.

Laban knows that God has blessed Jacob. He believes that there are great riches that have come to him from an association with this chosen servant of the Lord, so he does not want to let him go. Whatever else may be said of the struggle that follows, it is enough for us to know that Jacob's magic tricks are not the ultimate power in the universe. God is the one who gives children, and He is the one who makes flocks and herds increase. He is able to thwart the plans of enemies who come against His people. When we seem to lose, and we can find no ground for hope, remember God. He made the world and everything in it, and He worked out our salvation through a very powerful death. Don't give up on God.

It is a horrible trial to know that your extended family is working against you for their own profit. There is something very unnatural and evil about that. Families should sacrifice for the good of one another. When they forget how to do this, God still knows how to care for His children.

After all those years of labor were over, and Jacob had been away from home much longer than anyone could have expected, he had become a very prosperous man. He became wealthy under the noses of close relatives who wanted what God was giving him, and who were hoping to take advantage of him.

That kind of evil plan can never finally succeed. Normally, cheaters will only prosper for a season. Even if their estates grow throughout the course of their lives, how will they answer God when they die? He knows not only the secret actions we have taken against the weak; He also is an infallible judge of the intentions of every heart.

In the strangely dysfunctional story of Jacob, Laban, Leah, Rachel, their servants, and their children, there was no one who was a shining example of holiness, goodness, and love. If all of God's actions toward the descendants of Abraham and Isaac were based entirely on personal merit, who would God have been able to bless? But there is a principle at work here that is better than reward for our personal goodness. Grace. Sovereign, merciful, marvelous grace. God's grace. What made all the difference in Jacob's life was the determination of the Lord to bless him and his descendants forever.

This does not change the fact that God has requirements. God is not loose with His judgments and His blessings. The reason why the Lord could be so bountiful and free with His grace to Jacob, Leah, Rachel, and their children, is only this: Jesus provided all the merit necessary for them. Because of the beautiful holiness of Jesus, God will freely bless His people now and in the life to come.

This is such happy news for sin-sick souls. We who would have been slaves to sin, stuck forever in some Laban house of horror, are freed from bondage because of Jesus Christ. We are loved. The Lord visits us, resides in us, moves us out of the tangled webs we have made for ourselves and others, and He blesses us. This is why the world continues to turn, children are still being born, and every new day dawns. Without the beauty of Jesus, none of this would make any sense.