Day 4 

# 4  Ladies-In-Waiting:

Leah and Rachel

Their  story is found in Genesis 29 - 35 

These women are sisters. They lived in Haran. They were the wives of Jacob, one of the founding fathers of the Jews:  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The legacy of these women is that their children would become the 12 tribes of Israel.  They did not know it at the time but God had them in His plan. 

Jacob was told to go find a wife in Haran. He saw Rachel and loved her. Rachel's father, Laban, asked him to work seven years to pay for his daughter's hand. On their wedding night Laban secretly and deceptively gave Jacob his first daughter Leah. When Jacob became aware of the deception he demanded to also have Rachel as his wife. Laban agreed for another seven years of work. Rachel was loved by Jacob and Leah was not, this caused a rivalry between the two sister.  The Lord noticed Leah's misery, she was a woman of sadness and loneliness because her husband love his other wife more, so to ease her sorrow God opened her womb and gave her children. She had 11 children between her and her maids, 10 boys and one girl. One of these children would establish the lineage of the priests of Israel and another would be the family line thorough whom Christ was born. Rachel was barren but God had compassion on her and opened her womb and she had two children. She died giving birth to the her youngest son. Their story is written in 6 chapters in Genesis. Enjoy reading it today, note the way God honors women when you read it. 

Their  Character: 

Both of these ladies are known for praying. The prayers are recorded in the Bible. Genesis 29: 31-35 is Leah's prayer. She gives God the praise and honor for opening her womb. She named her children to reflect the answers to her prayers. Rachel on the other hand is known for complaining to her husband and demanding that he give her children. (Genesis 30:1) His response was to become angry and remind her that he is not in the place of God. She then prays in Genesis 30:22 and God opens her womb. The family recognizes God is in control. 

What they waited for:

Leah waited for love from her husband but found that God was all she needed.  Rachel waited for children and God answered her prayer. Both of these women knew of God's promise to Abraham to bless the all the people on earth through his family line, but I think they were too caught up in their own rivalry to recognize that they were part of that plan. 





Today we are going to look at how God worked in these ladies lives. When we wait on the Lord he will complete what he started. 

Leah  
HER NAME MEANS  "wild cow". 

We know that Joseph, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus, was in the line of Judah from the genealogy written in Matthew. I'd like to share with you the poetic version on this part of the Bible written by my great aunt Mary Merrill. In 1980 she was lead to write the bible in poetic form. She was born in 1908. She was a Godly women and the wife of a pastor. Here it is, the genealogy of Joseph . Note that through the line of Leah's boy Judah, the kings of Israel were born, including David!  Here it is:

Matthew 1:1-17

These are the ancestors of Jesus Christ,

            The Son of the great I AM.

He's a descendant of David, 

            And also of Abraham. 

Abraham was father of Isaac,

            Isaac had Jacob then;

Jacob not only had Judah 

           But eleven other men. 

Judah and Tamar had two sons,

           And as generations went by,

Boaz was father to Obed,

           After he married Ruth, 

Then Obed begat Jesse, 

          A man who stood for truth.

David the king was next in line, 

          Solomon was born to him.

By her that was Uriah's wife,

          the cause of David's sin. 

Their son Solomon took the throne, 

           then Rehoboam, too,

Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, 

          To mention just a few. 

Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, 

          Manasseh, the wicked king.

Amos, Josiah, Jechoniah, 

          Then God stopped everything. 

They were carried off to Babylon. 

          But the genealogy went on

Till Jacob had Joseph, the husband of Mary

           The mother of Jesus, God's Son. 

Fourteen generation from Abraham 

          To David, the king so wise,

Fourteen from him to the exile, then

           Fourteen from the exile to Christ. 

Mary and Joseph were lovers,

           They planned to get married someday, 

But before they did, she got pregnant 

           In a supernatural way. 

Then Joseph, a just man, decided

           To privately put her away.

But an angel of the Lord appeared

            And said to let her stay. 

"This Child which is conceived in her 

            Is of the Holy Ghost,

Fear not to take her as your wife 

           Though everybody knows. " 

 Rachel
 HER NAME MEANS  "Ewe". 

Rachel also had a part in God's plan. Her son Joseph would save the Jews from famine and God protected them in Egypt.

These ladies were in God's plan. They were waiting for the Messiah but the sorrows of life and the sister rivalry took their eyes off the promise. We read their story and can see how God used them. We get to read how amazingly God uses their children in  the future. They had no idea what God had in store for them.  It amazes me how God uses our sinful nature and the consequence of our sin to weave his plan. Jacob was to have one wife, yet he had two. He also took the maids and had children with them, this was the the custom of the land, but not God's command. God still used these sons. These 12 boys became the 12 tribes of Israel! God's chosen people. We will see all of them in heaven. Their names will be over the 12 doors of the New Jerusalem. 

Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, 
for they are from of old. Psalm 25:6

TO PONDER IN YOUR HEART:  God chose for you your parents, your birth order, the land and time of your birth. Offer up praise to God for what He is going to do through you. Now, consider: Do you let the sorrows of life take your eyes off of God's promises?