Faith Working Through Love

I have recently been reviewing the lives of Leah and Rachel, the two sisters who both were wives of Jacob in the book of Genesis. I find it interesting that so few sermons are preached about Leah. Everyone wants to talk about the love story of Jacob falling in love with Rachel and working for her father, Laban, seven years in order to gain her hand in marriage only to be deceived into taking Leah and having to serve another seven years for Rachel (though he received her in marriage after one week with Leah). There is little mention of Leah in most sermons, and then it is to remark about her 'weak eyes' and how much less attractive she was than Rachel.

God apparently takes a different view. In Genesis 29:31 we see that God had compassion on Leah because she was unloved, and He opened her womb. What is almost never discussed in church is who those children turned out to be. In Genesis 29 and 30 it goes on to list her children. Among her children were both Levi, the ancestor through whom both Moses and the priesthood of Aaron would come, and Judah, the ancestor through whom both David and Jesus the Christ would come.  That is to say, both the Torah (the Old Covenant) and Messiah (the New Covenant) were descended through Leah. God's promise to Abraham involved all of Jacob's descendants, but the direct carriers of the promise to bless all nations through Abraham came through Leah.

The picture we have of Rachel, while limited, is not very pretty, though she is depicted as being physically pretty. Her jealousy of Leah's fertility is spoken of in Genesis 30; in Genesis 31 she steals her father's household idol when the time comes for Jacob to leave and return to Canaan. While Leah was worshipping God and seeking to win the favor of both God and her husband Rachel was worshipping idols and acting in jealousy.  God shows his favor on Leah, and His promise is carried to fulfillment by her sons, Levi and Judah.

By the time they die it seems that Jacob has finally figured this out: Leah is buried at the same site with Jacob where Isaac and Rebekkah as well as Abraham and Sarah are also buried (see Genesis 49:28-33). Rachel was buried alone at Bethlehem where she died after giving birth to Benjamin, which is about 15 miles from Hebron where Abraham and Sarah were buried. One would think he could have chosen to bury Rachel there since he insisted his own remains be carried there from Egypt.  Alternately, he could have asked to be buried with Rachel. It seems that in her burial Leah was recognized as bearer of the promise along with Sarah and Rebekkah. My suspicion is that Jacob had come to recognize that as well.

Of the two, it seems that Leah was the better wife. In our modern glorification of romance we tend to ignore that. In Galatians after a lengthy discussion of Abraham and Sarah, Paul comments that 'In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.' Marriage is always an act of faith but certainly Leah had to act in faith in order to seek the favor of her husband despite such clear disfavor at the start. As C. S. Lewis has pointed out in The Four Loves, romantic love is never enough to provide a firm foundation for marriage, especially in God's eyes.

  'Faith working through love'; I like that phrase. It reminds me of Leah.