“God Sees the Unloved”

Genesis 29:31-35

 

We just completed the story of Laban, the uncle, swindling Jacob, the trickster out of fourteen years of service and having to take both of his daughters as wives. It’s as if Jacob has received a bit of his own medicine. 

 

Today’s narrative begins at the exact center or heart of Jacob’s story, both literally and metaphorically. The story consists of rival sisters who have become wives to the same person and whose rivalry mirrors the rivalries of everyone around them in the story. 

 

The story begins with Yahweh seeing the unloved sister. Think about it. Amidst all the mess these characters seem to have gotten themselves into, Yahweh zeroes in on the one most mistreated, which is Leah. 

For those of us who have read most of the Bible, this sounds just like something God would do. 

 

God saw that Leah was not loved, the Hebrew word used here is actually, “hated.” This is only the second time the word “hated” has been used so far. The first time it appeared in chapter 24 describing people who hated the line of Abraham, or the enemies of the chosen ones. This is the first time we read of a person hating another person in an emotional way, and so it is often translated as “not loved.” Yahweh saw this and so He enabled her to conceive, but as for Rachel, the loved wife, she remained childless. Leah gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben. The first two letters of Reuben’s name are also the first two letters of the Hebrew word, “see.” In fact, every son’s name is some kind of Hebrew wordplay with something that occurs when the child is born. 

Leah attributes her ability to give birth to a son because the Lord had seen her misery. Surely her husband will love her now?

 

Leah gives birth again. This time she recognizes that the Lord has heard that she is not loved. She named him Simeon, which has the same first two letters for the Hebrew word, “shama” has heard. 

 

Not much has changed, and Leah gives birth to a third son. She continues to hope that her husband will become attached to her after giving him three sons. She names this one Levi, Hebrew word, “Yillaveh, (levah) to be attached. 

 

The fourth son comes along and Leah names him Judah. 

 

We aren’t given any thoughts of Leah regarding Jacob, but the first three letters of Judah, are in the Hebrew word, “odeh” meaning “I will praise Yahweh.” Then she stopped having children.

 

There you have it, the one who should have been given the highest rank, as first daughter of Laban, becomes the most mistreated. She’s not only traded off by her father, but the man she was given to her, doesn’t love her. This is where the language of love and hate first arises and we have love and hate as antonyms or opposites. 

 

When English speakers hear the word “hate” we recognize it is a loaded word, full of a myriad of connotations and associations that may not be associated with what the word means in Hebrew. 

 

It’s important to recognize that when we have a word pair, the words in the pair may have a little bit different meaning than they do alone by themselves. For example, if I were to tell you that I searched “high and low” for something, I don’t necessarily mean I started searching on the roof. The word high takes on a relative meaning. Something of that sort could be going on here. Does Jacob actually hate Leah? Well, it doesn’t seem that way, they do have four children together. It may be that he doesn’t care for her nearly as much as he does Rachel. The narrator has stated the opposite extremes as a way of posing the sisters as opposites. 

 

This love/hate language comes up again in the book of Malachi, as well as Romans chapter 9. The phrase used is,  “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The names of the ancestors are being used, but in both instances they are referring to the nations and their fates. 

In the book of Malachi, the contrast is between the fates of Israel and Edom. Both of them were decimated in the Babylonian purge of the land. However, Israel’s descendants returned after 70 years. Whereas, Edom was pretty much taken off the map. 

 

In Romans, Paul was explaining how it wasn’t any surprise that many of the Israelites did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. In fact, it’s kinda been that way all along. Ever since the beginning, there have been some Israelites who see it and are part of the movement and some of the Israelites don’t. Paul starts working through the generations of Genesis and brings up that it’s been heard,  “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Again, Paul was thinking in terms of groups, not individuals. This passage is the source of interpretative debates between Calvinism and Arminianism and the age-old debate of predestination and the eternal destiny of individuals. Unfortunately, Malachi and Paul were not talking about individuals, they were thinking in different categories. This offers some explanation for how the love/hate language is used. 

 

There are few things I would like to point out regarding the four sons of Leah, 

the dis-liked, 

non-chosen. 

Let’s take a look at the destiny of the tribes these men represent. 

 

The first son, Reuben, has some prominent moments in the story to come. This will be highlighted in a rebellion in the book of Numbers. Then things will not go so well for a whole bunch of Reubenites when they begin to think that Moses should be overthrown and kicked out of leadership. 

As for Simeon, well, he’s gonna be a treacherous murderer in just a few chapters from here, along with Levi. 

 

Judah, turns out to be not that good of a guy when it comes to his daughter-in-law, Tamar. He manages to sleep with a prostitute and then tries to cover it up and acts like he’s the righteous one and in the process leaves his daughter-in-law to be burned to the stake, to cover up his treachery. 

 

In fact, none of these guys are very good people. But later on some of their descendants become fairly significant in the storyline. Levi’s descendants get singled out among the tribes to be the group to live and work in the temple, the little portable Eden. Then a subset of the Levi’s will be selected as priests to go in and out of the holy of holy’s, an special Eden, on behalf of all the others. 

Judah becomes a most significant tribe. Remember David, Solomon, Josiah, Hezekiah, Jesus! The fourth tribe will actually produce the messianic lineage of the snake-crusher!

Who would have thought? 

Certainly not Leah. 

I am sure she felt everything she did was not enough. 

 

Check in time. 

 

Can any of us relate to that statement? When you look at the world around you do you ever think, “Is anything I do, enough?”

 

Let’s go to another familiar Old Testament story in 1 Samuel 16. Samuel is checking out the sons of Jesse and he comes to Eliab and thinks, 

 

“Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

 

This story of Leah reminds us how God looks at us. He sees the heart of the unloved who’s cast aside. Yahweh does not see as humans see and evaluate. Everyone in Leah’s family saw her as “less than” Rachel, but not God. Leah was given a three-plus-one fruitful womb and managed to be part of the birthing of the messiah of the world. 

 

Isn’t this an excellent description of the character of God? Take a look at Jesus. He walked on Earth and where was His heart drawn? To the outcast, the outsider, the oppressed. 

This is a theme that weaves its way through the entire Old and New Testament, and should still be weaved in our lives today. 

 

Leah managed to struggle through four pregnancies that contributed to her identity crisis but upon birth of her

fourth child, she comes to a place of praise, Judah, “I will praise Yahweh.” 

 

How realistic is that?! So often we find ourselves having to go through a multitude of struggles before we finally come to the point of, “I will praise Yahweh.” 

 

If only we had done so in the first place? 

 

Because it is when we reach the point of giving God praise that Yahweh has someone He can work with. 

 

Let’s pray.