“Rival Wives”

Genesis 30:1-24

Last week we read how Yahweh saw and showed compassion to the unloved Leah. In the process the first four sons of Israel were born. Yahweh provided life where there was barrenness, which hyperlinks us back to Genesis 2, the creation story, an Eden note. Following our Literary Design of Genesis we should expect a failure. Actually, it is followed today, by three shorter narratives that resound notes of Eden failures. 

Beginning with verse 1 of chapter 30, we read that Rachel saw that she had not given birth for Jacob and as a result, she became jealous of her sister Leah. 

She approached Jacob and said, 

 “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

Jacob, sensitive husband that he is, turns on Rachel in anger and responds with, 

“Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

Hyperlink! Back to the Eden story. Remember what the snake said to the woman, 

“Oh, you know, if you eat of the fruit, you’ll become like God.” 

We have an ironic inversion of this statement. Jacob responds by asking Rachel if she thinks he is like Elohim that he can give fruit of the womb? Eden and the womb are analogies to each other. 

Rachel gets no empathy from her husband so she comes up with another idea. Her father had given her a slave, Bilhah. So she said in verse 3, 

“Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”

In Hebrew, Rachel literally says, “Perhaps I can build a family through her.” 

Yahweh and her husband are not going to give her what she wants, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. She will build her family through her slave. Whenever this happens, things don’t always work out as planned. Which leads us to another hyperlink. The Hebrew word “to build” has only been used a few times thus far. The first time was when Yahweh “built” the woman in Eden. Then Cain “builds” himself a city to protect himself, even though Yahweh promised to protect him. And then Sarah decided to “build” a family with her slave and now it’s Rachel who is doing the building. 

This motive continues today, how often do people try to provide for themselves when they think God isn’t coming through for them? 

Well, Jacob doesn’t seem to have a problem with Rachel’s solution. In fact, Bilhah conceives two sons for Jacob and Rachel. The first son is named, Dan. which is the first three letters of the Hebrew word for “God has vindicated me.” Bilhah’s second son was named Naphtali, which has the first three letters of the Hebrew word for “wrestles.” Rachel names him this because she feels like she has been wrestling with her sister Leah, and has won. Somehow, the loved wife who was not fruitful thinks her lack of fruit was because of her wrestling, or struggle with her sister. She also thinks she was the one who managed to beat her sister, and completely misses the fact that God is in control. How messed up. 

Another hyperlink! We’ve been here before. This isn’t the first time a woman who has an unfruitful womb gets the idea that her slave can step in for her. Rachel is replaying her grandmother, Sarah’s failure with her husband Abraham and slave Hagar. 

With the birth of Naphtali the author is planting a seed that will sprout in the next few chapters with a significant midnight wrestling match. 

For now, we return to verse 9, 

“When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.”

Not to be outdone, Leah, the older sister decided she could play the same game as her sister Rachel. Leah had stopped having children so she offered her slave, Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. Zilpah bore a son and Leah named him Gad, the Hebrew word for “good fortune.” Which was also the name for a Canaanite deity. 

Zilpah was not outdone by Rachel’s slave, as she too gave birth to a second son. Leah considers this a blessing of fertility and named him “Asher.” 

Effective but not the way God designs. Which means we have read about two failures, each sister taking things into their own hands and battling it out. Our third failure is even more weird and interesting. 

During the harvest, the first born son, Reuben, happens to find some mandrakes, the Hebrew word is “duda’im,” in the field and brings them to his mother, Leah. 

Sidenote: Mandrakes are known for its hallucinogenic, narcotic, and purgative properties, the root contains toxic alkaloids (scopolamine, atropine) used in ancient medicine as an anesthetic and in folklore as an aphrodisiac or magical amulet. 

Duda’im is also an alternate spelling of the Hebrew word for erotic love which is “dodim.” 

This word appears in two books of the Hebrew Bible, here and can you guess, Son of Songs. 

Rachel sees them and asks for some. Leah comes back with the retort that Rachel has already taken her husband, now she wants her mandrakes too? When is enough, enough? Rachel then comes up with a deal. Jacob can sleep with Leah that night in return for her son’s mandrakes. Verse 16,

“So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.”

No complaints from Jacob, whatsoever. 

We have one failure narrative, an escalated failure narrative and now an even weirder failure narrative. 

Hyperlink: At this point we have in exchange for food combined with sibling rivalry. The younger Rachel tries to use food to get an angle, but then the older Leah works the angle over her. We’ve been here before. Remember the story about the stew and the birthright of the firstborn? Who was out in the field and found these mandrakes? Reuben, the first born. We have like a hall of mirrors. A story echoing other stories. Here is where it’s really interesting. In the story of Esau, when he comes in from the field he says, “I’m so hungry, I’m gonna die.” Rachel, without children, “Is going to die.” And then Esau saw the bowl of stew and said, “Give me some “edom, edom.” Red, red. The Hebrew word for edom edom is spelled with the same letters in a different order as the word “mandrakes.” duda’im. Both are wordplays on the three letters at the center of the word “adam.” Oh, and who is Adam? 

The being, male and female, who were the first people to exchange their firstborn right for the fruit in the garden. You can’t make this stuff up. 

We have the deceptive stew to steal the birthright, where Esau came in from the field. Now we have Reuben, the first born, finds mandrakes in the field, Jacob comes in from the field and finds his evening has been purchased by them.

Even though Leah is the first born, she is not treated like the firstborn. She has to buy firstborn rights with her duda’im. Jacob becomes the one objectified, although he doesn’t seem to be upset. Yet, this is how Jacob’s final children are born. Despite all the messed up motives of everyone, verse 17, 

“God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.”

She named him, “Issachar,” the Hebrew word for “wage” as she perceived that God had paid her for giving her servant to her husband. Weird. She must have gotten another night with Jacob because she gives birth to a sixth son and names him “Zebulan.” The Hebrew word for a good gift, which she attributes from Yahweh in hopes that finally her husband will treat her with honor for providing him with so many sons. 

Some time later she gives birth to a daughter, Dinah, which in Hebrew means, “judgment.” 

The story does not have a sad ending for Rachel, verse 22, 

“Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.”

She gave birth to a son and named him Joseph. The Hebrew word for “gathered away my humiliation.” And then her closing words were, 

“May the Lord add to me another son.”

Although she was grateful for what God had done, what she really wanted…………..was more. So human.

Check in time.

This is the genesis of the family of Israel. It’s wrapped up in the abuse of women, men trying to one-up each other on the social ladder, which creates an environment where women then mirror the abusive behavior of the men. Every way these relationships could have gone wrong, they have gone wrong. Yet, throughout the entire story we read how Yahweh provides Eden gifts. These were His chosen people, through whom He is going to bring His Eden blessing to the nations. Such an obscure national history. 

Think of the debates we have today about the origin stories of American history. 

How heated they become because how you tell the story shows what you value and what you don’t value. 

For those of us who walk we God, just like the failed characters we read about in Genesis, we are His chosen people, through whom He is going to bring His Eden blessing to the nations. Sorry to say, we are just as messed up and then some. Yet, there is hope. God is faithful. May we learn from these narratives and choose to tell the story that values what Yahweh values. 

Let’s pray.