Year 7, Day 29: Genesis 30

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Genesis 30 is one of those chapters that always gets my attention.  I know it is coming.  I know the stories well.  I’ve heard the lessons from this chapter again and again.  Unfortunately, the sin found within is a study with which I am familiar.  When we want to take a close look at the sinfulness of humanity, this is one of the iconic chapters that gets lifted up.  Others in Genesis are the Cain and Abel story, the Apple in the Garden story, and the selling of Joseph into slavery.

What is the sinfulness that we see within these words?  Well, let’s start with Rachel.  She’s jealous that her sister – the ugly one – seems to be quite fertile.  She turns that jealousy into a quarrel with her husband.  That jealousy involves her maidservant and ultimately results in Jacob having sexual relations with her so that children are born!  Then, Rachel shows just what she thinks of Bilhah.  She takes Bilhah’s child and claims it for herself, giving it a name!  Unbridled jealousy turns into anger, frustration, sexual impurity, and the loss of value for the sanctity of other human beings!

Notice that it doesn’t end there, though.  Rachel’s jealousy is passed on into Leah.  Leah becomes jealous that she is no longer bearing Jacob children.  She follows Rachel’s example and gives her servant to Jacob.  If you’re counting, that’s three women that Jacob has given children to.  We also know that Rachel is in on the mix because she’s infertile.  The only way to know you are infertile is, well, to try and have children and not have success.  So Jacob’s now been with four women, probably the four women closest to him.  I can only imagine how those family meetings were handled.

But things still get worse!  Because Jacob is now going from bed to bed, the women start bartering and trading for his time.  Jacob’s wives start trading their husband for food!  What God created to be an intimate act that brings people together is not turned into an act for sale!  Quite literally, Jacob’s wives are selling sex.

Here is the interesting thing.  God is right there in the midst of all of this.  Do you hear the witness of Genesis?  God opened the wombs of the women.  God makes life possible.  God makes life possible, even when we are behaving horribly!  Even in those moments where we are not respecting God and certainly not respecting God’s gifts to us, God is still right there willing to bless us with grace, love, and mercy.

That doesn’t mean that God approves of what is going on.  That’s something that we absolutely need to remember as we read Genesis and the rest of the Bible.  Just because God works through our sinfulness doesn’t mean He approves of it.  What it means is that He is powerful enough to work through it and in spite of it.  God is willing to take what our sinfulness creates, redeem it, and use it for His glory.  That’s the greatness of God!

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