Genesis 30 Commentary
Rebekah has difficulties in childbearing. Isaac intercedes and the LORD opens her womb. 25v21. Rachel has difficulties in childbearing. Jacob does nothing. Instead, he shouts back in anger. Solutionless Jacob is upset because Rachel confronts him over his inactivity.
For now, we can look at the Sarah-like transaction that Rachel implements involving her maid Bilhah. Human traditions have their own outcomes but God looks at things differently. For Sarah, Ishmael was always Hagar’s son and never Sarah’s. The LORD God knew it that way. 16v11.
For Rachel, Dan and Naphtali would always be Bilhah’s sons and never Rachel’s. Gad and Asher would come from Zilpah, Leah’s maid, in a similar way. But they all remain children of Bilhah and Zilpah. Human traditions never change Heaven!
Rachel is right; “Give me children, or I’ll die”. Jacob’s response is dire, desperate, and faithless. A man should receive impossible situations like Rachel’s. He man should know where to take the burden – casting it upon the LORD because the LORD God cares. Not now; not Jacob!
We also notice the difficulties of polygamy. The barrenness of Rachel, (albeit temporal), isn’t as big a problem to Jacob as it is to Rachel. Jacob’s burden isn’t the same. He has children already! He has a spare womb firing on all its cylinders! Why bother? But what an injustice to Rachel!
You can see how human traditions negate the common wisdom for carrying burdens together – unequally yoked in load-bearing. One end feels it more than the other. A couple should be together at the altar pleading with the LORD God for children, with the same energy!
Rachel kept Jacob from Leah; the LORD kept Leah productive. There can always be fruitfulness in abandonment! The LORD God ordains it!
Jacob isn’t always solutionless! He is back to his old self; he cheats. Laban 0, Jacob 1. Deception becomes the vehicle for prosperity but it is needless! 31v11-13. The LORD showed Jacob a winning formula but Jacob is always Jacob – He does it his way.
This chapter posts a warning against scheming. Let there be pure trust! And if the LORD asks for activity, let the activity be holy!
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