Genesis 30:1-29
30 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
3 Then she said, “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.”
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.[a]
7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.[b]
9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children,she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!”[c] So she named him Gad.[d]
12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call mehappy.” So she named him Asher.[e]
14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”
“Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
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.
17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.[f]
19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.20 Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.[g]
21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph,[h] and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”
The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
Proverbs 11:24
Do you ever feel like God has forgotten you. You see others getting what you want, their lives are flourishing and others are looking at them in the way that you want them to look at you?
My wife often tells me that comparison is the thief of joy. When you compare your life to someone else’s, it doesn’t matter whether you win or loose, you always lose. Your gifts, your blessings, your achievements that you worked so hard for no longer matter because you don’t have whatever it is that they have.
Often we compare our internal experiences with someone else’s external projections. We don’t see what is going on inside others and so we imagine their feelings and experiences are better than ours. This feeling of lack leads us to resent others, to try to hold on to what we have and to live small, lives. We end up in a cycle of pettiness, competition and self-centredness.
Rachel saw her sister having babies and she was jealous. She was deeply insecure. Which made no sense because she was the one that Jacob loved, she was the beauty and yet she looked at what Leah with envy. Leah had to deceive Jacob to get married and yet Rachel is the one who feels left out. Her experience of life felt small.
However, in verse 22 it says (and this is key!) that God remembered Rachel. Insecurity comes when you do not feel like you have enough. Generosity comes when you feel like you have ample. Insecurity is when you do no think that God will provide but generosity comes when you know that God has not forgotten you. He sees you and he remembers you.
