One of the ways that the Bible comes alive to us is through the experiences of people like Leah and Rachel. These sisters were not two-dimensional figures. Their colorful story reveals strong emotions like rejection, shame, and jealousy. Yet throughout their lives, God shows not only His control over their situations. He demonstrates His care and concern for their hearts.
Who Were Leah and Rachel?
To understand who Leah and Rachel were, we must understand something about their relatives.
In some of the earliest chapters of the book of Genesis, God called out a man named Abram (later Abraham) to create an eternal covenant with him. God would make him a great nation, and all nations would be blessed through Abraham.
This great nation started with the long-awaited son Isaac. God blessed Abraham’s son Isaac as the one through whom the blessing would continue. Then Isaac had twin sons: Jacob and Esau. As the firstborn, Esau had the “right of possession,” meaning that at the end of his father’s life, he would get a greater share of his father’s possessions than any siblings. Jacob “stole” this right of possession by tricking his dying blind father into thinking he was Esau. His mother suggested he see her brother Laban to escape his brother Esau’s fury.
Jacob arrived in the land where Laban lived and saw one of his daughters, Rachel, watering the sheep. Jacob immediately fell in love with her. But Rachel also had an older sister named Leah.
It is said of her that she had “weak eyes,” but Rachel was lovely in every way. The way this comparison is written could indicate a couple of things.
First, if Leah truly had trouble seeing, this fact would stress her father. She might be considered tainted, and therefore Laban would struggle to marry her off. Second, the way the text contrasts the two women (“weak eyes”/”lovely in every way”) could imply Leah wasn’t as attractive as her younger sister—again, a problem for her father in marrying her off. In Ancient Near Eastern cultures like Laban lived in, getting adult children married off to produce offspring to grow the clan was everything. Having unmarried daughters was a source of shame—and made Laban look weak for producing an “inadequate” child.
However, Laban was clever.
Jacob stayed with the family for a month, and Laban asked, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be” (Genesis 29:15).
Jacob answered that he wanted to marry Rachel, the younger daughter. He said he would work for seven years to earn her. Laban doesn’t say “Yes.” Rather, he said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” What did Laban have up his sleeve?
Why Did Leah and Rachel Both Marry Jacob?
At the end of the seven years of labor, a great wedding feast was held. However, that night Leah was sent to Jacob’s tent instead of a veiled Rachel. Jacob and Leah had relations, and the next morning, Jacob was livid that Laban had tricked him.
There were no negotiations about this; Laban just decided to do whatever he wanted—perhaps taking advantage of how feverishly Jacob wanted Rachel.
Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older. Finish this daughter’s bridal week and then you can have the other as well” (Genesis 29:26).
The reply suggests that Laban had even more reasons he was stressed about getting Leah married off—if he couldn’t, he had two unmarried daughters to shame him.
Furthermore, the reply gives the impression that Jacob and Esau’s mother didn’t teach the local marriage customs—Jacob would have surely known not to ask for the impossible in their culture.
There is also an irony here. Jacob, who had deceived his older brother, who deserved the birthright, was now on the other end of a similar deception between older and younger. Did he realize that at the time?
“Weak-eyes” Leah must have been humiliated. Maybe she didn’t want to marry Jacob, knowing he didn’t love her like her sister. Christianity.com contributor Michelle Treacy observes, “Leah would have known, like the rest of the village, that she was tricking the man her sister loved and would live as a second fiddle to what could have been a great love story.”
Going through the charade of the wedding and the wedding night could have been gut-wrenching as she knew she would likely never be loved like Rachel.
Rachel was also hurt by this trickery—as if she and her sister were no more valuable than livestock to be traded. Who could imagine how having your husband sleep with your sister instead of you on your wedding night would feel?
Why Did Leah and Rachel Compete about Having Children?
After the pain of being used by their father to trick Jacob, Leah and Rachel had to deal with another problem: they were both expected to have children.
From the first woman God created, He gave the ability and responsibility to bear children and populate the earth. The Jewish Women’s Archive states, “In agrarian societies during the biblical period (1200-600 BCE), bearing children was highly valued and women’s primary role was that of mother. Birthing and raising children, however, were fraught, given the high rate of maternal death in childbirth and of infant mortality; only half of all children born survived to the age of five.”
There was a stigma to being barren, an assumption that God was withholding blessing from the woman or her family. In the case of Leah and Rachel, God provided a special intervention.
“When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Genesis 29:31).
In other words, God is compassionate and loving to Leah, while Rachel waits for God also to be compassionate to her.
Through a series of four sons, Leah blessed Jacob and enraged Rachel, who became jealous of her sister. The sisters begin to compete using their maidservants, and four more sons are born. Based on Genesis’ story of Sarah letting Abraham gain heirs by sleeping with her maidservant Hagar, it seemed accepted practice (not acceptable to God) for a woman to give her maidservant to her husband if she couldn’t conceive.
After that, Leah slept with Jacob again and had two more sons.
Finally, God opened the womb of Rachel, and she gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin. Because of his great love for Rachel, Jacob shows special favor to Joseph, which causes much family strife that affects nations.
Can We Learn Anything from Rachel and Leah?
We can learn several things from Rachel and Leah’s lives.
1. Our security will never be in people but only in God. Crosswalk.com contributor Mandy Smith says, “I love how God had a special place in his heart for Leah. You see, God enabled Leah to have four sons because “… the Lord saw that Leah was unloved . . .” (Genesis 29:31). God saw Leah’s rejection and knew what having sons would mean to her.”
2. Jealousy can destroy family relationships. We must be aware that God gives and takes away (Job 1:21), so what He gives to one, not the other, is for a reason known only to Him. May we honor His choices and His will
3. While Leah and Rachel had no choice in this charade, I hope they spoke up nonetheless. Sometimes God allows us to be challenged to see if we will stand up for what is right, not what will please someone.
4. Our hurts can carry over to the next generation if we are not careful. Jacob spoiled Joseph because he had been born of Rachel. Leah’s children likely knew she was the unfavored one, and now the same thing was happening to them. We must discuss and eliminate family discord because it doesn’t honor the Lord.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/naphtalina
Mary Oelerich-Meyer is a Chicago-area freelance writer and copy editor who prayed for years for a way to write about and for the Lord. She spent 20 years writing for area healthcare organizations, interviewing doctors and clinical professionals and writing more than 1,500 articles in addition to marketing collateral materials. Important work, but not what she felt called to do. She is grateful for any opportunity to share the Lord in her writing and editing, believing that life is too short to write about anything else. Previously she served as Marketing Communications Director for a large healthcare system. She holds a B.A. in International Business and Marketing from Cornell College (the original Cornell!) When not researching or writing, she loves to spend time with her writer daughter, granddaughter, rescue doggie and husband (not always in that order).
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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