Gentle Reader,
If you’re wondering how you arrived at a conclusion without knowing that the questions are, check this out.
I hope you’ve all enjoyed this peek into the academic side of my life. More than that, I hope you’ve learned something. That is one of my greatest longings as a pastor. I want you know God, and I want you to learn something. As I wrote last week, I want to sit with the story of Leah and children and Jacob and rivalry and Rachel and unexpected grace. I am certain that there are more treasures to mine. I know that God has more things to say to me about who God is and what God will do in the midst of chaos.
Our faith is one of continual learning. Of choosing each day to sit at the feet of the Savior and listen. May our ears be open to the voice of God today.
When the LORD Saw Leah: Conclusion
“Can I be real a second? For just a millisecond? Let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second?”46 If Leah could speak to us today, what would she say? Would she tell her story any differently? Most assuredly. The viewpoint of a marginalized woman would certainly diverge from that of a male author. The reader is tempted to muse, but in the end must remain faithful to the text. There is enough to it for many points to be made, but one stands above the others: God compassionately moves toward the distressed. The community of faith is reminded of the kindness and goodness of God when engaged with Leah’s story. God does not condemn Leah for the way she responds to her situation. God instead provides her with the care and love she truly needs; not that which is found in a husband, but that which is found in God alone.
It is evident that “Leah, the one not beautiful and not loved, is blessed by God.”47 Though the remark about her physical appearance is based on assumption as there is no extant portrait of Leah to be found, the overall statement is true. God blessed Leah. God cared for Leah. This does not mean that God loved Rachel less. This simply means that God does not act according to human standards. God’s ways are different from those of humanity.48
“Two of the major OT institutions – priesthood and kingship – have their origin in an unwanted and unplanned marriage.”49 Without Leah, there is no Moses, no Aaron, no shaping of national Israel. Further, “it is worth noting that it is from the neglected wife, the rejected one, the one who was marginalized, that the future King David will be born. . . .the Messiah Jesus, also from the tribe of Judah, comes from the womb of this despised woman.”50 Not only does God compassionately move toward the distressed, but God chooses to identify with the distressed. The Savior promised in the wake of choice and death and sin51 will not come to earth in the form of a great king. He will be humble and ordinary.52
There is not a person living who cannot relate to Leah in some way. Every human knows what it is to feel less-than, to be rejected, no matter how smooth and comfortable life is. There is a strained relationship in each person’s background. There is pain that seems to have no end. Leah calls the reader to remember God. Her voice, filtered though it is, echoes through the centuries, rising from the thin pages and smeared ink of our Bibles. She reminds all that life is indeed harsh, but that God is not. She stands in each mind, arms raised heavenward, eyes fixed on the One whose love never fails. May all learn from and emulate her example.
__________
46 Lin-Manuel Miranda. “Right Hand Man.” Track 8 on Hamilton: An American Musical.
47 Bruggemann, 254.
48 See Is. 55:8-9.
49 Hamilton, 268.
50 De La Torre, 270.
51 See Gen. 3:14-15.
52 See Is. 53:2b.
Image Courtesy of Jonathan Borba
A full list of references for this paper can be found here.