God's love for women
Women's studies - Part 1
I’ve learned a lot about God’s love for women through the stories of Sarah, Leah and Rachel, and Hannah and Peninnah. There are a lot more women in the Bible to study and observe how God’s love comes to the forefront. I chose these women because they have a lot in common and it is easy to mistake these verses as God punishing women when actually they were meant to bring blessing.
Over the next few weeks, I’d like to explore these and other women in the bible and how God has restored them to Him, blessed them, had mercy on them, and protected them with His great love.
Key Themes:
Throughout the study of Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah:
Their wombs were closed
Through prayer, they were restored
What did these women have in common?
Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah’s wombs were closed by God.
Rachel and Hannah were loved more by their husbands.
There was rivalry between Leah and Rachel’s relationship and Hannah and Peninnah’s relationship.
(My use of “sin” in this context is interchangeable with a mistake or being/doing something wrong, being frowned upon, etc.)
You’d think that their wombs being closed was a result of their own sins (which is partly true) but it was also a result of their husbands sins. Abraham’s sin was obvious, in order to protect himself he lied and gave his wife to other men. If God had not intervened he would have caused other men to sin by being with another man’s wife. He didn’t just commit this sin one time either.
Jacob and Elkanah’s sins were not as obvious but they did commit a sin. Jacob favoured Rachel over Leah and Elkanah favoured Hannah over Peninnah. It wasn’t the favor that was wrong, it was the neglect that was. The suffering of the ones that were neglected.
Rachel and Leah
Leah was forced upon Jacob. She was not the wife he asked for. When he went to their father, he asked for Rachel’s hand in marriage and the father agreed, and didn’t disclose that as per their custom, the older daughter should be married off first. Jacob probably felt trapped in this marriage with Leah when he actually wanted Rachel. Humans back then were probably not much different from humans today. If the same cultural conditions applied today, perhaps Jacob wouldn’t have been unfair to Leah. Perhaps he would have still been kind and given her the basic care for her to survive. AKA, set her up in a nice place to live, made sure she was eating and taken care of in terms of basic needs but neglected to have an actual relationship with her. She most likely felt lonely and sad that he didn’t care for her as he did Rachel. Genesis 29:31 says “When the Lord saw that Leah was neglected, he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive.” God didn’t like seeing Leah suffer in despair that her husband didn’t love her so He gave her an advantage. He gave Jacob an opportunity to take better care of Leah by having Leah give Jacob the gift of children. This resulted in making Rachel desperate. She was already jealous of her sister since her sister married Jacob first but now she was unable to conceive and Leah was able to. Her desperation is apparent in Genesis 30:1 where she says “Give me sons, or I will die!” it is through this desperation that she decides she’s going to use a surrogate (her maid Bilhah).
These verses were written as if a war broke out between the two of who could have the most kids and it makes you wonder why God had allowed them to feud this way. But in the eyes of a parent, if your child asked you for something sincerely and out of desperation, would you not give it to them if it were in your power?
The bigger picture here also is to view this as it was at that time. Having as many children as possible was a sign of God’s great favor upon your life. It was a sign of great wealth. The more children you had, the wealthier and more blessed you were. God’s blessing to Adam and Eve was to “be fruitful and multiply” Gen 1:28.
At the end of this feud between Rachel and her sister, we see that Rachel’s womb was opened and when she named her son Joseph she said “God has taken away my disgrace” V23, her words express the relief she must have felt when she was finally able to conceive. Rachel bore two sons. And when this happened Jacob decided it was time to move on from his father-in-law’s house and start to make a life for his own family. (Read the rest in Gen 30:25)
What does this mean for us today?
God didn’t favor one child over another in these verses as it might seem to some. It was also not because these women had committed this great sin and therefore God was punishing them. On the contrary. God had a greater plan in mind:
He wanted Leah to be seen and not neglected (Gen 29:31),
It was for the praise of the Lord (Gen 29:35),
It was to bless Jacob (Gen 30:43) Jacob no longer neglected his wife Leah,
and it was to bring peace (Gen 30:24 and Gen 31:14) when Rachel’s womb was opened.
In Rachels's relief, the two sisters must have ended their rivalry and we see this in Gen 31:14-15 because both of them were in agreement about their fathers’ deception against them, their husband, and their children. We also see their trust and loyalty to God. Therefore, through God’s love, He restored them back to Himself.
We think that God has this great vendetta against women when we read that He closed women’s wombs and it caused them great hardships and despair. We might not know all the reasons why God does what He does, but He has revealed to us through the scriptures that although these men and women sinned, because they had faith in God and kept praying, He kept blessing them. God didn’t leave them in despair.
In our own lives we need to see that in the same way, God does not leave us in despair. He hears our cries, He sees our pain, and He is there waiting for you to turn to Him and ask Him (Phil 4:6).
Consider sharing this post with a friend or someone you feel needs a little encouragement this week that God has not forgotten them, God sees their pain and He will restore them once again.