Waiting in Prayer (Gen 30.17-22)
And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb…and she named him Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!”
Background
Today’s devotional commentary is a story that I call “The Baby Contest.” It is the story of Jacob’s two wives, Leah and Rachel, and their desire to have children. As we discussed above,1 the ability to bear children was important in the ancient world. Having a child—especially an heir—was an honor and a blessing. Having a child gave a woman status and brought honor to her marriage and family. In that world, being childless brought shame upon a woman. Many passages in the Bible address the “barren woman.”2
In this story—which is intended to be humorous—Rachel and Leah vie for that honor by trying to out-do one another in the baby-making department. Yet, the story is not in the Bible for mere entertainment; it also emphasizes how God blessed Jacob—abundantly!—and kept His promise. God told Abraham and Isaac that their descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand or as stars in the sky. Jacob finds this promise fulfilled in his own home.
The words of the prayers offered by Rachel and Leah are not included, but verses 17 and 22 show that both women offered petitions to God for children. Notice that this story has another instance of a slave acting as a surrogate mother, just as we read in the story of Abraham and Sarah.3 This time, none of the dire consequences occur. The use of the slave here was not because of a lack of trust in God, but just of a desire to have children, and God blessed the family through that ancient practice.
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