The Waiting Walk

Leah.

The wife who wasn’t wanted. Who wasn’t loved.

In fifth grade so far we’ve explored Isaac and Rebecca’s story, which led to Jacob and Esau. We talked about choices, and how it’s important to make big picture choices vs. momentary choices (like maybe trading a bowl of food for half your future inheritance wasn’t a very good big picture decision). We talked about how just because someone agrees with you out loud doesn’t mean it was right or that they actually intend to keep promises (Esau possibly never intended to honor his promise to give Jacob his birthright inheritance). And we talked about letting God fight God’s battles, and us minding our business and doing what is RIGHT even when it seems like God’s cause will be lost if we don’t intervene… How would Jacob’s story be different if Rebecca had decided to just let God take care of it?

We traveled with Jacob to that lonely place where he could hardly sleep for fear his brother would kill him in the night… and the regret that he must have felt for doing something so boldly wrong… and now he has lost everything, including that birthright he was so anxious to claim. And yet it is there, in the midst of some very foolish choices – the intentional kind, not the oops kind – that God meets Jacob. It’s such a lovely picture of grace and of God’s never ending love. Oh, I emphasized that part – my students, there is NOTHING you can do that will separate you from God’s love. Nothing. Oh, you will create situations where you don’t like the consequences. And you can even choose to turn your back on God and walk away. But He will still love you. No matter what. And just one word, one thought, from you in His direction and He’s there, descending that ladder to be right beside you, no matter how far away from Him you had gone. It’s so incredible.

And then we get to the well, and Rachel is impressed by his muscles, and he quickly falls in love with this pretty girl, and it’s such a sweet story because how many times does the Bible tell us that a husband and wife actually LOVE each other in the Bible? In the culture of the day, love was optional. But it’s here. But then it is clouded by deception and Jacob wakes up after the wedding with Leah beside him instead of the love of his life… and off we go with the story of Leah, the wife who was not loved.

She bore Jacob sons – a great honor in the day. It should have brought him to her side. But it didn’t. Jacob still loved Rachel, and no one else.

I asked my students to give me one word to describe how Leah might have been feeling in her new situation, this marriage to Jacob, with her sister as the loved wife. Hands shot up all over the room.

Cosmo waved wildly. “Sad.”

Aurora held her hand high. “Forgotten.” Wow. I loved that one. Leah felt forgotten.

I think it’s true. She tried everything she could, but it didn’t seem anything worked. No one remembers Leah.

“Lonely”

“Jealous.”

“Angry.”

“Confused.”

“Hurt.”

“Alone”

My students seemed to be relating to Leah. They were coming up with very fitting, appropriate descriptors for what Lead might have felt. Probably did feel. I think nearly all 24 of my students came up with an original word, and some came up with multiple.

Forgotten. That one stuck with me the most. Which made the rest of this story so exciting to get into! We continued with the story, how Leah had 6 sons altogether, her servant-turned-wife had two, and Rachel’s servant-turned-wife also had two. And it was super cool that my students saw connections back to Hagar and her story, with taking matters into our own hands and having servants become wives just to be able to have children…

We will get into the story of Joseph next week, and see that the loved wife, in the end, only has two sons, and they come late to the game. And we might be tempted to see Joseph as the star of God’s story here, since he was born to the “barren” woman and that’s a cycle we seem to find frequently in the Bible. But without telling too much of Joseph’s story, I asked my students if they knew which of Jacob’s 12 sons would eventually have the messiah. They didn’t. So I got to tell them!

Leah, the wife that wasn’t wanted, that wasn’t loved, that had to fight with her sister for the attention of her husband… she is the one who is honored with the lineage of the messiah. Rachel was wanted, loved, hers is one of the cutest love stories in the Bible. And yet God doesn’t choose Rachel for this world-saving task. God chooses Leah. Unlovely Leah.

So no matter if you feel…

…unloved

…rejected

…forgotten…

God will use YOU. The results of your influence can go down through history to help bless the world like no other blessing imaginable.

But what is even crazier is that Leah doesn’t really ever get to see this big picture, and understand the honor bestowed on her. She just lived her life – and it didn’t always feel that great. But she is so, so significant in the grand scheme of things!

So please know this. That no matter how you feel, or how forgotten you’re sure you are, God has not forgotten you.

He sees you.

He remembers you.

He loves you.

And He will use you to bless the world.