When the Lord saw
that Leah was loved less than Rachel, he made it possible for her to have
children, but Rachel remained childless.
– Genesis 29:31 (GNT)
Have you ever loved someone who did not love you? Have you
loved someone who made you feel almost invisible? That was Leah’s fate.
Long story short…
You see, Jacob, that same Jacob who, through trickery, got
his twin brother Esau’s birthright, was sent by his father Isaac to his uncle
Laban’s home to marry one of his daughters. Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, was Laban’s
sister.
Anyway, on the long journey, Jacob eventually came to a well,
where he met some shepherds, he asked them if they knew Laban and it just so happened
that this was the well from where his uncle’s sheep were watered.
While still engrossed in conversation with these shepherds, a
very beautiful shepherdess, sheep in tow, approaches the well and Jacob finds
out that it’s Rachel, his uncle’s daughter. Elated to have finally found his
relatives, he gives his cousin a kiss and begins “to
cry for joy”
From that moment, Jacob was smitten.
Rachel takes Jacob home to her father who is overjoyed to
meet his nephew.
After a month of living and working there, Laban tells Jacob
that he can’t continue working for free and offers to pay him. Jacob refuses to
accept wages, instead he tells Laban that he’ll work for him for seven years if
he’ll allow him to marry Rachel afterwards. Laban agreed and Jacob gladly worked for seven
years which “seemed to him but a few days, he
was so much in love” (Genesis 29:20 TLB).
Okay, so seven years passed and as agreed, Laban hosts a grand
wedding. That night the marriage was consummated, next morning, Jacob woke up
beside Leah, not Rachel.
Needless to say, Jacob was not happy at all; why would he? As
a matter of fact, he was enraged and confronted his uncle, “What sort of trick is this? I worked for seven years for
Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?”
(v 25 TLB)
Hmm, the trickster was tricked.
Laban, unfazed, answered calmly, “It’s
not our custom to marry off a younger daughter ahead of her sister, wait until
the bridal week is over and you can have Rachel too—if you promise to work for
me another seven years!” (v 26)
Well, Jacob, truly in love with Rachel, agreed to work for
another seven years.
In the meantime, Leah had to live with this man knowing that
she was not his first choice or his choice at all. She had to endure the humiliation
of watching her husband work hard for seven years to get the woman he loved, when
she’d already seen the seven years of labour he’d done before that, again highly
driven with the same purpose in mind.
Sadly, we have treated Leah the same way. How?
We, like her husband Jacob, have ignored Leah as we have focused
all our attention on Rachel. She seldom receives a mention, not even in
passing. Leah is barely spoken of from pulpits and in bible study groups, but
we can’t hear enough about her younger sister.
Do we even think of Leah?
Why has Leah’s heartache been overlooked?
She is never the main feature in any sermons, instead she is
a dismissed bible character, relegated to obscurity.
But Leah was a real woman with real emotions, wanting to be
loved.
Isn’t that what we all want? To be loved? To be seen? To be
acknowledged, noticed, validated and valued by the one we love?
You and I have been Leah. You and I have loved but felt
unloved. You and I have worn our hearts on our sleeves only to have our exposed
hearts trampled upon.
And this is not a woman’s dilemma; men have also been Leah.
But God heard Leah’s silent cries, and He hears yours and
mine. God hears us…every unspoken word, He hears.
And God saw Leah’s broken heart, and He sees our broken
hearts, yours and mine. God sees us…every indiscernible shard of brokenness, He
sees.
And God felt Leah’s anguish, and He feels our anguish, yours
and mine. God feels what we feel…every painful ache, He feels.
And, God experienced Leah’s rejection, and He experiences
our rejection, yours and mine. God experiences our loveless lives…every drop of
the love we’ve poured out that has been spurned, He has experienced.
Beloved, the love of another human being does not define
your worth.
“the Lord saw that
Leah was unloved” and “he enabled her to have children” (Genesis 29:31 NLT)
The Lord saw and He acted; He sees, and He acts.
God gave Leah love, His own, together with the kind of love that
only a child can give to a parent. A love that isn’t seeking anything in
return, a love that is pure without the unnecessary attachments, a love that’s
unconditional.
God gave her children upon whom Leah could shower her fierce
love and who will respond in like manner.
Beloved, it is the Lord who provides our needs, whatever
that need may be and in the best manner He sees fit.
He sees and He will act.
God saw the love that Leah required, and He satisfied that need.
We, you and I, always have the love of God. He loves us with
an everlasting love (see Jeremiah 31:3)
Leah’s is an example of how God works, how He intervenes in
our stories.
Though trapped in a love starved marriage, Leah’s union with
Jacob was necessary, for she gives birth to 6 of his sons, including Levi, from
whom the Levitical Priesthood emerged, and Judah, king David’s lineage.
Though on the surface Leah is seen as love denied, a deeper
dive into her story, reveals aspects of love that surpass romantic love.
Beloved, there is so much more to Leah’s story that we have failed
to see but let’s leave it for another day. Amen?
Amen †
Shelley Johnson “What about Leah?” © September 6, 2025
