Leah

It's quite the love story. It's scandalous, it's sad, and oh so beautiful and full of grace.

She wasn't loved. She wasn't pretty. Her eyes were 'weak', cross-eyed or protruding. She lived in the shadow of her stunning younger sister, Rachel. And that's whom Jacob loved.

He loved Rachel so much he payed quite the price for her. A significantly higher price than what was customary in those days. He worked for her father, Laban for seven years to get her. Yet it seemed but a few days for Jacob because of his love for Rachel.

Wait, isn't this a story about Leah?

Yes. And no.

When the time came for Jacob to wed the daughter of Laban, the veiled bride was presented to Jacob.

But it wasn't Rachel.

They were wed, the veil was lifted, and Jacob came to know what deception was done to him. So he went to confront his father-in-law.

Laban defends himself by saying the younger is not to proceed the older, therefore, Leah had to be married first.

And Jacob was silent.

You know why?

Because he was living in the shadow of his own deception. Of having deceived his own father into blessing the younger and not the older. Of escaping that tradition of the younger serving the older.

But let's get back to Leah's story.

Seven more years and Jacob had his beloved Rachel.

And Leah? She wasn't loved by her husband. God saw this. He opened her womb and closed Rachel's.

Leah had a son, Reuben. She believed that now Jacob would see her.

She had another son, Simeon. She was now sure that Jacob would hear her.

She again bore another son, Levi. She thought now that Jacob would love her.

She bore one more son, Judah. But this time God shifted her gaze and she praised the Lord.

She stopped bearing [for a while]. It was no longer about pleasing her husband. About having babies and being a good wife. It was about God, her true love. The only Love that can satisfy.

And this son, Judah, was in the line of promise. He was to bear our Saviour. Leah was the mother of Jesus. The rejected, the scorned, the unloved was to bear the Messiah who was himself to be rejected and scorned and unloved.

But what does that matter? If to be unloved in this world means we can praise God and find our fulfillment in him than let it be so.

Leah's story is so beautiful. It's brokenness finding true healing. It's the rejected finding true love. It's a love story ending in the greatest, most pure, and most fulfilling love possible.



**inspired by Tim Keller's sermon "The Struggle for Love"