Baby Wars

Well, let me have you turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 30. Genesis chapter 30, we are clipping along in our series to the book of Genesis, and as we continue in our study through this book, we come this morning. To Genesis chapter 30, and my goal this morning is to cover verses 1 through 24, and the title of the message this morning is Baby Wars. Baby wars.

we live in a day of reality television. and these reality TV shows often feature crazy scenarios and are full of conflict, between people along with the jealousy and the anger and the hurt and the dramatics that, go with all of that. but I'm convinced that as crazy as some of the reality TV shows, Nowadays are not a one of them. Comes close to capturing the melodrama.

Of Genesis 29 that we studied last week. And the passage that we will be studying today in Genesis 30. If you want real drama, read your Bible. Read the Book of Genesis, read Genesis 29, read Genesis 30 1 through 24 that we'll be studying today.

You will recall from last week that Jacob fell in love with a beautiful woman named Rachel, and he worked for seven years in order to have the privilege of marrying her, but on his wedding night, he was tricked into Pledging himself to Rachel's less attractive sister Leah, and sleeping with Leah. Then 8 days later, he is finally allowed to marry Rachel. So within the span of 8 days, Jacob has gained 2 wives. We also learned last Sunday that when Leah was given to Jacob in marriage, she came with a maidservant named Zilpa.

And when Rachel was given to him in marriage, she came with a maidservant named Bilha. So now Jacob is living in a household with 4 women. And keep in mind, guys, that back in this day, one of the reasons that a maidservant was given to a woman when she was getting married was so that that maidservant would be available as a backup for the wife to give to her husband in the event that she, the wife, discovers that she is barren. And unable to have children.

This was never God's design for marriage, and not a one of you ladies informed by the sensibilities of the New Testament and the gospel of Jesus Christ would ever do such a thing. But this is what people did back in this day. This is precisely what Sarah did in giving Hagar to Abraham back in Genesis 16. And we're actually today going to see Rachel and Leah doing this in our passage today.

In the end, by the time we reach verse 24 of our text today, Jacob is going to have essentially 4 wives, 4 women through whom He has children. And that's the reality show that we will be. Watching today. Last week, we witnessed the birth of the 4 sons of Leah.

We saw how Leah uses the birth of her 1st 3 sons to express her pain. Over her situation of being unloved by her husband, Jacob, who loved Rachel more than he loved her, and she expresses her longing for her husband to be more attached to her. When she has her 4th son, her focus seems to be moving off of her husband and to be moving on to Jehovah. She names her fourth son Judah and says, this time I'm going to praise Jehovah, and that's how essentially chapter 29 of Genesis ends.

And where we left off last Sunday. So up to this point, we've witnessed the birth of the 1st 4 of Jacob's children. Today, we're going to observe the birth of 8 additional children of Jacob and surrounding these births will be conflict and jealousy. And anger and a backroom deal being made along with prayers and rejoicing.

by deeply flawed women who somehow in the midst of all of the brokenness have a faith in God. Our passage today reminds us that something as beautiful as Childbirth can be rendered painfully complicated by sin, the sin that is in all of us. And maybe some of that will resonate with you this morning as we look at our text. In fact, let me just ask you some questions this morning to see if any of these questions touch On anything that you have ever experienced with regard to having children.

Here's some questions for you. Have you ever personally felt a spirit of competition between you and another person over having children, like maybe a sister of yours? Even if you have never felt those feelings yourself, have you ever felt a competitive spirit coming from someone else toward you? When it comes to childbearing.

Have you ever felt jealous that God gave someone else a child when he had not yet given to you? Any children? Have you ever found yourself ever feeling a sense of pride that God has given you children and not someone else? Has it ever seemed to you that someone was gloating over the children that God had given to them or the number of children that God had given to them and their gloating was painful to you.

Have you ever felt a twinge of jealousy that God gave to someone a certain number of children more than you have been able to have? Like my wife and I have 4 children that God has given to us. And I remember a number of years ago when a family close to us became pregnant with their 5th. Child, I felt a twinge of jealousy that they were now going to have one child more than us.

How immature is that? I was able to squash that thought, but I remember it showing up out of nowhere and getting in the way of my ability to rejoice with them. As they were announcing That there was a 5th child on the way. Ladies, have you ever hoped that having a child would fix your and your husband's relationship?

And then been disappointed to discover that that didn't happen. Have you ever found yourself taking pleasure in the thought of how other people are going to view you and talk about you now that you have a child, or now that you have a certain number of children? Have you ever felt like people were looking down on you because you had no children or because you had so few children? Have you ever experienced someone being unhappy or even angry with you because you had so many?

Children. Have you ever been frustrated at your spouse or even at God over the fact that you are not having children or not able to have more children? Have you ever gotten into an argument with your spouse over the matter of having children? How many of you, every head bowed, every eye closed?

No. How many of you would say, I, I would answer yes to at least one of those questions, raise your hand. It's OK. It's OK.

I ask these questions to illustrate the fact that even something as beautiful and as wonderful as childbirth can become painfully complicated by very human. Emotions and even by sinful tendencies in all of us, which means That as crazy as this story is in Genesis 30, We all can probably find something of ourselves in this passage, and we just might find some help as well. So what we're gonna observe, this is how we'll break the passage down as we'll observe 4 stages in the story of the birth of 8 additional children of Jacob.

And the first of these stages, as these births unfold is that Rachel has 2 sons through her maidservant, Bilha.

Observe what Rachel does in verse 1, and very quickly, we're gonna see Jacob and Rachel arguing with each other. Verse 1, it says, now, when Rachel saw, keep in mind, Leah has had 4 children up to this point, and Rachel has had none. Verse 1, now, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister, who is Leah. And she said to Jacob, Give me children or else I die.

How's that for a conversation starter? Obviously, the green-eyed monster of envy has visited Rachel with a vengeance and for the first time in her life, probably she finds herself feeling jealous of Leah. Rachel is not rejoicing when Leah's 4 sons are born. She becomes resentful against Leah, and Leah's joy in having children is making Rachel increasingly frustrated with her own inability to have children.

And eventually, it becomes too much for her to take. She comes to Jacob one day and says, Give me children, or else I die. That's the depth of her pain. She would rather die than continue living without a child while Leah seems to be having children in such abundance.

Well, Jacob realizes right away that, that Rachel is asking something from him that he doesn't have the power to give. So observe his response in verse two. Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? Jacob's anger is burning against Rachel as his own frustrations are pouring out of him, but to his credit, he's reminding Rachel that he is not God, nor is he in the place of God.

And he refuses to let Rachel look to him to provide for her what only God can provide. Rachel is putting God-sized expectations on her husband, and Jacob is pushing back. At that and rightly so. To all husbands and wives, I think I can safely give to you this challenge.

Don't let your spouse ever put you in the place of God, and don't ever let yourself put your spouse in the place of God. Given the chance, your spouse can become a pretty good spouse. But they will always make a terrible. Deity.

Don't allow your spouse to demand something of you that only God can provide for them and don't demand something from your spouse that only God can provide for you. Jacob is responding in some ways, rightly, he's doing the right thing here, though he could have done it perhaps without the anger and reminding Rachel that it is God, not Jacob, who's withheld from Rachel the fruit of the womb. Jacob is theologically accurate in his reminder, but it doesn't seem that he understands what Rachel really means when she says, give me a child.

She's making that demand.

As part of a plan of action that she's about to present to Jacob. And her claim that she is about to die. is designed to manipulate Jacob into going along with the plan of action that she is about to present to him. So look at verse 3.

She said, Here is my maid Bilha. Go in to her that she may bear on my knees that through her I too may have children. The expression bear on my knees is a way of saying that my maidservant may bear a child who would then be placed on my knees. And be adopted by me and considered mine.

Jacob should have responded by saying, no, I'm not going to do this, but he agrees to go along with Rachel's plan. Look at verse 4. So she gave him her maid Bilha as a wife, which now makes Bilha Jacob's third wife, and Jacob went in to her, Bilha conceived and bore Jacob. A son.

Oddly enough, Rachel is ecstatic and she takes this as her moment of vindication. Look at verse 6, then Rachel said, God has vindicated me. And has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son. Therefore she named him.

Vindication. We see the word vindication twice in this word. God has vindicated me, so she named him Dan, which is the Hebrew word for vindication. But notice how she says God has indeed heard my voice and given me a son.

Her language implies that she's been praying to God and asking him for a son, and that's a good thing. God has not answered her prayer as quickly as she desired, so she is resorting to using her maidservant, Bilha. But to her credit, Now that this child is conceived and born, she views this child through Bilha as coming from God, a fact that is true of any child who is conceived and given birth to. That child is from the Lord and so is this child here.

But at some later point, Rachel gives her maid Bilha to Jacob once again and observe what happens in verse 7. Rachel's maid Bilha conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. So Rachel said, with mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and I have indeed prevailed. And she named him Naftali, which is the Hebrew word for wrestling.

Now, Rachel is gloating and she's talking smack and she's running a victory lap over the birth of this second child and it's sad to see. The Hebrew of this statement is actually interesting. Literally, she says in the Hebrew with wrestling, wrestlings of Elohim, which is the word for God. With wrestlings of God, I have wrestled my sister and commentators struggle with how to translate that.

The New American Standard translators translate the word Elohim with the word mighty. And other translations do something similar. Taking it as an adjective meaning great or mighty or severe. Commentators suggest that Rachel might be saying, wrestling with God, I have wrestled my sister, meaning she's wrestled with both God and her sister, or she might be saying, wrestling with God's help.

I have wrestled my sister. So I'll let you figure out how to understand this. Regardless of what she means by this expression, she then says, and I have indeed prevailed. I've won.

I'm the victor in this wrestling match with my sister. And so she's walking around with her hand up in the air. I'm the champ. I won.

In this wrestling match with my sister. It's a sad thing to see Rachel turning this precious gift, a gracious gift of a son into an occasion for gloating over her sister and then naming her son wrestling. To represent that. Imagine some Sunday, I, I do, we do baby announcements here on a lot of Sundays and imagine some Sunday that I do a baby announcement, which is why the blue flower is here.

As a prop for the message. And imagine that I say the blue flower to my right. is in honor of Naftali Smith. Who was born to Jake and Rachel Smith.

He came into the world at 10 pounds and 12 ounces, 22 inches long, and his mother, Rachel wants us all to know that the birth of her son means that she has wrestled with her sister and prevailed over her. Imagine that. It'd be hard to imagine, but that's exactly what Rachel is doing here, and that is provocative. To Leah.

Rachel is waking a sleeping giant here. The last time we saw Leah, she was praising the Lord after her 4th son was born and she seemed to be content, but not anymore now that Rachel has had 2 sons through her maidservant, and so, This leads us to the next stage in the story of the birth of 8 additional children of Jacob. Number 2, Leah has 2 sons through her maidservant, Zilpa. No longer content with 4 sons, observe what Leah does in verse 9, says when Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpa and gave her to Jacob as a wife, which now makes Zilpa Jacob's 4th wife.

Leah's maid Zilpa bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, how fortunate. So she named him Gad, which is the Hebrew word for fortunate. Not content with only one son through her maidservant, Leah gives Zilpa to Jacob a second time and observe what happens in verse 12.

Leah's maid Zilpa bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, Happy am I, for women will call me happy, so she named him Asher, which is the Hebrew word for happy. Literally, the grammar of the passage reads. This way, happy am I because women will call me happy.

Leah's not just happy over having this child that her maidservant has just had. Leah is happy at the thought of how other women are now going to talk about her now that she has this second son through Zilpa. She's taking pleasure in that thought. She's happy in the thought that women are going to talk about her and about how happy she is and how blessed she is.

So in the competition between sisters, whatever gains Rachel thought that she was achieving on Leah have now been completely wiped out. Leah has had 4 sons naturally, and then Rachel had 2 through her maidservant. And started gloating about that, but then Leah had two more sons now through her maidservant. So the score between them is now Leah 6.

And Rachel too, and Rachel still has not given birth to a child from her own womb. This brings us to the 3rd stage in the story of the birth of 8 additional children of Jacob, and this is where things get even more strange. Number 3, Leah has 2 sons and a daughter, naturally. Observe what happens in verse 14.

Now, in the days of wheat harvest, Ruben, who was Leah's first born son, went out and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother, Leah. Ruben is anywhere from 4 to 6 years old at this point, and he finds some mandrakes in the field and he may not have even known what they were and he brings them to his mom. The mandrake was a plant that grew in this part of the world, but it was not overly common. It was a special find here.

It would produce blue or purple blossoms in the winter and a yellowish plum size fruit in the summer. The question is, as you're reading this, is why in the world are mandrakes showing up in this story about wives. Having children. Well, our first clue is the Hebrew word that is translated mandrakes.

It's the word dudaim, Dudaim. Which is from the root word that is used for sexual love elsewhere in the Old Testament, like Song of Solomon 4:10, for example, the ancient Greek Septuagint translation. the Hebrew translates this word with the word mandrakes. And to understand.

This passage, you need to understand, as one commentator says that in ancient times, mandrakes were famed for arousing sexual desire and for helping barren women to conceive. This may have been, for all we know, a silly superstition. But there may have been something about the plant that did actually increase the chances of a woman getting pregnant. So given the Beliefs about the Mandrake plant.

In our story today, guess who would be interested? In these mandrakes. Both Leah and Rachel would be very interested in them. We were told in Genesis 29:35 that Leah had stopped bearing children after her fourth son was born, and we know that Rachel has never had any children of her own.

So both of these gals would be very interested in these mandrakes that the young Ruben has happened upon and has now brought to his mom. And I think Rachel would want them most of all. So Rachel sees Ruben bringing these mandrakes to his mother. And she is overcome with a desire to have them.

So look at the end of verse 14. Then Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son's mandrakes. Literally, the Hebrew reads, please give me from your son's mandrakes. Seems at this point, she's not asking necessarily for all of them.

She just wants Leah to give her some of them so that she, Rachel, might partake of them and be rendered more fertile and more likely to conceive a child. But given the history and given the smack that Rachel was talking after the birth of Naftali, Leah is not the least bit interested in giving Rachel these mandrakes and helping her to have a child. In fact, Rachel's demand for These mandrakes from Leah brings to the surface another grievance that Leah has been carrying evidently for some time against Rachel.

Observe what Leah does in verse 15.

But she, Leah, said to her, Rachel, Is it a matter for you, is it a small matter for you to take my husband, and would you take my son's mandrakes also? Now accusing Rachel of taking her husband, Leah isn't complaining about the fact that Rachel is married to Jacob. Leah knew from the outset that Jacob wanted Rachel, and he wanted to marry her. That's not what she's talking about here in all likelihood.

As one commentator says, what Leah here is complaining about. is the fact that evidently, Jacob rarely sleeps with her, preferring Rachel's bed instead. As Jacob's wife, Leah had conjugal rights. But as R.

Kent Hughes says, it seems that at Rachel's direction, Leah has been shut out from her conjugal rights for some time, and it seems that that is what Leah is complaining to Rachel about here. What happens in verse 15 gives every indication that Jacob typically sleeps with Rachel, and it is Rachel who has control over whom Jacob sleeps with otherwise. And Rachel has been using that power, that control to keep Jacob from Leah. And so here is Leah with these mandrakes that are supposed to make a woman fertile, but what good are they to her if her husband never sleeps with her?

And here is Rachel, who has Jacob. Most every night, yet she is infertile. Rachel is desperate for these mandrakes and she is ready to deal. Look at the end of verse 15.

So Rachel said, therefore, he, Jacob, may lie with you. Leah, tonight in return for your son's mandrakes. Rachel's language has shifted here. She's no longer just asking for some of the mandrakes.

She's asking for the mandrakes, period. The following verses make clear that Leah agrees and gives the mandrakes to Rachel, which had to have been a big step of faith for Leah. If she's going to get pregnant again. It's going to have to be without the help of these mandrakes.

She's going to have to trust the Lord, not the mandrakes, to make them happen. So observe what happens next in verse 16. When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then Leah went out to meet him and said, You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes. So he, Jacob, lay with her, Leah.

That night, and observe what happens next in verse 17. God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a 5th son. This is amazing actually. Leah is the one who gave up.

The fertility drug to her sister and Leah gets pregnant. Why does she get pregnant? Verse 17 tells us that God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore a 5th son to Jacob. Evidently, Leah has been praying and God here is giving heed to her prayers, and it is God that causes her to conceive.

And Leah even seems to recognize this, the first words out of her mouth in verse 18 are, God has given me. She knows this child, the son has come from him. As for what Leah says when the son is born, it's, it's actually not what any of us would have expected. Look closely at what Leah says in verse 18.

Then Leah said, God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband. So she named the son Isakar. I think all of us as we're flowing with the narrative would have expected Leah to say, God has given me my wages because I trusted him and gave my mandrakes to Rachel. But that's not what Leah says.

She's thinking about the earlier time when she gave her maidservant, Zilpa to Jacob so that Jacob could have two additional sons through her. And Leah apparently views that as a noble thing that she did in giving Zilpa to her husband, and she views this fifth son of hers as God's reward upon her for having done that. So that Jacob could have more sons through her maidservant. I don't think this is godly reasoning on Leah's part.

God blesses her with a child and she immediately tries to think of something good she did to earn that child and receive that child as wages for that good thing that she did. And the thing she's even pointing to was not Even a good thing that she had done. But I love the honesty of scripture, the narrator of Genesis is being honest to tell us the facts of this unfolding story and telling us what Leah said. And where it was that Issakar got his name.

Actually, in verse 18, Leah is having fun with her words here. She is saying essentially, God has given me my shikar, my wages, because I gave my maid to my ish, my man. So she named him Ye Shakar. It gets even better after that for Leah, verse 19, Leah conceived again and bore a 6th son to Jacob.

Then Leah said, God has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband will dwell with me because I have borne him 6 sons. So she named him Zebulon. Now she's just receiving the child as a gift, which I think is a good thing.

She's saying literally in the Hebrew, God has gifted me with a good gift so she named her son gift. And here her thinking is wonderful. Every child is indeed a precious gift from God. Yet notice how Leah is still hurting for her husband.

She's longing for her husband with a longing that still is not satisfied. She says, now my husband will dwell with me. She speaks those words with hope and with longing. My husband will now dwell with me because I have borne him 6 sons, and the Hebrew word that is translated dwell could either mean dwell or it could have the idea of honor, which is how the English Standard Version and the New International Version translate this word.

The idea is the same either way. Leah wants her husband to honor her by dwelling with her the way a husband should dwell with his wife. And apparently, Jacob did dwell with her, at least on one more occasion where she conceives again. Look at verse 21.

Afterwards, she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. Dinah. So after Leah gives up the fertility drug, the Mandrakes, she ends up having 3 more children. And if you're keeping score, That means that Leah has 9 children to her name, counting the 2 from her maidservant, and Rachel has only 2, counting the 2 from her maidservant.

As far as natural births go, Leah now has 7 children and Rachel has 0. Imagine how painful this had to have been for Rachel. With every child being born to Leah, Rachel's feeling of self-reproach grows. But a sweet work of God is happening in the heart of Rachel through all of this that begins to come out for us to see.

At some point in God's sovereign timing, the time is right and God looks upon Rachel with mercy and he opens her womb, and this leads us to the final stage in the story of the birth of 8 additional children to Jacob, and that is that Rachel finally has a son. And then asks, For another one We could say it more fully. Rachel finally has a son, then asks Jehovah for another one. Observe what happens in verse 22.

Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her, and Opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away, he has subtracted my reproach. Note that it is not the mandrakes that accomplished this opening of Rachel's womb. Mandrakes are not, the text tells us three things that God did for Rachel.

God remembered Rachel, God gave heed to her, and God opened her womb. God is the one who does this. And the result is that she conceived and bore a son, and then she says, God has taken away. My reproach.

This is a very humble admission. By Rachel. Earlier she had pridefully boasted about feeling vindicated and victorious when God gave her her sons through Zilpa, but here she's admitting that all of that boasting was hollow. Even with those two earlier births, Rachel is admitting that she still felt the reproach for not being able to bear a child from her own womb for Jacob.

The Hebrew word that is translated reproach that she uses here speaks of contempt or disgrace. Rachel knew what it was like to have stares of contempt. pointed her way and to feel disgraced in the company of other people in her community. She knew what it was like to be put down because she couldn't have children of her own.

And think about her situation and imagine yourself in her situation. Her husband essentially has 4 wives, and Leah has given him 7 children, Zilpa has given him 2, and Bilha has given him 2. And Rachel, she hasn't given him any children. Imagine what that was like for her to live with as she interacted with her ever-growing family from day to day, 4 wives of her husband, and she's the only one who's given her husband no children.

That's the reproach that she's talking about and it's even more than that. Rachel had no doubt heard from Jacob about God's promise to Jacob back in Bethel in the previous chapter when God had promised to make Jacob a company of peoples and get him descendants that will be as numerous as the dust of the earth and it sure seemed like God was fulfilling those promises. Yet not through Rachel, it's through the other wives. And I'm sure there were moments where Rachel reproached herself and asked questions like what is wrong with me?

Is there something so fatally flawed about me that God can't entrust a child to me? Of Jacob's four wives, why did God single me out to be the one who can't have a child? And Rachel had to live with those questions being asked of her maybe by others or implied by others, and questions that she is asking herself. For years, while everyone else is having babies.

But now, at long last, God has remembered Rachel and given her a son and she feels that at long last God has subtracted. He's taken away this burden of reproach that I have lived with for so long. But she's not content. She's ready for another child right away.

If God would be kind enough to give her one and she expresses her desire for another son and the name that she gives to this son that God has just given to her. Look at verse 24. She named him Joseph, saying, May the Lord give me another son. We missed this in the English.

but the name Joseph, Joseph means to add. So basically, the Hebrew text reads, she named him Ad. Saying, may the Lord add to me. Another son.

Is God gonna answer her prayer? Yeah. Turns out God will eventually answer her prayer. He will give to her another son, and his name will be Benjamin, and she will die delivering Benjamin.

But for now, Joseph is the last son who's born in our passage today, yet his name leaves us looking ahead to the birth of yet one more son. One final son of Jacob that will take place in Genesis chapter 35. But for right now, Joseph is the 12th child of Jacob and he's Jacob's 11th son. But he is the first son through Rachel.

Who was Jacob's favorite wife. And we will see in the coming chapters how just as Jacob loved Rachel more, Then he loved Leah, he's going to love Joseph more than all of his other sons. And this will provoke his brothers to jealousy against Joseph and the strife in Jacob's household is going to continue and blossom even further. All the while, the blessing of God amazingly has messed up as all of this is, God's blessing is still on this family.

The sons of Jacob are going to hate Joseph so much that they're going to throw him into a pit and then sell him into slavery in Egypt, but by an amazing providence of God, Joseph will rise to second in command in the land of Egypt, and it will be through Joseph that Jacob and his family will be saved from that famine, and the family will continue. And it will be from the 12 sons of Jacob that the 12 tribes of Israel will come and it will be from this family, guys, that the Messiah, Jesus Christ will come.

And will bring salvation to the world and save us from the strife and the jealousy and the selfish ambition. That right now is plaguing Jacob's family.

We'll stop here for today. Let me just take a little bit of time to ponder just a few things as we wrap up this morning. In fact, let me give you 4 truths that I think we can observe. Some of these we've already touched on, but let me just rattle through these very quickly.

4 truths that we can observe in the text today. Number 1, it is the place of God to give or withhold children. It is the place of God to give children or withhold them. In verse 2, Jacob rightly says to Rachel, am I in the place of God who is withheld from you?

The fruit of the womb. Throughout this whole passage, God is the one who repeatedly is said to open wombs and remember and cause conception to occur to Rachel and to Leah and to their maidservants. It is the place of God to give children or to withhold them. Number 2, it is good to pray for God to give you children.

We see a lot of praying alluded to. In our passage today, indicating that Rachel and Leah are praying and asking God for children. In verse 24, Rachel outright prays, May the Lord give to me another son. That's a prayer that she is praying to Jehovah.

A third truth is that God sometimes gives children in response to prayer. In verse 6, Rachel says, God has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son. In verse 17, the text says, God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a 5th son. In verse 22, the text says about Rachel, God gave heed to her and opened her womb.

We learn here that God sometimes gives children in response to prayer. It's important to note, however, that God answered the prayers of these women in different ways, in different quantities, at different times. He waited many years before answering Rachel's prayer and giving her a son. A 4th truth that we observe here is that a child is a good gift from God.

A child is a good gift from God. After giving birth to a son, Leah rightly says, God has endowed me. He's gifted me with a good gift. Boy, I wish women in our culture today viewed Children in their wombs in this way.

Children are precious gifts to be celebrated and received. They are gifts from the Lord and a godly marriage should be a hospitable place where children are welcomed. As good gifts from God. On the negative side, so we observe these four truths in our text today, but on the negative side, we also see in this passage how sin And how selfishness clouds something as wonderful as childbearing.

In Genesis 3. God promises Eve that she will experience pain in childbearing. In Genesis 30, we learned that there is also pain in the inability to have children. We also see how it is possible for one woman, one woman bearing children to cause pain to another woman who's not.

And we also see how a woman can make that pain worse by carrying herself with pride and gloating after she gives birth to a child. Sin is pervasive in a fallen world. It's pervasive inside of each of us, and we see in the story today how it can contaminate something even as wonderful as Having children If God gives to you the capacity to bear children, it should go without saying for you to rejoice in that and to give God the glory. If you can't have children or if you can't have additional children that you're wanting to have, you're being very good to yourself when you trust God's providence with that as challenging as that may be at times.

I don't pretend. To know what all God may be doing in your life. If you're wanting a child or additional children and you're not able to have them, I'm confident that God is wanting to grow you and deepen your relationship with Him and to grow your character. And having you wait and to trust him.

Maybe he wants you to make use of available natural or medical means to increase the chances of you conceiving and having a child. In fact, this week, I was researching mandrake essential oils that are, you can actually find them online. They're available. But study, study whatever options are out there and be governed by biblical principles as you make your choices.

But do make sure that no matter what you do to increase the chances of you conceiving and having a child, make sure that you recognize that God is the one who opens the womb and who brings children into existence, and he gets the glory. Keep praying to him. Keep pouring out your heart to Him. Keep bringing your pain to Him, and if and when he gives you children, recognize that those children have come from him and give him the glory for that.

If it is not God's plan, For you to have children. There's a lot I don't know, but I, I know this for sure. I know he wants you to have spiritual children, whom you can take into eternity with you. He wants you to be a spiritual mother and father to others in your care group and in your church family.

And beyond. Guys, that's what the family of God in the local church is for. And perhaps God may want you to adopt a child or children. There's so many children around the world in need of someone who will welcome them into their family, and there's a number of people in our church who've made exactly that choice, a choice they may not have otherwise made if they were able to have children.

Having said that, this, this doesn't take away the pain. I think we're all well served today by a passage like this that reminds us of the pain and the longing of those who do not have children and who are longing to have children, or maybe who are longing for additional children. That they wish they could have. I don't pretend to have all the answers as to why God does what he does and why He allows what He allows.

I don't know why Leah was able to have so many children and why Rachel had to wait so long before she had her first child. I don't know why God gave Leah 7 children and ultimately only gave Rachel 2. I don't know. But I do know this, I trust God with stuff like this a whole lot more than I would trust myself if such choices were left up to me.

Oh my goodness. But it's still a mystery to me and it's a painful mystery when I look at some situations and it bugs me, to be honest with you. I remember learning a few years ago about an unwed woman. And San Bernardino, who had 8 abortions.

God gives this godless Woman An unworthy woman, the gift of a child 8 times, and she aborts each of them. And then I see God closing. The womb of a godly Christian woman who loves Jesus and longs to have a child whom she and her husband can bring up to love and serve Jesus. And sometimes I, I'm just left thinking, seriously?

It perplexes me. I trust God, but I'm also left frustrated. This is part of the frustrating vanity that the writer of Ecclesiastes talks about when he speaks about the wicked prospering. And having abundance and the righteous sometimes going without.

What do we do with that frustration? I know we should probably be honest in confessing that frustration, that's a start. I know we should humble ourselves before an all wise God recognizing that God is God and we are not. And I at least know that we should go to the foot of the cross.

And witness a God who gave up His only Son for us to make us His sons and daughters. We never see things more clearly than we do at the foot of the cross. I may not understand why God makes the choices that He makes. Regarding his people and whose womb he opens and closes, but I know that those choices are being made by someone who loves you and me more than we can imagine, and the cross is what tells me that.

And I know that all of God's choices in my life and in your life, even the painful choices that he makes are governed by that very same love that caused him to surrender his Son at the cross. The very God who may be withholding a child from you is the very God who gave you his child, his son. The God who makes decisions that we don't understand that perplex us. is the God who loved us so much that He gave His Son to bring us salvation and to bring us into relationship with Him.

Sometimes the only thing we can do is to put our hand over our mouth and worship God because of what we do understand about Him. And also worship God because of the ways that we don't understand. Because he goes way beyond our ability to understand him. And we should let our perplexity and our pain drive us to God, just like it seems to do for Rachel.

I'll close with this, Rachel, there's a lot of development in her character if you read the passage carefully, God does a good work in her. She starts off jealous of her sister and ready to die. She goes from there to looking to Jacob to play the role of God in her life and demanding that Jacob give her sons to her maidservant, and when she has sons through her maidservant, she gloats. Over her vindication.

She gloats over her sister, and she speaks about God, referring to him as Elohim. Which is good, but guys, Elohim is the more general and distant word for God that focuses on him as the creator and the giver of life and the governor of the universe. Leah at the very outset, at the end of chapter 29, is calling God Jehovah by his personal name, but not Rachel. After the birth of her first son, Rachel says, Elohim has vindicated me and indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.

After the birth of her second son, Rachel says, with wrestlings of Elohim, I have wrestled with my sister. After the birth of her first natural born son, Rachel says, Elohim has taken away my reproach. But guys, the end of the story leaves her looking to the future and saying, May Jehovah, give me. Another son.

And this is the first time we see Jehovah, the personal name of God on the lips of Rachel. God has not wasted anything, even the delay. He's done a good work in her heart. Something beautiful is happening in the heart of this flawed woman.

In the end we find her looking to the future with hope and putting her trust in Jehovah, calling him by his personal name and asking him to give her yet another son. And the truth is God will give to Rachel another son, as I mentioned before. His name will be Benjamin, which literally means son of my right hand. Beyond that, God gives to Rachel and to all of us a greater son.

His son Jesus Christ, the Son that we need most of all, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. You welcome God's Son into your life. You will never feel the need to pray for God to add any other, because you will find Jesus to be all that you need. And he'll make up for anything.

That you may lack Let's pray together. Lord, I know in a message like this that we are trafficking. And great sensitivities and depths of longing. Pain, joy, frustration.

That are just impossible to fully comprehend. I pray that You would be a balm this morning for every wound that you would give hope where there is now despair, that you would put joy in you where right now there is sorrow that you would give wisdom. We, we pray, Lord, that you would Open wounds. And cause children to be born to those that are praying and have been praying for years for that to happen.

We pray that you would open our hearts to. widen our hearts and open hearts, Lord, that we would be able to trust you with our pain and to be able to express that to you and And trust your good providence even though we don't understand it. And we thank you for the cross that helps us so much with that. Even though this passage is focused on childbirth, I'm just reminded of how jealousy, selfish ambition, Strife Anger can show up and defile any area of life.

And we ask You, Lord, to deliver us from such things, and we thank you that you Even used all the mess of our passage today to set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the coming of a savior who did die on the cross. To turn all of that upside down and deliver us from selfish ambition and pride. And anger and jealousy and envy. And bitterness.

Rescue us, Lord, from ourselves and from sin through Christ. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give Of our offerings to you and we ask that you would receive. These funds that we give this morning and do much with every penny that is given. And we give ourselves to you in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.