Leah: Rejected By Man, Chosen By God

Back to: New Wine (A Study of Ordinary Women of the Bible)

Introduction:

From generation to generation and every walk of life, God seeks out women to do His will. Scripture offers us but fleeting, tantalizing glimpses into the lives of several everyday women in Bible times—many of whom are not even named in its pages. I would like to highlight the unsung, ordinary women, who God used to change the course of history.

Leah Is Unwanted By 3 People:

1. Jacob sees and falls in love with Rachel but is later tricked and marries Leah instead. Who was not his first choice.
2. Leah now becomes the tool of Laban’s trickery. Laban substitutes Leah for Rachel, just as Rebekah had earlier substituted Jacob for Esau. Not only was Jacob tricked, but Leah and Rachel were tricked as well and that by their father.
3. Jacobs fulfills his obligation to Leah for the week and then marries Rachel as his second wife in return for agreeing to serve Laban for another seven years. “Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah” (29:30)

Levels Of Rejection:

• She is seen as less beautiful than her sister, something that has probably happened for a long time.
• Her father felt that it was necessary—possibly because of her appearance—for her to gain a husband through trickery, sending the message that she will never actually be wanted or valued by another.
• Her husband, in front of all of her family and friends, declares that he does not love her and instead loves her sister.
• The wounds of rejection run deep for Leah, yet they also run deep for us as well. Many of us have felt the sting of being compared to others only to be found lacking.
• Rejection really stems from comparison. ( You wouldn’t know you were lacking if you had nothing to compare it to)
• Rejection distorts the truth of individuality ( We were created to be different)

Hopelessness Is a Beacon To God:

Mercy Is Who He Is
First, we see that the Lord’s eye of compassion sees her (29:31) – “When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb” (29:31). Though Leah was not loved by Jacob, she was loved by God. As God had sovereignly chosen Jacob (the second born) over Esau (the first born), so now he chooses Leah (the unloved) over Rachel (the loved).

Leah: The Woman Every Woman Envied (29:31-35)

Leah Is Tender-hearted

1. In Genesis 29:13 CSB Rachel is described by her outward appearance as “shapely and beautiful.” Leah is identified as having “tender eyes.” Other translations say weak, delicate, ordinary, or plain.
   The Lord chooses and elevates those whose hearts are pure before him. Leah’s heart was tender and created specifically to fulfill the task of Jacob’s first wife and many sons.
2. Leah Is first
   Although Jacob overlooked Leah’s position in the family, God gave her the position of being the first daughter, the first wife, and the first mother to Jacob’s first son. Her marriage began with scandal, but her position in her family gave her honor and respect in the community.
3. Leah Is a Matriarch
   Unloved and unwanted, Leah was not only blessed by God with six sons and one daughter. One of those sons was Judah who was listed in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of King David, King Solomon, and the King of Kings Jesus Christ.
   Leah is a matriarch of her people and of Christ. She may not have been Jacob’s choice, but she was chosen by God to play a role in the birth of Savior of the world.
4. Leah Is Honoured
   While Leah and Rachel competed for Jacob’s attention, Leah is honored in her death as the first wife of Jacob.
5. In Genesis 49:29-33, we learn that Leah is buried in a cave with Jacob’s parents (Rebekah and Isaac) and grandparents (Sarah and Abraham).

Faithful Leah

• Her first son she calls “Reuben, for she said, ‘Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; therefore now my husband will love me’”(29:32)
• Her second son she calls Simeon – “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.’ And she called his name Simeon” (29:33). Simeon means “heard.
• Her third son she calls Levi – “Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.’ Therefore his name was called Levi” (29:34). Levi means “attached.”
• Her fourth son she calls Judah, which means “praise.” Leah realizes she’s not going to win Jacob’s love through her own efforts so, when all else fails, she turns to God. “This time I will praise the Lord” (29:35b). “This time I’m not going to focus on myself but on God.”

God Can Turn It Around

When Leah turned to God “she ceased bearing children” (Gen 29:35). Why? Because when God became real to her through his great power in her she no longer needed to bear children to find what she was searching for. Leah came to the realization that even though her father treated her cruelly and discarded her, even though her husband disregarded her, and even though her sister displaced her, God was her refuge and solace.
He had saved her by his grace. Only when she took her eyes off self and fixed them on God, only when she stopped relying on her achievements in bearing children, only when she turned to the Creator of her children and said: “This time I will praise the Lord”(29:35), only then did she find release, joy, insight. Only then did her dark life turn into the dawn of God’s blessing.

Let God Be The Lord In Your Story

God ensures Leah a life of honor because He is her Lord. In Leah’s story, we can be encouraged that a life redeemed can not occur with the ‘perfect life’ i.e., perfect husband, house, or an abundance of children, but with a heart that is tender and surrendered to God. God loves those who are unloved and unwanted. He pours his grace into the lives of the outcasts and the despised. He is the Father to the fatherless, the husband to the widow, and the protector of the vulnerable. He exalts the humble, feeds the hungry, and gives strength to the weak. John 15: 16– You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

Through her son, Judah, the Messiah would come. Leah “the woman nobody wants” became Leah “the woman every woman envies,” the mother of the Redeemer’s line! She went from a nobody to a somebody