Who can find a woman of worth? for her

price is far above rubies.

The Bible has many examples of women functioning in different roles. Probably the one most quoted is Proverbs  14:1 A wise woman builds her house, but the foolish plucks it down with her hands. In the months to come, we will look at different women, the challenges they faced, how they dealt with them and draw lessons we can live by.

LEAH – The Worshipper

In Genesis  29:16 – 17 we are introduced to Leah –  Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.  And Leah’s eyes were clouded, but Rachel was fair in face and form.

Leah it seems had a lot going against her. First her name meant “weary” and comes from the root word meaning “to tire; to be (or make) disgusted, faint, grieve, lothe”. With a name like that, in a culture where names represented the characteristics of a person, Leah had a difficult start in life. It did not help that these characteristics showed up in her eyes.

This was given weight by the fact that her younger sister was going to get married before her, a humiliating experience she had to look forward to. But then, on her sisters wedding, as they prepared the bridal chamber, Leah is handed clothes and told to get into the bridal bed. Confused, she does so and endures the night as Jacob consummates his marriage beliveing that it was Rachel in bed with him. Leah had not asked for this. Imagine the thoughts running through her mind. “What will happen in the morning?? How will I face Jacob and what will be his reaction?? I hope he does not think that I had anything to do with this!!  My parents think so little of me that they have to trick someone to marry me!! What will my sister say? ?? I will be an even greater laughung stock than I was yesterday during the wedding!!

Then morning comes and to Jacob’s shock, the woman lying beside him is not

the one for whom he had laboured seven years but it was the not so attractive, weary looking, laughing stock, Leah. I always imagine Jacob tearing out of the marriage tent, not even waiting to get properly dressed and running straight to where his new father-in-law was having breakfast with his male relatives and accusing him of cheating on their deal. The male relatives looking on, the serving women stopping what they were doing and news spreading like wildfire among the guests and Leah’s relatives. Poor girl!!! Imagine the mocking eyes when the women and servants come to help her wash and get dressed, the quiet sniggers, her sister’s loud tears, and the pity and quiet contempt of her female relatives that she faces for the whole week at the “almost” side of a husband who makes it clear she is just tolerated. Adding insult to injury, the following week, her sister takes her place in the marriage tent and she no longer has the luxuary of being able to hide herself away. She endures the humiliation of her husband’s obvious joy in her sister and the more daring laughter of servants and relatives as they witness her plight. Leah would have been wilting with shame and humiliation.

Leah’s situation was so bad that God intervened and the Bible records in Ge 29:31 Now the Lord, seeing that Leah was not loved, gave her a child; while Rachel had no children. Leah calls her first son “Ruben” which means, “see, a son!” . This suggests that Leah was stating that even though she was not loved by her husband and that her sister was the favourite, she had done better than her sister by producing a son therefore her husband would notice her and love her. Leah was competing with her sister. She was doing all she could to win her husband’s love. She was pleading with her husband to notice her value as a bearer of sons.

Leah has another son and this time, Ge 29:33 records, “Then she became with child again, and gave birth to a son; and said, Because it has come to the Lord’s ears that I am not loved, he has given me this son in addition: and she gave him the name Simeon.”

Leah, like any normal wife, was still hurt about her husband’s obvious lack of love for her. I believe that this may have been her way of telling the world, and pointing out to her husband and sister that even though he did not care for her, God did and to prove it, He had given her two sons while her sister had none!!

In Genesis 29:34 we read that Leah conceives again and this time she is so sure that her husband will see how valuable she is as she has given him three sons, that she names this baby Levi which means attached saying, “Now this time my husband will return to me, because I have borne him three sons.”

  This does not happen. Leah is still unloved and unwanted and after this
pregnancy, Leah turns her attention away from her husband and seeks God. As a result, she names her next son Judah, saying, “This time I will praise the LORD”,  and quit having children. 

Leah learnt to turn her eyes to God and when she did, she called her son Judah, and opened a way for the Saviour of the world to come down. The Bible says that God,  inhabits or is enthroned meaning He sits in the praises of Israel. (Psalms 1 22:3 WEB) 

When we learn to fix our eyes on God and to worship Him in our challenges, we open ourselves up to becoming instruments of blessing in the world. Leah became an instrument through which salvation came. Leah’s worship in her pain touched eternity and today we worship because she dared to and made way for the Lion of Judah. Whom does your worship touch?????

It is the crushed grape that gives out the blood-red wine: it is the suffering soul that breathes the sweetest melodies. -Hamilton