God is so cool and His Word is so relevant. Of the two things that I noticed, one was old and one was new. The first time I read this, I noted, "So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." At that time, I had marked it with a heart....ever the romantic that I am. Oh, to be loved so.
Today reading, I'm in a different "place" so it was sweet but what stuck out to me today was Leah. She realized Jacob loved Rachel and not her. God noticed, too. He allowed Leah to get pregnant. She had four sons and named them, perhaps because of the "place" she was in accordingly. The first was named "Rueben" (Hebrew for 'He has seen my misery'). The second was named, "Simeon" (Hebrew for 'One who hears'). Her third son was named, "Levi" (Hebrew for 'attached' out of her desperate desire for her husband, Jacob, to be drawn to her for the strapping sons she could provide for him that Rachel could yet not). She became pregnant again, yet she named her fourth son, "Judah" (Hebrew for 'praise'). Genesis 29:35, "She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, 'This time I will praise the Lord.' So she named him Judah..."
She got it! So did I. She prayed for what she wanted. Was given what she prayed for yet it was all about her. In her abundant blessings from the Lord, she was focused on herself. She wanted sons and got them but for all the "wrong" reasons. She wanted them to win her husband's desires. She didn't "see the forest for the trees". She was blessed with children, a gift from the Lord. And she couldn't yet see or know what a blessing her sons would be to Israel and us. Then she got it, "THIS TIME I WILL PRAISE THE LORD".
Oh, may it be so for me, too?! May I look up and trust that the manna I got for today is all I need and praise the Lord.
