The Grubers

When reading the story of Rachel and Leah in Genesis 30 you might think they are an example of how not to live your life. It is easy to point out them passing off their maids to sleep with Jacob or manipulated each other to have sex with him.

That isn’t exactly the most admirable set of actions. Yet, later in the Bible we get:

“May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel” Ruth 4:11

We want our daughters like Rachel and Leah? Really?

Here is the thing, how you react to Genesis is a good indicator of how you read the Bible. If you are a good western Evangelical you might reflexively see only the moral elements of their behavior. Maybe you think God included this story as another reminder of just how fallen we are.

The key is in the second half of that Ruth verse. “Both of whom built the house of Israel.” This is God telling us what He thinks about the story of Rachel and Leah. This is why Israel so reveres them.

God isn’t emphasizing their moral failings (as bad as those were). He is emphasizing their pursuit of family and how it led to the house of Israel. See, they were on God’s mission even while failing in so many ways. God set something in motion in Genesis 1:28 when he created a family and tasked them with bringing order to the world. He built on this when he promised Abraham his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. Rachel and Leah believed in family into the core of their being. It drove their entire life. 

Are we celebrating our moral superiority to these two ladies while missing God’s view of them?