14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. 17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”

This passage occurs in the midst of a competition between two sisters (Rachel and Leah) married to the same man (Jacob). Whilst Rachel has Jacob’s heart, Leah is the one bearing him sons. So an exchange occurs – Rachel asks for Leah’s mandrakes in exchange for a night with Jacob. I wasn’t sure of the importance of mandrakes so I looked up what they were used for in ancient times, and found out that Rachel probably hoped they’d act as a fertility drug. However doing things in her own strength doesn’t pay off. Leah ends up pregnant yet again and Rachel remains childless. In fact Leah has another two children before God finally blesses Rachel with a son, Joseph, who goes on to do amazing things for God and his people.

Reading this today I’m reminded of the importance of waiting on God, even when it seems He’s being slow to respond. When I try to make things happen in my own strength so often I find myself fighting an uphill battle, struggling and definitely not bearing the fruit I’d hoped for. But when it’s God’s timing doors open and things fall into place and I’m always left amazed.

God, thank you that you know what you’re doing. Thank you that you don’t call us to strive for blessing but instead to wait on you. Help me to trust you and your timing.

Written by Rhiannon Mellor

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” 33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. 34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi. 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. Then she stopped having children.

Appreciate Leah’s concerns and respect her response. She feels unloved, left out, without a future and without value. God is the God who notices the unloved, God notices the fringe dwellers, God is kind and compassionate to the outsider. The children Leah has she names according the story that God is shaping in her life and these names also echo the themes of the grand history that God is creating for Abraham’s descendants. They are not only answers to Leah’s prayers but also answers to Abraham’s prayers. Leah’s boys are the tender and direct response of God to the cry of her heart.

Remember today God’s attentive gentleness towards you, especially in the midst of feeling unloved and alone. Pour out your heart to God in prayer. Be patient – the answers to Leah’s prayers were not instantaneous, but were worked out gradually over the course of years. Leah is a spiritual ancestor to us and her story has become our story through Jesus. The pattern of Leah’s story carries over into our lives for hope in any number of situations and challenges. Where are you feeling forgotten and alone?

Jesus, I bear my heart to you – I hold nothing back. I don’t hide from you and I want to patiently wait for your answers to my prayers. Sustain me as I wait. Fill me with your joy, even in the tough times. Amen

Written by Sam Stewart

29 Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well. 4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Harran,” they replied. 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?” “Yes, we know him,” they answered. 6 Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?” “Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” 7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.” 8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.” 9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. 12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father. 13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”

The customs of the Old Testament are a far cry from ours today. Most Australians live in cities and the sheep we see is at the butcher.  Jacob has to move the stone from the well so as Rachel can water her sheep, we just turn on a tap.  Yes the Old Testament seems miles away from our existence today,  Yet … what we see is devotion to family, which is common enough in our context today.  Devotion you ask… the stone was very large – you did not move a large stone away unless there was a reason and here the reason is family, devotion to family.  Emotion was high as well, Jacob kisses Rachel, he weeps, Laban embraces Jacob and kisses him – and yes these may be normal customs of the middle east, but weeping was a strong show of emotion.  I wonder why.  Was it just the sense of family and devotion or was there more.  Was there the pent up emotion of seeing the Lord at work in miraculous ways and the relief that God really was answering prayer.  I like that thought.  I have often felt a surge of emotion as I realise God is answering my prayers.  And I have learnt not to be embarrassed by it.  Seeing God at work should impact us emotionally.

Father help me to see your hand at work in my life and help me to respond with the full range of emotion as I see your miracles, deliverance, healing, salvation…

Written by Ps. Richard Botta

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

This is an intriguing story and is the origin of the sayings ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ and ‘stairway to heaven’. The imagery describes a bridge between two realms, the realm of man and the realm of God. It is the stuff of movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark with an appeal that touches deep desires.

It is not until John 1:47-51 we discover the bridge is not a place but a person. It’s Jesus.

However, for me the most striking aspect of this passage is that until it was revealed to Jacob, he had no idea he was standing on Holy ground. This has left me wondering how often I am standing on Holy ground and don’t know it. Many times, I have faced difficult situations that have later turned out to be the provision of God. If Romans 8:28 is true, then much of our life we are walking on Holy ground without realising it.  Do you agree?

Lord, I ask you to help us see how great an influence you have in our life and through us others may know your presence in their lives.

Amen!

Written by David Newton

41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. 43 Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. 44 Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. 45 When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” 46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.” 28 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

I love that the Bible tells it like it is.  Family intrigue, jealousy, scheming parents, scheming children you name it the Bible’s got it.

You would expect some sanitisation but God is more than happy to show humanity as we really are. Why? Because we need a Saviour and the great narrative of the Bible shows us for who we are our best and our worst.

Father, as I read your Word I am reminded of the depths of my sinfulness.  May I never lose sight of the depth of my need of salvation as Your Holy Spirit brings conviction and I cry out for Your mercy, cleansing and salvation.

Written by Ps. Richard Botta