An Epic Girl Fight That Reveals Our Hearts

Genesis 30:1 The progressive jealously

This narrative shows us how progressive the sinful fruit can be from a desire to be accepted, to get attention, or to be pleased can really be. Note first that Rachel is not thinking about God or His perogratives, instead she has begun to focus on child bearing, the social acceptability of being barren, and her sister's possessions. She is coveting children and feeding the desires of her heart until they are more important to her than loving God and others. Look then how she treats the idol from which she believes she can get what she desires. She begs Jacob to give her what she longs for and, in a dramatic way, shows how sick she is with the dieases of idolatrous lusts. She has turned away from God and to an idol as the source of her solutions to her problems in life; instead of trusting God she will get what she wants by force.

Genesis 30:2 Bad Counseling 101

Jacob here is right to rebuke Rachel for her failure to trust God and to love Him and others before herself. He is even theologically correct in saying it is God who opens and closes the womb. However, he did not tell the truth in love. He showed himself to be open and unloving here instead of open and loving (Prov. 27:5-6).

Genesis 30:3 The Sickness Spreads

Rachel is now using every avenue possible (the deffinition of an idol) to fullfill her bloated and misprioritized desire (the deffinition of a lust - something more important than loving God and loving others). You can see that Rachel's selfish desires are starting to cause chaos and every evil thing (James 3:13-18). She is showing that she is not operating from the wisdom from above but the demoic wisdom from below (James 3:13-18). We begin to see the bad fruit of the poisonus root. Rachel is willing to use her own maid to obtain children for herself just to satisfy her desires. Although this practice may have been acceptable in ancient times to obtain children if barren, the real issue is not even the use of the maid. It's Rachels heart. Her whole life is becoming twisted around the lust in the spring of her heart. (Prov. 4:23)

Genesis 30:6 Justifying Actions

Rachels thinking is also now tainted with her lust. She believes that God has granted her a son as a means of vindication. Although she is accurate that God is the one who opened her womb, as we see the pattern throughout scripture, it is not mentioned here for a reason. Rachels motives are incorrect and her evaluation is simply untrue. What God did in this circumstances by giving Rachel a son we cannot say with one hundred percent certainty. We do know, however, that it was not for vindication. God had opened up Leahs womb as we but a few short verses prior and He did it because He took notice of Leah not being loved. He was using the shamed things of this world to make foolish the wise. He took the unloved and use them to shame the loved. (Both the Levites and the Priests came from Leah's first bought of sons) What Rachel is going through is the advanced stages of a terminal disease. She has colored even her perception of God with the lust in her heart. She see's God and worships Him based on His willingness or unwillingness to give her what she wants. Her theology and doxology flow from a heart of selfish ambition. She is shows herself to be an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross (Pr 26:23) and her praise is to God with lip service while her heart is far from Him. (Ish 29:13)

Genesis 30:8 Her Heart Revealed

Now Rachel has entered the last stage of her illness. She now proclaims openly and without any hesitency, coverup, or false humility what she was after. She has believes she is the winner of the conetest in her own heart. She has obtained all the fullness of what she believes would satisfy her. She does not even attempt to give vain praise to God her. Her heart is fully open for any who would see. Even the name of her son, Naphtali, shows the focus was on her desires all a long. What happens next, however, will show the frustraition of having any desire more important than loving God and loving others. Rachel is about to go from her manmade mountain top experience through a rigerous time of frustraition and failure.

Genesis 30:9 Sin Begets Sin

Now Leah goes through the same cycle of Rachel. She shows the desires of her heart as well. We often find that the sin in one person reveals the sin in the other. While we would like to blame Rachel for what Leah is now yearning for, the truth is that nothing comes out of a persons heart that is not already there. Although Rachels sin has given the opportunity for Leah to engage in the same sinful beahaiors, it is Leah who is responsible and liable for her own actions. A compentition is about to ensue that, if you image living in the same tents with these woman, could only have been a vicious all out war.

Genesis 30:13 Earthly Happiness vs. Heavenly Joy

Leah gives us additional information into the heart full of lusts. She believes that her children are the source of her happiness. People have replaced God as the source of joy. We know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God and that the desires of the flesh can only bring about conflict. (James 4:1-10) Both are evident here as Leah and Rachel war over who will have prominence. The battleground is Jacobs home, the ammunition is an endless heart of lust, and the casualities suredly were everyone living within 10 miles of that place!

Genesis 30:14–16 No Consideration for Others

Jacob will now feel the results of the lust fueled hearts of these two woman. They are both out to manipulate each other to get what they want. Here Rachel tries to get Leah's mandrakes (just another idol or avenu she believes will give her what she wants apart from God) while Leah twists Rachel to give her a night with Jacob. Neither really care for the other or anyone else involved - they are focused only on what they will receive and how it will benefit them in feeding the desires of their hearts. Neither of them could speak for Jacob and now they are even using him as a bargining chip. People have become but tools and levers to getting what they want. The war is in full furious rage.

Genesis 30:18 More improper theology...

Leah shows her incorrect view of God as well. She now believes that God is rewarding her for giving Jacob her maid as a wife. She has become convienced that God can be manipulated (in the sense that she can earn the desires of her heart from him through performance) and that He is a rewarder of those with a vile heart. God did heed Leah but that does not mean He approved of her actions. God often gives grace to those who are wicked (He makes the rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous) but we should not confuse grace with approval. Leah can only see herself as right in the situation. She has become selfrighteous and is on the road to destruction.

Genesis 30:20 Another lust

Again we see Leah's improper priorities and desires. There is nothing wrong with wanting her husband to dwell with her but we can see that one of her motivations all along was to get what she wanted more than loving God and loving others (including Rachel). She has sinned and there is no other explaination.

In the end, we get to witness what goes on in all of hearts every day. Although Rachel and Leah have some extreme symptoms and signs, the silent diease of Idolatrous Lusts plagues all of us, even those who believe. We must come to see this and seek out the death of those lusts that are the source of our failure to love God and to love others. Starving them of life and breath will mean denying ourselves and taking up our cross but the end result of losing our lives will be to save them. It is by grace we are saved through faith, and that being a gift of God, but that grace is also the means by which our lusts are put to death proving that we are saved. I challange you all to look deep in your hearts and your lives. Look for areas that you know you do not obey God, where there is strif, anger, fear, worry, jealousy and trace them back. Those are fruits of a deeper root issue. These always come from an some idol when they don't give you want you want or prevent you from getting what you want. Once you can find the idol, you can then ask "What is it that I want or don't want from this person or thing." When you can answer that question, you have found the desire that is out of place in your life and you can begin to address it.