Scripture Daily

Context No. 2594 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 30:1-8: in context

1When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.” 2Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3She said, “Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her.” 4She gave him Bilhah her servant as wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son. 6Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. 7Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son. 8Rachel said, “I have wrestled with my sister with mighty wrestlings, and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.

Rachel, unable to conceive while her sister Leah bears son after son, is consumed by envy. Give me children, she demands of Jacob, or I will die. Jacob's anger flares: am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children? Rachel then gives him her servant Bilhah as a surrogate, and when a son is born she says she has wrestled with her sister and won.

The whole scene is poisoned by comparison. Rachel has Jacob's love, but because Leah has children she cannot enjoy what she has; the sister's blessing eats away at her own. Her envy makes her desperate and demanding, and she aims the demand at Jacob, who rightly points out that he cannot give what only God gives. Two things surface. Comparison can rob us of real goods we already hold, keeping us miserable over what someone else has. And we often demand from people, a spouse, ourselves, a leader, what only God can grant, and grow bitter when they cannot deliver it.

Whose life am I envying so much that I cannot enjoy what I already have, and am I demanding from people what only God can give?

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