Walk in Wisdom

Bad Blood

Genesis 30:1

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!”

I’ve never watched the TV show ‘Desperate Housewives,’ but the writers missed a trick if they didn’t look to Jacob’s soap-opera home-life in Genesis 30 for inspiration. Half this chapter is a detailed chronicle of the competition between Rachel and Leah, and of Rachel’s servants and Leah’s servants, over who can give Jacob more children. In fact, Jacob’s home becomes such an explosive melee that trying to parse out the root problem is like trying to find the initial spark in a house-fire; but verse 1 at least shows us the gas-leak. I feel for Rachel here though. She’s only human after all, and her barrenness is causing deep depression. Even a shepherdess who’s tough as nails is still fragile. Even a wife who’s waited fourteen years to get the man she loves still struggles with patience.

Be wary today, friend, of discontented eyes. One little tilt of your head away from God’s goodness toward your neighbor’s blessing might spring a leak in the spiritual pipe, and let invisible gas seep out, and the next thing you know your joy is going up in flames.