seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 30:1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.[a]
7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.(b)
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.[a]
7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.(b)
a. Genesis 30:6 Dan here means he has vindicated.
b. Genesis 30:8 Naphtali means my struggle
This quote comes from bible-commentaries.org.
It sounds like Rachel blames her childlessness on Jacob; which is unreasonable, since he has given proof that he is not infertile. She makes Jacob angry with her cry: "Give me children, or I die." Jacob bounces the ball back to her. He tells her that God kept her from having children, implying that He may have had His reason for doing so.
Rachel had some things in common with her aunt Rebekah, who did not have children until her twentieth year of marriage. But at least Isaac and Rebekah turned to the Lord with their problem. Rachel does not give any indication of knowing the Lord at all. The idea that life would not be worth living unless certain conditions were met seems to have run in the family also. At least at one point, maybe two, Rebekah makes remarks like that. In Ch. 27:46 she says: "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women." And in Ch. 25:22 "Why is this happening to me?" may have this meaning. The RSV translates her words with: "If it is thus, why do I live?" Whether Rachel made threats to Jacob that she would end her life, or whether she even seriously considered this, we do not know. It could be that she made threats in order to pressure Jacob into her scheme of using Bilhah as a substitute mother. Since Jacob's grandmother, Sarah, had done this before, we could conclude that this kind of procedure, to use slaves as substitutes, was not uncommon at that time. The body of the slave was considered to belong to the owner, to be used in whatever way was deemed necessary.
The main purpose for Rachel's act seems to have been to get even with her sister. She was more bent on the satisfaction of revenge than on fulfillment for her own life.
Jacob seems to be the willing victim in Rachel's scheme, much as he had been in the deception of his father at his mother's instigation. One wonders whether his conscience bothered him at all. He had intended to marry Rachel and now he finds himself with his third wife.
It seems to me that the first mistake Jacob made was to fall in love with Rebekah at first sight. His whole behavior was governed by his being in love. He evidently never bothered to ask the Lord if Rebekah was the girl he was to marry. In retrospect we know that Lea bore him Judah, the son through whom the Messiah was eventually born. So God probably intended him to marry Lea. But he never asked as far as we know. He must have presumed that it could never be God's plan for him to marry the girl with ugly eyes and reject a beauty such as Rachel. But evidently it was. How different Jacob's life would have been had he rejected Laban's proposal to marry Rachel the week after he married Lea! The fact that God makes all things work together for good does not make bad things good to start with.
Bilhah gets pregnant with Jacob and Rachel, accepting the child as her own, calls him Dan, which means "judge." Both the KJV and the RSV translate verse 6 as " God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan." The NIV says: "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son." Because of this she named him Dan." There is no doubt in my mind but that Rachel uses the Name of the Lord in vain in this instance. She ascribes the success of her plot to God, whereas in reality God had nothing to do with it. How could God bless the ugly vindication of a jealous woman over her sister? Rachel must have had very little idea Who she was talking about.
It also becomes clear that the vindication was not sufficient. We get the impression that it was because of Rachel's prodding that Jacob kept on sleeping with Bilhah. Bilhah's second pregnancy becomes a wrestling match between Rachel and her sister. It would be funny if it were not so tragic!
Rachel had some things in common with her aunt Rebekah, who did not have children until her twentieth year of marriage. But at least Isaac and Rebekah turned to the Lord with their problem. Rachel does not give any indication of knowing the Lord at all. The idea that life would not be worth living unless certain conditions were met seems to have run in the family also. At least at one point, maybe two, Rebekah makes remarks like that. In Ch. 27:46 she says: "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women." And in Ch. 25:22 "Why is this happening to me?" may have this meaning. The RSV translates her words with: "If it is thus, why do I live?" Whether Rachel made threats to Jacob that she would end her life, or whether she even seriously considered this, we do not know. It could be that she made threats in order to pressure Jacob into her scheme of using Bilhah as a substitute mother. Since Jacob's grandmother, Sarah, had done this before, we could conclude that this kind of procedure, to use slaves as substitutes, was not uncommon at that time. The body of the slave was considered to belong to the owner, to be used in whatever way was deemed necessary.
The main purpose for Rachel's act seems to have been to get even with her sister. She was more bent on the satisfaction of revenge than on fulfillment for her own life.
Jacob seems to be the willing victim in Rachel's scheme, much as he had been in the deception of his father at his mother's instigation. One wonders whether his conscience bothered him at all. He had intended to marry Rachel and now he finds himself with his third wife.
It seems to me that the first mistake Jacob made was to fall in love with Rebekah at first sight. His whole behavior was governed by his being in love. He evidently never bothered to ask the Lord if Rebekah was the girl he was to marry. In retrospect we know that Lea bore him Judah, the son through whom the Messiah was eventually born. So God probably intended him to marry Lea. But he never asked as far as we know. He must have presumed that it could never be God's plan for him to marry the girl with ugly eyes and reject a beauty such as Rachel. But evidently it was. How different Jacob's life would have been had he rejected Laban's proposal to marry Rachel the week after he married Lea! The fact that God makes all things work together for good does not make bad things good to start with.
Bilhah gets pregnant with Jacob and Rachel, accepting the child as her own, calls him Dan, which means "judge." Both the KJV and the RSV translate verse 6 as " God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan." The NIV says: "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son." Because of this she named him Dan." There is no doubt in my mind but that Rachel uses the Name of the Lord in vain in this instance. She ascribes the success of her plot to God, whereas in reality God had nothing to do with it. How could God bless the ugly vindication of a jealous woman over her sister? Rachel must have had very little idea Who she was talking about.
It also becomes clear that the vindication was not sufficient. We get the impression that it was because of Rachel's prodding that Jacob kept on sleeping with Bilhah. Bilhah's second pregnancy becomes a wrestling match between Rachel and her sister. It would be funny if it were not so tragic!
