We’ve all heard the old saying, “Hindsight is 20/20,” right? My new friend and author, Wendy Alsup, takes a look at Jacob’s first wife, Leah–and how our lives can be reflected in Leah’s hindsight.
The Wedding
The crowd gathered for a celebration—a wedding. The groom was nervous in anticipation. The young bride emerged, carefully wrapped in veils. Unknown to the groom, the bride’s father had made sure her identity was strategically hidden.
They went through the motions of the wedding ceremony, and then the moment arrived she would be unveiled in private by her husband.
As the veils were unwrapped, her husband’s face fell from the smile of anticipation he had had for hours to a look of horror and then disgust. This was not the beautiful woman he thought he was marrying. He had been tricked!
Life After
What was it like for Leah to spend the rest of her life with a man who didn’t love her (Gen. 29:31), who wished he was not married to her, whose face fell when he looked at her? Was she ever able to make peace with Jacob? Did she regret the path of her life? Did a knife cut her heart every day her husband smiled on her sister, also his wife, with love?
The Bible tells us the facts of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel’s situation, but we are left, for the most part, to intuit the emotions that went along with those facts. Whatever emotions Leah felt, we know her life was not emotionally easy.
The Battles
She gave herself to a competition with her sister to see who could give their husband more sons. Leah won that battle, but it was a battle that left a scorched earth behind it. Leah’s sons would hate Rachel’s sons. They would sell Joseph into slavery, a great evil that God nevertheless used for good in the family.
By many standards, Leah’s life would be the one we all would want to avoid. Scripture makes it clear that she was not beautiful. She was not loved by her husband. And her children hated their half brothers. But more was going on in Leah’s life and legacy than the things we may think define a life.
Unveiling the Hindsight
Hundreds of years after Leah had died, during the time of the Judges, Boaz went to the elders of the land to secure Ruth’s hand in marriage. The elders blessed Boaz with the following words recorded in Scripture.
“May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” Ruth 4:11-12
Leah had a different legacy than the one that stands out in Genesis. She is not known in Boaz’s time for her lack of beauty or love from her husband. No, she is known for her legacy as mother of the sons of Israel who became the tribes of the land. It would be through her son, Judah, that the Messiah would eventually come. Jesus was son of David, of the tribe of Judah, son of Leah.
My Life in Leah’s Reflection
For all of Leah’s troubles, and even the sins that she committed in her competition with her sister, God had a greater plan for her life. Her long legacy in the line of the Messiah is helpful to me.
My immediate life does not look perfect. It is not the dream life I had envisioned for myself as a youth. My looks. My loves. My mistakes. My sins. But through the good news of Jesus Christ, these things are not my legacy.
God created me, before time began, for good works in His kingdom (Eph. 2:10). These good works were planned before my birth, and these things that contribute to God’s kingdom will endure past my death. God was doing something much bigger in Leah’s life than her immediate circumstances made clear. He is doing it for us too.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Eph. 2:10
Prayer:
Father in heaven, please open my eyes to the kingdom work you have for me today. And when I can’t see the bigger purposes in my life, help me trust that You have good works planned for me that will stand the test of time.
Connect With Wendy
I want to thank Wendy for sharing this “hindsight” view of Leah’s life, but I also want to encourage y’all to check out her book, Is the Bible Good for Women? Seeking Clarity and Confidence through a Jesus-centered Understanding of Scripture.
Though most of those who will read this post agree that God is FOR women and the Bible–and its stories ARE good for women–many folks in today’s culture are concluding that the Bible is NOT good.
I love Wendy’s subtitle: Seeking Clarity and Confidence through a Jesus-centered Understanding of Scripture. Using stories from both the Old and the New Testament, she shows her readers how a Jesus-centered reading of God’s Word shows His tenderness toward women in every generation.
You can discover more about Wendy and her passion for women to learn more about applying God’s Word to their lives at her website: Practical Theology for Women.
