She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children. – Genesis 29:35

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 20, 2018): Genesis 29

A traditional Tibetan saying argues that 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.' In trying to explain the saying, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama, says that “No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.” Giving in to tragedy is to finalize its effect on us. There can be no recovery, even if life continues because all that is left is the bitterness left by the tragedy.

So in June 2018, a Hong Kong woman killed her parents and then committed suicide because she suffered from eczema. Eczema is an extremely annoying skin condition that has been linked to mental health issues. Eczema can be the cause of a loss of social contact, loneliness, depression, and anxiety. In her suicide note, she explained that having children and passing on eczema to the next generation was cruel. Her skin condition was a tragedy, but that she lost all hope was the real disaster. 

There is a deep tragedy in the biblical story of Jacob and Leah. All Leah wants is for her husband Jacob to want her and to love her. All Jacob wants is Leah’s sister Rachel. And so a relationship of bitterness develops between Leah and Rachel. Leah is producing heirs for Jacob, something that up until this point Rachel has been unable to do. And Leah believes, in the deepest part of her being, that the producing of heirs for Jacob will earn his love. And yet, with the birth of each child, her dream of being loved by her husband drifts farther and farther away.

And Rachel possesses the love that Leah wants. And yet it is Leah who is having the children that Rachel wants. But after the fourth child, Leah stops having children. We are not told why, but we are given this tantalizing comment that she named him Judah as her commitment to praise the Lord, who had been with her throughout all of the loneliness and tragedy of her life.

But why did the children stop? It is possible that Leah, in her depression, stopped welcoming Jacob’s advances. Leah was in pain and Jacob was unwilling to do anything to try and ease that pain. And so the tragedy of Leah’s unfulfilled need to be loves becomes the disaster of Leah’s acceptance of this reality. She would live out the rest of her days as the unloved first wife of Jacob. And in her mind, it is quite possible that she wondered if she shouldn’t have been allowed to live out her days as an unmarried daughter in the house of her father.

Leah might have been done having children, but God was not done with Leah. In fact, it would be from the descendants of Leah the unloved, and not Rachel the loved, that God would bring the brightest hope for Israel and the world. First in a King named David, the descendant of Leah’s last son Judah, and then in a Messiah named Jesus, also descended from Judah, who would bring light and love to a world that was condemned to live in great darkness. This was Leah’s gift. She would be unloved, but her child would lead our world toward a love that his ancestor Jacob would never give and that Leah would never receive.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 30