By Olubunmi Adebayo
*As indicated yesterday, the case of Leah, was the case of God using the foolish things to confound the wise.*
*Remember how Jacob her husband hated her, despite doing all what she knew to please him. How Rachael her own sister loathed her though they married the same husband. How Laban and the wife, as her parents wasted no time to get rid of her having concluded that she was not beautiful enough for a good husband fetch :*
.*Genesis 29:[17] Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured.*
*Yet, unbelievable things in righteousness came forth from this same woman, giving us great lessons to learn from history, and confirming the word of God that :*
*1 Cor 1: [27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.*
*Despite the prevailing atmosphere of marital rejection and hatred around her however, Leah was the woman chosen by God to succeed in accomplishing so much, over and above any other matriarch before her – Sarah and Rebekah, and more than most of the other matriarchs after her.*
*Please consider the following :*
*1) God used her as a yoke breaker. Prior to the appearance of Leah in the lineage of Abraham, the previous matriarchs came forth with the history of barrenness, at times very long history.*
*She was the first woman in the succeeding line of Abraham without the history of barrenness:*
*Mama Sarah was barren for over 25 years. Lady Rebekah was barren for 20 years. Rachael was barren for such a long time that Reuben who was born about 6 years before the marriage of Rachael to Jacob was already a grown up man bringing Mandrakes from the farm before God visited Rachael with the seed of Joseph.*
*2) Leah was the first touch bearer of multiplication in the covenant lineage of Abraham. While Sarah was blessed with just Isaac (1 child), Rebekah delivered the first twins in the Bible – Esau and Jacob (2 children). While Leah was granted the grace of multiplication with 6 sons alone.*
*3) The gate way to Egypt : By the time the seeds of Abraham under Jacob were going to Egypt with 12 sons (which in later years became 12 tribes) and altogether 66 people (Gen 46:26) from 4 women (Leah, Zilpah, Racheal and Bilhah) to be multiplied in order to become a mighty nation in Egypt, Leah alone had 6 of the 12 sons of Jacob.*
*4) Source of the greatest tribe in Israel :*
*From the womb of Leah was born the greatest of the 12 tribes of Israel – the tribe of Judah, the very tribe where our Lord Jesus Christ came forth. It was through the tribe of Judah that the entire descendants of Abraham were called “Jews”.*
*Genesis 49:[10]The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.*
*5) Leah occupied a covenant place in history :*
*Despite the ill treatment from her husband Jacob, she was the one out of the two sisters married to Jacob, who died and was buried at the family sepulchre of Abraham where Abraham himself, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah and her husband Jacob were all buried. Rachael died on the way to the land of Canaan and was buried on the way (Gen 35:19).*
*To be concluded tomorrow, God willing.*
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©️ Olubunmi S Adebayo.
