Thursday: The Death of Rachel
Read Genesis 35:15-29. What other woes did Jacob face within his dysfunctional family?
As soon as Jacob leaves Bethel, three interrelated incidents mark the last step of his journey toward the Promised Land: Jacob’s last son was born; Rachel died; and Reuben, Jacob’s first son from Leah, slept with Jacob’s concubine. Though the text doesn’t say why the young man would do something so evil, it could have been that he wanted to somehow defile the birth of Jacob’s last son and to humiliate the memory of Rachel. We just don’t know.
Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com
The birth of Jacob’s last son is linked to Bethlehem (Genesis 35:19), which is within the confines of the Promised Land. This birth is, then, the first fulfillment of God’s promise for the future of Israel. The midwife, prophetically, addresses Rachel with the very words God used to reassure Abraham: “Do not fear” (Genesis 35:17, NKJV, compare with Genesis 15:1).
Significantly, Jacob changes the name that the dying Rachel had given to her son, Ben-Oni, meaning “son of my sorrow” to signify her pain, into Benjamin, meaning “son of the right hand,” perhaps implying the direction of the south in order to express his hope in the Promised Land and all that God said He would do for His people after they had settled there.
Yet during this time Reuben has sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine and Rachel’s maidservant (Genesis 35:25, Genesis 30:3). We just don’t know why he did this scandalous act, other than as another example of human depravity.
Amazingly, Jacob does not respond to this horrible violation, even though he is told about it (Genesis 35:22). Perhaps at this point in his life, Jacob trusts God that He will fulfill His word despite the sin and evil at times that goes on around him.
It is this precise lesson of faith that is implied in the list of Jacob’s 12 sons, who will be the ancestors of Israel (Genesis 35:22-26). Not the most savory and kindest of people, as we will see. Yet despite all the problems, all the dysfunction, even outright evil, such as Reuben with Bilhah, God’s will was going to be fulfilled through this family, no matter how messed up this family really was.
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Even despite human error, God’s ultimate purposes will be fulfilled. Imagine what would happen if people cooperated, if they obeyed Him. How much easier; that is, with less human suffering and stress and delay, could God’s will then be accomplished? |
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In our modern world, death at childbirth is relatively uncommon. One only has to wander through a century-old cemetery and read the headstones to realise how fortunate we are today. On a farm hillside in the north of New Zealand, there are three lonely graves where my Great Grandmother and her twin children are buried. That occurred in the early 1900s. Childbirth was a seriously dangerous activity before the development of modern birthing techniques. Many children too did not survive childbirth. My own father had 10 siblings but only 5 of them survived. I cannot even imagine the heartache of my grandparents as they buried each of these little ones.
The death of Rachel at the birth of Benjamin should serve as a reminder in our modern age of the need for compassion and understanding for those who have lost mothers and children during pregnancy and childbirth.
Jacob's family continues to go through crises meta-tagged with immorality, underlining the inequalities of the time. It is tough reading for those of us who like to think of Jacob as one of the heroes of the Bible. The fact that God continued to work with them speaks volumes for this love for us.
I may be jumping the gun a bit here because I have not read to the end of this series of lessons, but Gen 49, where Jacob blesses and sums up his son's characters, makes interesting reading.
I would invite you to reflect upon the final paragraph in today's lesson. What kind of Sovereign God do we see if we consider how much "dysfunction, even outright evil" was present within the "ancestors of Israel"? If God were an authoritarian or dictatorial sovereign, then He could potentially override the dysfunction and evil in Israel's ancestry and create a 'cleaner' history. But He didn't and He doesn't. Instead, God allows considerable room for evil to seemingly 'flourish' (Psalm 73:1-3). What kind of sovereignty does this reflect?
Paul tells us that God works all things together for (ultimate) good (Romans 8:28). This speaks of a Sovereign who works with His creation 'warts and all' - the kind of sovereignty that is authoritative, rather than authoritarian, in nature and character. This is the kind of sovereignty that is compassion-based, but to the extent that it is abundantly compassionate. And it is this abundant compassion that can risk God being mistakenly seen as uncaring at times when it comes to those who are significantly impacted by the dysfunction and/or evil of others. Yet it is this same abundantly compassionate Sovereign who did not hesitate to willingly step down from divinity into fallen humanity to save fallen humanity even though it cost Him his life to successfully do so.
That is a very different kind of Sovereign and sovereignty than we are used to within this world (Isaiah 55:8-9). The question is, is that the kind of Sovereign and sovereignty you could/can trust?
Death is certainly has a sting, but we have this truth. To Him that overcometh, to him that comes to God through Jesus Christ, He is able to save to the uttermost, Revelation 2:11, Hebrews 7:25.
It is also note worthy that in Genesis 48:7 Jacob remembers his wife Rachel.
If we look at the map and see the distance that Jacob traveled with his huge group of people and animals it is actually surprising that there were so few incidences with the Cananities and internally. We wonder why Jacob didn't react negatively to incidents with Laban and over Dinah and Bilhah, is it possible that having been forgiven by the LORD he had learned to be forgiving, and to hand over the judgement to the LORD?
Had the Angel of the LORD taught Jacob?
Matt 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Places to look out for on a map of Jacob's trip home south from Haran in Paddam-aram (Mesopotamia) to Peniel (wrestles with Angel of God) meets Esau, sets up house in Succoth then camps at Shechem, then goes south to Bethel, then to Bethlehem (Rachel dies) then further south to Hebron to meet with his father Isaac
The death of Rachel may have increased Jacob’s affections for Bilhah. Rueben was very aware of Jacob’s lack of love for Leah. (When he was quite young he had given his mother mandrakes to try and Increase Jacobs love for her). By ruining Bilhah he made sure her status wasn’t elevated. It was also a way of trying to usurp his father’s power and authority eg Absolom and David. It had the opposite effect. Not only did Rueben lose the firstborn inheritance, there were no prophets, judges or kings amongst his descendants listed.
Carolyn, thank you for your observations on Reuben’s “sin” with Bilhah. In my mind’s eye, I can see the young Reuben trying to compensate for his father’s lack of compassion and love with the gift of the mandrakes. I can imagine the hurt his heart must have felt for his mother.
It is clear that Jacob failed to love his first wife as he should have, and as patriarch, failed to constructively manage his family’s relational dynamics. In the emotional vacuum created by his father’s failures, Reuben acted (inappropriately) with Bilhah to redress the wrong.
In spite of the hurt and relational damage his father’s favoritism caused, Reuben acted as best he could to save Joseph, Rachael’s son, from death and to rescue him. This shows the complexity of the people in these bible stories. They are not the two-dimensional cardboard cutouts bible moralists would portray them as.
Although the physical idols were buried and left under the oak near Shechem, It took a long time and much unnecessary heartache for this family to deal with and leave the self-idols in their lives. There is much to learn of God’s grace and love from the lives of Jacob’s family and much to apply in our own lives.
So much "Dysfunction," to say the least, and yet God still promises to make a great nation out of Israel (Jacob.) I would venture to say that it was Jesus' flawlessness that God chose to still promise Jacob these promises. Jesus then chooses 12 Apostles and not one of them is flawless or sinless. But what does the Apostle Paul mean when he mentions "Flawless," as one of the qualifications for an "Elder?" Someone said that if our "Nominating Commitees" were to go by that in choosing elders or even if that responsibility was given to our Pastors to choose elders, we would have no elders to choose from at all for even our Pastors are less then flawless to say the least.
Immortality is a big deal !
It would have been unwise for the creator who gave humanity freewill to freely love him, and his moral laws with pure motivation, OR NOT, and subsequently incur the consequences!
It gives humanity the hope of immortality with "hands on" experience.
As in the letter to the Hebrews says:
Hebrews 9:27-28 (CSB)
27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once -- and after this, judgment --
28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Just look at the consequences of freewill right now, in our communities and the world !
Come Lord Jesus !
Shalom
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So, Larry Flynn, I see in this verse of Hebrews as saying that Jesus died for all sin and judgement is about who chooses Jesus' dying for all sin as sufficient to save us from the judgement against all sin. What an awesome God we serve in His choosing to bleed for all sin 2000 plus or minus years ago.
What I have taken away from this weeks lesson is that Jacob had finally learned to let God handle things. This is evident in his reaction to the defilement of Dinah and again with his reaction to his own son defiling his concubine. He had learned that God would take care of things if he, Jacob, would stay out of His way. We can see the same action in the way God dealt with Lucifer. All the stories in scripture have to be filtered through this great controversy we’re living in. God, for the sake of us and the entire universe, had to let the results of sin play out. In order for sin to be eternally stamped out, the results of sin must be witnessed. God certainly preferred that we not have to experience it, but since that is the choice Lucifer made and as a result, Eve made, it HAS to play out in order to be stamped out. Jacobs life was no exception, as we see in this story of his family. Sadly his sons took matters into their own hands, which is understandable. Being the only sister among 4 brothers, I know full well how protective brothers can be when someone messes with their little sister. But what a different story we would be reading if they had let God handle the situation.
This is what drifted through my mind this week upon reading these stories.
Amen, Karen Bunch, if those brothers had not done what they did and also what they then went on to do with their own brother, Joseph, maybe God would not have made them serve the Egyptians for 400 years under their rulership etc. and etc.
It is also worthy of note that Rachel was the symbolic mother figure of Israel “weeping for her children” in Matthew 2:18 - she died in childbirth between Ramah and Bethlehem, and Jeremiah 31:15 - being the grandmother of Ephraim (largest northern tribe) and Manasseh.
It's good to learn more lesson to help me to know more about christ Amen thank God and pray always Amen thank.