Sister Wives, and Servants, and Mandrake Roots
When we don’t do things Gods way, He will still have his way, but man is it harder for us!
It’s always more fun to read about other people’s problems that our own. Maybe that’s why day time drama is so popular and scandalous tv will never go away. We all know about the tv show Sister Wives and watch trying to figure out just how do they get along and is it all for the cameras? For centuries we have been intrigued by the family dynamics of Jacob’s household for that very reason! There are no cameras in the Bible though and the pettiness is right there for us to see. The husband swapping and servant pushing is horrendous! Can you even begin to imagine how Jacob felt coming home, thinking he is going to get to sleep with Rachel - the only one he even wanted to marry, to find out she swapped the night for some mandrake roots! And now he has to go sleep with her sister, the one that’s not so great looking that he was tricked into marrying?! Oh man. I truly hope that he loved her at this point. I mean she gave him multiple kids. And both sisters shoved their maids on him. The thing is - we never once hear him stand up to these women and say no! Not once do we see him stand up for the God ordained ordinance of marriage. Do we see at anytime Jacob say no to the maids, to the selling of a night for roots, for any of it? No! He is still listening to the women in his life, just like he listened to his mother in tricking his father. He has yet to grow up. And his family is suffering strife for it. Would you want to be part of that family? If you read ahead you will see that those weren’t even the only kids! According to verses 37:35 and 46:7, there were even more daughters than just Dinah that weren’t named. When we aren’t living the life God puts forth, when we are not in the confines of His creation, we can not expect peace. There was no peace in Jacob’s family. There won’t be until he is close to death. They refuse to grow up and grow in their faith. But God does not go back on His word and He can be trusted. Even when we are small and forgetful and petty and, well, idiots. God is still God. He is a promise keeper and a way-maker. My God never gives up on me as long as I believe and try. He searches for me and hunts me down. He finds me in my deepest filth and pulls me out. He has a plan and that plan cannot be broken by the likes of me, because He is greater. The same was true for Jacob. A mighty nation was made and a savior was brought forth. Not because his family was so great, but because their God was.
