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Rachel: Trick or Treat

After being a single parent for almost eight years, I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. As if two failed marriages weren’t enough, I thought I needed someone to love me and care for my children. Relatives introduced me to a man whom everyone thought was best for me. The dreams to move to sunny California and the thought of financial security allured me. But I felt tricked. The grass is not always greener on the other side, as he turned out to be our biggest nightmare. 

Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance, so Jacob fell in love with her at first sight. The offer to work for her hand in marriage for seven years plus seven more after Laban’s treachery demonstrated how much Jacob loved her. But Rachel wasn’t satisfied with that love because she was barren. She was sick and tired of seeing her sister, Leah, give birth. And so, her relationships with Leah and with Jacob were strained. 

Isn’t it a blessing to be married to someone who loves you? But Rachel lived as a perpetual victim. To her, the treachery was not just the marriage setup, but in the outcome of it—she had no children and her sister was a baby-popping machine! “Give me children or I’ll die!” she told Jacob, to which Jacob replied that he’s not God to open her womb. 

Rachel dealt with the treachery bitterly undermining God’s control. She gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob to bear her children. She, later on, tricked her father by stealing the household idol. Sadly, in her fierce competitive spirit against her sister and her longing for more children, she died during childbirth. 

The treachery in the family continued when Rachel’s son, Joseph, suffered scheming from his own brothers’ hands. Apparently, what children see, children do. Thank God for His faithfulness that He used Joseph to be a refuge for his father and siblings. 

So, when is enough, enough? How do we get to a place of contentment and not resolve things with our own hands? People may trick us, but God won't because He truly loves us. To understand God’s sovereignty is to completely trust Him. If a family of tricksters can be redeemed, so can we. God remembered Rachel despite her bitterness. God is also there for us. We just have to trust Him.