Tag: Leah

Categories
Ruth Devotionals

Redeemed

Ruth, Tamar, Leah, Rachel

May the Lord make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel…

May your house become like the house of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring the Lord will give you by this young woman.” (Ruth 4:11-12)

This morning, I was thinking about Rachel, Leah, and Tamar. All three were broken in their own ways. (Genesis 29-30, 38)

And yet, none of them were ultimately remembered that way. They were remembered as blessed women.

Ruth too suffered brokenness in her life, and she is now remembered as blessed.

Not only that, all four women were used to bring our Redeemer into the world. All of them are in Jesus’ family tree.

And so God reminded me this morning, “You are not defined by your brokenness. I have redeemed you. And you are blessed.”

I was nothing before you found me.
You have given life to me.

Heartache, broken pieces,
Ruined lives are why you died on Calvary.

Your touch was what I longed for.
You have given life to me. — Bill and Gloria Gaither

Categories
Genesis Devotions

For the insignificant and despised

Leah

It’s interesting to me that God chose Leah as the one through whom Jesus would ultimately be born.

Rachel was the “loved one.”

Leah was not.

Rachel was the beautiful one.

Leah was the homely one.

And yet God chose her instead of Rachel.

It reminds me of what Paul told the Corinthians.

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something… (1 Corinthians 1:26-28)

Why does God choose such people?

…so that no one may boast in his presence. (I Corinthians 1:29)

It is solely by God’s grace and Christ’s work that we are justified, sanctified, and redeemed. (I Corinthians 1:30)

And so, Paul concludes,

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. (I Corinthians 1:31)

Ultimately, that’s what Leah did.

After her first three sons were born, you see her focusing on her wretched state, saying that she was afflicted, neglected, and unloved.

But after Judah was born, she turned her focus away from her wretched state, and instead turned her eyes to God, saying,  

This time I will praise the Lord (Genesis 29:35)

I find it only fitting then that Judah’s line was the one through whom Jesus came.

You might think of yourself as insignificant. As despised. But you are exactly the kind of person that God likes to pour his grace upon.

You are in fact the kind of person Jesus identifies with. According to Isaiah,

He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.

He was like someone people turned away from;
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.” (Isaiah 53:2-3)

But Jesus didn’t just come to identify with the despised and insignificant. He came to redeem them.

…he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds. (Isaiah 53:5)

Christmas isn’t just for the happy, the loved, and the powerful.

Christmas is for people like Leah. It’s for people like you. It’s for people like me.

So with Leah, let us boast in the Lord, singing, “I will praise you Lord.”

Categories
Genesis

Unwanted and unloved: Finding God’s healing in your brokenness

Tamar and Leah

As I read Genesis, I’m struck by how many ugly stories there are, and how many involve women. Leah and Tamar come to mind.

Leah got married to Jacob only through the deception of her father Laban. And as a result, she felt unwanted and unloved by Jacob.

This is seen in the names that she gave her sons. (I’ve mentioned this in another post you can see here).

Tamar also felt unwanted and unloved.

God struck her husband down because of how evil he was.

His brother was forced by the customs of his day to take her as a wife, but he didn’t really want her, and so while he used her for his own sexual gratification, he wouldn’t completely consummate the marriage.

God got really upset with how he treated her, and so he struck him down as well.

Then her father-in-law Judah lied to her, saying he would give her to his youngest son as his wife when he became old enough, but then later refused to do so.

It seems as though Judah felt Tamar was bad luck because two of his sons died after getting married to her.

And so here is Tamar, unwanted and unloved by anyone.

Finally, out of desperation, she pretends to be a prostitute, seduces Judah, and gets pregnant by him.

Judah, when he finds out that she’s pregnant, hypocritically demands that she die, because horror of horrors, she has become a prostitute, ignoring the fact that he had just had sex with a prostitute three months earlier.

It seems that Judah here, was in fact very glad to have a reason to get rid of this woman he really didn’t want around.

But then she stuns him by giving him proof that he was the one that impregnated her. And so he’s forced to admit his own wrongdoing and lets her live.

She then gives birth to twin sons.

But though Leah and Tamar were unwanted and unloved by the people around them, they were wanted and loved by God.

It’s very interesting to me the grace that he showed both of them, by putting them into the family tree of Jesus.

You would’ve thought, first of all, that Jesus would’ve come through the family line of Rachel. After all, she was loved by Jacob, and Joseph, her son, was certainly the most righteous of all his brothers.

But it was through Leah, not Rachel, that Jesus would eventually come.

And you’d hardly think that God would use Tamar’s ugly incident with her father-in-law to help bring Jesus into the world.

But as you look at the genealogy of Jesus, that’s exactly what you see.

So what’s my point?

You may feel unwanted and unloved in your life. Maybe your husband or wife had an affair, and they left you for another person.

Maybe you were abused by your father or mother when you were growing up.

Or maybe you tried to gain your parents love and approval, but no matter what you did, you never could seem to please them.

Maybe you’ve been seeking a boyfriend or girlfriend, but while the people around you are getting married, you can’t seem to find the right person.

You’ve dated people and have had your heart broken numerous times. You’ve given your heart and perhaps even your body to people, only to have them reject you in the end.

But though you may feel unwanted and unloved, God sees you and he does love you. He knows your name. He knows every detail about you.

And though you’ve failed and you have sinned, he still loved you so much that he was willing to sacrifice his Son on a cross for your sin so that you could have a relationship with him.

No matter who you are, or what pain you’re feeling, God has a plan for you.

And if you’ll just reach out to him, you’ll find that he’s been reaching out to you all along, waiting to heal all the pain and loneliness you feel in your heart and to fill it with his love.

The LORD has appeared to us from afar saying:   “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”  (Jeremiah 31:3)