Today I am combining my thoughts from today’s reading and yesterday’s reading.

Genesis 30 is interesting as it details the births of all of Jacob’s children. Read chapter 29 to get the full soap opera version of how Jacob ended up with both Rachel and Leah as his wife. I am not sure why Rachel and Leah put up with this situation; I certainly wouldn’t want to share my husband with ANYONE! But, both ladies loved Jacob desperately and that is why our saga continues into chapter 30 with all of their children.

So, Leah started giving birth to her sons and Rachel got jealous. To try to make the situation more favorable in her corner(it seems there was some competition between the sisters for Jacob’s affection) Rachel gave Jacob her maidservant to bear a child for her. WHAT?! Jacob actually agreed!! Later on in the chapter, Leah did the same thing with her maidservant.

I am unclear on if this was against custom to take on more than one wife, but I know that this did not please God. I started to think about times that I have taken crazy measures to get what I want. Ok, I’ll confess… I very Type A personality so, when I want something, I go for it! How often do we manipulate situations in our favor? While you are doing this, does it feel right? I always get a pit in my stomach when I am trying to make something happen in my favor. I think I know deep in my heart that I am trying to take the reigns when I should let God handle it.

Let’s not be like Rachel and Leah. Their manipulation just had to cause more heart ache and grief. When we want something, let’s take the time to first pray over it, read the Bible and ask God to guide us in His way. We would probably save our self alot of trouble if we did it God’s way rather than our own!